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66:09
Place
Red Bull Ring
The race track in Austria where the Austrian Grand Prix is held. It's owned by the Red Bull energy drink company and is known for being short, fast, and having beautiful mountain views.
Person
Charles Leclerc
A highly talented racing driver from Monaco who drives for the famous Ferrari team in Formula 1.
Person
Max Verstappen
A highly successful Dutch racing driver who has won multiple Formula 1 world championships with the Red Bull team.
Person
Kimi Antonelli
An incredibly fast young Italian racing driver who was signed by the Mercedes Formula 1 team at a very young age due to his amazing talent.
Term
tyre delta
The difference in speed between a car with fresh, new tyres and a car with old, worn-out tyres. Newer tyres have more grip, making the car much faster.
Brand
Ferrari
The most famous and historic team in Formula 1 racing, known for their bright red cars and passionate Italian heritage.
Person
Lewis Hamilton
One of the greatest racing drivers of all time, who has won a record-tying seven Formula 1 world championships.
Part
Energy Recovery System (ERS)
The hybrid battery system in modern Formula 1 cars that saves up energy when the car brakes and uses it to give the car an extra boost of speed on the straightaways.
Term
Virtual Safety Car
A system used during a race when there is a minor hazard on the track. Instead of a real safety car leading the pack, drivers must slow down to a safe speed and stay the same distance apart from each other.
Term
undercut
A racing strategy where a driver makes a pit stop earlier than the car in front of them. By getting fresh, faster tyres first, they can drive fast enough to overtake the other car when it finally stops for its own tyres.
Concept
lift-and-coast technique
A technique where a driver takes their foot off the gas pedal a bit early before a corner to let the car coast. It helps save fuel and battery power during a race.
Concept
ground effect
A design trick where the bottom of a race car is shaped to suck the car down onto the track using the air flowing underneath it. This helps the car go through corners incredibly fast.
LIVE
Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy.
Round eight, Dan and Dusted, Austria in the locker and you know what, qualifying was controversial.
We got into that very deeply because there were many things to discuss today.
You know, there are things I want to talk about.
There are things I don't want to talk about and we won't talk about the things I don't want to talk about, Tommy.
Because I honestly want to just never watch Formula One ever again.
But that's fine.
Great start to a Formula One podcast.
It is, it is.
But if you know my allegiances to Charlotte Clair and if you're new to the podcast, that's why.
OK, how are you feeling, Tommy?
Mixed emotions.
But yeah, I mean, at least he wasn't eighth, I guess.
P2 for your boy, of course, Max Verstappen.
Yes, indeed.
Yeah, it was a good race.
I enjoyed it.
Obviously, we didn't get the absolute unbelievable finish that we were maybe getting.
Maybe a few more laps and we would have got that.
But to say that the kind of how bad the races were last year, I cannot complain about the top three being separated by two seconds and the kind of action we saw.
So certainly not a bad race at all.
I thought it was quite enjoyable.
Now, before we get into all of it, including things I don't want to talk about,
shout out to our wonderful P1 patrons who will be getting extra chat at the end of every single race review this season,
as well as ad-free listening, discord access, early access to live show tickets and more.
Come and join the P1 Patreon if you haven't already.
We would love to see you there.
And it directly supports me and Tommy to continue waffling about Formula One until the end of time.
So, Tommy, why don't we start with you and your most memorable moment?
So my memorable moment was that battle in the final laps that we were so close.
Maybe five more laps and it would have been absolutely unbelievable.
You had that perfect storm of maybe things that we saw.
And this is maybe what like a two stopper brings to to Formula One and what we were praying about for to have so many times
and why the races weren't very good last year is people in slightly different strategy offsetting their strategy.
And then someone on much quicker, you know, better tires gaining time.
And we saw a situation where George Russell was leading.
Verstappen was closing in and then Anthony was closing in on both of them even quicker, potentially.
And yeah, all of them arrived together right at the end, but we just ran out of laps.
And and yeah, it was it was incredible to to watch.
It was it was exciting.
You know, Hart was racing during it, of course, as a Verstappen fan.
Did not expect Max Verstappen to be fighting the Mercedes.
If he'd said that when he was P five on the grid, yes, in qualifying, he put in an amazing first lap.
And we thought, wow, OK, the Red Bull has improved.
But for him to be fighting for the win and be that close, it was
yeah, mixed mixed emotions with it, but a really exciting finish.
Yeah, I think the word battle is
it was a time trial battle that did not see any will to will action whatsoever.
So it was tantalisingly close.
It was exciting to see it come down.
Those last 10 laps, it felt like it was needing another five.
But then by the last few, George, you know, losing a solid amount of time
in those last couple of laps, Max getting within one and a half seconds.
Antonelli would have cleared Max on the next lap.
Yeah, so yeah, you were breathing a sigh of relief, I think, with the fact it was a 71 lap race,
even though your boy was catching George Russell for the win.
One or two more laps, I think Max finishes third and Kimmy, who knows?
Who do you think there's a question?
Who do you think wins with an extra 10 laps? Antonelli?
Extra 10 laps, Antonelli hands down.
Yeah, I think Antonelli was on, I think, roughly.
Let me check it rather than saying roughly.
He was on eight lap fresher tyres from Russell.
He was on two lap fresher tyres than Max Verstappen ahead of him,
but also was just flying.
He was so quick this weekend.
So who would you go for? Who are you locking in?
If it was 10 laps, Antonelli, I think, I think we would have seen a fantastic battle.
Five, I don't think Russell still just gets it, because it was quite hard to pass, we saw.
Unless you shall look like I would know power going into 10-9.
Like we're talking about the front three.
How have you even...
No, it's just the one thing that came into my head.
Of course it did, because you're a terrible person.
So look, the battle was interesting.
It's a shame, as we say, but it is a 71 lap race, and that's all she wrote.
And we've seen Formula One races in the past that have done it.
And sadly, it was again today.
We were also teased rain, but I never listened to rain shots ever,
even though we see a radar with its coming over the circuit.
No, till I literally see it on the track, I don't want to know about it.
Let's go to a question from Piper MZ Mimic X.
If Red Bull hadn't kept Max out for so long on that second stint, could he have won?
It's an interesting question.
I think it's the biggest talking point when it comes to the battle
between the top three, at least in Max Verstappen's about his race,
because he did lose quite a solid amount of time in those last three or four laps.
Of course, he got a six lap tyre delta to George Russell,
which is what Red Bull wanted.
They love giving Max a bit of a fresher set of tyres and he can go for it.
But the problem for him is that he came out the pits and he was 10 seconds behind.
So in hindsight, absolutely, they should have stuck with it.
And they probably should have also taken some sort of positive motivation
around the fact that Max was on one lap older tyres in the previous stint
and was closing in on George.
Yeah, he was.
So it wasn't really necessary.
Again, we're talking with hindsight.
We're talking with the data in front of us now.
But when you look at the evidence, it suggests that Max could have had a chance.
But maybe what Red Bull were thinking on the pit wall is, yes,
Max might be able to catch George, but passing him is a completely different thing.
