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Reaction to United States GP qualifying
Reaction to United States GP qualifying
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About this episode
Matt and Tommy dive into the thrilling qualifying session at the United States GP, analyzing standout performances and key incidents. They discuss Hajar's crash, Red Bull's driver lineup dilemmas, and Alpine's surprising Q2 double. Max Verstappen's dominant pole position sparks debate about his championship comeback versus McLaren's struggles. The hosts explore Oscar Piastri's pressure and form, Lando Norris's strategic chances, and the resurgence of Ferrari. They also highlight rising star Ollie Bearman's impressive lap. The episode captures the intense championship battle and unpredictable race day scenarios ahead in Austin.
Topics:
us grand prix qualifying
max verstappen performance
oscar piastri pressure
lando norris strategy
red bull driver debate
alpine qualifying progress
ferrari resurgence
ollie bearman breakout
mclaren championship challenge
race day predictions
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Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy.
Wow, wow, wow. What a crazy day it has been in the world of Formula One.
In our lives as well Tommy, it's been a busy old one.
Fighting jet lag and just doing a lot of talking, a lot of words happening.
And we're doing some more words. The podcast, our favourite part of any day,
is chatting some more Formula One. And we've got a lot to discuss from Austin.
We certainly do. Yeah, we've been chatting all day. Obviously, I had the sprint watch long.
Then we did the sprint podcast and we went straight to do a live show in downtown Austin.
Then back to do the watch long for qualifying.
And now we're doing another podcast. A lot of waffling about F1 and just
the sessions that we've had today are just insane. I can't believe the day we've had.
And the funniest thing as well, getting a taxi back from the event to here to do the podcast.
What do we talk about in the car? Oh, wait, Formula One. Yeah, so even at the time when
we didn't have to talk about Formula One, we still did because my God,
the excitement levels are building to an astronomical level.
And I just cannot wait to discuss everything that's happening in qualifying.
So let's get into it and start with Q1. The bottom five were Bortoletto, Ocon, Stroll, Albon
and Hajar. Let's get straight to the question because, of course, it's going to be about Isaac.
Joe, Formula 6P asks, did Hajar crash on purpose so he doesn't go to Red Bull?
Wow, we're really hitting with the hard stone cold questions, aren't we?
The TINfoil hats are on. No, I don't think Hajar crashed on purpose because you can see,
once again, whenever Hajar makes a mistake or crashes, he is literally beating the life out of
that steering wheel. So he clearly didn't want to make that mistake. He holds himself in a very high
regard and he wants to perform every single time. And that's why he's most likely going to
get the Red Bull seat next year. That's what we both believe. But it was just a mistake,
right? Like watching the on-board is nothing insane from like, oh, wow, he really should
have done something differently. The car got light at a very fast point of the track.
And it was a mistake. Don't get me wrong, it's a driver error. But it wasn't like something so
utterly unforgivable that you're questioning, how did he manage that?
Yeah, these cars are on a knife edge, of course. Incredibly high speed going into the Ss. I think
it was Collor Pinto had a big moment as well. He managed to obviously keep it on track. But
yeah, Hadjar lost the back end. Yeah, not the best one for Hadjar, I'm sure.
Yeah, he'll not the greatest start for him. But next year, potentially, he could be driving a very
pointy Red Bull. So good practice. To be fair, though, as well, racing balls have not looked
great this weekend. They've looked off the pace. Maybe Hadjar trying to sort of gain a bit
more out of the car that he couldn't find. But either way, it's a massive mistake from him.
He's starting last. And it's pretty much, well, unless we get the sprint start all over again.
I think it's the baked bean livery. It's pretty much curtains. Yeah, the baked bean livery,
which I quite like, because I love baked beans, to be honest with you. So,
so yeah, Hadjar crashed out P20. Another big scalp was of course, Alex Albon,
who extended track limits on his last lap didn't need to didn't need to push as hard as perhaps
he was 1015. I think it was my memory sounds me correctly, where he lost the lap. And there were
at least two or three other occasions on that lap where we were watching going, that was close.
