P1 with Matt and Tommy - US GP Race Review

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

A heated battle between our two Championship contenders left the door open for a certain prancing horse… We recap the drama, incidents and controversy from what was another awesome US Grand Prix! Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race podcast series, every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!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. What a time to be alive, isn't it, Tommy? We're here in Austin celebrating. You're supposed to sing with me, Tommy. That's crazy. Sorry. That's fine. Don't worry about it.

But hey, I'm very happy. How are you? I'm good. Yeah, it was another exciting racecoater delivered. terms of track action again. And wow, yeah, who does, neither of us predicted in our predictions that Charlotte Clare would win, particularly when he was fourth on the grid. But oh my God, the dream start for him. And yeah, what a race as well. And we will reflect on all of that gloriousness. And we've, obviously, you went to the track as well. You're going to touch a little

bit upon that later on. But first and foremost, Tommy, why don't you begin with your most memorable moment? Well, my most memorable moment, of course, has to be Maxostappen versus Lando Norris. We haven't really seen a battle between Max and Lando since Austria, and I thought I was watching the same thing, watching Lando spend lap after lap not overtaking despite having a massive advantage and then not being able to get passed. It was quite frustrating to watch. As a Max fan. Even as a Max fan, because I was like, how are you not passing him? There was also the other moment at the start, which we'll touch on later, which I'm pretty sure I predicted in our qualifying wrap-up that Max would dive down the inside and running wide, which is exactly what happened. So, again, surprised that it didn't see that one coming.

And then I think, yeah, the worst bit was the fact that Lando just couldn't get past. And then when he did, it wasn't even legal, or was it? Because basically, there's a lot of opinions, of course, on whether it was. or not, but the stewards deemed it was illegal. And what do you, as a human, deem it? As a human, it is 1,000% illegal. You literally can't drive off the track to overtake someone. You never have been able to.

It's something that Max Verstappen, before everyone goes, oh, you would say that was a Vastafin fan boy. It's something that I said in Austria. Fantastic impression. Yeah. That I hated that Max did himself. This whole, oh, I'm ahead at the apex. you just accelerate onto the, which is exactly what Max did in Austria, right?

And I called that out because I think it's like, it's blatant cheating, basically, that you just go round the outside onto the runoff. And what I can't understand is all these people going, what a ridiculous penalty. I watched it and I was like, that's a penalty. Am I watching a different sport? Like, why weren't they telling him that's going to be a penalty? You knew it was going to be a penalty. It's always a penalty.

he've watched it for years, Formula One for years, that is always a penalty. So I don't understand why, one, he didn't give it back. I was very surprised when he put in a defence on Max, because I thought he was actually going to let him through at the very next corner. And I really don't understand the argument that it wasn't a penalty. Like, just flat out was. Oh, energetic. Tommy today, we've had cheating. We've had all kinds of words being thrown around.

Don't say cheating. I know, yeah. You know what I mean in terms of like, it's been. the rules to basically be out, I'm head of the apex and then you just accelerate and drive off. And loads of drivers do it. And I think it's one of the worst parts of wheel to wheel racing that is a trend that they somehow need to clamp up. But unfortunately, that's just the nature of track limits now. Absolutely.

Max versus Lando, it was great to watch. Don't get me wrong. I think that obviously on one side, frustrating in the sense that Lando couldn't find a way through. But it was brilliant. Max defended beautifully, in my opinion. there was the only time where I was like, oh, that's a bit, that's a bit touch and go, was the, well, actually, no, was lap one term one, which I think was once again, Max being Max, if you're given the inside line, he's going to push the rules to the absolute limit.

He knows he's not going to get a penalty for that because it's lap one term one. If it's any other corner on any other lap, and he's probably in trouble, but there's leniency there with the stewards. So he uses that to his advantage. But then, yeah, the one, again as well, was that particular moment that we're all speaking about down into turn 12. And I think when I was first watching it, I've gone, oh, has Max actually given Lando enough space here?

But I think the problem and where the stewards on further review now and watching the video back several times before recording this is that Lando accelerates off the corner to make the position. So on one side you've got, does Max force another competitor off the track? you could argue in some ways he does because his late-breaking move and he himself goes off the track. So I think there is an argument from that side and I do understand why Formula One fans

are questioning that side of thing because neither car stayed on the track but that is a separate thing to deliberate. Lando going off the track and accelerating off to make the move is why he got the penalty. Had he just kind of rejoined normally maybe there was more of an argument

say if he came out side by side with Max, they're both off the track, but he's not showing as much of a dumping of the throttle to make the move, then perhaps he would have gotten away with it. Obviously, it's heat of the moment as well in terms of what McLaren decided to do in that situation. They just doubled down and were like, nope, we're all good. Let's maybe go to that question because that is exactly. Okay, sorry, yeah, so there is a question. P1 patron member Sam, why didn't McLaren just tell Lando to give the position back? Surely it wasn't worth the risk.