So that's what they've done.
They've decided to go for that bigger tyre offset,
which was maybe two or three laps out in terms of their calculations.
It's not something I'm going to say they cost him the win.
But I don't think it was the absolute optimum strategy.
But then again, who does perform that over the course of a race
when you're fighting for the win?
Overtaking wasn't particularly easy.
I would say that this race even, you know, we'll talk about Ferrari's strategy later
and how Lewis Hamilton, you know, going on those soft tyres,
he didn't exactly fly through the field.
So we've seen a situation where the Stappen, their whole tactic at Red Bull
and I can absolutely see why they did it.
So I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, my God, they've absolutely bottled the win.
It was a ridiculous call.
They went for it and knew that if George's tyres started to go,
Max would just easily be able to get to him.
The other side of the coin is they pit him a lot earlier.
He doesn't have that same offset.
And yes, he closes up, but then it's incredibly hard to pass George Russell,
who, you know, has his deployment of that Mercedes has obviously been amazing this year
and would certainly put up a fight.
I'm so gutted we did not get to see George Russell and Max Stappen fight for the win.
You know, how dare we only see Max Stappen and Lewis Hamilton go wheel-to-wheel run
four corners? How are we kind of eager for more this season?
Other races are quite good.
Exactly. Let's go to another question from R&B Sheeps.
Is this the start of George's title fight going into momentum month?
I think you are absolutely insane if you ever wrote George Russell off,
even when he was all that way.
And I know he himself was maybe a bit downbeat and going, oh, looks not on my side.
And Antonelli was winning everything.
That race, and we don't know how it's going to go,
is screamed very similar to kind of Lando Norris last year and how,
you know, we've seen George.
The reason Lando won that championship last year, I'm absolutely convinced of it, was
even his bad days when he was, you know, getting criticism and criticizing himself.
He was still picking up like P3s and things like that.
And George, you know, George today,
I don't know, was he the quicker merc driver?
He wasn't miles, certainly wasn't, you know, miles faster than Antonelli,
but he did what he needed to do, got the victory.
No, he wasn't faster at all.
No, I don't think he was.
There's no chance.
I think Antonelli on the front row of the grid.
Antonelli is probably winning that race.
He looked quicker, but George, you know, while Antonelli had a scruffy race some of the times,
passing other other cars, Russell led from the front, did exactly what I needed to do to win the
race. And this is happening at a part of the season where George is not confident in that car,
a bit like Lando last year.
And if he can still get wins and results and podiums when the car is not to his liking,
when it comes to him, you know, and he, and I'm sure there'll be races,
we've not really seen it in a while, but there will be races where I think George Russell will
be quicker than Antonelli at some points.
I don't think it would be every single race at some point of the season,
but it will happen.
So for him to be only 40 points behind at this stage, there's a lot of F1
and a lot of races still to go.
So he's definitely in with a shot this championship and I wouldn't bet against him in winning it.
You wouldn't bet against him.
So you're now saying that you're backing George for the championship over Kimmy?
No, I still think Kimmy is, I say, I wouldn't bet against him.
I'm not, I'm not basically picking aside.
I'm just saying that it's not, it's not an insane thing.
I think, I think maybe we're all a little bit too knee jerk with Monaco and being like titles over.
See you later. Like, how's he going to catch up?
He definitely will.
He definitely will.
He definitely will catch up.
He's going to catch up.
There's no way, I don't think the points gap will be that large.
I don't necessarily think George will win it, but there'll be moments where George
closes in a lot and I think it'd be a lot closer than people are maybe thinking.
Yeah, I mean, look, where I stand with for this up until this point is that without Antonelli's
DNF, of course, in Spain, the gap will be a lot bigger, but then you can also say without
Russell's DNF in Canada.
Again, but when we're looking at what we have seen so far this year, barring Australia,
has there been a point where George has genuinely looked the quicker driver,
especially in race trim?
No, not once.
So for me, it will require, so basically how I saw George Russell today.
No, he wasn't the quicker Merck driver, but he was the cleaner Merck driver
and he didn't make a mistake in qualifying.
He read the situation correctly.
He saw it was a single wave yellow, completed the lap, got pole position.
What did Kimmy Antonelli do?
He read it as a double yellow, which was a mistake from him.
He didn't read the panel correctly.
It was definitely a single yellow.
That's what is very clear now.
And then after that, he had a scruffy lap one, two.
He was down to fifth place.
Meanwhile, George Russell is out in front extending that gap over his teammate who's
having to be stuck in traffic.
Without all of that, Antonelli would have, of course, had been right on the back of George,
but that's that aside.
Kimmy has put this on him.
He's put that pressure on him.
He's made the mistakes.
He's probably thinking about last year a little bit as well into turn three, sorry,
lap one, and how he missed his breaking point exponentially badly.
He still managed to run wide and nearly crash into the back of Leclerc,
but this time got away with it.
For George and the question that was asked specifically around the title fight,
yeah, I always thought that George would have a good run through the sort of European season.
And I agree with your point in the fact that he's made it work in a car that he's clearly not
entirely comfortable with.
He even said this track is not something, a track that suits his driving style.
So if he can go through this period of time where he's getting used to the car,
adapting his driving style slightly, then yes, he will have a chance of winning this world
championship, especially when you then consider reliability.
There can be huge swings in this championship as we've seen twice already with both of the
Merck drivers retiring on separate occasions.
See, I think Antonelli, from a paced perspective, is absolutely still the favourite.
So very Oscar Piastri, isn't it?
Last year, that is always the thing in the back of my mind that even the races last year,
it was all Piastri, Piastri, Piastri of like quicker driver.
And Lando was there when he didn't have it all worked out.
And then when he did at the end, obviously, he was close enough to do it.
So, I mean, if, yeah, it's going to come down to that.
If George can, on his bad days, stay close.
Like a 40-point gap is very small at this stage compared to what it was looking like
after Monaco thinking, wow, is it going to be like 150 points by this race?
Exactly. So a lot of points have been taken out of Antonelli's lead in the last two races.
And I think George will be very happy with that.
Let's now go to a question from Prancing Papayas.
What happened to Kimmy in the start of the race?
He was going on adventures off track every other turn and then an eyes emoji.
Now, obviously, I've mentioned the first couple of laps were really scruffy.
I think for Kimmy, he had a problem with his brakes and the temperatures.
I think it was a split brakes, I think they called it,
where essentially the temperature is different between the left side and the right side of the
front brakes. Actually, I don't know if it was necessarily the front,
but the brakes just in general. And I'm not exactly sure if that came in,
because that seemed like that was a team radio message in the middle of the race.
So whether that was the cause at the start as well.
I'm just judging off what Kimmy Antonelli said after the race,
where he mentioned that problem after I think Grace later said about his issues at the start.
But for Kimmy, that's what cost him the win.
That's what cost him second place as well, for sure,
was the fact that he was passed by... Who was it that he was passed by?
Because he started fourth and then he went down to fifth.
