The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Imola GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: May 18, 2024

Sam & Ben are on hand to review a thrilling qualifying session at Imola where Max Verstappen narrowly took pole position. The guys give their thoughts on the close challenges of McLaren and Ferrari, Perez's Q2 elimination, and a tough day for Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes, historic race reviews & more! JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: SIGN UP & create your team, and JOIN our league (join code: C3PHEQHPU04) BUY our Merch SEND us something! We have a brand new PO box - address: Late Braking Podcast, PO Box 821, TRURO TR1 9PE EMAIL us at [e-mail] & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, as we today review the Imala qualifying that we've just witnessed where Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of the two McLaren drivers, Piastri second, Lando Norris, 3rd, pending a potential penalty to Oscar Piastri that we don't yet know about. And the two Ferraris in fourth and fifth.

That was exciting, wasn't it, Sam? That was genuinely a good qualifying. I know there's lots of kind of eye rolls of, oh, Max Verstappen's poll again. Was it eight in a row he's secured now? I think it's equal to Senna, now is the all-time record. But you know what? Three cars, less than a tenth away from each other, and Imola once again delivers.

It's one of those tracks, on a Saturday at least, It is sublime to watch a Formula One car chuck itself around there and those upgrades that they've made to the track where we've got gravel on literally every runoff zone they are punishing drivers when they make mistakes even those like Fernando Alonso struggling to get around a track

where he was on the front row 20 years ago still struggles when it comes to that gravel area so you know what? I love it. It's kind of a risk it all and you might get the reward but you might also find yourself scrambling around in a sandpit and if a sun it happened for others it didn't. Max Verstappen takes that poll, but less than a tenth away, both McLarence. It feels close. I've always said, and the absent Harry often says this as well, that I personally,

I don't care who gets pole position, I don't care who takes race wins. Max Verstappen could take every single pole position for the rest of this season, and they could be like this and it would be entertaining, because we didn't know. Vastappen had to properly bring out the best of that car in Q3 in order to get that pole position. And if he didn't, he would not have had pole position. His teammate is evidence of that, who didn't even make it through to that session. I think the most telling thing actually came right

at the very end of the session. As soon as Max Verstappen got pole position, nearly every time he's had pole position so far this year, obviously over the radio, GP comes across, well, on Max, that's poll, and his reaction will be something along the lines of great effort guys, thank you very much, or what happened to everyone else,

was the case in Miami. But it's generally quite, I don't want to say subdued, but he kind of knows it's always expected. Yeah, it's absolutely, it's expected. Today, his reaction was, it was raw, wasn't it? Like, he knew he needed to pull out a great lap

in order to get that poll. And you could just tell by the reaction as soon as he was told that he had to really work for it. Such an exciting session, I thought. Yeah, and you could see through the weekend so far, if you're not been watching the practices, I understand. People have lives, people have jobs. But Max Verstappen has not been having an easy time throughout the practice sessions.

Regularly finishing outside the top five, he went through the gravel on multiple occasions. We've seen him hitting the steering wheel on multiple occasions where he's become really frustrating and fell out with how that car is performing. And Red Bull did bring some upgrade to this race track. They've got a brand new floor, which looks like something out of some kind of alien spaceship. They've also got a new front wing and they've got some new little area parts as well that sit between the front side. tires and the floor as well. So there are some substantial upgrades having to that car. And clearly they've been causing a few differences and difficulties for the drivers, as displayed by where Sergio Perez has found himself and where Max was staffing had to put

outright pace to pull out that lap time. But we saw once again why Max is now one of the greatest of all time. He took a car that arguably maybe isn't even the fastest car, maybe his joint fastest car, but it's not substantial. It's not dominant. It's not clearly a heck of everyone else. And one driver couldn't even get into Q3 and he stuck it on pole, by the smallest of margins. But hey, it could be 0.001 or it could be 1.0.0.0. You're still on pole position. You've got the job done.

And he'd pulled it out when he needed to. The car looks like a handful. McLaren of breathing down Red Bull's neck. And like you said, Ben, you heard it from the team. You heard it over the reg. You heard it from him. That was hard for. That was difficult.

That was work put in. And I want that every single weekend. I want to see them sweat out until the last second comes out. So, yeah, exciting stuff. Well done, Imalert. well done, have fun. That was good. And we've got plenty to get onto in today's episode. We will touch on the difficult session for Aston Martin, in particular Fernando Alonzo. We'll get into Mercedes, a double Q3 appearance, but our thoughts on whether they have actually

made any progress. We had McLaren and Ferrari both being touted as potential challenges to Max Verstappen. We'll discuss both of their fortunes as they were second and third and fourth and fifth. anything further on on max for stab and i mean it was a sublime effort like you say he's already he's now matching center in terms of records to start pole positions um to begin this season given how difficult it is to overtake on track given how quick that red bull has consistently been in a straight line is it going to be tricky for anyone to match him tomorrow there's a lot of racetracks where pole position is always important but you know what it isn't really ever a deciding factor it's just a nice first step to having kind of a shot at a race wing.