That was within millimeters of going off the track as well. Well, yeah, we were actually
on board with, well, I say on board off board with Alex, but him on the on the screen.
And as he went through that final sector, we had two very kind of close moments,
didn't we where we were watching on TV going, that looks very, very marginal track limits. But
then it was actually another corner that we didn't even see on the live coverage that he actually
went off. And yeah, Cota, Cota is, it's a mistake for sure. And, you know, he's paid the price
for it starting down in 19th. But that final sector of Cota always looks like such a struggle
for the drivers of basically managing that risk versus reward. Because it does look genuinely so
hard to stay on the track that it's an incredibly difficult kind of set of final corners.
Yeah, the penultimate corner is quite literally blind. You know, you're genuinely just chucking
the car in and hoping it sticks Hamilton last year, if we don't forget, lost it on lap three
and was in the gravel at that exact corner. So yeah, disappointing qualifying for Albon
and Hajar, Luntstroll doing Luntstroll things in 18th and carrying a grid penalty anyway. So
after his disaster with Esteban Ocon, let's go to Q2, where the five drivers out in this
session were Hülkenberg, Lawson, Sonoda, Gasly and Colopinto. Surprisingly, not something we
put either of us probably expected to talk about is the fact that we were surprised that Hülkenberg
didn't make it into Q3, but of course made it into SQ3, had a P4 for the sprint, which was very
quickly undone. Not his fault, may I add? Oh, maybe, maybe a little bit. Actually, I did say
that I would, we would talk about it a little bit just to discuss that. I have seen your
comments and I actually take on board the fact that maybe how we described it from my perspective
anyway, was that it was more Hülkenberg's fault than we should have. As we mentioned,
we've had an insanely busy day. After seeing the aerial shot, I think Piastri has pinched in
far too hard. And so I put definitely more blame on Hülkenberg. I'm so tired. More blame on Oscar
Piastri. Hülkenberg, when you watch his onboard, you think, okay, maybe he's gone a little bit
deep on the brakes. That's why I had that initial opinion, but totally get where people have
come from with that one. And I stand corrected with that. I don't think he's completely
blameless. But yeah, watching the replays, definitely more on Piastri. After that initial
thing, we're like, oh, Piastri, Piastri like made a big direction change that we kind of said in the
pod. The more I'm looking at that, and we'll get into this later as we talk about a certain
Oscar Piastri, it's kind of getting worse every time I look at it from what Piastri did.
But I don't think there should have been any consequences and a stick by that it was a racing
incident. And yeah, they didn't, they didn't need to give it out any penalties there. And
it's a crazy turn one, isn't it? And if you want any more of our sprint review, then go and check
out the podcast because we did an additional one, which we weren't planning to do. But then both
McLaren's were outing on lap one through like, God, we better talk about that in a specific podcast.
So yeah, Hülkenberg outing Q2, P11 for him. There's a question moving over to the red
ball camp now. P1P, remember a good Karen. Lawson ahead of Sonoda again and Sonoda over
seven tenths off max. How is it not clear yet for Red Bull who should be in the racing balls next year?
This is, it's not as clean cut. I believe that it will be Lawson unless they decide to promote
someone. But I do think Lawson would be a good yardstick. Maybe it's a little bit unfair to
say that it's clearly like Lawson is miles better because I think we've had this discussion and you
can even flip it the other way around and say Lawson didn't get a fair shot when Sonoda was doing
really well in the V-Carb and Lawson looked like a really bad driver. So we know that it's very
hard to judge just how kind of, you know, what their real performance is. But they don't have
to rush it Red Bull. You know, they still still got time to decide. But I personally think it would
will be Lawson alongside Arvid Lindblad personally. Yep, it seems that way. As we've mentioned time
and time again, I think Yuki's in a very troublesome position where he genuinely just
can't show what the pace he has as a particular driver just doesn't work the style in which
he has to drive that Red Bull. It just is not for him. But there are literally there's
talent waiting in the wings now. And this is the problem for Yuki where he needs to have shown
enough to go I still deserve a seat in this Red Bull camp and I just can't see it happening.
