P1 with Matt and Tommy - United States GP Race Review

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

As a chaotic weekend in Austin draws to a close, questions are starting to pile up about the Championship top three. Is it Lando's to lose? What's going on with Oscar? And could Max really do it? We dive into them all!The Delusion Tour is only a few weeks away! We're heading to North America in a few weeks and there are still a few tickets available - click here to grab yours: tix.to/p1liveYou can listen to an extended version of THIS VERY EPISODE over on our Patreon! You'll also access to every P1 episode ad-free, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It feels like the 900th podcast of the weekend, but we are here for the most important one of all, the race review. We're still in Austin, as you can tell. We'll be back at our setups for driver ratings. Tommy, you're just smiling. I just can't believe the weekend. You're in Dreamland, not just because you're here in Austin, because we've had a great

weekend, but the maths be mathing, sir. You, you're, you, well, we, we are so happy, aren't we? I mean, to be fair, I am actually happy. Like, Max, banter aside, you know, I'm wearing this Ferrari shirt with pride in this podcast for once. I'm very proud of Ferrari as well. I thank them very much for, for Charlotte Clare service today. So much service was happening, I don't know what I'm saying. Right before we get into everything, a quick shout out to our wonderful patrons who will be getting additional waffle, additional chatter, additional questions answered at the end of this and every race review podcast and also add free listening as well. Right, here we go then. Lock yourselves in, get your seatbelts on. It's my most memorable moment, not tommies, and I'm going to go with

Max Verstappen 40 point gap. 40 points. 40 points is what separates the three drivers at the top of the standings. Lando's even closer, 14 points to Oscar Piastri, but Max Verstappen has the momentum, he has the media coverage, he has a lot of fans, I think, that probably in 2023,

couldn't think of anything else, couldn't think of anything worse than supporting him to win another championship, but they're all now on the Max Banwagon, it feels like, and I can't believe we're even talking about the potential opportunity of that. I can't believe we're talking about it.

either. I know we've had constant like back and forth banter about this. And that is what it started as. You know, when he won the Italian Grand Prix, we were here kind of saying, it's an outlier. Yes, Red Bull have found something. He won by 20 seconds, but, you know, it's a very unique circuit. It's not going to happen. He's still 94 points behind. Obviously, it was 104 behind after the Dutch Grand Prix, but he was 94 behind after Mondays. and we had this almost comical kind of scenario that was like look if Max wins every race, every sprint,

Piastri suddenly gets the odd DNF here and the odd fifth place and things like that and Lando's also having, you know, McLareninandas quick and his finishing second and third, he could win the championship. And it was almost like, very, very funny, but it's not going to happen.

And it's almost playing exactly out of that order, minus a George Russell random victory in Singapore, but Max still took points off, you know, took points off McLaren. And I can't believe we're here. Like, I'm just looking at it now, 104 points after the Dutch Grand Prix. And we're now at 40.

So how many races ago was that? So one, two, three, four. So five races ago, he has gained 64 points. Obviously there's sprint in there as well. 64 points he's gained on a McLaren team and on Oscar Piastri that we genuinely struggled to predict them outside of the podium. Oscar has not had a podium in three races now and looks like he's genuinely struggling with

the car. It's probably the most concerning thing. If you're an Oscar Piastri fan who wants to see him win his first world title, that he was genuinely just a bit mystified as to the feeling within the car. He had no confidence and he couldn't push. He wasn't putting any pressure on the Ferraris, really. Apart from right at the end, he got within just over a second, I think, of Hamilton, which was quite surprising Lewis potentially falling off a cliff at the end there.

But apart from that, he genuinely just sat in fifth place. And that was that. Meanwhile, you have Max Verstappen out in front, so comfortable. Big thanks to Charles Leclair, it has to be said, for keeping Landau Norris at bay for so long. You're playing with your phone, Tom. I mean, I was just saying that Max, I mean, this shares the max dominance of the day that he led all 75 laps, 19 sprint, 15 sprint, grand prix, sprint pole, sprint win, sprint fastest lap,

pole grand prix win. Didn't get the fastest lap, but apart from that. And some people tried to say, how on earth could I predict Max Verstapp and good surprise? Well, there, there are your staff. Well, find out later. Give me that point right now, you absolute bleep. Right. So yeah, 40 point gap for Max Verstap. happen. It's just ridiculous. Question from P1Petri member, PGO Stick 1. What percentage is Tommy at now?

20. Is that it? Oh my. Boring. I literally asked you, walking back to the hotel, obviously. And you said to me, you can wait for the podcast. I'm thinking it's going to be 30, 35, 40. 20% with five races to go. And Max has won how many races in the last few? and a second place.

That's still a high chance for someone that's 40 points behind. And for someone that's an insane pessimist as well. Yeah. And for someone that's that far behind, the reason it has increased so much is just because, as I said earlier, he's kind of doing everything that we've said, which is why the belief has shot up so much after this race. Because after I think it was like Baku,

It was like, well, it's too little too late. He needs another really poor weekend from Oscar, potentially, you know, another double McLaren DNF. Obviously, they got the double McLaren DNF in the sprint. And my pessimistic brain was still like, oh, it's not enough because it's only eight. But then, you know, Oscar's finished fifth, which is, you know, the scenarios that we've kind of had here is thinking that Oscar Piaastri is going to be third, you know, is going to be finishing third and second and things like that.

