Bottas is another Formula 1 driver. The hosts think he struggled badly compared to Perez, and they give him a low score because he qualified very far back and didn’t finish the race.
Sergio Perez is a Formula 1 race driver. In this episode, the hosts are talking about how fast he was, but also how a couple of big mistakes hurt his final result.
“Brakes catching fire” means the car’s braking system got dangerously hot and started burning. That can make braking unreliable and can force a driver to back off.
A 10-second penalty means the race officials add 10 seconds to a driver’s time. That extra time can drop them behind other cars, making it harder to score points.
Term
P20
P20 means the driver qualified in 20th place. That usually puts you near the back of the starting grid.
Valtteri is the name of an F1 driver being discussed here. They’re talking about how well he did in qualifying and how his race went compared to others.
Cadillac is a car brand being mentioned in an F1 context. The hosts are basically saying the team associated with that brand is improving and could start looking for younger drivers.
Franco Colapinto is an F1 driver they’re judging on how he did this weekend. They’re saying his result wasn’t as strong as what he’d been doing recently.
Pit lane speeding penalties happen when a driver goes faster than the allowed speed limit in the pit area. It’s enforced because it’s a busy, safety-critical zone.
ADM is mentioned as something the driver would have lost, but this clip doesn’t explain what ADM stands for. It sounds like it’s related to race results or timing, but we can’t confirm the exact meaning from the provided text.
A five-second penalty is a time penalty added to a driver’s race time after an infraction. Here, the hosts say there were two five-second penalties, which is why the driver ended up finishing seventh rather than higher.
In Formula 1, the pit lane has a strict speed limit for safety. The pit lane speed limiter is a system that helps keep the car under that limit, and the hosts are debating whether the penalty was caused by the limiter or by how the officials measured it.
A chicane is a section of track that forces cars to slow down by making them turn left-right-left (or similar). The hosts use it to explain why officials might still call speeding if the car covers a shorter distance.
Monza is a famous Formula 1 race track in Italy. The hosts mention it to give an example of how officials can measure speed in a way that feels surprising to drivers.
A pit stop is when the car pulls into the pit lane to get new tires (and sometimes other service). When you do it during the race can change who ends up ahead because it affects track position.
“On the road” means where the driver actually finished in the race while driving. After the race, penalties can change the official final position.
Term
Q1
Qualifying is split into sessions. Q1 is the first one—if you mess up there, you may not make it to the later sessions and you’ll start the race further back.
Term
V-Car
“V-Car” sounds like the show’s shorthand for a very top result—basically a win-level outcome. The host is saying the car had the speed to do that but lost it due to the mistake.
Suspension is what keeps the tires planted and lets the wheel move over bumps. If the front-left suspension gets torn off in a crash, the car usually can’t handle or drive safely anymore.
Midfield teams are the teams that usually aren’t fighting for the win every race, but also aren’t at the very back. The host is saying Monaco can let them score more than usual because qualifying and mistakes matter a lot.
Williams is a Formula 1 racing team. In this discussion, they’re grouped with other teams that might score big at Monaco if the front-runners get disrupted.
Monaco is a famous race track on public streets. It’s really hard to pass there, so if something goes wrong—like contact—you can lose a lot of positions.
Nico Holkenberg is the driver they’re judging in this segment. They explain why his result at Monaco wasn’t as good as it might have been because of incidents during the race.
Audi is the car brand being talked about here. The hosts say the Audi cars looked quick, but something went wrong during the weekend so they didn’t score as many points as expected.
George Russell is a Formula 1 driver. In this segment, the hosts are debating how his driving affected what happened in a racing incident.
Person
Carlos
Carlos is the driver involved in the contact. The hosts say that late-race bump played a big role in changing how Nico finished and whether he could score points.
A hairpin is a super tight corner where you slow down a lot. In races like Monaco, it’s a common spot for cars to get close together and for mistakes to cause contact.
Esteban Ocon is a Formula One race driver. In this episode, the hosts are judging how well he did at Monaco based on where he started, where he finished, and whether he avoided crashes.
In F1, there’s a maximum speed you’re allowed to drive in the pit lane. The car systems enforce it, and it can change how pit stops play out during the race.
A red flag is when officials stop the session because something unsafe is happening on the track. In qualifying, it can interrupt everyone’s lap attempts and change who gets a good result.
Ollie Bearman is a Formula One driver. The hosts say his Monaco weekend went badly because he crashed in practice, got caught up in a red-flag moment in qualifying, and then had contact in the race that damaged his car.
FP3 means the third practice session on an F1 weekend. It’s when teams try out car settings, and if a driver crashes there, it can hurt their chances in qualifying and the race.
The front wing is the car’s front aerodynamic part that helps it stick to the road. If it gets knocked off in a crash, the car usually becomes hard to control and may have to retire.
F1 qualifying is split into short sessions (Q1, Q2, Q3). In Q1, the slowest drivers get knocked out and don’t get to try again for a better starting position.
The track can get worse during the race weekend, with less grip as the surface breaks down. When that happens, the car can start sliding or behaving unpredictably.
Engine braking is when you let off the gas and the car slows down because the engine is still resisting. In a race, that can affect grip and make the car harder to keep pointed in the right direction.
Qualifying is the session where drivers set their fastest lap to determine the starting grid for the race. In Monaco, qualifying position can be especially important because overtaking is difficult, so a poor qualifying result often means a tougher race.
Aston Martin is a car company that makes high-end sports cars and also races in Formula 1. Here, they’re talking about how Aston Martin’s F1 car wasn’t very fast, but Alonso still did well enough to score points.
Fernando Alonso is a famous Formula 1 driver and former world champion. The hosts are praising him here because, even though his car was among the slowest, he still managed to score points.
The “grid” is the starting positions for a Formula 1 race, and the “back row” means the last few cars on the starting lineup. Starting from there is usually a disadvantage because you have more traffic to pass and fewer opportunities to control the race early.
Arvid Lindblad is an F1 driver being rated by the hosts. They’re talking about his weekend where he started 15th and finished 6th, and whether that was mostly skill or helped by race events.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula 1 race drivers. Here, the hosts are praising him for a great weekend—especially his speed in the race and his qualifying results.
Person
Charlotte Clair
This sounds like a misheard name for Charles Leclerc, who drives for Ferrari in Formula 1. The hosts mention he qualified well but then didn’t finish the race.
“Outqualified” means one driver was faster in qualifying and got a better starting position than the other driver. It’s a way to measure who had the edge before the race.
Practice sessions are the times before qualifying and the race when drivers and teams try things on the track. It helps them learn the circuit and fine-tune the car.
A stint is the time a driver spends on the track before making a pit stop. Tires and strategy are often planned around stints, so how you do late in a stint matters.
Term
Q3
Q3 is the last part of F1 qualifying. The quickest drivers go out one more time to set lap times that decide the front of the starting grid.
Charles Leclerc is an F1 driver. Here, the hosts are explaining why his Monaco weekend was a disaster, including crashes in both qualifying and the race.
It sounds like the back wheels weren’t slowing down properly when he braked. If the front and back don’t brake evenly, the car can behave unpredictably and become hard to control.
Isaac Haja is the race driver they’re talking about. They say he qualified fifth and finished third, even though he had a big problem with his car during the race and had to nurse it the whole time.
“No first gear” means the car couldn’t use its lowest gear. That makes it much harder to get going out of slow corners, so the driver has to adapt his driving to compensate.
