Our 2026 Chinese GP predictions
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Concept
Chinese Grand Prix
The Chinese Grand Prix is a big car race that happens in China every year where the fastest cars in the world compete.
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Formula One
Formula One is a type of car racing with very fast cars that race on tracks all around the world.
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regulations
Regulations are the rules that all the cars and drivers have to follow during the races.
Concept
Formula 1 (F1)
Formula 1 is a type of car racing where the fastest and most advanced cars race on tracks around the world. It's the top level of car racing.
Brand
McLaren
McLaren is a company that makes very fast sports cars and also races cars in Formula One, which is a top-level car racing competition.
Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a famous car company from Germany that makes luxury cars and also has a very good team in Formula One racing.
Term
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine is the part of a car that burns fuel inside it to make the car move.
Term
overtake graphics
Overtake graphics are pictures or animations on TV that show when one car passes another during a race.
Term
race starts
Race starts are when all the cars begin the race by speeding up from a stop, and it's important because it can be dangerous if some cars go much faster than others.
Term
practice starts
Practice starts are when drivers practice how to get going quickly and safely at the beginning of a race.
Term
team radio
Team radio is how race car drivers talk to their team during a race to get advice and share information.
Term
World Motorsport Council
The World Motorsport Council is a group that makes the rules and decisions for big car races like Formula 1. They decide how races are run and settle any problems.
Car
Audi Formula 1 car
Audi makes very fast race cars for Formula 1, but sometimes these cars have problems that stop them from finishing races.
Term
reliability
Reliability means how often a car breaks down or has problems. In races, a reliable car is one that can finish without breaking.
Term
pit stops
Pit stops are short breaks during the race where the car stops to get new tires or fixes so it can keep racing fast.
Part
270 degree reverse flip rear wing
It's a special shape for the back wing of a race car that helps the car go faster by letting air flow better.
Concept
pole position
Pole position means starting the race at the very front because you were the fastest in qualifying. It helps you get ahead of other cars right from the start.
Term
eight tenths
Eight tenths means 0.8 seconds, which is a big difference in how fast one driver is compared to others in qualifying.
Concept
qualifying session
Qualifying is a short race before the main race where drivers try to be the fastest so they can start the main race closer to the front.
Term
podium
A podium means finishing a race in first, second, or third place, which is a big achievement and celebrated after the race.
Concept
main race
The main race is the big race that everyone watches and counts for the championship.
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sprint race
A sprint race is a quick race that happens before the main race to decide who starts where.
Concept
Drive to Survive
"Drive to Survive" is a TV show on Netflix that shows what happens behind the scenes in Formula One racing, helping people understand and enjoy the sport more.
Concept
sprint weekend
A sprint weekend means there is a short race before the big race. This short race helps decide who starts in which position for the main race.
LIVE
Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy if you're listening
on audio. It is dog season right now on the P1 podcast. Bruno's on my lap. Frank is on
Tommy's and as a four we're all going to put our predictions in. No, sadly not. No dog
predictions content just yet. But the Chinese Grand Prix is here. The second round of the
season. We've spoken a lot about Formula One and the current state of it. Bruno feels very
strongly about it. How does Frank feel? Frank is buzzing about the new season. He loves it.
Oh really? Always one of those? One of those sort of left field, you know, just likes, he's
120 overtakes, that's what I want. He's a big fan of the timing tower now,
just having one decimal place. That's his biggest takeaway from the season.
Mate, I saw a reel that was about it and it had quarter of a million likes of people being triggered
by it. And I am one of those people. Tommy on the other hand, he's going to be campaigning for
just seconds, like just 9, 10, 11 seconds or whatever. I get it. I get why they've done that.
Of all the things to complain about, I'm not complaining about a decimal place.
Let's not trigger the audience immediately off the bat and straight into China.
So a few things to talk about first and foremost. Let's try and speak. It's the first sprint weekend
of 2026. The second race and we're straight into sprints in a new set of regulations,
surely nothing can go wrong there, Tommy. I mean, are you excited that we have one practice session
and lots of competitive sessions? I think the good thing about the regulations, despite all the
complaining, is that the unpredictability of it at this stage, yeah, while they're still working
everything out, makes it unpredictable and unknown. So to then go into a session, a weekend,
where there's even less practice and even longer straight for super clipping, will they even make
it to that corner without running out of speed? We'll find out. No, I can tell you for a fact.
I would put every penny I own on the fact that they will be running out of energy before the
hairpin. I think it's going to be another one of those that we've had. Where will, where on the
straight will the Speedmaster hit the top speed, as we've now seen from a graphic?
