P1 with Matt and Tommy - Which F1 teammates will finish higher in 2023?

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Hamilton vs Russell, Gasly vs Ocon, Norris vs Piastri... we have plenty of exciting teammate battles to look forward to in 2023, but who'll come out on top? Matt and Tommy make their choices and decide by what margin with a new DEMOLITION SCALE!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast with Man Tommy. Welcome along, everybody. It is officially, I don't know why I said a-fishily, officially, Testing Week, we are here. We're talking about Formula One and Formula One is just around the corner. As we're filming this, we've got three days to go, Tommy, until a 650 a.m. start for Bar-R-Ran. day one testing. Thank goodness we love Formula One because not much gets me up at 6.50 a.m.

But seeing Formula One cars back on track for what feels like forever and all the cars, hopefully, if they all work. Yeah, can't wait. So essentially what we're going to do today is we're going to dive into each F1 teammate pairing and predict who we think will finish higher. So let's get into Williams, Sergeant versus Albin. Now, I don't think. either of our answers are going to be particularly surprising here, Tommy, for this one. I have gone for Alex Albin. I think Alex Albin should, in theory, destroy Logan Sargent, just purely from the fact that he is a more experienced Formula One racer. And he destroyed Nicholas Latifie, not that, you know, it's not the greatest achievement of his life. But Albin, I think, has fit in quite nicely into that

Williams outfit. And I see Sergeant having a big learning curve. And realistically, I think Albin will be on top pretty much every single race weekend. Now, with the predictions, we are also going to do a demolition scale. Oh, yes, that's right. So we make the prediction. But then we also judge how badly whoever wins will beat the other person. And it's between a scale of 1 to 10.

It kind of goes with the F1 to 10 series that we have. Hey, hey, look at that, branding. So one is just beats them. I'm talking an absolute slither. And 10 is an absolute whitewash, not even a competition. So I'm going to rate this pairing eight. Nice. I, yeah, no surprise.

I've also gone for Alex Albin, if you watch the prediction video. I was obviously saying that I didn't think Sergeant would do that well, but it's mainly the fact that he's in what I think will be the worst current. on the grid and he's got a far more experienced teammate. And I think Albin is actually, maybe his performance has been a bit underrated, but it's also really hard to tell because he's been against a Latifie in poor form. So I... To say the least.

To say the least, yeah. So I'm going to say a Albin nine out of 10. I think particularly at the start of the year, Logan needs to get up to speed quickly. And when we say whitewash in the demolition scale, it's probably worth saying that that doesn't mean just 23 and 0 in qualifying. This is like full-blown every session just smashing. You know what I mean?

So eight's pretty heavy, nine's getting there. So you feel like Albin will comprehensively beat Sergeant this year. Not that when we look at the table, that there'll be potentially a massive points difference between them, because it's Williams and we're not expecting the most insane improvement from them. But let's see.

Let's keep an open mind. Our next team is Alpha Tauri, Sonoda versus DeVries. Now, if I'm going with what I kind of said in the season predictions, this is going to have to be quite a heavy demolition grade. So I've gone for Sonoda. And for my demolition grade,

I'm going to go with another eight. I feel like Sonoda, if I'm backing what I've predicted only a week ago that DeVries could lose his race seat, then I have to be back in Sonoda here. And as much as I would say make or break for DeVries in the sense of he has to prove himself out the blocks to be able to keep a Formula One seat,

I think it might also be the same for Yuki Sonoda in a lot of ways. There's no guarantees that he's going to be able to stay in Formula One with another mediocre season. He has got the pace and the pace and the potential. So I would like, I sound like the fanboy of Sonoda here, Tommy. I feel like we've kind of swat places here.

But yeah, I think Sonoda's going to have a decent season. He's going to step into that team leader role, which Gazley, of course, kind of had before. And he's going to step his game up and beat DeVries. I really hope you're right. I am less confident. I've still gone for Sonoda to beat DeVries.