But Oscar Piastri will get onto him later that he's, you know, been really struggling. And yeah, I think Max that it's really starting to believe now. And I just can't get my head around that this is happening. It doesn't feel real. And this is just what this championship needed so badly. I can't tell you how much this has changed my enjoyment of the World Championship. but it's not even because it's Max Verstappen because of like Max Verstappen being in it

it would be anyone. The fact that you've got the top three in the championship flipped in the top three form between the three of them. It's closing in all the time. It was looking like it was going to be one of the most boring and, you know,

the most boring and uninspiring championship fights we've ever seen. And now it's really like cooking up like we could have an absolute all-time banger. An all-time banger, indeed, is cooking up right now for sure. Yeah, the McLaren fight, as we've said, we've both struggled to fully emotionally invest in it due to all of the McLaren team antics that we've spoken in depth about. But yeah, 20% for you. No one asks about my percentages because, you know, I'm more of a realist. Right now, I'm sitting at a point where I'm trying

to be as realistic as possible. I think the hype is amazing. It's fantastic for the sport that Max has a genuine chance now of winning the World Championship. I was trying to do the maths, and I think from what I could tell, he's three points away. If he was 37 behind Oscar, with all of the races to come, he could win, and it wouldn't matter where everyone else finishes. So that was something playing in my mind. I still believe, you know, Lando has not fallen off a cliff. He's been there. He finished second. We'll get onto his race. For me, I just can't see past Red Bull having at least one race where Max struggles with the car or at least isn't as quick as the McLaren's and we get a one-two and all of a sudden the narrative changes again

and it's between the two McLaren drivers. He's not close enough yet to be able to have a, not a stinker, but a third place to Oscars first, for example. It's so true. It has to be perfect. And I think today weirdly shared and we'll speak about this more later as we get on to the McLaren's race. but I don't think that was a case of, you know, Monsa. I know it was comfortable for Max and we've just said that he led every single sprint, everything, every single racing lap. But I don't think he was miles ahead. And, you know, I think there's an argument to be had that, you know,

had Lando been in second behind him for the, from the very first corner, Max would have certainly not had an easy race. I still think McLaren are very, very quick. It's not like we've got a situation here like last year, last year where Red Bull had fallen off in pace. This is just Max kind of doing unbelievable things with that car that I genuinely think is still second best to the McLaren, but he's just maximising the weekends and putting in brilliant pole positions

and now he's able to basically challenge at the front and win now. Let's get to a question from at PE1CL. Max certainly has to thank Charles here, right? Yes, I think so. I don't think it's an absolute slam dunk that Lando wins the race if he keeps that second place out of term one. Looking at the race pace, it felt like Lando in clean air maybe had a slight advantage, but it's still difficult to overtake. We saw how long it took Lando to get through on Shal.

I believe that Max would have held on and won the race. It's hard to say, of course, you know, Lando said in the post-race conference about Max's famous phrase of balls and mums and dads and things like that. But I think he definitely has shal to thank in the way of the race being easy for him. It was very much just out in front, managing the gap, didn't have to push the tires to a level that made him feel uncomfortable. And it was very much just max out in front like 2023 all over again, seemingly untouchable. And when Lander did get through, yeah, there was marginal gains, but nothing. to suggest that Lando would have had that half a second or six, seven, tenth advantage that you'd

need to get through on Max, who is quite literally the hardest driver to overtake? Yeah, indeed. I don't think that Charles single-handedly won Max the race, but he made it a hell of a lot easier for him because it just meant Lando couldn't put Max under any kind of pressure. So the fact that Charles got in the mix meant that Max could stretch his legs and then he didn't need to really worry for the rest of the race. I certainly worried for the rest of the race. Honestly, let me just run you through.

Honestly, being, you know, in Tommy's presence when Max is winning. I'm going to be an emotional wreck for the rest of this championship. We had to leave the track very early because we wanted to do this podcast. We literally left on that lap 13 to bring you this podcast at a good, reasonable hour. So you're welcome. And even on the shuttle, watching the race on my phone. Tommy's looking out the window. He can't, is that, what's the gap?

I'm like giving him intervals, and he's just, he's concerned, even at a seven-second gap with Charles LeClerre in second. He's an absolute, like, just completely and utterly in your own head about, you know, something's going to go wrong with Max. I mean, while I'm just staring at it going, mate, trust me, there's literally nothing to worry about. And this is at a point where you're literally 20% belief. If you get to 75%, Oh my God, yeah.

I'm going to be an emotional wreck. If it closes again and it's even closer and we're really starting to believe, it's going to be so difficult. It's so funny as well because you have an urge, like, you know, when you watch England playing the World Cup and you can't watch the penalties, you have an urge to not watch the race. I'm like, bro, we have a podcast. You can't just not watch the race.

So, yeah, that will be a fascinating curveball for the P1 podcast. If only one of us watches the race and the other one goes, well, yeah, at least Max won the championship. That's fantastic. Next question. from Alex Splissit. Who will McLaren back now as the Vastappan threat

has become real? Now the reason I was at 20% and only 20% is because a certain Lando Norris I think is really coming into the mix now. And I remember thinking

that after Zandvo when Oscar Piaastri extended to, was it like 32? was it 32 on Lando after Lando's mechanical failure. There was a narrative kind of pushed, I think it was by the UK coverage, that this might actually be good for Lando

because there's no pressure on him. Pressure's off. And the pressure's off. And I will admit how wrong I was because I think it was, I remember hearing that and thinking that's absolute BS. I don't believe that at all. But I think we are actually potentially

even seeing that play out. And I do wonder how much it's helping Lando, not just the fact that Piastri is under all this enormous pressure, but, and now is obviously starting to struggle quite a lot, and as having this run of form where he's not been on the podium a few times. Not only that, all the kind of talk seems to be about, can Max do it? Can Max do it? It's almost like Lando's like the forgotten guy in this championship. And he's on a good run of form. I know he's not taking headlines like Max. of Stappan is, but he's now 14 points behind. And, you know, he's finished second again.