Yeah, yeah. For context, F1 posted a Speedmaster thing. Is it Speedmaster? Is that what it actually
was? Yeah, Speedmaster. Yeah, yeah. And I think they're doing it for the whole year of the highest
who has hit the highest speed on the straight. And unsurprisingly, that was before, was it
Colopinto? It was Colopinto, just before the super clipping. And then they fade out the audio,
put the graphic in, and they're just, it's, it's of the strategy, for the strategy of the content,
I've got to say, they're just double downing on exactly what they've gone for. And they're not
listening to anything that's that the fans are saying currently, as if you've missed it, we did
an extra video over on P1 Extra. Shock, an extra video on P1 Extra, where we spoke about the
F1 social media team or whoever it is, an agency that helps F1 have been silencing the fans
in terms of hiding lots of replies over on Twitter or X. So yeah, go and check that out if you
haven't seen it already. And now there are some bits of news to talk about before we get into our
predictions, first and foremost, unsurprisingly, I would say, but then also kind of surprisingly,
to see it actually be a proper statement from McLaren. And it's the fact that they are very
unhappy about Mercedes essentially giving them an engine, a brand new one, of course, for this year
and gone, good luck, that obviously they've given some instructions, but they haven't given potentially
all the information that they need to essentially get the power and the efficiency and everything
else that we've seen from Mercedes and transferring that over to McLaren and other customer teams.
Yeah, I'm unsure about this one because it's not Mercedes' job to tell McLaren how to
use the engine, essentially, I think. Is it not? I don't know. I'm very unaware of the terms
and conditions of a customer engine. Well, yeah, I don't think it's public information,
but I think you can look at something. I think one thing you can look at is how James Valves has
gone about this. And he's had obviously the same opinion where he's gone, wow, Mercedes are really
utilizing their engine incredibly well. This is how you use it. And he has basically come out and
said, I reckon we can find three tenths or something, now we know how to best utilize it.
That's a much more balanced approach than McLaren who kind of, yeah, the way Stella came out was
seemingly quite annoyed by it. It wasn't very much like, oh, we didn't know what we could do
with this engine, now we'll learn. It seemed very much like we're not happy about this.
And to be honest, I kind of side on the McLaren argument here because if I purchase a product,
I expect to get the instruction manual. You don't want a basic instruction manual. You want the full
this is how it works. And I don't know, that's kind of how I feel because of course there's
millions and millions of pounds being transferred here and I don't know. Maybe they didn't buy the
manual. Maybe they didn't add the optional extra payment to come with a manual and a instruction
booklet as well. Maybe, yeah, maybe they were like, we can figure it out. I'm one of those people
who just open it, oh, I still need the instructions. Oh, yeah, I just wing it. And then take a long
time to sort out whatever it might be. So McLaren not happy at all. I can imagine, although I've
not seen other statements from the other customer teams of Mercedes, that they are also not too
happy because McLaren are the best performing after Mercedes and then there's a long way back
to the other ones. Another piece of maybe potentially big news, although it's not actually
happened yet, is that Formula One could already be changing the 2026 rules. I do love the the
quotes that are coming out about how they've had an ace up their sleeves this entire time.
And we need to, you know, don't worry, guys. We've got ways of super clipping out immediately.
Maybe that is one way that they might try and fix super clipping. There are plenty of routes
apparently they can go down, whether it's changing the way the energy is deployed. It could be trying
to actually harness more energy out of the internal combustion engine as well. And the teams appear to
be in unanimous agreement that they need a little bit more data before this happens. So China, there
are no changes coming. Not a singular change. And even less practice and data. Yes. And then we go to
Japan, where these these rules may well be implemented. That's that's the idea. That's the plan,
isn't it? And then we have potentially, although, you know, Kimmy Antonelli and Isaac Hajar have
stirred the pot in terms of what's actually going on with with Saudi and Bahrain potentially.
But it looks as though that may well be cancelled, which will give Formula One and the teams a much
bigger window to potentially fix all these problems. Yeah, I think the sentiment from
Formula One was they didn't want to do knee jerk reactions after testing immediately and change
everything. They kind of got away with one. I know, obviously, most people are unhappy,
but they did kind of get away with it and the fact that we had the leader swapping positions
and things like that, they could kind of cover it. Obviously, the overtake graphics and things didn't
do much to change people's mind and just made people even more annoyed. But for the most part,
I think things like the starts and how I think Franco Colopinto's amazing reactions
potentially saved them from a big discussion point because had Colopinto launched over the
back of Liam Lawson and, you know, gone into the fence or something or had a horrendous crash,
this this was a big concern about the race starts and why they put in these new practice starts and
things because they were worried that the speed difference and we almost had a big, big moment
with Colopinto and I think they got away with one there. So they're going to change that. So maybe
Ferrari's rocket starts, you'd hope that they still have them. But it might be a case of them
trying to tidy that all up. Well, we say tidy it all up. It was one driver that had a bit of
lack of power. It's not as if we had five or six drivers that were struggling to get off the line.
