Our Reaction to Chinese GP Qualifying

Metatube

Matt and Tommy return to talk about all the ongoings from qualfiying for the Chinese Grand Prix!  Join our BRAND NEW YouTube memberships! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD5jAyCSDRR5yTgswfDbK8w/join  Join our Patreon for bonus podcasts, videos and more!: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommy  Listen to the FULL PODCAST here: http://lnk.to/p1podcast  Follow us  Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mattp1tommy Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/mattp1tommy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattp1tommy Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattp1tommy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattandtommyp1  PCSpecialist: https://pcspeciali.st/mattp1tommy £30 Discount Promo code: MP1T  Email: mattandtommyp1@gmail.com

Transcript

00:00What happened in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix?

00:08Let's get straight into Q1, shall we? Where the bottom five were Gasly, Behrman, Doohan, Bortoletto and Lawson.

00:18P1 Patreon member Lumixion comes in with the first question, which is who lasts longer?

00:24Lawson in the Red Bull or Doohan in the Alpine?

00:31I think before the season we're all saying Lawson gets his season in Red Bull. No problem. No issues like they're gonna

00:37They're gonna commit to him. He's got you know, he's gonna be okay. Not near max, but he'll be okay and

00:44Doohan we thought was done within five races now. I think that Doohan

00:49Look, we're seeing glimmers of hope and we're trying to hype that up and focus on that. But there are also

00:55Negatives that I'm sure Alpine are taking into consideration

00:58The fact that of course he had that little incident at the end of the sprint

01:02where he wasn't fighting anywhere near the points he was right at the back and

01:07Then of course it in quali. He's decent

01:11I'm interested to see just how far Doohan is off Gasly over the course of an entire dry race

01:16Like we'll hopefully have tomorrow at China

01:20But I actually don't know

01:22If Lawson continues getting p20, they will make a change

01:26That's how I that's how I feel because it's not even as though it's a Perez p6 or a Perez p12

01:32This is a Lawson p20 off the back not knowing how to drive the car at the moment. Yeah, you go back to our

01:39sprint qualifying review and

01:41We kind of you know said how long is it gonna be and maybe and I said well they will

01:47Replace him we kind of raised our eyebrows and went all and then literally one day later

01:52Here we are both saying and probably a lot of people would probably now think yeah

01:56they probably would would replace him after just a handful of races if

02:02Like, you know if this did actually keep happening

02:06The father's p20 again

02:08Just watching his name tumble down that order as we went through q1 and going. Oh my god, it's gonna be 20th

02:13oh my god, it's gonna be 20th and there it is again and

02:17Just an absolute

02:19Disaster and it can't go on being this bad because it is just such a

02:24Such a headline kind of position

02:27What is also quite interesting right is that the competitive order of the the field right now is is close

02:33It chops and changes and things like that

02:36There was a time

02:38where

02:39Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez would have seven tenths between them and

02:45Perez would be

02:48Fifth sixth on the grid max on pole

02:52seven tenths for Liam Lawson is fourth to 20th and that was

02:58sadly for Perez his kind of

03:01the reason it got so bad for him because as

03:05Red Bull kind of worked their way into the pack and didn't have that car dominance

03:10Perez, you know those kind of deficits and of course the car the car changed very much

03:16To kind of be in favor of of max and of course Red Bull are going to do that

03:22and obviously as well a lot of Perez fans who were sad to see him go this year and now sort of jumping to the

03:28Perez wasn't that bad this that and the other, you know

03:31Do you regret the fact you were saying it was all Perez and Lawson struggling more?

03:36What I kind of respond to that is two things can coexist

03:40Where Perez needed to go because rebel needed a second driver that can cope with Max's car

03:45This is which is what it essentially is. It's Max's car. Like yeah, you just

03:51Lawson on the face of it looked like someone that could be that person

03:55You know a young driver doesn't have too much muscle memory can just hopefully adapt. He said it himself

04:00He's he's going to adapt to a car. It's his job to do that

04:04He was full of confidence

04:05Which something that Paris didn't have towards the end of the season when he was struggling of course as well

04:09But but yeah, we know we know Perez was a quick driver as well

04:14It would just didn't work with Red Bull. But anyway, let's move away from Lawson and go. Well, actually that's a lie

04:20There's another question p1 patreon member

04:22MZT

04:24Looking at Lawson's on board that rebel is so hard to drive will rebel make changes in time for Lawson to save his career

04:29now that's another part to this isn't it is

04:33Does Lawson now have to go down the same route as what

04:38every driver before him bar Perez who of course isn't on the grid at the moment has done and

04:45Does does Lawson almost almost have to take a bit of a that swallow the hardest pill possible of?