It's strange to think this will be Yuki's third season. N'F1 but I don't think he's going to absolutely wipe the floor with DeVries so I've gone for a two out of ten and I think it'd be quite close between them maybe DeVries takes a bit of a while to get up to speed but then I think Sonoda will be better but I do worry that Yuki might still just have some of those races where once it kind of unravels and goes wrong he just has an absolute mayor. For example, you know, say, say Austria where he cut the pit lane, he did it twice

or Hungary where something went wrong and then rather than just kind of continuing at the back, it just went worse and worse and he ended up laps and laps down and you're like, what on earth has happened here? So hopefully not. I hope you're all right and I'm wrong. Not long to wait until we find out. Okay. So we've both agreed on the first two, very exciting. Let's see if we agree on the third one. Hasse, Magnuson versus Holcomberg. For me, this one's very clear. I think it'll be quite close.

However, I am backing Nico Holcomberg. I believe on the demolition scale, it'll be a measly three out of ten. So Holkenberg and three for me, I think Nico is a very good driver as much as he has the worst unwanted record of no podium. with the most amount of starts. And we've already discussed that we don't think that that's going to change. And he's actually going to extend his lead with this particular record, if you can call it a lead. But I still think that he's born to be in the midfield, is Nico Holkenberg.

And I think he's shown before as well that he's able to jump into a car at very late notice and deliver. He did that with the racing point, of course, if you remember a few years ago. And I think it won't be any different for Holcombberg. jumping in this season. I think it'll be quite quick to get up to speed and he'll beat Magnuson over the course of the season.

So there you go. Three out of ten on the demolition scale. I've gone for Holcomberg as well. As you know, I picked him as the surprise of the year because I think some people think he's washed

and like you say, he's got that podium record hanging over him or the unwanted podium record, as it were. But I think Holkenberg will be more consistent. I've gone for a five,

and that's more that I think on the demolition scale I'm kind of including the fact that I think pace-wise they'll be close but the reason it's a five for me is I think Holcombberg will score a lot more points but I didn't think it was worthy of I think Holcombugge would score more points

but I didn't want to put it too high on the scale because that kind of makes it sound like Magnuson won't be anywhere near and pace-wise but I don't think that would be the case I think they will be fairly close but I think Holkenberg is the one that's going to pick up the points when the house is quite good and Magnuson will be picking up meatball flags after trying to go side by side with Lewis Hamilton through Baku Castle sections and things.

So we will see. To be fair, he might well go for a side by side with his own teammate and therefore Holkenberg might not be able to pick up as many points if they're both crashing. But yeah, maybe Magnuson will have taken a few learnings. from last year. You hope so anyway, with the amount of points he kind of lost through audacious moves, to say the least. They were, they sort of, they're all now like joking about the whole suck my balls and

it's water under the bridge. But I wonder, like you say, if they're getting a bit racy at turn one, which has teammates have done a lot in the past, particularly Magnus and McGrojean, it happens. So whether they'll still be besties and all that after. we'll find out. Well, the fact that we are hyping and talking up the whole Ghazley versus Ockon thing and all they did was crop a photo or two on Instagram, whereas Magnuson's told him to suck his balls.

I think that that's, I mean, evidence right there that they had a little bit of a falling out. But yeah, it should be, it's going to be a very interesting partnership, I think. And fingers crossed, for our viewing pleasure has come out the blocks absolutely firing around like the third row of the grid. And then we'll see what they're made of. We now move to Aston Martin, Alonso versus Stroll. No surprises here. I am backing Fernando Alonzo.

And on the demolition scale, I'm going nine. I think it's going to be quite heavily in the favour of Fernando Alonzo. I am a little bit worried, not for Stroll as such, but worried for my own prediction that Stroll might do the thing where he just pops up in P10 now and again and you'd have no idea how he manages it. And you're pretty convinced Lawrence Stroll has paid the circuit organizers for a little cheeky shortcut that the cameras didn't pick up.

But realistically, I think Alonzo is going to be quite a bit better than Stroll. Alonzo proved last year that he has got the minerals, very much so still in that locker of the 40-odd-something human being that he is. And yeah, it's going to be the rise of Alonzo. And Stroll is just going to have a great time, just chilling in the season, because he doesn't have to worry about his race seat. To be fair, you did say qualifying was the one where Alonzo would whitewash him.

