Reaction to Barcelona-Catalunya GP qualifyingP1 with Matt and Tommy · Jun 13, 2026
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42:41
Place
Barcelona Catilini at Grand Prix
They’re talking about qualifying for the Barcelona-Catalunya F1 race in Spain. It’s a real race track, and where you qualify affects how you can race on Sunday.
Term
Q1
Q1 is the first part of F1 qualifying. Drivers try to be fast enough to avoid being knocked out and to move on to the next round.
Lance Stroll is an F1 race driver. Here, the hosts are talking about how he did better than Fernando Alonso in qualifying, which is a big deal because Alonso had been doing that consistently.
Alpine is a Formula 1 racing team. They’re speculating Alonso could join them, which could affect how well he performs.
Person
Flavio Breatori
Flavio Briatore is a famous person in Formula 1 who has run teams before. The hosts are saying Alonso might go to Alpine partly because Briatore is involved there.
Aston Martin is a Formula 1 team. They’re talking about how the team has been doing badly, especially in qualifying, and how that could affect Alonso’s decision-making.
“Back of the pack” just means the team is near the bottom of the results. In qualifying, it means they’re not getting fast enough laps to compete with the front runners.
The grid is where cars line up to start the race. The back row means starting near the rear, which usually makes it harder to move up and race cleanly.
“Regulations” are the rules Formula 1 teams have to follow. They’re saying that with the current rules, it’s harder for the car to overcome a bad starting position.
Lawrence Stroll is the key Aston Martin figure who funds and steers the team. They’re saying he hired Adrian Newey to try to improve things for Alonso.
A rear diffuser is a shaped part under the back of the car. It helps the air flow in a way that pushes the car down more, improving grip—especially at speed.
“Engine reg” means the rules about what teams are allowed to do with the engine. If the engine rules are strict, teams can’t just add more power freely, so they have to look for speed in other allowed areas.
“Aero” is how the car’s shape and wings interact with air. In racing, that affects how much grip the tires have (downforce) and how fast the car can go through the air.
VCarb is a Formula 1 team. They’re saying the team has looked strong recently, especially through the qualifying results and driver pace.
Term
Q2
Qualifying is split into timed parts. Q2 is the second part—if you’re quick enough you move on to the final part (Q3), and if not you’re locked into a lower starting position.
It’s basically a “we’re not chasing this year’s results” mindset. The team is saying they’ll focus on building for the big rules coming in 2026 instead.
Some F1 teams don’t build their own engines—they buy them from big engine makers. Here, they’re saying Williams are struggling a lot even though they’re using a Mercedes-supplied engine.
Before the season begins, teams get time to test their cars. If they miss that testing, they can be less prepared and struggle more at the start of the year.
Term
Q3
Qualifying is how F1 sets the starting order. Q3 is the last and most important part, where the quickest drivers try to set their best lap to get the best starting spots.
In qualifying, drivers sometimes try to set a “good enough” lap first so they don’t get stuck. Then, later, they take bigger risks to try for an even faster time.
“Driver error” means the problem came from the driver’s mistake, not the car breaking or something outside the driver’s control. It usually points to a misjudgment that leads to a crash or bad lap.
The pit lane is the track-side lane where the team can work on the car. If a driver has to start from the pit lane, it usually means the car isn’t ready to start from the normal race starting spot.
The gearbox is what helps the car choose the right gear for the speed and situation. If it gets damaged in a crash, the car may not be able to drive properly.
“g” is a way to describe how hard the car was accelerated during the crash compared to gravity. “Over 25g” means the forces were huge and very serious.
In F1, “competitive sessions” refers to the parts of a race weekend where drivers are pushing for results—typically practice, qualifying, and the race itself. The hosts are using this to count how often Leclerc has crashed when it matters most.
Charles Leclerc is a Formula 1 race driver. The hosts are talking about how he’s usually very quick when qualifying, but he’s been having a lot of crashes lately, which makes it harder to get good results.
Qualifying is the part of an F1 weekend where drivers try to set the fastest lap to decide where they start the race. In this segment, they’re saying Leclerc takes bigger risks in qualifying than he does elsewhere.
“New regs” means new rules in Formula 1. When the rules change, teams have to redesign their cars, and drivers sometimes need time to adjust—especially if the car behaves differently.
In F1, “your seat might be under threat” means your job with the team could be at risk. The hosts are saying Leclerc’s frequent crashes could make the team consider other options.
Max Verstappen is a top Formula 1 driver. In this discussion, he’s mentioned as a benchmark for how much success a driver has banked compared with Charles Leclerc.
Power delivery is how the car sends engine power to the wheels. If it feels abrupt or unpredictable, it can make the car harder to control when you’re accelerating out of a turn.
The throttle is basically the accelerator control. If you press it too hard or too quickly in a race, the car can lose grip and become difficult to steer.
Underbraking means you didn’t slow down enough for the corner. If you brake too late or not hard enough, you can overshoot the turn and end up in trouble.
“Energy deployment” means when and how the car uses its stored power. If a driver can’t use that extra power at the right time, they’ll lose speed and time on the lap.