Spark plugs are the ignition components that create the spark needed to ignite the fuel-air mixture in an engine. In this segment, the hosts mention the team replacing spark plugs during a red-flag period, which they say led to an FIA ruling that the car had to be reverted back to its original state.
The FIA is the organization that makes and enforces the rules in Formula 1. In this story, they judged that what the team did during the red flag wasn’t permitted.
A five-second penalty is a punishment measured in time. The driver has to lose time in a specific way because of something that broke the rules, and the hosts are saying you probably can’t just delay it and do it whenever you want.
Max Verstappen is a Formula One driver. In this segment, the hosts are deciding what grade to give him, focusing on how well he did in qualifying at Monaco.
“Qualified second” means the driver was the second-fastest in qualifying. That usually determines where they start the race.
Term
NA
“NA” here means they’re not giving a grade. The hosts are explaining that sometimes they don’t think it’s fair to score a driver, depending on what happened.
They’re saying they won’t use one fixed rule for every situation. Instead, they’ll decide based on what exactly happened in that driver’s qualifying and race.
Qualifying is when drivers try to set the fastest time to decide where they start the race. A “quali lap” is the best lap they use to set that qualifying time.
A “race start” is when the race actually begins (or restarts) and cars get going again. If there are interruptions, the race can start more than once, which makes things harder to manage.
A drive-through penalty means the driver has to go through the pit lane while staying in motion. It makes you lose time because you’re forced to slow down and pass through the pits.
The “white line” in pit-lane/track contexts marks boundaries that drivers must respect to avoid penalties. In racing, being even slightly over the line while entering or exiting the pit lane can trigger an infraction, so it’s often described as “marginal” when it’s close.
The “grid box” is the specific marked position on the starting grid where a driver must be lined up for the start. If a driver is out of position or violates start-grid rules, it can lead to investigations and potential penalties.
Mercedes is the Formula 1 team/manufacturer involved in the pit-stop and strategy decisions being debated. The hosts attribute most of the pit-stop confusion to Mercedes, implying the team’s execution (rather than the driver) caused the lost result.
Oscar Piastri is an F1 driver. The hosts are grading his weekend because he started 7th and finished 4th, and they think he did a good job managing race issues and penalties.
Place
Monica
“Monica” here is Monaco, the famous F1 race on tight city streets. Because it’s so narrow, it’s easy to pick up penalties or get stuck in traffic.
The safety car is when F1 slows everyone down because something unsafe is happening on track. If you have to serve a penalty during that slower period, it usually costs you less time than serving it under normal racing speed.
They list a bunch of times Lando Norris had car problems that ruined his weekend. The point is that it’s been happening a lot, so they’re calling it unusually bad reliability.
In F1, the power unit is the car’s main engine system, including the hybrid parts that store and reuse energy. If it breaks, the driver may not be able to practice or even start the race.
The gearbox and clutch are what let the car change gears and transfer power from the engine. If they have a problem, the car can’t drive normally, so the driver may lose practice time.
“Deployment” means a system that’s supposed to turn on at the right moment. If it doesn’t deploy properly, the car may be slower or behave unpredictably during qualifying or the race.
Term
straight line mode
This is a special driving/engine setting meant to help the car accelerate best on straight sections. If it fails, the car may not feel right or may be slower when you need full power.
A hydraulic leak means the car is losing fluid from a system that uses pressure to operate parts. If it leaks enough, the car can’t function correctly and may have to stop or retire.
ERS is the hybrid energy system in F1 that stores energy and gives the car a boost when needed. If there’s an ERS problem, the car can lose that boost and become much harder to drive fast.
“Regs” just means the rules for Formula 1. When the rules change, teams have to redesign and retune their cars, which can make performance swing around from one race to the next.
Kimmy Antonelli is the driver the hosts think had the best weekend in this episode’s Monaco GP ratings. They’re praising how well he drove and how he kept control even when things weren’t ideal.
LIVE
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy.
We are officially cozy back in our setups.
No sun to be had, Vitamin D already lacking, Tommy, but we're here.
Driver ratings going to be usually Monaco's a relatively straightforward one, but I'm
not sure whether this one will be as straightforward.
I'm looking forward to this one because the biggest gripe with driver ratings is that we just
sometimes it's too easy to agree and there's so many incidents here where, I think hopefully,
we've gone different in how much you put driver blame, how much you put team blame.
There's incidents where is it even the driver's fault sometimes, things like that.
I think it's going to be a very, very interesting one and there's going to be a lot of disagreements
with each other as well as everyone else, so that's always fun.
That's the beauty of Formula One, so let's remain respectful.
Right, let's begin with Cadillac driver Sergio Perez.
He had a rather eventful race. I'm going to give Sergio Perez...
Oh, it's going to be, this is so difficult, a 6 out of 10 for Checo.
Now, you might be thinking, what do you mean, Matt?
He finished 10th. He'd scored a point till he got a penalty, but the amount,
like the actual mistakes that he made were reasonably careless if we're going to be completely
honest here, one being the initial start where he just drove into the wrong grid box.
He literally started from 16th rather than 18th, gets a drive-through penalty,
but then he also has his point taken away at the end, so he does a great race,
keeps out the wall, the car's shocking, but then the restart after the red flag,
he's angled his car out of the grid box and got a 10-second penalty.
So it is such a shame for Perez, because without that, we could be talking 8,
9, 10 out of 10. It's a point for Cadillac, but instead he finishes 15th.
I will say, outpaced Bottas the entire weekend. He is cooking his teammate
significantly at the moment, so a well done for that side,
but it seems like just these small errors cost him massively in this one.
I'm really annoyed because all the talk of we're going to be different,
I've also gone for a 6th after Sergio Perez, and this one really hurts,
because I think his actual driving ability on track is a 9, maybe a 10, because I think,
let's start with the positives of Perez. He was so quick this weekend, he nearly got into Q2.
He, by the tiniest margin, this was despite his brakes catching fire,
seemingly all the time, during the practice sessions, and then in the main race,
he's obviously finished 10th on the road. Yes, there's been a load of retirements
and chaos that's helped him get there, but he's drove a very good race,
and the problem is, it's two massive errors, one particularly at the end,
because of course that's the thing that's knocked him way down the order with a 10-second penalty,
that's cost him a massive result, and that could be the race that might only get a point all year,
so I have to downgrade him quite harshly, so I can only go for a 6 when I think,
had he lined up in his grid box correctly at the end, and also at the start of the race,
we're probably even looking like a 9 or a 10 here, but sadly for Perez,
I'm sure he's more gutted about drive ratings than the actual point itself.
Oh yeah, devastated, absolutely devastated. Gutted for him.
The fans gave Sergio Perez a 7 out of 10. Let's now move to Valdoribotas, qualified
P20, and did not finish. I've gone for a 4 out of 10 for Botas, he was just absolutely useless
again, to be honest, nowhere near Perez. I know your team Perez, but I mean...
He is, we're going to be honest here, he's having a shocker at the moment, and he's getting
really comprehensively beaten by Perez, and yeah, he's having an absolute shocker, so
Botas, the car didn't look that great, it looked pretty horrible watching the on-boards that we
saw and stuff, but his teammate is obviously doing incredible things, and Botas just doesn't seem up
scratched at the moment, nowhere near again, obviously the DNF wasn't his fault, but qualifying,
which is meant to be his specialty, just nowhere.
Nowhere indeed, we have continued our agreeing streak, 4 out of 10 for Botas, for me as well.
