Reaction to Mexico City GP qualifying

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy,

or should we say Matt and depressed Tommy?

Matt and pessimistic Tommy.

Matt and not even half-glass full Tommy.

Championship is over.

Should we just 2026?

Just scrap the next four races after this one?

Yeah, exactly.

It's over the dreams.

No, you might be surprised.

Maybe not as pessimistic as many other people may be, but obviously it's not.

It's not been the best session for the championship, or is it?

Well, it is if you're a Landon Norris fan, for sure.

Let's get into qualifying and begin with Q1,

where the bottom five were Bortoletto, Albon, Gasly, Stroll and Colla Pinto.

Alex Albon has to be the main story here being knocked out in Q1

when his teammate Carlos Sainz finished in seventh.

Of course, he has that five-place grid penalty from last time out

when he collided with Kimi Antonelli.

But Alex Albon, question.

Let's get straight into it.

P1 Patriot member, AMG Piper.

Has Albon met his match in having Sainz as a teammate?

Sainz seems to have Alex's number right now.

Look, I don't think Alex Albon,

as much as recent form he has struggled,

he's been knocked out in Q1 a couple of times now,

and his recent form is one to be slightly questioned for sure.

I'm sure he's not very happy with it either.

But when you look at his season as a whole,

he's been one of the best drivers of the season.

So to jump on a kind of Carlos is now better than Alex's narrative.

I don't think it's fair after what Alex has put down this entire season

and helped Williams be so high up the constructor's standings.

They've got nosebleeds.

So for Alex Albon,

yeah, it has been a difficult run of form for sure.

But to say that he's met his match now,

like Carlos is a brilliant driver

and he was always going to get a handle of that Williams

and start delivering great performances.

But Alex is no slouch either.

And I'm giving him benefit of the doubt just purely because yes,

it's been, I'm not using recency bias here.

Yeah, it's very easy to get on the recency bias bandwagon

and think that Albon's now washed and terrible

because it's certainly not the case.

He's had a absolutely amazing season.

The fact that he is, you know, pretty close to a seventh

in the championship is an absolutely unbelievable performance.

And yeah, he's not doing as well as he had been doing

at the start of the season,

but he's not had terrible results.

Of course, Austin,

it was the track limits that caught him out that time.

This one obviously, again, a disappointing qualifying

and based on how well science did.

But I don't think it's, you know, complete concern.

You look at kind of when Williams had

that brilliant sprint performance.

Alex was there about with science in that race as well

and qualifying.

So I think it's an extreme look to kind of take the narrative

that Alex is like really performing poorly at the moment.

So I don't think that's the case at all.

He's just had a couple of bad races.

Exactly.

You look at his season so far and the first eight races,

he scored points in seven of them.

Then he went on a pretty poor three retirement spree.

Then he scored four points out of the next five races

and granted, yes, the last three races,

he hasn't scored a point at barring, obviously,

the point from the sprint, but in the main races,

no points there.

And it's going to be difficult from where he's starting.

But he's closer to his teammate than perhaps qualifying

would read because, of course, Carlos is dropping down to 12th.

Other drivers to talk about Bortoletto missing out,

being outqualified again by Holkenberg.

Tommy, you know, it's just after we sort of were saying

that Gabriel Bortoletto at least on the Saturdays is,

and to be fair, it looked like maybe he was getting

the sort of advantage generally at Sauber.

Holkenberg's fought back a little bit.

He's woken up on a Saturday.

He has.

Yeah, Bortoletto's form's kind of dropped off,

been disappointing actually since that amazing run

in the middle of the season

where he was very hyped up and everyone kind of realized,

yeah, Bortoletto's doing a much better job

than people are giving him credit for.

But since then, it's not really gone to plan

and started struggling in qualifying,

which was his strong point.

But, yeah, knocked out again.

And then the two Alpines, of course, doing Alpine things

and Lance Troll actually doing Lance Troll things as well

in P19.

Let's head to Q2, where the bottom five in this session

were Sonoda, Ocon, Holkenberg, Alonso and Lawson.