I think for this one, I'm not going to be too harsh on McLaren because there are a few factors that you have to take into account here. One, they weren't absolutely sure in the heat of the moment whether that was going to be given as a penalty. When you look at the other strange moments throughout the race, perhaps they should have thought about maybe George Russell getting a penalty for literally nothing I felt like. So there's that where they weren't sure whether they were going to get a penalty.

And also, they might have even felt like they could. could have dropped five seconds on Max and thought, well, let's just roll the dice. Lando's got fresher tires, just drive away. And I think he was 4.1 in the end ahead of Max. So it was close. In hindsight, the beauty of hindsight, we go, yeah, he should have given the position back straight away, but it's not as easy as that. So I'm not going to be too harsh on McLaren.

No, I think they should have, I think they should have given the place back, obviously, you said at the start that I think it was a slam dunk penalty all day long. So watching it, you've surely got to give the position back. and we see it all the time that drivers do that. So I was very surprised, but the thinking behind them basically trying to extend that gap because Lando did appear to have such an advantage, despite not being able to pass him,

you know, he was so much quicker you could tell. And I did think as soon as he overtook him off the track, it is a questionable kind of thing in form, Lawan that we've said so many times that you can kind of do an illegal move and then go see you later I'm off down the road because it works because you know if you can pass someone and pull the gap then it's better than not being able to pass it so I almost think that maybe that's what they were trying to go for there but it didn't happen it didn't happen indeed a p1 patreon member snowbourne said so how did Vestappen not get a penalty for forcing Norris off the track do the

rules not apply to him. I'm not sure whether this is alluding to turn one lap one or turn 12, but I've kind of touched upon why I think he didn't get a penalty in turn one lap one. It's because he knows there's a bit more leniency there with it being lap one. And then with the turn 12 incident, that, I mean, that in itself, I don't know if that part went under the radar slightly because obviously the other part of it of Lando accelerating off was what was investigated. Does Max also require some kind of note or investigation in the sense that he didn't leave enough room for Lando. Yes, I think the nature of Cota, we've seen this a lot, and we saw it in the sprint yesterday as well with the Ferraris and then passing Russell.

And there's so many corners at that track where maybe other tracks you can leave a car's width on the outside. Sometimes the nature of the corners are so tight and the apex is so tightened that you do have to almost like push them off, which is a bit annoying. I would not want to be a steward doing the US Grand Prix because it is a track where the cars do push each other wide so much. I personally think that the George Russell won was an absolute joke. That shouldn't have been a penalty at all. He was on the track, so I don't understand why.

We saw that move so many times in the sprint. I do not understand for a second why that was a penalty. so just to kind of cover that one. But the move at turn one, I just think that's, again, like, it was always going to happen. And I know Lando did go quite aggressive and cover the gap, but you can't give Max a car's whip because he will go down the inside.

But to be fair to Lando, it's such a wide turn that it is really hard to kind of cover the inside. I feel like, you know, just going from memory here, but I feel like there's been so many times at Cota where the person in second has just dive down the inside because you can kind of push it off. I think the famous example is obviously Hamilton and Rosberg where they threw a cap at him afterwards.

And yeah, that was a legal move, went up the inside, there was no penalty. And I don't think the max one was either. Like you dive down the inside and, well, it worked off with Shal, didn't it? It did. It did. Thanks, Max, for your aggressive nature in overtaking. Next question from P1 Patreon member Lumixion. Does Norris need to be a bit more aggressive in his moves? Yes, he needs to be aggressive in his moves and his defending.

