The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Australian GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Ben and Sam analyze the sensational qualifying session at Albert Park, where one team dominated with a front-row lockout and a few surprise drivers made it into Q3. They discuss all of the action including the questions surrounding Ferrari's performance and the unexpected exits for Red Bull and Mercedes... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League 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. Welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the first qualifying session of 2025 at the Australian Grand Prix, a qualifying session where Lando Norris has pole position in what was in the end of very dominant one, two for McLaren, Oscar Piastri, joining him on the front row.

Sam, before we hit record, we both used the word scrappy to define this qualifying session and not in a horrible way. In an exciting, that's what qualifying should be way. That's what I want qualifying to be. I want to see cars at full pelts, you know, full anger,

falling off the racetrack, dipping wheels into gravel, seeing bits of grass fly through the air. I mean, it's been a while. while, right? We've been dry of Formula One content for a long time. So it's always going to feel good when the first lapsing anger actually happened. But God, that felt good to watch those cars go around there. And it felt like everyone wanting it. It felt like they were hungry from top to bottom. It was so close across the entire grid. I mean, obviously, you said we had that

dominant pole from McLaurang in the end. But the gaps between first, all the way down to last, even that was minute in its details. So sensational qualified to kickstart the year. We're coming straight in raw from the qualifying itself. We've got about 20 minute break and we're going into this one very excited. Indeed, major back-to-school vibes with this session and a lot to get into. I was writing down my notes of what to talk about during this session and it seems like a fairly long list. So let's crack on with it.

We'll talk obviously about Antonelli and Lawson failing to make it out of Q1. We've got the likes of Sonoda and Albin getting. up into the top six, Ferrari just seventh and eighth, but we'll kick off at the front with Norris taking that pole position over Oscar Piastri, just under a tenth of a second in it. So even though this is another, Norris can chalk up another win over Piastri in qualifying, it's not like the gap was a large one today. Having said that, they both relied on their second runs in Q3 to get this done. Both of them, well, Norris didn't have a lap at all based on his first lap being invalidated due to track limits.

Piastri, not much better, did have a lap, but went wide in the final sector. What did you make of McLaren? We were asking going into the session, would they be the dominant force to kick off the year? It seems like eventually the answer to that was yes. Yeah, they take their time guessing there, because throughout all of qualifying, they were pretty much both cars featuring in the top two or three at worst. But it wasn't the cleanest of journeys forward to the front. I'll say that.

We saw Oscar Pulaski, having a couple of issues throughout qualifying. We've seen this from him in the past. You know, you cast your minds back to Spain last year,

to Austria as well. You know, it's not unusual to see him maybe, but flound is the wrong word, but take a moment to get himself into absolute full focus to deliver a lap.

And he said that in his post-qualifying interview. He says, you know, I was pushing, and then locked up in kind of the penultimate corner. And on my last run, I didn't want to do that again.

I wanted to get the lapping. So I left a little bit on the top. table there, which tells me that realistically, if he was full confident, a full chat, then he probably could have matched down there and he could have been even closer than what it was. But it was great to see both McLaren boys feel so confident, so inspired, so empowered by the car, the team that they've got behind them, that they can deliver such a brilliant qualified together. And it shows you just how good that team is, that both of them,

right up there, less than one tenth between them, three tenths between them and Max Stappenberg behind, and we'll get on to shortly. But Landon Norris was the ominous force for me throughout qualifying today. There was a moment in Q1 where they were just starting to set their laps. We were just starting to see the top teams really get around the racetrack. And then I think, okay, half a tent here, attempt here, attempt there. Landon Norris comes around the final corner, boom, 0.48 faster than everyone else. Yeah, it was, I was like, oh, no, I thought we were going to have a close year.

Fortunately, it looks like we will still have a close year. But at that one moment, oh, how McLaren designed a monster? Are we going to see that be half a second faster than everyone else today consistently? And the gap wasn't far off in the end, like I said, just over three-tenths between Norris and Maxing third. But at that moment, I thought, good Lord. But McLaren looked confident. They look solid. The car looks so smooth through so many of those.

Because from that first sector, on board, Oskapri's car, of course, going to the fastest of the two. He looked so at one with the way that car was moving. It was amazing to see him use all of the racetrack. No constant adjustment through mid-corner, which we saw a lot happening from the likes of Liam Lawson. We saw it from Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari. There's a long of kind of correction, second correction running slightly wide. The McLaren seems really on rails, really switched on, and both drivers able to deliver. So it shows you that they are very comfortable as a pairing.

