P1 with Matt and Tommy - Why Mercedes have written off 2023 ALREADY

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Bahrain was a painful race for Mercedes who have admitted after just one race that they need to go back to the drawing board. Is it game over for another season already?HUGE NEWS! You can sign up for presale tickets for our first London live show, at Leicester Square Theatre on 6th April! Sign up here to get early access to tickets on Tuesday 14th March, 24hrs before tickets go on general sale.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. Welcome along, everybody, to a Mercedes podcast. Mainly, we are going to talk about general F1 news that's been going on, but the biggest news that we need to discuss is Mercedes troubles and some things that have been said by both of their drivers, which if you are a Mercedes fan, if you love the Silver Arrow's, you might not want to be listening too much because it seems as though

another year of pain is on its way. Who would have thought we'd be saying that after one race of 2023, that, yeah, another race of pain, another season of pain, who would have thought that was going to be the case when the new regs came in, all saying, oh, Mercedes will dominate,

and here we are, another season all pretty much written off already. Yeah, and we absolutely did not record a podcast and video where I was arguing why Mercedes will win the 2023 world title. Thankfully, unreleased and we'll never see the light of day

and therefore it never happened. I don't even know why I brought it up, but I thought I'd let you know. We now move to our big news. We have got enormous news. This is one of them, I cannot believe after a month that we're saying this,

but this is something I'm actually really excited about. And I'm not going to tease you anymore. we are doing our first ever P1 Live podcast. That is right. On the 6th of April, 2023, so not long away, in Leicester Square Theatre in London. In a theatre. Madness. What is going on?

How is this possible? So it starts at 9.30pm, so there's no excuses that you're at work, okay? How it's going to work. The tickets for the show are going to be on sale from Wednesday, the 15th, March at 9 a.m. GMT. However, you can access pre-sale tickets from 9 a.m. on the Tuesday, the 14th of March. All you have to do is head to the presale link, which you can find in the episode description, and sign up right now. Then you'll get emailed presale access on the Tuesday morning. And you can see us in real life. You can help me do the P-1, podcast intro and everything.

It's going to be mad. It's going to be mad. I can't, you know, I used to And I still do love musical theatre and stuff like that. And to even just be like, having a show in a theatre is absolute madness. And for everyone listening and watching, I will have to hold Tommy's hand when we come out on stage. Because it's a lot for us, isn't it? You know, we need to stay together. Yeah. It's mad.

I mean, who would have thought six, seven years ago when we recorded that awful pilot in our old venture, where we didn't know each other and we sat in that. room that a few years later we would be in Leicester Square Theatre doing a podcast. Absolutely madness. I can't believe it's happening. I know. Excited whilst also, oh my God. So it'll be obviously, you know, it's Lester Square 3 or 2. It's not, it's not Wembley Arena. So fingers crossed, we sell out all the tickets. And so be sure to sign up to that pre-sell link if you are interested because fingers crossed, we will sell out. But who knows, maybe three people will turn up. Either or, we hope you come along, because it's going to be good fun.

We'll get to meet all of you. Have a bit of fun. It's going to be great. So, yeah, keep an eye out for that and go and sign up to the pre-sell link right now. Okay, moving on now, back to Formula One and Mercedes. Tough year. It's kind of a resounding opinion right now that Mercedes have had their first round of the season. They were beaten on pace by Red Bull, Ferrari, Aston Martin.

Aston Martin have the same engine as them. But they have a different concept. You know what concept they have? The Red Bull concept. Dan Fallow's coming in with his knowledge. As much as, you know, he didn't take all of the paperwork with him. You can't unsee what you've already seen. You know what I mean?

So it was a tactical decision from Aston Martin to do that. And it's working an absolute treat. I feel like almost with Fernando Alonzo's slightly slow start to the race with Lance Stroll giving him a, as I said in our funniest tweets video, a rear pounding. It kind of almost put them on the back foot slightly. And I feel as though the Aston Martin actually was a lot quicker than maybe even suggested with Alonzo being in third and 38 seconds off the pace. So Mercedes have to change what they're doing.

It's not working. And 90% of you on our Twitter poll, Matt P1, Tommy, said that you don't think they're going to win the Constructors' Championship. That's big. One race, one race, 90% of people think it's over for Mercedes already. This is the team that have won eight world titles. What on earth is going on? But I'm in agreement with them.

I just can't see it. And I never thought I'd say that about Mercedes. I know there's still 22 races to go, but they've started this new season with the wrong concept again. and you just can't see them turning it around. Last year we were, I think last year, because of them being dominant for so many years, there was always that bit in the back of our mind.