You know, if you were to look at tracks like Monza or, you know, Bahrain, places like that, we've got a lot of straight lines, I've got DRS. Pole position is nice, of course. You know, you can never say no to it. But tracks also places like Mexico, arguably, you don't get as good a run down into turn one if you're on pole position. So having pole here is the total opposite. It's probably one of the closest tracks for the likes of Monaco, where pole position

really does set you up for a great step. You've got a long run though down into turn one. So he's got to make sure that the slipstream effect is okay. McLaren have really left Miami saying how much better they are on a straight line. So if Norris, who currently is in third, might get promoted to second after Piasper's penalty, we don't know, is able to tuck straight in behind one of the other drivers in front of him. It might be a three-way fight down to turn one. But I'm going to compliment Max Verstaffer by dissing his teammate here.

If we had two Sergio Perez's in that Red Bull rather than one Max Verstaffin or one Sergio, I reckon that Red Bull is maybe as good as seventh or eighth, that absolute best. So it shows you just how good Max Verstappen can be when he needs to be. One thing we discussed in the Miami Grand Prix review was how, obviously, the safety car turned the race on its head. It very much helped Lando Norris, who hadn't stopped at that point, and that was a big factor in him taking the win. But one of the questions we had was, could he have won it anyway? And of course, that was as a result of, the safety car came. out as a result of for Lando Norris at the right time, because Piastri and Norris went slightly

different on their strategies. Piaastri pitt a bit earlier. Lando Norris went further. Lando Norris was therefore in a position to take advantage of the safety car. And it was that two versus one effect that ultimately very much helped McLaren win that day. Looking at this race, looking at this qualifying session, Max Verstappen is swarmed by two sets of teammates. He's swarmed by Piaastri and Norris. And there's a bit of a question on exactly where Piastri will be in that mix, but even if it does end up being a three-place grid penalty that's unconfirmed at this point, he's still there or thereabouts. And you've got the two Ferraris in there. I think there is a reasonable chance that Vastappen might encounter a similar situation here.

If he does pit at the time he thinks is best, but there is a Carlos Sines or a Piastri or a Norris or a Leclerc to go a bit longer and maybe take advantage of a VSC or a safety car, he might find himself in a similar position. And if that happens two races in a row, that doesn't look great for Perez. Again, we'll get onto Perez in more depth in a bit. But yeah, it felt like that pole position was for Stappens today rather than Red Bulls. He really did a great job. But it does raise questions on where that will leave him tomorrow. Yeah. Strategy in Imola, I think is deceptively important. The Pit Lane loss here at Imola is the second worst out of any race track on the entire calendar. Silverstone being the worst all season.

So taking advantage of a safety car, if you've got one driver that can or one that is kind of fending off for Stappan, like you said, if he's all on his own, but he's got to do that times two, both against McLaren and Ferrari, it really calls into question of,

what do I do? Where am I going? What's the best choice? Why haven't I got a teammate to help me defend or distract or to take over? And like you said, when both the RBs have qualified

in front of the secondary red ball driver, these are warning signs. Perez has been pretty solid so far. this season. But we've left Miami. We're back to a classic racetrack, and immediately the form has dropped off. So very worrying times for Perez. He needs to make sure he gets back on that form ASAP. In the midweek episode that I wasn't here for, but excellent job by both yourself and Harry. You asked the question, was Miami a fluke for McLaren specifically? Today's session, their second and third, where does that leave you in terms of answering that

question. No. And I was right to say so in our midweek preview, I think. I think I went down the no route. And again, I spoke about how many of the McLaren engineers have come out and say, actually, Imler as a track as a kind of a layout and the style of corner here should actually benefit the car and the upgrades far more than actually what happened in Miami. So if they were so strong over race pace in Miami, a track that they didn't think would be 100% beneficial to them, how potent are they going to be here in Imola? Well, they think, actually, this could be almost 100% fit for their upgrades. It tells me that, again, if there's two of them right there,

if Piastra gets away with it and he doesn't get a penalty, I don't think that will be the case. I do think there's a penalty coming. It feels like a bit of a slam dunk. But even if he has a good start, he starts fifth after his three place, maybe he gets himself up to fourth or third. They're two on one, as we've said so many times already,

and that's a terrible place for any leaders of being when you ganged up on like that. I don't know if the staff on is going to have the ability to get outside of that DRS window and scamper off Sebastian Vettel style, much like he would need to to really dominate this Grand Prix. I really think that McLaren is going to come to life on the Sunday.