It doesn't seem to favour one driver or the other at the moment. So really, really impressed me how they kick side this season. Yeah, they absolutely nailed those second runs in Q3. and I mean, the only thing you can really point at and say needs to be improved is the fact that they both had to rely on that second run. And there is a danger that they might egg themselves onto this sort of situation. It didn't cost them today, but it could cost them in the future if Piastrian Norris get too involved with an intra-team battle to the point where they do let someone like Vestappen or Russell into the fight. because based on pure pace today, they were the class of the field

and relatively comfortably so. The first two sectors, there really wasn't much to choose between McLaren and the rest of the field. But the reason they were so close in those first two sectors is because they have clearly set that car up to be very effective in the final sector

because I wrote on Twitter, absolute cheat code in the final sector. All the time through, qualifying. It's like, oh, through two sectors. There's nothing in this. Final sector. Boom. Purple sector. There are a few temps clear. And the gap they have back to Vastappen and Russell is seriously impressive. I know Norris came into this weekend saying that they were tied with some of the other teams. Don't know about that, Chief. That doesn't look tied to me. I thought, Lando, I thought you knew all about the fuel load that Ferrari were running. They don't seem

to be near you this session. Norris, very good at being quick, not very good at knowing fuel loads, terrible that of BP's taking. Norris is just under four temps clear of Max Verstappen. Piastri is three temps clear of Max Verstappen. And if we scan our minds back to the first qualifying session of 2024 when Red Bull had the dominant car, I'm relying on memory a bit here, but I don't think Vastappen was that far clear of what I think would have been Charles LeCler in qualifying at that first race of the season. We had similar, ominous thoughts about Red Bull. I think it was maybe two temps,

not four temps as what we've got today. So highly impressive from both of them. It's going to be interesting to see, not just for this team, but also the entire grid, who has gone all in with a wet weather setup for tomorrow and who is maybe outperformed today based on not doing that.

Not point two seven, 0.27 between Vastappen and Sikes last time out in Australia. So the gap is a 10th bigger between Norris down to Vestappan this time round. Yeah. So that's Norris and Piastri at the front of the field. Vastappan and Russell are the nearest challenges. So I love that they're on the same row. They are on the same row.

And quite comfortably clear of their teammates that we'll get to the teammates a little bit later on in today's review. but Vastappan and Russell, both of them fairly close, separated by less than a tenth of a second. What did you make of both of their sessions? Max Verstappen was, I mean, he was Max Verstappen, right? The guy is, we say it all the time. He's bloody good at driving a race car is what Max Verstappen is. And we all came into it thinking, as can I be McLaren and Ferrari, McLaren and Ferrari, we might see some situational moments where a Mercedes or a Max Verstappenka.

Stappen pop up and they're part of that conversation. Doubt Max Verstappen at your peril, as Harry Ead would probably come out and say if he was here today, because the man could pull out a performance like I've never seen. Honestly, the way he pulls out tents from that car, you look at the onboard difference between Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen, and it is day and night difference between the two of them. Liam Lawson looks like he's got understeer at every corner.

He looks like, well, he stops having understeer. He's got to correct the wheel through a four times because the car wants to go in the other direction. He was off in the gravel. It was off in the grass. He was running outside of track limits. And yet you go through the same sector on board with Max Verstappen. And this is a very niche reference now.

So if you're not a gamer, I'm sorry. But it's like when you press pause on your remote controller in the F1 game and the AI takes over. And it just has the perfect line set up for it because it's a computer. Max Verstappen is a computer. I don't know how he does it. But he drives through so smoothly whilst getting this raw pace out of the car. I think three tents away.

from Norris Kadei in that Red Bull is mighty impressive. And if I'm Landon Norris, I'm going to look in my rearview mirror when it's raining tomorrow and go, oh, couldn't have been anyone else that was sat right behind me? I just wanted someone that wasn't Max Verstappen to be there because he was quick in the dry in that car. I think the moment it starts raining, that man becomes even more of a threat to those McLarence. So, sensational job from Max Verstappen. But it was George Russell out of this top four that really surprised me.

You know Max's got in his locker. You know the McLara boys could pull out of performance. But I bet if you said to George Russell, do you think you'll not be one place in front of your old teammate? Not two places, not three places, but four places in front of Louis Hamilton after that summer break. After everything that happened last year, George Russell was sublime qualifying to go.

I know we don't want to call him missed a Saturday. But I don't think that the saying is he's worthy of being up there and fighting with the likes of the Stafford and being on the tails of that McLaren team. And I think Kimi Antigelli, who calls, who caused his own problems today, the kick's still quick. I think the Mercedes has actually got something. They might have worked something out

over that winter break because they are a bit of a surprise, a bit of a dark horse here. Great drive from George Russell. Really, really impressive. See what he could do in the rain tomorrow. Yeah, both of them very impressive. I'd agree with that,

starting with Vestappen. So Vestappen said going into qualifying, he would be utterly shocked if he was on the front two rows. Isn't it amazing how not all of these teams are last going? into the season. They all want to make you believe they're the slowest car.

Surprise my golf can't go fast with how miserable they are. Oh, all week. It does my head in every year. Just going into the first week of the season, everyone is downplaying what they're capable of. But Vestappen at four attempts back, I think if you'd have said before the qualifying session what the gap would be to poll,

he probably would have said, oh, I'm right. I'm probably like sixth. Yeah. And we'll get on to Ferrari in a moment. but it seems as if the others, like, Russell's had a good effort, but the Ferraris haven't been able to get in that gap either. So being four attempts back is good enough to be the third fastest car on today's pace. And we've seen him threaten a race win and not only fretting a race win,

but actually get race wins from far, far back from third in wet conditions. Like he doesn't need to be as high up as he is to be in contention for the win. and yet he is. So you're right. If the, if the conditions are pretty bad tomorrow, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are going to have to look in their mirror for Vestappen going into turn one and it's turn three because he will be a factor. So good effort from Vastappen. George Russell similarly, good effort from him as well. He seemed pretty good throughout the practice sessions going into this. So I figured this would be roughly where he is, which is a compliment to him just based on he is that good of a qualifier.