And it's a sad thing because I think we all love Yuki as a personality. But that is it. So
as you say Lawson ahead of Sonoda, Gasly worth mentioning of course P14, which in the end
was actually wild because he was looking like he might get somewhere near getting through
to Q3. But in the end, only one position ahead of Colopinto, which for Alpine, two cars in Q2
is phenomenal. And it did it did need Hadjar crashing in Q1. But Alpine progress and Albin
because Colopinto was of course out. Yes. And then got reinstated. Let's not look into it too
much Alpine are great. And it's their first double Q2 appearance since Austria. I saw them
raving about on on Twitter, which shows kind of how far they've fallen that celebrating since
Austria since Austria. Yeah, it's not gone well for Alpine for it to be that long since both cars
got into even Q2. That's insane. They're now celebrating that like how far they've fallen
as a team. That drive to survive episode going to hit hard. Let's go to Q3 where the top 10
Tommy try not to get too excited. Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Piastri,
Antonelli, Bearman, Sines and Alonzo. Absolutely dominant display from Max Verstappen. Nearly
three tenths clear. Didn't even do a second run. He didn't manage to get over the line in time.
Can you imagine if he'd not got pole? Yeah, which I know you were very concerned about on
the watch along. We were both thinking, oh, could this have cost him pole? But the lap
he put down in that first run was mighty. Were we watching 2023? Had we gone into some kind of
TARDIS time capsule thing? Because that's what it felt like. That lap was just utterly brilliant.
It did. It did feel like 2023 again, because Max was just so clear and so dominant. And you
kind of thought, you know, McLaren was such a weird one all session. They were they were
both struggling. Obviously, one driver more so who we'll talk about in a bit. But
even at the start, Lando had a huge moment in Q1 where you don't manage to save it going through
the corner. And it's thinking like, what on earth is going on with McLaren here? Have they
struggled with, you know, repairing that repairing that car and going straight into a
qualifying session and not having time to, you know, have a practice session or something
like that? I don't know. But they weren't looking anywhere as quick as they normally do. But Max just
looked absolutely unbelievable. And yeah, it's insane to see him get pulled by such a comfortable
margin. And to have, again, the championship and what makes it so fascinating, we've said it
before, is having the guy in third is in the best form. And the guy in first is the worst form of the
three. And now arguably, even worse form. So yeah, this title has just gone from being like,
oh, McLaren, can you please stop making it boring to all my word, I am so hyped. And I'm
sure a lot of people, you know, even if you're not not supporting Max has happened in this,
just from a neutral perspective, this is the best thing that could have ever happened
to this title to throw another curveball into the mix to make McLaren sweat more and not have this whole
lovey-dovey, let's go to the championship together holding hands. And it's yeah, it's amazing. It's
amazing to watch. And it's made these final races now so exciting. And yeah, it's amazing.
Yeah, it'd be interesting to hear some of you listening that might have a neutral perspective,
because as two Max Verstappen fans, you know, it's hard to see past the lion that is Max.
It's not what you said when you were going absolutely crazy at a Charlotte Clare P2 in
the watch along. Yeah, well, you know, ended up P3 in the end, isn't it? But
Charles Drive an Attractor and he's just doing goat things. But back to Max yet. He's just
creating this excitement now where I genuinely think we're getting to a shift of people like
me who believed from 75 points, people like you that will fully believe when it's 25 points,
but we're actually getting to a realistic championship challenge. Now with this grid,
say, and I think it's very fair to say it finishes the way it starts, which I think
for Piastri you would expect progress. But let's say there isn't. Let's say there isn't. Okay.
For Stappen 25 points, Piastri finishes sixth. That is eight points. That's a 17
point swing, 38 points with five races to go. Of course, Norris is in there as well. I think
Lando even becomes potentially the favorite if we get to see this kind of form for the rest of the
year. There's so many storylines. It's flipping constantly. Lando has a poor qualifying again.
We're like, oh my God, maybe it's Max now. But this is what we want. This is what we love.