He got passed by... Not Hamilton, was it? Was it Hamilton? No, Leclerc. It was Leclerc.
Leclerc was ahead of him. And then there was the Stappen battle as well.
I'm trying to remember when he was losing time. He was fighting Leclerc.
I'm sure he was fighting Leclerc and then he went for a move.
And then Max, was it Max came through?
So it was Max because Max would have started behind Antonelli.
So it was Max that came through on Kimmy.
And yeah, look, it was frantic.
It was a great action at the start of the race.
And yeah, for Kimmy, it was really costly for him.
And he's sort of fortunate that he didn't come out worse
with any sort of damage or big problems for his car.
It was impatient. Yeah, I'm watching it back now.
Lap 2, he goes down the inside of Leclerc turn one,
which he absolutely does not need to do.
He would have got a fantastic, a much better opportunity.
He's doing Ferrari as slow in a straight line as well.
Exactly. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that we rarely see an overtake
into turn one unless it's slam dunk.
It always happens at turn three where you get a much better opportunity
and you're not compromising your line into the next corner.
And he went in so deep that yeah, absolutely right,
that it bought Max Verstappen into it.
And then actually the two McLarens were all over the back of him
as well at that point where we had that shot of them all together on track fighting.
And yeah, it's just an experience from Antonelli.
It's why I've enjoyed watching him racing.
It's very of a Stappen-esque to go for the immediate catch.
And by surprise, the second go for somewhere crazy,
but he absolutely didn't need to do it.
And it does make you wonder that had he just made that move stick
and he's immediately ahead of Verstappen or whatever and can close in a bit,
it's very fine margins that maybe his race could have been a bit different.
But I think there's a lot of people behind George Russell,
this race going, what if we mentioned about Max with his pit stops?
And equally, you could argue the same with the Stappen's battle with Hamilton.
And yeah, and Charlotte Clair as well.
Charlotte Clair, yeah, could have easily got seventh place,
but instead had to settle for eighth.
What a segue to my most memorable moment that I want to remove from my memory,
which is the fact that Ferrari really, really struggled, not a lot of pace,
especially on the Le Clair side of things.
And the strategy was also one to be very, very harshly questioned, I would say.
So why don't we start with the strategy and a question from Chris Carey five.
Did Ferrari cost Lewis a chance at a podium?
I think a podium was maybe a stretch.
I think the strategy was awful, no doubt.
But I don't think the pace was there either.
You know, once the Stappen had got past Hamilton,
it was very much a race between the two Mercs and the Stappen this race.
So for Hamilton to be on the podium, don't think they looked like they were going to challenge
there, but they should have, it definitely cost them a better result.
You know, they shouldn't have been finishing behind Piastri.
I don't think that McLaren was all that great this weekend.
And Hamilton, of course, starting high up, running in P2.
And it was just a bizarre, bizarre strategy from Ferrari.
I don't really know what they were thinking going on to the soft tyres.
It just seemed like a complete roll of the dice, do something crazy, hope to win,
which I think is a very weird call at the end of the season.
Sorry, at this point of the season when you, you know, it's not like the end of the season
where you have to like risk it all if you're behind or whatever.
It feels like Ferrari at this stage just need to try and stay within touching distance of
Mercedes and hope they outdevelop them.
Ferrari and VSCs, man, honestly, like the start of the year, they're fighting Mercedes,
they have the cheapest pit stop to take a VSC, save some time that the Mercedes obviously did
that as well with George Russell and Antonelli.
And what do they do? They stay out.
They don't take the free pit stop or not the free pit stop, a cheaper pit stop.
You then get presented with a VSC here where it makes absolutely no sense for Lewis Hamilton
to come into the pits when he's not long been on those hard tyres and they sacrifice,
he was running in third, I think he went down to seventh and put fresh soft tyres on him,
fresh softs, the C5s, the softest compound you possibly can have in Formula One and those
Pirelli tyres. And it just, it makes no sense in any form.
Obviously, you do save time by taking another pit stop rather than taking it in full racing
action, but the Ferraris were terrible in a straight line and they've gone,
Hamilton, can you go and pass all these cars, please?
I just, I'm surprised Lewis wasn't more vocal on the radio unless I missed it about that strategy
because it just, they were late to tell him, I think first and then the next lap he came in and
served it and put on the fresh soft and even then when he came out, there really wasn't much pace
being shown there. Not that you would expect perhaps with the potential undercut and having
those fresh softs versus other drivers, but even the other drivers ahead, I think were only on
between five and seven lap old hard tyres. It wasn't a massive discrepancy, it wasn't this
big brain idea and it 1000% cost him fourth place and where Piastri finished. No chance in hell he
was finishing on the podium. Antonelli was on another planet with his last stint and his pace
that he was shown. Even though it was hard to overtake, Mercedes versus Ferrari, that Merc is
flying past. So that was a slam dunk Lewis Hamilton fourth place, which Ferrari decided to throw in
the bin for absolutely no reason. So yeah, for Lewis, it's a shame. I hope it doesn't come to
bite him later on in the season. These points that you're hoping where Ferrari will be weak,
they're able to capitalise on whatever they can and sort of maximise the points on offer.
But yeah, Hamilton was driving really well, phenomenally well. It's making me very sad as
a Charles Leclerc fan to see Leclerc not being able to match Hamilton. But on Lewis's side,
yeah, he was doing everything he needed to do. He was with Russell at the start of the race,
didn't fall off particularly much, but then Ferrari decided to make his life a little bit harder.
Do you think it felt a little bit like trying to right the wrong of Australia or just a really
bad call where they're like, why would you not take the free pit stop? And they're like, oh,
there's a free pit stop for a virtual safety couple. It's like, yeah, but not now, it's not
a free pit stop because it's completely out of sync and it's not the time to pit. It was a really
weird gamble. And then even worse was, yeah, like it threw it threw him out behind Leclerc
and Piastri. So then it puts us way past Charles Leclerc 18 times in that race.
Well, that's what I mean. It was a weird situation where
it wasn't a case where Leclerc could have let him through easily because he wasn't that much
quicker. Leclerc wasn't letting him through. No, I know. But but but obviously like sometimes you
see it with teammates where they're on a completely different strategy. Hamilton's on soft. But then
because the softs weren't miles quicker, like maybe we would have seen if Hamilton was going
34 seconds a lap quicker or whatever, then yeah, he absolutely would have because
it would have had to and Hamilton would have got through anyway. But it just made the whole
thing completely confusing and a bit of a mess for Ferrari. So they kind of just held each
other up anyway. It was just completely ridiculous. Oh, yeah, the amount of space they both gave
each other fighting was like millimeters. It was absolutely ridiculous. Like great to watch,
don't get me wrong. Yeah. But wow, that there is clearly, I think especially from Leclerc's side,
obviously feeling quite vulnerable to Hamilton's form at the moment and wanting to put up a fight.
But I mean, even on lap one, right, the fact that Hamilton was able to get through,
Charles had no answer. That's not the Charles Leclerc I'm used to seeing that, you know,
that's really not the Leclerc I expect to see on lap one starting on the front row of the grid.