Yeah, I think this qualifying session, even though points are won on the Sunday and tomorrow will be a truer test, I think this qualifying session definitely does point to the fact that those McLaren upgrades are for real. And it wasn't just a Miami-specific, we're going to hold an advantage there, but it will go back to what it was like in China

Imala and thereon, it was, you know, it was highly encouraging for the teams today. So yes, I think if their race pace can match their qualifying pace and all of the Sims that happened in FP2 indicate that it will, their race pace was very good in FP2. So if that does follow through, and even if, you know, they end up second and fourth or third and fourth, I still think that's a good enough indication that they have made a good step forward. I think there will be a little bit of disappointment from, I think both sides of the garage that they haven't got pole position. Just because I don't think anyone in Q3 absolutely had the 100% ideal lap in the, Vastappenon is pole lap as an example, had that error in the final corner, didn't set a

purple or even a green final sector. So I think whilst Wastappen's lap was brilliant, don't get me wrong, there was room for improvement for him. But it was the same for the McLaren's. It was the same for LeClerre as well, where they couldn't quite string together all three sectors into one great lap. If either of the McLaren duo did do that, I think they might have just had enough maybe to Pipp for Stappen, but even so, you can't go too far on with two or three. Yeah, I think the conditions were quite deceptive across this qualifying session. It was very, very hot through Q1 and a bit of Q2. And then the wind, I think, changed direction. We saw, I think Albon was the first case where he ran completely wide

coming out of Revatser 2, ruining that first lap that he took. And it meant that the wind pushed him wider. We saw a few drivers having a snap of oversteer or having to stop the car ran in too wide. And then all of a sudden, the track cooled by five or six degrees. And Corinchandot came out and said this friend of the podcast, he's been on a couple of times if you knew, he came out and said, you know, these Pirelli tires are so sensitive, especially their core temperatures, that they will feel the effect of a five or six degree drop. And we might now see someone like the Red Bull come alive more. And we did.

Verstappen had to improve on that last lap. He did improve by about a 10th. And it was enough to make sure that he kept that pole position. Because Piastri's improved lap time would have been enough to take pole position how Max not got the lap done. And like you said, the Staffen was the closest to getting a complete lap, but like a single driver had a 100% improved three sector record on their final run. And the conditions were all over the shop.

What about Ferrari? So they brought a quite significant upgrade for this weekend. It's been touted for a number of weeks leading up to this event. They were looking pretty good through free practice, particularly Charles LeClair. Twice was the fastest driver in those sessions. Any disappointment that they couldn't get closer. I mean, time-wise, they were still not far off, but position-wise, obviously they have been beaten by both for Stappen and the McLarence.

Yeah, no, I think they'll be. be disappointed. It might prove to be nothing when it comes to race. Maybe they've got electric race pace. Again, they looked very good throughout all the practice sessions. So maybe they're running something differently. Maybe they're one lap pace with these new upgrades just isn't what it was with the previous upgrade package that they had. Maybe that's where the discrepancy is. I suppose I'd rather lose a 10th in qualifying, but gain two tents in my race pace if it meant that the upgrades worked that way. We yet to see them fully in action. But, I would still be disappointed.

Carlos Sainz looks very much off the pace with this upgrade package. It looks like it doesn't sit in his comfort zone. The setup of the car, maybe he isn't quite there right now. And the last couple of Grand Prix, he has been lacking where Charles LeCler has started to really make up that form that I think Sainz had in the bag over the first few races of the season. Charlotte, Clair, on the other hand, I think he'll be the most disappointed.

The guy looked like he was a shoe in for pole position. It really looked like if anyone was going to take it to the front row, anyone was going to take it to Red Bull. It would have been Charles LeCler today. And I think fourth is no biggie, likely to be third. If Piastri does have that penalty put into effect, he's right there. And if he gets a good toe down to turn one, you never know where you might find yourself. He might come out on top and be leading the Grand Prix.

But I do think that they would like to have at least one car on the front row. So, yeah, I think they're going to hope that the race space is an improvement. By I imagine that this is a big of a, we haven't really taking a step forward after bigging ourselves up so drastically. Yeah. And I think McLaren's improvement does mask it a little bit in the gap between Vastappan and LeCler, multiple times this season would have been good enough for LeClerler to be second on the grid. So in terms of Vestappan versus the Ferraris, I guess you could say that the upgrade has at least somewhat worked.

