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Azerbaijan GP Driver Ratings
Azerbaijan GP Driver Ratings
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About this episode
Matt and Tommy dive into detailed driver ratings from the Azerbaijan GP, debating performances from standout stars like Max Verstappen, Carlos Sines, and Liam Lawson, to disappointing outings from Oscar Piastri and Nico Hülkenberg. They analyze qualifying struggles, race strategies, and key incidents, highlighting contentious grades and fan opinions. The hosts also reflect on team dynamics, driver consistency, and the impact of mistakes in a tricky race weekend. The episode blends insightful analysis with lively debate, capturing the highs and lows of a dramatic Grand Prix.
Topics:
driver ratings
azerbaijan grand prix
qualifying performance
race strategy
max verstappen
oscar piastri
team dynamics
race incidents
midfield battles
fan opinions
Cars:
Dodge Charger
Join us for perhaps the harshest set of grades of the season so far... At least a few midfielders gave us some tens!
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the B1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy. It's driver ratings
time. Numbers attributed to drivers, and then we all discuss it. Tommy, how are you feeling?
As a baijan, it was a tale of two halves, wasn't it? Qualifying versus the race in terms
of the action and where you're going to grade, how you're going to downgrade. It was easy to
make a mistake, but there were drivers out there that didn't make one.
Indeed. Another contentious one. It all depends on how you grade qualifying. It's very important
and the fact that some people crashed out. It was difficult to overtake race as well,
so we'll dive into it, but it's a good one, I think. Lots of disagreements, I'm sure,
on the way.
I hope so. I hope we fight at least five times between now and the end of the podcast. Let's
begin with our first driver, Gabrielle Bortoletto. Started the race in 13th, finished 11th.
I tossed and turned in between a six and a seven, but I'm gone for a six for Gabrielle
Bortoletto. I think he did a pretty good job. For a salber, I'm really finding it
quite difficult with some of these teams because their pace changes quite drastically.
Salber, we're thinking, oh, they're a podium team these days after Silverstone,
and they've had some really good point scoring finishes, but I feel like they were
on the back foot this weekend a little bit, but Bortoletto did a pretty good job,
just missed out on the points, but he was actually quite a way off Hajar in P10.
He wasn't close. I think it was 20 odd seconds. A solid weekend from Gabrielle,
but nothing to really get excited about. I've gone for a seven out of 10.
I actually think this was a good drive from Bortoletto. I think the fact that the salber,
like you say, is very difficult to understand where their pace is, but it does feel like
they've dropped down, although you wonder how much of that is Holkenberg, who we'll
get on to later. But yeah, Bortoletto did a great job and sadly didn't get points,
but I think he had a very impressive race to put the salber where probably it shouldn't have been,
actually. Okay, fair enough. The fans gave Gabrielle a six out of 10.
Nico Holkenberg started the race in 17th, finished 16th.
I have gone for a four out of 10 for Nico Holkenberg.
I was deliberating a three, but I'll go for a three. I'm going for a three, actually.
Yeah, I am going for a three. Yeah, I'm going to go for a three out of 10.
Poor qualifying crashed, knocked his front wing off, and then in the race, he also
kind of crashed, didn't he, into Esteban Ocon. Yeah, he just really has just disappeared
since that incredible podium. He's like he's just basically gone, right? I've got it now.
And what started off as an unbelievable season, I think Nico Holkenberg's really in struggle
town at the moment, and doesn't seem to be having particularly good drives, he's getting
comprehensively beaten now by Bortoletto. And yeah, a very disappointing race for Holkenberg.
I agree with you. I've gone for a three out of 10 as well for Nico. It was very much on the cusp
of a four, but you make a very good point about qualifying as well and making that mistake.
The race one was clumsy, in my opinion, as much as he said after the race that it was just lap
one racing. He was kind of out of shape, which where Piastri crashed, of course.
Piastri followed him, didn't he? That's why.
Yes, Nico actually caused Oscar to go in the wall, but that's another story.
But for Nico, yeah, he ran really, really wide and then was very much pinched on the apex.
And I think was it Bortoletto actually was another one that went across?
There was one that went across the chicane to basically avoid doing what Nico did,
but Nico decided to commit to the corner and then hit Ocon. And yeah, it's just,
as you say, where has Nico Holkenberg gone? We would like to have him back
because it was great to celebrate such amazing moments. And, you know,
he scored a lot of points this year as well. I know he's had a bit of a time off,
but he scored a lot of points for sound. But hey, he still needs to put in performances
and we both think it's a three. The fans think it's a four out of 10.
