Reaction to Chinese GP sprint qualifying
P1 with Matt and Tommy
Stak
4.9 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The first sprint quali of the year left us with more questions than answers… Like, why are F1 trying to deceive viewers by hiding data? How can we tell what’s driver skill and what’s battery deployment? And has the magic of qualifying been lost?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. |
| 0:11.3 | We are going to try our very hardest to not be fully depressed as we explore what happened in sprint qualifying. I am a resident Charles |
| 0:23.2 | Leclair fan, as most of you know, Tommy, is a resident Max Verstappan fan. So, lots to explore, |
| 0:31.0 | lots to talk about quite a lot of emotion, Tommy, that really wants to come out. I'll be real. Yeah, I think it's emotion from two |
| 0:40.9 | sides. It's not even the fact that our drivers have obviously had not the best of qualifiers, |
| 0:47.6 | and I think there's no doubt be people jumping on going, oh, you're only saying this because |
| 0:51.3 | the driver you support is off. There's a lot more that I didn't like about that qualifying than that. And it's just, yeah, another very strange feeling after qualifying. A very strange feeling indeed. Yes, you know, there will be part of it. As you all know, we are Formula One fans. We have our allegiances. We try and be as fair as possible, but also we want Charlie Clow and Maxx's happened to do pretty well. |
| 1:14.6 | And that did not happen. But we're getting to that. SQ3 is a little bit further on in this podcast. |
| 1:20.4 | We are going to now look at SQ1, where the bottom six drivers, I'm trying to get that in my |
| 1:27.1 | head, bottom six, were signs, |
| 1:29.2 | Albon, Alonzo Stroll, Bottas and Perez, in twos, Williams, and then of course, Aston Martin, and Cadillac. |
| 1:37.8 | Question from P1 Patreon member Justin, do we think that Williams is the biggest letdown of these new regs so far? |
| 1:46.1 | Let me reintroduce you to Aston Martin, but I think second biggest letdown has to be the Daddy Vowels hype train. |
| 1:55.3 | I mean, it can change quite quickly, of course, but I'm a big old conductor, you know, chew-chewing for James Vowls and the Williams team |
| 2:03.8 | because they did a phenomenal job last year when apparently they weren't trying. |
| 2:09.5 | We come into this year where they were trying and it appears that things were broken |
| 2:14.8 | and things just haven't worked out in this start at least of |
| 2:18.7 | these new regs. I don't want to hear about another five-year plan of Williams. I want to hear |
| 2:22.8 | that they are towards the front where they belong. Their history is one that's amazing to look |
| 2:29.3 | back and it looked as if maybe they might challenge the top four if they kept on that trajectory from last year. |
| 2:35.1 | Alas, that is not the case. |
| 2:36.5 | Both of them out in SQ1 and the turmoil continues at Williams. |
... |
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