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Reaction to Brazil GP Sprint Qualifying
Reaction to Brazil GP Sprint Qualifying
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About this episode
Matt and Tommy dive into the chaotic Sprint Qualifying at the Brazil GP, discussing key moments like Yuki Sonoda's struggles, Carlos Sainz's frustrating traffic issues, and Max Verstappen's disappointing sixth place. They analyze Aston Martin's surprising pace, Oscar Piastri's improvement, and rookie Kimmy Antonelli's front-row start. The hosts debate if Verstappen's championship hopes are fading amid McLaren's strong form and speculate on how wet weather could impact the sprint race. The episode blends detailed driver analysis with insights on team strategies and the unpredictable Brazilian weather.
Topics:
brazil gp sprint qualifying
yuki sonoda performance
carlos sainz traffic issues
max verstappen challenges
aston martin pace
oscar piastri improvement
kimmy antonelli qualifying
wet weather impact
f1 sprint race strategy
championship outlook
Cars:
Dodge Charger
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy.
We are coming to you live from Denver, whether you're watching or listening to us.
We are doing our North America delusion tour.
We've had a few shows already.
It's been awesome.
Thank you to those of you that have turned up for those.
We've of course got shows coming up as well.
So if you're in Denver on Monday, then come along to the show.
We're also doing shows in Dallas, Toronto, Chicago, and New York.
New York, unfortunately, is sold out.
But the other ones have a few tickets left if you'd like to come and see us live as the championship.
It's weird, isn't it?
Doing a few shows.
Now I've got the dynamic of the championship changing again as we then go into our next batch of shows.
Yes.
It feels, I'm feeling the energy of less optimistic Tommy.
Not that I've ever really seen an optimistic Tommy.
Yeah.
It's managed to be even worse.
Yeah.
I don't know how you do it as a Ferrari fan, to be honest, because I feel awful after that.
It is the hope that kills you.
Yeah.
It is the hope that kills you.
Even in that session, you know, you went purple at one point and I was, you know,
dreaming and then it all went wrong.
We will get into more of the feelings later on for sure.
But let's start right at the beginning of Sprint Qualley and Q1 where the bottom five were
Colla Pinto, Lawson, Sonoda, Ocon and Sines.
Now, of course, there was chatter, wasn't there about rain?
Are we going to get rain this weekend?
And there was a chance of rain every single day this weekend.
No rain for Sprint Qualley, no rain for FP1 either.
And the bottom five unsurprisingly, you know, as much as Yuki Sonoda, my guy,
wow.
I mean, of course, had a disaster in free practice one, had that spin, lost quite a bit of time
to do the practice and set up the car for the literal rest of the weekend.
Although, of course, you can change after the Sprint race where Park Fermé gets lifted.
But for Sonoda, I am not surprised in the slightest that he did not make it out of Q1.
Of course, all of his struggles he's had as we've spoken about many, many times,
but also how close Brazil is in qualifying anyway, and Q1 in particular.
We talk about Q1 many, many times and how it can be so close across the whole 20 drivers.
And for Yuki, very, very unsurprising to see him out.
Yeah, it's not good for Yuki at all.
It's almost unsurprising, which is crazy for a red ball to be down in 18th position.
But that's where we are now.
And after, was it Baku, he did like a decent job?
Thought, is this the turning point?
Obviously, a new team principal in Lauren Mekies, who's worked with before.
Maybe he'll now start to get more confidence, but it's not really working out for him at all, is it?
No, no.
I mean, in Mexico, there was hope and then he had a really long pit stop,
which ruined any chances of a potentially decent result.
But where we're looking at with his performances,
there hasn't ever been a breakthrough performance.
Like we saw sometimes with Perez, like in Baku or whatever, where he beat Max,
and you're like, whoa, what's going on here?
We've not had that or even close to really having that, sadly, for Yuki.
A question from P1 Patreon member, Rosie Rangetsu.
A crash in FB1 and a poor result in sprint qualifying.
Is Yuki cooked?
So, cooked being obviously not having a race seat for next year.
Red Bull still haven't announced who they are having in those teams alongside, of course, Max and then in VCarb.