And yes, they did win races in the end, but they definitely weren't the best car. I think the first few races were still like, oh, Mercedes would be the dominant force or at least challenging for the title by the end of it. And they weren't really. And I mean, 50 seconds off Red Bull in the first race pain. It certainly is, and it's not as if it's just us going, oh, Mercedes needs to change something.

We've heard something from every single key figure, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and Toto Wolf to suggest that this ain't working. They tried it. First round of the season, it has not worked. So, for example, Toto Wolf, after qualifying, said they were essentially going to bin off this concept and try something new. Mega versus Primus has come in with, do you think Mercedes made a mistake not going with the concept Red Bull introduced. It's a difficult one, isn't it? It's one of those that on one hand, you're building something with a new foundation, a new concept, something that no one else is doing, and they're not stupid. They clearly see in the data somewhere that there is something to extract out of the concept that they are currently using. However, the other

nine teams have gone a different direction. And that's a lot of people. That's a lot of engineers that have all gone, yeah, nah, not the Mercedes way. We're going to go the Red Bull and everyone else's way. So obviously they made a mistake because they've taken a step backwards. But it almost feels as though they've hit a ceiling with last year, end of last year, they were doing really well. They were challenging. They won a race with George Russell. It was clearly going in the right direction. But everyone else, with the other concept has taken a step forward from where they were last year,

whereas Mercedes seems to not really have made any progress. And it's weird as well, because you thought the main problem with the Mercedes was the porpoising. And Lewis Hamilton's come out and said, finally, I've done a race where my teeth aren't rattling and it's been absolutely horrible to drive. But the problem is it's slow. And I thought as soon as they got the porpoising issue right,

they'd be at least in the mix or closer, not 50 seconds behind Red Bull and slower than Aston Martin. To answer the question is one of those things where it's very easy in hindsight to go, oh, well, they've done the wrong thing. And they knew it was a risk. They said it themselves. I think we said it on our car launch podcast with Mercedes, because I think Toto even said, you know,

we're doing this project. And if it doesn't work. Is that Toto? Is that Toto? about to do you right out. Shut up, Tommy. This is the thing. If it doesn't work, they look stupid.

If it does work, they look like geniuses. And just to play sort of, it's very easy in hindsight to go, I'll just copy the Red Bull. But what I would say is Aston Martin, have a great car this year by copying the Red Bull. However, that is going to get you podiums. and they're not going to win the title by copying Red Bull because they're always going to be a step behind. You know, copying a car, you can copy it to a point and maybe it's just the philosophy they need to do.

But if you're copying another car, you're always going to be that step behind and not beat them. You'll get great results. As to mine, I'm probably going to pick up a win. But you need something unique and radical to win the championship. I mean, Red Bull, there's a reason why everyone's got to. in their car and they're a step ahead. And if Mercedes had done it and it was right, we'd now have a grid of loads of cars with no side pods.

But the problem is, it's not been the right thing. And now the data seems to have shown that they can't really go any further with this concept and it's not going to give them the results they want. I believe they were damned if they did, damned if they didn't really, because their concept, as I said, they've made progress last year. why wouldn't they at least try internet this year and see if it works? If they brought a new concept, well, new concept, as in everybody else's concept, to Bahrain, it's very unlikely that they're going to come out the blocks firing anyway,

because they're a step behind, as you say. Copying a car, I think that later down the line, obviously when they kind of go with the flow of everybody else, they're of course going to make steps. They're Mercedes. They've got an enormous operation behind them. I fully believe that even if they do have Red Bull's concepts, they could build a car eventually that would beat Red Bull because they're Mercedes.

You can't write them off. But as you say, in the short term, you're always going to be a step behind. So Mercedes, maybe you could call it slightly stubborn. Maybe you could call it, you know, they didn't want to throw the towel in and admit that the concept that they've gone for actually doesn't work. Whatever it might be, yes, I think it was a mistake.

But I think it was a mistake for last year and them going with the concept and really just kind of doubling down and saying, no, no, no, we're going to go the whole year this year and we're going to try and make it work. But, you know, this is the name of the game, that they've made a mistake. But the problem is they pay the price of it for more than one season because of how radically different they've gone. Yeah, and they were talking the talk. I know the social media admin doesn't have anything to do with how good the car's going to be. What do you mean?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. F1 Twitter. Oh, no, sorry. Why are you tweeting you should be building the car? The amount of things that I've seen of people on Twitter having a go at the admin saying, well, shouldn't you not be making memes and actually be getting better pace? Yeah, but those memes where, you know,

the rest of the grid aren't ready for the W14 and the reality is slower than Aston Martin. Well, the one that I love the most is Toto Wolf when he was like, everyone's going to have a target on their backs next year. Well, no, no, but realistically it was true because everyone was in front of them. So there was a lot of targets on their backs.