And sometimes I think it is weirdly overlooked, despite the fact that he does have that Mr. Saturday moniker. Yeah, he did manage to outqualify Lewis Hamilton quite comfortably last season. He has been able to put it on poll multiple times last season. Hasn't got that today. But given the pace of the McLarence, I think he can look at this session honestly and say, I'm P2 of what I possibly could have achieved.

The only position is Vastappen in front of him that could have, in theory, been possible. So a good starting position tomorrow that he'll be hoping to make it pay. The next two drivers after that, Sunoda and Albin, because of course it is. Where you expect them to be, right? Yeah, yeah. Yuki Sonoda, firstly with him. He has been the centre of attention of the Red Bull conversation for quite a few months. obviously didn't get the Red Bull seat last year in favour of Liam Lawson.

He has just continued to do what he's done for quite a while here, right? I would like everyone to envisage Yuki Singoda walking past Christian Horner, but not as Yuki Singoda as Kendrick Lamar looking down the camera in the halftime show at the Super Bowl. At the moment he says, hey, Drake, that's what's happened with Yuki Singo right now. Hey, Christian. Two-step him past the Red Bull game. carriage as he is once again the second Red Bull family driver on the grid. He is only two places behind Max Verstappen and a car that is far inferior.

Right. He delivered today. This row is the surprise of the session. I'm not going to, we get onto Albaugh, who is equally done a phenomenal job. But I do think that Williams is actually probably better than where that racing balls car sits at the moment. So the fact that he's not only outqualified, you know, on Mercedes, a Red Bull, both Alpine, both Ferraris. He's done the Williams, two tenths away from the likes of Russell and Vestappen

in a car that is far worse. It just shows you how far Yuki Tsangoda has come. He's not this driving now that is irrational. He's not this driving out that is inconsistent. He turns up to most sessions, eight times out of ten, will pull something really quite brilliant out of the bag. And there's a risk that the Red Bull family will not only not promote him,

but they will get rid of him completely because I have that relationship with Honda moving away and there's no real need from him anymore. And I think it'll be a bit of a crying shame if we lose someone like Yuki Singer from our career because he's come along leaps and bounds and I was, I was wowed by what he was able to deliver.

He went under the radar quite a lot this session. It was quite unexpected the way he popped up there in P5. Alex Alibald, on the other hand, he's kind of not put the worries to bed about him and Carlos Sikes, but he has shown immediately that he's happy to come out swinging and he is fighting alongside Carlos Sites. and that Williams was looking very good.

I'm sure you and Mr. Harry Eager looking happy with your bold predictions right now about, about, was it, was it a Williams in the top six, or was it just signed? No, signed specifically. So, you know, it makes sense that qualifying went this way. Of course it does. Hey, the option still there,

and the card does that very good. An Albon, who I do think was matching science throughout qualifying the whole way through, did well to pull out the extra couple of attempts in that final run to stick it in P6. So solid. I'm sure James Vowles is ecstatic. of how the car has made that development over the winter break.

Let's hope they haven't sacrificed the only performance moving into 2026 for maybe this leap that they've found in 2025. Oh, Sunoda and Albin. What fantastic efforts from both of them, because they have out of this winter period perhaps had more, not questions asked about them, but maybe they did have the most approve of all the drivers on the grid, because Sonoda, again, it's been the Red Bull conversation.

With Albin, it's been Carlos Seins is actually a good teammate compared to some of the other drivers he's had in the past. Is he going to be able to step up? And both of them, maybe Chip on their shoulder, came out today and really performed. So in the case of Yuki Sonoda, he did seem to just get better and better as qualifying went on. And he seems to have a knack of not only delivering great laps,

but delivering great laps when he needs them most in qualifying sessions. He's not necessarily, he wasn't fifth for most of qualifying throughout Q1 and Q2, but when he's been in danger of being eliminated, whenever the gaps are a little bit too close to being knocked out, he's just able to deliver the lap that he needs to to make himself very comfortably safe. And he left it very late in the session compared to the likes of McLaren and Vestappen and all of the, well, I'd say all of the eyes are on him, but of course we didn't get to see the lap because, you know,

why would we? Why? Why would we want to see fast laps by fast cars when we're watching Formula One? But yeah, he really delivered. And it's not just the fact that he's fifth. It is the fact that he is a tenth off Russell. He's less than two temps off for Stap. And from Alex Albin's perspective,

I'm not sure if Carlos Sine's got a great lap together in Q3. but hey, that's qualifying. Signs and Album were fairly well matched throughout the first two qualifying sessions in Q1 and Q2 and in Q3, it is often just a case of who can pull out the lap in the dying seconds of the session. Today, Album was the guy that did it. So he's in a good position versus his teammate.

