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Reaction to Qatar GP Sprint Qualifying
Reaction to Qatar GP Sprint Qualifying
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About this episode
The hosts dive into the Qatar GP sprint qualifying, highlighting Lewis Hamilton's worst season and struggles with confidence in the car. They discuss Max Verstappen's mistakes and cautious approach, Yuki Sonoda's surprising pace but likely loss of his Red Bull seat, and Oscar Piastri's impressive pole position for the sprint. Fernando Alonso's strong performance and Williams' unexpected pace are also covered. The episode debates the impact of incidents, team strategies, and what realistically needs to happen for Max and Oscar to stay in the championship fight, emphasizing the sprint's growing importance in the title race.
Topics:
qatar gp sprint qualifying
lewis hamilton struggles
max verstappen mistakes
yuki sonoda performance
oscar piastri pole
fernando alonso form
williams pace
championship battle
team strategies
sprint race importance
Cars:
Dodge Charger
One McLaren got themselves on pole for tomorrow’s sprint - BUT WHO, MATTHEW GALLAGHER AND TOM BELLINGHAM?!
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 Podcast
with Matt and Tommy, Katara Grand Prix.
Sprint qualifying is done and dusted.
Championship is over.
Tommy doesn't even want to be here.
Yuki Snowda is the greatest full-time plenty of things
to dive into from this very short qualifying session.
It's just over in a flash, isn't it, Tom Bellingham?
It is, and you may be surprised.
There is actually, you say I don't want to be here.
There's going to be some surprise Tommy optimism here.
What?
I know, it makes no sense.
Of all the times in the season, this is it.
OK, all right, we will wait.
We will wait for that to happen maybe later on,
unless it's optimism about, I don't know,
Lewis Hamilton or something.
We will find out.
Let's dive straight into it.
Let's not mess around here.
And start with Sprint qualifying one.
The bottom five was Stroll, Lawson, Hamilton,
Gasly and Colla Pinto.
P1 page, remember Tony Soprano?
Can it get much worse for Lewis?
No, it can't.
This season is done and dusted.
Put it in the bin and set it on fire.
It's the worst season for Lewis Hamilton
in his entire career.
We said it last time, and we will have to say it again.
Doesn't have the confidence in the car.
I think it's clear as well that Charles doesn't either.
It's not like Leclerc put it on the front row of the grid,
although he was looking reasonably strong
at points during qualifying.
But he's ended up ninth in Sprint quality as well.
Ferrari, I hope for their sake,
they gave up with this car a long time ago,
but there's parts of me that's pessimistic.
My pessimistic side is that it was Ferrari and the fact that...
You're wearing me on your t-shirt.
And it's happening so keen to me.
That's just the pessimism just...
It's oozing all over me right now.
But, yes, Hamilton, Charles Leclerc,
it's a disaster, and I just want this season to end.
Hamilton wants this season to end as well,
clearly depressing to hear him after Sprint quality,
literally just say about the weather being nice,
and that was the only positive.
I do love when they ask him,
so can you take any positives into the rest of the weekend?
No, of course he can't!
What's he going to say?
I'm ahead of the Alpines.
Yeah, the Alpines are looking like...
We're competing with them, and we've beaten them this weekend.
But, Leclerc, it's a disaster for Hamilton.
I don't know what more you can say, like,
this just needs to end.
Of course, Hamilton's accolades and everything else
protect him in this scenario.
If it's any other driver that doesn't have
all these world championships,
and obviously a proven track record,
then perhaps we'd be questioning it.
I don't think we're at the level of questioning it.
It's not changed. The scenario hasn't changed.
We weren't expecting it to be any different,
were we, in the next weekend?
And it hasn't changed.
No, it hasn't, but I do think it's getting worse and worse.
The fact that we've gone into another race,
and it has done, well, actually,
he's on his way out, two positions at a time.