Alex Albon started the race in 19th, finished 13th. Yeah, this is the driver ratings of bad
grades as you may well be about to witness everybody. But I've gone for a three out of 10
for Alex Albon, crashed in qualifying, crashed into Collapinto, still finished 13th. So there was
some reasonable driving there. Alex, I know that you listen to these driver ratings. I'm sorry,
it might well have been a nine out of 10 in your head. But sadly, you know, that that
mistaken qualifying was insanely costly. Your teammate has just scored a podium in a very
treacherous, tricky weekend. And yeah, no points for Albon. I can't give him any higher
than a three. Yeah, I've gone for a three as well for Alex Albon. Sorry, Alex, if you're listening.
But look, he crashed in qualifying. It was a big mistake. And particularly costly,
because Williams did have pace, I think Carlos will get on too later has, of course,
over delivered in that Williams. But even without that, Williams were looking strong.
So definitely points, maybe even big points on the board was possible. So for then to
also have a collision in the race that got him a penalty. Yeah, a very,
very kind of, well, it was a bad weekend for Alex, and very like, you know, he's had such a
good season. But this was not his best race for sure. I also love as well that I think from
here to the end of the season, we apologize to Alex every single time we give him a bad grade,
just because he told us he missed. Even though he definitely doesn't.
No, no, no. But he may have seen a clip or something. But if you missed it when
we had him on the podcast, he said that he has seen driver ratings. And that was fun.
The fans gave him a four. Carlos Sines started the race in second, finished third.
I have gone for a 10 out of 10 for Carlos Sines. And it would be that other one where we go,
have we wasted the 11 again? But Carlos brilliant drive. The fact that he had pace,
you know, his qualifying lap was amazing. And yeah, the fact that he got that,
he managed to stay in the position that he did only getting passed by Russell. You kind of thought
that he would potentially tumble down the order with the fact that he had two mercs,
McLaren's Ferrari's behind him. But no, he managed to have great pace to get a podium,
had delivered a fantastic job. And I'm really glad for him because
my word has he been unlucky this year. And finally, I say got some good fortune. It was also,
it was just great driving. So well done, Carlos. Yeah, he made his own fortune. It was,
I think, you know, he himself has said that this season has been a very difficult one for him
after the race. He said, I always said that as long as the luck is there, when we're
fighting for a podium, we don't do mistakes. When we're fighting for big things,
I was going to be okay. And today is the perfect example. Yeah, it was, it was perfect. You know,
to put it up in second, of course, you can say that there were slippery conditions out there,
but he still put a lap in that was really strong. And that saved him that front row
going into Sunday. And then to be so comfortable sitting in second place, he stretched the
gap to Lawson behind, he was creating a little bit of a train for him. Because if Carlos had
been at the front of that train, I don't think he would have got a podium, just purely because
there was Antonelli and Russell, who were very much on the back of Lawson, but he showed some
great pace. And it was a brilliant job. And Williams just showcasing a nice clean weekend
like that, they can get phenomenal results. The fans, unsurprisingly, gave him a 10 as well.
Isaac Hacha started the race and eighth finished 10th.
I am going to go for a seven out of 10 for Isaac Hacha. It wasn't actually far off Lawson in the
end. When you look at the gaps, he was he was very much joining or just just close to joining
the train that was formed behind Lawson finished about five or so seconds behind Lawson,
but a massive five places behind as well, just showing how close they all were.
But Hacha surprisingly actually saw that it was it was a mistake that he made on the safety car
restart as opposed to anything else. And he lost two places from there. So his race could have
gone a little bit better. Had it not been for that, but still a point reasonably good qualifying.
So yeah, seven out of 10. Yeah, I've gone for a seven out of 10 as well for Hacha.
He had a pretty decent race, of course, past Lando at the start. And surprisingly close to his
teammate, kind of maybe unlucky reading when you look at kind of position versus where how far
he was behind his teammate. But yeah, another solid drive for Hacha. Certainly was indeed.
The fans gave Hacha a seven out of 10. Liam Lawson started the race in third finished fifth.
I have gone for a 10 out of 10 for Liam Lawson. I think it was absolutely brilliant drive,
qualifying. I will actually say I think he was the star of qualifying. The fact that he
managed to put a lap in even quicker in those tricky conditions. He was also quite early on
the track, which was of course, you know, a contentious topic, which we'll talk about
later. And the fact that Lawson, despite everything, thought he was going to fall back.
You know, yes, it was hard to overtake. And that kind of helped him. But to finish P5,
I'm not going to get kind of maybe blinded by the fact that had Jugg got a podium,
it's still and kind of give him worse than a 10. It's an absolutely brilliant performance.
I think he was one of the drivers of the weekend.
