0:00 / 0:00
Reaction to Chinese GP qualifying

Reaction to Chinese GP qualifying

P1 with Matt and Tommy Mar 14, 2026 0 min
0:00
0:00
Immersive Mode

About this episode

Matt and Tommy dive into the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying, praising the competitive Q3 session and highlighting George Russell's car issues that handed pole to Kimmy Antonelli, the youngest pole sitter. They discuss the midfield battle's tight margins, Williams' struggles, and the strong showing from Audi and Red Bull's second driver, Hadjar. The hosts debate Ferrari's intra-team rivalry and strategy against Mercedes, and speculate on Max Verstappen's future amid Red Bull's current performance gap. Predictions for the race start focus on Hamilton leading into turn one, with excitement building for a closely fought race.

Topics: chinese grand prix qualifying george russell car issues kimmy antonelli pole position midfield battle williams struggles ferrari vs mercedes strategy red bull second driver hadjar max verstappen future rumors race start predictions formula one competition
Select text to request an explanation
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy, Thick and
Fast, another session done and dusted qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
We have our result, and we have, I would say, a finely poised race for tomorrow.
I am rather excited for it, I'll be completely honest.
And I would say of the three qualifying sessions, of course, including the Sprint
qualifying, that was the best qualifying we've had.
And that's because of George Russell's car.
Thank you, George.
How are you feeling, Tommy?
I'm feeling good.
I think all the complaints about qualifying were justified.
It was very confusing and different and not what we liked.
But it's clear to see that everything is a bit better here.
And I think as well, it just proves that what we want to see more than anything is
competition at the front.
And when we saw Q3, where it looked like it was going to be close between quite a few
drivers, felt a bit more like the qualifying of old, didn't it?
When you're actually seeing people going for pole position and its place, which at the
end of the day, that's what we all want as Formula One fans.
Now, a quick reminder that you can get 20% off an annual membership to our P1 Patreon.
And you'll get every single episode of P1 completely ad-free, as well as an extended
version of every Race Review podcast this season, early access to tickets, access to
our Discord.
It's all happening.
New annual subscribers can now get 20% off an annual subscription by heading to patreon.com
forward slash map P1, Tommy, or clicking the link in the show notes.
This offer is only valid until the end of March.
So be quick to take advantage of a full season of ad-free P1.
Make sure you sign up right now.
And if you'd rather just sign up month by month, you can do that too for just $5 a month.
Thank you so much for your wonderful support.
Right, let's get into Q1, where the bottom six were Sines, Albon, Alonso, Bota, Stroll,
and Perez.
Question from P1 Patreon member Cesar, should they just directly start quali with Q2 since
both Williams, Aston's, and Cadillacs are always going to go out in Q1, then in brackets,
just kidding.
And you should be just kidding.
How dare you, slander, my team, Williams?
Look, Sines wasn't far away from from making it through to Q2.
I think he was a couple of tenths.
And yes, that is quite a big margin in Formula One, but it's not an unassailable margin.
And I do firmly believe that one Williams will start to knock on the door of Q2, hopefully
in the not too distant future.
But yeah, as is a joke, it's the two by two for Aston's and Cadillacs once again.
But look, it's not the same as sprint quali because Valtteri Bottas outqualified Lance Stroll.
And I think that goes straight in the head to head in my favor of the Bottas camp.
Come on, Bottas believers, we love to see it.
You'll start a quali then, you'll start a quali Bottas.
Yeah, and I know as well also that the head to head between Perez that basically his car
just could not stop falling apart.
His engine cover came off at the end of the sprint, which I found was absolutely ridiculous.
But yeah, we still take the point for the Bottas believers.
Yeah, the top, sorry, the bottom six having just exactly the same as what we had in the
sprint quali is a shame.
Not the same in position wise, just the same six.
The same six.
Again, we've kind of joked that this year, so far, we're going to have the fact that
it is the two Aston Martins, the two Cadillacs and then whoever else, even if Aston Martin,
maybe we're making a few gains very little, but you think they might catch up.
But Williams, oh, it's painful.
You hope that it's just a track thing and they're really struggling here and other tracks will
be a bit more competitive and that midfield will swap around like we said a few times, but