So I know that I might be talking about this from a Ferrari, please don't take away our
advantage perspective. But I wouldn't say it was an absolute disaster that the start, yes,
there were differences in getaways, but that is the thing we kind of want to watch, right? I think
of all the safety concerns that the bigger one for me is the difference in speed between someone
who has used their battery and someone that hasn't. I think Lando was quite vocal saying
it was 40, 50 kilometers an hour difference and it could well just turn into an aeroplane crash
if you're not careful. So for me, that's where the problems really lie. Again, people were like,
Ferrari found you. But I didn't see the starts as a massive disaster that needs changing immediately.
Particularly, well, they did that crazy start anyway. So with the whole fifth light going on
for 0.001 of a second, which made me think that they even wanted chaos.
I don't even want to see the fifth red light next time. I just want to see four lights and it goes
out. Another thing which kind of ties in, I guess, with the silencing of the fans that F1
were doing is the fact that we were questioning on the main race podcast. Oh, I didn't really hear
much team radio, did we? That's because there was a lot of complaining going on by the drivers.
And unsurprisingly, we didn't hear any of that, did we, in the main race broadcast?
Even something fun like Charles Leclerc saying that was like a mushroom in a car,
they didn't want that almost comical look of the new rules, that years gone by,
they love to jump on anything slightly humorous, don't they, to jump on it. But this just shows
how protective they are over these new rules, that even something slightly joking about it
that's not even slanderous, they're just kind of saying, wow, this is like Mario Kart,
shared that they didn't want to show it. They feel so sensitive to all of this at the moment,
that they're so eager to try and maintain their reputation. But I think by doing that,
it's kind of going in the other direction. And it screams that they know it's not right.
You don't go that in on pretending everything's fine, if you think it's genuinely fine.
I saw, obviously, I mentioned about the hiding of the replies thing at the top of the show and
obviously the podcast we did the other day. But I literally saw that there was someone
that had message saying, still hiding the replies, and that was hidden.
Well, they were hiding replies again on that color pinto one, the super,
super speed master or whatever it's called. Guys, stop, please. It's just embarrassing,
let people talk. Anyway, let's now move on to predictions for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix
and start with a good surprise. Tommy, you are going first, remember, as the regulations state.
We are alternating each week. I went first in Australia, it's now your turn.
So who are you locking in for good surprise? Oh, wow, do we not want to go through the score?
And I thought we were going to... Oh, God, yeah. Oh, God. Oh, no, yes. Oh, yes, absolutely, because
the score is 3-2, supposedly. But my God, you all came in your... I'm a few minutes.
...millions to argue that LeClaire was a good surprise. So I put a poll up on YouTube and it
was quite close. I think it was more on the no side. But then you posted... Oh, it was no.
Okay, fair enough. It was yes initially, then it was no. Then you posted a little graphic on
Instagram and my God. It was more comments of people being like, how? Which I still
do not believe. I mean, look, we can... My argument will always be that it's called a
good surprise, not a good result. And Charlotte Clair finishing in basically exactly the position
I think the majority of people would have said he'd finish in is not a good surprise.
You talk as Bruna is getting a little bit angsty right now.
I mean, I'm happy to lock it in and I will go good surprise to your dress all and
we'll continue that trend for the rest of the year if you want.
Wow. Very competitive this year. It's because you lost last year, isn't it?
I know, exactly. I don't want to... I just feel like a good surprise. It has to be like a surprising
result. Sorry, how is going from fourth to first and fighting a dominating Mercedes as your
microphone goes flying? Thanks, Frank. Yeah. Frank, silence Tommy, will you? That would be great.
Yes, Frank. Love, Frank. P1 with Matt and Frank from here on in.
He went from fourth to first, fought the Mercedes. Yes, he inevitably lost to them,
not by a huge margin. The VS, you're taking in a... You speak about before taking into account
a driver's race that's not just as simple as what's on paper.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the YouTube result? Because there wasn't a poll on Instagram.
I don't want to load it, but let me load it. Okay, all right, here we go. So we go to the P1...
What did I put it on? The race review, I think it was. Here we go. A live reaction.
Let's go to the comments. Pause that, right.