You think, okay, he's going to have a chance with Russell maybe, but instead losing in position
to Hamilton and then really on the back foot throughout that opening stint, it just felt
like it was a Leclerc train. It was utterly awful to watch for me as much as the entertainment,
you know, aside from the emotional side, great racing. But this sounds like I'm like a Charles
Stan, but he almost got, this is such a ridiculous thing to say, but his start was almost too good
that it compromised him because he ended up, he got exactly what you need to do. We discussed this
in the qualifying yesterday, I think, and everything and how like, you actually don't want to be
second in Austria because it completely compromises your line. But he got a great start where he
could just slot in behind Russell and then get the slingshot. But instead, you know, he tries it
around the outside, Russell covers the inside and he was then just ended up just easily being
done by Hamilton. Because he went wide. Yeah, exactly. He almost had a good chance to get
Russell and he probably in his mind was like, well, this is my opportunity. I need to get him at
turn one and he just didn't do the right thing in going. The thing is, it didn't even feel like that
to me. Like Charles never overtaking George Russell around the outside there. He was too far back.
Of course, he was side by side with him come the apex, but George was, of course,
almost accelerating out of it and Charles having to go all the way around the outside. But
that is what Charles has to do in that situation is break late and hope to God you don't get
yeeted from behind. That's basically what Austria turned three is all about on lap one.
So for Charles, he misjudged it a little bit, went that little bit too wide and then, of course,
let's go to another question from way underscore 11. Has the Ferrari power unit upgrade not worked
or is this just an Austria thing? It's that the problem that Ferrari have and still have is that
their power unit is not very good. I was very silly. But of course, I'm going to be very silly in
believing in the hype and the delusion of the fact that one, Ferrari one in Spain and two,
they're bringing an upgrade to their engine for Austria. The thing is, is that it was a very
early upgrade that Ferrari brought to this engine and it was literally only worth like
three or four horsepower. Like it was tiny, a tiny, tiny gain that they made. Good God,
what were they been like without it? It would have been very marginal. But the thing is,
they're not bringing, I think, apparently the whole push for it until later on. That's what,
at least Fred for suicide after after Friday practice, by the way, when they put the new
engine in just so everybody who said it was going in an effort to free can can sit down.
But yeah, it's not a case of it's all over in terms of Ferrari and their power unit upgrade.
I think it's just the fact that it was a very tiny thing that they actually changed. And Austria
is a massive power track. It was worse than I expected. It was worse than the night than I
thought. You think of second and third in qualifying, you go, oh, how have they managed
to finish fifth and eighth? They were not finishing second and third in qualifying
had Max not crashed. Max would have been ahead, Kimmy would have been ahead,
and they would have started fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth, maybe who knows. So
yeah, it's just a track that doesn't suit the Ferrari particularly well.
They were worse than anticipated and maybe we'll win it all in Silverstone.
Yeah, you can't say it's not worked because essentially it's a power unit upgrade that's
given them more horsepower. So when they get to a circuit they like, they will have more horsepower
and be faster at those bits of the track where it's not their best moment. Like you say, their
power unit is not their strong point. They are amazing in the corners. Everyone's been saying
it's since day one of Ferrari, how good that chassis is and what Ferrari have managed to do
with that car. And on a track with a big mix of corners, we saw it with Hamilton winning
the Grand Prix, we'll get to Silverstone, it'd be a different situation. But a very weird race
for Ferrari, they mentioned this in the cooldown room when the drivers were chatting, they were
deploying in some very bizarre places. Obviously I joked about it at the start of the podcast
about the Leclerc thing where it got done by Antonelli into turn nine. But we've not really
seen like a slam dunk pass like that where someone's just had no battery since probably the start
of the season before they kind of changed the rules and the wrecks. And then equally Ferrari
seemed really good after turn three where they would have so much power going into that but then
kind of nothing at the rest of the track. So yeah, it was a strange one for Ferrari how that kind
of worked out because didn't really in the last race, we've almost like forgotten about these kind
of deployment things to a point anyway. We've 100% been desensitized to it because you actually
watch it, they are lifting and coasting. If you genuinely just like if you reset your brain and
have the same brain that you were, you had in Australia, you'd be saying almost the same thing
when we looked at the Austria. For sure, it's because we're just getting used to what Formula
1 is like in 2026, which is fine. I'd rather enjoy what I'm watching. Hopefully they will
make things better in the coming seasons than just be constantly complaining and moaning that
it's not racing. It is still racing. I think the thing is, you make a good point about this whole
Ferrari deployment. And for me, how I saw it is when we had those massive discrepancies, it's
not necessarily because of their automated deployment that they would have. It's the
the driver, again, this is my understanding of it, the driver essentially defensively deploying.
So they are going into sort of manual mode and going, I'm going to use some of this juice
to keep Kimmy Antonelli behind. Oh, God, I've got nothing left. And then, yeah, like Ian Beale,
what do you mean that is? EastEnders fans, at least 80% of our listenership isn't from the UK.
Sorry, everybody. Look it up. Ian Beale, I've got nothing left.
This is an award-winning podcast chat that Charlie Claire is Ian Beale from EastEnders.