Yeah, I was tossing and turning again, I need to stop using that phrase,
between nine and a 10 for Lawson.
I think the fact that Lawson's lap was brilliant in qualifying as well, whereas no offense to
Carlos, but he obviously got some quite good fortune. Still worthy of a 10, of course,
for Carlos. But that's why for me, Lawson, like he put himself there in qualifying with a brilliant
lap. It wasn't like it was rained off and he just stayed in third. He actually went quicker in that
kind of late dash and put in an amazing lap. It depends how you wait it, I guess. But I guess
qualifying has very much put him in there. I'm sort of delaying my grade right now.
Oh, gosh, Liam. Is it a 10? I don't know. His pace wasn't like much better than Hadjar and I've
given him a seven. Oh, gosh, fine. It's a 10. It's a 10 for Lawson. There you go. I very much
deliberated there. I can very much see a nine out of 10 as well. But let's go for a 10 because
he's put himself in that position. I don't think he could realistically hold off the Mercedes.
Had he been on the slightly better strategy, which I think was starting on hards, then it
could have maybe given him a better opportunity. But yeah, a fifth place, starting third on the
grid. It has to be a 10. The fans gave him a nine. Ollie Bearman started the race in 15th,
finished 12th. Another driver that crashed the weekend. I'm going to give him a six out of 10.
The crash he had, or the crabbing crash, as I'm going to call it, that he had wasn't the absolute
end of the world for him, just purely because he'd made it through to Q2 anyway.
Started 15th and then was showing some pretty good pace, finished 12th in the end.
The Haas is not a point scoring car, at least around here, even with Okon's miracle strategy
that he wasn't able to pull it off either. So yeah, I've gone for a six.
I've gone for a five for Ollie Bearman. I think it's another missed opportunity
for him. Could he look like he had amazing pace in the practice sessions
and who knows where he'd been. Just because you could surprise didn't come in,
you take it out on him. No, I just think there was definitely more to be had there in a race where
some unusual midfielders have done good performances. I think a point was there, the fact that he
kind of finished 12th as well, shows that the pace was there, but had he not had the
crash in qualifying, he may well have scored some points. So yeah, I think a missed opportunity
for Bearman. All right, I'm downgrading him to a five because I just realised that he finished
13th on the road and now Bon's penalty was what promoted him to 12th. So yeah,
I'm downgrading back to a five. Sorry, Ollie, I still very much want you to do well.
The fans gave him a six. Esteban Okon started the race from 20th after being disqualified
from qualifying and finished 14th. I have gone for a five out of 10 for Esteban Okon as well.
Yeah, performed worse than a teammate in qualifying and then in the race he tried that kind of
miracle strategy, of course, got yeeted by Hülkenberg at the start, which didn't help things for him.
And unfortunately, the kind of, I think it was a Franco Collapinto train, I believe,
was what really, really cost him and he wanted to do the kind of crazy strategy,
which at the start looked like it was going to be great, but he got stuck in a DRS train,
which is quite common this year in Formula One and didn't work out for him. So I've gone for a five.
I have also gone for a five out of 10 for Okon. I genuinely thought he was going to score points
with the strategy that he went for. I liked the look of it. There was a lot of talk that
the hard tyres would go until three races time. So Okon, I was believing there was going to
be some sort of lovely train from him from eighth all the way down to potentially 20th.
That did not happen and he lost quite a bit of time at the end on those rather worn hard tyres.
So yeah, it's a five. From me, the fans gave him a six.
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explore dash BCE terms and cash back cap apply. Franco Collapinto started the race in 16th finished
19th. I have gone for a three out of 10 don't know why I'm singing it gone for a three out of 10
for Franco of course absolutely obliterated the car and qualifying. Yes, he was fighting
Ghazly at the end and two and a half seconds or so behind him at the end, but he absolutely
destroyed his car, which I have to take into account. And yeah, and then the two dustbins are
just fighting at the back Alpine are the new, you know, blue dustbins and they were both the
only drivers to be one lap down. Not much they can do from there, but I don't think we ever
saw them. So yeah, it's going to be a three from me. I'm going to go for a five for
Franco Collapinto. Yes, he smashed into the wall, which is a downgrade.
So within the six?
So within the six. Yeah. And he out qualified Pierre Ghazly, which is no mean feat, of course.
And then he was running actually quite high up I think he was like 13th
at the start, keeping a lot of cars behind him running quite well. And then
gained at the start. And then of course, Albin took him out, which meant that he finished
easily at the back. And it was very much a what might have been because he damaged
his car after that. So I actually think it was much, much better than people are
giving him credit for personally. That's so true. That's so true, Bestie. I literally
said it for Albon that he got yeeted by Albon. And then I forgot that happened and then
said three. Yeah, he was running he was running quite well. I'm sure it was about 13th or
something. I just remember him going very slowly on the tires.