Ferrari is a Formula 1 team. Here they’re talking about how Ferrari’s car seems to do well in certain parts of the track and how that might affect race performance.
“Turn 10” is a particular corner on the Barcelona track. They’re saying Hamilton made a small mistake there that ended up costing him the best qualifying position.
“Engine note” just means the sound the engine makes. If two cars sound different at the same point in a lap, it can suggest they’re doing different things with throttle and engine load—like one driver pushing harder than the other.
“Straight mode” is a driving setting the car uses on long straight sections. It’s meant to help the car go faster there by changing how it delivers power and manages energy.
The Dodge Challenger is a sporty car built for strong acceleration and high performance. It’s the kind of car people talk about when they’re racing because it can be fast in a straight line. In this episode, it’s referenced as one of the cars trying to stay near the leaders.
Slipstream is when one car follows closely behind another and gets a speed boost. The front car cuts through the air, so the car behind has to push through less air resistance.
“Turn one” is the first major corner at the start of a lap, where cars are packed tightly and braking happens hard. In qualifying and races, it’s often where positions are gained or lost because of slipstreaming and traffic.
Term
P3
P3 means third place. In qualifying, starting P3 can be a big advantage because it puts you in a good spot for the first corners and drafting.
FP1 is the first practice session of the F1 weekend. Drivers and teams use it to try different settings and get comfortable with the track before qualifying.
FP3 is the final practice session before qualifying. It’s when teams try to get the car feeling right, so if there’s traffic, it can mess up their run.
Traffic here means other cars are in the way during a driver’s attempt. That can ruin the lap because you can’t get a clear run or the right positioning.
The world championship is the season-long points race. Drivers think about how today’s result affects their total points and their position in the standings.
Free practice is the time before qualifying and the race when teams test the car. They use it to figure out the best setup and how the tires feel, so skipping it can make the car feel less predictable.
Term
P4
P4 means fourth place. It still earns points, and those points can change the championship lead over time.
The Ferrari FF is a high-end Ferrari designed for long-distance driving with strong performance. It uses all-wheel drive, which helps it put power down more effectively than a simpler rear-wheel-drive setup. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as part of a comparison of lap pace between fast cars.
Racing qualifying times are so close that they can be separated by extremely tiny fractions of a second. Even a “three-thousandths” gap can change where you start on the grid.
In F1, “tyres” are the tires the cars run on, and they affect grip. If the tires overheat or wear out quickly, teams may have to pit sooner.
LIVE
Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. I don't want
to do this one. I don't fancy it. I'm not in the mood. I'm really not in the mood, Tommy.
Why is that?
I don't want to talk about a shout out. See, this is why. You're P5 and you're strutting
around the place like you're happy as Larry, but I'll take a P5 right now, that's for sure.
But welcome everybody. We're going to talk about qualifying for the Barcelona Catilini
at Grand Prix and a great qualifying session. To some degree, it was.
Depending on who you support, of course. And yeah, it was surprisingly entertaining. I
think qualifying has obviously been under quite a lot of scrutiny this year, but good
battle for pole and very close battle for pole indeed.
Indeed, but we begin at the very beginning with Q1, whether bottom six or Ocon, Albon,
Perez, Bottas, Stroll and Alonso. So by the emphasis on Stroll, this is the first time
in 43 Grand Prix that Lance Stroll has outqualified Fernando Alonso for the main weekend. That's
my understanding. Grand Prix qualifying. Yeah, for the proper one, the big boy one.
So that is a record that is now shattered in pieces. It was a small margin between Stroll
and Alonso literally in their own league, but in a bad league. I'm talking about the
bottom league. They were a second off Cadillac, those two fighting around in quite literally
the dustbin league. But Lance Stroll, mate, Fernando Alonso's home track to be outqualified
is simply, to be fair, as much as we're kind of like jesting. I reckon Fernando was actually
devastated. Yeah, Alonso will be hurt by it because he loves to share the fact that he
absolutely white washes people in qualifying and things. Have you seen what Lance Stroll
said afterwards? He was absolutely buzzing about it. He was asked in the media pen. This
is from Nate Saunders. He asked Lance Stroll how he felt about Fernando Alonso's 42 race
qualifying streak being over. And Lance Stroll's reaction was, I don't care. And then he asked
what it would mean if more if the team were up in Q2 or Q3. And he said,
I don't know. I don't give an S.
Ah, so that is someone that does give an S because in like a, it's quite an embarrassing
record to have finally broken. And it just obviously just how bad us to mine are. They're
just all sick of it, aren't they? Yeah, they really are. And if the rumours anything to
go by Alonso might be off to Alpine, which again, back to Alpine to be reunited with
Flavio Breatori. That's the last thing that we've heard is that they're pushing very hard
to get Fernando at that team. But that is a question in itself, isn't it? Of, you know,
to be fair, there is a question around the Fernando Alonso retirement, which we'll go
into now. From P1P, remember Rosie Rangetsu. What are the chances we see a Fernando retirement
announcement in the near future? Aston is still at the back of the pack. And I have
no doubt he's gutted qualifying last at his home race. I think it would have been a very
sobering experience for Fernando to just be there qualifying literally last. That's something
he's, even at Minardi, he was doing great things and able to not start on the back row of the
grid. But in this car, it's impossible in this current regulation, it's impossible. So I don't
see him retiring off the back of this season as much as, you know, my preseason prediction
was around Aston being terrible and Fernando retiring. You can't be turning your back on the,
you know, the career that you love so dearly on the worst season, not from his, you know,
it's not his fault, but just the worst season he could have possibly imagined. Now the question
is around, you know, does he go to Alpine? Is that even an option? Does he stay with Aston Martin?
