Simply lovely, that! How did Max Verstappen nail it once again? 2025 Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying

[00:00:00] Simply lovely, that Famous last words after Max Verstappen stole yet another pole position From the McLaren camp, Sundaram, my goodness, we don't have Somal, which is why I'm opening the show I almost feel like Oscar Piastri because our number one show host is not here, although maybe that is switched now that it's no longer Oscar who's the number one show host or no longer Lando who's the number one show host

[00:00:29] but honestly, I am running out of adjectives to describe Max Verstappen's heroics over a single lap, even more so in 2025 Sundaram, how did you see that happening? And I think he's making a very good habit out of this and I think Max is a little miffed because at the start of the season or at the start of any race weekend, we often tend to talk about how quick the McLarens are and how much of an opportunity or an advantage Piastri and Norris have

[00:00:59] and we don't really kind of consider Max in the equation. We say, yeah, don't forget him, but he's never really properly there in the running, but on qualifying day or on race day, he really goes to show, you know what, you should have never really forgotten me. My name should have always been there in the mix and he's kind of reminding everyone with yet another spectacular pole position once again.

[00:01:22] A hundredth of a second? That's, and before that it was one, a thousandth of a second. It was 0.001 seconds. I was secretly hoping that would be the eventual pole margin, but wow, this is stuff of legends if I have to say that. And how can you not be a fan of these heroics? And I say that because every time we praise Max Verstappen, there are Oscar fans now who complain saying, no, but Oscar is better or Lando fans.

[00:01:51] Well, they have other things to complain about or Hamilton fans, but you know, let's go through some of those stats in a bit Sundaram, but it is so important to dissect how Max Verstappen got pole. That's the title of this live stream. We're doing it like what? 1.30 India time, 10 o'clock European time. That means for the Americans, it's just about midday after midday, early evening, whatever you call it.

[00:02:18] But it is so important to dissect how that happened. And I know we did not predict a Max Verstappen masterclass. It's very difficult to predict such things. It happens just when the conditions are right, as Max also said. But we did say we wanted to see some magic happening in qualifying. We were, at least I had pinned my hopes on Charles Leclerc actually doing some magic in qualifying.

[00:02:40] But here are some pointers on what actually happened in that Q3 session, which of course had a red flag with Lando crashing, but we'll get to Lando's crash. But what exactly happened and why did Max Verstappen get pole in the same car that struggled less than seven days ago in Bahrain, in qualifying and in the race? He got his 42nd pole position overall. He's the second repeat pole sitter in 2025.

[00:03:08] Mind you, the first repeat pole sitter is Oscar Piastri. We all assumed it would be Lando Norris who would be the second repeat pole sitter. But it's Max Verstappen. Firstly, the conditions were cooler in the evening. They were still warm, but they were cooler than FP3, which is where I think McLaren had some mammoth six-tenths of a gap. The tarmac, as Max Verstappen put it, said is smoother here in Bahrain, which is allowing them to extract or mask some of their weaknesses.

[00:03:37] We did not predict a Max Verstappen masterclass, but there was one person who actually did predict the masterclass, Sundaram. On Thursday, George Russell said, I wouldn't leave out Max because the sector one is literally like Suzuka. Lots of high-speed directional changes. And Max Verstappen nailed all those changes, all those sectors as he went through. So sort of that brought back one of those strengths that Max has.

[00:04:03] And, you know, for me, the most beautiful thing, Sundaram, was that after the red flag, there were about eight-odd minutes left. And Max and GP actually worked on their radio to have two attack laps for themselves. McLaren discussed it, did not do it. Mercedes discussed it, they did not do it. But Max, Red Bull Racing, planned it and said, we will do two attack laps. And they did that. And I think he credited those attack laps.