I'm firmly of the opinion, and you have been for quite some time, Tommy, that Yuki is in big trouble.
And I think that it's just the more and more you think about it,
the more you just, I can't see a way where you have other drivers building hype,
either in Formula 2 with Arvid Limblad or in the junior team where the car is easier to drive.
How do you beat that when you just cannot get your head around a car alongside Max?
So, yeah, I think Yuki's in big trouble.
He's in big trouble. He's been in big trouble for a long time, you know.
I don't think it's the crash in FB1 and his poor result, as this question suggests, that means he's cooked.
It's kind of, I feel like the decision's been long in the making.
And the only thing that could have saved him had gone on this amazing run, which obviously isn't happening.
So I just don't see how that's going to happen at all.
Well, sorry to Yuki and all his fans out there.
Other drivers to mention from SQ1, Carlos Sainz, of course, 20th and last.
Joe Formula 6P asks, why were Sainz so upset today with Sprint quality?
I understand it's a P20 and he was sick, but still.
He's upset because he's P20. You've kind of answered your own question there. How do you sick?
No, it's very easy to be, you know, for people that aren't driving and don't have that like, you know, pure competitive thing to go.
Oh, it's only the Sprint. Don't worry about it.
Because realistically, a lot of these midfielders and these drivers is only points to the top eight.
So it's going to be really hard to get points in the Sprint anyway.
But they're competitive. They're so competitive.
And we at home can say, oh, why are you so upset? It doesn't really matter.
And you weren't going to score points anyway, and it's only the Sprint and all this kind of stuff.
But these are Formula One drivers. You know, we've had this conversation before about tomorrow in the Sprint race.
They'll be sending it over 15th place. It's just in their DNA. That's what they do.
It is. I think the signs also was upset just purely by the way in which that had all unfolded.
It's not as if he was P20 due to pace. It was P20 because he was fighting five or six other cars on the track trying to wind up for his final lap.
So much so that, you know, even around the final corner or the final corner that I deemed the final corner we actually have to break for.
That corner, yeah, just he was having to, you know, obviously once you go through that left-hander, you're on the power and you're building up speed going down towards turn one.
He was literally having to crawl up the hill trying to find a spot where he could accelerate and start his lap.
And there was just cars, just flurry of cars coming through.
As much as I, you know, you can say that Williams could have done better in the way in which they placed signs in that queue.
Brazil is such a quick lap, you know, one minute nines we were seeing in qualifying and 20 cars out there.
You know, you look at that, that's an average of maybe a car every four seconds.
So like, it is very difficult to make that happen and to have a clean session for Carlos.
It just, it was a disaster. Like P20 is not where he deserved to be.
But once you saw his onboard, you understood exactly why he was 20th and wasn't able to put in a decent lap at the end.
I understand his frustration as well at the team, but they are kind of like damned if they do, damned if they don't,
because we've had this conversation before that you can go into the, when you have like this chaos where everyone's out on the track at the same time
and they're all trying to go out the last minute and they get caught out.
We are, of course, and it's all hindsight that drivers and us complain and go, why on earth are they doing that?
But equally on the flip side, you look at examples gone by where I think like, you know,
like George Russell or someone's gone out really early and you go, well, he's not got the track condition.
So it can work either way. And when you get burned by it, of course, they're going to look back on it and go,
what on earth are you doing? Like putting everyone out at the same time?
Because, like you say, his, the onboard was like watching something from a video game.
There's kind of driving games where you've got to like weave in and out of all the other cars because it was, it was insane to watch.
And also, let's not forget that Carlos Sainz literally the last sprint weekend we had finished third.
So there's an opportunity in these kind of weekends where there's less practice for midfield teams to really put themselves up there.
And I think that's, again, another reason why he would be kicking himself a little bit.
So there you go. That's them covered. I think also just very quickly.
Ocon 19th in SQ1 was pretty, again, like it's every single race weekend it feels that like we're speaking about Ocon's qualifying
and you see Bearman ended up 15th in the end, but of course made it through to SQ2.
So the comparison once again between Bearman and Ocon, Bearman has such momentum.
They're almost in 7th, wasn't they? I think definitely up in the top 10 in that session.