Because, you know, you go to Alpine, if that is a genuine possibility, which seems to be the case,
you are solidifying like a, maybe a chance of some scraps of points.
Or do you stick with Aston Martin and Adrian Newey, who Lawrence Stroll has brought in
specially to try and keep Fernando there to then bin them off after a season because they're terrible?
I don't know, I feel as though Fernando would probably still lean more towards staying at
Aston Martin because he wants to win a world championship. He wants to win races. He wants
to be on the podium. And are Alpine going to be able to do that in the next year? I don't think so.
No, no, they're certainly not going to be able to. And let's not forget Fernando Alonso left
in the first place. His first retirement was because, and doing Le Mans and Indy car and
things like that was because he wanted to just win again. And he wanted to know what that feeling
was like because he himself said, well, if you're not driving a Mercedes or a McLaren or a Red Bull,
you can't win or whatever. So any of those top cars. And he's not going to have an option to go
to any of those top cars again. And Alpine is basically him fighting for maybe he can still
show what he can do and get the odd P7 or maybe like a crazy podium like Gasly has done in those
moments. But is that enough for him? I personally think it is. I could see him leaving Aston Martin.
He loves to hop around teams. It would be his fourth time at Alpine. He's got the connection
there with Flavio Breatori. And he doesn't want to end his career. I think Aston Martin is an
absolute dumpster fire at the moment. I think they're just getting worse and worse. They're not
going anywhere. They are so far behind Cadillac. I don't see any progress, the mood of both drivers
and just everyone in the team makes it feel like that they're not going anywhere. So I don't think
even the joy of thinking about like, oh, Adrian Nui is going to find this magic thing
like a double diffuser and suddenly we're going to be amazing. I just I really don't see that
happening even with Fernando Alonso's luck. I mean, watch Alonso's luck that they're amazing
next year if he does leave. But I just don't don't see it happening. And Aston Martin are getting
worse if not better. You know, they've not made any improvement. And Cadillac are there fighting
almost getting into that kind of Williams territory and house. Aston Martin are doing
absolutely nothing. So it's a shame for him to end his career this way and even more embarrassing
for it to happen at Barcelona, because he'd have been dreaming about this this moment,
probably thinking that I could win this race in so in January, for example, when everyone was
actually hyping them up, Adrian Nui, what can they do? And now he's last literally last for the
first time in his career, qualified last, obviously without any technical issues and so on and so
forth, which is not a stat I think he ever would have wanted to have. And then also, you know,
with this whole Aston Martin thing, like it's just that the whole situation within the team
is that is so unclear, isn't it, as to whether they will find a solution, because it's such a
massive solution they need to find. And you mentioned the rear diffuser, or like, you know,
coming up with something crazy. It's an engine reg, like there's only so much you can do with
the aero these days to make up the time. It's all about the power, really. The chassis is not great
either for Aston Martin, as we know. But yeah, they've just got so many limitations at the moment
that I think that they can make big improvements. You know, they're a second behind Cadillac around
the track where no car can hide. So they are clearly miles off. And I feel like they can make
big steps towards the midfield. But then to get to take that extra step towards the top four teams
seems nigh on impossible. So it's a very difficult decision for Fernando to make, that is for sure.
Let's now go to Q2, where the bottom six was Lindblad, Bortoletto, Colopinto, Gasly,
Bearman and Sines. Big talking point, of course. Nico Holkenberg not mentioned,
because he made it to Q3 for the first time this season. Very, very well deserved after all of
those 11th places. He finally made it. Arvid Lindblad, I think, will be a little bit disappointed,
albeit, you know, P11, P10, that's kind of all he was going to be, maybe fighting Lawson for P9.
That's all that was on the table for the midfield today, because the top four teams, again,
miles clear. So I don't think Arvid will be too disappointed, but I think he made a mistake on
his final lap, because he was sitting very pretty ahead of Lawson after the first runs,
but then wasn't able to improve because of that last lap.
No, VCarb have looked very strong this year. Lawson has been brilliant, has to be said,
and yeah, I think Lindblad would have definitely got through had it worked out for him and had
the pace too. But yeah, Holkenberg snuck through, and yeah, it's a missed opportunity. Of course,
he is 11th, so still not outrageously bad, because had he got through, he's probably finishing,
well, someone finished 10th, we'll talk about him later, but obviously like at the back end of Q3.
Oh yeah, God, I love how I was talking about the top four teams, and yeah, it was a fight for P9 and P10.