oh, it's painful to watch Williams.
We heard a radio message, didn't we, from Alban shouting terrible, which after all the highs
of last year, they must have gone into the season so excited to have it go this badly already,
you can understand their frustrations big time.
It's kind of to be expected, though, like if we remember, they missed shakedown,
like they were so far behind very quickly.
So the expectations, I think, for Williams fans, for Williams themselves
couldn't have been anything other than serious struggles at the start of this year.
I guess the saving grace once they've clearly got more fundamental problems than Alpine,
but once they get a handle of some of those issues, you can see with Alpine,
they're starting to unlock more performance with that Mercedes power unit and so on and so forth.
So they know that they have the best in class engine.
There's no denying that.
So it's just figuring out the overweight problems and everything else that that Williams car is
struggling with at the moment.
And hopefully, fingers crossed, that should be something that they can work towards.
And you would expect a big improvement from Williams, but let's see.
Every team is improving.
It's just about which one can bring the best upgrades and the quickest.
Yeah, because they've got that Mercedes engine, as you say,
and we've seen Gasly in particular do amazing things today.
McLaren look much more competitive than they were.
So you've got that in your locker.
They just need to sort the issues with the car and how,
yeah, it's overweight and they're behind.
And in a weird way, you'd rather that than your engine, I think, be miles off,
because you'd think that'd be a lot harder to develop.
Yes, exactly.
Right, let's head to Q2, where the bottom six were Hulkenberg, Colopinto, Ocon, Lawson,
Lindblad and Bortoletto.
Now, the big moment here was the moment right at the end for Gabby Bortoletto.
Big old, I mean, incident, whatever you want to call it, spinning around the final corner.
Just look like he chucked the car in with a bit too much speed, trying to make up maybe,
a bit too much time around that final corner and it ended pretty badly.
Thankfully for him, of course, the car wasn't obliterated and he eventually drove out of the
wall and into the pit lane.
But that did cost a few drivers come the end of the session.
Yeah, it did.
There are a few drivers that, as they had the double yellow going into that final corner,
obviously Bortoletto got going again, which meant that the Alpines could make their improvements,
Colopinto, so close to say that he wasn't even 11th, then he was that close.
The tiniest of margins to almost get through and that changes your whole kind of perception,
doesn't it, if you sneak into Q3.
But yeah, very, very close again between all the midfield runners,
midfielders including Red Bull, EA.
When you're speaking about the closeness, by the way, for those of you that missed it,
so you had Hadjar in P10 with a 1 minute 33.352, you had Holkenberg in 11th with a 1 minute 33.354,
and then you had Colopinto with a 1 minute 33.357.
So the three of them were separated by five thousandths of a second.
Insane, yeah. It shows that that midfield is incredibly close, which is kind of what we
expected and how it's going to change from race to race.
But yeah, difficult for Holkenberg because he's had a bit of a stinking start to the year really
with the failures that he's had in both the not even starting in Australia and then having
another issue in the sprint, but 11th is not a bad place to be in.
Audi, I think, are looking strong when we mention about the fact that
some teams haven't got it right and Aston Martin, they've got to be seen as a new team
because they've got the Honda engine and same with the Cadillacs.
Audi are well firmly in there fighting, which I think is very, very impressive.
They're in there, but they're fast, but fragile at the moment.
And that's the thing that I think you'd rather have as a team is knowing that there is performance
in the car and you just need to stop it from blowing up then trying to find a couple of
seconds a lap because I think that's a lot harder. So yeah,
Holkenberg loves an 11th place this year, another main qualifying P11.
Hopefully he starts tomorrow. That will be a good start.
I think Ocon was one of the drivers that definitely was affected by...
He was, yeah, because I imagine a lot of people would jump on the fact that
he was a way off, but he didn't get to do his lap. You saw actually as Bortoletto was in the wall,
Ocon slowly going down the main straight, so he had to abort his quick time.
Yes, very tough for Ocon, but not the most horrendous starting positions to maybe make
something work. Let's go to the big boy session then, shall we? Q3.
Where the top 10 were Antonelli, Russell, Hamilton Leclerc, Piastri, Norris Gasly,
Verstappen, Hadjar and Bearman. A question from P1Patreon member Madeline Crash Cars.