There's a much smaller deficit that Max has got. Piaastri's really struggling. And this is what has put McClare in such a tough decision. Because how do they pick a side now when, and they said this when Max was 70 points behind, of, yeah, we might have to back one driver. But how an early? earth do you pick now? Because, because, yeah,

Oscar's got the points, but it's not a huge amount of points now. And Lando's the one in much better form. So I genuinely don't know the answer to this one. McLaren can't back anyone, is my thoughts on this. Five races to go, neither of them have a world championship. Doesn't even matter if they had 10 world championships. This is the absolute pinnacle of motorsport winning this world championship. and they are within what a first and a fourth away from essentially being on level on points.

So McLaren can't back anyone. If they were going to back them, it would have been Piastri at 32 points ahead. But then we would be questioning, well, why would you do that? Yeah, Max is way behind. Absolutely nowhere near. So this is a dilemma that cannot be fixed in my opinion. They cannot back Oscar because Lando is right there. And of course, all of the narrative is Lando is the one being favoured,

although we had another slowish pit stop, didn't he, today, which we'll get into a little bit later with your crazy prediction. But it is a problem that cannot be fixed, in my opinion, and this is going to work so beautifully into Max Verstappen's hands. For me, going back to the percentage, I didn't actually say a percentage. I still think that Lando is at this point, and it could very well change in two races, one race time. I think Lando has more confidence in the car,

and I still believe that Max and Red Bull will have a one, maybe two race struggle between now and the end of the season. So that's why I think right. And if I was to be put in gunpoint, choose a world champion. I think I would go with Lando and Max may be missing out by marginally. And then we talk about Spain and Tommy doesn't want to talk about it. That's where I sit right now, but there's also a massive chance of Max Verstappen. And McLaren, yeah, it's so difficult to, in their position, what, what do they do? They've got Oscar who seemingly was completely and utterly unfazed for most of

this season, now looking like he doesn't understand the car, at least in Cota, and he's had moments already in the last few that, Singapore obviously aside because of that, but he's in a phase of the calendar that we've seen him struggle before and he's seemingly struggling again. I wouldn't want to be McLaren because we've spoken before how important this will be. in just the general narrative and the chatter which we know McLaren care about a lot of if they don't win this driver's championship. Oh my word, I can't even begin to...

It would be a story that would go on forever. No one has sort of overcome a deficit as big as Max was happening back in 2022. And the deficit that was 104, that's more than double the record that's ever happened in Formula One. So late in the season as well to do it. Yeah, so late.

ridiculously late. So yes, I can't see McLaren backing any of them. They have to fight. And it just is just so finely poised. And it could cost them. It's so finely poised. Yeah, it could cost them. But they also, they can't.

They can't pick. Yeah. It's weird that they're in a situation. Yeah. They can't pick someone. But they, yeah, but it could easily cost them. They almost need. And I wonder if like the top McLaren chiefs and Zach Brown,

obviously, we know that he has an allegiance towards Lando. He's got more of a personal collection with him. But from like a businessman. perspective, McLaren needs a DNF from one of their drivers. Yeah, yeah, it's insane thing to say. It's so true. The gap massive. To be fair, if Lando was to win and Oscar have a DnF, that's still 12 points.

Yeah, and then, yeah. It would need to be in a weird way, a Lando DNF and Oscar to have more than a race victory with four races to go, then they could have the argument that they have to back a driver. That's the only way. Yeah, because I was about to ask you and say, like, how many points does Max need to be behind for them to make that decision. But I think it's more on... It's as much as the gap between Oscar and Lando

as it is between Max. That's what's making it such a challenge of making this question so difficult. But they actually have the minerals, McLaren, to actually say, you know, Lando's 26 behind Oscar, to go, nope, you have to play second fiddle now. It's just...

And there's no way that... There's no way... I think the way Lando has spoken about the way he wants to win a world championship. He is McLaren through and through, you know, the way he's like celebrated the Constructors Championship, almost like it's a world title for himself, because it really does mean a lot to him. I think he would be more inclined to, it would be incredibly difficult, but it would be more inclined if the time came to say, okay, I'll do it for the team. I don't

think Oscar and Oscar Piastri's camp are allowing that in any scenario. If it's mathematically impossible, then we continue to fight. Mark was on the receiving end of that exact situation with Sebastian Vettel. So fascinating stuff. The championship is so finely poised and it just creates such an incredible conversation. I hope you at home, whether you're listening or watching or enjoying these conversations, because we certainly are. We can't stop talking about this even when we're off camera.

Like we need to get a life. Tommy, what is your most memorable moment? My most memorable moment is Oscar Piastri and basically just the fact that he is in a struggle town right now. We said this last race that his form isn't bad enough to really, you know, hit the panic alarm. He's got one finger on the panic alarm, but he's not pressed it, I think, at the moment. Because this is not the way the championship I thought would go. we had the we said it yesterday that after zanvort we had the conversation that is it done is it over has he won the championship he's a 104 clear of max which we weren't even speaking about but but but that was because

he was 32 was it or 34 32 I think 32 32 clear of landau and it's like okay that's that's going to be too much to overcome when they're going to be finishing one two every single week and the the gap has just been coming down and down and down, not only has Max closed in on this massive, you know, deficit, Lando's closed in, he's not scoring podiums. I think the one saving grace is that in Singapore, had that incident not happened, he obviously outqualified Lando,

so he has got it in him still. But you do, I think as much as we can look at something like Baku, I'm also wondering how much like Monza and the the situation that happened there where there was never a hope that, you know, Max would be in this championship after Monza

and it didn't feel like it was such a big thing, but you look back at it now and wonder how that situation planned out that was just so unnecessarily needed to get messy in a championship, and, you know, Oscar feeling like he's not backed by the team and the whole kind of like pile on that happened of McLaren saying, what are you doing in the championship?