And I tend to agree that Alonzo would probably completely own stroll and qualifying for the entirety of the season. However, I'm a little less optimistic because of that whole stroll strategy thing that we saw maybe with Vettel, even the final race in Abu Dhabi where Vettel was having an absolute incredible race. and then all of a sudden Straul's ahead of him and I think Alonso will not enjoy that if he's the one on the end of that.

How much do you believe for that particular, sorry Tommy, before you go into that, how much do you believe that Lawrence Stroll did not want Vettel to have an incredible race for his final race

to make his son look rubbish in their final clash together? I don't think it was that. I think they did generally do quite a bad strategy, but... And they were fighting. in the constructors as well, weren't they?

Yeah, they were. I guess it makes no sense. It made no sense. I think it was just they were hoping for something good, maybe a safety car or something that never came, and it didn't work in their favour. So I'd be surprised if they would do that. Obviously, it fits the whole Stroll thing of them favouring him, but I think Stroll did have the better strategies throughout the year. It just seemed to work out better for him. And I worry that that would be the same with that.

So I'm going to go for a seven out of 10 for Alonzo. I thought you would have maybe dropped a little 10, to be honest, Tommy, because, well, look, you back Fernando Alonzo at every point ever. Even when we're not talking about Fernando Alonzo, you back him. So a seven surprising. There's still that bit in the back of my mind that just thinks his car will be on fire every race. That's fair. If you're a Fernando Alonzo fan, you never can guarantee anything when it comes to his luck.

Okay, we now move to Alpha Romeo, Botas versus Joe. For me, for this one, I am backing Valtry Bottas, and I believe on the demolition scale, we're going to go with a four out of 10. I think Joe definitely showed glimpses of brilliance last year against his teammate, Bottas, an experienced teammate at that. And, yeah, I think there'll be maybe more of the same

of Bottas, we'll have a few more master classes in him and have some great drives, you remember the start of last year, he was doing amazing things in the Alpha Romeo. I think more consistently wise, Bottas will deliver, but that's not to say that Jo won't have some great times as well. So I think four out of tens kind of gives a good sort of picture as to what I think is going to happen.

So this is my bold, bold prediction. I'm going to go that Joe Guanyu beats Bottas over the season. So I've gone for Joe Guan Yu. but not by a huge amount. I'm not that confident. I've gone for a two out of ten. So I've gone for the bold prediction and then kind of bottled it a bit by going,

only a two. But for me, I think that Joe improved over the year. He was very unfortunate when the alpha was good that he had a bit of poor luck and reliability. And maybe Bottas, maybe the honeymoon period is over a bit in terms of the start of that year.

He was so excited to be at a new team and he was performing absolutely brilliantly. And then towards the end of the year, we didn't see the same botas. So I'm going to predict that show Guan Yu beats him. So see. Let's see. We love to see it now.

I don't think it's the most far-fetched of opinions ever. I think it genuinely could happen. If show gets some good luck, which would be nice for him after once. happened last year and the amount of failures that he had. But yeah, I'm not going to completely disagree with that. I think Bottas will come out on top. But it'll be fascinating to watch those two. But Bottas with his haircut, how can you bet against him? Like what a what a style he's currently rocking. Absolutely. We'll see if it's good for him or not. All that weight saving that the teams

are doing, scratching paint off and they turns out with a mullet and a mustache. Yeah, maybe he'll have to shave off the mustache for some extra gains because, you know, every, Every milligram clearly counts when it comes to the weight of these cars. Let's move on now to Alpine, Ghazli versus Ocon. So this one probably won't be much of a surprise in terms of our answers. I don't know what Thomas is, but I'm imagining, if you've watched our season predictions, you'll know who we're backing here. I am going to back Esteban Ocon.

And on the demolition scale, I'm going for a six out of ten. I think Ocon, with the fact that he has Alping around him, he's settled into the team very much so. And if anything, is their golden child a little bit, whether you agree that should be the case. That's up to you. But Ocon had a great season last year. He was consistent.