And I question this, didn't I, when we spoke about this before, about whether Lando will treat Max slightly differently or not defend as hard as maybe we saw against the Ferraris in the sprint or that sort of thing. And I will give him an element of forgiveness in the sense of, you've pointed out very rightly, term one is so wide that there are so many different lines that you can take. So I do understand why Lando has kind of fainted to the inside, but not want to pinch right on the apex really on the inside, because that is a pretty difficult corner to then

get off of because of the way it's shaped. But at the same time, I'm going, in my head, I'm thinking the only way he doesn't come out first is by not covering the inside line. Because I don't think you see many, and this is going purely off memory, moves of someone going round the outside of someone on Turn 1 lap 1. I think if you always cover the inside, you're all good. But Lando did keep that door open. And whether it's, because obviously, you know, a lot of drivers will faint to somewhere and then move back once they've sort of put off the driver behind to not go up the inside. He's not done that enough in order for Max to go, oh, he's not, he's still going to leave a car's width here. So Max has gone, okay, I'm still going to go. And then,

Of course Max is going to do that. That was my first thing was like, of course he's going to go up the inside. We predicted it yesterday even. And it's not even like he was side by side. Lando got a great star. Yeah, he didn't have a bad start. He could have easily just,

obviously I'm speaking like a true sofa watcher, but at the same time, that I think was the most frustrating thing from a Lando versus Max's point of view, but thank you also Lando for doing it because Shal went through from fourth to first after term one. I actually would give him Lando more the benefit of the doubt for turn one. I don't think it was a really bad start.

Yeah, he definitely should have defended the inside. I actually think the battle at the end is where Lando's done sort of worse for his kind of the mental game in the battle between him and Max Verstappen. Because we said yesterday that we've not actually seen Max and Lando fight each other other than Austria, and Max got a massive one-up on Lando there from a mentality point of view, the fact that Lando was so much quicker and should have passed him, this was Lando's chance to turn that whole narrative round, because it's the only time we've really seen them properly go wheel to wheel,

and Lando had such an advantage that, you know, the championship is still on, in my opinion, and McLaren's obviously got a very good car, the Red Ball didn't run away today with it. there's every chance that there's still a big ass. What about Ferrari? And Ferrari, we'll get on to Ferrari. But I think Lando just making a move on Max, and even the movie went around the outside, like I say, that he was always and went off,

he had five more laps to do the move if he did just let him back through. And he had such an advantage, he should have been able to pass him in those 10 laps. And if he had, that is such a huge mentality, moment in the championship that Lando can be like, I've gone wheel to with Max and I've beaten him and I've overtaken him. But again, he's come out with that not being the case. So, and Max is

going to be Max. He's going to drive to the limit. And I do think that's not a good chance for Lando because that was a huge opportunity for him to really like get one over on Max. Yeah. And going back to the frustration of watching it as much as I was loving it, that the thing for me was the amount of times Lando would do the same thing and think it's going to be better. And as soon as he commits to the outside line, you are essentially a passenger in terms of this battle because Vastappen can dictate the line. Whereas if that is the other way around, Max is steaming down the inside line late on the brakes and attempting to slow the car down. We didn't see that once from Lando. Lando didn't try to go up the inside at turn 20.

once. And whether he's afraid because of the marbles or whatever it might be, he was just trying to be far too clean with it and putting the same method in. He was four tents behind at one point. I remember looking at the gap intensely before they came around turn 11 and down the massive straight. It was four tents behind and then had DRS and still didn't manage to get through on him. It's, I don't, you didn't see that anywhere else. Yeah, is it, is it too harsh to say that if it was land, and Max Astappen was any other driver in that situation with a tire advantage, how much he gained on him. And I even thought it, even though it was Max and Lando, and I knew how aggressive Max can be in defending,

that 10 laps to go is like, Max has absolutely no chance. There's no way Max should have finished that race ahead of Lando. We're all looking to see if Lando can catch Carlos. That's where the kind of battle... There's absolutely no way Lando should not have got past him. Yeah, don't get me wrong. Max did a brilliant job as well and made it as hard as... possible for Lando. I think that once we saw the position change and Lando was defending into

term one, it was noticeably more erratic from Lando into term one defending, whereas Max did exactly the same thing every single lap. And it's robotic. It really is. So props to Max as well for making Lando's life as hard as possible. And this is why he's a three, soon to be probably four-time F-1 world champion. So big shout out to Max. I think you'd drove fantastically well despite the car being completely and utterly washed, which that in itself is ridiculous. That was a surprise, actually. I really thought.

We thought it was going to be. We both predicted Max first in the race and thought he'd clear off, particularly after, you know, making the move on lander, but my goodness me, the Ferrari so quick. They were. I did actually predict them second and third, but I clearly wasn't deluded enough. You said yesterday that you do wonder how much Ferrari could be in there if they weren't fighting each other because we did see that unbelievable pace and how close Carlos got to Max the day before. And yeah, it did work perfectly for them because they got through.