Why are you doing that? That has increased the pressure as well. And I'm not for a second saying that moment is the reason he crashed in Baku. You know, he had a terrible Baku Grand Prix weekend. But these things are all adding up now. You have that moment in Monza. Then you have the Baku crash. Then you have the Singapore moment where he believed that because of papaya rules

and the way it is you don't collide with your teammate, he should have been allowed to get back and the team said no but then now they've kind of flipped and said well there were repercussions so it's almost like they are they've changed their mind and I don't think that is helping at all

in a championship fight there's a lot of external factors isn't there? There was so much more that's adding to the pressure I think I agree for sure you make a good point about Monza I mean how much would he love to go back

to that situation say no jog off and have a 20 point margin over Landau because, yeah, it's three points, but three points in either direction. So, Landau gained three and he lost three. So it's such a difficult thing for Oscar to be managing. Like, it's the first time he's ever challenged for a world title. It's his third season, which I have to echo and keep saying, because he is, as much as he's come across like this bulletproof character, you know, on the inside, he's got to be, you know, constantly just learning and adapting and trying to figure out how to deal with all these different situations.

You know, these arguments within the McLaren team of, you know, is this fair? Is this fair? And things like that. As much as McLaren think that it is helpful for the two drivers to have a fair fight, I agree with you, it's creating more noise than if they were just battling on track and then came together. And oh, that wasn't very nice. They talk about it a little bit at Singapore and it's over. There's no more media coverage of it. But now it's repercussions this, repercussions that. It lingers on and on and on and on. And so, yeah, I'm sure it doesn't help. You know, the media. noise does not help. So let's go into a question from people on Patreon member Alan Enderpe. With all this pressure building up for Piastri, will he start to really worry about possibly

losing the championship? I think that he's human, right? I believe this would be probably the first time, in my opinion, that he will be looking firmly in his mirrors now and going, oh wow, yeah, they are really close. And it's not just Lando. it's Max Verstappen lurking in the background as well. So I think he would be, he'd have no emotions if he wasn't worrying about that right now. And his performance in Austin would suggest that yes, he is starting to perhaps overthink a little bit at the moment. And he was, he was miles off. He was miles off Lando's pace. He was running in clean air in fifth place. He couldn't get anywhere close to the front three. If this carries on, there's no chance of him winning the world title.

So for him he has to reset. We go to Mexico, don't we, next weekend? Not necessarily a McLaren track. So you might well think that they're going to be on the back foot potentially there as well because Red Bull have always been very good and Max especially. I do genuinely believe he is starting to worry about losing the championship. He has to bounce back and he has to put in a performance that shows not necessarily in qualifying. He's pretty good in qualifying and has been across this whole year.

But he needs to make like a statement. Because right now his lead is just constantly evaporating away. I said after the sprint race where he had that collision, again, you know, it's not penalty worthy, but he's taken a big risk for changing his line so dramatically. And before qualifying, it was a case of, look, Oscar needs a big result soon. He needs a big result to,

silence this chat of is he crumbling is it too much now is the pressure getting too much for him and instead he has arguably one of his worst you know qualifying performances with a deficit to lander where where his most impressive thing at the start of the season was the fact that he'd sorted qualifying out he was so so quick he's getting lots of pole positions you know we were halfway through when we did our season driver ratings and oscar piastri was easily the driver of the year up until that stage we thought how on earth is oscar piastri doing this he looks so comfortable and the thing the thing here is that he'd had that start to to the season you look at last year he went through a stage in the middle of the season last year where i think i even said it during one of our live shows and we were

talking about it that like i think oscar could win the title next year he's he's looking so good and then he had a really bizarre end to the championship you've just got the results up now of what happened at the end of last season So when we actually look

So from Mexico to Abu Dhabi His results were 8th 8th, 7th, 3rd and 10th Of course he had the Abu Dhabi issue with Max But that is not good reading If you're Oscar Piastri What is actually really fascinating now Is now we're looking at this

And we've got the side by side his results are almost matching up very, very similar to the middle of the season last year, he was on form. The middle of the season this year is on form, you know. All his best results kind of came between Austria, Hungary, Netherlands, Belgium, Monza, stuff like that. And then the form dropped off. Now, he needs to be praying that that doesn't happen again.

But it surely got to be in his mind thinking that, you know, When we look back to what happened after Zandvort, was presented with a brilliant chance. And, you know, he only needed very few points, really. Like, Lander could have taken seven points here, seven points there, ages the rest of the season, and he still would have probably been fine. But he can't afford to go on a bad run now at all.

No, and the record suggests that he may well do. So let's hope for his sake he's able to pick up his form and really challenge Lando and Max on track. Next question, Conman 81. What happens first? Lando catching Oscar or Max catching Lando? That's a really, really difficult question because, as I say, the form is flipped the way the championship is going.