Anyway, let's move on, Ian Beale, please. Didn't think I'd say that name that many times in one
podcast. I think it was just purely from a defensive deployment thing and then praying
that they'll be able to stay ahead of the car behind, perhaps even thinking,
all right, if I deploy a bit more here, keep ahead, maybe the driver behind won't
deploy as much or think there's an opportunity there. It's basically a Hail Mary and hoping that
they can stay ahead. But that's the things I also don't like seeing as much is that big
discrepancy in speed because we saw it in Japan with Berman and Colopinto and look how that ended
up. So, yeah, it was a little bit scary, the speed differences, but that is kind of 2026,
Formula One, when you want to use the energy in a different way than the most efficient. It's still
even eight rounds in, just like we saw in Australia, if you do deploy in a different
part of the racetrack to keep a position, it loses you handfuls of seconds. I'm talking like it was
one minute 10.6 or whatever it might have been in the racetrack. If you'd seen them battling,
which of course costs them a little bit of time, but also the energy deployment,
they're not one minute 14. It's ridiculous the amount of time that they lose if they don't
do it efficiently. Yeah, it's still there, isn't it, from it's not as extreme as what we saw in
Melbourne. Something is still in the room, in the room in the back. Yeah, it's not as extreme as
Melbourne where you could, you would lose time hand over fist, but you're still definitely losing
time battling other cars. It brings other people into play as soon as you start
using your battery and deploying in certain places. As you get locked in that battle where
you're passing and repassing, it allows the car behind to just gain so much time. I think we
saw it with Antonelli catching the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen when they had their
little battle as well. One thing I did notice that was it you that brought up? I can't remember
that just generally the cars looked visibly slower around Austria. Yeah, that when you actually look
at certain parts of the track, I genuinely thought sometimes they were doing a double push lap
because they just looked quite slow out the final corner. I don't know if it is just the fact that
the ground effect era, they're absolutely sending it into those corners, they're flying over the
kerbs. Now it is a case of like everything is just power on the straight. It doesn't really
matter about the corner, power on the straight. Yeah, exactly. So it looks so much slower when
they are kind of going through like a turn, nine, turn, turn. They're not starting a lap
because in my head I'm like we've had four years of the ground effect cars or whatever
looking like rocket ships and yes, very weird. Yeah, I'm looking back to last year's Austrian
Grand Prix and of course pole position was a 106-1 from George this year. It was a 103-9 from
Lando last year, which if you then think around this kind of circuit that is a massive, a normal
circuit that's three and a half, four seconds worth probably. And then fastest lap in the race
was a 107-9 from Oscar and then this time around it was a 110-3. So yeah. We've not had the tracks,
have we, much this year because they've kind of been saved by the fact that they are so quick on
the straights now that the lap time has gained so much that they actually go, oh look, we're only half
like a second slower than last year. That's the thing, right? On paper it's two or three,
but in the corners it's probably four or five. Yeah. If you were to just use the corners. That's
I said. Exactly. But that being said, it's not really a complaint. It's just, if we get racing,
I don't really care, and we've said this time and time again, if we get racing that's exciting,
then it doesn't matter if they're four or five seconds slower. But that was probably one of the
first times I went, yeah, they do genuinely look quite slower, slow through some of these corners
that were pretty epic, I would say, especially at the penultimate corner where, you know,
Yellow Flag Gate. The last few years, you know, the drivers would be sending it through there,
but instead we're getting that sort of bleed off the brakes. It is tough because, yeah, you love
that about Formula One. It's the balancing act, isn't it? And some people would say, no, I would
take a three seconds lap, four seconds lap slower around Austria to see Lewis Hamilton and Max
Step and go wheel to wheel around five corners. Well, what a segue, Tommy, because you know
that's the next question. So why don't we throw into that exclamation mark? Antonelli on top
asks, how nice was it seeing Max and Lewis go to the limit once again?
So good. Yeah, we were, it's a shame that the rules changed after 21. This is saying someone
who's driver absolutely dominated and won everything after it happened. But because we
only had one proper year, you know, there were moments where Max challenged the Mercs before
that 2019, 2020, for example, and would get occasional wins. But we only had one proper
year of a Lewis Hamilton, Max just happened title fight. And the title fight was basically them
going wheel to wheel almost every single race weekend. And yeah, to see them battling again
in such an awesome way as well. Part of me goes, that hadn't have happened with Max on the race.
But also, at the same time, it was incredible to watch Max always going to, you know,
ultimate irony of saying he pushed me off that that's all I think he said a penalty.
He was like, that's a penalty. Clear It wasn't. It was,
it was close racing. They did the right thing in allowing it. Max would have done
much worse and has has done in the in the past. So he just about gave him enough
enough room. And it was amazing to watch two of the best to ever do it go wheel to wheel again.
It was epic. It was so good to see those two. And, you know, as much as we love seeing them
going to the limit, I also love the fact that they stopped at the limit just, you know, because
they have had plenty of plenty of moments where the limit did not stop certain certain moments
in races, especially in 2021. So yeah, to see those two go go wheel to wheel was great. I think
there was no no penalty for Hamilton at all. And as you say, Tommy, Max has done and would do time
and time again, much worse than that. I think if it's genuinely vice versa and the other way
around and Max was defending from from Lewis or like in Lewis's position, he's getting squeezed
off into the gravel every day of the week. He is he is off. He is building sand castles that
he is for sure, because that's Max Verstappen's driving style. And he he's he has literally
defined what the racing rules are at the moment. So yeah, really. Yeah, it was great to see Max
maybe even just trying his luck over team radio saying clear penalty, you know, they're always
trying to gain an advantage aren't they and see if the FIA will do something about it. But
it was awesome to watch and I want more of it. I want absolutely so much more of this please.
Where do I sign? But then Ferrari will have to actually have an engine that is
remotely quick. Let's go to another question from Longo 1996. Can we have those drone shots at every
race? So drone shots have become more and more of a thing. I remember they first
rolled it out. I remember which year it was. It was definitely like last year or maybe the year
before. And they were trying, I think, at testing around Barcelona. And, you know, you were kind
of thinking, oh, I'm not sure about this. It's very static. It's very just sort of just rotating on a
I don't know, just didn't feel that great. But now you're fast forward to Austria 2026 and they're
flying around the outside of the corner whilst four cars are battling on the apex. And
I like it. It's a variable shot that we're not used to seeing. Of course,
usually in Formula One, there are cameras set up at specific corners and then that's it. Deal
with it. You could maybe get a helicopter occasionally. But that, I will say that drone
shots sometimes work and sometimes don't. I think drone shots are awesome if there are
like multiple cars battling that we saw today. I don't think they're that great.
Actually, I know they're not that great of giving us a sense of speed that I think static cameras do
a better job at. Because if the drone is flying alongside the car, then you really don't get that
sense of speed in the same way. But that being said, I like the change, you know, that it's always
fun to have a sort of multitude of angles and different things. And it's cool to see that
they've made it work as well. Because I remember when this was first brought up as a concept,
it was thinking, well, what are we going to do if a drone just literally lands on the track?
So instead, they're being very careful with where they fly the drones. And I'm a fan.
I'm not. I'm going to deploy the fact that I'm almost deployed.
That you're almost 40.
That I'm almost 40 and say, I don't really like it. I feel like it's a little bit pointless,
to be honest. Because I just don't see what it adds. It feels like technology for the sake of
technology that they're basically finally a mountain time. We disagree. Yeah, yeah. Let's have
it out. Okay. In something like the WRC, it's amazing because they can use a drone and they
can fly over the cars. And that they're showing a new angle of like rally cars and things that
look really, really cool. Like, yeah, I can see them follow a car in much worse resolution,
slightly higher than the TV camera and have to turn my head to 45 degrees to watch it. Like,
I just don't. I just don't rate it. And your neck can't be dealing with that at your age.
Exactly. When I'm nearly 40. Exactly. So it's already bad enough as it is. And I just,
to me, it's a bit like the helmet cam sometimes where, fine, give me the social clip and I'll
and I don't think it adds a lot. And the kind of TV camera operators, when they're not showing
the back of someone's head, do an amazing job of showing the action. And they've got great
angles around the track. I just don't think having a slightly higher one in worse resolution
is any better. And I don't really, I'm not the biggest fan of it. I feel like you're too far
away from the track. No, I'm not. You sound like you were a fan after all of that.
No, I don't like it. Old Boomer shouts at technology. That's what it's giving me.
Yeah, bring back the old timing tower. Give me three decibels.
You want once a lap timing updates. Yeah, yeah, just the points to the top six.
Points to the top 62 overtakes a race. And that's that's it. Now, I disagree. I think
I think it can be, they can be optimized. I think they can be done better because
they can't play the track clearly. That's the problem that they can't.