But he, in terms of the fact that,
as I said last time when he qualified 20th,
that in the middle of the season,
it was maybe a bit overplayed just how bad he was,
but now it is like,
no, he's doing really, really, really badly now,
and it is definitely his worst season
that he's ever done.
And I think that the thing is as well,
like with Hamilton, you say,
oh, he just wants to get to next year.
What's very concerning is in his interview last time out,
he said, I'm not looking forward to next year.
Like, he just seems like completely...
He's changed his tune a little bit
after coming out the car,
and you know, we have to, in some ways,
you know, Hamilton, you can quite clearly see
is in his emotions, and when he...
He wears his hat and slaps me out.
Yeah, when you jump out the car,
I'm sure if we were Formula One drivers, Tommy,
we would also say very questionable things about that we,
maybe, didn't mean after we've called down,
but you know, Hamilton has said,
of course, he's looking forward to next year,
and I'm sure Ferrari have spoken to him about,
sorry, you're not looking forward to next year.
I can get this year, but next year's our year.
You know, that's what they're probably saying
in the Ferrari camp, and I completely agree.
But it's a disaster for Hamilton, of course.
I will actually say that the predictions
championship is looking close,
and Alpine coming through, hopefully,
with a P19 and P20 for tomorrow as well,
to lock me in with my flop, a double pointer,
bringing me back into it.
And then Lance Stroll.
I know we don't, we usually go Lance Stroll
doing Lance Stroll things,
but this one was poor from Stroll,
because Fernando Alonso popped it
on the second row of the grid,
like an absolute beast that he is.
Adrian Newey turns up to the track.
Of course, he's not team principal yet.
We haven't really spoken about that.
But, you know, Adrian Newey's turned up,
and perhaps Fernando's feeling a good lease of life,
and also enjoys this track very much.
Yeah, Alonso's great around here,
and Stroll is awful at qualifying,
so it's basically just the mix of those two, isn't it?
Don't mince your words.
And Liam Lawson.
Liam Lawson, all the way down in 17th position.
Yeah, poor for Lawson.
Did not work out at all well for him.
Now, let's move on to an incident that happened in SQ1,
which, of course, ended up with nothing.
But you very much told me,
we're thinking it was championship off.
Craig Tilley, 95.
Thoughts on the impeding between Max and Lando.
It's very concerning when you see under investigation,
obviously, early in the session as well,
potential, you know,
where it's gonna be a grid drop or something.
But looking back at it,
it definitely would have impeded Lando,
but he's not far enough Max ahead of Lando
for it to be a penalty worthy.
There was obviously some dirty air there.
And Max doing everything he can to win the championship,
you know Max is gonna do every trick in the book
to try and do this.
And that's just one of them.
So I do think that it was probably,
well, I'm 99% sure it was deliberate from Max,
just to kind of be like,
I'm not gonna get a penalty for being this far in front,
but it will kind of play,
it's mind games as much as anything.
He knows that it's not gonna be enough
to knock Lando out the session or something.
But I think it was just mind games from Max,
but it's kind of dirty air
that affects these cars so much, doesn't it now?
But fortunately for Max,
it's not enough for it to be a kind of penalty.
It's not too dissimilar to,
you had, there was an incident at Singapore,
wasn't there where Max believed he was blocked by Lando,
but it wasn't actually anywhere near enough blocking.
It's just these cars are so,
the dirty air is just so much now.
You can be quite far ahead and it still matters.
Yeah, they're just so sensitive to having cars
within five seconds of each other.
Max, I 100% agree, knew what he was doing
in that situation.
He was told Lando was opening up a lap,
could have easily go out of the way down towards turn one,
before turn one, decides to take turn one
and then cut to the inside.
And I don't think it was a penalty, no way.
Yuki and Fernando had an incident
where it was a lot worse.
Yuki was a lot closer to Fernando coming,
Fernando was behind going into turn one
and lost the car and Fernando was fuming,
which quite rightly I can see why
that you would be upset when you have no front end
going into turn one because of another car being there.