It was actually a fight for P9. Lawson got P8, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool, cool, cool, thanks for reminding me. Yeah, really, I genuinely had
that in my head for a second. But yeah, it was interesting to get to see that, of course,
Portoletto, P12, for him not too disappointing. Then the two Alpenes, Colopinto, of course,
out qualifying, Gasly, which in the head-to-head, Colopinto is looking pretty good this season,
especially when we thought of the pressure that he might be feeling coming into 2026.
Then yeah, Berman, who outqualified Ocon, we didn't mention in Q1 actually. Ocon, of course,
out in the first part of qualifying and feel as though, again, that pressure will start to
ramp up on his shoulders. I think neither of us, Tommy, can feel like we will see Esteban on the
grid next year. That is a really horrible and sad thing for us to say, because we both really like
him. But it seems that is the case, just when you look at the performances he's putting down
in comparison to Oli. Definitely, I really can't see how Ocon turns us around. If he's not happy
with being beaten by Berman, which I imagine he's not. I think he's kind of used, this was
his opportunity to move away from Alpey and find a new team that he could settle into and really
enjoy. I don't think that's happening at house. Obviously, Berman has been comfortably better
this season. It was a huge margin in qualifying again. I really can't see Ocon being in Formula
1 next year, sadly, for him and his fans. You mentioned Colopinto. They're now level
Colopinto and Gasly in the head, Ted, in qualifying, if you include the Sprints, which I think is a
great achievement for Colopinto when his qualifying was the thing that really let him down beforehand
and was kind of meant he had such poor races before. It's having quite a strong season, but
still, it's not really where Alpine want to be when it looked like they were
on the fringes. There's been some races where Alpine are just in a league of their own,
that being ahead of the midfield. Obviously, you'd still know any of the top teams,
but not where they want to be down in 13th and 14th.
Right, let's move on to Williams. Signs, of course, just scraping through the Q2. Albon did not make
it. P1 Patriot member Tony Soprano asks, are we allowed to criticise James Valls yet? He sells
a good message, but it's debatable whether Williams are really much better than when he took over.
I think Williams were completely in the mud. You've got to think how bad it was for Williams.
They kind of laughed and stuck a Formula 1 very much at the back. I do think they've improved,
even if you hadn't seen what they've done last year and the year before, even taking that out of
it. There is some slight improvement. That being said, I think James Valls is an embarrassing look
that they really sold the dream of this season being incredible. Of course, the infamous quote
of break everything, it doesn't matter, it's all about 26. Now they've gone into 26, and they are
worst team with the Mercedes engine by far. They're really struggling. I think Aston Martin in a
weird way are saving the blushes of Williams a little bit because they would be the biggest
talking point for maybe the biggest flop of the season so far had it not been for Aston Martin.
I've got to say, we spoke about Ocon and we're talking about Fernando Alonso moving on. I think
science is an interesting piece in the puzzle as well because I could see him already thinking
about a move and thinking that he doesn't want to be wasting his talents at the back
because this was a big promise for Williams to improve. If seats do start opening up elsewhere,
I could also see Carlos moving on. Yes, so could I. I feel like Williams, unless they came out the
blocks, close to podiums, Carlos was always going to look around. I think it was always going to be
a stopgap unless Williams and James Fowles were able to do something incredibly good,
but they've gone massively backwards from a season where Carlos was on the podium,
literally last year, of course, very different regulations, but twice. Carlos was probably
thinking, all right, maybe I have cooked here. Maybe I am in the right spot. You then come to
this year, they missed the start of preseason testing. They're on the back foot. I don't think
it's a case. It's not like it's news to us though. Williams have been on the back foot and I feel as
though the criticism came at the start of the year and I think we were accepting of the fact
that Williams will be bad this year to start slandering them now when they are still bad.
I think it's not like much has changed. We knew they were going to be pretty poor.
They are going to be poor. I think for James Fowles, he has so many qualities that are excellent
as a team leader because we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. We don't know what he's like
actually dividing the teams up into an efficient way of pushing a team forward,
but everything you see outside of that, he's a fantastical camera. Everything seems like he
can communicate really well, which is obviously very important. I would say we judge him more so
for next year now. We have judged him. We've said, God, that's terrible. What have you done?
If he can get them on a decent trajectory and Williams have shown a small amount of pace
for a team that we both just wrote off at the start of the year, they're just going to be awful.
They also accepted coming into this weekend that it would probably be a bad weekend for them.
I don't know. Maybe it's because I just really like James Fowles, but I also don't think it's
the time yet to heap another load of it on when nothing really can change in this small amount of
time. They need to improve throughout this season, particularly if they want to keep someone like
Carlos Sainz on board. I think they need to see improvements of them potentially getting ahead
of an Alpine or looking like they can score regular points. Absolutely. Right. If we have to,
it is now time for Q3 where the top 10 were Russell, Hamilton, Antonelli, Norris, Verstappen,
Hadjar, Piastri, Lawson, Hülkenberg, Leclerc. No time for Leclerc.
Yeah. Charles Leclerc crashed. He did. He crashed again. He did crash in two weeks.
Okay. This one, I don't really have any defense. I really don't. I think this was
an incredibly poor showing from Leclerc this weekend. Monaco and Canada to a degree, right?
He's very vocal on the brakes are just not working. The brakes are really inconsistent.