Yeah, of course, it's health and safety. But I don't mind the flying around the outside like
we saw. I thought that was really cool and a different element. But also the camera,
the actual positioning of the camera is not optimized. I think that's the thing that I would
say needs to be improved and agree with the whole like tilting of your head to actually have it
sort of, you know, balanced. So I'm convinced that too much, too, too many, this sounds insane
to say, but there's too much, too many angles, too many, they're almost like trying to offer too
much that it actually makes the broadcast worse. And I don't actually, I'm not surprised that the
TV direction is as bad as it is sometimes when they're trying to do helmet cams show off that
a rear wing cam. And you wouldn't wonder how much of it is probably sponsor related as well.
So they've got a camera on the rear wing to X sponsor, I don't know. But there's so many times
where it's like a bit I had this frustration with the helmet cam, which seems to have disappeared.
I was going to say, it's running helmet cam. We didn't see it once.
Exactly. They've just got rid of it. They've realized it's terrible. And it's like cool to
watch a little video on Instagram of it. But I don't want to be live on board with the helmet
cam because I can't see what's going on. I don't mind if they're not fighting. If it's like a lull
in the race and we go to an onboard in the helmet cam, sign me up. There's no lulls in
2026 formula one. They're struggling to show everything at the same time. There were lulls.
There were lulls, not lulls, lulls. Anyway. There were lulls.
The next thing we were going to get on to, but you've already sort of brought it up a little
bit. So it's not going to hit as much. But it's fine. If you're watching on YouTube,
we're actually going to show you a really funny Patreon comment that was put in our Discord.
If you're listening on audio, I'll explain afterwards. But the question is, from the
Ampaine Never Left or A Aston Martin Pain, I assume, could the TV direction be better?
But the beautiful thing that this Patreon member has done is that they've somehow included
an emoji man, I assume, but the back of his head in front of the word direction.
That's the best way I can describe that. So let's get on to TV direction in general.
We've disagreed on who likes and dislikes the drone shots. As for the TV direction,
there were... I basically measure my upset on how many times I've actually shouted,
why are we looking at this? And I feel like there were a solid amount of times in this race and
none more than the decision, which I still don't get. If there were no cars on track,
it still wouldn't make sense that the cameraman is behind another man's head.
The apex of said corner. And all I can sort of muster from this. The explanation is that
the TV director is a Charles Leclerc fan because it was Charles Leclerc that was being passed
into that corner. And therefore, they did not want to see it live on television. So they thought,
show the back of the head. We tried. I'll know what a shame.
I think they're trolling. That has to be trolling. Or they're like,
this will get mentioned. Matt and Tommy will mention this one. Because it's so ridiculous.
I don't think they'll go, shall we troll the audience?
I mean, honestly, you could not have... Crowd shots are bad enough when we're missing the action.
The fact that... This is why I say it's such a troll. That you're framing a camera angle. Again,
too many cameras. This is the problem with Formula One. Too many cooks for the broth.
Just one camera for Tommy. That's all we want. A helicopter cam, that's it.
Just the TV comes around, occasionally cut to on-boards. Done. Easy. Keep it simple.
And instead, let's show the back of someone's head who's literally covering the apex of a corner
someone's about to overtake. Again, it screams too many cooks. Let's just simplify it.
No, it just screams full-blown mistake. Because in their TV direction operation,
they will see the previews of every camera. They've gone, yeah, number seven. Yeah,
that looks good. Yeah, the back of his head, that haircut, phenomenal. Let's show it.
Utterly ridiculous, I'll be honest with you. Imagine being that guy. You have become a
Formula One meme, so reach out if you're listening. Maybe. Maybe they don't even know to this point.
Other things to mention, I guess there were moments where replays randomly came up.
I think there was a point where... They didn't show the Hamilton Verstappen.
They didn't show it, really. Yeah, they were focusing on something else. They did incorporate,
if we're talking about TV direction in general, they've incorporated a mini box replay cam,
which I've never noticed until this race, which just basically was Russell locking up.
That was the only thing I think they used. And no, they did another one because it confused
commentary because they showed Alex Albin overtaking, I think an Alpine or something,
and it was a replay. So, the commentary thought he was overtaking the person that was next to
him on the timing tab, but actually it was a replay. But speaking of commentary, you know it's bad
when the commentators who are... He slundered the TV direction, but he popped off about it.
And that's when you know it's bad when a broadcast... It was like the 25 million people want to
want a replay of this. And it's true, why we weren't getting a replay. We didn't see a replay
once and they cut away from it quite quickly. And another thing I remembered was they were
showing the start replays while Hamilton was pitting, which was quite pivotal. Maybe it was
running second at that point. The funniest thing is that for that one, I know for a fact,
they'll be sat there going, but Matt and Tommy said to not show it on lap 12 or three,
we throw it in on lap seven and now they're having to go at us for this as well.
When do you want your replays, Matt and Tommy? There was a stage where they really nailed it and
we were really full of praise and it feels like it's slowly slipping backwards again.
Maybe it's just me, but it feels like that. Back the heads up there with Lance Stroll at
Monaco replay. Oh my word, it is. That is going to be one of those moments that will just appear
on Instagram or Twitter in six years' time going, remember this and we all laugh and go.
I completely not thought about the back of that Esteban Ocon fan's head since Austria.
Until now. Until now. Never did that person think the back of their head would be despised
by so many millions of people. But yeah, poor bloke. Okay, so let's now go to our biggest
winner, driver or team. Who are we going to crown biggest winner for this weekend?
I think Max Verstappen is a solid shout, just purely from the pace that has been displayed.
True. They got upgrades and massive upgrades and Verstappen's put in a performance to bring
the race. He was breaking down five seconds into FB1 after the new upgrades, I was thinking,
and then I've seen a lot of people. People have their opinions on what they believe and think
it's that they're defending Max and stuff. But obviously, since recording the podcast,
they came out and said that Max's rear wing had an issue at turn nine.
Categorically said, it is not a Max issue. Sorry, did you say it wasn't closing?
That's incorrect. Sorry, not that it wasn't closing. It was closed.
It was a rear wing issue. It was causing load to be inconsistent, I think, at the rear of the car.
Because he said it happened at turn six on the lap. Yeah, it was slowly getting worse, apparently.
So yeah, 10 out of 10 for Max then. I mean, if you'd have said when he was in that wall,
in qualifying, that he'd finish 1.6 seconds off the victory and be that close to the win,
out of taking it all day long, even though I'm just like, I really want him to get that win.
But who knows, maybe Red Bull have turned a corner now.
Maybe, but Austria, very unique track in terms of just being a very heavily power circuit.
Let's see. I think Max is a good shout. Other driver to throw into the mix would be
Charles Leclerc. You know, beat Liam Lawson by 40 seconds. That's a solid performance.
He got his eighth as we joked about. You don't have to give that.
You've got to say the full joke, Tommy. The full joke was, yeah, exactly. I said in the
watch along that Barcelona were saying, Lewis Hamilton's getting his eighth. And then in Austria,
we're saying Charles Leclerc's getting his eighth. And he did 45 seconds off the lead.