This is why I love Formula One so much because the expectations of where I was at this Formula
One championship, I've said it many times on the podcast this year where I've struggled to
get so emotionally invested because it's felt like, you know, we've questioned McLaren's
antics and their nicey, nicey stuff and fairness stuff. It's not what I watch Formula One for. But
now they can't chill out and do all of this BS because Max for Stappen is genuinely somewhere
in their real window, just waving at the back. I'll have another 10 points, maybe 15 points,
an eight point swing at the sprint. It's coming. Yeah. And another fascinating thing that
which we actually spoke about in the car on the way back is how fascinating and what we'll
talk about Oscar Piastri next. But if they do finish where they started, Lando takes a big
chunk out of Oscar even if he finishes second. And the gap is small enough that my theory from
literally a few hours ago saying this could be great for Piastri because
they're going to have to back one of their horses. They probably won't when if there's
only 10, 15 points between them. They can't. Yeah. Can they really do that? So
literally if you could pick a grid as a, if you're like a neutron, pick a grid for the most
exciting possible scenario for this world championship, that is it. Sign me up. I'm ready for it.
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Question from P1Patreon member T Williams 12. Has the pressure gotten to Oscar?
It's struggle town. I feel as though and I think it's fair to say that Baku is doing more damage
to Oscar and potentially his confidence like this. And it might well be nothing to do with that.
And it could well be just the fact that he struggles in the last few races of the season.
I think last year when you look at the results like it wasn't the best batch of circuits for
Oscar and it is his third season as well. May I remind you that he's learning a lot.
Yeah, there's a lot to go on but he is human. I think everyone has spoken about how he's been
ice cold and this that and the other and he has. But we also said with a few races before now
saying but it'll change the pressure changes. Everything becomes so much more meaningful
when we're five, six races out from the end of the championship when you still have
other rivals within a shot. And I genuinely believe that Oscar may just be second guessing
a little bit after Baku. It wasn't as big of a point swinging Baku as it could have been.
But how does that not dent your confidence as a human being like Baku because it was one of
if not the worst weekend for a championship leader that I can ever remember. And it's
not going to win him a championship. If he genuinely is two, three tenths now off Lando,
which there isn't enough evidence to suggest that that is now the norm. But if it does become the
norm for the next five races, he won't win the championship. It's as simple as that.
It feels a very long time ago now that Lando Norris got that DNF in Zandvoort and we were
talking about is that it is the championship over has Oscar won it.
And how many times do we say, guys, it's not over. There's plenty of races to go.
And now Max is challenging. And now somehow Max is. And this is what I said,
when we did our live shows and the fact that none of us would have possibly predicted it because
even when we were in the Netherlands, no one was saying, oh, Max is Max. Not even you.
Not even me. He's deadly silo. And we said, who thinks Max can do it? Because he was
nowhere. And it's changed so much. And back to Oscar. Is it pressure? Is he just on a bad
run of form? I don't know. But this is not the way I expected it to go with Oscar at all.
His biggest kind of the biggest thing for him was and his biggest strong point that we had
so many times was the fact that he's ended up in, you know, being the ice man, he's a cool
customer. And I think when we were predicting who's going to win the championship, the things
we said so many times were Oscar's cool and calm head is going to do in wonders as they go into
those final races and nothing phases him. And we saw how Lando struggled with that pressure at
the end of last year. But Oscar seems to be struggling more, whether, whether I said before
this session after what happened in the sprint, sprint qualifying, he was a long way off Lando.
Then he has this move which now I look back even more. I think it's not enough for a penalty or
anything crazy, but it is a misjudgment to cut in. And thankfully for him, he also took out Lando
because that's that's saved some of the pressure off. And I think we said before, you know,
in the qualifying watch along, we need a big Oscar needs like a big result now. He needs,
he needs a even if it's like second behind Max and ahead of Lando just to show, look,
it's fine. I can finish second or third for the rest of this championship or whatever.
He can't finish third anymore, mate, not to Lando nor Max.
Yeah, but, but be there. So for him to be sixth, you know, he nearly got beaten by Ollie Berman.
He was just over half a tenth away from starting eighth.
It's wild. I can't believe this is this is happening. I mean, we'll see what happens.