Yeah, as you say, it wasn't his fault that he DNF'd, but Perez showed that without his mistakes,
that an incredible result for Cadillac was on the cards, but for Valtteri, he didn't even have
a sniff of Q2, whereas Perez, for the last few weekends, has shown that there could be something
on the cards if everything lines up correctly, so Valtteri needs to...
Lines up correctly, harsh.
That was, that was actually, I didn't realise that, but perfect in fact, so
Valtteri needs to lock in, because I see Cadillac maybe realising quite quickly into their Formula
1 career as a team, that they've already made a pretty big step forward for a new team to be
able to be mixing it with the midfield, that perhaps they don't need to heavily experience
drivers for very long, and then they'll start to look for a younger talent, so Valtteri lock in.
The fans also gave a 4 out of 10. Franco Colopinto qualified in 14th and finished in 14th.
I am going to go for a 5 out of 10 for Franco Colopinto. It was very just straight down the
middle, not the performances that we've seen over the last couple of weekends from Franco.
He was not as quick as Gasly, who of course was doing miraculous things in that Alpine.
This is the first driver I think we're speaking about in terms of pit lane speeding penalties.
I am going to say right here, right now, I am not downgrading any of the drivers
for the pit lane speed limiting thing, because it is 0.1 kilometres now, I think,
almost for all of them, and it is a misjudgment from the team. It's not the driver, right?
The driver is told to turn the pit lane speed limiter on and drive through the pits.
If there's been a miscalculation, I can't downgrade the driver for that,
so that's where I'm sitting with this one. I've gone for a 5 out of 10 for Franco,
a disappointing weekend for him, but at least he finished the race.
Franco Colopinto, I've gone for a 5 out of 10. It wasn't one of his better weekends,
he couldn't match the highs of his teammate Gasly. Only a couple of turns off, but Gasly
just put in an unbelievable performance and it all kind of went wrong, because the nature of
Monaco and once you caught in traffic, it goes badly. Of course, not going to blame him for the
speeding of the pit lane, but he did have the contact with Sainz at the end, which was a little
messy. I saw an opportunity on a restart. Obviously, we'll talk about this with other drivers and how
George Russell bunching up the field made it very, very difficult for the midfield and
navigating that area of the track. But yeah, it won't want to forget for Colopinto, I think,
compared to what he has been in the last couple. Absolutely. The fans gave Franco a 5 out of 10.
Pierre Gasly qualified P9 and finished the race in seventh. Pierre Gasly, I'm going for a 10 out of
10 for Gasly. He finished third on the road. I think, yes, he obviously was fortunate that the
fact that a lot of drivers retired that rocketed him up the order. But then you look at the fact
that he managed to get a McLaren at the start, he made a great move around the outside of Hadjar
as well. And this pit lane speed limit thing is just absolutely heartbreaking for him and other
drivers that got caught out by it because no one saw it coming at the end of the race. And the fact
that so many drivers got a penalty, it cost Gasly an unbelievable result. Absolutely heartbreaking
as well that he had to do the whole formation lap celebrating thinking he got third before finding
out of the penalty. Sorry, I don't want to be that guy, but the formation laps the start of the
race, my guy. Sorry, the in-lap. He's like, I've done it, guys. It's not the start of the race yet,
but I've done it. Yeah, I know it's Monaco, but it's just getting for Gasly. I'm really confused
by that actually. I do want to bring something up here because when I watched the race and also
watching the highlights, they mentioned that Gasly's got the penalty and he's like punching the wall
in frustration and gets annoyed, but then when he crosses the line, he doesn't know he has a penalty,
so that just confused me a little bit, but I don't know what the deal is there.
Well, I thought the understanding was that he knew that he had one, but not two.
Okay. That's my thinking behind it. But even if he had one, he would have lost the ADM,
but maybe he thought he was fourth because he wouldn't have been going that crazy.
Either way, it's clear as day that he thought he had a podium as he came over the line,
how without him not immediately gone, by the way, we've got two five-second penalties,
we finished seventh. That's all they had to do. He celebrated the entire way around the circuit.
They said wait and then didn't elaborate, basically.
They were like 123 Were they like counting? What are we doing here? It was ridiculous.
My grade for Pierre Gasly is unsurprisingly a 10 out of 10 as well because of my stance on this
pit lane speed limiting offenses. I think that the only consideration here was that it happened
twice to him. After it happening once, at least from the team side, and I don't want to be going
in on Alpine too much for both the in-lap and then also this as well, but surely there should
have been a consideration of clearly the pit lane speed limiter might not be working correctly,
as we had other drivers getting penalized as well, although of course it wasn't the pit
lane speed limiter that was faulty. It was the fact of the measurement between the maths,
but it's the measurement between the entrance and the exit and all that sort of stuff,
rather than actually done on time. Yeah, exactly. It's so weird because it's like...
Or speed, sorry, not time. If you cut a corner, say at Monza, you drive straight over the
chicane at the start and say the speed limit of going around the chicane at Monza, that first
corner, is 60 miles an hour. If you just straight-lined it at 60 miles an hour, you'd be told you
were speeding because of the distance. The distance is shorter. It's really weird, isn't it?
Yeah, a strange way of doing it, but that's how it's been for donkeys, isn't it?
Yeah, Gasly, I think he was brilliant this weekend and fully deserving of a 10 out of 10.
As you said about the Lando move, that was crucial for him. I think had we had no
sort of Russell shenanigans and everything else going on, I still would have considered giving
him a 10. If Lando hadn't DNFed, maybe he still would have beaten him. We don't know, although
we saw Russell when Hadjar and how pit stops could maybe change that battle, but he was the best
of the rest and fully deserving of a podium had it not been for that crazy weird pit lane stuff.
The fans gave Pierre Gasly a 9 out of 10. Gabriel Bortoletto, qualified P16, finished in 11th.
Migrate for Bortoletto, and obviously there is a consideration here that he was riding with the
P1 Curse throughout Sunday. I am going to go for... Gosh, I think it's a 5 out of 10. I think it is
for Bortoletto. Yes, he's finished 11th on the road. He's been... Well, actually, sorry, he finished
13th on the road, put up to 11th with penalties, but the significant downgrade here, I mean,
literally, he finished in front of two cars that finished behind him, so there weren't many
finishes in comparison to what we normally have, but the main consideration here is qualifying.
It was such an enormous mistake to make for Gabby because this wasn't in Q2, this wasn't
making it through to Q3 and risking it all. This was Q1 and throwing an Audi that I personally
believe could have easily had a V-Car result this weekend had they just had... I mean, Hulk,
we'll get onto that, whether it was luck or should have been a racing incident, but for
Bortoletto, his weekend was over the minute he did that. He ripped off his front left
suspension, so it's a 5 from me. For Bortoletto, I've gone for a 4 out of 10
for his weekend. At the end of the day, Monaco is all about qualifying, and he made a mistake
in qualifying. He was the driver to crash on such a promising weekend for Audi.
Absolutely right in saying that you look at the V-Carbs, maybe even Williams,
and you think that this is the opportunity for all the midfield teams to get those massive
points. Audi, we've said they're always almost there, but this was the weekend where had they
just finished a weekend and been where their pace was, they are probably getting a seventh
place, or maybe even sixth. It's gutting for them because Bortoletto looked like he had great
pace, he was quick for the weekend, but that one error cost him massively, and then, of course,
his whole race is undone. I think you look at... Oh, he's finished 11th, but I think it flutters
the kind of where he actually was, because as you say, he's only beaten two cars, one of them
Colla Pinter, one of them Russell, who, of course, dropped all the way back.