But with McLaren's upgrades doing seemingly at the moment a better job, you know, it leaves them roughly in the same position that they were anyway. If you'd turn around, if you had no idea that they had brought any upgrades for this race weekend and they were to give you this fourth and fifth positioning and qualifying, you wouldn't immediately go, wow, they must have had an upgrade to get that. You would probably say, well, yeah, that's roughly where they end up most of the time. That seems about right. In that regard, the upgrade hasn't seemed to pay off for them just yet. We'll have to see what happens in terms of race pace. I think you're right with Carlos Sines. He doesn't quite seem to seem a one with the car this weekend. And whether it's track-specific or upgrade-specific or just needs more time to acclimatized to it versus Leclair, all of those are unknowns, but I think the base point of he's not quite as comfortable is true. And Leclair, Lecler's disappointment will be, and I'm not quite sure where this would have landed him. But his fastest lap, his fastest lap, the second run in Q3 was no improvement in the first sector on his own personal best, purple sector in the middle sector and then no improvement on his personal best in the final sector. So I'm not quite, if you put the

two laps he did in Q3 together, I'm not exactly sure where that would have landed him, but it would have at least gotten him a little bit closer. So there will be disappointment in that regard. Lastly, just before we go to our break on today's episode, Sergio Perez, we've already touched on it a couple of times, obviously not making it through to Q3. Very close between himself, Daniel Ricardo and the two Mercedes come the end of Q2. But he was. fourth of those four drivers, which of course meant he was the one to miss out, whereas his teammate is getting pole position. Shades of when he was struggling a little bit more, I would say.

This is the worst we've seen Sergio Perez since, or mid-season last year. You kind of came back alive again towards the end of 2020. And the start of this season's been good. I looked through his qualifying record so far this season. And the worst he's had it so far was fifth place in Bahrain. other than that, is like a third, a third, a second and a second. So, you know, he's always been there or thereabouts. We've said time and time again that if Sergio Perez could be there or thereabout,

if he can qualify towards his weakness, if he can make sure that he's in an all right position where he's only got overtake one or two cars to find himself back on the podium or a position also behind Vastappen, that he's doing everything that Red Bull need. While Vestappen runs away and wins races and championships, Sergio Perez just picks up the leftovers. He gathers up the points that have escaped from the net,

and you just make sure that those around him, the competitors around him, aren't able to pick up anything advantageous over Red Bull. But here, it's almost a mirror's image of what happened last season now. We have Miami last season. He was morally broken by Max Verstappling, you know, the motivation, the encouragement behind his drive in that season so far,

taken away from him after Max absolutely decimated him in Miami. And then we come out of Miami again, and you'd argue, okay, on the face of it, didn't look too destructive in their performance. But Max essentially almost won that Grand Prix. And if wasn't for the safety car, you'd argue you might have still won that Grand Prix. I still think it was in his favour. Sergio Perez, for the most part, never higher than fourth or fifth place, was never able to

properly get past Ferraris, was struggling to fight against McLaren's. You know, he was stuck around Lewis Hamilton for quite a long time. It wasn't a good Grand Prix for him. He comes out, comes into the classic racetracks of Europe, and he immediately struggles. 11th place is a dire performance. This, you know, make no bones about it. This is a bad, bad turnout. And to be behind, not just the two Masegans,

which we know are slow, but to be behind Daniel Riccardo, who is still finding his feet on form, and that far behind Yuki Sonoda, who in Q2, when Perez got knocked out, Sonoda was P2, is really poor, really, really poor. He's letting himself down here from what was such a good start.

He needs to find this form around these classic tracks. otherwise, that seat that we praised him for so heavily, the way he's kept, you know, all speculation out because he's been doing so well, will very quickly creep back in. Formula One is a fickle world and it works on recency bias. And if Perez does not keep performing, that positive kind of affirmation that he's built up around himself will very quickly leave. I think with Sergio Perez, we've always said, and it's kind of always been the case throughout his career, that his race pace is far superior to his qualifying pace. but his qualifying position, even if it isn't the best, it needs to at least put him in a good enough position to unlock that race pace. 11th place at Imola, ain't that. It is, as we've already identified, a really difficult circuit to get overtakes done. And if he's not quick enough down the start-finished rate, that remains to be seen.

He's not going to make any overtakes anywhere on this track. So he has put a lot of pressure on himself to deliver on the Sunday. and I guess the McLaren and the Ferrari being being a little bit closer to Vastappan and Red Bull, it's almost the case that where Red Bull have this superior advantage, Perez can be a little bit off his game but still slot into P5 or something along those lines and then make progress in the Grand Prix, pick up a podium and he's had an all right weekend. When these other teams are seemingly closer to Vostapen and Red Bull, this is the sort of result that is more and more probable.