It did. And so let's go to my most memorable moment, which is, of course, Joe Guan Yu's spin. I knew you were going to interrupt you and say, is it show? It's of course, Charles LeCler winning in Austin. Come on. I mean, obviously the parting of the Red Sea happened in. term one and he went straight through when Lando and Max had their little whoopsie and it was beautiful at that point and then I started to question right okay how how good can this get and it was just easy it was a really easy victory it was easy for Charlotte he drove away in that first stint the mediums were working really well for him he went the longest out of the front runners

then Pitt and whether he was just sort of managing the gap to Carlos or whatever Carlos was had a great last in it has to be said and got the gap to sort of five seconds at one point and I was like, relax, let's calm this down. We don't need these two battling will to go out for the victory. But Char was amazing and I think it just showed and I had said that in the podcast

that Ferrari looked like they had really good race pace. They just needed to be in the mix and then ta-da! We're leading the race and Carlos in third I think it was yeah. Yeah, what alternate reality are we in where Charles didn't have the qualifying pace, but the Ferrari race pace was the one. And yeah, it shows that, you know,

when he's got the car to deliver, he does it. And yeah, it was a fantastic drive. Carlos been able to make his way through in second as well. It's going to be exciting end of the season because Ferrari always loved to bang the old upgrades on at the end and turn the wick up for the finale. Well, they had no upgrades into this weekend. They had literally brought nothing. And they won the race with some really good race pace. So that, I know everyone's going to be thinking this next question. Abidabby 2020 Survivor, P1 Patreon member asks, can LeCler still win the World Drivers Championship if we get some good script writing?

Yes. It would take very good script writing. He's 79 points. That's a lot of points. But I still believe. Little Max and Lando whoopsie in the next one in Mexico, 54 points. then it's 9, 29, and then 4, and then he wins. To be fair, what, you know, we're joking about that situation.

The fact that Max, obviously, you know, going back to Max and Lando defending each other, they couldn't really afford to crash because it would have been a 25 point swing for Shal, and that would have put him, you know, I think on the back of Lando, which is, which is actually, you know, I did wonder how much you were thinking about that the whole time when they're racing. It's like, these two go out. Charlotte's probably going to be on what?

Like very nearly the same points as Lando or right up back up behind him again. Yeah, I was dreaming. I was dreaming. But I think unfortunately for Charlie kind of needs that to happen maybe like, well, he does. You need to happen three times, and then he's still not there.

You know, if he wins three of the last five races and if they don't score any points, then he's still not quite there. and then you go into the final two races. So it's a huge, huge ask, but it's a great end to the season. I just, and I'm speaking as someone that loves a title fight, and I'm, you know, I can't imagine what it's like as a Ferrari fan. We just need Ferrari to carry that momentum through the season,

not have this like mid-season dip where they kind of fall off again, and then they get back to Monza and they're amazing and then go on this great run to the end. Because it really is a question of like what might have been in those few races where Charles. was getting lapped and they're having an absolute shocker. He could, he genuinely could have been right in there if he was the, if he was the one maximising the points.

Please stop. He could have. He could have. Making me what if. So I've done the mental maths and Charles has to gain, on average, 16 points a weekend on Max Verstappen in order to win. That includes obviously the sprints as well. So, look, I'm saying, I'm on.

I'm on. I'm on for it. Let's go. But I'm on. I don't know what that means. But yes, I don't think he's going to win. sadly the World Championship, but Ferrari. I mean, how times can change from Singapore, which is obviously a very different track,

very different climate to Dakota, but the pecking order just goes, let's shake the box, and there we go. Yeah, it's crazy how, again, we're here going into the race weekend, thinking, oh, well, this is, you know, McLaren again. They've got the best car. Surely it's going to be McLaren to win. and you've had Red Bull winning the sprint race, Ferrari winning the main race.

Yeah, it's quite insane. So that's Charles' third win in the season, which, yeah, it's the same number as Lando, which is also quite an insane thing to think about, that they've got the same number of wins. So, yeah, Ferrari winning a good amount of races. And again, it's just flipping every single race. go to Mexico. Mercedes will probably be fastest ahead of Alpine

and then we'll be like, what's going on? Next question from P1PITR member, Maldibs. How has this Ferrari pace gone unnoticed? And where did it come from? McLaren were miles ahead at Singapore, so was the four-week break worthwhile? Well, I mean, the four-week break where Ferrari went, we have nothing.