I will say, and the reason why I went for a five rather than anything less is just purely because
he started from the pit lane as well. As much as he qualified in P16, it was a pit lane to a P11
in Monaco, which, again, sounds incredible on paper how you're giving him a low grade, but
I guess when you factor in other things, it has to be a lower grade because there were some real
opportunities there. The fans gave Gabby a 6 out of 10. Nico Holkenberg, qualified P13, finished
in P13. I've gone for a 6 out of 10 for Nico Holkenberg. I think he didn't maximize the result
in qualifying, but I do think that... And basically just Audi and how quick I think they were,
but he got into that position to basically score a point.
And it's how you judge how unfortunate he was. I think he was very unfortunate, of course.
He could have avoided it just, but I do think it is incredibly harsh. For me, it's a racing
incident, particularly because of what George Russell did in backing up that whole pack
and just the nature of Monaco. And the way he was just driving around the corner, he wasn't
doing anything malicious. He wasn't even going for an overtake. I think that's why I kind of side
with him. But he was, which is not on Carlos. Yeah, exactly. So it's tough on him, but I've gone
for a 6. I've gone for a 6 out of 10 as well for Nico Holkenberg. Could have been so much more had
it not been for that end of race contact with Carlos. I still firmly believe that that penalty
was really harsh. But that being said, he had a part to play. He hit Carlos, and albeit George
Russell caused all of that to happen by being four or five seconds a sector slower and that sort of
sector one and into the hairpin. But yeah, I can't believe we're talking about Audi not scoring
points again after looking so, so quick this weekend. And I was going to say they weren't,
they were fast and reliable, but had mistakes. But then again, Portoletto, as much as he crashed
in qualifying, also had an issue on the way to the grid. So it's still, still trying to figure
out how to keep these cars working throughout a weekend for Audi. But for Nico, I've gone for a
6. The fans get them a 5.
Esteban Ocon, qualified 17th, finished the race in 9th. I am going to go 4
and 8 out of 10 for Esteban Ocon. Again, this is a driver that has got reasonably lucky,
but you make your own luck in Formula One sometimes. And he was able to take advantage of
other people's mistakes or pit lane speed limiting, which I don't blame them for, but this still
happened. So it has or not the fifth or sixth fastest car. And you have to respect that Ocon has
kept his nose clean. And he was reasonably good this weekend. I don't know how we compare Ocon
and Bearman, because it's very difficult to do that with not a lot of, well, Ollie got literally
knocked out in the NQ1, but that was due to that late red flag. So same with Ocon. Same with Ocon
as well, of course, but Ocon ended up out qualifying him due to that. So yeah, 8 out of 10. Solid weekend
from Ocon. I've gone for a 7 out of 10 for Esteban Ocon. I think his result is good fortune, but of
course, he does deserve credit for being one of the few that kept it out of trouble.
Yeah, Haas, that they didn't maybe deliver the pace and Ocon has been always very good around
Monaco, but it wasn't a really, really strong weekend for him. But he did keep out the walls,
obviously finished in the points, got 10th place, just finished ahead of Perez and then
managed to get promoted once Holker Berg's penalty got in. And decent points after what's been a tough
kind of run for Ocon. Certainly, the fans gave him a 7. Ollie Bearman qualified P19 and did not
finish. I have gone for a 4 out of 10 for Ollie Bearman. He had the crash in FP3, which was a big
one. Then we got into qualifying and yeah, it was behind his teammate, of course, got caught up by
the red flag. But you know, that's a risk that you take in Monaco and why we've said many times
that you kind of need to get a lap in as early as possible when it counts because it's something
that's happened many times at Monaco and then had contact on the first lap and lost his front wing.
So then of course, retired as well, which wasn't his fault, but just a weekend to forget for Ollie
for sure. I am going to go for a 5 out of 10 for Ollie Bearman. There are so many things to take
into account here and I don't really want to give him lower than a 5 and yeah, maybe he's my second
favourite driver or whatever, I don't care. But I've gone for a 5 out of 10 because the, as I
mentioned with Ocon, the Q1 elimination was down to the fact that basically they need a prep lap
unless your Carlos signs will get on to him. But for Ollie Bearman and for Haas, you know,
they struggle to get anything out of that final run. And then as for, yeah, he crashed in FB3,
that was 100% his fault. As much as he said it was a bizarre crash, he was offline. So I think
that was probably one of the big factors as to why that happened. The losing of the front wing,
I'm sorry, I've watched this replay and I don't know what Ocon's doing. It's absolutely ridiculous
because I know it's the start of the race and everyone's jostling for position. But Ocon in
my mind has shaped for the inside of the hairpin and then bailed out of it at the last millisecond
and then Ollie's already committed to the outside line and then just drives into the back of his
teammate. For me, that is not Ollie's fault in the slightest. And I think he's very unlucky for
that to have happened. So yeah, both Haas drivers could have been out with that sort of move, but
it didn't happen for Ocon, thankfully for him. But yeah, I don't pin any blame on Ollie for
the start of that one. So I've gone for a five. The fans gave him a four out of 10.
Lance Stroll qualified 22nd and did not finish.
I have gone for a three out of 10 for Lance Stroll.
Qualified dead last. I know his teammate was 21st, so it's not like it's,
like he was miles off, but still not quick in comparison to Fernando. I think he was
maybe nine, 10 seconds at the biggest margin between Fernando, but we know how this is with
Monaco, right? It doesn't stretch out as much when you're in, actually, to be fair, I think Alonso
and Stroll were in their own sort of pack of just Formula Three. Then you have the Formula
Two, then you have the Formula One cars that were lapping after lap 10. But it still, you know,
crashed out of the race. He blamed it due to engine braking. I think there definitely was a factor for
the disintegrating track as well. Did you hear the Perez? Do you see the Perez video on that?
Yes, I have seen Perez just basically saying from like lap 20 odd. By the way, guys, you need to
sweep that because it's really bad. They didn't do anything until... And then when Lance goes into
the wall, Perez goes, that's not his fault, which I thought was quite interesting. Yeah. I mean,
Lance himself said, I think it was the engine braking. So, you know, you've got to take what he
says in his gospel, Lance Stroll. But I do think there is a factor there as well. But still,
a weekend to forget for Lance, as is the entire season, I'm sure.
So, I've gone for a 4 out of 10 for Lance Stroll. Obviously miles off for Lonzo.
Difficult one with the crash, you know, because it's not the usual kind of straight into the wall
and 100% the drivers thought obviously he has crashed. So, I will kind of downgrade him for that,
of course, because other people are going around. So, you're downgrading him and you said he's miles
off for Lonzo and you've gone 4 out of 10. Yes, because I've watched some things as well. And
oh, my word, the car is actually trying to kill him. I don't know if you saw the crazy moment
in the tunnel on lap two. But oh, my word, the Aston Martin is absolutely horrendous. I can't
believe he's just going... What normally is just a very easy turn at the tunnel and it snaps on him
and he basically laughs at how crazy this car is to drive. Right, well, I'm looking at apps to
keep talking because I need to see this. But yeah, I am going for a 4 out of 10 because,
yeah, he, as you say, yes, his qualifying was poor but he was driving behind for now for Lonzo.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a moment. That is a moment in the tunnel. Why is it sideways there? That is
fascinating. Okay, the fans gave Lance Stroll a 3 out of 10. Fernando Alonso, qualified 21st
and finished 10th. I have gone for a 9 out of 10 for Fernando Alonso. He, of course, benefited
quite a lot from the misfortune of others but still did an incredible job in an absolutely
horrendous car and beat Stroll by an enormous margin, which is maybe not a surprise anymore.
