P1 with Matt and Tommy - Who can beat Red Bull in Monaco?

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

We've seen the first day of running in Monaco and while Max Verstappen topped FP2, it looks like we could be in for the closest qualifying of the year. Who can challenge Red Bull?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 Matt and Tommy, live and direct from Monaco. Yes, it does not feel real. Now, for those watching on YouTube, I am sorry that this is how we're doing it. You know, we're just working with a little tripod on a camera with some... You know what I mean? It's a bit of a scuff job this weekend, but look, would you rather have content or no content? Exactly. We're doing our best. And those for audio as well

To be fair, YouTube and audio, sorry about potentially hearing some serious tunes going on outside. If you literally look out the window, there's a beach party going on right now that we lost the invitations for. Clearly, somewhere lost in the post. I tried to go down there and say,

look, Tom Bellingham is recording a podcast right now, please. He did do that, and they said who? But anyway, let's talk about what happened in practice then, and we can give you a bit of insight as to what it was like down on the ground, live in Monaco, unbelievable. I've even got my nice little podcast sheet right in front of me but on my phone,

so again, a bit of a scuff job. We had a Spanish one-two in FP1, signs ahead of Alonzo, and the dream was well and truly alive. It was. Signs looking good around here, it has to be said. Obviously, he topped the session.

We don't know who might have got extra laps in at the end because of the incident that we'll talk about in a bit, but yeah it was cool it's such a weird feeling being at a race we say this so many times but apologies it's so hard to absorb when you're there it's such a different vibe people that have been to races will know it's such a different experience because I don't feel like no other sport when you're at a Grand Prix you're like right so what happened like we got back and we're like oh we need to see the FP2 highlights and see what went on even though we were literally there watching and had the cars right in front of us.

It's a very weird feeling. Yeah, we could see the times and we saw that Alonzo was going fast, it's then signs, and that's fine, but that's like seeing the score in football, but not actually watching what's going on. It makes you realize what a complicated sport F1 is. Yeah, ridiculous, because you don't know how the tires are acting, not what necessarily run plans they're on and so on. So it's quite difficult as the base has just been turned up by the DJ.

so much for that. But it is difficult, really difficult. I think that's something Formula One genuinely have to improve moving forward, because as you have so many more people getting into the sport, if they're spending, well, I mean, in Monaco, they're spending an absolute truck ton, but like, in general, maybe, four or five hundred quid maybe for the British Grand Prix, you need to get that whole experience that you feel that when you actually leave the circuit, you go, well, I know what happened. Yeah, it's tough there, isn't it? Because it's, you're looking at little parts of the track, which, speaking of which, We got to watch, we watched a bit of FP1 from the corner, well, just before Raskass

Cass and the, what is it called, the swimming pool section, just after that, oh my word, what a place to watch F1 cars. So close. So close. You feel like you can almost touch them. Genuinely, it looks like they parked up. Anyway, we're going to talk about what actually happened and our thoughts on it, and then maybe we'll get into our, if for those that actually want to stay, you can find out about our bit of our bit of our. day in Monaco as well afterwards. So those can jog on if they just want, if you know, if they just want our free practice thoughts, you know what I mean? So big thing was Alex Albin had a big crash at the end of FP1 which caused a red flag. I think James Vowles had an interview

because we actually didn't see FP2. I was actually watching on my phone and I caught the end of it at least. And James Vowles was saying that he he went in two kilometers an hour too quick into term one and then something about modular braking, which I absolutely understood. And then that caused that crash. He loves analysing an album crash. He is. I'm not even joking. He's unbelievable, James Vals.

The way in which he describes things is just, it's kind of similar to George Russell in some ways. They're both so incredibly analytical. The words they use are just so beautifully crafted. They're like the Shakespeare of Motorsport. Not like us. But you wouldn't expect that from washed opinions, would you really? But yeah, so that was Alex Alburn, who had a big crash.

someone who almost nearly had a crash in FP1 was Charles LeCler. And you thought he had. I was convinced because I just caught the replay, looked up at the screen, because he turned in, he got a swapper on, I was convinced he hit that wall. Yeah, it was great. So I didn't necessarily, I don't think I was looking at the screen at the time, and you went, oh, look, look, it's in the wall! And I was like, biggest flop.

It's happening. Oh God, the powers are back live. Then we watched it back and he did get a swapper into that chican, didn't he? just about managed to save it. So that was good. We then moved to Free Practice 2 and Vostappen was back on top. Come on the Red Bull, you know?