So I put a yes and a no comment somewhere. Why is it not coming up immediately? I'm surprised.
Can you view our comments, maybe? Yeah, hold on.
Everything's playing in my ears. Tommy stopped talking to me twice. Right. Okay,
so does Matt deserve good surprise point? And I said, vote below with a thumbs up,
which I don't think people understood because so many people just replied to it rather than just
liking the two messages I put. So actually, this is very interesting. So no was 458 upvotes.
And yes was 371. However, Lucas Ha, 9205 has helped me here and said, I had to scroll
so far to find the yes, it seems rigged against Matt. Even though you did it yourself.
Well, that's your own incompetence, really. Sorry, what do you mean incompetence? I messaged yes
and no at the same time and YouTube has screwed me, which is absolutely ridiculous. If I look
at the Instagram, the top comment with 485 likes, how is Leclerc not a good surprise? He got P3,
308 upvotes. Yeah, Leclerc was definitely a good surprise. Wait, how was Leclerc not a
good surprise? 221 votes. Was it surprising? I guess. I think there's enough deliberation here
that I deserve the point. Okay. Well, we'll give you a provisional point and it will go to the
the world, the World Motorsport Council. Well, I love the fact that the current
World Motorsport Council is you that just decides whether or not. No, it was just I was just putting
out there that you make the graphic. Did you or did you not discuss with me before that graphic
went out as to whether I got the point? No, you did not, sir. This is absolutely rigged in the
favour of the Bellingham. Okay, okay, fine. Good surprise. You can have the driver that finished
where he should have. Right, you need to stop that right now. We're going to get very sassy,
indeed. But I'm enjoying these arguments. So, okay, so in that, in fact, that is three all.
Okay, three all. Fine. Which you should be very happy with. We like Michael Massey.
I look forward to your dad having to go at me again, being like, oh, that always gets the
cheap ones. But there was a lot of people on my side. So, okay, let's now go finally to a good
surprise. Tommy, who are you locking in? I am locking in Lewis Hamilton.
Okay, I was I was unsure I was between two drivers. One of them was Max Verstappen.
But now I've gone for Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari bit bringing the Macarena wing.
And Hamilton showed last time out that he is much more comfortable in that Ferrari.
Seemed to enjoy himself a lot more. He was on the back of Leclerc at the end.
And yeah, I think Hamilton has always gone strong in China anyway. It's been one of his
is better races, obviously, won the sprint there last year. And yeah, going for Lewis Hamilton as
the good surprise, a good surprise, as it were.
Yes, it's unsurprising you've gone for that. That's that that seems to be something you've
gone for the surprise. Yeah, was that yes, unsurprising that you've gone for that as your
as your selection because it's a good one to go for. I did contemplate that. However,
I did not go for it because I went for Esteban Ocon. Oh, my word. He also was on my list of
almost going for it. It's absolutely like clockwork. You look at the previous results.
You look at like, yes. Last year's break fifth place last year. Amazing. Last week,
you know, left a little bit on the table. Haslett reasonably strong. Esteban Ocon,
please do what you did last year again this year. I'll take the point. That's as simple as that.
I think Ocon needs to get down and into the roots of why he feels like Ollie Berman's car
is different to his. You know, that was a standout quote that has definitely stayed with me
when he mentioned that and the issues between the two cars are different and things like that.
So hopefully you get some top of that and gets a good result in for both himself and for me.
Let's now head to a big flop. Bruno is very invested in this one. So my big flop is Gabrielle
Bortoletto. Oh, little engine failure or something. Yeah, I mean, he's off the back of a good result.
And I think Audi are fragile. The car is prone to some problems. And I don't think it's necessarily
going to be the Bortoletto is just going to be bad. I don't think that at all. I think he's
he's on the on the rise, but that Audi can be a little bit a little bit cheeky when it comes
to reliability. So that's why I've gone for Bortoletto. Despite a good surprise, quickly,
I'm proud of you for not going for Oscar Piestri because I thought we're going to have the whole
if well, if he makes the start of the race, if he gets round to the grid,
if he crashes on the formation lap, that's still further than last. I'm sorry. That's
sorry. That was too far. I know we have a lot of Australian listeners. I'm really sorry.
Big flop I've gone for George Russell.
Wow. Do I believe it? No. Am I going for it? Yes, because I'm playing the Russell. Yeah,
the percentage is if he's second. No, no, I'm joking. But just more the fact that
I am just seeing, you know, what the big flop power is. We've done Piestri.
Of course, it's a sprint weekend. So we now go to Sprint Pole.
Sprint Pole. I've gone for George Russell.