Because yeah, yeah, well, he was he was he was keeping everyone behind him in a big train,
but he was he was high up. And then what then it was pretty much immediately after he pitted,
Albon crashed into him. So we never got to see what he could have done.
All right, a forgiving yeet. I'll go for a four then for Franco. That's fair enough.
We'll go for a four out of 10 for Franco. My apologies to all Colla Pinto fans out there.
The fans gave them a three. They don't they don't care about that.
They definitely don't. Pierre Gasly started the race and 18th finished 18th.
I've gone for a four out of 10 for Pierre Gasly. I yeah, I think he's been on a disappointing
run. Maybe I know the Alpine's bad, but I expect to drive like Pierre Gasly to be
out qualifying him. You know, with with the fact that Colla Pinto's had, you know,
less time in the car and come in midseason. Gasly an experienced driver, one of, you know,
the most experienced on the grid. And to, you know, make a mistake in qualifying meant he
was all the way down in 18th. I know they are dustbins at the back, but yeah, I expect
more from from from Gasly. So disappointing. Wow. Sounds like you're breaking up as well.
Do you want to start crying a little bit? Big Pierre Gasly fan out there.
I've gone for a four as well for Gasly. He did not disintegrate his car, but he did
still make a mistake in qualifying, which was I don't know how costly, how high our Alpine
actually going to get. But yeah, I completely agree that, you know, we've seen quite a lot
I guess potential from Colla Pinto in the last few races of being quite close to Gasly.
I think that part of that is, I want to say Pierre might even feel rather unmotivated right
now by what this season is and what the car that Alpine are giving him into next year,
of course, they have brand new engines and perhaps a renewed motivation. But for now,
yeah, it's very underwhelming performances at the moment for Pierre Gasly. That's why
I've gone for a four. The fans have also gone for a four out of 10.
Lance Stroll started the race and 14th finished 17th.
Rather quiet race from Lance Stroll just toodling along, gone for a four out of 10.
Aston Martin, to be fair, rather dreadful round here. They do not like tracks that
their car have to go fast down a straight. They're not particularly efficient from what's
been said. And yeah, he was just absolutely nowhere near the points, outqualified by Alonso,
which was devastating for my predictions championship. And then, yeah, to finish 17th
miles off the back of 16th, in fact, even, yeah, a pretty poor one.
I've gone for a four out of 10 for Lance Stroll. Disappointing
quality again, but, you know, no surprise, really, to get out, outqualified by Alonso.
But I don't think Aston Martin were there at all this weekend. So it's not like an absolutely
abysmal performance. Just nothing to shout about really.
Just a bog standard, sort of 15 seconds behind Alonso, as we expect to see from
Lance Stroll, really. So there you go. Fans gave Lance a four out of 10.
Fernando Alonso, started the race on 11th, finished 15th.
I've gone for a five out of 10 for Fernando Alonso. I think even with the jump start,
the fact that he's finished, you know, qualified 11th and finished that far ahead of Stroll,
I think I have to give him a higher grade, even despite the mistake, which is unfortunate.
And he held his hands up, which is very, well, you don't normally hear that from
Fernando Alonso, do you, on a radio going, yeah, that's my mistake, not,
I've got the wrong passport, why they give me a penalty or something like that.
It was caught red-handed by that one. Yeah, exactly, he was, no debating it.
You know, there isn't. Yeah, so it's a five for Fernando.
I've also gone for a five out of 10 for Fernando. I feel a little bit sorry for him, in fact,
actually, for the jump start. You know, why would Oscar Piastri be jumping in front of him?
And it's a human reaction to react to something that is immediately in front of you.
Of course it is still a mistake, but I don't weigh it down as much for Fernando.
And yeah, still beating Lance by a comprehensive margin, 15th. But yeah,
that's why it's a point above Lance. The fans gave him a five as well.
Kimmy Antonelli started the race in fourth, finished fourth.
I have gone for a nine out of 10 for Kimmy Antonelli.
Pretty good weekend, I say pretty good, it's nine out of 10. It was a very good weekend
from Killy, Killy, Kimmy, you know, out qualifying George, who of course was battling
all kinds of illnesses this weekend. But this is such a needed performance from Kimmy.