Here we go. Come on. But again, it looks really blooming close at the front. It does. This is why Monaco is great because we've got a close race. You never know.

Look what happened with Albin, right? That qualifying crash at the end, at the end, we know it can happen in qualifying. It's happened to Vestappen twice in his career already, that he needs to get that lap in at the end, and someone's crashed, and he can't get the lap in. So, and then qualifying is the most important qualifying of the entire year.

So it does throw a curveball into the mix. Speaking of crashes, Carlos Seines had a little cheeky turn. To be fair, he had that, and near miss in FP1 doing exactly the same thing. This time he just turned in far too early and broke his steering arm and then into the wall. I would actually say he got quite fortunate in how little damage he had to that car

because I remember Vestappan went in there and it was a proper shunt a few years ago. Do you remember? Yeah. That was just before Free Practice 3. It was 2018, yeah. And you can have quite a hefty impact into there but signs kind of hit the wall, I would say, quite well.

I can hear everyone in the comments going, not going to mention Leclair in qualifying the same corner. When? No, never happened. Deleted from my memory. But that is a corner that catches a lot of people out. What I think it is, as an expert, Formula One, you know, someone that's driven Formula One cars on the regular.

On the game. Yeah. It's a rare bit of Monaco where you do actually have a bit of runoff area because you don't have that wall on the outside as you fly into that corner. So people really do attack it. And if you turn in a little too early, we've seen it so many times,

little bump, sends you just darting into the wall. And yeah, science did the same thing. But to be fair, to science, he's looked good. He did look good up until that point. And interestingly as well, Vastappen, at that same corner, bailed so many times and went across,

just knowing that instinct of, yeah, that doesn't feel right. That doesn't feel great. He's learned his lesson. I'm going to go straight on. Yeah, it's just not worth it, is it? No. That's one of the only real bailouts and maybe coming out the tunnel as well where you can just get out of it.

Turn 1 as well, I suppose, but that gives you an awkward 180 spin that I think we saw Magnuson do at one point in free practice as well. There's a question from Rus reports F1. Could you guys see a signs win this Sunday? No, I mean, there is still a chance for sure. I think confidence might have been knocked a little bit by having that crash. because, you know, of course, he's got free practice three to kind of wind that confidence back up again tomorrow before we go into Quali.

But I don't know. I feel as though Charlotte Clare has something in the tank. If Ferrari genuinely do have a pole position worthy car, then it will probably be Charl. But that's coming from someone that called him biggest flop. So I don't know what kind of powers I'm trying to use here. No, Charles will have that extra speed in qualifying. It's just how much will he push it?

Will there be a thing in the back of his mind? you know he's going for a third pole in a row which is crazy in monaco um quite quite something and did the same in baku he's a he is an absolute legend at street circuits in qualifying um so so good so yeah um fair play to science he has been on the pace a lot a lot more to shal but um we'll see but I would expect Charles to be quicker when it comes to the actual, you know, Q3. The big boy lap, as they call it. That's going to be very juicy when that happens.

And you're going to be here in Monaco to experience it all. I can't wait. I think your grin is going to be about as big as when I see Charle-Cler. Question from Juan Pablo SF1. We actually saw Juan Pablo Montoya today walking into the panic, which was quite cool. Would one lap shoot down qualifying, improve qualifying in Monaco, or make it worse.

I love the current qualifying format for Monaco, but there is a lot of traffic and prevents drivers setting amazing laps. Look, I'll say it once, I'll say it a thousand times. Q1, Q2, be as you are. You know, you have the traffic, you have the chaos, you have the, oh, we haven't gone out of the way, blah blah, blah, blah. And that sort of stuff.

Q3, one lap, shoot out. I don't want any more debate. It is that. That is the best format. No one else's opinion matters. unless it's the same one as mine. The thing is though, Monaco, no, I do, I would like,

I would like it, but then there is part of me that's like, it is that jeopardy, but then when it does happen and someone crashes, it is really annoying, because you know that, even though I love Monaco,

the race is rarely good, and that the final few minutes of Q3 is the bit of the weekend. It's the best bit of the weekend. In my opinion, it's one of the best like bits of the Formula One calendar because it's drivers going absolutely you know flat out on a crazy circuit where one little mistake costs everything and it is such a shame when that little bit gets taken away and people can't finish their laps so if you had

you know one lap qualifying you'd still get that excitement of whoever goes out last because there, you know, you'd imagine what it would be was the person quickest in Q2. They'd go out last. So it's like, they're quickest. Can they do it now? Can they deliver? I think it'd be good. Very juicy.