Mate, Tom Hedgerbet's Bellingham this year. What is going on?
Well, like just own your predictions, my guys. Stop playing the game strategy.
Look, 2026 is a game of chess, a high speed game of chess, as everyone keeps mentioning.
I literally thought you were reading something that was so strange.
So, yeah, I go for George Russell. I think, look, my big flop prediction
is more on a problem or an issue or something and the fact that, yeah, exactly, you can get both.
But I do think Mercedes is going to be rapid this weekend, maybe even quicker than Australia.
Okay, so if you are new to predictions, if we have gone,
submitted in terms of what we've written down at the same prediction, then we have to change it.
In this case, I don't need to change it because I've gone for someone different.
My Sprint Pole is Kimmy Antonelli. That was Rogue. Did I put that down thinking that
you'd have gone for George Russell and therefore I'd have to change it?
Maybe there's 10% of me that thought that. But Kimmy, very strong last week.
There's a lot of question marks as to whether George was even remotely pushing,
and we'll probably find that out if Antonelli starts on the front row of the grid and actually
is there, come the end of lap one. How far will they push each other?
That's when we'll see the true pace of the Mercedes, I think. When the race win is
up for grabs between the two teammates, then they will push each other along.
But I think Kimmy Antonelli Sprint Pole, of course, had his first ever Sprint Pole in Miami.
So I think he could do it again. So that's why I've gone for Kimmy.
Sprint winner! I'm locking in. Kimmy Antonelli. Kimmy Antonelli is getting his first dub,
as they call it on the streets, a W, that is. If he gets Sprint Pole, I think.
Although I would love to see a little Charlotte Clair from P3 being able to hold on for 15 laps,
which is very possible. I just feel as though the Mercedes will come out on top,
especially if there's George and Kimmy at the front fighting, perhaps,
where to be fair, it might be both Ferraris, but you have to bet on the Mercedes over the
Ferrari at this stage. So I've gone for a double Kimmy Pole and win for the Sprint.
So my Sprint winner was Kimmy Antonelli. So I'll change it to George Russell.
Oh, wow! Part of the Antonelli was maybe foreshadowing that I thought you might pick
Russell, but I was having an arguing about a Ferrari, just after what we saw with the fact
that they make those electric starts, and you can kind of stick with each other if they're
battling from what we saw. And of course, in the Sprint, Ferrari don't need to make a decision
on their pit stops, which always helps. But I'm not going for them despite the Macarena wing
and how well they did last time out. So yeah, go for it.
That's something we've not even mentioned, that they are indeed supposedly going to be
bringing the Macarena wing to China. Ferrari are bringing...
For context for anyone that didn't watch testing.
Yeah, well, you know, if you didn't watch testing, tough. But yeah, essentially,
you would have seen it on social media, I'm sure, the 270 degree reverse flip rear wing,
which basically opens up for less drag. They'll of course run it in practice,
and hopefully it doesn't malfunction. And then we win it all. That's the ideal situation here.
Right, pole position for the main race.
I've gone for George Russell. Backing, I just said George for pretty much everything.
Big flop, Sprint pole. Winner and pole position at the moment is George Russell.
Yeah, I think they are going to be mighty. I think that main straight,
we saw what happened in Australia with the how well George could power down those long
straights. And there's a big old straight in China, which I think will benefit Mercedes.
They've always been, it's always been one of the better circuits anyway. Back in the day,
remember, Nika Rosberg getting his first win there and Shumi doing well before the retirement,
which was heartbreaking. And yeah, don't be daring about that ever again,
how dare you. That requires permission to talk about that. Thank you.
So yeah, I've gone for Russell.
Jeez, Bruno's decided to change entire position there as I am now getting into my pole position,
which is, it was George Russell. So now I need to change, and now I'm in two minds. I'm in logic
mind and I'm in banter mind, but then also hoping delirium and dreaming because we've
just spoken about the Macarena wing and I'm like, my God, maybe Ferrari will win it all.
So my pole position, I can't be losing ground at Tommy. I need to put my best foot forward here.
Kimmy Antonella. Yeah. All right. Kimmy Antonella is getting pole position. And look, we've spoken,
to be fair, on YouTube, you may not have seen this, but over on our audio longer episodes,
we spoke about at the top of the show about changes of rules, potentially after Japan.
Perhaps we will have to bring it in as well, if Mercedes are going to be eight tenths clear
every single qualifying session for the rest of the year, where we're not allowed to utter their
name in these predictions episodes. Yeah, I don't know. But we'll see.
Gone for Kimmy Antonella because why not? There you go. I genuinely don't think,
and I'd love to be wrong, anyone's getting close on a Saturday to Mercedes. So there you go.