I'd probably say Lando catching Oscar. I had to guess. But that is really marginal. I'm not confident either way of what's happening because all I know is that the way it's going right now is it's all just closing and closing and closing between all three of them. And we could be in a situation where, you know,

if we get to the point with two or three races to go and even if it is, because Max obviously has a long way to go still, 20 points separating them with three races to go, two races to go. It's going to be so good going in. The pressure will be unbelievable going into those final races. They really will. I'm trying to in my head go through this mathematical scenario where if we're talking about form, it's Max Lando Oscar.

Let's say for the next three, four races they finish in that order, Max will take 10 points out of Oscar every single time, which means in four races time, with one to go, he will have the same amount of points as Oscar Piastri. Obviously there's a sprint in there as well, but we'll ignore that for a second. If Max then has Lando in second, that's a seven point gain over the next four, which is 28 points. He's 27 behind Lando, which means you could, in theory, in the next four races, if that is how they finish. They'd have one point between all three of them.

Oh, please, sign me up. That is an insane scenario. If I've done the math's correct, that is ridiculous. Maybe a sprint thrown in there and a sprint, it could be one. one or two points different. We could genuinely have a three-way fight going into Abu Dhabi, and that's not even an insane theory to say that. How has this happened?

Because we hyped up this season so much, and then immediately within the first three races, going, oh, okay, McLaren are just going to win. And then even halfway through going, oh, this is a really underwhelming fight between the two McLaren's. And now we're hyping it up again as, like, the most generational championship fight.

It could be. It could be. We're not there yet, but we're close. We're close. And obviously, how can we forget George Russell? He is still in contention. Charles LeCler has, unfortunately, after the Austin weekend, fallen out of contention of the World Championship, which is gutting. You know, there was potentially a comeback. He was halfway alongside Max out of turn two. So that's when I believed. And then very quickly, I didn't. Next question, people on Patreon, remember, Bay Semps. Did Lando run a very smart race? cutting into Oscar's lead with minimal risk for a P2 seems like a very measured approach. On the absolute face of it, yes, I would say that he was incredibly measured, just like we sort of predicted, didn't we? We said that in the run-up to the race after qualifying. Lando will probably not do anything particularly crazy, but we don't tend to really see that

from Lando. We don't see a George Russell dive-bomb sprint race thing like we saw earlier this weekend. And I think that Lando did run a very smart race. I think McLaren and Will Joseph deserve some plaudits as well of kind of screwing Landau's head on over so slightly after the soft tires started to overheat and just said, look, just take a little bit of time, come off the back of Charle-Cleur, put the carcass temperatures back down and then go on another attack. And that's what he did, and he went through. I think the one thing that obviously cost Lando a chance at the win was the start. I think that's more, I would say that's more on Shao-le-Clau, having a brilliant start on the soft tires and swinging to the out. taking basically the racing line into term one. And I think Shao did a brilliant job there.

Lando, I think where you can probably be critical of him is how long it took to get past. Charles LeCler, especially in that first stint, the amount of times you would go to the outside, something we've had a very large frustration of him in previous races. But when you look at it, at the end of the day, he finished second, Oscar finished fifth, he didn't pick up any damage. Yes, there might have been a chance of beating Max Verstappen. but if we look back at qualifying, we said, well, we're not going to have a go at him. If he is cautious, because he's trying to win a world championship and sometimes a second

place is better than a first. And I don't think he had the pace advantage to even have a chance of beating Max. So when all is said and done, it was a smart race from Lando and he may well look back at moments like this and think that is exactly how I need to win a world championship. So small little bits of, he could have done better there. for sure. I think it was slightly frustrating to watch it. Well, not for me. I was loving Charlotte-Clor in P2. Keep it up, my guy. Keep going to the outside line. But Lando did have a decent race. I think it's fair to say. A decent race, yeah. You know, he's, and this is one for

driver ratings. But, you know, he doesn't deserve, like, huge plaudits for having this amazing race because I think he had the pace of Max. You know, I think the start. The start, can't blame him too much for being cautious at turn one. We said it that he doesn't need to go for a ridiculous dive bomb on max. He can settle him behind. Obviously, the problem for him was that Shaal was starting on the soft tires, so he would get a good run on him. It was very frustrating, and it's part of Landau's game that, you know,

he's incredibly quick and fast racing driver, but his strongest asset is not his kind of wheel to wheel aggressiveness sometimes. And there's a risk versus reward there, of course. But it felt like he was doing the same move all the time going to the outside when I think I was very, I was basically willing to give him the benefit of the doubt of being you know, cautious on Maxis Step and I totally understand that. But Charler-Clair should have been a bit easier pickings.

I think Charlotte did a sensational job as well. But I do think Lando should have got through. and then it's maybe a case of you never know he could have challenged. But then I think you're totally right that when you look at the whole race from the face of it, even if he had made the move on Charler-le-Claire in one lap, got it done, would he have had the pace to make a move on Max Verstappen because you need a big deficit with these cars with so much dirty air? And, you know, it wouldn't have been an easy move.

so then no, I don't think he would have. So, yeah, it's not like, it's a good result for his championship, for sure, to be P2, because with Oscar so far behind, he's the one that's caught up even more. Indeed, yeah, you know, you look at the end of the race and, well, the first stint compared to the end of the race. You know, Charlotte Clare was sort of like six, seven seconds behind Max. And yet you, you see that Lando lost 10 seconds behind Charlotte Clare in that first stint. So it could well have been very costly, but, it's all very much speculation as to whether he would have beaten Max Verstappen.