And I am waiting this slightly when I look back at the last five or six races as to
this is a very impressive performance. And I think it does deserve a nine out of 10,
which is where sometimes our grades may vary from what you give drivers week in week out,
because it depends what you factor in. But for me, I think it is a nine out of 10 performance
from Kimmy. And I think he can be pretty happy with that. Had he beaten signs? Who knows? Who knows
what the number would have been. Oh, this one is a tricky one. I'm also deliberating between an
eight and a nine. I will go. Bam boy Tommy, come on. Yeah. He did have the,
did he have the worst strategy or the same? I'm trying to remember. Let me have a look.
Did he have the worst strategy? He had a different strategy to Russell. He started on the mediums.
Russell started on the hards. Yeah, the hards definitely worked. That strategy did seem like
the way to go, didn't it? Yeah, I'll go for a nine for Kimmy Antonelli. I think it was a turning
point, hopefully for him. Qualified well, of course, in tricky conditions. I think that's
a big kind of boost for him to outqualify Russell. I know Russell wasn't feeling well.
But yeah, to be not, he wasn't that far off actually, Russell in the end. And I think he
did have the worst strategy. So yeah, I'll go for it. I'll go for a nine for Antonelli.
Okay, the fans gave Kimmy an eight out of 10. George Russell started the race in fifth,
finished second. I will go
for a nine out of 10 for George Russell. This is a very also contentious one.
And I will say that Kimmy's is a low nine. George's is a high nine.
And this may be also a victim of his own success, something we sometimes see with
like Max Verstappen when he finishes second and you go, I can't give him a 10 even though he's
probably done everything he could because it kind of feels like he's a great driver and you reserve
those kind of grades for a win. Don't get me wrong, I think he had a fantastic race. He made the
strategy work, but did get outqualified by Antonelli as well, which is a small kind of
had the better strategy. Antonelli did actually put one on George Russell, didn't he? Very at the start.
I am actually more convinced it's a nine now for Russell, but still a fantastic drive.
I was also deliberating between a nine and a 10. Surprisingly, we have the same brain most of
the time. But yeah, I think a nine is absolutely the right call for George as much as I'm
factoring in. He was going to work very unwell and that's why I really wanted to give him a 10,
but it wasn't quite the 10 performance outqualified by Kimmy. He even said after the race, I don't
think we did anything spectacular. It's just a lot of people made a lot of mistakes this weekend
between qualifying and the race. So that is George's words, but I'd love to give him a
10 just because as I said, very impressive to have done what he did considering how he
sounded over the radio on Friday. It was mental what he was going through. But a brilliant weekend
once again for George. We need to, you know, in the predictions, we need to start throwing him in a
bit more because he loves to spawn on the podium more times than we ever predict. So well on
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Yuki Sonoda started the race in sixth, finished sixth.
My God, this is a difficult one. Yeah, yeah. This is a difficult one. We're getting into some
tricky ones now. Because Yuki Sonoda, best qualifying of the year, finished in his best,
well, in inner red bull, and finished the highest he has in a red bull. I'm going to give him an
eight out of 10. I know he finished half a minute behind Max Verstappen. But once again, I am factoring
in that this man has not had any kind of handle of this car. And to be honest with you, again,
it might not really have been that he's become much quicker in the red bull. It goes back to
George's comments of there were just a lot of mistakes out there. I think Yuki did a great
job to keep Lando at bay. It turns out afterwards, he was sort of playing the team game to stop Lando
coming through, which I thought was very interesting indeed, a little bit of rear gunner support.
The first time we've seen that from Yuki for Max. But yeah, I think he deserves an eight.
It's a little bit of a breakthrough performance in some ways to score some good points. Yes,
he was beaten by Liam Lawson. But he was there. He didn't crash into the wall. Many
drivers did this weekend. So that's why I'm giving him an eight.
This one's tricky. This one is very tricky. I do love Yuki. I was going to give him a seven.
Have I convinced you? I'm going to give him an eight for a couple of reasons.
Yeah, it's his best result. You look at the kind of distance between him and Max. I think
he didn't have the same new wing as Max has happened, I believe, front wing, which of course
factors into it somewhat. I would have won the race then. Yeah, exactly. 10, 10, 10, Yuki.
And I do think as well, he explained this afterwards, I do think he could have got Lawson,
but he played it very, very, very safe. And it was very interesting to hear that he didn't go
for the move because he was kind of thinking about Norris making up places, which shows that
in his head, he thinks Max can win the title, which is quite interesting.
Yeah, so he played it a bit safe there. So that maybe makes it look worse than it was.
But yeah, he was strong in the race. In his head, he thinks Max can win the title,
or in his head, he's going, what do Red Bull want as a second driver in the team in the
future of driver that will play the Max game, that will help Max.
Play the Max game and also the last thing he needs, if he's got any hope left of getting that seat,
the last thing he wants to do is crash into Liam Lawson going for a move.
So yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, we'll go eight.
We'll go eight, and the fans have also gone for an eight out of 10.
Max Verstappen started the race in first, finished first.
It's a 10 out of 10 for Max Verstappen. An easy one.
I've seen a lot, and I do kind of agree somewhat that the Red Bull was a lot better this weekend.
I can't sit here and say it's still a terrible car because it's definitely not at this circuit.
It suits Red Bull, but even with that argument, Max gets a chance to basically have
a car that can challenge for the victory, and he takes it.
And what a qualifying lap to put nearly half a second on the field in those tricky conditions
was an amazing thing. And then him actually having the
audacity to start from pole position on hard tyres, backing himself that I can hold off.
I know people would joke and say, it's only a Williams and a racing boss behind him,
but he's still starting on hard tyres. They're quick starters, even things like the restart.
I saw people joking that like, why are you gassing up this restart?
Like Carlos was never going to get him. It's like Williams is very quick and straight line.
Like you never know. And yeah, he drove a brilliant race, made it look very easy.
And we wait to see what happens in Singapore.
We certainly do. I've given a 10 out of 10 for Max as well, unsurprisingly.
A phenomenal weekend. I think he just showcased what was possible out there if you didn't make
mistakes and you were pretty much perfect throughout. We saw both McLarens make mistakes and
Max just completely dominated. This is what Max does. This is what we were so used to seeing
from Max, but it's not easy to do performances like this. And I think that he's now had
what, six Grand Slams, which I read was either tying or ahead of Hamilton now, which is pretty crazy.
And he's the first driver in history to get five in consecutive seasons. Like five consecutive
seasons he's got a Grand Slam in, which is quite insane as well.
Yeah, that's a madness, especially in this season for sure. You wouldn't expect that with
the slight performance differences. But yeah, the Red Bull was good in Max's hands
this weekend. We can't say it was an absolute donkey. The Red Bull found a good spot with it,
especially with Max. And yeah, it's a solid 10 out of 10. The fans gave him a 10 as well.
Lewis Hamilton started the race in 12th, finished eighth.
I've gone for a six out of 10 for Lewis Hamilton. I think it was,
I mean, considering the qualifying woes, which I'm putting down to Ferrari as well as Lewis,
because of the fact that he was on old soft tires. And then again, some kind of sort of team
communication issue going on there that it just doesn't feel like Lewis has the confidence to
just go, no, F you, I'm doing this or I'm coming in or whatever, which we've saw so many times at
Mercedes, but that just comes with time, doesn't it? And building a team around you that
you have confidence in being able to execute a strategy. But so I feel a little bit sorry for
Hamilton because he looked good all weekend in the run up to qualifying. He looked very much on
the pace of Charles, if not a little bit quicker. And then in the race, a decent comeback beat Charles
in the end. I know that Charles let him through, but he was on fresh mediums. And also he didn't
destroy his car. So yeah, I'm going for a six for Hamilton. It is only eighth place,
but I think a six reflects that it was better than perhaps some people might think.
Yeah, I've gone for a six as well. I think the fact that he managed to
kind of make up places, finish ahead of his teammate. I know there was some confusion there,
of course, at the end, but he did a good job of all things considered. And yeah, I also kind of
blame Ferrari to a point in that kind of qualifying problem because he himself was kind
of asking for new tyres. Of course, there's the argument that it worked for them at the
start and they really fell off and struggled. But yeah, it's a weekend to forget, I think,
for Ferrari overall at a circuit that I think in theory should have should have suited them.
Absolutely. The fans gave Lewis a five. Charles Leclerc started the race in 10th,
finished ninth. I have gone for a five out of 10 for Charles Leclerc.
You sound very confident with that, bro.
I'm not. I think maybe a four is too harsh. I've gone for a five. And again, that may be a victim
of his own success because I think even though the Ferrari wasn't there and maybe couldn't have
been challenging for Paul, we know how good Charles is at Baku. Of course, he crashed in
qualifying should have done a lot better there. And you never know what he might
have done in qualifying. And of course, if he's up at the front, he could have got a really good
result. So yeah, a disappointing one to start, 10th, finish ninth, a circuit he is really good at.
Very disappointing, I think, for Charles Leclerc, certainly not one of his best racers.
Yeah, very disappointing indeed. I have gone for a five as well. Yeah, I agree.