Was that Kimmy Pole due to pure pace or was the fact that Russell had issues helping Kimmy?
Either way, great showing by Antonelli.
It was. As much as I don't want to downplay a fantastic achievement from Kimmy to become
the youngest pole position driver with pole position, you've got to look at what happened
with Russell and how much of the edge he's had over Kimmy for much of the season so far,
all the sessions and things. He looks like he's got a couple of tents here and there.
Of course, George was always going to come out and say that he had issues and maybe
he said, oh, my tires were cold, I didn't have any battery, blah, blah, blah.
I do believe him because it was a struggle for him to get going and I think in a normal session
we've seen Russell have the edge, but it doesn't take anything away from Kimmy. He just needs to
maximize this opportunity that he's got. He said in his post-race press conference
or the chat afterwards in Park Fermo being like, oh, I can't remember what he said,
something like glad that Russell got it all sorted or something and I'm thinking like,
it's you too for the championship potentially, you want him down in tents.
No, he said it was a shame he couldn't see two flying laps or two fresh sets for Russell.
Don't think it was a shame, mate. No, I don't think you want that.
You wouldn't have had your first proper pole position. Exactly. But back to the pure-pace
question, I think that Russell had the edge. Whether it was going to be three tents down the
road, I'm not entirely sure, but look, this is Formula One and Russell, I think, did a phenomenal
job to be able to deliver a lap that's two tents off. He didn't have his tires in the right window
and had no battery starting the lap and he still qualified second tells you all you need to know
about that Mercedes car. So I would say yes, if every driver had, every driver, if Anthony and
Russell both had the same session in terms of problems, Russell probably would have got pole,
but it's Formula One as well. These things happen. Yeah, these things happen. And to be
honest, Russell will be counting his lucky stars that when he stopped out on track,
he was going to qualify P2. When he was having to literally crawl around the entire lap in first
gear, he would have taken P2. He would have literally snatched it out of your hands. So
another Mercedes 1-2 is not something we expected with only a few minutes to go in the
session, but also deep down, we all knew that that was probably going to happen. But nothing
to take away from Kimmy Antonelli, he still did a great lap and fully deserving of his first pole
position. And it really excites me now for the race where I'm hoping for the first time this season
we're going to see an Antonelli start that isn't terrible. I mean, even just go down to fourth.
Why seventh every time? Come on, let's at least only lose a couple of positions, but no excuses,
I think, for Antonelli this time, starting on the clean side of the grid. Fingers crossed for him.
Question from people on Patreon member Lumixion. Will Ferrari play it a little safer than the
sprint if they both managed to get past the Mercs at the start? No. No, I don't think they will.
I guess for us watching, and like, you know, if you've ever played the F1 game or something,
then yes, you might work with your friend to try and catch someone else up. But in Formula One,
I mean, Jack Vilner said that the two Ferrari drivers would rather see them finish third and
fourth than one of the other drivers winning the race. You don't want to see your teammate win.
No chance. No, you don't, because it ultimately reflects badly on you, no matter what the
circumstances. Ferrari won't play it safer. They can't, and they will battle each other for the
win. Of course they will. If Hansen Leclerc both get through on the Mercedes, they are then fighting
for the win at the Chinese Grand Prix. Yes, they may then end up screwing themselves against the
Mercedes, but that's Formula One. You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know how the
tyres are going to degrade, how your teammates, you know, they might be quicker in the second
phase of a race. Anything, you just need track position. You need to try and stay ahead. And
I know I saw some people complaining about Leclerc's comments and about Lewis in the sprint. And
like, I, Charles basically just said, you know, we fought a little bit too much and I lost time
to Russell. Yes, he also complained about the wheel to wheel and I guess the space that was
given there, but that's standard. That's literally every driver complains about another driver when
they're racing wheel to wheel and it gets quite close. But as for the Leclerc comment about they
fought too much, I mean, it is factual that yes, they fought too much and they lost time to Russell.
So he's not saying we shouldn't have fought or Hamilton should have given me the position.