We are bringing nothing to the weekend. But sometimes that in itself can be a better way of going. And I think that, obviously, a lot of Formula One fans, including myself, upgrades come to a Grand Prix weekend, you go, they're going to be faster. But sometimes, dialing in a package from a previous upgrade that they brought in a few races before can work just as well when they're learning how things work. Of course, there's no F1 testing in season. So they are very much learning on the racetrack. And it seems as though this might have been the case

for Ferrari. It goes back to yesterday where we said that the pace is so close now that you just have a little bit of performance by a couple of tents or whatever. You elevate yourselves from being maybe challenging for fourth or fifth to even winning the race. That's, you know, what we said with Mercedes yesterday and how their form like flip-flops. Sometimes it doesn't even need to be upgrades. You know, when MacLaren, when Formula One posted that upgrades graphic and you saw seven, it was seven for McLaren, I think it was, at top of the list, you went, well, look, give them the championship now, but they've finished fourth and fifth.

So probably their worst result in a while. Because they had a podium street, didn't they for very long? Yeah, so yeah, they've lost their podium street, which no one would have said at the start of the year. My mum has just texted me during this. Glad Shal won. That cheered you up. We'd love to see it. Next question from De Spicy Lemon Pie. I've just realised that as a username. Did Lewis really make a mistake or was he just calling it off?

That is such a great question. just going to just bin it in the same corner as where Russell binned it. It's going to be believable. Of course he didn't call it off. The worst crush gate ever. Hamilton had a fantastic start. He was up to 12th when he made that error. So you do wonder, I think it was very, well, of course, Russell started at the back as well. But I think both of them had a great chance to score at least some points despite having the worst beginning in terms of where they started a race. But Hamilton was not calling it off. I don't think he got bored or anything like that, it was just a mistake, that Mercedes, on a knife's edge, as always,

and Hamilton having one of the worst weekends I can remember for him personally. I'd love an alternate reality where you could put two either bad or mid-drivers in a Mercedes to see just how bad that car really is, because it changes so much. And you do wonder how much of this car is that they've got two fantastic drivers to sometimes deliver a really great result, but it is still a bit of an S-box, because, you know, their form like no other team is just all over the place. It feels an absolute age ago that they were winning three races in a row. And we were even talking about Hamilton, oh, I reckon Hamilton's going to win a lot more

races throughout the season. I would not predict that now. Didn't you predict Hamilton to finish second in the championship as well? I think at one point, yeah, maybe... But that was our mid-season predictions, I'm pretty. the mid-season or I think it no I think it was most wins after the summer after the summer break I thought Hamilton would get the most wins because yeah they'd they'd won three on the bounce and I'd be amazingly even won one now

yeah then you predicted him biggest good surprise and then that's what that hit straight away I was actually sat at that turn as he spun backwards into the wall and I was like there's biggest good surprise didn't you I saw him once going backwards that is ridiculous next question P1 Patreon member Alan Enderpey should Lawson go into the Red Bull seat now for the rest of the season. Imagine that. Upgraded to V-Carb for one race, then stick him in the Red Bull before the Mexican

Grand Prix. Sorry, Perez. I know he said we're going to keep you in there Vio. Imagine of Mexico. I mean, that would honestly create some serious storm. But Lawson, brilliant. I love that he is not afraid to one

pee off Fernando Alonzo. I mean, my goodness me. I watched a full clip from the sprint. Lawson was being naughty. Don't get me wrong. Yes, because we, just to cover that, we missed, didn't we, that there was a bit of extra naughtiness. Well, F1 posted just a small clip when there was actually a full lap and a bit battle. And previous even on lap one and lap five. Yeah. So lots of action. But Lawson was brilliant. He started from the back and ended up finishing ninth. You had Sonoda over the radio losing his mind over the fact that Lawson had come out on fresh mediums ahead of him.

He's like, no, how has this happened? So you can tell that Sonoda's probably feeling the pressure. for a little bit as well from that. But brilliant. He made so many overtakes and was not afraid to get his elbows out when he needed to. Lawson, it's literally the best race he could have had after this whole break since he's last been in the Formula One car. Yeah, absolutely. He was obviously on the back foot and we were thinking, oh, well, he's in a car that can't

really score points and he's going to be starting last. So it's going to be a shame for him that he's not going to be able to show what he can do. That is not the case. My word. Eight seconds behind Holcomburg, which you'd have to say, he only finished 11 seconds off Perez. If Lawson had beaten Perez, then maybe they would have just switched them for the next race. Literally though, if he hadn't started at the back, he's beating Perez, surely. Or at least with him with that 11 second loss that he would have had just coming through the field.

But yeah, big shout out to Lawson, well done to him. At Sylvie Pope Photo comes in with a question, Do you think there's any chance Williams could release signs to Red Bull and keep Colapinto? No. We're in Dreamland right now. We're playing The Sims. This is fantasy stuff, I think. As much as we all want signs to be in a better team, I think what we are starting to realize is that the Williams is not actually that bad of a car.