When we've rolled through practice this weekend, it's clear that Leclerc has a lot more confidence
under braking and was competitive from his times. He was in with a shout of pole position today.
The mistake that he made, he said in the post-Quality interview several times that
he was ashamed of what he put down. It is an incredibly poor showing on the first run to bin
it. He has one small correction, but he commits to it. I think he took 10 kilometers an hour,
more speed into that right hand there to try and gain a bit of time that Ferrari were losing in
turn four. I don't mind that. He's pushing. It's Q3. You're on the limit. Something that I know
that he will also regret massively is committing after that first snap. He tries to commit again
to that same lap, despite it being this is bank-a-lap territory. This is make sure you're in the top
five. Then we go ham. No, no. Like Monaco. Yeah, like Monaco exactly. Instead, he goes flying
into the wall and loses any opportunity to have a shout at winning the race tomorrow. Who knows
what Ferrari's race pace is going to be like, but I think it's going to be quite an interesting
chaotic one. You've got the two Mercedes drivers that I feel like they're going to fight. You've
got Hamilton right up there with a phenomenal performance. Leclerc is down in tenth and he's
got so much work to do just to get through the other drivers that aren't necessarily that much
slower. McLaren aren't that much slower. Max isn't that much slower. I think even Hadjab
put a decent lap on the board to cause a lot of problems for Leclerc trying to come through
tomorrow. That was one of the worst mistakes he's made in a while because there's nothing.
There's no cope. I can't cope with this one literally because he's gone flying into the
wall from a driver error. Yeah, there's no excuses with this one, which obviously we've
heard a handful of excuses for the most recent races and things. But as you mentioned, it's
I think even more shocking that in Monaco, we had this discussion of like, oh, well,
he goes for his bank a lap and then he just throws it all on the table and kind of goes crazy with
it. And he is the kind of driver that this is how he seems to drive is like risk versus reward,
all risk. If I crash, I crash. And he does that in Monaco. But this is his kind of bank a lap
to get in. And it's insane that he's gone that crazy that early on. And I think that's a very
good point there that it's the kind of thing it's a big error to do that so early in the
session when you've not even got a time on the board because had he got a time on the board
and he does it later on, you know, at least that there's such a chasm between the other cars that
at least he's kind of making up a good few spots. And it might even go from bad to worse because
the state of the car, he might have to start from the pit lane. We don't know, right? You know,
his gearbox might be munched even though, of course, it's, you know, he went in nose first.
It was still a big impact. I think it was over 25g because the medical car was called out. So
it was a big crash. Glad to see him walk away unharmed. And, you know, the only thing he was
concerned about was the fact he'd crashed. So glad to see he's all fit and healthy. But yeah,
a really tough one to kind of try and process. There's a question from people on Patreon member,
Qubitzer would save Ferrari. Seriously, is it a time to worry about all Charles crashes?
I think it's been a thing to worry about for a while. And I think it's even more extreme now.
A lot of people are saying that, you know, this is his third crash in three competitive sessions.
It's his fourth in four weekends, if you include Miami as well. And the only weekend that he's not
crashed in recently is Canada, which was, of course, a horrendous race. And he almost went
into one of the champions as well. The one where we would have kind of, fair enough,
you went into the world in Canada because you hated your brakes, but that's the one place he
didn't crash. Exactly. And he's had an absolute shocker and can't sugarcoat it. I've defended
Charles, think he's an incredibly top driver, but no other top driver crashes anywhere near as much
as he does. There's no other driver that has such an enormous kind of crash compilation.
And there's all for him trying to overcome the deficit, maybe of Ferrari not quite being there
or things like that. They were there today. And you see, they were,
exactly. And you see what Lewis Hamilton has done. And Charles Leclerc, this form and this
amount of crashing is something we expect from drivers in maybe their first, second or third
season. Like he is far too much of an experienced driver to be crashing this much. And it's not
a good look at all. And I don't think it helps anyone because it piles even more pressure on him.
And there's just nothing to, I know it's not crashing on purpose, but it is literally a case
of like, you need to like, rain it back, even if you're three tenths off Hamilton or a couple
of tenths off Hamilton, you don't need to be flying into corners, like 10 kilometers an hour
quicker than you did last time, try and make up a deficit because you're risk crashing and it
just keeps happening again and again and again. And this is, I have to say, like probably one of
like the lowest moments in Leclerc's career, I think, for these races. And there's a lot of
question marks that have come out of it and people that, you know, questioning,
is he as good as people have been saying because his form has been really poor?
Yes, he is excellent. I will say that. One of the reasons why, you know, I support Charles Leclerc
and love to see him drive is the fact that he will risk it all in qualifying in particular,
right? You know, he is on his day, probably the fastest driver over one lap. The problem is his
days are not particularly, they're very few and far between this season, whether he's just not
getting on with these new regs of cars or whatever it might be. It's a lot of crashes. I think that
if he was at any other team, I'd be like, God, he really needs to stop doing that. Otherwise,
his seat might be under threat. But I just, I feel like Charles is very much Ferrari's golden boy,
that he'd have to do so much in order for Ferrari to even contemplate getting rid of him.