But a driver I think we need to talk about

there isn't in that bottom five

because they were perhaps counting their lucky stars

ever so slightly was Oscar Piastri,

who seemingly throughout the entirety of qualifying

had different things going wrong with his car

every time he turned a lap,

whether it was DRS issues being reported,

whether it was PU issues being reported,

it just wasn't going particularly well for Oscar Piastri.

It felt like every session he had like one lap

to put a time in because something had gone wrong

with his car in another one.

But for this one, he was seven hundredths of a second

away from dropping out and not making it through to Q3.

I know we were on the edge of our seats, Tommy,

you worked me when we were doing that on the watch along.

Yeah, it was absolutely insane

to witness what was happening with Piastri.

And, you know, it didn't get a huge amount better in Q3,

but he did make it through.

And yeah, it was a shocker for Piastri.

I think as he came around that final corner

and got a big moment, a big snap,

he was already down, you know,

for all F1 TV directions, brilliance in the last race.

I think they missed the ball.

Not going on board with Piastri was an insane decision

when he was starting his lap.

When we knew he was under pressure, he was in the drop zone.

He is literally leading the world championship.

Let's have full screen Oscar Piastri

and watch every inch of this lap

because it was one of the most crucial parts

of the entire championship battle so far.

So to go to a completely ignore it

and then put it in a mini box for the last sector

was an insane call.

But yeah, he did just make it through.

But my God, when he ran that final corner

and got a big slide on, I thought that was it.

As did I, and annoyingly yes,

we watched the entirety of Fernando Alonso's lap

and he was absolutely nowhere the entire way through.

Maybe, just maybe F1 direction,

they decided to stick with Fernando Alonso

because of my sister's prediction for P3 in the race

and they wanted to see if that would come through.

But yeah, Piastri made it through

and was, of course, very happy about that one.

And honestly, from Q2, I'm a little bit surprised, actually,

that Ocon didn't make it through to Q3 as well

considering the Hasse-Pace, Ollie Berman-Pace in particular,

they were looking very fast indeed.

And I think the problem with Mexico City

was because of how dusty the track can get

and how much track evolution there is.

And also you have a split of the faster teams

and faster drivers trying as hard as they can

to not go on to a fresh set of softs

and just eke out the lap time from the same set.

And then you've got the Ollie Berman's of this world truck

and on a fresh set going fastest in Q1 at one point.

It's very hard to sort of keep on top

of what's going on in Kuali.

And obviously, if you have like companion apps like I do,

it's great to see the tire life and things of different drivers.

But yeah, no, it's brilliant. It's brilliant to watch,

but it's hard to really,

it's hard to know like exactly where the pace is

when you get to sort of the dying embers of Q2

and then going into Q3

because I would have definitely said after Q2

where Ocon, sorry, after Q1,

even where Ocon was in the top five, wasn't he?

He was fifth, yeah.

Yeah, he was flying.

Yeah, he's doing really well.

I like it, the fact that, you know,

the teams don't have that luxury

that they can just easily breeze through

and as it's quite a short lap as well

and it all gets a bit closer

and it makes the team sweat a little bit more

and they have to deliver.

So it's great to see

but Ocon's slightly disappointing

although actually when you look at it on the end

he's only a couple of positions behind his teammate

because of, you know, the penalties and things

that have actually occurred.

So it's not too bad for Ocon in the end

and Haas, ninth and eleventh,

is actually pretty good for them

because they do seem to go through runs of races

where they're quite poor in qualifying.

We've seen that a lot this year.

This one, a better track forum it seems

so a chance to get some big points.

Yeah, Ocon's best qualifying since Belgium

so that's something to of course get slightly excited about

and of course he had a disqualification

and has a bow shot not that long ago from Corley.

So much better for Ocon than it has been.

Sonoda as well, of course,

not really a massive headline,

is it finishing eleventh in qualifying

but I will say that to his defence

he was a couple of tenths off Max Verstappen

at the end of Q2, he gets knocked out,

Max goes through

and I think Yuki with this new front wing

with these upgrades that supposedly

is supposed to get him closer to Max,

the form would suggest it absolutely did in qualifying.