It's the sort of result that we've seen quite frequently from Sergio Perez. This is where all the problems started was him not being able to make it out of Q1 in some situations, Q2 in other situations. And here, this seems to be a return to that. He needs to at least make some progress in the race itself. But I feel like the biggest issue about this result was, wasn't really a shock in that he didn't look like he had a lot of pace. If he had been a 10th behind Vastappen in Q1,

had a really visible error in Q2 that saw him just miss out, you can say, all right, he's probably not going to make that mistake most weekends. Let's move on. This was, as far as I could tell, he had a fairly clear run at the end of Q2. He obviously had two opportunities to get through to Q2. I think he had the use tire. think to start the session, but the second run was obviously new set of tyres. You can't really point at anything and say, like, I don't know, Magnuson and say, well, I could have been up there with Nico Holcombberg,

whether that's the case or not, that remains to be seen, but he can say, Piotradoré, he can't really point at anything. It was just he didn't have the outright pace. I think the worst part for Perez here is, as you mentioned, the lack of shock or the increasingly more potent level of expectation that the general Formula One's fear is starting to have when it comes to this point for Sergio Perez. The UK commentary team over Sky were very much saying, you know, doesn't look too promising. He hasn't really been close. The fight for Poles is for Stappen, both McLaren's and both Ferraris. And you think, oh, if that was anyone else in that red ball, that'd be a little bit offensive. You'd think, where, where's the other car? Perez never gets a

mention. Perez never gets a shout for even being in that top five. And he proved them right with 11th. It really was a disappointment. He's got to get that sorting his game. Well, 17 races to go. He's got time. Don't let this become the habit. Let's take our quick break on this episode. We'll be discussing Mercedes and Aston Martin a little bit more on the other side. Sam, what did you make of Mercedes? This is a really tricky one because they have brought the second half of their upgrade package from Miami to Imala and Toto Wolf has come out again stating that They understand what's going wrong with the car, and they understand how to fix it. And George Russell was, I think, in the end, about four and a half tenths away from Max Verstappen, his poll time in Q3.

Now, four and a half tenths in Formula One is a bloody age, right? The things I could get done if you trans, you know, like cat years where one cat year is like seven human years or whatever it is. Four and a half tenths in Formula One is like three working days in, you know, the normal world. That's two big upgrades, I'd say. Yeah, right? That's a lot. So, okay, the gap's still massive. But if you compare it to previous Grand Prix and previous qualifiers, the gap has been far bigger than that.

We've seen gaps between Mercedes and Vostappen of seven-tenths, eight-tenths, sometimes even close to a second between the drivers and Max Vastappen. So on the surface of it, they've taken a step in the right direction. Well done, Mercedes. The problem here with them is... everyone else is also taking a step in the right direction. Ferrari and McLaren have absolutely shrunk that gap like Notre Dame. Hungy, I shrunk the gap, and that's what they've done to Max Verstappen at the front. You know, I think if, as you said earlier, if LeCler gets his only sectors in,

the gap is probably less than a tenth and a half. I think if Carlos Sites understands the setup more and probably gels more of the upgrades, less than two tenths at the absolute maximum, they're still two tenths away then from those other competitors, let alone the Red Bull drivers. And the worst part is R.B. who've started to bring upgrading, and they're right there alongside them.

One of them beaten by Yuki Sinoda. One of them beated by, you know, George Russell was just beaten by Yuki Sanoga, sorry, and Lewis Hamilton only just beat Daniel Ricardo. So they are splitting them. It's not like they're comfortably beating these guys. And that's the worrying part. I think Holgerberg, arguably, is right there with them.

So whilst they've taken a step forward in their own package and their own understanding, I don't think they've separated themselves. I don't think they've rejoined that fight out the front. I still think they're comfortably the fourth, maybe the fifth best car, depending on the track that we get to. It doesn't feel confidence inspiring, I feel like, if you're a Mercedes fan. Yeah, that's pretty much how I read it as well,

in that it's a step forward, but not enough. Like, it is better, although having said that, Q2 could have gone very differently in that they were, you know, they got both cars through to Q3, which hasn't been the case at every single Q2 so far this year. But there really wasn't much in it between those two drivers, Ricardo and Perez obviously fell in Q3. That could have easily been one of their two drivers in 11th

with the other one in 10th place. There were thousands in it, which realistically is kind of where they've been all season in terms of qualifying, which you could point at that and say, well, where's the upgrade there? That's about what you've done for the rest this year. Q3 I thought was a little bit better.