He's just in a good position generally. He will want to pick up some solid points given the fact that if you look at two of the four fastest cars, Red Bull and Mercedes. They're two, well, one and a half rookies, maybe you'd call Lawson and Antonelli. And they have to come a long way if they want to get points and eventually overtake these two drivers. So they'll both fancy themselves not only to get points, but maybe some solid points.

Let's take our break on this episode. On the other side, though, we've still got Ferrari to discuss, plus everything from Q1 and Q2. Welcome back, everyone. The fourth row of the grid is locked out. Ferrari. When we were talking about locking out a row of the grid, I'm not sure they had fourth in mind. Charles LeClair was on an interesting strategy in Q3. He went out early and then I think tried to better his time on used tires at the end of the session and unsurprisingly not able to do so.

He finishes in seventh. Lewis Hamilton just over two temps back in eighth place. We saw him have a spin earlier on in the session as well. So not necessarily an outright disaster. They have both made it to Q3, but based on where they were at the end of last year, specifically against McLaren, they're not that close. Yeah, I can hear the shattering of hopes and dreams of the Tophosi echoing across the planet at the moment. That is, if this is where they actually are a raw pace, so it's not Australia specific, or it's not weather specific, or they've set up maybe for the wet race on Sunday and they're hoping that actually their car really comes into it. There's a lot of hope going on.

There's a lot of hope. Because whether you want LeClaire or Hamilton or whatever to win, wingy Ferrari at the front this season. And I don't be winging, I just mean fighting with the likes of McLaur and with the Stapper with Russell for us to have that real all-encompassing, brilliant season that we were expecting to have. But this isn't where Ferrari were expected to be when they turned up, seemingly off the pace for all of qualifying.

Lecler kicked on well at the start, and it looked promising. Multiple times, he was less than a tenth away from the provisional poll time throughout sessions. And Lewis Hamilton, who started slow, dig seemed to find his feet, even with the spin that he had, which I actually think may have got him out of trouble in Q2. There was some fast lapsing coming, and the yellow flag he throws out, and that does beg the rule, should you lose your lap time if you pull out a yellow flag? I guess a conversation for another day

and when we've had many times before. Someone in F3 was penalised, I believe, for that this weekend. There you go. So let us know about you think that should carry on into Formula One. You could do that in our Discord, Patreon, all the links in the description. But with Ferrari, at least they're next to each other.

At least they are seventh and eighth. And you know what? You're going right, the Clare's P4, 1 tenth away, two tenths away, Hamilton P13, or the other way round. And that tells me, maybe as more of an issue, that the problem is with the car.

and that means it's going to take time and it's going to take some tuning and working out what is wrong with the car that can get them. Hamilton was nine-tenths away from pole. Now, I never expect to get him to out-class Leclerc in qualifying, especially the first time out in that car. Two-tenths away from Lecler, I actually think is very solid. That's what we were roughly discussing midweek.

Exactly. So right next to the grid, two-tenths behind. I'm all right with that. I could deal with that. The bigger issue is the gap between them as a team and pole position. If it was like four cents separates eighth down, to first, you go, all right, the race, the setup might be here, you might be set up for the

race, it might be something going on, you might not work well with the soft tie around there, fine, but nine-tenths, oh, that is a large gap in a Formula One car that you need to make up again. And people will be scratching their heads, people will be worrying slightly, where has the pace gone from the end of the season last year to the start of the season this year? And so many comments already on social media, you know, I've gone through the likes of Veto, I've gone through Lecler I've gone through Hamilton now. How many times do I have to look at these drivers

and hope this is our year? And again, Ferrari, is it not enough at the start of the season that it'll come back to bite you later on in the season? It's been a troubling start. I thought they'd be closer. Ugh. Look, Charlotte Clair is very good in qualifying.

We've seen that across multiple seasons. If he is six and a half temps back from pole, I'm led to believe that's where the car actually is. It's not like Charles LeCler has made a habit of underperforming versus what the car is capable of doing. Now, Lewis Hamilton, as already discussed, has a bit of an out in terms of it's its first race of Ferrari. So maybe we get a few more races before we get a true representation of where he is. But Charles LeCler has been there for quite a while. And yeah, if he's six and a half temp's back, I'm not inclined to say, the car's probably only two temps back.

Charlotte-Clau's just underperformed it. No, that's not how it tends to work. It's not an outright disaster. They can still, particularly if we have difficult conditions tomorrow, they can still salvage something from seventh and eighth. But I think you're right in saying the bigger concern is, is this Australia specific, is this setup specific, or is this just where the car is?

Because that's the worst of the three possible outcomes of that discussion. And they would have, if it's true pace, they would have a long way to go to catch up to definitely McLaren, but even getting on a par with maybe Vastappan and Russell, would be a little bit of a challenge. So, yeah, it's a bit worrying for this season where I think the hope is we're going to have multiple drivers, multiple teams in the fight, they are going to have to make something up to get that closer to a reality.