He had some brilliant drives. Japan, fourth place, is one that absolutely sticks in the mind. And I think it's going to be more of the same. We could see some fireworks. We saw slight sparks between Ocon and Alonzo at times last year. And I feel like there will be a, some strong altercations, I think, between Ghazli and Ocon

over the course of the year. Even if they say it's all, you know, it's all squashed, we're fine. One small moment, the team radio is going to be fantastic. So I can't wait for that, but I think O'Con will come out on top and six out of ten.

It'd be such a letdown now, wouldn't it? If they did actually, like nothing happened throughout the whole year, drive to survive cameras on them, or every weekend, kind of pushing them into each other going, come on, have a fight.

do something and they just they just don't so i've gone for o'con as well like you say i predicted gazzley in the in the predictions as the biggest flop and i'm doubling down and going the o'con beats him comprehensively and i've gone for an eight out of ten i think o'con is incredibly underrated and i think he's going to he's going to show what he can do and i just i just worry that gazley will struggle against him. So, yeah, eight out of ten in Ocon's favour, I think he's going to score a lot more points than Gassi. Wow, that's a surprise to me, Tommy.

Fair play to you. Look at you dropping some bombs now. We love to see it. Okay, let's go to McLaren now. Norris versus Piastri. This one, I think, probably has the most split in terms of where people think this teammate rivalry could go. but for me, I am going to go with Lando Norris

and demolition scale of four out of ten. I think Alando Norris, over the course of a season, will outperform Oscar Piastri, but I don't think it's going to be anywhere near the margin that a lot of people are thinking. Of course, if you've listened to our other stuff, you'll know that I'm back in Piastri is the best biggest surprise in a good way.

And I think he will outperform Norris on the occasional weekend. But over the course of a season, and Lando is so fearlessly consistent that I think any teammate will struggle to score more points than him over the course of a year. But look, I think Piaastri is going to have some moments in the sun as well. So I've gone for Lando Norris as well, but I've gone a bit higher with a six out of ten.

I think that, you know, if you look at last year, Daniel Ricardo and how it went with him, I'm not backing that it's going to go completely the same way and that Norris is a complete teammate killer. But I think Norris is driving incredibly well. He's incredibly consistent, like you say. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if he ends up sort of putting these amazing best of the rest performances

and as getting to the end of the season and just wishing that he had a car to be able to deliver the talent that a lot of people think he has. Wasn't there a stat as well going around that it was a little bit inflated in the sense that it was percentages? But there was a percentage top 10? 10 and then Lando was like top five of all time or something ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, it's mad.

I think he was like third or fourth on the list just because he's very consistent, finishes a lot of races, cars don't really break down anymore. And yeah, points go the way down to 10th. So he, I think Lando is one of those people that you don't really tend to see many mistakes from him. Now people will always go, oh, Russia. And that sort of looms over him. but I don't I don't personally count that as this huge error that some people do because it was I watched that race back actually it was on it was on TV the other day and I was like I really want some Formula One in my life so I watched it and it was heartbreaking because it was his chance to win and that just happens unfortunately sometimes you know he would have looked like the hero if it'd have stayed out so it's not like he slammed it in the wall in a dry race at the end and and

bottled it. So he's very consistent driver and I think that's what's going to be difficult for Piastri because Piastri is going to have to get up to speed quite quickly and not make, you know, if he wants to be up there with Lando, he's going to have to do it without pushing too far that he ends up in in the wall in sessions and things. Yeah. And you know, you mentioned the Russian Grand Prix then and that was very much a 50-50 gamble. I'm pretty sure Lewis said that he would have carried on had Lando gone in the pits. So it was literally a roll of the dice. But how do you see the six out of ten that you say for Piastri?

Is that more the fact that he will just be consistently off the pace? Or do you see there will be moments where Piastri is potentially on a par with him, but then other times he'll be quite far off. How do you see it? I personally see it as it's a kind of nine out of ten for the first five races and then more like a three out of ten for the rest of the year. Okay. some teething problems then.

Yeah. Just natural as a rookie. A lot of pressure on him really to succeed. But then no one really thinks he'll beat Lando. We shall see. Got an opportunity. Okay, now it's Mercedes time. Hamilton versus Russell.

This one's spicy, I reckon, purely because, look, last year, George Russell did in fact beat Lewis Hamilton. But then how would you make... measure that as a demolition scale because if anything Hamilton was potentially quicker than Russell over the course or more consistently faster than Russell over the course of the year but Russell scored more consistently. So I guess it would be a Russell but a one out of ten.