04:52Just put me back in the racing ball. If you keep once ago

04:55Yeah, feel free have a go see if you can do better than me because I am convinced

05:02Lawson goes back in the racing balls. He's probably making q3 like we saw today with both of the drivers

05:07exactly, everyone's everyone's

05:09Racing him and he's done a bad bad job

05:11But when he came in and replaced Danny Rick in the Alpha Tower II as it was at the time

05:17We were saying what a great

05:19Prospering talent he was and how good he was doing

05:22It's it's quite clear that Red Bull

05:25will not

05:27sacrifice

05:291% of the Stappan's performance for the teammate and

05:33Very quickly last question on this p1p to remember div how bad will Red Bull be if the Stappan decides to leave?

05:39Can you just imagine a world right where you had this whole?

05:43the Stappan might go to Mercedes in 2025 this that and the other if max had genuinely left and

05:50Then Red Bull this is the car Perez and Lawson. They're about they were back marketing

05:55But they are in less fundamentally change the car. What in last minute? Yeah. No, exactly

06:01Yeah, exactly. This is that maybe they would be able to make some changes

06:05But that Red Bull would have would be nowhere near the front which is mad to think about

06:12It's it's a it's such a risky strategy while it's working now is paying off because of course the Stappan has won the last four

06:19championships

06:20won an absolute bucketload of races and

06:24Even when that car was struggling he was performing brilliantly last year and even now he's doing a really good job

06:31Despite even the Stappan you watch his on board. He's fighting the car as well and

06:37It is a huge risk we to go to like another series this happened in Moto GP where mark Marquez

06:43They built the whole kind of bike around him

06:46He got injured and they would know where and that is something that they could risk happening with with the Stappan

06:53But until he's there

06:55They have to just go all in on the Stappan it is literally a risk worth worth taking at the moment

07:01And that's what he does as well

07:02I'm sure Max loves the fact that the team is around him and in a lot of ways

07:06That's probably an appeal to him rather than going to a team where he's gonna have to fight for resource up against a Russell or whoever

07:13it might be into q2 then and the five drivers out were Ocon Hulkenberg Alonzo stroll and

07:18signs

07:19The talking point from this has to be Carlos signs

07:22It's not been a perfect start to the year by any stretch of the imagination for Carlos signs

07:28How much of this is Alex Albon just doing a phenomenal job? I think it's both

07:32I think Carlos is struggling, but also Alex has stepped his game up

07:36So science does need to turn it around quickly. I would say

07:40It doesn't want to fall into this

07:43Potential number two driver role. I don't think that's going to happen

07:46But these are questions that will be asked if science can't at least get on terms with Alex

07:51By the midseason I'd be amazed if science

07:55doesn't and

07:56Kind of perform as to at least Albon's ability

08:01You know as we get later into the season

08:04But there's no kind of denying the fact that it's been a disappointing start for for science

08:09I really did expect him to hit the ground running and get straight into that team and

08:14You can and Williams are very open about their kind of and it's probably like you mentioned about James Vowles and how

08:21Open he is speaking about even even science is kind of problem in in

08:26Australia when he went behind the safety car you get a video of James. I was going well the upshift did this and

08:32Back there and they work on everything to get him as comfortable and we we heard that even in the Abu Dhabi test

08:40I think it was where

08:42you're literally just being put in a car to just test it science already had feedback and things like that, so as

08:49Everyone in Formula one you need a car that you're you're comfortable in and it's not quite there for science at the moment

08:54Be a very disappointing again and expected a lot more from him question from people and patriot member Rebecca

09:00Why is everyone seemingly forgetting?