Anything lower is a little bit unfair, I would say. Devastating that he made that or had that
mistake in qualifying. I don't think pole position was at all on the cards. But
as we saw with Sines and Lawson, just a solid lap would have got you right towards the
front of the field. And then after that, I think the Ferrari, not very good in these
cold conditions, which, you know, it was in Baku very windy as well. And it's just
the car was just really wasn't there, to be honest with you, and he wasn't able to make
much, much progress. And it was just painful, painful to watch really. So yeah, five from me,
the fans give him a five as well. Oscar Piastri. Start the race in ninth. Did not finish.
My grade for Oscar Piastri is a zero out of 10. There is not a singular point. I'm afraid I
can give Oscar for this weekend. Because everything went wrong.
Crashed in qualifying. Ended up starting ninth. Jumped the start. And then crashed on lap one.
I can't. What can I give him a good grade for? What can I give any grade for? It is one of,
if not the worst weekend I can I can remember from a championship leader contender,
whatever you want to call him. Devastating for Oscar, of course. I am very intrigued as to how
he bounces back from this because he is human, right? As much as we call him the Iceman and
things like that. He made some some massive mistakes this weekend. So I don't think I'm
ever going to give him this grade again. I would like to think and I would say reasonably
confidently that he will learn from this and it won't happen again. But it has to be a zero,
I'm afraid. It does. It definitely has to be a zero. I've gone for a zero as well for Oscar Piastri.
You know, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's arguably the worst performance from any driver
all season. And that's why it's so shocking because Oscar Piastri. How does it get worse?
Crashing in practice maybe? Maybe. But crashing Q1? Yeah, every single thing. Because yeah,
everything went wrong that possibly could crashing qualifying. Maybe he gets a one if he'd
have not jumped the start. I don't know, even that, like we'd still still having the discussion of
how could it get any worse? And it did because he jumped the start as well and got a penalty,
which thankfully for him fell to last. Yeah, so he didn't even jump the start and make loads
of places up and go, well, I've done it. He then obviously like anti-stall. Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, it's so shocking because, you know, I've not done the averages yet and we'll do this at
the end of the season. But I'd be willing to bet that before this race at this point in time,
Oscar Piastri would still be number one driver this season based on driver ratings. We've always
kind of dominated at the halfway point. We've talked about how the fact that
he's barely got anything lower than I think even like an eight or something because he's just been
so good. And yeah, it's just can't get any worse than this. It is simply like the worst weekend
possible. And the worst weekend we've seen from a driver this year has to be.
The fans gave Oscar a one out of 10. Can they give a zero on the fan sheet?
Yeah, they can. Yeah, I'm surprised. All right. Do you want to load it up quickly and
just see how many gave zero versus one? I want to see how many and where that one out of 10
came from because not that it'll really matter in the grand scheme of things. I like the fact
that Oscar Piastri has opened up the championship for the driver ratings averages as well as the
main championship because everyone is of course tuning in for the driver ratings average championship.
That is what people all witness. Oh, it's actually gone over back to zero. It was one.
It was one. Now it's zero. Oh, the fans have given Oscar a zero. It's a good job we checked.
So it's a zero from the fans for Oscar Piastri. Lando Norris started the race and seventh finished
seventh. The most contentious one till the end. Look, I'm going for a five out of 10 for Lando
Norris. Some people will be screaming, five's really harsh. Some people will be screaming,
five is far too generous. And some will be saying, that's just right. And I'm sure they
won't be. Yeah, I will explain my reasonings for this. So as we get into qualifying, yes,
he's not maximized the opportunity there. He definitely should have made it more positions.
I know he went out first and I will give some kind of leeway that that's from McLaren's mistake,
but I see why they also did it because of the amount of red flags we'd seen,
things like that. You're taking a risk, they could have easily looked really silly if there'd
been another red flag. But he himself didn't deliver on that lap. He also made mistakes.
And as we mentioned, why I gave Lawson a 10, he was also quite early in that queue and delivered
a brilliant lap. So it was possible. Then we get into the race. He jumped, sorry,
didn't jump the start. That was Piastri. He got jumped by Hadjar at the start, which I think I can't
believe that that happened because he's on the clean side of the grid. You think you have to make
up places, you're lower down the grid, losing places. His restart was really, really poor.
And I think quite rightly has been heavily criticized because he was completely sleeping
and that lost him another place. I will understand that had he not had the slow pit stop,
he may well have finished fifth. I think he'd been very close, probably would have got ahead.
But equally, you put yourself in that position for all those other mistakes,
that those fine margins can matter. So it's about how much you weigh up to it.
So I'm not going to give him like a three out of 10 and think it's like absolutely the
worst drive ever because it's certainly not, but it is an absolutely big missed opportunity.
So a five is still a bad grade because he should definitely be doing better in the McLaren.
All right, Tommy's popped off. It's now my turn. I've given Lando Norris a 10.