And I truly believe signs could cook next year in that Williams and be finishing P5, P6, P7, potentially if they keep. building this car to what it clearly has as a foundation. So no, I don't think this is going to have a crazy little swap. But Colopinto... Oh my word. Again, he scores a point.

It's just... An Albin's down in 16th? These rookies, unreal. Yeah, Colapinto is having an unbelievable season. The fact that yeah, he was obviously did a great job in

sprint qualifying but didn't deliver any points there. but the fact that he managed to get a point after we were talking about Williams yesterday, they're both going out in Q3. Albin obviously had a big moment. I don't know if that even got picked up, but it was by where I was watching. So I don't know if it was on the screen, but we'll talk about that later. Albin at turn 19 went off.

During the race. Yeah, yeah, and dropped loads of places at the start. So yeah, there was that. So Albin, again, Albin not having a good role. race and Colopinto absolutely flying. To go back to the question yesterday of would they put Colopinto in the car instead of Alban, if this happens in the next five races, maybe? I don't know if it would have to be an extreme, extremely bad loss of form for Albin,

I think. Yeah, I agree. But if Albin doesn't start the next year well and science does absolutely demolish him, They could. They genuinely could. Yeah, it's crazy. But yeah, not a good race for Album and Colopinto, again, absolutely superb going really long on the tyres. Like these rookies, I mean, we've sort of, I think maybe, you know, I will admit, maybe been a little bit unfair to Formula 2 and the potential of Formula 2 drivers. But maybe it is just a case that it is so competitive that we don't have that standout person. And maybe it is time that there's, you know, it is time that there. There's a lot of maybe mid-drivers in Formula One that are taking up and hogging seats, and it's nice to see some fresh talent coming in. Name them. And I'll save them for the live share controversial opinion.

But yeah, you look at that there and see Lawson and Colapinto, who've basically just jumped into a Formula One car in the last few races. Unbelievable. Absolutely unreal. So big GGs to those guys. Let's move to biggest winner, driver or team. Ferrari. It has to be. One, two. No upgrades brought. Thank you very much. Biggest winner. Yeah. It's got to be easy. The easiest biggest winner of the lot, really. No one else is a big winner,

really, I wouldn't say, other than obviously the Lawson and Colapinto and stuff. But the fact that the team, as a whole team, they managed maximum points is a huge double year. Apart from the fastest lap that Ocon stole away. Thanks, mate. appreciate it. Yeah, I won't go off on that, but thank God they get rid of that. I know you don't agree. I don't agree. That's fine. We can, I agree with the sentiment of random drivers pitting than the 17th. But top 10, best fastest lap, thank you very much. That is a point that I think should be given, but that is a conversation for another day. Okay, let's go to biggest loser. I am going to submit Lando Norris as biggest loser, not purely because

of the fact that he lost out to Max Verstappen, but just that mentality that we've spoken about here, we're talking about the championship, this is what all of the drivers are going for, and this was an opportunity for Lando to beat Max Verstappen, and as much as I don't think it would really affect Max if Lando had won, I think from a Lando confidence perspective, it would have done him wonders.

So I am going to say that one just purely because of how frustrating it was to watch him not get through. Yeah, it's a big, you know, it sounds crazy that he's finished the race fourth, but it was a massive, it's a massive title blow really for him, even though it sounds ridiculous to say it's only a couple of points lost. It's the mental like gains that he would have had there. Obviously, got to put Hamilton into the mix. Just not, just the worst weekend. He possibly could have imagined no idea why that happened. We'll get into that later. So, yeah.

I think, yeah, and maybe even Alex Albin as well, just starting to sweat a little bit, seeing that that narrative of Colapinto just coming in and being amazing, just continue. Indeed. There's also another biggest loser that you wanted to talk about. Biggest loser, I think, was maybe for me. So I went to the track today. And if you follow me on Twitter, you'll maybe have seen a few of my tweets. that basically me and my wife have, she's come over to Austin, and this is basically a race we've always wanted to do.