But that's just sadly the nature of Formula One
at the moment.
You can't have every car five or more seconds
away from each other.
And Max, is it dirty tactics?
Is it cheeky?
I'll leave that up to people watching.
It depends how you like to watch Formula One.
Oh, it's definitely cheeky
because he had the option to get out of the way.
I think that's the reason.
Yeah, and it's weird you clarify that.
Is it slightly dirty?
Is it on that side of Formula One drivers
that some people like and some people don't like
and that's why maybe Max is so marmite at certain points.
But either way, it definitely wasn't a penalty.
I think, as you said, we didn't see the Lando
one potentially impeding Max.
I love the fact that it was two noted incidents
between the two of them.
It's like, what is going on?
And did they even investigate the Yuki-Fernando one?
I don't think they did.
I didn't see that one.
It was just mad considering they noted that one
because they're the championship rivals.
But they didn't know a much worse incident.
Where they just forget about, I say the midfield.
Well, we'll talk about Yuki later.
It's not in the midfield anymore.
He's the number one Red Bull driver.
Yeah, exactly.
But yeah, it wasn't even investigated,
which makes you wonder if they just all eyes
on the championship and they're gonna start
to make sure that they get every single incident right.
And there's chaos in the midfield
and they just go, oh, we don't have time for this guys.
Many more live streams of us waiting for announcements
five hours after a race maybe.
Let's head to SQ2 where the bottom five
in this session were Hajar, Bearman,
Portoletto, Hülkenberg and Ocon.
I'd say with this one, Hajar looked like he was
in the fight for sort of top five.
His middle sector was countless times unbelievable.
Purple middle sexes for Hajar.
I think that he was definitely more sort of inclined
with his setup to be quicker in that middle sector
because he lost a few tents every time in the first.
But shame for Hajar who, you know,
we heard a small snippet, didn't we,
on his team radio of, he likes to use colorful language
when things don't go right.
And he was at first saying, oh no, it wasn't a great lap.
You know, P10, this sort of stuff.
Then he gets sort of told whilst he's chatting,
oh, by the way, your out lap time deleted.
And he wasn't happy about that.
And I can see why
because there was absolutely potential in this weekend
and in this sprint weekend.
Of course, the main weekend starts tomorrow
and racing balls and Hajar himself came
into this weekend feeling quite confident as well.
That's when you know a good result
is potentially on the table.
Yeah, I think that team radio,
you've mentioned it before on various podcasts
and watch alongs that Hajar definitely has a radio rant in him.
He's very Yuki Sonoda, early Yuki Sonoda-like.
But as we mentioned, people saying that he's like,
now calmer and stuff.
It's mainly because he's not pressing the button.
You see a lot of the time him bashing the steering wheel
or looking really annoyed and you don't hear it
because he's not pressing the team radio button
to actually talk.
The reason, obviously, this time we heard it
was because he was literally having a discussion
with his engineer about like,
oh, I left some time on the table there
and then the literal news came in
as he was talking to his engineer
that he'd basically been bumped up the session
for a track limits.
And then we heard him rant
and then probably swiftly was like,
oh, take that radio button.
I'll thank you very much.
Yeah, that's probably the one rule they have
is just stop pressing the button.
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, Hajar, what might've been for sure
and Kimmy Antonelli was the one
that so nearly got knocked out that session.
Kimmy Antonelli obviously ended up P7
but he looked like he was having a difficult old time
and at one point I thought we were gonna see him
for what feels like the fifth or sixth time this season
kind of going out in a Q1 with Lewis Hamilton.
They always seem to save their moments to get there.
It's really weird.
Holding hands for every qualifying session
where they both struggle.
But Antonelli just about managed to make it through.
They were looking quite poor in the beginning,
weren't they in Mercedes?
I think they left their first,
or at least their first flying laps in the SQ1
to right at the end of the session.
It was an interesting strategy, but it paid off.