FIA, F1. I hope you're taking notes because we got this. And question from Jones underscore RF873. Could Fernando actually win? Please allow him to, says at the end of that one. I don't think it's really about us allowing them. Is that why you got your hoodie on? I've got my hoodie on.

It was a lovely gift that we received today. So I thought I'd whack it on for the pod, see what happens. There's so many powers being moved around here. I'm not sure what's going to come true. But if all of them are being used, perhaps one of them will. And then I'm powerful. We've interviewed, well, we've done a video with both Ferrari drivers. So they're cursed.

Not this weekend. Not this weekend, but it's obviously the next event with Red Bull. So yeah, Astor Martin might be the only kind of top team that are kind of scot-free. No, because I said biggest surprise, pole position and the win for Fernando Alonzo. So we will see. It's going to be fascinating. But I think there is definitely a chance. Fernando Alonzo looked really quick.

I also want to shout out Lando Norris. Had an amazing first two practice sessions. He's, of course, moved to Monaco. And it's like his backyard now. So he did a really good job, especially in FP2, I think. So there could be a little nice McLaren, maybe fifth or sixth place. We don't know. We still don't know where Mercedes are really stacking up.

in all this as well. Because Hamilton looked really quick at the start of free practice one and Tommy was like, oh my God, I've called, I've said biggest flop and Mercedes are going to win. They've bolted the side pods on and it's a rocket ship. Oh my God. And then they were what, sixth and ninth? Yeah, it wasn't where it seemed to be heading at the start.

No. Okay, Mercedes, come on. But no, we'll see where it all stacks up. I'm sure they're doing a lot of learning. You know, this is not necessarily bolt it on and win the Monaco Grand Prix. they're just trying to see they're trying to see if it's better

than the no side pot approach which of course they're hoping for. So yeah, but Lando, I think he could be in for a good result if he smash his qualifying. He's good at Monaco. Let's not forget. Well, he lapped Daniel Ricardo here

a couple of years ago. Got a podium as well. So yeah, he's very good around here. It is one of those tracks where you do have certain drivers that can really like hook it up and put in a good performance, so I just can't wait for qualifying.

It's such a exciting moment. It is race day. It's genuinely race day tomorrow in a lot of regards because it's more than 50% qualifying tomorrow. I can't personally wait to see how that all unfolds. Now, we're going to go into a little bit of a chat about our Monaco Grand Prix experience. So if, well, for Friday, anyway,

we haven't done Saturday and Sunday because it hasn't happened yet. But to kind of sum up what happened. today for us as two plebs in Monaco. That could be a series, you know, two plebs in Monaco or two plebs in next. Good. Yeah. I don't even know where to start. We got a boat.

We got a boat from the hotel, right? So there's a little dock outside by the beach where a Red Bull boat was there. So we docked that, got on the boat, whatever you call it. I'm not a boat person. And then it took us to the Red Bull Energy Station, which is just outside the paddock. that was insane in itself just to be coming in a boat

and seeing all of these massive super yachts all around one of them had an F40 on it like unbelievable I mean that's a flex in itself isn't it surreal so that was I was happy to just go home then to be honest I was a lovely little boat ride

this is amazing yeah so we arrived at the the rebel energy station which where we were basically put for most of the day we can obviously go and have a look at the grandstand as you say just before Raskassas, which was amazing, how close we could get to the cars. Obviously, we couldn't touch them, but it felt like we almost could.

I don't think there's, I mean, I can't think, there's not much more room to actually gain in terms of getting close to a car, but I can't think of anywhere else in the world. You can get as close to that. Absolutely not. Not in a, not on a racetrack. You know, because other circuits are an amazing experience,

but a lot of the time you're set back from runoff area or in a grandstand and whatever, but on my word, because we have to walk past Raskast, don't we, to get to our grandstand. And, oh, my, it's weird because they try and shoe you along because they don't want you to, like, stop. But it's breathtaking, seeing the car through there. So quick. I can't, like, put into words how quick those cars look into a corner that you just feel like is so slow.

And they should be cruising through, and they just fly into it. Yeah, they're on rails. I think with how heavy the cars are as well, it helps them maybe be planted in those slowest corners. But fascinating to see all of that. And I think, look, I haven't even seen qualifying, so that's happening tomorrow and Sunday the race. But I will gladly say that being here, seeing the cars, having the opportunity to sit in like the Grandstown, for example, near Raskas, that Monaco absolutely deserves to stay on the calendar. It is a completely different experience, I will say, watching on television, to being here, because when you actually hear, you can really truly respect the craziness of these drivers

to go as fast as they are around here. And the fact that this circuit is even here. Yeah. How are they hosting a Grand Prix here? Yeah. It's mad. You can just, even when we were sort of like going back and you could hear the car. just around the city.