It's been like our number one bucket list race. And Austin itself has been one of the best, coolest cities of I've been to. Everything away from the track has been unbelievable. And the track is awesome as well itself. Like the views are good. I was really surprised at how good the GA was actually as well and the views you can get from GA, see some great spots. but the fan experience of not having commentary

is one of the most insane experiences I've ever experienced a racetrack and I think it's so unfair that my general admission ticket for two general emission tickets cost me I think like $6 or $700 and I had no idea what was going on in the race and I think the bare minimum for Formula One fans

that have paid that money to go to a race is knowing what's going on If they want to put in this fancy package where you can get, you know, a screen or whatever and charge people some money, fine. But the bare minimum should be tractsicometry. It's one of the weirdest experience I've ever had. I think the weirdest experience, actually, because one thing in particular was we were really excited for the anthem because we've been to the Indy 500, you know, Americans go ham on the anthem. It's an amazing moment. Silence.

Absolute silence. They didn't play it through the... So everyone stood up. It was like being at a headphone disco. Everyone stood up and you could watch on the screen and you had subtitles on the screen. So it was basically like watching the TV on mute, American anthem. People stood up. Couldn't hear it.

And then everyone sat down and then they played the AF1 intro, no sound. And then there's no track commentary. and the only way you can get track commentary was these little radios but they basically they gave away and stuff but you they sold out like you couldn't get any of them it's worth pointing out that this is

the particular section that you were at because I know that there is track commentary at some areas rather than saying that it's a full circuit problem but perhaps that is just from a it's just not ready yeah it's so strange because like you're so used to it like Silverstone and other tracks.

It was such a bizarre thing to like go around and not be able to hear the commentary because normally they're like, they've got it like big volume. Well, it has to be. And it has to be because it's Formula One cars. But very weird. And I almost, because they didn't have radios,

I went up to the Formula One stand and they had a radio like the official Formula One radio you could purchase. Do you want to guess how much that would have? been to buy a like the the big chunky headphones that yeah it's not rent is that you buy them so yeah yeah yeah 80 or something a hundred and sixty dollars and i was like i was willing like it been annoying but i was willing to pay you know like i was like i do want to hear it so like you know if i have to pay 30 40 dollars for for a headset then fine but 160 dollars is for something you're

going to use once. outrageous. Yeah. And I just, I just, as a Formula One fan, I don't like seeing other Formula One fan. Like, the Formula One fans that are there deserve the best experience they get. They pay a lot of money for their ticket. I know what it's like to, you know, basically like sacrifice a lot to be able to go to the track and go to races. You pay so much money to go, like people will save up for, you know, like years sometimes to be able to enjoy this.

experience and it's a shame that the fans don't get, you know, what should be the bare minimum experience sometime. Yeah, I agree. I think that just generally Formula One is outgrowing the fan experience to which they are charging for. Back in, you know, 10 years ago, you'd pay maybe 200, 300, $300 for a full grandstand weekend ticket. And fair enough, I think that matches what you get. If you sit in a grandstand, you've got the crack commentary and whatever. Yeah, exactly. But now we're getting into a, because of the demand, which is fair enough, but. Fair enough, I know how supply and demand works, but also there's the problem here of like Formula One and the circuits and the deal that they have in the sense of, obviously, the tracks

will buy the right to then host a Formula One race, then they make their money back through the ticket sales and everything else. So there's always going to be a bottom line of profit to be made from the circuits. But the circuits clearly aren't willing to invest in the fan experience because it's not worth it from their side either. So it's kind of this conundrum where neither... party has to be like right we do need to improve the formula one fan experience. It's a really unique situation isn't it where you've got like the Formula One, the sport itself

and then the circuits and it's like sometimes their responsibility because it's a very different experience to every circuit you go to and I will say Cota was absolutely awesome. Like I say the GA views and everything was really cool but that was so odd to me. You know I had someone behind me that was chatting to in the the grandson that said they watched qualifying and they basically left after Q1 and one and watched it in like an amphitheatre just so they could find out what was going on. Yeah. Because you can't hear it.

That's the bare minimum. It needs to be. There has to be, like, for example, like the, as you say, it does vary from circuit to circuit, but just even the screens, right? So like one of the things, I was genuinely using my phone to zoom in on the screen to see what the gaps were because I couldn't see. It's like, surely that's the bare minimum is to have more screens that everywhere where no matter where you're looking on the circuit, you know what's going on on track.

Also, actually, just on that, one of the funniest things, which is, like, annoying, but you just, like, have to laugh at how ridiculous it was, is I couldn't see what was going on with the turn one move between Lando and Norris until I watched it back as a replay. Between Lando and Norris. Norris and Vestappen into turn one, because there's no track comes, and you know they have, like, captions. The captions were covering the cars. So I couldn't see it.

I saw that yesterday as well. Anyway, we've popped off for far too long. Hopefully that gives you an idea that going to Formula One races is amazing, but we think that certainly is... Yeah, I want to just 100% clarify. Like, I don't want you to feel sorry for me going to race as this is about... No, I don't think sorry if you were totally. Exactly.