So, but that's not going to happen. Hamilton's not going to roll over. He's not a number two
driver. Neither is Leclerc. And that is what happens when you have two number ones.
Exactly. Ferrari can't be surprised that they're in this situation when you signed, you know,
Hamilton to join alongside Leclerc. Leclerc is the upcoming talent. And, you know, the one that's
looking to win that first world championship. So he's not going to be a number two driver based
on everything we've seen in his career so far and equally as Hamilton isn't as a seven time world
champion. So this is the play when you've got two number ones and based on what it could go
either way really with the fact that if Ferrari managed to get ahead, they don't want to lose
time fighting each other because then, you know, if Russell gets ahead of Antonelli and is not
fighting Antonelli, it gives Russell a big advantage. But equally the Ferraris will want to see Russell
and Antonelli fight because we've seen in that race in Australia and even a little bit today as
well in the sprint that you do lose a lot of time fighting and it allows the other people to get into
play or equally the people that are ahead to leave you behind. So yeah, Ferrari are going to have to
play it smart and maybe do have to play it smart if they're going to beat Mercedes to this championship
which I do think is a big ask but you can't pick a number one between Hamilton and Leclerc.
It's literally impossible so you wouldn't want to do it and I don't think they can or should do it.
One thing I will say in terms of Ferrari playing it safer is that they do a strategy that makes
sense and we pit under virtual safety cars, we pit under safety cars, we take the fresh tires,
we copy Mercedes to some degree which is weird to think of it like this but Ferrari are the inferior
car in this battle and they have to stay in the mix of the Mercedes as much as they can.
If one of them pits, if an Antonelli or Russell undercuts, one of the Ferraris in my opinion has
to go with them and then it's almost like a split. You don't give them clean air, we saw that in
Australia, you don't let them run their own race because you lose time, you've got to be there
with the kind of boost and overtake and swapping positions. That's the only way they're seemingly
able to slow Mercedes down because they're so far ahead when they're in clean air or equally in
qualifying. But it's so finely poised. The fact that Ferrari are third and fourth, I celebrated
that like it was pole position because it might well be come the end of lap one because every
race we've seen so far, fourth has led such a ridiculous stat that fourth has led after lap
one in both races that we've seen. Yeah, as a neutral, this is no disrespect to McLaren but as
a neutral, you almost like don't want McLaren to get in the way because the Ferrari starts.
If you're a neutral and you want to see Mercedes challenged because if Ferrari are fifth and sixth,
it's a lot harder for them to make their way through the pack. But if they're third and fourth,
they've got a chance. Equally the fact that Antonelli is on the clean side and ahead of Russell
is a fantastic kind of exciting thing to look forward to in the race. So it's beautifully poised,
I think. Question from people on Patreon member Zolls. Can we talk about how close Hadjar is to
Verstappen? The Red Bull is not very good but seeing the second Red Bull right next to Verstappen
is refreshing. It is very much so. It's been horrendous for that second Red Bull seat.
And this is why a lot of people were saying that Hadjar would be a good surprise and also would
be a lot closer and think that we're going to break that second seat curse. Because in that
previous regulation, the car was in a way that Max liked it pointy on the edge and no one could
get close. Whereas now in this new regulation, they have not finely tuned the car in the way that
I mean, I say each driver likes, but let's be honest, they're going to go towards Max
as a four-time champion. So, you know, it's the best opportunity in a weird, like in the best way,
Hadjar, he's done an amazing job. You look at that whole, like, Lawson, Sonoda, Hadjar domino
effect, he got it perfect. He didn't play it. It's just like, it's good fortune that he was
quick but not too quick that he jumped into the Red Bull halfway through last year. I don't think
Hadjar is going to be anywhere close to Max, no disrespect to him. But in these new regulations,
he can be. And that's good for Red Bull as well, because if or when they do fix their car, we've
said many times that the problem with a lot of, well, it's good to just have one driver and you
don't have that headache of Hamilton and Leclerc, they're fighting each other. You still need someone
in the mix to be taking points off rivals and things. So, yeah, a great job from Hadjar.
Now, as we're talking about Hadjar, one thing I'll say before we get into the good, positive