And Fernando Alonso, you know, kept out of trouble. Inqualifying. Yeah, sorry,
inqualifying, yeah. I was going to say, I mean... And in the race but as because Stroll was in the
world. By several laps in the race. Yeah, exactly. But Fernando, yeah, he was there to pick up the
pieces of course. He finished behind Perez on the road but benefited and got a point fast and
Martin finally at probably what's been maybe even their worst weekend, which was a surprise because
you thought this might be one where they could actually perform because it's not maybe all down
to the engine. But alas, Aston Martin's still struggling quite a lot but Alonso got a point,
which feels like a championship in Aston Martin, certainly. Really does. I can't believe we're
sat here and Tommy's given Fernando a 9. Because I'm not biased. I've gone for a 10 out of 10 for
Fernando Alonso. I mean, we've just watched a video, you just made me watch a video of Stroll
in the tunnel trying to kill him. And then now you're telling me, what more could he have done?
He's put seven tenths on his teammate in qualifying and he scored a point in a quite
literal tractor. I mean, I don't need to know. He's done better drives this season and we can't give
him a 10 for just finishing like 15. I can. I said I can. And I know how much it angered me giving
Arvid Lindblad a 10 out of 10 for some people last time out. But you know, these are our grades
and yours are yours. But yeah, I've gone for a 10 for Fernando because starting on the back row of
the grid and scoring a point in the categorically worst car on the grid, when else are we going
to give him a 10 at this stage when we've been literally memeing the life out of this Aston
Martin car all season long? So yes, there is luck involved but I can't give him anything lower than
that. Oh, he should have beaten blah, blah, blah. No, I think he's maximised absolutely everything.
The fans gave him a 10 out of 10 as well. I'm glad you agree.
Well, crazy. I was the one that normally it's the other way around where Alonso gets a six every
week and I'm there like, that was an eight out of 10 drive. He was like 14th in the worst car on the
grid and now I'm like, Fernando should have got a podium guys. Come on, lock in. Let's now head
to a driver we just spoke about, Arvid Lindblad, qualified in 15th and finished the race in sixth.
I am going to go four. It's a very lovely result. I'm going to go for an
eight out of 10 for Arvid Lindblad. I think he did get reasonably lucky, I believe, with the timing
of red flags and looked to be off the pace of loss and if I'm going to be completely honest with you,
we'll speak about Liam after this. But still, a great weekend for Arvid to be scoring that amount
of points. Kept it clean as well, of course. We saw an overtake as well, so he should actually
get a 15 out of 10 because of Albonne making that error. But yeah, I think that he was definitely
the slower V-Car driver this weekend. So yeah, I'm going to go for an eight because I think
good fortune did very much play a part and maybe on paper made Lawson look less good than he actually
was when you take into account everything. So eight out of 10.
I've gone for an eight out of 10 as well for Arvid Lindblad. Yeah, I think he was off Lawson's
pace. Qualifying was a bit of a let down when you see what Lawson managed to do, but deserves
a huge amount of credit for avoiding any errors and mistakes and things in his first Monaco Grand
Prix, which deserves some credit for sure. And the fact that other drivers have made a lot of
mistakes here and there. And there's been a race of so many errors and problems and crashes and
craziness. And the fact that he's managed to keep out the walls and everything and get a great result
deserves credit. So I've gone for an eight out of 10.
The fans gave Arvid an eight as well. Liam Lawson, qualified 10th, finished the race in fifth.
I have gone for a 10 out of 10 for Liam Lawson. I think his qualifying was absolutely brilliant.
I don't think that the racing bulls was a car that should have been making it into Q3 when you
look at some of the others. I don't think it's obviously terrible, but I don't think they had,
you know, say like the advantage that they had in Canada, for example, where they were looking
mighty and made no mistakes. He was the quickest VCar driver all weekend and yeah, deserved the
amazing result he got in the end and got the reward for his great speed and keeping out the
walls and executed, you know, the weekend very well. So I think I've gone for a 10. It's gonna
be a 10. You think you've gone for a 10? I was gonna say something else and then I was like,
I think that was because and then I said yeah, I'm telling you, but I'm glad you think you've
gone for a 10. My thinking of going for number is 10 out of 10. Very, very easy. I think you
all saw that coming from when I spoke about Arvid's grade. Lawson massively impressive. He was,
yeah, so quick this weekend. Potentially could have outqualified Casley, but I'm not gonna downgrade
him for that. I just genuinely a brilliant performance from him. And if he keeps this kind of
performance up, which again, I think he's been one of the drivers of the season so far this year
that he has had excellent results. So another one, sorry, I didn't mean to do the meme, but another
one to put on the board for Lawson and yeah, he's having a great season so far. So fully deserving
of a 10 out of 10 and the much quicker V-Carb driver, I would say around Monaco. The fans,
get him a nine. What are you doing? I'm sorry, this is the first time I'm lashing out. How on
earth is that a nine? Is it because Casley finished ahead of him on the road? Don't care,
it was definitely a 10. Carlos Sainz, qualified P12, did not finish. This one's difficult because
he got yeeted. But how much do you put a little bit of sprinkling of seasoning of blame on the
yeetage being on his side? I don't really put much blame at all on him. I'm going to go for
God, what am I going to do? 8 out of 10 for Carlos Sainz. I think he had a really strong weekend.
And if you listened to his interview, he said he put the lap of his life in, in qualifying. And
if we think about how heavily we grade this stuff in quality, of course, this was Q1. Q2,
he left a bit on the table. But Q1, he was, I think, the only driver to actually make it into
Q2 on that final lap without a prep lap. So Carlos made something work that no one else did, which
I think definitely needs to be commended because, of course, he was on the back foot after the red
flag came out. And then he was on for points. Both Alex and Carlos were working together beautifully.
And I will say that, you know, when you watch the aerial shot issue, the aerial,
the camera angle of the hairpin, it's easy to say, Carlos, why did you come across?
But also, Carlos probably is not expecting. They don't have the team camp to you.
Yeah, he can't see that. And he's not expecting Nico to be there. And he has to kind of drift
over that way to go for the next right hander. It's the racing line. So
it's just really unfortunate for Carlos. But I think the 8 out of 10 shows that I believe he had a
pretty strong weekend. I have gone for a 7 out of 10 for Carlos Sainz. Yeah, he's unlucky not to
get points there, of course, getting taken out the race. And Williams, of course, did that strategy
again that worked for them last year. And it was almost going to be absolutely perfect until Carlos
got taken out because it would have got both of them points. But yeah, Carlos drove a good race,
and it's a shame that he didn't get rewarded for his drive.
The fans give Carlos a 7 out of 10. Alex Albarn qualified P11 and finished the race in eighth.
I have gone for an 8 out of 10 for Alex Albarn. I think it was a great result.
He got the points, which is great for Williams because they've struggled to get them this year.
I don't think Alex has had the best of seasons so far. He struggled to get points on the board.
But here, eighth place is massive for Williams, a strong weekend out qualifying Carlos when I think
Carlos has been very strong recently. And Albarn delivered a great result to get P8.
And yeah, very impressive from Alex to get some big points on the board for Williams.