So for Yuki, sadly no headlines

but very secretly and quietly

did a good job in the grand scheme of things.

It's so weird because I can't remember the exact trace.

I want to say Hungary and I'm sure everyone in the comments

is already writing it.

I want to say it was Hungary where Yuki Sonoda

was actually pretty close to Max

and actually ended up going out in Q1

and we were having this conversation of

finally Yuki's actually got within a pretty decent margin

of Max Verstappen

but it's at the race where the Red Bull wasn't performing

and as we will get on to later if we have to

Max was struggling somewhat again.

You weren't right by the way, 10th and a half.

10th and a half.

Yeah, so that was a moment again

where it looks really bad

when you actually look at the qualifying positions

and where he is.

And this is another one where you go,

oh, Yuki is out in Q2.

He must be thinking like,

why can't I be one-tenth, two-tenths off Max

when he's there getting pole positions

and winning the race and stuff

because obviously if he does that,

he's qualifying in the top three or four

but alas not.

Alas not indeed.

Let's head to Q3

where the top 10 were Norris, Leclerc, Hamilton,

Russell Verstappen, Antonelli, Sainz,

Piastri, Hadjar and Bearman.

Let's get into the first question

from Mr. Seifer Dan.

New championship leader incoming.

You wouldn't bet against it, would you?

We've had this conversation many times

so you do need to be a little bit wary

because qualifying in the race can change dramatically.

I know it's been a year where

it's been a qualifying championship

and a lot of time it is just a case of like,

who does well in qualifying

and not a huge amount changes into the race

but you can't and this championship so far

has thrown in a lot of curveballs

that you can't just immediately jump on the fact that

even me, the most pessimistic human being

with Max Verstappen going,

it's over, the championship's over,

you know, Norris is going to win easily now

but that being said,

Landon Norris,

not the fact that not only was he so dominant

and looked so quick all weekend,

it couldn't have gone any better for him

to not only have Oscar Piastri absolutely nowhere,

his teammate,

who you wouldn't put it past Norris

taking the championship lead after the race

with how Piastri's going and we'll talk about him later

and Max Verstappen not even getting P2 or even P3.

If Max had been P3,

you bet anything that he's slipped through

and landed Norris into turn one and going for a move.

It's going to be a lot more difficult from P5

and just add even more into the mix.

I do think the Farais will go for it into turn one tomorrow

but Leclerc and Hamilton are very sensible

and great wheel-to-wheel drivers

and even though they do have nothing to lose

and want to win a race,

you know, I don't, famous last words,

but I don't think they're going to do anything stupid

into turn one.

So it could have not have gone any better for Landon today.

It couldn't have, no for sure.

I, if we're looking at

whether there will be a new championship leader

after tomorrow's race,

it is hard to look away and say no

because all Landon needs to lead the championship

is Piastri to finish fifth or lower.

He starts seventh.

He has to dispatch of both Mercedes,

which it's not as if, right?

We're not looking at a scenario where Piastri

made a mistake on his lap

and is starting seventh.

He is there on pure pace.

So there is no guarantee

that he's going to make any progress moving forward.

I don't think he's going to be under pressure from behind,

but to move forward from seventh

is going to be very difficult around a track

that has generated many stinkers.

Mexico City is not known

as much as it's got a really long straight.

It's not known for its overtaking

because they get very little slipstream around here

because of the altitude.

So for me, I genuinely,

if lap one turn one goes the way it should

for Lando and he leads out of it,

which the leader has not led

out of the last three years.

So make of that what you will,

Charlotte Clair W,

but back to Lando Norris.

If he does lead out of turn one

or even lap one or the first few laps,

I see him walking it.

I see him absolutely walking this.

Everything that practice

and qualifying has suggested

is that Lando has the pace over everybody.

I know Lando said after Quali

that the Vararis will be there.

I'm expecting a race.

Is that on the other?

Nah.

Lando should, in theory,

walk it if he has the cleaner and P1.

Even after Fp1 as well.

Sorry, Fp2.