George said, actually, that Ferrari bottled qualifying he kind of alluded to in the...
And I love the fact as well.
Charlotte Clair was trying not to bite there, wasn't he?
Yeah, Charlotte. You'd never see Charlotte Clair bite at anything, but I could tell he was all right.
He was angry. He was like, he was joking.
He was so close to just saying like, F you basically.
Yeah, yeah. I genuinely felt that way. So yeah, there you go.
Right. Let's move to the top three for the Sunday race in third position. I am locking in
Charlotte Clair. Okay. Another podium, another P1 at the start, drops down to third,
and this is what we'll see every single race weekend till the end. Thank you.
P3, I've gone for Lewis Hamilton. First podium for Ferrari, I think, could very much be on this
weekend. I think, as I've said, good surprise. I think he's looking... I think he was very
impressive, I think, in that first race, looked... Lewis Hamilton evolved as he carved through
the field and was much, I'd say, much closer to Clair. Very close to Clair, particularly at the
end. So yeah, P3, Lewis. In P2, Tommy, who have you gone for?
P2. I'm going to go for Kimmy Antonelli and lock in a P2 for Kimmy Antonelli. I don't think he's...
I mean, I'm going about going for Kimmy Antonelli for the win. We've seen people get their
debut wins in China before and things, and I do think what Kimmy did in Melbourne was very impressive.
There's a few signs that, you know, he's still got a bit of an experience, but yeah,
I'm going to go for Antonelli in P2. Okay. All right. Do I do something funny here? Do I do
something funny? I think I might. In P2, I'm going to go for Lewis Hamilton. So second place, Lewis
Hamilton. Lock it in, which means I can then go to P1 where I can do silly things because I was
going to give Kimmy Antonelli P2, but I can't obviously do that because I've already done that.
Lewis Hamilton, I think, makes perfect sense for a potential great result. Love to see him get his
first Ferrari podium. And therefore, in first place, I'm going to lock in George Russell.
Okay. Who are you going to go for first place, Tommy, that isn't an assassin's driver?
Reasoning why you've put George Russell in first place. He's in a Mercedes.
He's in a Mercedes. He's dominated the first race very easily. Yeah. Well, I guess he didn't
dominate easily, but he could have. If he'd pressed the pedal harder. If he'd pressed his
boost button more, I don't know. P1, I have gone for Max Verstappen. Do I think Max Verstappen is
going to win the race? No. Did I put it in because I knew you'd picked George Russell? Yes.
Oh, so you hadn't even tried to get away with it. Yeah. I was thinking I could put Antonelli
first, George second, but then it could potentially be a no points, but it also could be two points
or it could be one point. You don't know. So it's a kind of tactical play. I do think the
Verstappen is going to do something. I think we could see him on the podium. I was very close to
him on the podium. So you would back Max Verstappen over Charles Leclerc to win China?
Yeah. You think Max will be quicker than Charles? I think he could surprise. Obviously,
I think a lot of people probably thought I was going to go for Charles Leclerc, but no, I'm going
to go for Max and just go for an absolute stab in the dark banter prediction. If it comes in,
it would be unbelievable. So I can't wait for Charles Leclerc to win the Grand Prix.
I mean, I'll happily take no points if that's the case. Right. Let's now move to our brand
new segment for this year, P-WAT. What? Where essentially, if you missed the first predictions
episode, we will pick, well, a random number generator will pick between four and 22,
and we have to guess on the spot. We don't know what the number is. Tommy's loading that right
now. I'm loading the number generator right now. Shall I go for it? And what our position is,
we need to say immediately, and it'll be you first, Tommy. You have to react to the P-WAT first,
because I did the P-WAT last time. Oh, yeah, I do actually, don't I? So, press it and say the number.
Generate. P-6. That's high up again. Go on. Okay. P-6. I am going to go for Landon Norris.
Okay, P-6. I'm going to go for Oscar Piazzari.
Similar idea, then. Yeah. Okay, McLaren. Yeah, they'll probably be around that area.
So, yeah, yeah. Who's P-6 last race, Max? So, yeah. So, yeah. Okay, we've gone for the similar
vibes. McLaren, not really spoken about them other than, you know, are they going to now find some
time? Now, they know what Mercedes did. I'd be amazed if they found, you know, a full minute,
but maybe they're a bit closer. We can help. Yeah, different track. So, I'll be, I'm really
interested to see if the form book changes at all as we go to a different circuit with.