And then the other SQ2 sort of outings
and were double has double, double Sauber eliminations.
Sauber I was quite surprised actually about.
They looked really quick in the first session.
Yeah, he did.
Yeah, there was just loads of random purple sectors
which we love to see in qualifying sessions,
but no real scalp apart from Hajar potentially in SQ2.
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So let's head to the big session,
The final one, SQ3, the grid, the top 10.
Piastri, Russell, Norris, Alonso, Sonoda, Verstappen,
Antonelli, Sainz, Leclerc and Albonne.
First question comes in from Piastri Core.
I wonder who they support.
Is Oscar back?
Yes.
Is it a little bit too little, too late?
That's my only question that we might well look back on
come the end of Abu Dhabi,
but he's still in the hunt and he can still do something.
Of course, this is the sprint, right?
He needs something to go wrong for Lando now in this sprint tomorrow.
And then, of course, heading into the main qualifying session as well.
But we both saw it coming, didn't we, Tommy?
I don't think we saw it coming to this extent where he was going
to get pole position for the sprint.
But it's just a track that looks good for McLaren on paper.
Oscar was was decent around here last year.
And he just had to send it.
And my goodness gracious me, Turn 4 is the epitome of sending it,
where he was turning left into a right-hander,
lost a couple of tenths, he said, after qualifying and still nabbed pole.
Regardless, it was a brilliant time for Oscar.
And I think you'll be glad to see Nauta McLaren next to him on the front row.
Yeah, definitely.
What a time.
Yeah, like, if he's going to do it, it's better late than never, I guess.
And also better than doing it next week when potentially, you know,
he could be out the championship fight.
So for him, it's great that he's delivered.
There's there's kind of two sides to this, in my opinion.
One, Lando did have a big moment with Alex Albon,
where Alex Albon basically nipped into the queue or ahead of Lando
as Lando was starting his lap, compromise his lap for sure.
But at the same time, Piastri has looked, you know,
it's not like it's because Lando did terrible.
You know, I want to say that as well.
Lando was compromised, but Piastri has looked a lot better this weekend
and more on the pace and he's been rewarded with, you know,
a brilliant lap, very brave, like you say, a big moment in turn four.
And it's so great to see him up there because, yeah, he's
you know, there's been a lot of talk this weekend about team orders and things.
Of course, he said no, a very firm no.
And yeah, he'll be he'll be pleased that Lando is not straight behind him on the grid.
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaking about Lando, of course,
it's all a sort of imaginary scenario
where the Lando would have got into the 19s and taken pole.
I think with the fact Oscar made the couple of 10th mistake
in turn four, Sprintpole was absolutely on the table for Lando.
But with Alex nipping ahead in the final corner
and then Lando having to commit to the lap,
he'd already sort of compromised his run out the final corner
and then essentially had to follow Alex Albon
within about three seconds.
I think he was behind the Williams,
so it just means he's just going to lose time throughout the entirety of the circuit.
We've already spoken about dirty air
and the fact that he had to follow Alex, who of course isn't a front runner either.
It was just always going to be a lap that he wasn't going to challenge.
So, yeah, for Lando, it's disappointing.
You know, does it does it confirm that Alex Albon wants Oscar Piastri
to win the World Championship?
Maybe. No, I'm kidding.
But of course, Alex has taken his opportunity
not done anything with it either by being 10th in SQ3.
It's not even like Albon was able to to put it somewhere
with that Williams didn't belong.
But yeah, Lando, I'm sure feel slightly aggrieved
with the fact that his final lap was was basically ruined
before it had started.
Now, let's move away from the McLaren's
and head to the other driver who is in the hunt potentially for the championship.
Gavin Curley 90 comes in with the question,
what happened to Max at the end?
He made a mistake is what what happened.
He did not look anywhere near as confident on the softs
as he was kind of, you know, at the start of the session,
he looked like he was able to challenge the McLaren's.