Why did I even tell you to give the context? You should have just left it at that.
Whatever. Yeah, I'm going to crown Max Verstappen the biggest winner,
because as much as George Russell did win, you expect the most to win, don't you?
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, Max. Yeah. And I can't even, I can't even give it to racing balls
for being quite comfortably best of the rest, just because no top teams. I just remembered
something actually. Oh, it's really annoying. And that the, it's been, so I remember that I'd
nearly went for all the top eight, so the top four teams all finish a race, because I don't
think it's happened all season or something. And finally they all, in a race where we thought
everyone was going to retire, it all happened kind of in the start, didn't it?
Both Cadillacs just set on fire and went, cheers, take care. And then, and then I thought, right,
we're getting literally like 10 finishes here. And then in the end, it was absolutely fine.
I thought so as well. I thought it was an easy. Yeah, let's go for Max.
Okay, Max locked in. Biggest loser. A Cadillac, it has to be. They've brought a whole host of
upgrades and by lap four, they were both on fire and out of the race. And then not even that,
they just had a horrendous practice session. Genuinely is almost comical how bad they were.
This is what they should have been in Australia. They've brought loads of upgrades, thought,
yeah, we're going to move towards the midfield. And they've had a devastatingly bad weekend.
Speaking of comically bad, depending on who you support and whatever, but
Fernando Alonso, in 18th, he was very close to getting lapped by Alex Alban in 17th.
That's how bad Astro Martin were. He was 53 seconds behind.
He had a good 15 seconds in the locker there. The woman in 12.5, fastest lap of his race,
which was six tenths quicker than that album, but he did stop for soft ties at the end.
He stopped for softs at the end, but crazy. Moving forward.
Yeah, it's Cadillac, surely. McLaren wasn't, I think, Lando Norris disappointing for P7.
Well, he had some problems, didn't he? He did, yeah. Problems again. His strategy was terrible,
I think. Yeah, it really just did not work out for Lando at all. Yeah, he was running,
yeah, just behind Piastri. He was racing Piastri at the start and then just, for whatever reason,
just, yeah, didn't work out for him. He ended up all the way down in seventh place.
Indeed. Now, Cadillac. Cadillac indeed. Let's now take a look at our predictions that we made
for the race weekend and put it up on Wednesday. I don't really want to, I'll be honest with you,
but we're going to do it all the same. So, it's currently 28-22 to Tom Bellingham.
My good surprise, Charlotte Glur. P8 solid points. First point score in three Grand Prix,
so I would say locked in one point. And I went four. Obviously, no, for those of you that...
Lando Norris, who was P7. So, actually, closer to first, so that's a point for me,
because it's like P1, isn't it? It's like P1, way closest to first wins.
No, no, no. What do you mean? That's something that I would should be saying,
being six points behind. But yeah, we have devastatingly bad good surprises from both of us.
We've had some smug moments where we've basically gone, look, this is why we know Will. We picked
the literal two worst performing drivers of the top teams in that really good seventh and eighth.
Really, really not good. A big flop. I went for a team. I went for Mercedes,
and they did not get a 1-2, so another point for me. And I went for Ferrari.
And I think we need to ask the question here. Yeah, and I knew the question was coming.
My question to your question, it has to be. So, that's not really a question, is it? That's a
statement. No, no, I think we'll obviously throw it out there. But 26 seconds off Hamilton,
Leclerc's 45 seconds off. No doubt Leclerc was a floppy flop, right?
My question is, if you had put Lewis Hamilton down, would you be giving him a flop for P5?
That's what I'm just throwing out. Well, no, but it's a team flop, isn't it? So,
it's combined. So, you've got to take a little bit of the game. Yeah, and they did. I mean,
Hamilton, Ferrari as a team were the worst team of the top runners, which I said would happen. So,
that was my prediction that they would be the fourth best team and they were.
That's... And also, just for added ammunition, I did a poll on Patreon and it's overwhelmingly
voted in favour of the poll. Yeah, but that's because you have a secret tier four subscription,
have you? We'll do another poll, but I think that's a provisional. No, no, no, forget the poll.
Forget the poll. Have the two points. Hope you're happy with the money. Enjoy the money.
Well done. You'll be 40 points clear at the summer break. And then Grace can do the full predictions
and it'd be fun to watch. Yeah, yeah, Ferrari definitely a flop because, yeah,
they literally won in Spain and then they finished fifth and eighth. Had Hamilton finished fourth,
perhaps maybe not. But instead, Ferrari went, hey, have an extra pit stop for no benefit.
Let's now go to poll position where I went for Charles Leclerc, which, oh my God. That was
almost the most generational prediction. You needed one more yellow flag and you would have
been fine. I've seen comments like Matt deserves half a point for that because, realistically,
in a universe where the FIA are actually competent, that's in every day of the week. But I know it's
not going to happen. I'm saying it's a joke, but yeah, Leclerc poll, what a joke. And I went for
Max Verstappen knew. It was quick. It was very quick. Very quick, but quickly into the wall as
well. Third place. I went for Lewis Hamilton. No. I went for Max Verstappen. No. Close. Very,
very close. Indeed. Pantonelli had got him. That would have come in. Yeah, I know. I was praying
for Antony to not get him because I care more about your prediction points than I do the
actual race result. In second position, I went for Lando Norris. No. He finished seventh.
I went for George Russell, which was incorrect. Also very close.
Yeah, close, but no point there. And then in first place, I went for Charles Leclerc. He
finished eighth. That's really good. So my first, second, and third finished eighth, seventh, and
fifth. Good. Wow. That's got to be minus points. I went for Lando. Leave me alone.
That was never on any point this weekend. McLaren certainly did not deliver this weekend.
Right. P-Watt, which if you're unfamiliar, random number generator, we have to do it between four
and 22. We have to guess. It was P17 for this week. I went for Ocon again, back-to-back Ocons,
and a back-to-back points. No, actually, no, because I didn't score points today. I was going
to score points in Spain until three laps from the end. But my goodness gracious me,
how close was I once again? Ocon is just delivering those potential P17s to me,
and then not delivering them. But I'm still going to get a point, because he finished 16th,
and you didn't go for Alex Albon, who finished 17th.
I did not. I went for Valtteri Bottas, whose car just decided to set on fire on lap two.
Yeah, that's not a great result for Valtteri. Speaking up.
One crazy prediction. So this one, I want to apologize to the whole Cadillac team,
because it could not have gone worse for them throughout the entire weekend.
I went for Cadillac, have their best finish of the season.
It was a firework show. What if I meant best finish in terms of finish early?
You know how you finish work early? Well, they finished on a bang, and they did.
They finished on a bang, like the smoke everywhere, the fire.
Yeah. When you finish work early, it's a great thing. So that's the best zero points.
Yeah.
I went for Audi score a point, and finally, we need to talk about this,
I'm not claiming a point, just me talking about Audi.