How is he going to play it in the race? Because he's now, he's now not only he's behind
his rivals in qualifying, but he's now in that pack in that danger zone. And he's going into a corner
which he's already crashed at the previous day. That's going to be playing in his mind as well.
Yeah, it's going to be fascinating tomorrow how this plays out.
Certainly is he has to play as safe as he possibly can.
Genuinely, he's just take the outside line and just run off into the runoff and come back on.
Yeah, run off and give some positions back or whatever and just stay, stay, stay B six.
Yeah, stay out of trouble. Next question.
People on Patreon remember AMG Piper, if Max wins this championship,
is it pure brilliance from Max or the ultimate bottle job from McLaren?
It's both. It's both. If Max wins this championship, it's
it's, it's easily the greatest comeback in the history of Formula One.
His, he's already got the record for that in 2022 on Charles Leclerc and it was 40.
I don't know what else.
But it was, it was that, but also like as much as I'd love to raise you, that was early in the
season. He was 90 something points behind halfway through the season. It should have been
over. No way could he possibly do it. So if he, if he did do it, all credit to Max,
it's the greatest comeback. And I'd argue one of the maybe, maybe even the greatest championship
we've ever seen in Formula One, because he shouldn't, he should, McLaren have dominated
the season. He should not, he should not be winning the championship. No, no chance.
You go way back to the start of the season and you know, he's, it's the fourth fastest car,
Red Bull are nowhere, his teammates qualifying 20th. How are they going to even
challenge for wins? Never mind a championship. But also it can coexist the same thing
that this would be the biggest fumble by McLaren in the history of Formula One.
Because this should be the easiest championship. I mean, how McLaren almost lost the constructors
last year, they should never, never have done. They should have won the driver's title.
But this would be an absolute another level if one of their drivers didn't win, win the
championship. It would be the ultimate, like, like AMG Piper said here, it would be the
ultimate bottle job. Harsh words from Tommy, the jet lagged man. How would I weigh it up?
It depends how the next five races, six races go, obviously six races, including this weekend.
If it's a case of Max winning, Landon, Oscar finished second and third for the rest of the
season, Max wins by a couple of points. I'm putting that more down to Max brilliance than I am
McLaren bottling it. It's not as if we've, of course, Oscar had that disaster in Baku.
And I still personally believe that McLaren have the edge over a Red Bull car with
Max in it, but Max is making up that two, three tenths. I genuinely think Max is
the best driver on the grid. There's no denying that even with my funny Max was having fun.
Like I do genuinely think that he has pace on everyone at the moment in this, in his career.
He's in his prime. It's, it's, it's hard because calling it a bottle job from McLaren,
I don't want to undervalue what Max is doing at the moment and Red Bull as well. They've
done a phenomenal job with Max to build him and upgrade a car that was a dog to something where he
genuinely feels comfortable in. And Lauren Mekki's, you know, he's an engineer, him going to the helm
of the team. Is it coincidence that they've just figured it out and started to make progress?
I don't think so. They so easily could have sacked off the championship. We've got a lot,
all focus on 2026. We're nearly a hundred points behind at the summer break. What's the
point? And they've pushed more and what an insane thing to think that how much, you know, we saw that
graphic at the start, we're watching on F1 TV and they showed a graphic at the start of how many
points people had scored in the, since the summer break. Max was clear and now we go into, into
qualifying and I, you know, pessimistic me in the sprint podcast was saying this could all
change in age badly if Max is fourth and it's a McLaren one, two. Well, it's not a McLaren one,
two. It's Max's absolutely clear on pole position. Yes, Lando second, but Oscar Piastri's sixth. So
yeah, wild. But yeah, I don't fully weigh it to Max's brilliance. There is a smidgen of bottle
job for sure from McLaren smidgen. A large slice of cake, but not the whole cake anyway.
Right. I'm jet lagged. Moving on to the next question, Mr. Bear 15. Where in the world
did the Ferraris come from? Well, I've never doubted them. They sometimes just figure it out.
Charles Leclerc P3 on the grid. Hamilton, I think it's fifth. Is that right? I think I'm pretty
sure. I don't really know where they came from. They had no idea what they were doing after
practice one and, you know, they scraped through SQ1. They scraped through SQ2.