So the gaps were massive between them.
We haven't also mentioned as well that Colopinto had his contract finally signed.
I know we spoke about the contracts of Red Bull. It's worth mentioning. Congratulations to Colopinto.
I think it was fully deserved. The Colopinto has the Alpine contract for next year,
but was knocked out in SQ1 alongside Liam Lawson.
We now head to SQ2 where the five knocked out were Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoletto and Oliver Bearman.
Hamilton being the big scout, no surprise there.
I mean, I say no surprise the fact that we're talking about it,
but also no surprise in the fact that Ferrari did not look great from the first lap that was turned in the weekend
all the way through to sprint qualifying later in the day.
And Hamilton being knocked out, it's just, I know you good surprised him, didn't you?
You good surprised him. You stole it from me. Thank you so much for that, mate. Appreciate it.
But Ferrari just nowhere, nowhere near the front. You had a Lonzo fastest in SQ2,
but the Ferraris would have just been struggling.
They have really glad I predicted them second and third in the race.
I thought they'd be better around here, but it got a lot worse.
One of the most savage bit of TV directions I've ever seen was Charles Leclerc locking up into a corner.
He goes around the corner, the camera then pans, doesn't even cut away,
pans to the next Ferrari coming around Hamilton does exactly the same lock up.
They were struggling big time.
They were indeed. P1 picture member captain of 3420 asks,
did Charles spin on purpose to make it out of SQ2?
No, no, he did not spin on purpose. Not the Monaco master plan.
It's as easy for us as fans watching to go, well, you know, he's at risk and things like that.
He was improving. Of course, he locked up into that right-hander again, which you mentioned, Tommy.
He's just dumped the throttle to try and make up the time that he's clearly lost through the lock up.
I really do not think that's gone through his mind in sprint qualifying 2,
where he's not fighting for the championship or anything like that to spin on purpose.
It's just not worth it whatsoever for him.
And it's not like he had much to gain anyway, even if he got knocked out in SQ2,
I'm sure he was not expecting to even get anywhere close to the top five.
So, no, Charles, I do not believe spun on purpose.
I know some people will be out there with their tinfoil hats on,
but for me, it was just an error and it was a very messy session for Ferrari in all.
It was. It's not like a Monaco situation where we have seen drivers go off in the past
and while it's never been fully proved because they'll never admit it,
some drivers have obviously like crashed or gone off in Monaco
because you can get that advantage where the track will be neutralized.
It's less likely to be that in Brazil anyway,
and it was just Charle-Claire pushing to try and improve.
And obviously, you know, he didn't want to spin off.
So, no, he didn't do it on purpose.
And I think, I mean, it didn't...
I did make a bit of a difference in the end,
you know, just to carry on my depression about myself to happen.
But I was a little bit worried as well because Max had gone through at that moment
and aborted his lap, but thankfully for Max,
your drivers like Albin, Gasly, Bortletto, Berman weren't improving.
No, they weren't, and Hamilton was behind Charle.
I'm not sure whether he was actually improving at the time,
but Charle was, and yeah, he was able to go through and Lewis was not.
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Let's head to Q3,
where the top 10 were Norris, Antonelli,
Piastri, Russell, Alonzo, Verstappen,
Stroll, Leclerc, Hajar, and Hülkenberg.
A chaotic sprint quali,
a few opportunities for some drivers.
Of course Alonzo was up there in P5
in the Aston Martin, Aston just in general,
looking very fast.
The first thing we have to talk about
and a question from P1Patreon member Thima,
is it championship back off of Astappen?
Here we go again.
Here we go again.
Oh, then tell me, just let it all out.
Yeah, it is.
I think with the sprint result,
you normally get a bit of kind of,
as the points is so close,
Max being sort of second or third
and just kind of staying in there
is not too bad and obviously
of all the sessions to be off,
this one's better,
but we've said so many times,
Max has to be perfect
and it would be a point swing,
not an enormous point swing,
but I think the most concerning thing for Max
is the fact that McLaren are just rapid
and we saw that amazing run that Max went on
and it really did look like Red Bull
and Max had found something
and we're potentially going to go into every race
at the end of the season
challenging for victories
and I know that there's talk of,
you know, it might rain tomorrow
and things like that,
but he's not going to be able to turn this deficit round
if in like dry conditions,
the McLarens are just clear
and he's finishing behind,
you know, both Merckx and Aston Martin
in the session,
so it was a disaster for Max.