I have gone for an 8 out of 10 for Alex Albarn as well. I really don't think,
and I don't want to downgrade Carlos for being taken out of the race, and that's why I've done
this because Alex and Carlos could not be separated this weekend. They were 28 thousands
of a second separated in qualifying. So I can't give Alex a one-point additional
nod for the fact he outqualified his teammates. They were so, so close. And then in the race,
they were working together to come and score great points for Williams. So I'm going to go
for the same grade for both of them because I think that's the fairest in my head. So
Alex gets an 8 out of 10 as well. And the fans get a, sorry, I'm not grading you guys.
I'm not grading the fans. You guys get a 7 out of 10. No, they're you graded, Alex, a 7 out of 10.
Maybe we should start doing that at the end. Yeah, we look back in the comments from the
previous episode. We're going to grade you guys a 2 out of 10 because you shouted at us the entire
way through for our opinion. Indeed. Let's now go to Lewis Hamilton, qualified third and finished
the race in second. I've deliberated this one quite extensively. So as we know, I'm not downgrading him
for the speeding penalty. This is tough. This is tough because I'm genuinely considering him
giving him a 10. Oh, God. Was there more in qualifying? It's so hard because you're looking at
Ferrari from Friday. They're the fastest car, but Saturday they weren't. 10. It's a 10 out of 10 for
Lewis Hamilton. I'm giving him a 10 because he had an excellent weekend this weekend. He outqualified
Charlotte Clair, which is no mean feat. We will get on to Clare's grade once I process that. But
for Hamilton, I don't think I can really downgrade him on what he did this weekend. Genuinely was
on Charlotte Clair's heels throughout Friday and to be fair, he was ahead of Charlotte Clair in one
of the practice sessions. I think he loaded a lot of pressure in the Charlotte Clair camp. Hamilton
is going from strength to strength at the moment at Ferrari. He genuinely is. Canada was an excellent
performance. Now this one, I can't fault him. I'm going to go for a 10 out of 10. I'm locking it in.
I have gone for a 9 out of 10 for Lewis Hamilton. So good to see basically the Hamilton evolved back.
That's two races now with a P2. The stronger Ferrari driver absolutely this weekend on a
track where his teammate is an absolute specialist at. The reason I can't go for a 10 and maybe it's
just because of Hamilton and how good he is just in his whole career is that we all know these
drivers can elevate themselves further. And I know that Ferrari will maybe a little bit off, but
an unbelievable quality. Maybe he gets pole position. Of course, he was third on the grid,
but still a fantastic performance. It's very nearly a 10, but I'm going for a 9 for Hamilton.
And it's so good to just see him back fighting at the front. Second in the World Championship
as well now is incredible and just shows what a great job he's doing and how much he's turned
his form around when essentially last year he was probably the flop of the season.
And now he's one of, if not the most impressive driver I think we're seeing so far this season.
So great job from Hamilton. Yeah, really enjoying the regs. One thing I always wanted to add and
the reason why I've lent more towards a 10 was just his race pace as well was really strong.
When Leclerc was in the Grand Prix, Charles wasn't really that close. He started to eke
back towards Lewis towards the end of the stint, I think it was, but Hamilton was unphased. So
10 out of 10 from me and a 9 out of 10 from the fans.
Charlotte Clair, qualified fourth, did not finish.
He did not. I've gone for a 4 out of 10 for Charlotte Clair. I think one of his messiest
weekends of his career are a track that of course he is so good around and has been so good around
in recent years. We'll start with qualifying. Of course, yes, he finished fourth, but there were
errors all over the place. His Q3 was an absolute mess. Let me know when you're finished.
Yeah, I will do. Let me know when you're finished. Just know when you're finished.
It was an absolute mess. His first run, put him on the back foot, put a load of pressure on him,
then he was basically desperate at the end where he went into the wall to just try and
gain anything from the car and maybe there's a bit of frustration there that how quick they were
on Friday and it wasn't coming together for him. Of course, crashed out in the Grand Prix, didn't
have the pace that Hamilton had. I'm surprised. Actually, I thought that Shell would be all over
the back of Hamilton and they'd raced together, but Hamilton went off into the distance and
they came close together at the end. Of course, the crash again, there's talks of the brakes,
a bit like Stroll with his incident with the engine, but at the end of the day has put it in
the wall. It's a really poor weekend overall for Shell on what could have been the track where he,
it was their big chance, I think, for victory, particularly with how good he is around it.
Indeed, I have gone for a 4 out of 10 as well for Charles Leclerc.
Yeah, crashed in both competitive sessions qualifying and the race. It can't be any
higher than that. Yes, his pace at times was excellent and I thought maybe, maybe there was
a chance of the win at the start of the weekend, but it's such a gray area, isn't it? How did he
crash? Was it the practice integrating? Was it his brakes and the fact that... He said after the
race that his front brakes locked and then his rears didn't decelerate at all. I think he was
even caught speaking in the pits and saying, I put this amount of pressure on and he was
mystified as to why he's gone in the wall. When you watch the onboard, I said in the podcast,
like, I don't blame him for it, but how can I give him any more than a 4 for a weekend where
he has not completed either session? So, very tough, very tough indeed, but we move on because
I don't want to talk about it anymore. Ever again. Yes, the fans gave him a 6.
Very good. Lord, who is the fanboy because it might not be me. Of course, it's me. Let's go to
Isaac Haja, qualified in fifth and finished in third. I've gone for an 8 out of 10 for Haja.
I think I was slightly harsh on him in the main race podcast where I said he was really slow and
the reason why he was really slow is because he was managing a problem with his engine and he
had no first gear and you could tell he was having a bit of a meltdown and I feel sorry for the
person on the receiving end of a lot of those team radio messages, but for Haja,
he managed and worked around that problem and I think he does deserve credit that it's not easy
to manage problems around a circuit like this, especially when you're this early into your career.
So, I've gone for an 8 out of 10. I've gone for an 8 out of 10 as well for Haja.
It wasn't incredibly fast this weekend, obviously, not on the Stappens level when it came to
qualifying, of course, but if you'd said that he'd got a podium after the crash that he had
in practice, he would have been dreaming. I think a really bad moment for him must have
gutted the pressures would have been on him and then, yeah, to have the issue in the race to
manage it the whole time, to kind of keep his head and keep it on the road when others were
having issues and, yeah, was there to basically bag a brilliant result for him and his team.
What I find absolutely insane is that during the red flag and the reason why he was under
investigation was that the Red Bull team started doing work on the car like replacing spark plugs
and things like that. Then they were found like that the FIA were like, well, you can't do that.
And so, they then took it all off and reverted the car back to its original state, which I thought,
I don't know about you, but that's a penalty. That feels like it should be a penalty.
Yeah, that is crazy because I imagine and I'd love to please mention the comments if you are one
of these people that if you're a George Russell fan, you're probably going, that guy that's touched
the car, can he now wait five seconds and then serve that five second penalty and then go,
oh, we've served it now and then go again. Because I'm guessing no, you can't do that.
So, yeah, it's obviously a very strange rule that one that they were able to get away with that one.
When queried about their works, they stopped working and reverted the car to its previous state
without replacing any part. So, that should be a penalty in my opinion. That's such a weird ruling.
But anyway, well done to Hajar. That's not down to him. And an eight out of 10. The fans gave him
an eight as well. Max Verstappen, qualified second, didn't finish or really even do anything.
What are we doing about this? Because we are grading him for his qualifying.