[00:04:32] He said, it's all about rhythm. It's all about building confidence. And having those two laps gave me the chance to build confidence, put in a banker lap, and then go again and take even more risk. And I think that was so beautiful that the team actually is delivering as a world champion outfit for this world champion driver. They did something as well this weekend. So Max did something no other driver did, which is nail that qualifying lap. But this team actually gave him two chances to do that, something no other team did in that eight-minute session.

[00:05:03] And I think that's something that's always underappreciated, what GP brings to the table and what the rest of the strategy brings. And also the pit crew during the races, that is really top-notch stuff. That's really stuff of champions. So it's not always just the car. It's not just the driver. There's also the team that's kind of helping Max ensure that he goes out on track at the right time. He guides Max through the out lap and guides him through the push lap as well.

[00:05:31] So you really need those sort of people supporting you and then guiding you through your entire lap so that eventually takes you to pole position. And like you said, they went with two push laps. And the first push lap, the banker lap in itself was just a thousandth of a second quicker. And you heard Max saying it on the radio as well. I have more in the tank to push in the next lap.

[00:05:56] So they really were bulletproof in their strategy and also in their execution, which is really, really commendable. And if you actually look at the different sector times, you know what? Oscar Piastri was second quickest in sector one, second quickest in sector two, and the quickest in sector three. So that just goes to show that McLaren has an all-round car. But if you look at Max Verstappen, quickest in sector one, fifth quickest in sector two, and then second quickest in sector three.

[00:06:25] So the different strengths and weaknesses of how the car performs around the different sectors and how the different characteristics of the layout is just goes to show that it will ebb and flow. And quite clearly, McLaren did have the quickest car. But still, that was not enough to stop someone like a Max Verstappen put in a very good lap overall.

[00:06:45] It's really, I mean, talking about the pole margin, a hundredth of a second, it's actually the fifth smallest pole margin in the turbo hybrid era. That's 10 years, 10, 11 seasons. That's the fifth smallest pole margin. And wow, that's crazy. Oh, wow. And I remember there have been closer margins.

[00:07:10] There was when Max and Russell actually had the same lap time in Canada a couple of years ago, wasn't it? Last year. And, you know, techie dude is here who's saying something that's been on everyone's minds. Max, Max, Max, Supermax. And Jay is here who says all heads must bow, all tongues must confess. Max is the greatest of all time. Well, that's hard to, you know, debate right now. Absolutely, I would say on that lap.

[00:07:38] And, you know, you mentioned that one thousandth of a second. That lap, that banker lap, I have more in the tank was also as reference to saying I have more fuel in the tank. Because what drivers do in Q3 is they have two attack laps usually, which means an out lap, attack lap and in lap. So they are fueled for three or, you know, little more than three laps in case they need that.

[00:08:01] But when Max did his two attack laps, he was actually fueled for six laps, which means his first attack lap, he was carrying more weight. So with more weight, he still beat Oscar Piastri's lap time, which Oscar himself said, I didn't really have a quick lap and I knew I had to find time, etc. But he came in, they almost did a race pit stop and then he went out. And GP was very specific in telling him, Max, we need a quick in lap.

[00:08:28] And then as Max always is, he repeated the instruction just to clarify that he understood that message. But so interesting, you know, Max just said Bahrain was actually weak for us because there are many of these slow, high rotation corners. Yeah. Which there are a few of here. And that's why this circuit suddenly delivered. And I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to. Okay. One thing before we move on to Oscar Piastri and McLaren.

[00:08:55] And Yuki Tsunoda almost one second off, but in Q3 with Red Bull Racing. I think being in Q3 is good, but being a second off. And he himself said on the radio again, I had a shit lap, which is, you know, I think, which is the case with most Red Bull drivers. Red Bull is so used to seeing such supreme execution week after week, lap after lap, session after session from Max Verstappen. And that second driver just struggles. But what I'm looking forward to the most tomorrow, Sundaram, we've seen Max versus Lando.