George Russell, I think George Russell pulled out a good lap. I was actually quite impressed with Russell during this session. I don't think Hamilton was ever really comfortable. But again, even with George Russell putting together that good lap, if Yuki Sunoda puts together the same lap

that he does in Q2, I think that might have beaten him. It's certainly, Yuki Sonoda's Q2 lap was better than his Q3 lap. If he replicates it, he even gets closer to Russell or beats him out right. I'm not quite sure of those two. Which ones? Correct. But point remains, right, in that if they are competing with R.B. And they are still behind Ferrari

and McLaren and Red Bull, that's not progress. That's just the same. Which isn't what you're looking for for an upgrade. So, I mean, out of 10, it would probably be about a six. I'd give Mercedes. It was fine, but I can't really stretch it to any better than fine. Yeah. So Yuki was a 10. slower between Q2 and Q3, it will have made him. So the gap between himself and rustling Q3 was 0.2, so at the thing about 0.1-ish. So, you know, it's worryingly close when your closest competitors are the sister RB team when three years ago you were trying to beat the main R-B team. Indeed. Whilst it might not have been the absolute best day for Mercedes, it was a far worse day for Aston Martin.

Lance Stroll was their lead driver on the day. I think ended up qualifying either 13th or 14th. 13th place, yeah. But he was the only Astor Martin driver that made it into Q2 with Fernando Alonzo, who would have been last, if not for Logan Sargent's lap being invalidated after the session happened. But even so, it will be a back row start for Fernando Alonzo

after a crash in FP3, jeopardised him even making it to qualify. qualifying, but then an incident on one of his flying laps and pitting towards the end of the session means that he would go no further. It's worrying times for Aston Martin, right? Yeah, the car looks like generally, it's really struggling. And I think, I'm going to get to Fernando a long second moment, because I don't think it's as simple as looking at 19th place, it's going, you're slow. Lance Stroll, I think put the car exactly where Lance Stroll has been continually putting the car for the majority of the season. The Aston Martin is no better than

maybe the fifth fastest car on its best day, sixth or seven the fastest car on a very average day. He was only a tenth and a half away from 11th, right? So if he has one slight corner better, he beats Sergio Perez. And that's not bad for Lance Stroll. That's kind of where I expect him to be. I don't think he's underperformed.

He's got a Alpine in front of him, which arguably he should have beat. And then the next car is Sergio Perez. So that's fine, not great, but fine. Fernando Alonso is the tricky one. Obviously, Fernando also had, correct me if I'm wrong here, Ben, but I believe he had damage on the car due to practice that he was previously going through, and they were having to work on the car.

And then he comes out in his lap. And then I think there's just some, there's some issues going on at Aston Martin, where the communication seemed a little bit odd, where he then ran wide going through the, is it, the Tamborella chicane? I think he was going through. Might have been the first, actually, the first complex. It was. Yes.

So he runs wide. there. So the car clearly isn't as comfortable to him because I feel like that is a very non-Fernando a long-same mistake to make. So the car isn't 100%. Over the radio he asked, well, is the lap good enough? And they've said yes. He comes into the box anyway and he absolutely tumbles down the timing

sheets and he's completely knocked out. So in 19th place, it was 20th at the time. I can't really blame Fernando for this. You know, Fernando has a one-off bad race once a season where it's just absolutely nowhere. This doesn't feel like it. In his post-qualifying interview. He kind of got told that the car wasn't perfect. He wasn't sure if there's issues.

They might affect him for the race. It's a tough race to be right at the back. I don't think it's as simple as Fernando was slow. I think there are some problems, some gremlin's going on in that car and I'm not sure they know what it is. Yeah, and I don't know. I think you're probably right on both of those assessments, really. If you're surprised by where Lance Stroll was, you probably haven't been paying enough attention in that this was really no better or any worse than what we would normally expect from Landstrol. But what that does tell you is that if Fernando Alonso was absolutely on his A game, there wasn't anything wrong with the car, maybe he scraped through to Q3. He's not, a few races ago, this was a driver that was competing for the first and second rows

of the grid, even if not pole position. He was regularly qualifying-wise in the fight with the likes of Ferrari, Macquarie and Mercedes. I don't think Alonzo on his A game would have got there today. This feels like an instance where R.B. have made a step forward. Mercedes have made a little bit of a step forward. Ferrari and McLaren obviously have as well. Red Bull a Red Bull.

And here they are. Alpine have made step forwards. Because that seems like who their competition is at the moment, right? Ocon, outqualified Landstrol. There's been nothing to me that's indicated that Ocon had a particularly great lap or, Lance Drol had a particularly awful lap. That is pretty much where they are, right?