Even though Max took the headline of being first,

all the talk was that Lando's race pace

was absolutely sensational.

So it looked like it might be a case of

maybe McLaren sacrifice a little bit in qualifying

but have amazing race pace

and then it would be a bit more tricky for them.

But the fact that Lando is so clear in qualifying

and had this amazing race pace as well.

Yeah, it's looking very, very, very good indeed

and this is exactly why we said

that you just can't write Lando off

because he is just this forgotten man in the championship.

All the hype was around Max.

Piastri obviously the championship leader

with all that pressure on.

And Lando, this is a huge, huge opportunity

for him to take the championship lead

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So Tommy you got a little bit eager with this next question

because you already knew it was coming and you've answered it

but I want to put my two pence in as well.

It's from P1Patreon member Jess.

Will Lando have an easier start tomorrow

with it being Charles and Lewis behind?

As you kind of said Tommy

I think that yes he will do.

I don't think he could have actually painted a picture

better in terms of a starting grid

tomorrow.

Charlotte Clair, I know that everybody knows

I'm a fanboy of him

and want to do very well

but I don't think it can be disputed

that he's one of the best will-to-will races

out there, respectful

and yet he will push it

but he won't usually push it over the limit.

Lewis Hamilton very similar.

Hamilton is not known

for his audacious dive bombs.

He'll just line up and move beautifully

and get it done.

So I don't think you could really have two drivers

that are more

built for not T-boning you into

term one although

I've said this now haven't I?