Same with yesterday when we could hear F3 practice. They're just like twisting in and out of all these it's just absolutely unbelievable.

And how narrow as well. When we had a very brief look around Casino Square you're just like how the hell are they going 100,

120, whatever it is through that section. That's why they can't overtake. Well yeah. And look, it's a fascinating

venue. And I think if you do ever get the chance to come to Monaco to see the race at any point in your life, I think it will genuinely change the perception, not necessarily of the spectacle of, oh, it's going to be a great race, because it's probably not going to be a great race.

But I think it gives you that level of, okay, I can see why it's on the calendar. I think we said, didn't we, that there's a lot of talk of Las Vegas or Miami one day, maybe even replacing Monaco, like, has that, have they replaced Monaco as like the kind of, you know, fancy race? it would never have the history of this track and the kind of experience of it.

It's like nothing else. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we felt out of place the entire time we've been here. But, yeah, it's been so, so special. I think we should mention we saw Daniel Ricardo very briefly today. Had a little meet and greet with him, which was amazing. It was great to see him after so long since we last. filmed with him a few years ago and we managed to go down the pits.

We did, yeah. We went into the pits just before. Crazy. Just before practice, we had a little dip in the Red Bull garage. We went up the stairs where the Red Bull garage is into this room and Checo, Sergio Perez was just walking around the room. I was like, oh, good afternoon, sir. Also, it really puts into perspective how even more crazy the circuit is because everything's

tiny like the going into that pit lane you're like they've really crammed this in here haven't they um but yeah i just still pinching myself that we're here um and what i would say is uh and i'm sure you're going to say this as well i'll never tire of the messages you guys are sending that you kind of understand how much we appreciate this and don't take it for granted because you know we we never want this to be just like the normal and we are the like I said yesterday that the fans that are just like oh my god this is crazy so it's really nice that you guys have messaged and said you know you guys um you know we'll feel like we're on this journey with you and get to and kind of it's nice to see us doing it and see sort of real Formula One fans have a really cool experience because yeah it definitely was

when we're watching particularly like when we got to the grandson and watched a bit of the cars I was like this sport is like people can say that we like act up to it but like it's not we absolutely love it and I was just like this is the best sport in the world I was just like this is amazing

I was just loving it I was just like this is the best and that wasn't just the heat stroke talking was it Tommy had a massive headache before coming on doing this podcast but it's very warm yeah to echo what Tommy said

I've been blown away by the by the Instagram messages especially because that's where we've been posting a lot of our content if you want to see more of it over the next few days it's Matty P1 and Tommy P1 on Instagram but we've been posting videos I posted a video of us just arriving at the energy station and we would we I'm not often speechless because it's literally my job not to be speechless yeah but it was just kind of soaking up that atmosphere soaking up the fact that we were there and it was it was almost like a mum dad I've made it yeah it's like how have we got here in such a short

time as well. So, you know, we probably sound like a broken record. You probably don't want to hear us thanking you every single time. But, yeah, this is such a special experience. People have been speaking to me, whether it's on this trip or, you know, people that work in the paddock, whatever, go, oh, you know, how have you been enjoying it? And I'm just there like, it's absolutely amazing. You've run out of superlatives to kind of talk about it. Yeah. It's like, yeah, wow overload. A big wow, big wow. So I think that about sums up our experiences from Friday.

Tommy, what are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are it's the best day of the F1 calendar tomorrow. And I can't wait to not just watch it because I always love this day, but to be there as well, it's going to be amazing. And yeah, I think it's probably the most unpredictable qualified. of the year so far as well. Fingers crossed. Best day of the year, I would say Sunday at Sao Paulo.

But I think Saturday at Monaco is certainly up there. We can't wait to bring you along with the journey again. Follow us on our socials, Tommy P1 and Matty P1 and we'll give you more Instagram content if you want to see it. And we will see you tomorrow, where we recap qualifying from this hotel room. Hopefully the video hasn't looked that bad. And on audio...

I really hope I've pressed record. If you haven't pressed record, I'm going to throw you out of this window. Bye! Hopefully we are saying bye to our recording, because if we're not, I'm going to kill you. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.