09:02Williams was second last in the constructors last year and acting like Carlos not making q3 is a huge problem

09:08The problem here Rebecca and this is why we're talking about it is the fact that his teammate is

09:15the comparison

09:16We're not when Williams is not the ninth fastest car anymore

09:21We've seen that already this season Albon has been phenomenal so far

09:26That is always the benchmark. It's not. Ah, well, you know Williams actually pretty slow

09:31Then they're not that they're right in the mix now

09:33So for Carlos, you know, he missed out it. Well, he was about just over a tenth slower than Albon in q1

09:40But sadly two and a half tenths slower in q2 and and that's the difference. It's not a massive gap

09:47But that's that's a five-place difference in in Formula one these days, especially in the midfield

09:52So it has to it has to be the comparison as much as we can celebrate Williams moving up

09:59As much as we can celebrate Williams moving up

10:03The teammate rivalries is a completely different story

10:06Yeah, your teammate in Formula one is always the benchmark even if there's many factors

10:11yeah, we've mentioned about the factors between Red Bull and and

10:16other teams as well and how

10:18That there's all sort of different ideas of how you've run two cars

10:23But at the end of the day the only compare like or like comparison is your teammate

10:29That's always been the way in Formula one. So if Alex keeps performing, well

10:33We will naturally think Carlos will be and should be there because he's got the talent to do it for sure

10:39Let's go to q3 then where the top 10 was Piastri, Russell, Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, Hajar, Antonelli,

10:47Tsunoda and Albon

10:49first question

10:50Imperator

10:52QG will we finally get to see a Piastri versus Norris race?

10:57George Russell might have something to say about that. I can say that for free but McLaren

11:02Doing much better in normal qualifying

11:06First and third is still slightly off where we expected them to be

11:11You know Lando Norris making a mistake on his final lap aborting

11:15we spoke about this a bit on our on our live streams our watch alongs and and the thing here is

11:21You always see a step up from q2 to q3 track evolution is massive around here

11:27Yeah, Oscar Piastri improved by almost six tenths of a second from q2 to q3

11:32George Russell wing improved six tenths from q2 to q3 massively in that

11:37Yeah, Lando

11:39Was slower by six thousandths between his q2 and q3 time

11:42He did a thirty point seven in q2, which was an absolute monster of a lap

11:47So that step up again was what we all expected and sadly for Lando that that didn't happen

11:53But yes, we should in theory if Norris gets a good start, which we didn't see in the sprint

11:59He doesn't need to do that again because dipping a wheel in the gravel cost him three places. I think it was

12:04he just needs a clean start dispatch of Russell with a car that is absolutely the quickest when it's hooked up and then

12:12Yeah, it'll be a Norris versus Piastri. I still think Norris has better race pace

12:17It's very close between the two of them. I think Oscar's stepped it up

12:21But sign me up. I'd love to see a McLaren ding-dong

12:24yeah, I I actually I'm very excited to see how this plays out because

12:30Piastri versus Norris. We saw a little bit of it in Australia

12:34but

12:35Based on the performance Lando again has kind of left time on the table and should have at the very least been p2

12:43we know that from McLaren and

12:45It's going to be very interesting tomorrow to see how Lando plays this because he did have a difficult start and

12:53Obviously he was kind of more in the pack. He's gonna be kind of have a lot more fresh air in front of him

12:59Being but George Russell is not going to kind of make it easy for him and and Russell's gonna know

13:06Kind of what that it's a great chance to get ahead of them

13:11But yeah, I can't I can't wait to see this question from p1 pitch remember Mikaela thoughts on George Russell

13:17He's been doing so anonymous in the media this year, but seems to be smashing it

13:21Yeah, George is

13:23Third in the championship at the moment. He's six points off the top

13:27He is doing a great job at Mercedes and exactly what he needed to do now that Hamilton's gone

13:34Very much the number one driver there Antonelli. I'm sure we'll be learning a lot from him

13:39George's is the complete driver in a lot of ways. He's fantastic in qualifying

13:44There's still no race pace was something that was a bit of a meme

13:48versus Hamilton

13:49But overall, yeah, George is doing a great job and to be p2 when we thought it was going to be a McLaren lockout

13:56No problem

13:57Was a surprising lap time if anything we were both like on the watch along. We couldn't quite believe it

14:03he was last across the line and

14:05Out of nowhere put in a lap that he was very happy with as well

14:09Star of qualifying for me George Russell an amazing job to split the McLaren's don't think you know that should have

14:16anyone should have been able to do that really and

14:20Lewis Hamilton in the sprint has shown that if you get ahead in

14:25the in the main race is incredibly difficult to overtake and

14:30Look after your tires and and clean air is is the key

14:33I think this is his chance to go for it because in Melbourne

14:37He kind of held back and just bagged a really great great result

14:41Here, I think he's got a great opportunity

14:44Win would be a massive stretch, of course

14:45But if you can get into the lead, you never never know and you put yourself in a great advantage