[00:09:23] And we know how that turns out. We've never, or at least, yeah, I say never, but almost never seen Oscar versus Max for the race lead. I am very, very eager to see how that plays out. Zac Brown said in the build up to Saudi Arabia that we've never seen Oscar versus Lando have a go at it. But guess what? I'm actually not excited about that.

[00:09:46] I am excited about Oscar versus Max Verstappen for the race lead for the 2025 Arabian Grand Prix. How do you think would that play out? It's going to be incredible because I'm just trying to pull up where does pole position actually start? So if it's starting on the racing line, I'm assuming Max is starting on the right and Oscar starts on the inner section going to turn one. If I'm not wrong.

[00:10:12] So if that's the case, and if Oscar has a mega start, he could actually block Max going to turn one. But then you also have a quick right-hander into turn two. So Max can actually take it back in that section as well. But that's what is going to be super exciting to see what these two drivers tend to do, which we've really not seen pitted against each other. But we also probably, now that qualifying is done, we also have to look into what happens in the race. And you really have to look into the race space.

[00:10:40] McLaren have better race space. So you cannot count them out, especially Oscar Piastri who's only starting P2. Red Bull don't really have the best race space from what we've seen in free practice. So they're somewhere maybe third or fourth in that regard. So Max is really going to have to toil to ensure that he ensures that tires are in place. They don't degrade too much in the heat of Saudi Arabia. And that he's able to still stay ahead of Oscar Piastri.

[00:11:08] Very contrasting philosophies for Red Bull and McLaren. McLaren has very high drag, has very high downforce. So they're not the quickest on the straights. And it's pretty much the opposite for Red Bull. They have low drag, but they have still good downforce. That's why they've been able to be quick on the straights. So McLaren are quicker on the corners. Red Bull is quicker on the straights. You really can't differentiate between the both of them because you also have three DRS zones. Who's going to come out? We don't really know.

[00:11:36] But it's a well set up race for tomorrow with regard to McLaren and with respect to Piastri and Max tomorrow. There's just one team that's quicker than McLaren in the straight speeds and straight line. That's Sauer. But they're not going to be someone you really need to be bothered by at the back end of the field.

[00:12:00] For the second time that two teams or rather for the second time that Sauer had a double Q1 elimination for all the Sauer, Audi, Hulkenberg fans out there. Just unfortunate. But yes, Red Bull has that marginal edge on the straight lines. As you've said, I think McLaren extract a lot of performance against Red Bull racing in the slow and the high speed corners. It's the medium and the straights where Red Bull edges forward as well.

[00:12:26] But, you know, Oscar Piastri was very, very, very, very calm. He said, I know I have a very quick race car in the race tomorrow. And, you know, it's incredibly tough to overtake here with dirty air. I'd love to see what he does at the start. And, you know, our biggest struggle this weekend, just and I'm quoting him. He said, we've been quick. Our struggle is to be consistently quick. OK, so McLaren.

[00:12:53] And he said there was not a lot of lap time left on the table on my first lap. And he, you know, he's like the competition is a little bit closer. Max, of course, I said he has he said, I'm going to give it a go, but he's not competitive compared to Oscar and Lando's race pace. I'll tell you what, I'm just trying to try reading the data right now. So we also have actual qualifying laps and then we have ideal qualifying laps.

[00:13:16] So ideal qualifying laps are how much more quicker a driver could have gone based on their best sector times. And like I said, yes, he was second in sector one and sector two. So there was a little bit of time he could have gained or he had he did gain on other laps, but did not gain on the fast lap. So how quicker could have Oscar Piastri gone compared to his ideal lap? Four thousandth of a second. That's that's all. So he would have still been second to max, but just by six thousands and instead of a hundred.

[00:13:46] So that's how close the margin already is between them. And that's probably how much more Oscar could have already gone based on past data. Yeah. And imagine this, I think in FP one and FP three, McLaren were one, two. Right. But they're not the team on pole. Can you imagine that? And Oscar Piastri, of course, is the only driver to be starting in the top three at all the races this season. Supreme consistency. I love it.