Next question, Pee-1-Patrian member, DK1614444. What are your thoughts on the Yuki Oli battle? Oh, yeah, a crazy moment for sure. I think to be fair to Olly Bearman, I think Yuki, he got caught out by Yuki Sonoda. I think on reflection, I was kind of like, whoa, what are you doing? Um, Yuki was wise and we've seen that move many times of a dive up the inside, the way that corner goes. And I think what happened there was, Olli, Oli had lined up that move the whole way round and was ready to go for it. And at the last minute, Yuki was like, I know exactly what you're

going to do. I'm going to cover the inside and it caught Olly out. So it's not like the most insane thing, but what I would say is that in theory the being on 10 penalty points should make you think a bit in theory that the whole reason for that being in place is to be more cautious and try and avoid accidents and of course it's a long time until they reset so maybe you know it wasn't a very very risky thing to do because you could argue that if you're on 10 penalty points and you're in a situation where one bad move bad move you're getting a race ban you need to make sure that your move is almost like completely risk-free and I think going up the inside of that corner is a risky move we saw you know science and Antonelli collide there and many others in the past so I think it was just a

little bit of an experience from Olly, but I'm not going to give him too much heat from it, but I do think he needed to be a little more cautious just because of the situation he's found himself in at the moment. It's a difficult one. I think your point on the penalty points and having 10 penalty points, as a Formula One driver, you can't just be constantly sat there in a race car doing the race thinking, I'm on 10 penalty points. I need to be cautious. They are very much acting on instinct. That being said, I'm not sort of defensive. offending Olly here because it was his mistake. He'd made his mind up that he was going to go up the inside, no matter where Yuki went. And Yuki was, I think, to Oli's defence slightly as to why it was such an extreme incident in the sense of him going across the grass and spinning, was that Yuki was quite slow on that double left-hand corner because he wanted to cover the inside line. And then you see a little jolt to the left a bit more because he saw, oh my goodness me, Ollie is still committing to the inside line. Well, there's no track there. So it's definitely on Ollie, in my opinion.

Yuki don't think he really had his part to play. He's very much in his right. In his right, he can do that, right? He's allowed to cover the inside. It doesn't matter if he goes a little bit slower, breaks a bit earlier to make sure he covers the inside. That's what he was doing. And it's up to Olly to make a decision of where else to put his car.

So yeah, it was a very close moment for Olly, and it would have ended up in a race ban, I think, had he collided with Yuki. Yeah, crazy to think. Count his lucky stars, really, that he's not coming away with two penalty points. So, yeah, sad for Ollie because I think that meant he lost a position to Holcomberg as well at the time. Next question, P1, Patreon member, Bex P.

What are your thoughts on Alpine imposing team orders when there were literally no points at stake? Completely and utterly ridiculous. What are we doing here? Just let, just let Colinso, who is literally fighting for his life, for his career. And again, doing a great job on the back of gathers. He was so much quicker than Ghazley. I think he was on fresher tires and he was just all over the back of him the entire lap round. Bortoletto was there sort of sneaking around trying to get past as well. Holding position when you've got a, I doesn't matter if it's for 17th and 18th. There was Bortoletto in 19th also trying to get through. So the wise decision is Alpine going over the radio to Gassley and going, look, just don't make it hard for Colopinto. He's much quicker than you get through. didn't happen. Instead, he was told to hold position was, I've just seen an FIA document come through and always have a slight heart attack that something's happened. That's actually just the Carlos Sines

doc. But instead, Colopinto gets told, hold position. Colopinto then ignores that team radio call. And I think that is where, as much as it's a bit silly from Alpine to even try and get them to hold position, for Franco, I don't know if that works in his favor by the way that he has then just ignored those team orders. There's nothing to gain from him passing Gassley because he's already shown he's got the pace. He's not he's not impressing anyone by going past Gassley in my opinion, at least in the paddock, of course, maybe in the fans and his fans would love to see that move. But from a team perspective, like Franco is trying to get a long-term contract probably from Alpine. So whether that would have worked in his favour, I'm not sure. But that being said, I think Franco,

again, doing a brilliant job of being very much on par with Gassi, if not a little bit quicker. That's something that is not being spoken about enough. and he should get his plaudits for that. It's an absolute joke, the team orders. I think it's so, so, so unfair on Franco Colopinto to impose those team orders, because I would argue, if anything, the situation, if you're throwing team orders in that situation,

the team order is to Gassley to say, your teammate is behind you on much fresher tires, don't hold him up or don't let him go. If anything, it's the team order. is the other way. So I can't believe they've put Franco in a really awkward situation. And I agree that I don't think it's going to look great on him that he's ignored team orders and gone for the move. But it's such an awkward position to be in because he had such a tire advantage. I could totally understand them saying hold position if they're on completely the same tie dealt like, you know,

situation, same number of laps or everything. And there wasn't this, this, this, big difference because you go, look, Franco, there's no point doing a risky move here. You might collide. But he had such an advantage that it just made it so silly. And then, of course, yeah, it puts him in a really awkward situation where he wants to impress and he wants to show the team, look, I'm quicker than Gassley. I'm in the situation. I can make a move really easily.

But then he'll get loads of heat on him as well because he's ignored team orders. I think it's ridiculous from Alpine to do that. At least he does have that argument, what we've sort of mentioned. I think that he can stand his own when I'm going with the team about that. I hope they don't, you know, do anything silly here based on it. Because I personally think, you know, unless Franco has this absolutely horrendous run, I personally think he's done enough now today. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I think he's doing some pretty good results when you compare. The only thing that we can really judge him on is his comparison to Gassley. And he's doing a remarkable job with that, I would say. Next question. P1. remember Jennifer English, how well did Ferrari perform relative to what we expected? Did they show signs of resurgence or was it just a one-off? Well, I didn't, you know, there's still time to get the disqualification document in if the plan's been won. No, but I couldn't believe, I couldn't believe

Ferrari's performance. If you'd have said that after what happened in sprint qualifying and how we were, you know, you were at your lowest saying what on earth is going on Ferrari. They are genuinely rubbish behind Williams struggling so, so much, firmly into the midfield. Yeah, they got a good sprint result, but that was good luck because of the chaos. And if you'd have said that you go into this, you know, the next day and another qualifying session at the same track, It's not like crazily different conditions. And suddenly Charlotte Claire is fighting for a front row on the grid and battling for P2 in the race.