You know, Ock got a good job from O'Con. Gassley had a good lap in Q1 as well. But that does seem like where they are now, is behind Mercedes, behind R.B. And trying to beat the Alpines. That's where they were in Miami, seemingly where they are again here in Imola. They seem like they might be behind Haas,

if Magnuson was able to reproduce any of the place at the Holgerberg show. And you're right. The fall off in qualifying positions for Fernando Alonkso is really well in. he was sixth in Bahrain, fourth in Saudi Arabia, 10th in Australia, so still in Q3, fifth in Japan, third in China, and then Miami, 15th, Italy, 19th.

The Imola here. So the sudden drop in qualifying pace is really not positive. Because soon that this man was able to get into Q3 every single session for a long, long time, and now that car is falling away. And I said this last season, when Aston Martin's upgrades just suddenly stopped working. They just went in the wrong direction.

I don't think they have the ability right now to be innovative on their own without copying a design from another team. They did that with the Red Bull base design last season when they kind of studied and analyzed a lot of the upgrades that Red Bull brought and replicated them in their own style. And it worked well for them. They took a good step forward. I don't know if they've got anything to base it off so far this season. And I think it shows. I think their development is slacking and they're not coming out with anything new themselves, causing them to tumble down. And the fact that they might be in a fight with Alpine and Haas after they were regularly scoring poles.

last season is as bad a fall down as what Alpine have done this season as well. It's just from a different part of the grid. Yeah, it's not even this season, is it like you say? I mean, they were in a very good spot at the beginning of last season, regularly the second best team behind Red Bull. And then you had Monaco of last year where Alonzo had the opportunity to win. And I think we all said at the time that, okay, they'll get another chance. They never really have. They were okay for the rest of that summer. And I think Zamvort was really the last good result that Fernando Alonso had. But ever since really the sort of September time of last year, they've had a few ups and downs here and there. Like Mexico was a particular down last year. This seemingly might be

another one. They've had a few smaller ups in that Brazil was okay from what I remember. But they've kind of just not, they've not really gone anywhere, have they? In what, that would be like nine months now, 10 months. So yeah, disappointing for Astor Martin. Just to emphasize that they haven't really going anywhere, Lank Straw's qualifying record so far is 12th, 10th, 9th, 16th, 11th, 11th and 13th. So it's almost constantly on the fringes of the top 10 and he's not gone anywhere from this. This is actually the second worst qualifying all season. Yeah. Um, quick, uh, quick, note on Hasse. So Nick Holkenberg put together a very good lap in Q2, got through to Q3 yet again. Kevin Magnuson, as we know, was blocked by Oscar Piahtri in Q1. So at least on the record books,

it's not going to look very good for him being knocked out two sessions before his teammate. What did you make of their performance? Thought Holgerberg was great once again. I don't want to let it slide. You know, there was a moment where Holkberg was the fastest out of everyone at one point. It went straight to the top of the timing screens. And our Discord, which you can join in the links in the description, went absolutely mad for it, you know, so many shouts for Hulk being, you know, a lot of people were using swear words to describe their absolute surprise as to see a hearse at the very top.

And it looked like for a moment, he legitimately belonged there. You know, the car, he's never driven a race car around this racetrack, which is strange. For a man who's been in the game, as long as Leaka Hulgerberg, you've never competitively driven a car around this racetrack and to do what he did was sensational. He's also his Q3 lap time was four-tenths slower than his Q2 lap time. So it shows you just how different the conditions were. And I think he was getting that hearse into that optimum window really, really well in the first few sessions. But if he reproduces his Q2 lap time in Q3, he moves up in front of Daniel Ricardo.

So he's starting P9. And I do think that that is probably the absolute maximum that anyone gets. What more do you want out of a hearse, right? Especially after where it was last season. Now, Magnuson, we've come to accept that he's not wearing Nico Hulke Berge's. I think we're fully aware that he's not a lot of. that same level, is not able to produce the same results. But I do think that he was able to get that car out of Q1.

I do think he was going to be able to produce a better result than that. I don't think he would have been 19th place, had Logan Sargent not picked up the deleted lap time. Oscar Piascri, I think, does have a penalty coming his way. But the problem for Hasse is, much like a few of the teams up and down the grid, they have one car that is able to score points or has the opportunity to score points. The other one is driven by someone who just doesn't have the final 10%. to get it over the line and back them up when they need it. So it looks good around a proper racetrack where, you know,

this is classic racing now. Hars is still delivering, which is fantastic this far into the season. Magnuson does need to step it up. I know this one wasn't his fault, but he needs to start delivering. And it is always disappointing when a driver doesn't have the full opportunity to show what they can do around a racetrack because you could say, well, he did have that first run, but equally, Holkenberg was slower than him on the first run. So, you know, if Magnuson was able to get that second run, I think he does make it through to

Q2. Does he make it through to Q3? We'll never know. But yeah, it's, it is a bit frustrating when, for Fohass, that the only driver that they have who is at the moment competing in the top 10, at least in qualifying, and then sometimes converting that in the race is a driver that is leaving them. So they brought a few upgrades, I think, this week. Ken Hasse, they seem to still be roughly where they were. But again, it's another instance where you can't ask too much more of Nick Holkenberg. Yeah. There's one more thing I'd like to talk about, which is Williams.