Yeah, I guess you'd kind of raid that. So for me, I think that Hamilton will come out on top in this particular rivalry and it will be a three. out of 10. So I feel as though Lewis will be even more fired up this year, in my opinion, not only because he didn't get a race win last year and the record was broken or the streak story was broken, but also the fact that he would not have taken kindly to Russell bidding him in the title. There's no two ways about it. Even if there are explanations and reasons, Hamilton would not have enjoyed that. So for me, a complete mental reset going into this year,

I think that he will perform more consistently, and especially that dip that he had at the start of last year, and Russell was banging in top fives and Hamilton just, whether it's because of the setup or, well, however you want to explain it, he lost a lot of points to George. I just don't see that happening this year. Whether Lewis not actually willing to do these experimental things, we'll see.

Maybe they won't have to because I foresee Mercedes to be a lot closer to the front than they were especially at the start of last year. Yeah, Hamilton for me, three out of ten. I've gone for Hamilton as well, and I've gone a four out of ten. I think it will be close between them in some races, and George will still be that consistent driver. But I think last year, like you say, if we'd have had those races where maybe Hamilton wasn't experimenting with certain things,

if that's what you choose to believe, I mean, based on how much his car was bouncing in places like Baku, it probably was true. And then when we got to the kind of more normal races at the end of the season, you could even argue Brazil. George Russell don't want to take anything away from him. He was absolutely brilliant. And you can't take anything away from him that he beat Hamilton over a season, regardless of how he did it. But even in that race, you can argue that Hamilton had the collision with Max and then still got into a situation where he was chasing Russell for the victory.

So it kind of suggests that Hamilton did have a pace advantage. So yeah, I'm going to go for Hamilton will be quicker, but it's not going to be like a whitewash like we maybe thought last year. I certainly did. And boy, did George prove us wrong. Just as a little extra because we did predict last year, didn't we, about how many points Hamilton would beat Russell.

So I'm going to put you on the spot right now, Tommy, and ask for the same thing. How many points will Hamilton beat Russell this year? I'm going to say 40. Okay. I'm going to go with 29. There you go. Is that really specific?

So if it's exactly right, we can clip it and post it and you're like an absolute genius. A clock, even a broken clock is right twice a day. So there you go. Okay, we now move on to Ferrari. Lecler versus Signs. I don't think it's any surprise who I'm going to back in this particular teammate rivalry.

I am going to go with Charle Lecler. And on the demolition scale, I am going to stick and submit a six out of ten. I think Charlecler is the stronger of the two in terms of over the course of a season. Signs had a slow start, but was quick towards the end of last year. You can't deny that.

But I think that some of that has to be down to Charlerc just being like a little bit demotivated, considering the Ferrari was going backwards. He was out of the championship fight. I think there are some explanations. Not that that is, you know, he shouldn't be letting his motivation slip, but we're all human. So for me, I think Leclair will come out the blocks firing wherever that Ferrari allows him to fire. We will find out. And yeah, I think it will be still quite comprehensively in Leclair's favour.

I've gone for Leclair as well. I've gone for a five out of ten. I also think, you know, Lecler is quicker for me, no doubt. Obviously, had his inconsistencies, but then lost a lot of points that weren't his fault. So if you actually look on the points last year, it's a really difficult one, because if we were doing this demolition scale last year of what actually happened, I'd say LeCler beat science comprehensively. There wasn't really maybe Mexico one race

where science was actually quicker on pace than LeCler. It was very rare anyway. But they were quite close on points just because LeCleur lost so many through different things. So yeah, LeCleur for me is still, I think, is going to be Ferrari's number one. He just needs to have the luck to, to deliver the points and be a bit more consistent.

I think science will close up a little bit. I hope he does because the start of the year in particular last year was painful for him that he had that race winning car and just didn't perform. So yeah, LeCler will do it, but I think science will be closer. Yeah, the fact that the only race win he got was when he made a mistake and then it was put on a platter for him. Maybe didn't do him justice for some of the moments where he was at least closer to Leclair.