Okay, right. Because we need to make this clear that Monaco clearly is a special case here then,
because we have had NA's for this kind of thing. So, can we just make it clear to everybody what
we're doing here? Well, I want to give them a grade shot. There you go. Because essentially,
Monaco, it's all about qualifying. And also, like I've made this point before, that if
Hajar, if Gasly or ever put it on pole position, and then the car breaks down,
it seems incredibly harsh to give them no grade at all and not be rewarded for something brilliant
that they've done qualifying. Because essentially, and the same goes for the other way, had
Max binned it in the wall in qualifying, started last and his car broke down. He deserves to get
less than NA because he's had a bad race. Okay, so it's a case by case basis. We just need to
clear this up because there are a lot of people that care much more about our grades than we do,
and they need clarity, Tommy. But it is a case by case basis. We say this with
everything in Formula One, when it's penalties, it's not just like, this person did this,
so then this person did this. And I think, you know, feel free to say it in the comments. I'm
sure you will. They already have. I'm sure they have. But I don't believe it is for someone.
It's our series, so you go ahead. I've gone for a 9 out of 10 for Max Verstappen. You can only
judge him when he's qualifying, and he put up an unbelievable lap to almost get pole position
in a car that's clearly not there yet, you know, comfortably ahead of his teammate.
It was a phenomenal lap. And then of course, you know, had it been his error,
like Lin Blood, you gave a 10, just a reminder, had it been his error for the start,
I would have downgraded him, but it's not. Okay, so thanks for bringing it up. Look,
that was one piece of information I was not made aware of when making that grade.
So I will revert to a 5 out of 10 for Lin Blood in Canada, and we're already locked in,
and people are over it, and now they're not, Tommy, because you brought it back up.
So Max Verstappen, I am going to go for...
And you can't get higher than Hajar. I didn't even do the race, bro.
I'm going to go for an 8 out of 10 for Max, if we're going to grade him
for qualifying and then not doing the race, but then, you know, there's...
Lin Blood, by the way, he did a sprint. All right, before you start shouting at me,
it wasn't... That was a different sprint weekend. We saw that he was unbelievable in both
quali and race trim. Anyway, back to this. Yeah, I can't give him a higher grade than Hajar who
scored a podium, his first podium for Red Bull. So that's why I'm going for an 8 out of 10 for
Max. He put three tenths on Hajar, which is a decent chunk. It's not on a Lonzo stroll level,
so... But yeah, that's not to take away from Max's quali performance. I wish we'd been able to see
what he could do in the race. I really do, or at least down towards turn one. I think not a lot,
just purely from the Red Bull and what we've seen this year. I still firmly believe that
Hamilton would have probably got him, maybe. It's impossible to get into the lead from second,
as we mentioned in the podcast, 2002. 2002, yeah. Long, long time ago. But yeah, Max,
phenomenal qualifying, and yes, he's getting a nod, a cheeky nod, 8 out of 10. The fans gave him an 8
as well. Kimi Antonelli. Qualified first, finished first. It's a 7 out of 10 for Kimi Antonelli.
Just let a lot out there. 10 out of 10, obviously, for Kimi Antonelli.
No notes. No negatives. Just probably his most impressive weekend of his entire
really long Formula One career. It's Monaco. Pressure of the championship.
Mercedes kind of on the back foot to some degree. George Russell sticking it sixth in qualifying.
You would even have forgiven Antonelli for a P3 or P4 in quali. But no, he was P1. He was so quick
in the race that he left everyone for dust whenever he wanted to push. I don't have any other words
because I'm genuinely speechless at what we're witnessing. Five wins in a row for Antonelli.
Ridiculous. I've gone for a 10 out of 10 for Antonelli. It's finally a 10.
And it's a full deserving 10 because it is the absolute perfect weekend. There's been debates
of the fact that some people will say, I deserved a 10 anyway because he won the race. But we've
given him nines a lot of the time because he's never executed like perfect wins. And there's
been lots of circumstances and he's had poor starts and then come back through the field and
we know how good the Mercedes is. The Mercedes was not clear this weekend. You look at what his
teammate managed to do. And Antonelli did a perfect quali lap, a perfect race. He just went off into
the distance. See you later. And yeah, when the pressure could have been on, when I think what's
most impressive as well is it wasn't even like a case of drove the perfect qualifying lap, which
we'd still give him a 10 for, I think, because he's driven the perfect qualifying lap and it
just been a normal Monaco race, lights to flag, he controls the pace. But he bolted, was never in
doubt of losing that victory. And in the craziness of the track breaking up, people getting penalties
left, right and centre, two, you know, two race starts because of the situation we have with
the red flags, all these things could have easily got in his head for a young driver that's going
for the world championship and knows that this is a huge opportunity for him to get a massive
points lead in the championship. And he just did absolutely nothing wrong all weekend. It was
perfection. It was absolute perfection. 10 out of 10 as well from the fans. Unsurprisingly,
we now go to George Russell, qualified sixth finished 12th.
I have gone for a five out of 10 for George Russell. Of course, there'll be people saying he's
very unfortunate for his drive through penalty, but his teammate dominated the race. And you know,
I said this with Bortoletto's grade, your Monaco Grand Prix is make or break in qualifying.
And George had a poor qualifying, his teammate put it on pole position, and he was sixth. And
when you are out of position in Monaco, that is the nature of what happens at Monaco,
that you get stuck behind a car that, you know, can't get has a problem with first gear. And
it's going so slow that you end up being left by your teammate. But that is just what happens. And
you know, even the drive through penalty, which he got for, of course, touching his car,
I heard a radio where, and Sky were mentioning this, and I think Bernie Collins was saying this as
well, that when your teams say stay out, you don't come into the pit lane because they're not ready
for you. And they could easily have not had any tires or anything like that. And yes, it's the
fault of the team because they touched the car. But they were saying, stay out, stay out. And he
came into the pits. So it's not like, there's a little bit of obviously, I'm not saying like,
he doesn't like, it's his 100% his fault for a drive through, but you have to put a bit of blame
there. Even even other things at the weekend, like he was so close to getting a penalty going
almost out of the pit lane, like on the white line, which looked incredibly marginal.
Bro, that's perfection. It's not getting a penalty. You can't be downgrading him for that.
The grid box as well. I'm not not grading him. I'm just saying that I think like,
there was like investigations here, there and everywhere. It was a really messy weekend from
him. And yeah, like, he needs to like, pick it up and find out what's what's gone wrong,
because it was just a case of it all went wrong and qualifying and then just got even worse in the
race. I've gone for a five out of 10 as well for George. I don't think you can really downgrade
him any more than that just pure. And I did even contemplate maybe one point higher, but I'm going
to go with a five. Because, you know, without that whole Mercedes pit stop debacle, he's he's
going to finish third. So but then, you know, on the other side of things, there are things to
downgrade him on how slow he was in qualifying to, you know, be that far off your very young 19
year old teammate. It's just not really a good look for George after, you know, being very impressive
over the last few seasons. The speeding penalty, I don't not going to downgrade him for that,
as I haven't with everyone else. I hear your point about the pit stop confusion.
I just I still think it's 90% Mercedes fault. Just because George has thrown the cat amongst
the pigeons and pit, that doesn't mean that it's his fault. Like it's the responsibility of the team
to not touch the car, because they know they have a penalty, but they have and it's only
it was only one member member of the mechanics, wasn't it? So yeah, it's a really tough grade.