And then, of course, you know, you go into that that final run
in in SQ3 and it was all the talk of like, oh, you know,
are the McLaren's going to be able to handle the pressure?
Is Norris going to be able to handle the pressure?
Of course, Norris made a couple of mistakes himself throughout the session.
But so did Max.
And, you know, Max lost the car, went over the gravel.
And then part of me thinks his lap was actually
maybe a little bit cautious in terms of just thinking about, like,
it's better to be it's better to set a lap than be all the way down in 10th
and a sprint and potentially not score any points.
I do wonder.
Cautious. I know.
I don't think I don't I don't feel like he was like absolutely sending it.
Obviously, we'll never know.
But you do wonder how much of it was, like, you know,
making sure the track limits and things like that were what sounds like
a copium to me, my guy, Yuki Snow does outqualified him on pure pace.
And I said, it's like, it's, you know, his mistake.
And, yeah, it's it's obviously cost him.
It certainly has.
Max making that error when his tires are the freshest,
going over the gravel as well.
Did he pick up damage on his floor because he went through it very quickly?
There's a lot of questions there.
And he'll be he'll carry that through.
I don't know. It depends on the damage.
But if there is damage, of course.
But but then Max, of course, then having to go,
I think we did a double call up and then tried at the end.
But his tires are never going to be in the best window then.
And it's massively disappointing for Max.
He was he was struggling with the ride in general.
He was bumping through the corner bouncing, sorry, through the corner.
And that's what, you know, do you put that down to drive error?
Do you put that down to the car, not reacting the way he would want?
Whatever it is, you know, it's still up to Max to tame the beast.
And he wasn't able to.
So P6 for Max, I think the only silver lining is that is basically P4 on the grid.
If you look at it with the fact that Yuki Snowden will get out of the way,
I'm sure, before even turn one, he'll just leave the inside or wherever they decide to go.
Maybe Max tries around the outside.
Wherever Max wants to go, you could go the other way.
And Max will clear Yuki, I'm sure, on lap one.
Fernando Alonso wants Max first happened to win the World Championship.
That's my understanding.
So he will get out of the way very quickly, I'm sure, as well.
And then it's up to him to see what he can do about the front three in a sprint.
Yeah, well, that you've basically by the thing I mentioned about the start of the show,
where I said, I'm going to be a bit more optimistic.
And it's surprising you've just you've just taken the red words right out of my mouth there.
Because, yeah, you look at, obviously, like it is a disaster for Max
because he's four tenths behind a McLaren that's on pole position.
So it doesn't make good reading.
The positive side for Max is the fact that, you know,
he's got his teammate and his biggest fan ahead of him,
who will probably not make it too difficult for him.
And then immediately, you know, he's behind his title rival.
And of course, the points are so close in the sprint,
even if he loses one point to Lando, it's not the end of the world.
The big points are handed out tomorrow.
And if I want to jump on the up to rare optimism train even more
and just go out and a blaze of glory until tomorrow when it all is over.
So it's my moment might be my last chance to do it.
There's the pessimism again and is is the last year.
Max really struggled in the sprint, you know,
he was stuck by an Alkenberg and it was like, oh, this Red Bull's finished.
And then he ended up winning the race, the main race.
So we'll find out it's better.
It's better that it happens in this basically is what I'm saying.
Agreed. Absolutely. It's interesting.
You look at the positive and then you go,
ah, Kim Jansen is behind him, who took him out in Austria.
So there's always something to look at as well.
But no, I agree.
Of course, after the sprint race, they can make the changes
that they need to do as well to perhaps make that car better again.
Similar to what happened in Brazil, I suppose.
So it's not all over for Max Verstappen,
but it's not the ideal session for sure,
because he really needed a clean sweep this weekend.
Next question. Puyant Petri, remember, C.C. Hollister.
Can Yuki save his F1 career?
Hajar, pretty much confirmed with Ted yesterday.
He has the Red Bull seat.