It was a disaster, I agree.
Perfection is something we've spoken about a lot
in the podcast that the Max needs to deliver
and this wasn't perfect by any stretch.
Max has had many Fridays
where he's not liked the car
and been able to turn it around,
but sadly for him it was a sprint weekend,
but then again on the flip side of that
sometimes it's worked well for Max
where he's just quick out of the blocks
and can make a sprint weekend work in his favour.
Is it championship back off?
That is the question.
For me, as you will know,
I'm a little bit more on the half full glass side of things.
It's not over yet.
I just can't see it, right?
You know, we've had many occasions in this championship
where people have said it's off, it's on, it's off, it's on, it's off.
A sixth place in the sprint is bad.
Don't get me wrong.
Max needs to be perfect.
We've said it many times on the podcast
and this wasn't a perfect quality session.
If it's going to happen in any session, it's this one.
You've got a sprint race tomorrow where the forecast is sounding very bad
and will we even get a sprint race is a question.
24 laps in a heavy rain Brazil
could actually be quite a lot of racing,
which I may be looking forward to.
Should we have a green flag,
non-red flag session?
Because of course, we saw even last year, didn't we?
Absolutely insane conditions.
Was it last year in qualifying or the year before?
Yeah, because last year, of course, we had the delayed qualifying
because it rained so much.
It was the dark clouds, those insanely dark clouds.
Yeah, and obviously we moved into Sunday
and they did qualifying on the Sunday,
which was when Max obviously qualified 17th
and it was a complete disaster.
One thing that's interesting on that
is if the conditions are really bad for the sprint,
how do they play this?
Because we've not seen this before.
It's all right in a normal session where they can say
FP3 doesn't matter or we can move qualifying here and there.
Where does the sprint come into this?
I don't know what I'm sure the FIA
frantically looking through the rulebook if that is the case
because do you prioritize getting the sprint done
and we just delay the whole day tomorrow if it's raining,
get the sprint done when they can
and maybe do qualifying Sunday again.
We'll find out.
They just really flag it and it's half points or no points.
Well, Max is six and Norris is first
so I think it's only fair that we...
They just cancel the whole thing.
Just not have a sprint weekend whatsoever.
Yeah, that is a fascinating topic, isn't it?
How I see it is that qualifying would just be pushed back
and into Sunday.
I don't think they would sacrifice a sprint race.
Because there's points on offer.
There's points on offer and they'll do their utmost.
Whether we get the sprint underway,
the clock starts ticking and then...
Behind 24 laps behind a safety car.
Fingers crossed we don't have to go through that
but from what I've read the forecast does look pretty bad
whether it's for actual lights out or beforehand
it sounds like it's going to rain overnight
but either or it's going to be different track conditions
and I'm all for it.
You're writing off Max from sixth on the grid.
I need it now.
You're writing off Max from sixth on the grid
when he started 17th of course for a main race
20 of things can happen.
You're Kimmy Antonelli with not a lot of wet experience
on the front row of the grid.
What a qualifying for him.
Let's talk about that from Kimmy.
Just under a tenth behind Lando
and it has to be said he delivered when it mattered.
Russell perhaps slightly scruffier.
He'll be annoyed when he'll be annoyed to be beaten by his team mate
because it shows that there is some pace in that murk
and showing again that murk are able to turn it on
at random circuits and Brazil being one of those ones.
Kimmy on the front row of the grid
can he translate that into tomorrow as well?
What kind of conditions will we get
for Saturday for the full qualifying?
So many questions unanswered.
I do wonder how Kimmy is going to play it tomorrow.
We're obviously here in the US
so we're watching on F1 TV
and they were talking about maybe Antonelli
I know he's a rookie
but he's maybe going to be a bit more
experienced and play it cool.
I actually think the opposite.
He's an amazing chance for Kimmy Antonelli
he's got his contract locked in next year.