Now, we've had like a race where we've watched everything pan out, like how much they've actually
learned from it. Yeah, fine-tuning all of the differences for this year. Right, we've now moved
to one crazy prediction. My one crazy prediction for this weekend is all of the top four teams
will feature across the sprint and main race podiums. So, at one point or another, yeah,
it's crazy. The segment is called Crazy. So, I thought, let's go crazy, everybody. So, yeah,
we will see at some point a McLaren, a Red Bull, a Ferrari and a Mercedes driver
across those six spots. I'll be fine. I'm regretting it immediately, but there you go. That's what
I've gone for. Okay, my one crazy prediction is a non-Mercedes makes the front row and either the
sprint or main quali. So, they've got eight tenths to find. I'll allow it. I'll allow it. It's kind
of crazy, although Kimmy Antonelli very nearly made that come true. It's true. Yeah, it's less
crazy than Cadillac getting a point, but... Okay, I'll let it slide. I'm going to regret it immediately
when Shell will pop some P2. Patreon predictions. If you're part of the P1 Patreon, you get lots
of benefits. Add free listening, early access to P1 Live tickets, access to our Discord, and this
is where you can get involved with the Patreon prediction. You submit it every week when Tommy
messages in there, and we pick one to represent us. So, Tommy, over to you. I've gone for Elaria's
prediction, which is Hamilton. It's his first Grand Prix podium with Ferrari, and I've locked it in
as first choice. Oh, no. You've gone for it as well, then. Yep. Elaria, I really like that prediction,
and now I need to pick another one. No, you need to find another. Because usually you go,
I've picked this user, so then I'd make sure I avoid it. But then the one time you don't tell me
that, it happens. That's great. That is... Let's go with... Right, we're just going to go all in
on the one crazy prediction and then locking it in with the Patreon as well. Mine is from F1
Sushi Piastri Getsapodium. Nice. Either. In either. In either. So, yeah. Yeah, we'll just do it for
one. So there you go. And then it actually had in brackets, Tommy, you need to pick this for
jinxing him. Well, there you go. I've picked it instead. So there you go. Right, family top three
time now, and I forgot about this till about five minutes prior to recording, so then I rang my
mum and was like, mum, can you do this? And she said yes. And oh no, I was supposed to ring her
before 25 past 12. It is 20 to one. So let's see if she picks up. I'm really sorry. Please pick up
mum even if it's from the car. Hello. Hi, mum. Sorry, I really forgot to ring you earlier, but
are you free to do quick predictions? Yes, my prediction is for China. Whoa, whoa. You just
became me. I need to say that part and then you say the drivers. So family top three, it's currently
one all. So we need to score some good points and it's a sprint weekend. Not that that matters
because this is for the main race. In third place, mum, who have you gone for? I have gone for
Leclerc. Okay, Charlotte P3. Solid. That's also what I went for. In P2. George Russell.
Okay, George P2. And in P1, mum? Is Antonelli. Oh, my words. Clued up on Formula One. I didn't
even know you knew who Antonelli was until this very moment. Someone's been reading the form of it.
You've been watching Drive to Survive. You've been watching Drive to Survive. You absolutely love
that, mum. Great predictions. That's slightly different to mine. I just went for George and
Kimmy the other way around. And why'd she know I didn't? Because that's what I was going to go
for. Instead, I had Lewis and P2. Anyway, that's what I was going to go for, but the other way
around. Basically, what I'm saying is I'm glad that you've gone for two Mercedes drivers. Keep it
up every time I ring you for the rest of the season, if that's what you're saying. All right,
thanks mum. Love you. Bye. Okay, I've also realised that I'm really hoping someone is in because
my mum and dad, I've used Katie last week, my mum and dad are in Portugal.
Yeah, well, they've still got a phone. They've still got a phone.
Okay, let's see. Oh, hang on. It's going through the... Okay. Please mum, please answer.
Oh, no. Does she know this? Does she know at all about this?
Hello? Hello? I can hear you. You're right. Yeah, I'm good. Thank you. How are you? I'm good. Thank
you for answering. Sorry, I didn't message. I realised. Oh, no. Family prediction. So,
I hope you've got them locked in. I have. Okay, let's hear them. P3. Okay. Okay. So, this is Daisy.
Wait, what? Wait, wait, wait. We're not using Daisy, are we?
Who's Daisy? Oh, my word. Mum, it's one all. We can't field a two-year-old,
a three-year-old already, sorry. I know, but she wanted to do it for Uncle Tom, so...
Wow, okay. My mum's throwing the predictions here and sharing my niece's predictions.
So... Well, I think that's quite good. Okay, we'll go with it. Let's get into them.