You know, you think that if he's only a 10th or two behind, he might be able to get a race winner, at some point over a 23 race calendar, but it didn't happen. But yeah, it would be interesting to see because if science comes out of the blocks a bit quicker, then, you know, that 6 out of 10 that I've just given may well look pretty silly.

Now, the final team, Red Bull, Vestappen, versus Perez. Ooh, this one not going to be good if you like Sergio Perez. I am backing Max Verstappen, and I think on the demolition scale, we're looking at a eight out of 10. I think it was close to a nine, but I feel as though for Stappen

obviously went through the start of the season and didn't like the car. When you actually take into account the whole scenario that's going, on there, Red Bull is built around him. He is the world champion. And if something isn't to his liking, they will make it to his liking, even if it means Perez falls off the pace. Perez clearly suited that car brilliantly at the start of last year and did an amazing job. Should have won in Saudi as well, for example. But once Vastappan got a car he liked, he was trouncing

Perez. And I think that's going to be similar. We haven't got a huge regulation change coming into this year, Red Bull know what Vastappen wants and that's what he's going to get. So for me, I think Paris is going to struggle. That's not to say that he deserves to lose his seat or anything like that. He is the perfect number two driver. And if Mercedes and Ferrari are both there as well, to win the driver's championship, you need to have your strongest foot forward and that's what Red Bull will do with Vastappan. Yeah, I've also, well, I haven't also, I've gone for Vastappen, but I've gone for a nine out of

10. And you pretty much said word for word everything that I was going to say because I think Vastappen is in the best form he's ever been. And when that car got to his liking, it was quite scary actually that when the car wasn't to his liking, if you take away the car failures, it would have been right in the championship and doing extremely well anyway when his, it was supposedly like much more suited to Sergio and Sergio liked it a lot more. And now we've got this, I'd be surprised with not a huge change in regulation if they don't arrive first race into the new season and the car, if not absolutely perfect, is the way Verstappen likes it through testing and stuff.

So a whole season of that is a difficult, will be difficult for Sergio. but it sounds really harsh to say nine out of ten, but this is exactly why I think Red Bull have the kind of way they can win the constructors championship because I've said it so many times I think Hamilton and Russell are going to take points off each other with Mercedes and those kind of situations where you have a number one driver

always seems to benefit the championship. Look how dominant. Ferrari were with Michael Schumacher when they just had a number two driver. So Sergio, realistically, it's a nine out of ten, but it doesn't necessarily mean that I think he's going to have an absolute stinker. It's because he's against a guy that's driving absolute phenomenally and the best he's done like in his whole career and he's at the peak of his powers. So nine out of ten. Yeah, nine out of ten for Vastappen. And, I still think Sergio will do a good job

and deliver them the constructors title they want. But he's going up against what I would say, or who I would say is the best driver on the grid right now. And his consistency was relentless last year. And I think the Perez will struggle. But that's not the role that he's taking in that Red Ball. He's not there to win races particularly or win the championship. He's there to pick up the pieces if Estappen has a problem.

And I'm sure he will do that pretty decently. So we'll have to wait and see. there you go then that is the teammate rivalries gone through done and dusted Tommy final thoughts final thoughts uh oh I want to say something that's not boring but I just really want F1 back I can't think of anything else other than no that's not a good enough submission to final thoughts okay um final thoughts oh my god you've already put me on the spot and I have nothing how do you not see this coming every time we've been going and doing podcast and chatting for years.

Okay. Do the same for every single drive there, apart from Joe. I think we did. Okay, so yeah, let us know what you think, but there's my bold prediction. Team Joe Guan Yu for 2023. That's what a great final thought. He just recapped what he'd already said in the podcast.

My final thoughts are I cannot wait to do a Twitch watch along with all of you for F1 testing. So if you want to come and join us at the ridiculous time of 6.50 in the morning UK time. I'm sure we'll go live maybe 10 minutes before that or whenever it starts if I've got that time wrong and we will be live. Matt P1 Tommy if you want to go follow us on Twitch and everywhere else

as well we are called that. So lots of love see you very soon and yeah, Formula 1's back very soon. Yes! Bye! P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST's creator network.