Lots of information have come out of Williams over the last week or so. Obviously, Alex Album signed a multi-year deal. James Vows has also very publicly said that Logan's sergeant at risk, they are talking to other drivers. Logan's sergeant didn't really shine himself in glory today. went off through one of the chicanes, and then, of course, got a lap time deleted as well. So no lap time set. Starts from the very, very back.

This is bad news for Logan, right? This is not what he needs after hearing that. You think it would spur him on maybe, but it sounds like he's really crumbling under the pressure. Yeah. And I think Williams are, I mean, they could do whatever they want, obviously, but I think Williams are very well protected in their narrative that they've had, really, ever since Logan Sargent was in that car, in that they've always said, and I think they're still saying now, like, if Logan's...

sergeant can hit targets that they set for him, they want to keep him in the team. But if he can't meet those targets and you'd have to assume he's not, then that puts him at risk. I don't think that's actually any different of a position now than what he had a year ago, James Vowles. But I think it's just more on a timeline basis. I think, you know, Sergeant had apparently more time a year ago. Now they are starting to look at next season. And this sort of performance is isn't really going to help him out. Obviously, the Williams isn't where it needs to be. But, you know, equally Alex Albin is at least showing he can get closer to the points

than what Logan Sargent can. And that will count for something. They're going to be looking at the data far more than nearly anyone else. They're going to know when a 12th place finish is actually a really good achievement and might have got them eighth place last year. That is going to count for something within the team. But he's not delivering on those performances. So, yeah, a rough day for Williams and for Sargent,

and a rough day for Salber as well. Not a good one for them. But that's fairly standard for them at this point, isn't it? Oof. Oof size, large. Before we go, driver of the session. Oh, that's a tough one. Drive of the session.

I'm so boring. I'm going to give it to Max Verstappen because I generally do think that those cars are so much closer. and I do think he had to pull it out of the back. He actually had to do proper Max Verstappen things. And indeed, he produced it. So Yuki-Sanoda deserves a shout. Holcombberg deserves a shout.

And I think Piastri was also really, really strong. It's great to see him turn out those upgrades. But I'm going to give it to Vastappen. Yeah, I think I would have maybe leaned towards either Sonoda or Holcomberg, if they'd put together a Q3 lap, which was as good as their Q2 lap. Even so, it's still great performance to even get where they were. but that's the reason I won't give it to those two. Do need to give a shout out to Westerban Ockon.

I think he did a good job again. You know, Gazley's going to be a bit frustrated. I think given he had such a good lap in Q1 that essentially counts for nothing because all you need to do is get through. So he'll start 15, whereas his teammate will start 12. But I am going to be boring as well and say Max Verstappen because I think, as we've already referenced,

it was it was his own ability that really needed to separate him from the field today. That's what he did. I think we're in for a very interesting race tomorrow. I think we are. And it might well give us, as we've kind of already spoken about, it will give us clues as to whether this can carry on.

Because if it does end up being a close race tomorrow with three teams potentially being there or thereabouts, we might have a fun summer of F1 in front of us. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm genuinely, I got a bit of a buzz in my tummy this morning when it was that close. So now I'm really pumped. That's what you want.

Equally, if you want to watch more racing, I heard that Max Verstappen took a break from his sim racing to take pole position at Imola. So you can probably go check him out on the 24-hour sim race now if you fancy it while you're listening to this. Bit of Indy qualifying. Oh, and we've got Indy, of course, the Indy 500. Oh, God, there's so much going on. I'm so excited. Do you want to get us out of it?

Folks, thanks for listening. We will be back for the race review after the, literally right after the Grand Prix is when we record. So if you're new to the podcast, don't wait around. We do an hour of recording. It comes straight out. It'll also be on YouTube as well tomorrow. And then on Monday, if you fancy it, you can join our Patreon and you can listen to our power rankings.

You get loads of other benefits as well. It's really, really good value for money. We're really proud of the content. If not, thanks for sticking around and listening to the standing episodes. That genuinely helps us out as well. Discourse in the description. Follow us on social media everywhere, late-breaking F-1. And we'll be right back here tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've been Sang to Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast. podcast network.