Honestly, no, there's there's there's zero chance in my eyes
that Yuki Sonoda saves his Formula One seat.
There's been too much of the season.
Well, the entirety of him being in that Red Bull seat.
He hasn't been able to show this.
If he does this around the summer break,
starts pumping in performances like this on Max's pace.
I think we have a completely different conversation,
but this is too little too late.
This is a flash in the pan rather than a,
oh, Yuki's done really well in the last X amount of races.
So no, there's I don't see.
I mean, I guess this is safest F1 career
as opposed to saving his Red Bull seat.
His Red Bull seat is gone, in my opinion.
Yeah, I think racing Bull seat is gone.
And then where else does he go?
So for me, I think Yuki is still heading
very much to not being in Formula One next year, sadly.
Yeah, definitely. It's too little too late.
And even with, you know, he's put in the best qualifying
he has all year to beat Max Verstappen,
which is such a rare sight for anyone,
like any one in the second Red Bull seat,
not just Yuki Sonoda.
And the fact that Liam Lawson has had a really poor session as well.
I don't think it's it's not it's not going to be enough in,
you know, we'll find out what happens tomorrow
in the main quali and in Abu Dhabi as well.
And that that, yeah, maybe there's the tiniest little bit
that could do something.
But I really doubt it's too is too late.
It's too far gone because because Hajar is destined
for the Red Bull seat, as mentioned.
And Liam Lawson's performance is I saw someone
post actually, like, since I think it was Austria,
that they are incredibly comparable,
like it's pretty much the same number of points scored.
Their average position is almost identical
and everything as well.
So Lawson certainly isn't doing bad.
Of course, it looks bad now in the kind of the world
that we live in in Formula One of your
as good as your last session.
And it's like, oh, my God, Yuki's Yuki's fifth
and Lawson 17th surely he's in the Red Bull next year.
No, it's too little too late.
No, I mean, I genuinely think Lawson
could not turn up for the rest of the season
and they'd still have more of a chance
of keeping that seat over Yuki, sadly.
Because as you say, he's been thoroughly impressive
in a run of races where Yuki has not.
Next question, Joe, Formula 6P.
Everybody's talking about Sonoda,
but where in the world did Alonso come from?
He came from just being an absolute legend and a great insight.
That's why everyone tunes him to Tommy
fanboying over Fernando Alonso.
Yeah, it was amazing from Alonso.
Again, at Qatar, as I mentioned before,
you know, Aston Martin, they've been up and down,
but when the car is there and if you're doing it
a track like Qatar that it can perform at,
Fernando Alonso will deliver you that.
He's got a podium for Alpine here 2021, I believe it was.
And yeah, he's obviously very good around here.
He could be a good bet for like a surprise this weekend
because we're also going to go into the race
where we're not going to have as much tyre saving
and things like that.
And if you remember that year where they were absolutely
destroyed here and the drivers were in a really bad way,
there was obviously those shots of Fernando Alonso
where he looked like he'd barely broken a sweat
and was kind of like, this is what Formula 1 used to be like
when I was driving, where you did have to just push flat out
all the time.
And if we're going to get that again in the race,
you know, there's no one better to kind of go for that.
So yeah, we could see something very special from Alonso this weekend,
but not too special.
Please get out of the way of Maxing very much.
Yeah, not now. Not now, Fernando.
This is a terrible timing.
Yeah, not now. I mean, if you want to pass Lando
and send one fine, but then make it easy.
Oh, the bias is real with a couple of races to go
with Max and his championship chances.
Fernando's been brilliant.
He's, of course, been very quick around here in recent times.
And it's good to see Aston Martin
being able to perform to this level again.
You know, is that the Adrian Newey effect?
Is he being able to...
Just the thought of him being team principal.
He's not even team principal yet.
Just the idea is...
I'm going to step up now then.
Yeah, it's almost like a placebo effect.
Adrian's maybe said to Fernando,
yeah, I've worked on the car.