Charles literally spun in qualifying today and then managed to put on another set of
tyres and chuck it third. So it is just such a lottery with Ferrari at the moment.
I don't personally see them holding third and fifth when we get to the race. I firmly believe
in a realistic viewpoint that Piastri comes through at the very least. So I don't have
any answers. I really don't because literally yesterday I'm like, oh my God, I'm so done
with Ferrari. I was in probably one of my lowest points after watching them in
sprint qualifying in particular. And today I'm fist-pumping that Charles Leclerc's third.
Yeah, and genuinely really close to P2, really close to front row, which how on earth did Charles
almost get a front row start after how bad things were yesterday? And yeah, they came
through in the sprint, of course, as well, thanks to the misfortune of others that
the start made it through the carnage and bagged some points. So yeah, what a crazy
turnaround from basically, yeah, like you say, your lowest moment and us saying,
like, what an absolute joke Ferrari are on Friday and here we are on Saturday,
them somehow delivering a fairly decent performance.
Yeah, next year's our year for sure. Let's go to the next question, Craig Tilley 95.
Everyone is talking about the Stappens renewed championship charge, but is tomorrow actually
Lando's chance to regain the initiative in his championship hopes?
Well, I said yesterday, can't write off Lando, all the talk is of like his pastry bottling it
is max, you know, going to win the title, not really been any talk on Lando and I wonder if
I know it's kind of cliche, but like, is that really good for him? Because we know last year
he didn't enjoy the constant questions of like, why aren't you winning the title?
McLaren are really good. You should be winning the title and he, you know,
is making mistakes and it wasn't working for him. And yeah, he's still 22 points behind, but
this is going to be a really interesting grid and I'm really fascinated to see how Lando
plays this tomorrow, because I don't think he should really and people go, of course,
you'd say that as a Max fan, but arguably if if pastry is such a tough balance, isn't it?
Because pastry probably will come through the pack. So Norris does need to capitalise.
But in a weird way, if he does take this title and pastry is maybe dropping off in form a little bit,
Max is still fairly a long way behind and Lando's chipping away at the lead. Maybe his
approach that sometimes, you know, we've criticised him for saying he's not taking
enough risk, he's not, you know, he's not capitalising on these moments like a Baku,
for example. Maybe it will work out for him. It's an insane thing to say. It's almost like
until we get to the end of the year, we do not know what approach and how all these moments and
we'll look back on so many moments and go, oh, if this had happened different, you always do when
the championship is going to be so close. And the way this championship is going,
it could well finish maybe like five, 10 points between all three of this rate, the way
it's going. Because, yeah, you just don't know. So Lando, what does he do? Does he just
try and think about a second place, which maybe is not the most interesting thing,
but he knows Oscars down and he can erode his lead quite a lot. Maybe that's the approach to go for.
I personally believe that Lando has to capitalise on any opportunity he has in this championship
and this is one. I think that the caution will be lap one, turn one, it will be scarred
from yesterday, sorry, today. I can't forget with my days with this sprint case. But I think
Lando will of course be mindful of lap one, turn one. He needs to get out of it facing the right way
with all four wheels because he can score more points than Piastri. For Stappen, I think he's
going to be probably the, his level of aggression is going to be in probably another
stratosphere. He'll do what he did and it's been where he goes straight over to cover the
inside and he's like, absolutely no way you're coming past. I think Lando, and I think this is
the right approach. He shouldn't get criticism if he doesn't go for that move because if Lando goes
for some stupid move on Verstappen and they collide, that's a bigger opportunity wasted and
you know, Piastri could come through maybe not win, maybe even win based on the fact that
you know, his two main rivals are out and the cars ahead of him maybe aren't as good
and then we'd be saying, yeah, maybe the title is over. So there's so many variables and changing
all the time. I just think, yeah, Max is in a really weirdly good position that he can just
be super aggressive and it's just like, he's got nothing to lose, has he? So can you tell
Tommy's excited? He's gone through about 70 different scenarios in the last five minutes.