Hamilton has the spin, which is obviously far from ideal. I think the whole, and it's not it wasn't just him, but the whole session was a case of can you keep those tires alive for that final sector. And that was one bit of evidence that Hamilton couldn't on that particular lap, which by the way, I thought was just great. I love that. These soft tires, by the way, even if it is dry tomorrow, I don't think it's going to get used by anyone because they are useless. They are useless for race conditions. But for qualifying conditions, I think they're fantastic because there is that added

challenge of making sure at the end of the lap, there's still something in them. Even with McLaren we saw with Piastri, like it's difficult to keep those tires alive for all three sectors. It reinforces the idea generally that I think qualifying tires should be reintroduced into the sport, because that's roughly, I think, what we've got today. But, yeah, worrying for Ferrari down on the fourth row. Let's move on to some of the drivers that featured in Q2. Should we start with Aston Martin?

So they'll go from 12th and 13th on the grid, which, I don't know, is that roughly where you'd thought there'd be? Astin Martin might be the most baffling team this session, actually. Fernando Alonkso kicked off in a brilliant form He looked like he was once again Dragging a car by the scruff of its neck Up to a place where it shouldn't be As is just Fernando alongside things really

The man is clearly just so good at outperforming what he's driving Which tells you if he was in a Red Bull Or a McLaren right now What could he be doing? Well he was thinking of McLaren he left So that's where I was a legal surprise To see where Alonkso was similarly so good Lank Stroll was severely not good at all

and had to keep bailing on laps. There was a second half, and yet they've managed to end up right next to each other. And I suppose maybe that's slightly disappointing for Faganda, who maybe was put at a little bit of jeopardy with the traffic, and again, the Hamilton Sping, I'm not entirely sure where he wound up in all that kerfuffle. And Lantzstrol maybe a little bit happy to be where he is

and seeing his teammate right alongside him, pretty ends up going, well, you know, if I'm next to Alonso, for I don't know. I long so. I've probably done a pretty good job here. I'll probably done all right. So I think Asthmaic could probably walk away slightly relieved that they are where they are and they didn't find themselves in the Haast position on the back row of the grid because there was a long of speculation that that car looked ropy going into this first race of the season and that they had not got themselves together. But they're kind of where they were

last year and I guess on a year where they're not really trying, they're throwing the toweling a little bit, Adrian Newey comes in or has come in now and he's going to start working on the car for 2026, I imagine. This isn't the end of the world. You know, cut the yellow flags, maybe a DNF. Points are definitely on the cards for this team. So I think for Ashton, it's all right. It's not a complete disaster here. Yeah, it was very odd. Coming out of preseason testing, they didn't look very good whatsoever. After Q1, they looked pretty good. And, And then they kind of found somewhere in the middle to finish in Q2, sorry. So yeah, I feel like they eventually reverted back to the norm.

But it's okay. It's far from a disaster. There are other drivers behind them from competitive teams. But equally, they are retaining, or they have retained the same lineup from last year. there are a number of rookies around them, maybe they would have expected in this first qualifying session that even with a car that isn't performing as well as they'd like, they should be out qualifying a lot of these drivers in their very first session. Let's move on to a couple of those rookies. Start with Hajjar and Duan. So both of them made it through to Q2, which other rookies did not.

However, both of their teammates made it through to Q3, where they couldn't. So how would you sum up both of their sessions. I wanted to be impressed with Hajjar, and he did a good job. But when you look at where Yuki Singh Oga's ending up, it is, must be frustrating because Hagear, you know, P11 in that racing ball, if you said, take Yuki Scare out of the equation and you could say, you know, Friday afternoon, Isaac Haggillard is going to be P11 and his first qualifying in that car. You go, oh, right, that's pretty solid, pretty good going.

We don't expect in that car to maybe be, you know, scraping through Q1 in that kind of 15th, 14th on a good day. 11th, solid. I see Yuki Sanoa in P5, I said two tenths away from Maxa Staping, a Red Bull. You think, ah, poo. That's, it's good, but it's not Yuki Sanoa good. Anyway, he's a rookie.

He's going to take time to bedding. This is promising start from Isaac Adjar, and it's kicking off where he left F2. That raw pace is coming to play. He shows that he can get his lapsing. He's consistent, he's solid. Let's see if he builds into it and what has raised paces. I was happy for him.

I wasn't looking at that and going, uh-oh. you know, warning shines flashing immediately. Jack doing on the other hand, I was surprised by he didn't blow me out the water and Gassie still beat him,

but he was also, again, massively hampered by Lewis Hamilton-Spig. He was going through so much traffic on his final run. And whilst I don't think he ever had enough to really get himself into Q3, he was a lot closer to Pierre Gassi throughout the whole qualifying session than I expected,

and he did not embarrass himself. I think that Alpins, It's very much maybe sitting around that fifth fastest team at the moment. It's kind of fighting with that spot with Williams at the moment. And whilst Gassily is doing gassy things, I think he's doing a great job getting into Q3. And we know what Gassi is these days. It's a really, really great, strong midfield driver.

I thought doing would be much further off the pace. I wouldn't have been shocked with a Q1 elimination from doing today before the weekend started. And the fact that he was so much in the fight for a late entry into Q3, in around the Aston Martins with Hager, not too far as his team, either after what I said with the, I've got the blocking, but the traffic. I was quite happy with him. I actually think he's kicked off well.