And even Hamilton, you know, I know he dropped off at the end, but was finished fourth. I just can't believe, you know, third and fourth almost seems like a minor miracle. And it's probably, you know, sad for you that that is what they're at now. But it is an impressive result based on just how bad things were on, Friday. So as you say, yeah, I was at my lowest, wasn't I, on Friday, just purely because I was just sick of, like, this being the norm. Well, now after Sunday, we're so back, we're winning it all next year. It's, it's, there's, it's, it's, it's, it's a lot of promise to, no, I'm kidding. I'm not quite, uh, there yet. But I was just sat there going, what, how? I don't, I don't, I don't understand what is going on at Ferrari. And I don't think they truly understand either, just purely through these peaks and troughs of, uh, of, of, of performance of how to dial this car in. It's quite sad to watch as a Ferrari fan,

but this was a positive for sure. I'm proud of the team for bouncing back after Friday. I think Charleclair had a phenomenal race, made the soft tire work, the only driver, I think, in the top 12 or whatever it was on the starting grid, to start on the soft tire, and to take it that long into the race as well,

I think was something that none of us expected. And then the mediums worked very well as well. in his next stint. So I don't know if this is a resurgence personally. I don't think you can really say that when the consistency isn't there. But it was nice to watch. And a Charlotte Claire podium is something that I will always accept. So a positive day for sure.

So, you know, I'm just, it's a humbling experience, 2025, because when Charlotte Clare is on a 15 race win streak, I will look back to these times. think, wow, well, you know, now we're in the glory days. Biggest winner, we're going to head to, Driver or Team, who we're going to crown as the biggest winner of this weekend? I think Max Verstappen has a really large shout for that one. Is it Max or Verstappen?

It's literally, it's literally Matt. There's literally no one else it could be. Yeah, for sure. We'll give Max Verstappen biggest winner. biggest loser I think hmm who are we going to throw

I think Holcomberg no actually no he scored good points he's got good points in the race but I'm just thinking about what happened I think it's got to be

Oscar Piastri I really think the pressure has mounted up so much he's lost that's a very good point he is basically because what

did he lose to max 23 points so it's almost like a normal race where it was another backer of like a DMF and a so true

yeah so we said that he needed another max to be able to close on Piastri he needed almost another 25 point swing and he almost got that. I think the most concerning thing for Piastri in a weird way

is it wasn't and it was a crash in the sprint but when we were talking about the race he was just slow and I think that is the thing that's so concerning so it's got to be Piastri. Piastri definitely up there. I think Alex Albonne had a pretty difficult weekend as well having that spin on Bortoletto

I think it was. want to apologize as well if we've got any sort of small details wrong because it's very difficult to keep up with everything when you're at the track and when you're losing reception watching it on a shuttle and things like that but yes I think the screens fail on the first lap yeah that was crazy so we were literally

we were we were sat down ready to watch the race and of course you know you watch the screen for 90% 95% of the time at a Formula One race it's mad to think when you actually say it out loud that most of your time so we could see the track and we can see a screen yeah and we're going right here we go then formation lap starts, screen turns off.

And we're sat there like... And by not turned off as in like all signal goes on, all of them in the whole area. So we didn't basically see lap one until the replay and we saw them go past. Well, we didn't see it until they literally went past and I saw Charlotte Clare in second and went, this is the greatest day of my life.

So that was when I did think we were winning it all. Sadly, Charles has been eliminated from championship contention. Okay, let's now look. back at our predictions that we made on the run-up to this United States Grand Prix. Very close indeed, 45-44 to Tom Bellingham. As we head to a good surprise, where I cannot wait to talk about this one, because of course I went for Max Verstappen, who gained 23 points on Oscar Piastri, who literally had a maximum score from a sprint weekend,

and people are going, how on earth can that be a Max Verstappen's good, surprise, well, there you go. He didn't get fastest lap, though, did he? Great. Kimmy Antonelli, who, uh... Yeah, I'm joking. I'm joking. Yeah, it has to be, because if you go, oh, how can Max be a good surprise, but it's like... Any driver can be a good surprise. Yeah, and also, like, if Max had won the sprint and finished second in the race, this wouldn't

come in. Like, if anything, you're risking going for a top driver because they have to be literally perfect and almost overachieve even more. And that's what he did. So thank you very much. I'll take the point. Tommy, was yours a good surprise?

Not even remotely. It was Gabrielle Bortoletto, who I think arguably was one of, you know, this is almost, you know, biggest flop territory of how, for Bortoletto.

Not even big flop, biggest flop, because Holcomberg just had the measure of him all weekend. Holcomberg looked so, so quick. and Bortolato was really, really struggling, so terrible, no points. Terrible indeed. So we are now level.

We are now level as we head to a big flop where I went for Kimmy Antonelli. Of course, having a very difficult race indeed. Where did he finish? Out of the points, P-13. I will take the flop. The flop is back. God, the Williams, if that had come in, my flop streak would be so crazy right now. Yes, Kimmy Antonelli I went for.