I just can't wait for tomorrow, hurry up. For Lando, I'm just going back to my point
quickly. I think that if he has a car that's fast enough to be right on the back of Max,
he'll go for a move. He's not going to do a George Russell from the sprint, no chance.
I don't think he has that in his locker to just absolutely send it from six tenths back
and just risk it for the chocolate biscuit. And I don't think he should do that either.
I genuinely don't. But also at the same time, I don't think he can just sit on his laurels,
if that's the right word, you know, just accept a three point gain.
Oh yeah, if he's got a chance to win, he has to go for it.
Yeah, because you can't bet on the fact that Oscar is going to be off the pace for the rest of the
season. That isn't unknown at the moment. So Lando has to go for it, but in a cautious way,
which we know that's probably how he's going to do it anyway. So we need to remind ourselves in
the main race podcast to not have a go at him if he doesn't go for a move, but then if he's
a second lap quicker, then maybe he should. Okay, cool. And finally, we need to mention
Ollie Bearman, P1 Patriot member Edith is my middle name. Ollie Bearman, what a lap.
That's it. That's that's the, it's not even a question. It's a statement. I agree.
Ollie Bearman, my number two driver, no, number three. Sorry, I forgot about Max.
My number three driver of because you have about five, Tommy. So I'm adding to my roster.
But great lap from Ollie Bearman, you know, his teammate struggling again in Kuali,
Esteban Ocon. He's got a good amount of points as Ocon, but that's from like
a few standout moments this year. But Bearman is sort of consistently,
and as well with all the pressure on his shoulders of these penalty points.
Yeah, he could, he literally could get banned at any moment.
It's almost like he's thriving with this, with this pressure on his shoulders.
It's, it's great to see for Bearman, he's learning a lot. And I'm very happy to see that,
that he's got through the Q3 and starting in a solid position tomorrow.
How many times did we say in every driver ratings for the first maybe six, seven,
eight, nine, 10 races of Ollie Bearman is something special. He just needs to
get his weekends together and he could really start showing something.
And a bit like Carlos Sainz in a way, he's found his mojo now and I think he's
delivering a lot more consistently. And I think even just what we've seen this year,
you look at the championship and as it is now, doesn't really reflect what a
special talent Bearman is. And I think, I think he's, he's really gonna go further.
It's weird because of the odd appearances he made. Sometimes he doesn't almost feel like a rookie
because we saw him last year a few times and you kind of need to forget that this is his first full
season. And yeah, he's doing, he's doing a really good job and this is, this is one of his best
performances and also had an amazing performance last time out as well, so.
Exactly. Ollie Bearman, Hype Train, Chu Chu, also worth mentioning as a closing
thought, Carlos Sainz in Q3 again and Fernando Alonso, I mean his Instagram story was pretty hilarious
of just like him realising he has no luck in Formula One and he's on recharge for 2026 when
I'm like, bro, you've got six races to go. Like it's not, it's not time to say goodbye just yet.
But that's it, right, quality is wrapped up, done and dusted. Thank you everybody for
getting involved in the watch alongs for turning up if you came to the AT&T garage.
That was a lot of fun doing that live event. We will be at the track tomorrow,
so there will be no watch along sadly, but we will be back. Don't you worry with a juicy podcast
and we won't let you down with any more watch alongs I'm sure for the rest of the year unless
we get like, you know, starting on the grid in Abu Dhabi and we get to do wave the flag or
something. But, but yes, it's been a lot of fun in Austin. Tell me what your final thoughts.
Final thoughts are, yeah, I hope we have
loads of things to talk about again tomorrow because it's been an absolutely insane day that,
you know, like an insane qualifying session, a mad sprint, and it's just really spiced up.
This, this championship is what is what this season really needed going into these final
races because we kind of got into our head a few races ago that this isn't going to be
the title that we think it is. Well, now it is. Now, now, boy, is it going to be, you know,
something special, I think now. So cannot wait. My closing thought, as I've said several times
already now and I'll say it again, Max Verstappen is winning it all. Thanks for listening. See
you soon. Bye bye. Bye bye.
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