Yeah. Sorry, Mercedes fans, but it is what it is. So yeah, moving on now, George Russell, as I mentioned, every single key figure seems to have said something that's basically binning off Mercedes chances. George Russell said this. Red Bull has got this championship sewn up. I don't think anyone is going to be fighting with them this year. I expect they should win every single race this season.

that is my bet. George, we're trying, we're trying to keep the hype up for this season. And you're out here, and I think that's as well, that's George's way of, like, showing his extreme frustration. He's not a driver, I think,

that will be like, apart from if he crashes with Bottas, but apart from that, you know, I don't think he's one of those that would come out in the media and say that, but that's the way that I think he expresses

how really disappointed he is. You know, he joins Mercedes, and they're not dominating all of a sudden. Like, that's just George, Russell Luck, but he has got a win. So congrats to him for that. But just George, please, for the love of God, give us some hope. You're at Mercedes.

But to be fair, realistically, everything that we've seen from Bahrain suggests what George is saying is true, as much as we would love, you know, as Ferrari fans, Mercedes fans, I mean, sorry, McLaren fans, I put you in the top four there. It's, it's, is it any top four anymore? But anyway, I'm just gutted. I am George Russell right now. Yeah, it's true. I mean, since we did our race review, there's also, yeah, we always get these team radios that come out.

And it sounds like Max's engineer was even kind of being like slow down during the race. And he wasn't even pushing and still beat the entire field other than his teammate by 40 odd seconds. So it's a worrying time. but you've just got to laugh that Mercedes and Red Bull, whichever of those two teams dominating, it's been the same. There's that famous Hamilton quote of Sebastian Vessel domination will bore fans.

And then suddenly Mercedes become the dominant team. And then you've got Horner going, oh, we need to change the rules because Mercedes is dominating. It's bad for Formula One. And then Red Bulls start dominating and, you know, George Russell going, and this is boring, blah, blah, like it's not going to be a good season. And they're as bad as each other, let's be honest.

Oh, yeah, if you're not winning. You're not winning. And this is why they're the two most dominant teams, but they're always going to, when you're dominating, you're always going to be that person going, oh, no, the other teams can catch up. Yeah, definitely.

And when you're the team losing, you're going to be like, well, this is rubbish. And that's exactly what has happened this year We've had basically a complete roll reversal from Mercedes and Red Bull. Like Mercedes is the one now trying to catch up and can't get seemingly anywhere near the Red Bull. And that's without them even trying. Yeah, exactly. They weren't even pushing.

They're literally arguing with Max to slow down because he was going seven-tenths too quickly. And yeah, it's fine. Okay, we're still here. We've got 22 more races to go. I was excited. I am still excited for this season. You got Saudi Arabia coming up next. Crazy race.

Could just be Bahrain. You never know. Please. Okay, next question. At Arta underscore S underscore V. Do you think that maybe Toto Wolf should be replaced? Seems like he is struggling a lot under the new regulations, and it is not clear if he has what it takes to get Mercedes out of this crisis.

I think this is incredibly hard. and a bit jumping the gun, I would say, for Toto Wolf's future at the team. I mean, realistically, no one's ousting him out of that spot anyway because of how many ties he has with Mercedes. But no, I don't think he should be replaced. I think it very much is a test of a different side of his character, having to build a team back up from winning all the time. You know, they get so used to winning, that's easy. You know, when the car's dominating and the team are all happy and Larry, yeah, that's great. But it's now, where I think to be fair,

some of his leadership skills could be improved slightly when you've got him coming over the radio apologising to Hamilton for him driving an S-box and all of this sort of stuff. Got to think of the team morale as well. Those are the people that build the car and develop the car at the end of the day.

But I don't think Toto Wolf should be replaced by any stretch of the imagination. I think a shake-up like that would only harm Mercedes. And look, he's won a lot. Eight Constructors' titles, seven drivers' titles. in the last 10 years.