I've said that now

hopefully it doesn't happen

but on the flip side of that if we're looking at

maybe negatives for Lando

with Charlotte Lewis behind it's the fact that

yes they are amazing at will-to-will racing

but they both have not won this year

Lewis of course won a sprint race

Ferrari have not won the entire year

so I guarantee

with the fact they are second and third

there may well be

discussions in that briefing after qualifying

of what can we do to beat Lando

tomorrow and how do we work together

because that's the only way that they

will beat Lando is if Charlotte Lewis somehow

get ahead or one of them gets ahead

and they work together with strategy

and things like that to try and beat Lando

so

that is the one bad thing for Lando

is that it's two of the same team

directly behind him

I do think Lando is going to walk it tomorrow

because of how good

his race pace is and the fact that in second

and third is a team

that are obviously looking quick

this weekend but we've already seen a race

where Charlotte Clair has got pole position

and then had nothing to fight for

because they're lifting and coasting

so

that being said

I don't think it's going to be a walk in the park

into turn one

one two and three

because as you mentioned before

the Mexico

the leader hasn't led into turn one

for last three seasons was it do you say

last three seasons

it's a long run down to turn one

Lando is a great driver

but starts are not his

strong point

it's always been a bit of an achilles heel for him

has it been of late though

I don't feel like it's something that

I mean it's starting off

it's not been too bad

Lando only got beaten off the line in Austin

because he wasn't on softs compared to Charle

Andy was on the dirty side of the grid

true but we're looking at like

equivalent of a Lando good start

is him holding position

I think that kind of says a lot

that he's

it's not his strongest point

for sure

for sure when you look back

but I just can't see that being a thing

of recent to be honest with you

I can't remember a bad start

I think these guys work out

into turn one tomorrow

because it does

lead very nicely

we'll talk about

this man in a moment

but how Max is going to

play it with his slipstream

as well if he was third

I'd put my

house on my sustain

either in the wall

or first into turn one

but fifth is going to be a lot more difficult

it certainly is let's get on to him

question from Jake Williams JRW

is Max

now out of contention

now you probably know what

I'm going to say as the pessimistic

Max Verstappen fan but it may surprise you

because no

he's not out of contention

but it is a disaster that he is fifth

he had to be perfect

but I think his saving grace here

is the fact that it's not

Piastri in first

if it was Piastri in first

and Piastri had this form that Norris had

you switched the McLaren form over

and Piastri just did what Norris did

yeah I'd be saying it

it's basically over because he's fifth

Piastri would be looking

to win the race

you look at that

you know if Max

Max does have to move forward of course

it has to move forward

it's damage limitation because Norris

is very very likely to win the race

so Max does need to finish second or third

and because Norris

of course is behind in the championship

Norris may well take the lead

but in theory Max

could still be

closer or about the same

going into

the next race

of course we're running out of races

and the biggest disappointment I think

if that was the case

for myself and other Max Verstappen

fans is Mexico should in theory

be the track that Max is really good at

and this is one of his stronger ones

because we're going to go to other tracks

that I think will see McLaren even more

like Jakarta's and Abu Dhabi

so it's not looking great

and it's not the best thing

but I think the only kind

of saving grace for Max is the fact that

Terry is the one with the points lead

and he's obviously

falling off a cliff

and it's Norris that's going to gain

but Landau's form is looking very good indeed

It's wild to suggest

that Max is out of contention

after literally a qualifying session

after he's been on an insane run of form

and we've still got five races

and two sprints to go, we haven't even had the race

of this weekend yet

for me Max needs to finish in the top three

as you said Tommy

it's 40 points but it's 40 points to Piastri

it's 26 to Landau

should Landau win the race

which we expect

and Max finishes third

the gap is 36 points

Landau potentially is the championship

and then Max is all sights on Landau

to be honest with you, I think Max is already

sights on Landau after what we've seen

from Oscar Piastri in the last few races

Landau is the man to beat at the moment

but no, Max is not out of contention

but he does have a very difficult race ahead of him

where he needs to get at least a position

I think, out of the first lap

and then see how he can deal with the Ferraris

maybe he'll have better race pace than them

these are all question marks at the moment

but it's not

the ideal qualifying session

if you're a Max Verstappen fan

which obviously I'm a Charles Leclerc fan

Tommy, you are Max through and through

and I've never thought about Max

until I threw on the

Ferraris shirt when Leclerc went privileged

yeah, that's wild for me honestly

he chucks on the Ferrari top the minute

Charles goes fastest because he thinks

Charles is going to bail out Max Verstappen

and he's going to win the race

right, let's move on to Landau's team mate

shall we? A question

from underscore Z shark

what has happened

to Piastri?