stuff is something I didn't enjoy so much after the sprint where Antonelli came over to apologize
after the race and Hadjar was sat in the cockpit. You may have seen this clip or you may not have.
And Hadjar essentially shooed Antonelli away, which I'm not a fan of in the slightest. I don't
think that's the way we go racing. Some people like to see rivalries, but I don't think it should
be born in that way, especially when Antonelli you know is probably going to be incredibly
apologetic for being a little bit overzealous with that move. But back to qualifying,
yeah, Hadjar's right there with Verstappen. It's, as we said pre-season, something we were actually
correct about was the fact that the sort of blueprints of this season and how it's all worked
out for him coming into Red Bull should in theory work in his favor. And it's done that. But there's
taking away here from Hadjar's talent. This is what we're also seeing here. Verstappen is
well regarded as the best driver on the grid and Hadjar is right there with him.
And perhaps in a weird way, I don't know if this is true or not, but the fact that Red Bull
clearly don't really have much pressure on them. Hadjar may even feel like he's still in the racing
balls with the fact that he's fighting the end of the points right now in 8th and 9th.
It's not the same as trying to outqualify Verstappen for pole position. And I think that,
again, will work in his favor as Red Bull you would hope would start to improve.
Exactly, because you go back to yesterday, if I'm not correct, it was the,
Hadjar was about half a second off in qualifying, but we were talking about how it's only a couple
of positions, whereas years gone by, that's a massive, a massive gap in qualifying.
There's loads of positions different, then the pressure builds, then it's like, oh,
Max is on pole and Hadjar's only 11th. Oh my God, like, can he handle the pressure? Whereas
it's perfect in a weird way that the Red Bull are kind of not there because it's just kind of like,
oh, yeah, Hadjar's doing a good job. And there's the whole focus isn't on that second seat. And I
really good for him as they improve. And then hopefully he can find his feet without it being
this immediate kind of pressure cooker, basically. Exactly. It's well done to Hadjar on his
performances so far. Question from P1Patreon member Crofty Sweets. With how off the pace the Red
Bull is so far and how ahead the Mercedes is, how long till we see the Max to Mercedes rumors again?
Surely Toto would be interested. I'm not convinced that this story has gone for us to never see it
again, especially with, as you say, the massive chasm between where Red Bull are and where Mercedes
currently is. But there's so many factors involved here where would Max actually want to go to
Mercedes? Would he want to change his lifestyle? Would he be able to race as much in other formulas
and doing his GT racing and things like that? Would he have the flexibility? You would think
probably yes. I think Toto would probably bend over backwards to give Max whatever he wanted
or whatever he wants. But at the same time, I don't know. I feel like if it was going to happen,
it was going to happen previously, especially with the way in which the Red Bull team was
quite a toxic environment previously. Whereas now, it feels like, yes, they are slow, but perhaps
things have settled there and maybe it's slightly more enjoyable. But then again, Max wants to win.
So I wouldn't be surprised if this rears its head again across this season because
he's a four-time champion. He's in potentially the fifth, sixth fastest car.
I'm kind of the opposite of thinking that it feels like this whole thing has died down a lot,
of course. I think Toto would be interested in having Max if he could get in. We've said before
about even at the replacement of Russell, even if Russell is the champion. You could
weirdly see that happening and it's not something that we've not seen in Formula One before.
But I do feel like Max at the moment is just going to... He doesn't like these new cars.
I think he's just going to hang on until his Red Bull contract is over and then bounce,
like that's how I'm seeing it at the moment. Do you actually see that Max would be happy
to just sit until 2028 in a car that might well be fourth, fifth, quickest?
Or retire earlier. I think he'd retire earlier, yeah.
So you think he would rather retire than go to a race-winning team?
I just don't see that Mercedes-Lenz anymore. I think he would just...
It gets to the end of the year. If he doesn't like it, maybe he does one more year and then just
goes, well, I'm not enjoying these cars. See you later. He gets to go off and do the things that
he likes doing, which is... He said before he doesn't want to be doing Le Mans and stuff when
he's 40. He wants to be doing it at his peak and I do believe him for that. Equally, he wants to