I don't know, as much as we talk about credit in the bank with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton,
this, that and the other, Charles Leclerc doesn't have an enormous amount of credit in the bank
when it comes to actual accolades. You know, he's on eight victories. It's not like he has an insane
amount, but then he's also been up against Ferrari and the cars that they've given him for many
seasons. So I'm not, yeah, I'm kind of worried for this season with how much he's crashing.
I'm not worried for like his career as such, but I would, I would just like to see a consistent
run of just competitive sessions now where he doesn't crash. Just a nice clean race tomorrow.
P10 to P4. Great. 10 out of 10 driverings. Yeah, I mean, I would, I would argue it helps him
being at Ferrari because he's almost gets like a little bit of a free pass sometimes of like,
oh, classic Ferrari, even when he's made mistakes himself. And I think like in a weird way,
sometimes he can like lean on that whole like, oh, Ferrari, I haven't delivered the best car and
it kind of like saves him a little bit from, from that side. And I think that's probably what a lot
of people would be thinking as well. Speaking of what people might be thinking, question from the
vocal hero. How must Brembo be feeling right now? Brembo brakes, of course, they're getting so much
publicity at the moment, because of Charles's comments about them over the last couple of
weekends. And now shall changing over to Lewis Hamilton's brakes for, for this weekend. How
must they be feeling? Well, look, they will probably just be feeling quite vulnerable and hurt anyway,
because of what Charles said about them. And it's not as petty as, ah, Charles in the wall,
Brembo brakes on top. That's not what they're thinking. That would be insane. And also slander
tweet from them. Yeah, but also it's nothing to do with the brakes. It's not like he locked up and
went in the wall. It was all about power delivery and, and how, you know, eager he was on the throttle.
So the Brembo brakes conversation, there's nothing to be said here or anything to really
be gained from Brembo, because it was not an underbreaking mistake. Yeah, yeah, exactly right.
It was nothing to do with the brakes. So Brembo aren't going to be there going, oh, we feel really
smug or anything like that. They don't want to see a driver crashing. They'd much rather have
a team to supply brakes for. And they'd much rather have, you know, Charlotte Claire using their
brakes and equally Lewis Hamilton using their brakes, which he's chosen not to do. But yeah,
it's, it is one of those things where a lot of people jumped on that fact, I think rightly so,
because I guess the crashes in Monaco, however you, how much you contribute to driver error or
things, there were plenty of videos of him locking up into corners and things and really
struggling with them. But the fact that he's changed it and then gone into the wall. Yes,
it's not anything to do with those, but it kind of, it's not a bit of an embarrassing look when
it's kind of a, you know, there aren't any excuses this time. It's nothing to do with the brakes.
So, you know, it's an embarrassing look, but for something completely unrelated to the brakes.
So let's go to another question. Springbird 7-0 has a rejuvenated Lewis gotten into Charles' head?
Is he pushing too hard in an attempt to prove something?
Maybe it's a bit of Lewis' improvement and how
Charles can see what can be got out of that car and maybe based on last year and maybe his
performance against someone like Sebastian Vell that maybe deep down he truly believes that,
well, I can elevate that even further and be able to go even quicker. And obviously,
with that, he is over-driving the car massively. I do think Hamilton's form has got something to do
with it, but I don't think it's the complete absolute number one factor. I think it's just that
Charles is over-driving the car. He's trying too hard. Probably the fact that this season started so
well with the whole race starts. I could have potentially won the first race. There's a lot
of hype over testing and it's kind of same old story with his season and not able to challenge
for the championship. So I don't think it's all because of Lewis Hamilton, but I do think it's
certainly a factor that Hamilton, being able to get more out of the car, is making Charles push
even more and knowing that he can find more of what he's doing. Yeah, definitely. I think that
the fact is, yes, he is pushing too hard. Otherwise, he wouldn't be making these mistakes.
And Hamilton has to be a factor. I agree that there's a multitude of things going on here.
I think Charles just generally wants to win. He wants to take it to the Mercedes that
do have a competitive advantage, in my opinion, even around here with the fact Lewis got close.
Still think Mercedes are the car to beat. So Leclerc offered to run a back of poor weekends.
He wants to do something big. He wants to make a statement and a standout performance. And
this is what's happened. Another mistake and the headlines for the wrong reasons continue. So
yeah, I think Hamilton being quick absolutely is putting pressure on Leclerc. I think it'd be
silly to say otherwise, because it's Charles' backyard. Hamilton's come into Charles Leclerc's
team and he's already doing a brilliant job this year, is Lewis. So let's talk a little bit more
about him with a question from MrBear15. Where did that final lap from Lewis Hamilton come from?