Toto's kind of like backing him
he's obviously done a great job in qualifying
and he knows that actually
if he goes for even a 50-50 move
even less Norris is going to jump out of the way
because he's got a championship to win.
So I think Kimmy Antonelli
obviously is not going to do something absolutely stupid
if it's never on
but if he gets even a sniff
I think he's going to go for it.
I think so as well
but to believe that Kimmy's going to be measured
and not want to get involved in the championship fight
I think is, well, it's not an opinion I agree with
I think it's the complete opposite as you say
there's an opportunity for him to get a sprint win
and why not just go for it?
Landau can't afford to turn into a Kimmy Antonelli
steaming down the inside in my opinion
so and also as well
there's not massive pace difference
we don't know about the wet of course
whether McLaren will dominate in the wet is yet to be seen
but it's not as if it's going to be a dry race
from what we can see it's not going to be a dry race tomorrow
and that Kimmy has no chance of winning
I think he's got an amazing chance of winning
especially if it is these sort of slippery changeable conditions
so I think Kimmy will go for it
no doubt with my mind
Although Landau will be preying for a rolling start
because then that kind of conditions
are great for him
and he doesn't have to worry about Kimmy probably
because if it is the sort of level 3, level 4 rain
which is bad, which is heavy
then it most likely is going to be a rolling
rather than a standing start
which is a shame because we love to see
those 5 red lights go out don't we
Next question, P1Patreon member Blaxen
Can we still call this an improvement
for Oscar
he's been a lot closer than he has
recently
I think for sure it is an improvement
I know it's just under 2 tenths
and it is a short track
but that being said
it's not the disaster that he's had
in the last few
where he's been miles off of Landau
where the Landau just isn't as comfortable
with the car this weekend
as much as he is on sprint pole
the first thing he was saying is that
he wasn't happy with the grip and things like that
and it shows that perhaps there is
still more time on the table
but Oscar's third, and I said this coming into this weekend
that if he's just able to
finish P2 behind Landau
in both the sprint and the main race
that is genuinely
he'll be 9 points behind Landau
going into the last 3 weekends
or where he's not been on the podium once
so that for me
isn't an improvement, he starts third
on paper you would imagine
Oscar would beat Kimmy in the sprint
but the paper
doesn't really work around Brazil
but a much better sprint
quali for Oscar for sure
Definitely, I think he'd have absolutely taken it
of course he'll always want
to improve
and he has looked quick
crazy that
you guys listened to the podcast
where I mentioned about my mum messaging
saying that
she thinks Piastri's got his mojo back
and I said absolutely not
within the first lap
I think it was literally the first lap
in sprint qualifying
where Oscar put in a lap that was
pretty much the same or might have even beaten
Landau, my mum messaged me saying
told you Oscar's back
so look, he's actually
done a lot better job
I know he's third
and a bit of a way off Landau
like almost two tenths potentially
but I do think
that he'll have absolutely taken this
because he's got a huge opportunity to finish
just behind Landau in the sprint and then he doesn't even need
to go for it because it's only one point
point different and then he'll just kind of
be looking to the main race
to see if that's where
you can kind of get bigger
opportunities for like points differences
and things Exactly, I mean he was
about a tenth away from
starting a couple of positions further back
so for him, he might well just be very
happy starting third because it could have been a lot
worse with how small the margins are
around Brazil
Next question from P1P, a TVR driver
Do you think anyone has compromised
their qualifying setup
for race pace given the weather forecast?