Let's hear them. Okay. Okay. So, in third place, we've gone for Lawson.
He said they were good.
Wait, wait. On what planet is this good? Okay, wow.
And next, we've gone for Russell. Okay.
Because something to do with pops, but I'm not sure what. Okay, fair enough.
And because her favourite colour is yellow, she's gone for Hamilton to win the race.
So, I don't think that's too bad. Okay, it's not too bad. I mean, thanks.
Matt's mum's gone for a Mercedes-1, 2, and you've been like,
we're using a three-year-old that's going to pick Lawson, but it's fine.
We can catch up later.
All right, thank you. All right, see you soon. Bye.
Wow. Amazing. Amazing. I was like, mum was like,
you can call me. I was like, okay, I'll call you, expecting her to do the predictions.
What's annoying is when my mum loves picking Charlotte Claire
and a Ferrari last year when they were terrible, now she's like,
so I've got Daisy to do it. She's gone for Lawson. Thanks. Thanks very much.
Well, thank you indeed. Thank you to Daisy for that P3 for Lawson.
If Lawson does indeed get P3, this will be the greatest.
Do we need like, you know how like Formula One is all about like
engine freezes and competitiveness and stuff? Do we need to like,
do we need to get the Gallagher's to field, you know, like some
young family members or something at some point to balance it out?
I mean, I'll be honest, we have no young family members.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Give me an alley about five years.
I guess some toddlers in the family. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I don't have any. I mean, Bruno's the only young family member that I have.
I have a very good family, mate. Very, very good family.
Yeah, I was not expecting that. That means that we might be waiting a while
for Grace's Colopinto prediction based on that, but we'll find out. We'll see.
You never know. I mean, even last week,
your, my wife got all three right in the wrong order, so you never know.
Like, George Russell P2.
Well, they're not completely in the wrong order. She still scored one point, didn't she?
Yeah, she did. But what I'm saying is like, you never know, like a little George Russell P2.
Yeah, I know. My mum could still be in my three-year-old.
I'll wait. Your mum went for George Russell P2. Oh, no.
Oh, huge for my mum.
Okay, Lawson. Lawson, it's all on you, mate. Come on.
She saw the three-year-old prediction coming in. She was like,
I'm going to cover that off one right now. I'm shaking. I'm shaking.
Right, there you go. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to the predictions for the
Chinese Grand Prix. Looking forward to the sprint weekend. A lot of chaos, I'm sure,
is coming our way and probably some rants as well. So look forward to all of that and more.
Bruno needs his lunch. He's literally pacing around the room like, no, tomorrow.
Aren't you your silly little sausage? You're going to come say goodbye really quickly. Come on.
Come here. Come here. Come here. Come on. Do you want sausages?
Do you want sausages? Oh, God. Do you want sausages?
Brunies, yeah? Okay. All right. Here he is.
Why are you standing so weird? There we go. Say bye-bye, Brunies.
Yorn if Charlotte Clair will win China. Yorn if...
Oh, whack the microphone. There you go. That's fine. Thank you, everybody.
Tommy, final thoughts, please?
Final thoughts are... I'm really excited for the sprint weekend because I don't know what's
going to happen. I think it's going to be absolute carnage and chaos again. So yeah,
I'm looking forward to all the podcasts and watch alongs and everything because there's
going to be a lot of them this weekend. And make sure you say good things about
Formula One. Otherwise, your post will be hidden by Formula One. Okay? That's my final
thought this weekend. Make sure you're a big fan of the Speedmaster. That's the most important thing.
Yeah, yeah. That's what I look for in a Grand Prix.
Maybe could we have the drive that went the slowest round the corner as well?
I think that would be a good one to have. Who superclipped the most during the race?
The slow monster, the turtle master.
Right, there you go. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you soon.
And looking forward to the live streams as always and everything else.
Bye. Bruner, do you want sausages? Oh my God.
Bye. Bye.
P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST Creative Network.
About this episode
Matt and Tommy dive into the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix, discussing the challenges of the new sprint weekend format with limited practice and the ongoing issues around super clipping. They debate McLaren's frustration with Mercedes over engine support and the potential mid-season rule changes to address performance concerns. The hosts also touch on Formula One's social media strategy, driver complaints being muted, and safety concerns at race starts. Predictions for the Chinese GP are teased amid lively banter about the season's surprises and disappointments.
Original notes
It's time to gear up for our first sprint weekend of the year! Join us for some of the most tactical predictions picks you'll ever see.
Plus, we react to the news that F1 may well be changing the regulations ALREADY and McLaren are angry at Mercedes because they didn't include the engine instructions...
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