It was a lap of the ages. Hamilton could well have been on pole. I think there was a small
discrepancy in energy deployment towards the line. I know you'll be enjoying that one. A bit of
super-clip it now. We won't say that word. But it was when you look at the onboard, when you look
at the comparison between Hamilton and Russell, Hamilton's lap was better. Of course, Ferrari
pretty good in the slower speed corners. There's not many of them around Barcelona, but you could
see there was a bit of an advantage there. It was just on the straights where Hamilton
loses a bit of time. I think in turn 10, I think it is the left-hander. He lost a bit of time,
had a bit of a correction, which 100% cost him pole. But even out of there, he was up. Going
into the final corner, he was marginally ahead of Russell. But you can hear it, and Corinne
Chandock, I think, took us through it really nicely in the fact that you can hear the engine
note between Hamilton and Russell. There was the consideration that it was because Hamilton
lifted a bit too much around the final corner. I think it might well be that and also the fact
that he didn't have as much energy to deploy to the line. It's difficult because I think both would
cause the same engine note to have that bogged down sound. Could you compare it to Russell?
And it is tonally very, very different. A shame for Hamilton would have been an awesome thing to
see him on pole position for tomorrow. But I mean, look, he has a front-row start in a
fast-starting Ferrari that maybe isn't as fast-starting as they were at the start of the season. But
I am intrigued to see if any of that advantage still exists when it is such a massively long run
down towards turn one. Definitely. His lap was absolutely incredible. We saw in FP3,
he was a long way off, did not realise that his straight mode was a problem there
because we didn't get to see what actually he could do in FP3. And it was a surprise that
we went into the session thinking it was probably going to be a case of Mercedes going for pole
position and could McLaren challenge them. And it's Hamilton that almost got pole, not even just
the closest challenger to Mercedes, you know, well clear of Antonelli and so nearly pipping
Russell, who was phenomenal and kind of almost looked a little bit unbeatable, I think Russell
with how it was kind of going that session. So Hamilton, again, like his race pace and
him on a Sunday is the best of Lewis Hamilton. Qualifying, he's got so many poles, but it's
not like his strongest asset, I guess. So the fact that he's now qualifying well as well
is incredible for him because I think he's going to definitely challenge up there. And if he gets
a good run, whether he can get into George Russell's slipstream or there I say the two
Mercs are thinking about each other and their championship fight, you never know Lewis Hamilton.
I'm not going to say that he's going to win the world championship, but I think it's a really
interesting fact and a situation. If the Mercedes do keep fighting like this, and Lewis Hamilton,
we know how consistent he is. And that is what he's been so good at and why he's won so many
world championships is that kind of consistency and how impressive he is over a full season.
He might keep picking up a lot of points that the Mercedes drivers can't get him out their head
and can't just think, I will actually Mercedes declare it's just a two-horse race. So I'm really
intrigued to see what Hamilton can do tomorrow. I'm very excited for it. Yep. I think he's probably
the favourite to lead into turn one. I think Anthony is going to have a great shout as well
because of starting P3. Long run down towards turn one can get in the slipstream if he gets a
R&B sheep. Where is Antonelli's pace this week? 3 tenths off Russell is the complete opposite
of what we have seen recently. He's been on the back foot absolutely for sure. Antonelli
has not looked anywhere near as comfortable. Of course, he missed FP1 because Vesti was
doing that kind of rookie kind of allocation. But even for the rest of the weekend,
didn't look quite there yet. You thought he'd ramp up in FP3 and then he got a lot of traffic
in FP3, which he was absolutely fuming about. Now, he was really, really frustrated by it.
And obviously, puts him on the back foot a little bit again, but he just hasn't had the answer
for Russell this weekend so far. And I think Antonelli needs to, whether he does or not,
needs to think about the championship pair that he's got an enormous lead.
He's, I think he's actually very fortunate that being that far off his teammate is only
P3 and not maybe like a P5, 6, 7th or something like that. So I think we're going to see what
Antonelli can do and how much he's going to be thinking about the world championship. Will he
get straight into the slipstream of Russell and go for the win? Or will he be thinking,
doesn't matter if I lose a few points here and there. So he'll go for the win, my guy. You
literally support him for the reason that he's, I know, think he will. But whether he
needs to is another question. Yeah, it doesn't need to. But I guess, you know, I'm going to use a
football term because it's the World Cup and stuff. But like, it's too early to park the bus.
You can't be going, oh, I'm 68 points clear of Russell, no problem. There's still so many races
left where Russell goes on a streak that that that lead will diminish, especially if he settles
for P3s, P4s. Let's not forget as well with Antonelli, he did sit out of free practice one. So
there might be a little small consideration there that the track running for whatever reason has
meant that he can't get that same confidence in the car round here. Not that they're ever rushing
out in practice. It's true. Although in FP1, I know you hate it, but they were out there quite
a lot for FP1. It's just more towards the end of the free practice sessions, FP3 in particular,
there was like 25 minutes of no running. So yeah, it's, it's an interesting one. Yeah,
this is the first time barring obviously Australia where we've gone, oh, okay, there's a deficit to
Russell here. But it is all about, you know, the champions are how they deal with the sort of
the poor weekends. Exactly. It's not about how they go on five race win streaks. Yes,
that's great. But he also can't have, you know, a stinker tomorrow and bring Russell back into
this championship. So I think for Antonelli, he will have a little bit of pressure on him,
of course, starting P3 long run down towards turn one. If he has a poor start, which he has had
many, but not in recent times, then he could be very much on the back foot where Mercedes
actual pace advantage doesn't seem that big. So that's going to be fascinating to watch. Can't
wait for the race tomorrow. Of course, we're going to be live streaming, so make sure you come
and join us there. But yeah, give me Antonelli slightly on the back foot, but P3 is not a disaster.