Let's hope the race goes even better and he can start his seizing a really positive light. Because I think if he gets an early confidence in him, we might actually see Do would be one of those people that adapt to Formula One better than how they adapted to the Junior Formula. It does happen rarely, but it does happen. Yeah, I was impressed by both of them,

both had Jaran doing. I think they've both slightly out. performed my expectations of them going into this session. Hadjar, yes, I think you're right, looking at what Sonoda did in Q3. He'll be a little annoyed that he didn't get the opportunity to do something similar in that third part of qualifying. But equally, he was the best rookie. And I don't think many people going in today thought he would be the best rookie.

Whether you call Liam Lawson, a rookie is obviously up for interpretation. But given you've got him, Antonelli, you've got Bearman. And I'm not sure many would have said, yeah, Hadjar's probably got him all beat. So I think he's done a really good job. And he was only a couple attempts away from Sonoda in that second part of qualifying as well. Obviously, that was the difference between Sonoda making it through and Hadjar being knocked out. But yeah, I think 11th is a fine attempt from him. And you're right, I think Dewan was pretty good.

I would have been interested to see where his lap that was disrupted, where that would have finished up. But yeah, I think both of them can go away from this session with something to build on in the race and indeed in the next qualifying session in China. Another rookie that made it through to Q2, where his teammate did not, was Gabriel Bortoletto. Now, we know Nika Holcombberg's proficiency in qualifying, but Bortoletto able to just about outperform him in Q1. Yeah, the only rookie to beat their longstanding teammates. and bloody hell I was impressed with Bortoletto. He is taken to this like a duct to water.

That car, we know, is rough, right? We saw it last year. We weren't expecting it to come on leaps and bount. It's better than I thought it was going to be. But it did do better than expected, yes. It has outdone my expectations for it. I mean, the expectations were, you know, they were low. Yeah.

They still bat. They still very low. You can't limbo under this expectation. But they have raised the bar slightly. And fair play. to Borcholetto for not only coming in, not only adapting well, of course,

the reigning F2 champion, but proving why the hype around him is so there, so positive, it's so reaffirmed. I have been reaffirmed by that hype and by what he's delivered, because it's not only coming and be right next to Holgerberg in that bag of bolts,

but actually to beat him, and not beaten by one, but two places, and beat Antonelli, who will get onto shortly, in a Mercedes is really quite spectacular, beat Lawson as well, of course, in the Red Bull.

There's a bright future for that young man. I hope this isn't just a spark that burns out quickly. And it doesn't, we don't get back to some kind of normality, maybe with the next few races. But if this is how he's going to kick his F1 career off and it's going to carry on in this vein, there's big things to come for this man. Yeah.

Holkenberg is good in qualifying. We have established that over the last few years. And what Bortoletto was able to do on his first run in qualifying is highly impressive. I know the gap wasn't massive between them, but that's, you know, those fine margins are what Q1 is all about. We often see that the very fastest teams on the grid don't properly open up the car until Q2. So we do often get the field spread from first all the way down to 20th is really close. So Bortoletto being able to outqualify four slash five others, obviously Bermann doesn't really count in this equation.

I think is really good going. Obviously, was a bit overzealous in the second part, qualifying somehow didn't bin the car going for a 10-4. It was a very good save, yeah. Went wide there. But to even get to that stage of qualifying, very impressive.

It's only one qualifying session. So I'm not going to crown my win of Bortoletto and teammate wars this early. But this session made me feel better about the pick. it's become a much closer shout. I mean, the racing is where the points are score, but he's put himself in the right place for it. And like I said, Salber not exactly lighting the world up in 15th and 17th, but I think there was a real danger they were going to be a distant last.

And I think that has at least been put to one side. They are maybe still last, but it's not a distant last. And honestly, not just a point about Salber, but all the way up and down this grid, I think qualifying sessions could be incredibly exciting this year. And I know they're exciting anyway, but I just don't know if there are any slouches on this grid. Like, it's a really good grid from top to bottom, I think.

We are really getting to a place in Formula One where, and we say this semi-regular. So if you need to the show, feel free to go back and listen to our catalogue. There were a few years ago, you had some drivers who were maybe paying their way onto the grid, or brought in a great sponsor and we're all right, but, you know, weren't top tier. I'm struggling to pick out anyone that I look at now at Lancasterol

that is, oh my God, what are you doing on this grid? You're there because of X, Y and Z. So you're right. We are in an incredible place. We had it last year where if you made a mistake, especially if you're on the big teams, you might find yourself in P-16 or P-14. I think the risk might be even higher this year.

Yeah, you're on your A-game, and you saw what happened to Lawson. I saw it happened to Antonelli. I think in previous years, Antonelli gets away with it. I think so. I think because his final lap was okay. Like it was okay,

not good, okay. But we thought Louis Hamilton, the Mercedes a couple of times last year, where Perez even more. So you make a mistake or you're just not with the car. You are out in Q1, and I think we'll see a lot of that this year.