Sorry, Kimmy, but that is indeed a big flop. so I am now technically in the lead. Wow, this feels good. Let me just soak this in for a second before it all probably changes again. Tommy, who did you go for a big flop? I went for Ferrari, and I was so confident.

This was like locked in on Friday. I was like, I have cooked. And no. Then you were like, third and fourth, please. Thank you very much. Okay, no points for Tommy so far. We now go to Sprint Pole, where I went for Lando Norris,

because you took my Max Verstappen, which was really annoying, because that would have been correct. But this is the game. The game's the game. You went for Max for Stappen. Well done. Tommy gets a point.

We are level. We now go to Sprint Win, where I went for Max for Stappen, so I will take that other point. Goodness, this has been a good week. There's a lot of points, at least for me. What about you? What did you go for?

I went for Oscar Piestri because you took Max for Stappan from me. Yeah, well, you know, tough, tough luck. I'm really sorry. Pole position. I don't think I was going to go for Max for Stappen here, but I went to go for Max for Stappen here, but I went to go.

went for Lando Norris and that was wrong. And I went for Max Astapen, so we'll level again. We are level again. Crazy scenes. Trying to keep up with all of this. Third place in the race and this was too high. I went for Oscar Piastri. I went for Maxer Stappen.

In second position and this was because I think I was trying to block you. Otherwise I was potentially going to go for a Max P1. But I went for Max P2 to make you have a terrible P1. So sadly, no points for me. and yeah I went for Oscar Piastri P2 and in first position I went for Lando Norris which was incorrect and you went for I went for George Russell because I couldn't pick

Lando Norris which wouldn't have been right anyway one crazy prediction so my one crazy prediction and I'm kind of annoyed with the phrasing that I've gone here I went for Lando and Oscar have another disagreement why did I not just say that there will be another McLaren incident yeah that's crazy because if anything they didn't disagree because they were like, oh, if anything, they were all quite lovely about crashing into each other.

Lando backed Oscar. And then they weren't close enough in the race to even have a mild disagreement because... Crazy. Yeah, that's really annoying because it's kind of right in another dimension, but alas, I need to figure out the way I say things. And my crazy prediction. Oh, my God. Say this.

And we'll tell the story. So my crazy prediction was all McLaren pit stops are under three seconds. And yeah, we were basically. watching the McLaren pit stops. And after Piastries, they did, I think it was like a 2.1 or something. And I was like, there we go. One down. One to go.

We're halfway there. This is it. The crazy predictions are getting locked in. Lando comes into the pits. 3.8. So we were actually on the shuttle at this point watching it on our phone. And the cheer I gave out. And people were looking around because there obviously are the Formula One fans on the shuttle.

And I'm cheering away. And they're probably thinking something massive. as happened. I'm wearing a Ferrari top. Is a Ferrari in the lead? No, I'm cheering because Tommy's crazy prediction isn't coming in on the podcast because competitive. And this is what makes everything very fun indeed. Let's go to our Patreon prediction. If you're part of the people on Patreon, you can submit a prediction for us to be, for us to select. And my one, and this was generationally wrong, was Zingy 13. Sprint pole does not win the sprint. Same for the main qualifying and race. And Max was like, clean suite for the whole thing. Thank you very much. Indeed. And

mine was from Glush, Lance outscores Fernando, which did not happen. Fernando got a cheeky point. Does that mean we're level on points going into the next race? Yes, we are. I think that is. Wow. What a title fight. What a title fight.

This is what everybody cares about. Family top three is what people care about as well. It's currently nine eight to the boring Bellingham's. Let's see how my mum and your dad did in third position. My mum went for George Russell, which was incorrect. and my dad went for Charlotte Claire, which was correct. I remember roasting that as well. Yeah, that's the one that's come in.

In second place, my mum went for Oscar Piaastri, the wrong McLaren. And my dad went for Max Verstappen, which was incorrect. But my mum backed Max Verstappen for the win, so we get a point. Thank you, Mum, appreciate you. And my dad went for Lewis Hamilton, which was incredibly polled. Yeah, I mean, half through FP1, we thought maybe. Maybe. And actually, someone mentioned something quite funny that I'd forgotten this because we recorded

the predictions actually quite a long time ago. But my dad gave an additional prediction when he phoned up and said that he thought the McLaren's were going to crash into each other and it happened. So no points there, but it was just quite funny to look back on. But you did score one point with another Ferrari driver. So there you go. Back Ferrari is the moral of the story here. Right, that is it. Thank you everybody for tuning in to this on the go. We're on traveling right now, aren't we in Austin? But thank you for tuning in to all of the content that we've put out over the last few days. It's been busy, but we've loved doing it. And yeah, can't wait for Mexico next weekend where maybe we'll be back on UK time. But then we'll have to be, it'd be quite late again, won't it? I guess we're in local time. Tell me, what your final thoughts before we go?

Final thoughts. Yeah, what a, what an insane weekend of action. I think we've not really spoken about how I think the race is always hard to tell when you're at the track and you're kind of watching it, you know, and you kind of different setup of like how good that race was. But from what I... I mean, for 13 laps. Well, yeah.

From what I saw, it didn't seem like the greatest race in the way. world, but so much to talk about because of this amazing championship fight and how the drama has just ramped up so much. Yeah, I don't think it really gave off a particularly great race. Of course, the Lando Shal battle was interesting to watch. And I think the midfield were doing some things, but on the face fit, it didn't seem like an amazing one. Be interested to hear your thoughts that are listening to this. And that is it. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. Next weekend, we go again. Can Max close the gap even more? We'll see you soon. Bye.

Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.