14:51Just because of how much we saw and

14:54The tires going off and and how kind of clear Hamilton was in clean air even now

15:00It's it's clear just how quick the McLaren's are

15:03We've seen that today and Hamilton was able to just drive away from them based on having having clean air. So

15:09George I think he's gonna go for it at the start and it's gonna be really interesting to see at

15:15Jagged a Jagger bomb 7 or Jaeger bomb asks

15:19Do you think Ferrari set the cars for race pace and not quali pace? I

15:25Just think Ferrari did a better job

15:28Lewis Hamilton did a better job in sprint qualifying and the sprint race than anyone else

15:35It's as simple as that

15:37Obviously now we go into the the part of the weekend where a bit more learnings have happened off the sprint

15:43They can make some adjustments in a part firm is lifted for this part so that they can

15:48Make a few tweaks

15:50Ferrari innately are slower than McLaren

15:55Maybe even Mercedes over one lap

15:58How they'll be in the race tomorrow I

16:01Think Hamilton will have similar struggles to Charlotte Claire in the sense of dirty air

16:05It was a massive massive factor in the sprint

16:08So I don't think it's a case of them setting their cars for race pace

16:12however, Leclerc

16:14Did show some really good and obviously Hamilton as well out in front showed some good speed towards the end of their medium tire run

16:21Which gives me hope that they will be at least competitive

16:25in in in the race tomorrow

16:28I don't think this is a disappointing result for Ferrari at all

16:31Maybe if you compare it to the the sprint, of course

16:34But I think that there they have basically the the sprint was just Lewis Hamilton

16:40Over-delivering and just just doing an unbelievable job in qualifying his car probably shouldn't have been there

16:46you know, it's his talent that's kind of put it out the front and

16:50then you know cleaner is key as we've said so much in this podcast and he ran away with it and

16:58Did an amazing job

17:00Moving away from the front. Well, not that far away from the front p1 page

17:05Remember doge sama is the v-carb car better than Red Bull. Great job from Haja. I

17:13Think the v-carb car is

17:16more drivable easier to jump in and obviously do decent times because both teammates are up there very

17:25Comparable obviously Sonoda made a mistake on his last lap, but up until that point they were very close to two teammates

17:31It's not better than Max Verstappen and Red Bull combination clearly, but they're not far away

17:37I just think it is an easier car to drive in the sense of it's not as pointy like Max Verstappen enjoys.

17:46I don't think I clocked just how close Haja was to Charles Leclerc's

17:50That's fine, that's fine quite insane actually

17:54but Haja did a

17:56brilliant brilliant job and we love to speculate about

18:00Who's got the quickest car? How quick is this car? How quick is that car?

18:04the fact is we'll never know and it's all just kind of

18:07Opinion and data and how you kind of look at it. But if I were to guess I'd say that the the racing bulls is

18:15almost like a

18:18Kind of not as quick as the Red Bull

18:21But yeah, like it's more stable and it we're kind of seeing the fact that that you know

18:27Racing bulls haven't got a driver that loves a really extreme car setup that they're just kind of like pushing towards

18:34to get the performance and

18:36We're now seeing V Carb in a situation that we kind of thought they were going to be in last year where everyone was going

18:42Oh, they've copied the Red Bull. It's gonna be this amazing car. All the teams were worried about it

18:48and

18:49instead

18:50weirdly, they've gone into the season with absolutely no expectation and no hype after testing and they're looking like maybe even best of the midfield, so

19:00It's looking great for for racing bulls, and I'm sure Liam Lawson wishes he'd never left and that is it

19:05Thank you everybody for tuning in to this qualifying a recap. Tell me what your final thoughts

19:11final thoughts are

19:14Looking forward to get some sleep. Oh

19:17Yeah, a little bit of a

19:19Yeah, I was tired still. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah tomorrow. It's gonna be good. Yeah tomorrow normal time

19:26No crazy to 30 a.m. Sprint race, which is straight up for the race tomorrow

19:30We're gonna be fine

19:31You want to come and tune in and you know

19:34You're gonna set your alarm if you're in Europe come and join us on YouTube and twitch

19:37Matt P1 Tommy over on twitch if you want to come and watch along with us

19:41We have a lot of fun there and that is it. We'll see you very soon. Let's love take care

19:46Thumbs up from Tommy today, not not the way the thumbs up. Goodbye

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