Yeah, so good effort from Borteletto to make it through to Q2. Not bad for a B-rated driver, as Helmut Marco calls him. Thank you, Marco. And if you want our full take on that, that will be coming up in our next Patreon episode that we're going to be recording. So if you're not already a part of the Patreon, make sure you get involved in the link in the description. A few more things to tick off before we get out of here from Q1 specifically.

So as mentioned, Antonelli in P16, Lawson in P18. So one driver from two of the four top teams in the sport knocked out in this first phase of qualifying. Let's start with Antonelli. They decided to go the same strategy for Antonelli as they did for Russell, starting on the medium tire in the session, which meant a late attempt on softs from Antonelli wasn't quite enough. We saw that there were a few issues with the car as well. Not the smooth start to his F1 career that he'd have wanted.

Yeah, Mercedes, why? Why did you do this? I thought that was poor. Yeah, I'm, you know, George Russell is one of, not a veteran of the Grig now, but he's got a lot of bloody experience and he knows what he's doing with himself. And you know how good George Russell is on a Saturday. The kid can qualify.

So I get why you might go, George, if you feel all right in the car, do you want to give it a crack to start with on mediums and just see what happens? Because we know the softs die off so quickly that in theory, the reasoning is, in that final sector, as we discussed earlier, those memes might still be alive.

You could push the whole way around. I get the logic behind it. And George Russell is the right guy to have that experiment with because he can come in, he can change those ties. And you can trust that, you know, 99% of the time, he will get back out on the soft tire if it hasn't worked and he will deliver a lap that's probably good enough to get himself out of Q1. And he did, easy, no problem. George Russell is a solid guy, it's dependable. Kimi Antingelli, it's his first ever Formula One qualifying. It's the first time he's ever had to do a full lapping anger in a competitive session.

And you've gone, ah, yeah, we'll give him the tricky strategy. as well, why not? He won't settle his nerves. We won't let him adjust. You won't let him go, oh, yeah, that was a good lap. Solid. I'm up there now with George. I'm up there with Max.

I'm up there with the McLaren's. I'm beating a Ferrari. I can settle the nerves. He had no chance to settle his nerves. He threw him in the deep end. And there's a bloody lying swimming around in the deep end. I go eat him, poor lad. He's only 18 years old.

Why you didn't just send him out a set of soft in some clean air and let him do a proper lap? I don't know. And then I have to blame him. He damaged the car. The reason why the floor had some problems because he went over some curbing and the curbing did seem to be a bit of a menace

for a lot of the drivers today. Which I don't mind. I don't mind that there's some, you know, trouble around the track that you've got to navigate. And that then caused another setback. I think he's under pressure. And this is not how you put a young mind at ease by slapping pressure on him time and time again.

Just let him settle the nerves, let him blow off the cobweb from the winter and just get into the season how he wants to. Because even if you know what, he goes out in Q2 and he's 11th. and you go, okay, all right, not ideal, but you can get into the points tomorrow is possible. He's miles back today.

It's going to take a miracle for him to get to the points. Yeah, I'm not going to blame the drivers, both Antonelli and Lawson too much on this, just based on Antonelli, it's his first ever race, and for Lawson, it's his first race for Red Bull. But, yeah, I do blame the team for the strategy there. Even at the time, and some people might be thinking, you're saying this with hindsight.

Like, no, at the time I was like, don't love this. Because it may be on another day it would have worked out. But I just didn't think it was worth the risk in what was his very first qualifying session. This is 2014 Mercedes, guys. You can't just run the medium tire, I expect to get through anymore. I mean, Russell did. But as you say, Russell has that experience of the car. We've seen what he can do in qualifying.

For a first attempt, I just didn't think it was worth it for Antonelli. From Lawson's perspective, we saw him go off twice. We saw him go off into turn three and at the final corner when he said there were no tires left at the end of the lap. I've got to say, it didn't look like he was on for a great lap anyway on the second run. He was down on Bortoletto's time through the first two sectors. And I think that was before Bortoletto improved his time. So I'm not sure he would have made it anyway. But it's, again, I don't want to make judgment too early with Liam Lawson here.

this is the problem that Red Bull have had is getting that second car through the qualifying sessions into Q3. So it's something that he and the team will need to work on. Yeah, I felt a bit sorry for Liam Lawson. I do think unlike Antingelli, where I do think that some of the blame lays with the, lies with the team, this is on Lawson. There was, you know, nothing particularly wrong with the car. He did burn his tires up too quickly. But this is what I meant when you saw the difference. We were speaking out Max Verstappen.

you can see the difference on board between Lawson and Bostappan. And we've had this conversation of how much of the car do you make for Max Verstappen? You know, it is the perfect car for Max for Stappen. Every time they build a car, it's built for Max for Stappen. And he is such a unique driving style. And I don't blame Max for that. It clearly gets those brilliant results, right? He is a superstar and he rightly deserves to have priority in a lot of these situations.