I've given him a five as well, actually. That's so funny that you said contentious.
I was like, what's Tommy going to go for? Is it going to be really different? No,
I literally gave him a five as well. Yeah, unforgivable on the restart, the safety car,
he was miles back from the rest of the field that had gone, obviously Max leading the train,
and Charlotte clawed through into turn one. And you're thinking,
Lando needs to be going forward at this point. His championship rival is out of the race.
Yeah, of course, Phil, sorry for him about the pit stop 4.1.
McLaren, of course, are able to do sub two-second pit stops. And once again,
apparently not for Lando recently. No, yeah, they've let him down on a few occasions now.
And yeah, he could have finished fifth, but he's put himself in that situation
where small mistakes by the team cost him more by not taking advantage of the start,
taking advantage of the safety car restart, the quality lap, yes, he was out there first in
slack. I mean, the conditions were pretty comparable for most drivers. It's not like he was there with a
sweeper at the front of the car, making it really really dry for others. He didn't have brand new
softs. I know some people highlighted in the quality review. But that being said,
he's in a McLaren, you have Liam Lawson up there as you say that put a lap in
that same set of laps, or one lap, sorry, that everybody had. And he made a mistake.
Lando hit the wall. He hit the wall. It's not like he just trundled around sliding. He literally
hit the wall. So there was a mistake in there. Had he started fourth or fifth, he could well
have easily been on the podium. But it's a five out of 10. It's not an absolute disaster. It's
not an Oscar Piatri performance. I love some people seeing one social clip from us where we
talk about Lando's mistakes and going, what about Oscar Piatri? It's like, guys, that's
a different clip. The previous clip that was posted literally half an hour before,
absolutely madness. But it's a five out of 10 from Lando. He's gained points on Oscar,
but I can't believe it was only six points that he gained. And it was a missed opportunity. You
cannot deny that. No, he can't. I don't know how he could possibly say that it wasn't. But of
course, yeah, like the grade reflects on the fact that he still bagged some points
while his teammate has crashed out. And I love that we have said all of this to kind
of give our reasons as to why we give him a five, which seems quite low. The fans gave him
a four. So there you go. You can't say we're two asks because the fans have voted one.
Do you want to hear the percentages? So we had two percent gave him a zero, three percent gave him a
one, seven percent gave him a two, 19 percent gave him a three, 25 percent gave him a four,
23 percent gave him a five, 15 percent gave him a six,
and four percent gave him a seven, and then very minimal banter votes, as we always get four tens
and things. Okay, well, that's interesting to hear. It's definitely the most contentious one
where you kind of look at it and there's kind of three quite similar grades there. I mean,
for me, you know, he's had a poor weekend and I stand by everything I said in the
race review, but it's not like three out of 10 bad. I can't give him worse than
people like Alex Albarn that have crashed in qualifying and then crashed again in the race.
So exactly. So there you go. Who is our P one? That is the final question.
It's got to be Max Verstappen for me. Max, is it Carlos? Now, Max was just, I know you'll probably
give it to Carlos, so I'm going to say Max Verstappen. Max Verstappen's my P one,
or unless, I don't know, the facial expression suggests maybe not, but I've gone for Max
a simply perfect weekend from him when everybody else, not everybody else,
but a lot of drivers made a mistake one session or another. Max did not,
so that's why he's my P one.
I find it really difficult to pick between Carlos, Max and Liam Lawson,
but I'm going to go for, my heart says Carlos, my head says Max Verstappen.
I'm going to give it to Lawson. You were deliberating a nine for him at one point, so.
No, it wasn't. A little bit. You can see the idea.
But yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll go Max. Yeah, I think it was just for him to deliver a drive
so strong that it somehow got people talking about, and even McLaren themselves talking about
a threat of him being so far behind still and making them a little bit nervous
shows that, yeah, just shows it's very Max Verstappen, isn't it?
Absolutely is. Well, there you go. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this Driver
8 Ratings episode. Tommy, what are your final thoughts?
Final thoughts are whether I will say this after the end, but I do like these ones where there's
more contentious in it because it makes it a lot more interesting and being able to give
different grades for different things and how you weigh up different options. So
I'd much rather have these kind of races where you're picking between maybe even like two or
three grades than it just being like five, six. Yeah, we're just agreeing for everything.
Yeah, exactly. We don't just agree and just go on our merry way. So yeah, thank you,
everybody. We'll see you soon. We will be back in a couple of weeks for the next Driver
8 Ratings episode. Singapore coming up and Max Verstappen another 10 out of 10. Maybe we shall
see you. Lots of love. Take care. Adios. Bye. Bye.
P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST Creative Network.
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