Sombra Shuffle 81 asks, does this mighty pole by George become an indication of how the rest of
the European League will turn out, especially since we are now returning to two traditional
tracks where he has always been strong. I said this from the beginning. When George was losing
loads of points, I said, I think Russell could well mount a charge when we get to the European
leg of the season. Monaco, yeah, that was not great. He got lapped, you know, so on and so
forth. But we now get to Spain, as we said, traditional track, and he seems so much more at
home. And we also said and tried to remind you all that he hasn't been off the pace that many
times this season. It's just not worked out for him. In Canada, he had a DNF fighting for the
win. Monaco could well have finished P3 had it not been for the five second penalty disaster
that turned into a drive through. So for George, I am not surprised to see him bounce back here.
And could well go on a run. Absolutely. And this will be, I hope for our sakes as fans,
we can watch this sort of Russell come back and whether he can get himself back into this.
I agree. I think Russell, it's very overplayed how bad he's been. I don't think it's all been,
you know, his his pace, he's had bad luck and he's not been as good as Antonelli. But
this weekend, he looks much more comfortable. And maybe, yeah, maybe he goes on a run where
he feels like maybe maybe that initial kind of panic as well of, oh, what's going wrong?
Everything's going wrong. Maybe that kind of pressure in a weird way of like Antonelli is
so far ahead. And in a weird way, maybe it helps him like like a London or us last year. And he
can just do his own thing. And what what happens happens. And yeah, he's been phenomenal this
weekend so far. And able to just look the more comfortable Mercedes Mercedes obviously look
very quick as he always have done. But he's he's been the driver that you always think is going
to be ahead this weekend. Antonelli hasn't really had a sniff of ever looking like he's going to be
be George at all at this point of the weekend. So we'll see how it turns out. But he needs to just
get his head down and just keep winning races now. And if he if he does, then it all comes
down to whether Antonelli how Antonelli plays it with finishing second or will he have
worse races than that and drop further down the order? Yeah, and reliability as we've already
seen can play a massive part in this season and cause almighty swings in the championship. George
Russell's literally lost 50 points in the last two races to Antonelli. So this can happen in
the other direction as well for sure. Let's not talk about McLaren people on Patreon member Spike
asks what happened to McLaren? They looked so good in practice.
Yeah, they did. We said in the in the kind of practice pod that I'd be amazed if they were
that good and challenging for pole position. And they were that being said worse than I expected.
I didn't think it would be Ferrari or Lewis Hamilton as it were to be the one that's actually
going for pole position and up there because McLaren obviously there's only one Ferrari,
sorry to mention it, to kind of compare here. But they were obviously three tenths off Ferrari and
we kind of thought McLaren are going to be the closest challengers now. Obviously Ferrari bought
upgrades which are working well. And yeah, McLaren, I think I've been reading that Lando seems
very unhappy with with how it's gone. Of course, fourth doesn't seem like an absolute
disaster when you think how bad his luck's been. They don't want to be fighting Red Bull
because they were challenging for race victories in in Miami and Japan.
Yeah, Kimmy a very fortunate man because had his time been 24,000 slower, he would have been two
places further down the grid because Norris and Verstappen were tucked in very, very close behind
Lando, three thousandths of a second behind Antonelli. Something I found quite funny was that
Norris was asked after qualifying that some people were talking about the McLaren's fighting for
pole today and his response was really delusional. So there you go. That's that's his reaction to
that, which I think is fair because I don't think we expected them to coming into the weekend. We
thought, okay, McLaren could be really quick here and second best, maybe on the sort of the heels
of Mercedes. But when we went after FP3, I don't think it was really all too much hype for them.
And they kind of ended up where where we expected. So they could easily have a good race. They're not
miles off. They have to keep an eye on Max Verstappen to see what he does. But yeah, it's not a
disaster unlike what I'm currently experiencing. So there you go. That is it. Thank you everybody
for tuning in. Lots of lots to chat about. We discussed lots of things. I hope you enjoyed
it. We're very excited for tomorrow as much as what's happened today. I am still excited for
tomorrow. P10 to P1. Has it ever been done at Barcelona? Well, I'll be researching it
when I leave this podcast. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts. I yeah, super excited for tomorrow.
I think it's a fascinating grid. How is it going to be with I think initially I kind of wanted
to see the two Mercedes together. But I think Liz Hamilton is going to go for it at the start.
And if he gets ahead of the two Mercs, we could see the situation where maybe the two Mercs are
fighting each other for P2 and P3 and we get a big old train again. So can't wait for it.
It's going to be really exciting. And of course, you know, we've not we mentioned it in the
practice pod, not mentioned it in this one, but the strategy and the whole situation with the
tyres and the heat could be a really, really interesting one with the fact that we don't
tend to get two stoppers these days in modern Formula One. And we could well see that maybe even more.
Original notes
As many thousands of you who joined our live stream halfway through will know, it was a challenging afternoon for one particular driver over in Barcelona. But there were some surprising results up and down the grid too!
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