spend time with his family and things and he's sacrificed a lot to be a Formula One driver.
You don't really have a normal childhood and things like that. So he's missed out on a lot.
He's got a kid now. So yeah, I could see him just basically maybe doing a year or two more and bouncing.
That would be sad. I don't want to see a Formula One without Max Verstappen.
I think it would be really bad for the sport, to be honest with you.
Question from Pamas Ten. Who is leading into turn one tomorrow?
I think that we say turn one. Obviously, what's exciting for Ferrari is they didn't even lead
into turn one during the sprint and they still managed to get ahead because they're rapid
throughout the lap and particularly on that first lap. But I do think, if I had to predict,
I think Hamilton is leading into turn one anyway. I think on the clean side, Antonelli has not
filled me with confidence of how he's made his race starts. And if Antonelli gets even slightly
bogged down, Hamilton's going to fly past, he's got the racing line, should have the edge on Russell.
I would say that Hamilton, if I had to predict, would lead into turn one tomorrow.
Yeah, it depends where you, I guess, think turn one starts, because I guess it's a very short run.
It's a very long right hander. Where does it start? Where does it end? That's the question.
I think, for me, Hamilton is the safe bet, which is insane to say out loud in 2026,
because, as you say, Antonelli, I'm not convinced he'll get a great start. I don't think he'll go
to 7th, but I'm not convinced that he will be... I mean, after the bad starts he's had,
to now be starting on pole position with added pressure, added eyeballs,
added questions in media. There's so much pressure on him from pole, and he's got a chance to win
his first ever race. So if he does get a great start, then props to him. But I don't see that
potentially happening. Russell, as you say, on the dirtier side of the grid, Hamilton's in third.
Surely that's a slam dunk. If anything, I'll go on a whim here and say that Ferrari...
Slam dunk is crazy to say, isn't it? And if anything, I'll go on a whim here and say that I
won too by the end of lap one. I think it will be a full reversal of the current grid order. But
hey, let's see. You can see it. It's going to be absolutely crazy the one time that Ferrari
lose a place at the start, isn't it? Because they're so expected to do it. And based on the
evidence so far, there's a reason why they have delivered on that hype. Even after Australia,
we thought maybe it was just because the lights came on in 0.1 of a millisecond,
and that's why that they managed to do it. But even in the sprint, yes, they didn't get away at
the start into first place at turn one, but they were also, I think further down behind
us in McLaren as well. They still managed to get an electric start. And yeah, an electric start.
That wasn't even deliberate. It wasn't even deliberate. Sorry.
That was poor form. You can't be in a podcast with that. That's absolutely outrageous.
Okay, thank you everybody for tuning in. As always, we'll be back tomorrow for our normal
main race review podcast. Of course, we'll be live over on YouTube, Twitch and Dream11
for the watch along for the race. Be sure to join us. I think it will be a cracker.
I'm looking forward to it. And that's it. What I would say now is just try and enjoy Formula
1 as much as you can. However you sit on the current form, regulations, etc.
Because it's not changing anytime soon. So we've got to try and get the joy out of this. And if
Charlotte Clair wins, then it's the greatest regulation set of all time. Tommy, final thoughts?
Yeah, I'm looking forward to just enjoying the race tomorrow, talking about the race and just
accepting what these things are. And I think it's going to be a good race tomorrow based on what
we've seen so far in the sprint. I think we'll see much of the same. And just hoping that Ferrari
this time can get it nailed on with the strategy. Because I really do think it was that VSC that
robbed us of essentially that battle going on for much, much, much longer, maybe even the whole
race. So fingers crossed for it. Well, you've got to expect another VSC. It's a brand new set of
rules and cars are breaking down left, right and centre. It's just a case of Ferrari making the
right call. And be sure to join us live where we react to where the Ferrari made the right call.
That is it. See you soon. Lots of love. Bye.
Goodbye.

Request an Explanation

Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.

Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.

Want to learn more?

Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.

Explore Terms

More from P1 with Matt and Tommy

Reaction to Monaco GP practice
Jun 5, 2026
Our honest thoughts on Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari contract extension
Jun 3, 2026
Our 2026 Monaco GP predictions
Jun 2, 2026
Canadian GP Driver Ratings
May 26, 2026