what has happened

how many times have we got this question as well

for basically the

every session for the last

three or four weekends

yeah, this

this scenario playing out

is utterly bizarre

Oscar has gone from a

driver that has led

the majority of this championship

has looked ice cold, has always

been on pace with Landau if not quicker

throughout the majority of this

championship of course Landau has had his

highs

to now watching a qualifying session

where

he scrapes through Q2 in a McLaren

which by the way is not

the third fastest car

F1, get rid of that graphic you put

in during practice because that is a load

of rubbish I'm not saying

McLaren are an absolute

spaceship but they are in my eyes

the fastest car Landau did a brilliant

job today I'm not taking anything away from him

but to even suggest it's the third fast car

is crazy Oscar Piastri

six tenths of a second

away from Landau

if it is nerves

it's got to go and it will go

the minute he's probably out of

championship contention you'd imagine that

but why now it doesn't make any sense

that he would with five races

and two sprints to go all of a sudden be like

oh no I can't drive anymore I'm really scared

that's not his nature

it's not his nature and I think

something that was again really concerning

from a

Piastri point of view and if you're a Piastri fan

and hearing him say this after Quali

was that he didn't really

notice anything massively wrong

with the car it's not like he's

constantly fighting it's a low grip track

anyway Mexico and all

drivers are slightly correcting

but Oscar seems quite

clueless as to why

Andrea Stella after Quali was saying

that Oscar essentially loses a small

amount of time through every corner

because he doesn't have the same confidence

as Landau and that amounts to six tenths

that is crazy

I just can't believe it

this fall off is something that

I can't remember ever seeing

no I don't

I know there's been a lot of

talk that we've dismissed

and saying oh sabotage

because they want Landau to win which is

a team never sabotages their own car

but I can understand why

Formula One fans just don't understand

what is going on because I don't understand what's going on

watching years and even Piastri

doesn't understand what's going on

this is absolutely insane I can never

remember

something like this

where we've seen

this happen before

where drivers have led the world championship

and struggled over the line

or lost at the last minute

but that is normally from car performance

look at Max last year and how much he was

struggling towards the end of the season

it was clearly car performance

other world champions in years gone by

and championship battles

what was happening the fact that

Piastri was

easily the best

driver of the season

at the summer break

and then he gets out of the summer break

and dominates Sandvort

and basically with Landau's

DNF we're talking of

is it over already and people saying

you know he's got a hand

on the championship already

and since then

since Monza

going down has been beaten by

Norris

consistently in every race

even Singapore

where he out qualified

Landau he didn't have race pace

Austin's race pace was poor

I think that is the scary thing

but if in a weird way

I know Baku is like a complete

disaster

but if Piastri

was qualifying

just behind Norris

occasionally beating him still

and had the odd stinker

like Baku

it's weirdly not as bad

because the situation

he's found himself here

is he doesn't understand what's going on

and he is just simply slow

he's been out qualified by a Williams

and his teammate is on pole

by a mile

it's absolutely insane

what's happening it can't

be like the championship jitters

he's obviously just got no confidence

in the car and he's just not

it's insane

I can't believe we're in this situation

what's the most baffling thing

for me is that

in the first 16 races

of this season

he is in the top 3

15 of those races

only once was he outside the top 3

in qualifying and that was in Miami

that is such a

consistent run of form

if you look at 9th

3rd, 6th and 8th

as the last 4

Singapore of course was a decent performance

I am mystified

mystified by this

Oscar was like you know what

let's make this championship really interesting

we appreciate that Oscar thank you as fans

you can turn up the wick again

or McLaren you can turn up the wick

whoever it is

it's not going to be interesting if the form continues

because he's losing

the points that he's losing

obviously everyone was looking at

the points he was losing to Max Verstappen

because he had a massive lead

but it's the points he's losing to Landau

it's not

it's not out the question

that we could see

Landau leave with a

the gap that Piastri had on him

before this race that Norris has that lead

on Piastri because it's looking so bad

yeah well hopefully if Oscar

does score some points tomorrow

but yes completely share

the thoughts and feelings of a lot of

Formula 1 fans out there that are just completely

and utterly dumbfounded as to what's going on

I've seen the memes, I've seen that

the meme of McLaren's sabotage

but you just can't prove it yet and things like that

it's question marks

question marks indeed

right moving away from Oscar Piastri

of course we have

very briefly celebrated the Carlos Sainz

performance but I think it does deserve another

shout out for P7 such a

shame that he has that five place grid penalty

and then Hadjar we

we wondered at one point through Q1

that he might be getting pole position

and of course we didn't that was the

new soft tyres but a brilliant performance

again for Hadjar bouncing back

from a shocking Austin weekend

and then might go Oli Berman

you know chucking it in the top ten again

we love to see it and once again

the rookies shining

yeah they were because I think

Antonelli's really improved his form as well

he was a 10th off Russell

yeah so Antonelli great job

Hadjar

and Berman you're really really impressive

from those guys

and yeah what a field of rookies

it's been this year and I think they're

all delivering for sure

they are indeed and let's hope

tomorrow the Mexico City Grand Prix

delivers for us because

we are absolutely owed one

so come on

it's all worth it for turn one because turn one

is definitely the spiciest thing

how everyone plays it

it's such a

difficult

turn one you know it's similar to Austin

in a way that like

if you could design a turn one

for absolute carnage

why does anything

into a 90 degree

90 degree again

and grass no runoff

yeah it's going to be definitely

worth watching after that

turn three lap one just come and join us on the watch

long you don't need to watch the rest of the race

we'll keep you up to date

right tell me what your final thoughts please

final thoughts

you know despite

me being pessimistic

I'm optimistic for the race

looking forward to it big time

and yeah that turn one is going to be

a spicy one

hell yeah thank you everybody for tuning in

as always and we will see you tomorrow

live on twitch and youtube

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we are heading to north america

in just over a weeks

time cannot wait to go and we will see

you there see you tomorrow

bye

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or a cat

go pet the dog

or the cat it's not euthanism

um

no

go and pet that

I can't stay here

no no that's got to go

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