I just want to like make sure it comes across that like Formula One fans deserve better and having like been there and, you know, experienced it. Like, the fans deserve the best experience they can get. and I think they can do a lot better from F1 and circuit side. Okay, good. All right. Let's now move on to our predictions that we made. And I think this might be the worst biggest good surprise predictions we've had in quite some time.

I went for Alex Albon, which was very surprising just how bad he was in comparison to Colopinto. But sadly, there's good in front of that. So no point for me. And yeah, Lewis Hamilton. I've made a joke on Twitter that when Russell had his penalty that I could lock in biggest surprise because that meant Hamilton out qualified him. But then he decided to spin backwards in turn 19. Yeah. Okay. Biggest flop. I went for Salba and they were doing great. They were doing great. And then Ocon just decided to get beaten because he pitted to take fast a slap.

For no reason. I could have argued that because they finished last in every single session. Then Ockon just decided to enter the chat. Which, you know, I'm still feeling slightly hard done by here. But what was hilarious as well was listening to two new Formula One fans behind me that just fell in love with how rubbish the two Salbers were and were like cheering every lap they came past. So you're telling me there is a point there then because they were terrible. It was actually like watching yeah like F2. Well, you just said it.

You just said it for me. No, no, because, no, it's Ockon Pitt. He was having a terrible race. Ocon ruined it. No, no, wait. Well, I never said that they had to finish. I did say off the back. Okay, fine.

Whatever. And I went for Nico Halkenberg who had a great race. So we've absolutely, a biggest flop was basically our predictions this week. Yeah, that was horrendous. Okay, sprint poll. I went for Lando Norris. Incorrect. I went for Max Verstappen, which was correct.

Well done. Do you want to write a little one next to that? Write a little one. There we go. Sprint winner, I went for Lando Norris. Nope. I also went for Lando Norris, which was a noop. So going Lando Norris for everything was not particularly great.

However, pole position, I went for Lando Norris, which was correct. Indeed, and so did I. I went for Lando Norris pole position. Oh, why did you go for Lando pole, for God's sake? Ah, and then I didn't even talk about Ferrari in our top three, which is really sad. But I went for Pastery P3. I went for Hamilton P3. That was good. Vastappan P2.

I went for Norris P2, no. And then I went for Norris P1. No. I went for Vastri-1. I'm never predicting Lando to win ever again. That's it. It's done until next week. See you there. But we now move on to one... I was so bad this week.

One crazy prediction. I went for Colopinto does not be Albon in either Quali or Ray Sessions and I'm pretty sure I beat them in almost everything apart from qualifying. Good times. And I absolutely chefed. Colapinto in the points, but not Albin. Yeah, you're unbelievable. That's one of my best predictions ever actually.

All right. Lippin there. I've got to gloat about something Sholely on the podcast crazy. Playing your own pipe as you want. I've got it right this time. And then finally, three crazy predictions from you wonderful lots. Firstly, P1, Patreon,

Justin F-194. Max and Lando both finish outside the points. That could have happened. I actually thought about this prediction when they were racing. I was like, oh, actually, remember that prediction that someone said and we were like, no, they'd have had to crash. And then there we are. P1, Patreon, LR, two or more, Formula A DNF's.

No, we just had Hamilton. And then P1MATRIM member Longo-N-N-N-N-696. Lawson finishes in the points. That is correct. And that would have been made when he'd already known that he was getting a penalty as well. So that is, that's a massive. That is massive from Longgo. Well done.

And that is it. I hope you've enjoyed this little Austin Live podcast. If you have, let us know in the comments. Leave a like. Subscribe if you're new. We've hit half a million, which I don't think we've actually said on YouTube, that we've hit half a million subscribers. So thank you so much to each and every one of you for subscribing.

Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts? I love that for one, despite the, uh, ranting about the circuit and experience sometimes like it's just it's just the best sport in the world and it was so good um it's in such a good place we say it all the time but uh we've had another different window no one seems to be able to string wins together at the moment um please don't change the rules oh but they will be my final thoughts are we've got our final show in three hours and 35 minutes from now in austin downtown and uh cannot wait for it it's going to be awesome the u.s live show tour has been

We're doing our December ones remember as well if you're in the UK in the middle of December to reflect on this epic season. So yeah, go and check that out if you haven't already. And we will see you next time. Bye! Bye! Keep pushing in the gym. Keep sending faxes. Sending faxes.

P1 is a Stack production and part of the A-cast's creator network.