He's allowed a few more years. Yeah, this is one thing that Toto Wolf himself will not want to hear, and I know he's a big fan of this podcast, no, I'm joking. Definitely won't listen to this, but he needs to kind of learn from his arch nemesis, Christian Horner, and what that whole situation was, because it's very easy for, you know, Horner's done the same, right? He was dominating Formula One, if not as long as Mercedes, but for four years. Then Mercedes were dominating.

And it could have been quite easy to go, you know, get Horner out. Red Bull can't catch Mercedes. They're useless. And he had, you know, eight years, seven years, whatever it was of pain, not being able to get that championship. And now look at Red Bull. So he has turned it around. And I think it's a ridiculous suggestion. And I hope we don't go down this kind of football.

mentality where the second there's a problem it's like sack the manager set you know get the team principal out because sorry Ferrari but you know they're going through um team principals very quickly uh you know they've gone through loads and if you think of every team that has won the world title since 2010 it is it is red bull and mercedes it's toto wolf and christian horner the only two team principals have won a title since 2010. Yeah, but get them out. Get them out. You know what I mean?

They're clearly rubbish. But are they the two? Yeah. Are they not the two longest serving team principals? Yeah, they must be. Yeah. And, you know, Christian Horner's been there since the very start. Red Bull have never had anyone but Christian Horner as team principal.

And they've won many titles and they've maybe taken a step back. but now they're winning again. So it just shows that that's not the answer. And also as well, any kind of football mentality just doesn't apply to Formula One either because I think a manager genuinely does have a really big impact on how a football team performs.

It's a lot less impactful someone like a figurehead like Toto Wolf or Christian Horner. Yeah, they can shape and mold the team, but they don't have a direct impact necessarily of how quick the car might be every year. and shaking something like that up that they're just trying to keep 600, 800 people, however many people they've got in their operation together,

having a shakeup like that isn't the way to go unless it is going diabolically. So you might question why Ferrari changed their team principle to Fred. And quite clearly you can see just getting Bonotto out does not make the Ferrari finish races because Bonotto isn't the one on a bicycle on the pit wall, giving energy to the Ferrari. That's not how it works.

So yeah. Well, the strategy, right? Exactly. The strategy, the Ferrari strategy team is not the team principal. And that's, I guess, more if you do want to compare it to football, that's something they can control is the strategy like a football manager does and how a game plays. But they're not going to, yeah, like you say,

sacking a manager or team principles is not going to, you know, say Alpha Tauri, get rid of Franz Tost and replace him with Christian Horner, they're not going to suddenly win the world championship, are they? It's just not going to happen. As much as I'm, you know, Fred all the way, let's go. I don't think his impact can be really felt after the first race of the season. Actually, to be fair, whilst speaking of Ferrari, some bad news.

The senior member of their technical team, David Sanchez, has reportedly resigned and is going to move to a rival team. It just gets better, really, for Ferrari, doesn't it? You know, they're just sacking it off. They don't like, it's one, it's a key person for sure, but it's not the end of the world. And some Ferrari fans might be like, hey, a change is what we need. And I might be one of those Ferrari fans that's like, look,

it couldn't get really much worse at this stage as we're peddling backwards by the looks of things as the red cars. But yeah, I thought I'd mention that little bit of news. Yeah, it's not something I'm going to sit here and pretend I know everything about David Sanchez and, you know. What do you mean, Tommy? You're the F1 encyclopedia. But for me, I guess my first thoughts on it, just seeing it from an outside perspective,

is it's again more instability of Ferrari. And going back to that point about the only two teams winning the world title since 2010 is Red Bull and Mercedes. And it don't seem to be having these huge changes constantly. You look at that Red Bull. they've always had Adrian Newee, for example. And they're not making these massive changes, whereas Ferrari, it certainly feels like they kind of have rebuilds

every three or four years and go, oh, this isn't working, scrap the whole thing, try again. And they still don't win a title. Yeah, it's not been that long, is it, since their last driver's title? Oh, wait, yes, it has. Go back to Mercedes as much as I'd love to, actually know, I wouldn't like to talk about Ferrari. Let's go back to Mercedes.

and the big quote, the massive quote, quote, quote, that's been flying around is something that Hamilton said to the BBC checkered flag podcast after the Barreing Grand Prix. He said, last year, I told them the issues that are with the car. I've driven so many cars in my life. So I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn't need. And I think it's really about accountability. It's about owning up and saying, yeah, you know what? We didn't listen to you.