But I just want to ask the question, our Red Ball over the last few years, leaning slightly too heavy on Max's driving soul, which is so unique, expecting these youngsters or these good, not great drivers to have to change their whole style to try and adapt to the car. You can see how much he was struggling. The understeer that we saw in testing really seemed to come back for Liam Norson. He was seemingly unable to get the car turned in properly, running wide on numerous occasions,

multiple corrections through corners. It just never looked comfy, it never looked good for him. You can see his frustration when going out the car. That's not what he walks in his first qualifying. You saw, understandably, like the Perez fans were out there, bloody going, well, it's not just Perez. It's not just Sergio. And we know Sergio's a great driver.

So you have to start asking the questions. Is it Red Bull? Or is it the drivers? Is there something seriously wrong with their scouting of their secondary driver? Which I don't really think there is, because Perez has always been solid, gasoline, Albaugh, good drivers. Lawson, we don't know properly yet, but seemingly good. Stappen always in that.

top fight. You know, is there a balance that needs to be found there? I don't know. But Feltbit's sorry for him. Tough run. Let's see if he gets a four-monger's belt. Hopefully, we don't have another case of one Red Bull driver forever in Q1 and Q2 for the whole season while Max Verstappel is in the top three.

Anything you'd like to say about Hass? Because Ocon was consistently either the slowest or very close to the slowest driver throughout this weekend. Behrman had two spins going. into qualify, one spin, one crash going into qualifying, and then his gearbox didn't work, so essentially had no time whatsoever, it's not being a great start to the year for them. No, it has not. The car looks, I would say, a handful. It is all over the shop, whilst simultaneously being very slow. What makes a good F1 car? Usually, you're able to go

very fast and you're able to control it at the same time, right? Smoothness, slowing, fast out, tends to be what makes for a good F1 car. You go on board with that hars, even Ockon, who obviously didn't put it in the water or anything, and he's struggling. He's at the wheel like a seesaw, you know, up and down, left and right. It's so difficult to get it in and out the corner. And that tells me that they're probably trying something a little bit experimental on that harsh car and that maybe an upgrade or a setup hasn't clicked for them.

and there could be a lot of pace in that car. I would be shocked, actually, if we go through the season and Haas are sat regularly in 19th and 20th place. I think there's more pace in that car than what we're seeing. But that also tells me that if they get the development wrong, it could very quickly end up being that Haas are actually the slowest car, and they just go down the wrong direction. I trust in Kamatsu, the man cooks.

I'm sure he'll pull something out the kitchen. But Behrman clearly struggling. Obviously, it's a rookie first time properly as a permanent F1 driver. Putting it in the wall twice in practice is rough. The gearbox I got working is a real shame for him. I don't think he got off the back row anyway if he did get the laps in because the car wasn't there. Because Ockon, who is a very dependable guy, you know, we have a lot of love for O'Con

over here and we know that he delivers. He was up against Gasly and did very, very well. Look where Gasly is. That car is not good. The drivers are trying. The car is not good. Let's hope they find something that clicks and suddenly that pace starts to emerge. Yeah.

Can someone please give my boy Estabana a good car? Never again. No, that was tough. Again, Ocon's experienced. He's done very well in qualifying in the past. If he's 19th, and that was where he was consistently throughout the practice sessions, that's probably where the car is, at least for this weekend. Behrman, a very rough start to his proper F1 career,

but we'll see what they can do in the race. They might just treat tomorrow as a test session, which might not be ideal given we have wet weather conditions. I think if they were picking, they'd rather it be dry to have that full test almost. But yeah, not a good start to the season for Hasse, which is a surprise based on where they ended last year. Before we go, Sam, who was driver of the session? I'm going to go on landing Norris again. Whilst I think there are shouts for the likes of Yuki, Albon, I think Max is a fantastic job.

Norris, again, was able to step up. And when you are up against Oscar Piazschey, who is not an absolute. demon at qualifying, but the car still needs to be brought out of his shell and on the first time round, it's still tough. So to put three tenths between himself and Max Verstappen to beat his teammate, he looked very, very comfortable. Part of that one time he ran

wide and had to, you know, he lost his lap, he looked very, very good for the whole session. Mightily impressed, great way for them to kickstart the season. I am going to go for Sonoda. Phenomenal effort to get on the third row of the grid, to get all the way up to fifth. Remains to be seen what that car is capable of doing tomorrow.

but yeah, he sailed through Q1 and Q2 and then delivered that lap when he needed to. He's three tenths clear of both Ferraris. Sorry, three times clear of the Ferrari of Hamilton. He's a 10th clear of the likes of Albin and LeCler as well. So I'm not sure many people going into the session would have had Yuki Sonoda much higher than about 9th or 10th. So to get fifth, phenomenal effort. Agreed. He was fantastic.

All right, then. that is the first review done, first qualifying review done of 2025, but it doesn't end here. We've of course got a race review to go tomorrow. But not only that, we won't have to talk via the medium of Google Meet tomorrow, Sam. No, we'll be in the same place. I'm looking forward to this, you and me. We'll sit down together. We'll watch the race together, which is going to be great.

I've even promised to fry up once we've done. This is true. So that would be good. Yes, so folks, stick around for the race for them straight after the Grand Prix. We record it. We do a quick 10 minutes of analysis and we record it straight after. So you get the passion, you get the energy. And then if you want even more content, you always support the show.

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