I've done a little bit on the 2025 car.
He's not, but just the thought of Adrian Newey touching the car.
It was like when he left last year at Red Bull,
it literally was like a media.
The race after, they really started to struggle.
And it's like, well, they can't have just like...
He's not, you know, he's left.
He's not like he's loosened some wheels and stuff and gone.
I don't think Adrian puts the car together this far.
Exactly.
So, like, it's weird, isn't it?
How it puts, doesn't that?
It's great to see Fernando up there.
And let's see what we can do in the sprint.
Question from people in Patreon members, Sophie.
Is everyone surprised by Williams' pace?
This isn't a track you'd expect to see both drivers
in a Q3.
Everybody is.
We are, Williams are, the drivers are.
They came into this saying,
not gonna be that great of a track for us.
And they're eighth and 10th, which, I mean,
honestly, we're talking about Max being P6
and that being quite bad.
Had he been 15,000ths of a second slower,
he's starting P8,
because Antonelian signs very close in behind.
Albon didn't manage to get a good lap,
as we mentioned earlier, in at the end.
But signs, yeah, was a 10th away from sneaking in
just behind Alonso.
So it was a very close P5 all the way down to P,
well, I was gonna say P9,
I'm not gonna put Charlotte in there,
it was a 10th back, P5 to P8.
So very good from Williams once again.
They'll just solidify their place
in the Constructors' Championship and Albon as well.
I think there's a very sort of small hope
that Hadjiab will get a podium
and beat Albon in the championship,
but Williams still looking like that fifth fastest team.
With obviously Alonso as a rogue.
As a rogue driver, yeah.
Yeah, Williams normally they've, you know,
years gone by, struggled at these kind of tracks
with the high speed corners
and they're good at just like launching it down a straight.
But they say that that's not the case anymore
and they've kind of been good at a few different tracks
although they still do tend to still do very well
at those circuits with huge straights.
But Carlos Sainz, again, a brilliant performance, you know.
Yeah, just say it now.
I actually wasn't even going to mention it, but I will now.
So yeah, they obviously fired the wrong driver for us.
I'll get all that out of the way.
Hamilton's 18, they hired.
Say hired, do it.
No, I know you're joking.
Hired, yeah, thank you.
But Carlos, yeah, is the tiniest margin away
from a P5, you know, time wise.
And, you know, a tiniest bit better is P5
and we're looking at another unbelievable
qualifying from him again for, you know,
the second race in a row.
So yeah, Williams, what an end to the year
when you kind of think that they'd have kind of
cooled off now and it's all about, I mean,
James Val's literally from the moment he joined
was like, break everything.
2026 is the year, it doesn't matter.
I don't care about what's happening.
He's doing a pretty damn good job
if this is him and the team not caring
because my God, they've improved.
It feels like long, long ago that they were like
the joke or like what Alpine are like now,
like they easily last even worse than Alpine.
For sure, yeah.
And this season, you know, at the start of the year
they were amazing.
Then they didn't bring any upgrades
and sort of started to fall off.
And yeah, now they've come back
and started performing incredibly well again.
So phenomenal job for Williams.
I'm so happy to see them.
They're such a likable team
and I'm really glad that they're doing well.
All right, next question.
People on Patreon remember one Mingi,
what realistically needs to happen tomorrow
in the sprint and quality for Max and Oscar
to stay in the fight for the World Drivers Championship?
And it says in brackets there, Tommy, realistically.
So what are we saying here?
Yeah, realistically, obviously the sprint,
I'll cover that one off first.
There's not a huge amount of points.
There's not a huge point swing in a sprint
unless what we saw in Austin
where the McLaren's obviously collided Max won
and it was eight points.
But if Max, even if he doesn't beat Lando
and he's behind him or behind him a couple of places,
it's not the end of the world for him.
Lando will also be aware of like,
there's not a huge amount to gain in the sprint
from his kind of championship stand.