I'd love
to pretend that
it's a Max Verstappen master plan
and
it was him going for a wet setup
and that's why he's six but I don't think
that's the case particularly the way
he was shaking his head after his lap
he was also very quick in the
first sector which would suggest
that
he's got a bit more straight
line speed and stuff
which obviously you wouldn't normally have if you'd gone
really over the top with a wet setup
I don't think that has been the case
There may be other drivers
further down the grid
that might risk it
maybe Ferrari are on for an absolute master plan
but they never tend to run well
in the wet do they say
I can't see it
personally no one really stands up
to me that have kind of gone for
this like crazy risky strategy
It makes no sense to have
gambled on a massive wet setup
it just
really is a sprint at the end of the day
and as much as there is some
wet weather coming they've got to be thinking
about the main race which has
much lower chance
of rain so
they want to be dialing in their dry setup
than anything else 8 points is a lot less
than 25 unsurprisingly
for me no I mean Max even said
after quality or sprint quality
sorry that
he doesn't expect that he'll go any
better in the wet he's not expecting any miracles
but he also said let's see
no I don't think there's any aggressive
weather setups especially not for Ferrari
I can't believe you even put Ferrari
in wet weather running doing well
in the same sentence
so yeah I think that is a coping
I think for any fans out there believing
their driver has gone for a wet
setup over a dry
question from being on bed remember CC Hollister
what's with Aston Martin
where did this form come
from
they they
last time they were good was hungry
where they just brought some updates
and
I really don't understand
and I don't really
have much insight to provide
when it comes to Aston Martin because
they looked not particularly
outstanding
in practice and you always
expect that you know even if they do put a good lap in
that's just purely because they're all sort of
doing their own run plans in free practice
one especially on a sprint weekend
but Alonso as we said
sq2 fastest
sq3 maybe there was a little bit more on the table
because he actually went slower on the soft
tyres than he did on the medium
tyres in sq2
or we do see sometimes don't we how
cars will actually prefer the medium tyres
a little bit we've seen that with George Russell in the past
so it's clearly not a lot of pace difference
between the softs and the mediums this weekend
but for Alonso
p5 it's
looking very good and you don't imagine
there'll be a massive shift even though we will
get a sprint race and then the part
where you don't have a good lap
and you don't expect Aston to all of a
sudden fall off when other teams learn
because you kind of have to hit the ground running
from fp1 if you don't you're on a massive
back foot especially if we have
wet weather tomorrow there's no way of honing
a dry set up from now
yeah it's so true I was very surprised
actually with Aston Martin's pace because
when I saw the result from fp1
we've seen Alonso
be very very quick in fp1s before
and then be absolutely nowhere as it comes
from a representative
but here they've
done a brilliant job
almost like Fernando Alonso could be even higher
up the grid based on what we saw
in SQ2 and maybe you could have
surprised with a top 3 or something
it is a track that Alonso goes incredibly
well at
he was on the podium here in 2023
when he had that amazing battle with Perez
he's won a couple of championships here as well
so it is one of his
more favoured circuits
but Luntstroll did a good job as well
didn't obviously
manage to beat Alonso in
the session but to be 5th
and 7th, Aston Martin are just
a very confusing team
this year with their pace
their form is a bit all over the place
really they really are and they have
odd ways of betting in
the tyres and they go and take them out for
a lap and all kinds of random
things that Aston Martin do that no other team do
but well done to them all the same
finally I guess Holkenberg making through
to SQ3
once again which is a pretty good
performance from him and out shining
Gabriel Bortoletto at his home race
so good work from Holkenberg and Hadja
very quietly up in P9
as well and beating Lawson pretty
comprehensively so there you go that is
sprint qualifying wrapped up done
and dusted thank you everybody
for tuning in we'll be live
on YouTube and Twitch as always
for Saturday and Sunday we have committed
we're like no no live shows during the
weekend we want to make sure we do all of our content
as timely and as beautifully
as ever so Tommy
speaking of beautiful what's
your final thoughts final thoughts
I will be the classic Formula
1 fan now and it's not
too much to ask for the perfect
level of rain please where
because we don't want as fast as
yeah yeah but but no
for entertainment value rain
in the sprint would be amazing we've
seen a few wet sprints before
where you get a pit stop
and things change like variable conditions
would make the sprint even more exciting
and but there's of course that
that big concern where
and you know the
the weather is so bad
that we either get a safety car
or a rolling star and it's just
a 24 lap procession with
with so much spray they can't do anything so
fingers crossed that it that we do
get us like a good amount
of rain but but not too much that
we're we're sat here for
nine hours waiting
for the look forward to the now
as much as I love streaming with you guys
nine hours would be quite a lot
so we cut off at two guys I'm really sorry
after that it'll just be me so anyway
thank you everybody we'll see you soon lots of love to
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