And I can understand where people could sit between a four and a seven.
So if you actually think about where he might have ended up, but I'm going to go with a five.
And considering the numbers I've just said, as the scale, the fans, they didn't agree with
any of those numbers and went for a three out of 10 for George Russell, which I think is
insanely hard. The worst grade of anyone so far, him and Lance. Lance, you ended up in the
George. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, wow, that's incredibly harsh. Indeed. Okay, we now go
to Oscar Piastri, qualified in seventh and finished in fourth. I am going to lock in a
seven out of 10 for Oscar Piastri. Good weekend. It seemed as though Lando who shock didn't have
a clean weekend because of reliability was was slightly faster. Looked at one point that Piastri
might even be on the podium, which would have been pretty pretty sensational considering McLaren
being the fourth fastest car around here, which was a surprise to quite a few people.
But he was able to just, I mean, clearly, if you just go around Monica and not pick up
too many penalties, of course, he picked up one for speeding,
which he served, I think, didn't he under the safety car? I think it was. So it actually was
sort of negated. But yeah, a seven out of 10 for Oscar, a reasonable weekend, good points,
but nothing to write home about. Definitely. I've gone for a seven as well for Oscar. It was one
of those races where he, of course, outqualified his teammate. He had a better Q3. Lando had a
lot of issues, of course, but then he was one of these drivers that was able to just drive their
race. McLaren were so surprisingly poor than what we thought they were going to be, which is,
of course, no fault of Piastri, but then kept it out of any kind of trouble for really other
than, of course, the speeding penalty to bag a really solid result. And I think he would,
I think him and McLaren would have taken fourth all day long based on how poor they were this
weekend. But Oscar's been rewarded for basically just having a good weekend where he's not made
any mistakes. The fans gave Oscar Piastri a seven as well. Lando Norris, qualified eighth, did not
finish. I've gone for a six out of 10 for Lando Norris. I think one harsher than Piastri because
they were racing each other into turn one, which put him behind Gasly, which, of course, meant
that was going to ruin his race, of course, not downgrading him for the reliability that he had,
of course, which is why he failed to finish. But again, like an ideal preparation all weekend
for what's happening with Lando and the unreliability. I have seen a graphic that someone
has posted about Lando's reliability issues. I think we did something similar to this before,
but it is now insane reading even more. So I'll just go into the problems that Lando has had
this year. So Australia, he had a gearbox and clutch issue and missed 80% of the session in
FP1. In FP2, he had power unit issues, which meant he didn't do any running. FP3 deployment issues
qualifying was where they duct tape his front wing and of course had that deployment issue again.
Sprint qualifying deployment issues in China. Qualifying had a minor issue in the race. He
had a power unit issue, which meant he didn't even start the race. FP1, his straight line
mode didn't work in Japan. FP2, he had a hydraulic leak. FP3 had an ERS issue, which was the second
battery to go, qualifying deployment issues. In Miami, he had issues in qualifying with the
boost and deployment. In the race, he had a rear wing problem, but of course, that was a raceway
actually did well. Round five, Canada. Debra at the start of the race. Of course, they had the whole
issue with putting on the inters and then he had a DNF for a mechanical failure. Then we go to
Monaco round six, where in FP2, he had a fourth power unit failure, which meant terrible for him
again. And then in the race, another issue, which meant he DNFed. That is some of the worst
reliability. I know we're joking about other teams and CAD like NASA mine. He must have
the worst reliability on the whole grid. It has to be. be right up there. You'd think
that you're reading that out. If you knew nothing about Formula One, you're like, oh yeah, back in
1980, Lando Norris used to drive for blah, blah, blah, and here's the reliability issues. That's
the kind of reliability problems we expect from old school Formula One, not 2026 F1. Of course,
the new regs are throwing a large amount of spice Lando's way. As we've said, he's been great when
it's been clean, but he's not really had too many of those. I have gone for a six after 10 for Lando
as well. Untapped pace. I think he genuinely did have a lot of speed, made a mistake in his final
lap in Q3, which of course cost him. I think he would have outqualified Oscar, probably not much
more. I think he even said that after qualifying. Then as for the race, I'm downgrading him a little
bit just purely because of losing that position to Gasly. Of course, he was squeezed side by side
with Oscar. Oscar sort of jolts over to the right a little bit too late. By that point, Lando has
already gotten out the throttle and it gave Gasly the opportunity to get through. That really did
scupper his race up until the point of the DNF. I've gone for a six. The fans have gone for a
five. Here we go then. Who is our P1? I cannot choose anyone other than Kimmy Antonelli as much
as there have been some very solid 10 performances. Hamilton, I mentioned, of course, is a 10. Lawson
as well. I gave a Lonzo a 10. A lot of 10s for those that actually escaped Monaco unharmed.
Gasly as well, of course. It has to be Antonelli because he was simply unstoppable.
Indeed. It is easily Kimmy Antonelli. It is a 100% score, five stars, 10 out of 10 perfection.
Can't get any better. It's the best weekend of his career and the best drive of his career,
but it's probably the drive of the season so far in terms of just the fact that he's executed
everything to perfection. The fact that we'll see how good Kimmy Antonelli
his career is going to be. I spoil a lot of things. It's going to be very, very good.
He's already shown, but how many times have we seen great drivers when the car isn't 100%
even if they've been dominating the whole season and they go into a race where the car isn't as good
this weekend and they still dominate. That's exactly what Kimmy's done. I can't believe he's
doing that at 19 years old and in only a second Formula One season. Yes, I don't think this will
be his last victory. Goodness knows what his run is going to be potentially at the moment with how
good he's driving. Exactly. 66 points the gap to Lewis Hamilton in the championship and then
George Russell too further back from that. He's got a big old buffer has Kimmy and that is it.
Thank you everybody for tuning in to this driver ratings. A very interesting one.
Be keen to hear your thoughts of where you sit on that if you're downgrading due to the speeding
penalties. If you're upgrading for other things that we didn't mention, I'm sure you've already
let us know if not please do. We look forward to seeing you literally this weekend of course
for Barcelona, the Circuit de Barcelona, Catalonia. We will be live as normal for our usual
watch alongs. So come and join us for that. So yeah, Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts,
that was a lot of fun. Of course, your voice is going. My final thoughts.
Your final thoughts is literally your final thoughts as you've lost your voice.
Yes, I've lost. I've drunk all my water and yeah, it was an insane race makes it even more
difficult for driver ratings, but I do enjoy the fact that that we can disagree. And if you think
there's proof that no one's, you know, incorrect or everyone has a different opinion, 71 people
gave Kimmy Antonelli a 9 out of 10 for that weekend wasn't enough 4% of the vote he got
just didn't deliver should have done better. Okay, well, left it on that note. We'll see you soon.
Lots of love. Bye. Goodbye.
About this episode
The hosts run through Monaco GP driver ratings, with the biggest debate reserved for penalties—especially the pit-lane speed limiter—where they argue the threshold is tiny and blame often lands on the team’s measurement rather than the driver. Sergio Perez’s grid-box and restart errors shape his grade, while Pierre Gasly’s 10/10 performance is soured by a limiter hit that costs him a podium. Elsewhere, Fernando Alonso and Liam Lawson earn top marks, Kimi Antonelli is treated as flawless, and Lando Norris gets a harsher score for reliability woes.
Driver Ratings for the Monaco GP have proven pretty straightforward in the past - but a thousand penalties and the track literally falling apart makes this season's a LOT more difficult...
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