It's not where it needs to be and we've got to work. Oh, God, that's the first round of the season. And Hamilton's popping off at Mercedes. I can understand his frustration. He's used to Mercedes developing a car that is right at the front of the field. And probably as well, there's probably a little bit of a simmering of course, 2021 Abu Dhabi, not winning that world title. He's so eager to be fighting at the front.

that I can understand why he's saying that, but it's not good for anyone. It's not good for the team. It's not good for, as I say, morale and so on. It's, yeah, I mean, the first round of the season, usually it would be like, oh, well, you know, we've got a bit of work to do, you know, move forward. But to kind of go, oh, they didn't listen to me.

It's quite a big statement, I would say, for him to make so early on in the 2023 campaign. Yeah, he did his usual kind of, we win and lose together, come on team, we've got this on the post race radio and things like that. But I think this quote was just a little bit of, he's clearly tried to hold back,

you know, the full quote. He kind of goes into the fact that we can sort this and his usual kind of nice motivating quotes that has made, you know, to push the team to the success that they've had. But I think just this little quote that's kind of come out is a bit of frustration from Hamilton that he's not where he wants to be. And it's even worse for him that, you know, he, everything that happened in Abu Dhabi,

and he wants to get that eighth before he retires, but he knows that he's not got forever in the sport now. It's not like a George Russell where, I mean, even if you think George Russell is getting frustrated and he's got his whole career ahead of him, think what it's like for Lewis Hamilton. and I know some people go, oh, boo-hoo, you've only got seven world titles and 103 race wins. But it's that fight that is why he's there in the first place. He doesn't want to finish fifth. He's not there to finish fifth. He doesn't want to be scald on by Fernando Alonzo either into turn 10.

That would have definitely hurt. However much he could be like, oh, it was great to, you know, race other cars again and stuff. Deep down, you would much rather have that dominant car. And this is the thing as well, right? that quote gives you an insight as to actually, you know, kind of how it really is feeling. All of this, oh, we win and lose together and something like that. That's just PR stuff as much as, you know,

you have to say it because you can't just be going out in the media, slagging your team off. But that kind of, you know, gives you that human element of, yeah, like there are frustrations here. Mercedes didn't listen to me. I don't think there was anything that Mercedes kind of went back. There wasn't nothing else really to kind of support that quote apart from that from Hamilton.

but yeah, I guess that's the toss-up, isn't it? You listen to the driver feedback, but then you've got the actual technical engineers working on the CFD and the wind tunnels and stuff that clearly believed in other direction. So that kind of shows that maybe they're not working all in harmony at the moment either. Yeah, it's a lot of frustration across everyone.

Like you say, we've had these quotes from, it's not just one driver, it's George getting annoyed, Hamilton getting annoyed. Toto himself. getting annoyed and admitting that this isn't working. And he said that it's time for radical changes. And that's clearly what they need because they certainly need a radical change

to catch Red Bull at the moment. It'd be a big upgrade, wouldn't it, if they're changing their concept mid-season. But it does seem like they've made that decision in round one. There's no dilly-dallying. There's no, oh, we'll give it a few more races. It genuinely seems like as soon as they possibly can, they will change the car.

And fingers crossed for you Mercedes fans, it takes you forward. rather than backwards, but there's no guarantees. So yeah, we will see on that one. Next question, halo of thoughts. Interested to hear your thought on the rumours dropped today about Lewis considering a move to Ferrari next year if Mercedes aren't competitive this year.

Look, I'm not saying never say never to this. I can see Hamilton, if he genuinely is falling out with this team or this slight little bits of animosity and arguments and disagreements coming up, that he might just think, hey, look, in the last few years, tick off driving for Ferrari,

that's a pretty awesome thing to do. As much as Ferrari is a bit of a meme and all they break down, there is still that charm of driving for Ferrari. So I don't think it's likely. I think it's a massive risk, especially when you look at where Ferrari currently are, they're not fighting with Red Bull.

Would he move to Ferrari and considering the instability we've just spoken about as well. I would say it's unlikely, but I don't think it's impossible. He's not there to finish fifth, but he might be there to maybe be third and break down. Ouch.

Yeah. This quote has come from Simon Laysenby and with the greatest respect to Simon Laysenby. It's just him based on nothing going, oh, I could see Hamilton going to, I'd love it one day if we got to the point where we could just say stuff like, I reckon Hamilton might go to Williams

and then all these clickbait. Tom Bellingham, the co-founder. All these clickbait websites have the title that's Hamilton Williams move on the card, question mark, and then right at the bottom, it's like Tom Bellingham said this on the P1 podcast. Tom Belliam says a lot of things on the P1 podcast. A lot of washed opinions.