No, no, no. Finally, Audi had a car. Both cars decided, no, we're not going to disintegrate this
race on a race where I basically bet that it was going to happen in that heat, and they still
managed to not get a point. It is insane that Bortoletto finished 11th, and basically,
everyone ahead of him was fine, like all the top teams and racing bulls who were quicker.
So he finished 11th, and then Monaco, he finished 11th, where everyone retired.
Yeah, Bortoletto did have a stinker in Monaco, though.
Yeah, but what I mean is, Audi just seemed to be there, no matter what.
If there's 10 DNFs, they're 11th. If there are no DNFs, they're 11th.
They just can't get a point. It's crazy.
No, it's sad. It's sad. It's going to come eventually, but we're glad that they were able
to finish the race. That's an important milestone for Audi.
An important milestone for fancy F1 teams around the world.
Around the world who have Hülkenberg in their team. Finally, Hülkenberg finishes the race.
Okay, so let's now go to our Patreon prediction, where if you're part of the P1 Patreon,
you can submit a prediction for us, and we choose one. I went for one Mingi.
Race winner is someone who hasn't won yet in 2026, and that is fully incorrect,
as much as it feels like a long time ago. It does feel like a long time ago,
because it was. But it was in Australia.
Yes, indeed. Piper Mizz Mimic X was my Patreon prediction.
I love how you go for Mizz, rather than just saying MZ.
Yeah, why not? Neither Mercedes is on the podium,
and both of them were on the podium for the first time in a long...
That's minus the amount of titans that they're on the podium, so two.
Perfect. Wow, what a set of... I scored zero points.
You did score zero points.
No, that has to be the first time in a very long time that I've scored zero points
in an entire weekend. No, I've scored one. What am I talking about? I scored a Gorkon.
Oh, of course you did.
I got the P1. Actually, we always can score, but in terms of...
Oh, yeah, true. That helps.
In terms of actual predictions.
Your only point was being wrong, but you're close to being right.
Oh, no, let's ignore all of that and move to the family top three,
the Constructors' Championship. It's currently seven all.
My fiance, which is correct, right?
It was definitely Ellie that did it before we'd say it was the wrong people.
Yes, because she copied my predictions.
Yes, that's so true. Yeah, we had the whole thing.
Right, just making sure because it's been very busy.
In third place, she went for Max Verstappen, which was very close, but not.
My sister, who did the predictions for the first time and named
the only three Formula One drivers she knew, first on that list was Lewis Hamilton in P3.
Could have happened, but it didn't.
In second place, Ellie went for Antonelli.
So had that position swapped, she would have had a two pointer.
She would have.
And my sister went for Lando Norris.
No.
And in first place, my fiance, Ellie went for Lando Norris,
which could not have been more wrong.
Lot of Norris hype this weekend did not deliver to that.
And my sister went for Max Verstappen, which, to say my sister could only name
three Formula One drivers, she was 1.6 seconds from being correct.
Yeah, that would have been incredible.
Would have been very good.
So there you go then, no points scored.
What an awful set of predictions, but well done to your team prediction.
That's what saved you this week.
So seven points, the gap between me and you.
We're back to what I was a few races ago, and then I celebrated by closing the gap by four.
And now we're back to seven and I just don't want to do this anymore, but it's fine.
We're all good.
That is it.
Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this Austrian Grand Prix chat.
We will, of course, be back for Best Reactions, which will be out tomorrow.
And then we will have driver ratings, and then we're straight into Silverstone Week.
It's we're going to be there.
So if you want to come along to see us at the main stage on Sunday at 10.40 in the morning,
we'd love to see you there.
Please come along because we don't really want to perform to no people.
So we'd love to see you there.
We'll do a meet and greet afterwards to those of you that come along.
It looks right now like it actually will be sunny.
The last two years has been dreadful weather for us on stage.
It's made for great races, but it's been dreadful weather,
and it looks like it genuinely is going to be sunny.
So we'd love to see you there.
And that is my final thought.
What's yours, Tommy?
Mine is that if you're a Patreon, you're going to get some more lovely little chatter now.
And I'll just, yeah, there we go.
Wow.
Because I wasn't mentioning that.
We've sandwiched the Patreon shoutouts, but yeah.
We have.
But we do, you didn't mention it.
I definitely did, yeah.
Oh, I said we're getting extra race chat.
I said, yeah, race review chat.
Completely.
Tommy.
Yeah, that's okay.
No, it's fine.
I reckon there's going to be at least one person that now subscribes to the P1 Patreon
because you mentioned it again at home.
I hope so.
If not, just to see that unbelievable
post with the guy with the back of the head over the TV direction thing,
that is, that's good banter from the Discord.
It's worth a huge amount of time.
Top work from the Discord there.
Yeah, exactly.
So there you go.
Thank you, everybody.
We will see you next weekend for the next main race review podcast.
Lots of podcasts, of course, coming out before then.
And we are well and truly into four races out of five race weekends.
We've got the first one done.
Silverstone next.
We'll be there.
Can't wait for it.
And that is it.
Max's up and championship back on.
Here we go.
Maybe.
100 points.
Actually, you know, that's checked.
Where was it?
Max was tapping his 98 points behind Kimmy Antonelli.
Get that tattoo.
But more importantly, 92 points is Charlotte Clair behind Kimmy Antonelli.
Going into one of Le Clair's worst weekends, which is Silverstone,
I swear, every time I watch Le Clair at Silverstone, it does not go well.
In fact, let me just look up Le Clair Silverstone results,
because I really don't think...
Do you remember when he was leading that one time,
when they go in Hamilton and the stop and crash,
he still wasn't able to win, even though Hamilton had a literal drive-through penalty,
I think it was at 10 seconds.
Let's have a look.
So, Charlotte Clair 2025.
14th.
2024.
14th.
2023.
9th.
2022.
4th.
2021.
2nd.
And then 4th.
Then 3rd.
Then 3rd.
So, it's got steadily worse as the years have gone on,
but two fourteenths in a row at Silverstone.
Back to back fourteenths.
Yeah.
So, maybe...
If we get P1 in 14th, I'm locking in Charlotte Clair.
You know what?
Crazy prediction.
Charlotte Clair finishes in the top 10 at Silverstone.
It's coming.
Top 13 finished at Le Clair.
Right, we'll leave you at that.
Take care.
Lots of love.
Adios.
Bye.
P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST Creator Network.
About this episode
Matt and Tommy break down a thrilling Austrian GP, debating the tense final laps where George Russell held off a hard-charging Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli. They dive into Red Bull's pit strategy, questioning if a different call could have handed Verstappen the win. The duo also debates the Mercedes team dynamics, analyzing whether Russell's clean driving can keep him in the title fight against Antonelli's raw but sometimes scruffy pace, while Matt laments another tough weekend for Charles Leclerc.
Original notes
We experienced everything that modern F1 has to offer at the Red Bull Ring: the good, the bad and the insane TV direction. We’re happy but frustrated, so join us!
Our brand new live show 'Super Podding' is coming to the UK and Amsterdam this autumn! Get your tickets here: http:/tix.to/p1live
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