I know he's kind of got one hand on the trophy
and it was obviously like he had a very good position
but he knows that he can't be too risky
that if he ends it with zero,
obviously that is a big swing
because Piastro or Verstappen could take the spoils
in the race, the sprint race.
Qualifying on the other hand, yeah, like Lando,
I don't think the, we'll find out
but obviously there were a few mistakes in that session.
Is it just a difficult track?
There'll be a lot of people obviously
and probably on his mind thinking like,
he needs to hook it up in qualifying,
he can't afford to have those moments
he was having at the start of the year
because if he qualifies lower down the order
in the main race, that's obviously where
the big point swings can happen.
So realistically for him, for Max and Oscar
to be a lot closer, they do need to take like 10 points
at the very least I'd say out of,
the very least out of Lando this weekend.
For sure, he has 24 points, separating the top three.
For Lando's scenario, he just has to finish the sprint
in the top four, top five.
It really doesn't matter where he finishes
in like the grand scheme of things
because the big swing is Austin,
where he doesn't finish and Piastro gets eight points
or Max, I don't think he's gonna get eight points
from starting P6 but that's where,
that's where championships can be won and lost
whereas if Lando loses a position to Fernando
at the start, it doesn't matter,
it really doesn't matter, he'll get him back at some point.
He'll be quicker, probably easily finished third on pace.
Russell, I don't expect to be that quick
in the race compared to the two McLarens but we'll see.
But for Max, of course, he needs to dispatch
of Yuki and Fernando in the sprint at the very least
if he loses a point, so be it, whatever.
It is Sunday where you have to,
he has to hope for some crazy things to happen.
For Oscar, he has to win the sprint, of course.
There's no denying that.
Every point matters for Oscar and Max
but every point doesn't matter for Lando in a weird way,
especially in the sprint.
So yeah, and then for qualifying,
Max needs to clearly change something about the car,
Red Bull do of course as well,
learn from the sprint race
and then pray that literally the same thing happens
in Qatar as well, where Max can get pole.
Yeah, I do think that Verstappen and Piastro
will be praying that Lando makes some kind of mistake
and quality, that's what they need to happen to me,
let's be honest, because I think even if Lando,
I don't know, like crazy scenario,
say he has a track limit in Q1 or something
and he doesn't make it through.
Tell me, stop talking about your dreams.
But they're so quick that even if Lando starts 17th, 18th,
you bet on him at least finishing like a P5 or something.
So like that is their best bet, isn't it,
that Lando makes a mistake in qualifying?
But I don't think that's probably,
we're talking about a realistic question here.
I don't think Lando is showing signs of someone
that is struggling to get this over the line
at the moment, like third place in the sprint.
It was Albon that got in his way.
It's not like he bottled the last lap.
So I think on a realistic level,
for them to stay in the world drivers championship,
which is the question,
they just have to finish around Lando in the sprint
and then beat him in the main race.
Yeah, and then have a what a 15 point-ish gap to him
going into Abu Dhabi.
So we shall see.
It is all the questions
and they will all be answered tomorrow and Sunday.
We'll be live on Twitch and YouTube as always
for every competitive session
and we'll have every podcast as well coming your way.
Double podcast coming tomorrow.
So look forward to that.
Tommy, what are your final thoughts?
Final thoughts.
We got a little taster of something you've said
many times on the podcast
when we kind of roast sprints and say that
sprint quality, there's always that thing
in the back of my mind that,
oh, we're doing all this for a session
that doesn't even matter.
It's amazing how much my heart was beating more
when a championship is there to be won
and every position matters.
It felt a lot more intense today, didn't it?
Yeah, the sprint doesn't matter until it does.
And this is exactly the one that does.
So thank you everybody.
We'll see you very soon.
Lots of love.
Bye.
Goodbye.
Ferrari hired the wrong driver, Tommy.
Not fired.
Thank you.
Everyone knows.
Where's the gate?
Well.
Stop recording now before he says anything else.
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