But yeah, it's basically simulatimates me just saying, this could happen. And I'd love to see Hamilton in a, Ferrari at some point. I personally don't see it happening. I feel like he's just Mercedes. I just feel like he will end his career with Mercedes. I'd love to see him go to Ferrari just because it would be a cool career move.

You never know. But his age and I feel like realistically, this is a tough question. Would you rather be at Ferrari or Mercedes right now? Ferrari. You reckon? Yeah, I think Ferrari. Yeah, it's a tough one.

Because it does seem as though Mercedes, you know, we've spoken about the two different concepts. They're not completely clear as to what they want to be doing with this car and how long is it actually going to take until they get to grips with it. And do you think Hamilton going into like a Ferrari would be, he'd get not saying he's not motivated, but it might re-energize him. Ferrari to be like, okay, we've got a seven-time world champion.

in here and he kind of, you know, tries to whip him into shape. I think we've had this conversation before of could, could a driver like Lewis Hamilton transform Ferrari? And it'd be fascinating to see, I just think it's a bit of a part. Yeah, it is a dream. I think we both love to see it. I think a lot of people would want to see it just as a, oh, I wonder what would happen sort of thing.

Because I think a driver like Hamilton, we said it as well about Vastappen. Maybe one of those drivers going into Ferrari is what they need, as you say. and they actually don't put hard tires on in Hungary and they do pit under the safety car and Silverstone. Like, you know, maybe that's what they need, but I don't think it's going to happen. Claire's too nice. And imagine how savage sometimes Hamilton's quotes are about Mercedes.

Imagine what they'd be like at Ferrari if they weren't. Yeah. Yeah. Be like, get your asses in to get nice. To be fair, would Ferrari want that? I don't know. And be paying a lot of money to have Hamilton in their team. So we've covered the Ferrari news with David Sanchez.

And the only final thing that we kind of wanted to mention, because that's pretty much the Mercedes stuff wrapped up, was the Lance Stroll video that was posted of his recovery. We spoke about it on our Twitch stream at P1 Tommy, when we celebrated one month of us being in the sphere. And it was a lovely little Twitch stream full of technical issues, but we won't talk about them. But no, that video that Lance Stroll posted was really quite insightful,

I think and really showed maybe that, or at least shut up the haters and the doubters. And look, I think we've both doubted strolls motivation quite a few times. But to see that, to see the fact that he genuinely put in all of his effort to try and get back in the car for round one was, yeah, was really, really cool to see. So fair play to Luntz. Yeah, he's been one of those drivers, doesn't he? Where there's been certain post-race interviews. And yeah, we have, I'm willing to accept that I have criticized him going to, you even, want to be a Formula One driver here because you look miserable.

And we've questioned whether the fact that the fact that he can never be fired, is that a good thing for him? Because if he performs badly, you know, where's the motivation? But I think that video silenced any doubt that he's motivated because that looked like an absolutely insane recovery, you know, sticking his hand in ice baths and then constantly just working away. and such a short period of time to get in the car. I mean, from basically saying that he had broken wrists,

I thought he's missing the first three races here at least. And then for him to be in the car and getting a great result as well, fair play to him. It's amazing what Fernando Alonzo going fast in testing can do to one's motivation. I did see some people say, you know, if that Aston is two seconds slower, is he just chilling in the hospital bed? But I don't think that's quite fair.

We cut with that's just hypothetical, isn't it? But yeah, well done, Lance. Good work. Tommy, final thoughts, please? Final thoughts are, yeah, one month yesterday, since we started P1's port. We've said it so many times is incredible. Can't believe we're going to do a live show.

Yeah, so we'll put it on social media. We'll announce it on social media. We'll also put it, as I say, in the episode description if you're listening on audio to sign up, and then you'll get that email for presale on the Tuesday next week. So that's very exciting. My final thoughts are, sorry Mercedes fans. It does seem like it could be a struggle.

But look, only one race. We might well just be jumping the gun here. And they are going to whack on a Red Bull side pod. And all of a sudden, they're going to be challenging for the world title. But 90% disagree with that. So anyway, we'll have to wait and see Saudi Arabia up next weekend. Looking forward to that. No, I'm not.

It's going to be a Red Bull domination. But we'll be live on Twitch, Matt Pee, on Tommy. As always, for next weekend's action. and we'll probably be live before then as well, if any F1 News breaks. That is it. Thank you so much for watching or listening. Bye! Bye!

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