[00:14:14] And frankly, I don't think he could have done anything more or anything different. He was just like, come on, this guy, Max, he's racing in the same generation as I am. Yeah. You know, with all these rumors around will Max go to Aston Martin, will he go to Mercedes? And there are some rumors that say Max just might take a sabbatical for a year. And, you know, and I'm sure drivers like Oscar are like, yeah, please go take a break off because we are always.

[00:14:42] I mean, imagine you just come up against a driver who's the generational talent of generational talents, if you may put it as that. And yes, I'm going on and on about Max. No, no, no. We should. We should. Because we should. Yeah. But, you know, you again, I'm going to George Russell is this crystal ball guy. He said, I'll tell you how the race could pan out. And he said, there are two scenarios. It all matters on turn one.

[00:15:07] If we exit turn one in the same order that we've qualified, then he said a lot of strategy will come into play. We could, you know, undercut, overcut, depending and make some positions on drivers who are out of place, etc. But he said, if Oscar gets the jump on Max into turn one, he's going to disappear into the distance. Okay.

[00:15:26] And Oscar Piastri's, no, sorry, George Russell's prediction is that Lando Norris is going to start on the hard tire, go extremely long as he can, make use of all the free air, pace, whatever, whatever he can. And he actually said, Lando might actually leave the race at some point. Okay. So lots of scenarios already playing out in everyone. Yeah.

[00:15:50] And Abhas is saying Oscar maybe could have gone harder at the last corner, but that's just nitpicking an almost perfect lap. Yeah. I mean, Oscar said that when he put in the lap the first time and he said, I knew that wasn't Paul. But he said, when I put in the lap the next time, I knew that this was almost the pole lap and I couldn't have extracted more. But yes, we should nitpick Lando Norris.

[00:16:15] We should, we should, you know, frankly, I want to go give him a hug, Sundaram, honestly, because my goodness, no time in Q3. He's had the, you know, I wouldn't say he's had the measure of Oscar because even in free practices, they hold back a little bit and, you know, nobody wants to sort of take all the risks. So I would have loved to see him bounce back because we wanted to see him bounce back. And, you know, I'll tell you why I want to give him a hug because he's been very open about his challenges and honest.

[00:16:45] And instead of making fun of him, I would like to be like, wow, that's very bold. That's very brave. And he said, that's what gives me, you know, that that's what makes me feel lighter to share how I feel, what I feel. And, you know, the fact is I can sort of now go quicker. But the concern is we've seen him bottle it in the dying moments of Q3. Okay. This time we saw him bottle it in the opening moments of Q3. Okay. And I don't know, visually, of course, it was horrible when we saw it. Oh, my goodness.

[00:17:14] Lando Norris in the wall. He said he's going to figure out, he's going to have to figure out how to overtake so many cars. And if he finishes top five in the race, it'll be a good achievement, et cetera. But, you know, just, just unfortunate. And what happened with him is he just hit the curb with the chassis. And the minute you do that, you're a passenger. This is what Andrea Stella said. This is what happens to every driver. We saw Oscar Piastri hit the same curb. We saw Lando Norris, sorry, Max Verstappen hit the same curb.

[00:17:43] And boom, there we go. Lady is saying, I hope Lando Norris can rebuild himself. He puts way too much pressure on himself and is overdriving the car. That could be lady blah, blah. Yeah. Well, that could be true. You know, with such a competitive field, there is such a small margin between driving it to perfection and overdriving that car. And Sundaram Lando actually came into this weekend trying to have a different approach. He said, I'm not focusing on the car.

[00:18:12] I'm focusing on myself and how I feel in the car and how comfortable I get. And well, I feel even more for him for this because he's trying hard. We all try hard on our bad days. And boom, it's just not worked out for him one more time in front of millions of viewers worldwide. Yeah. And I think this is that moment where rather than criticizing him, you really have to put your arm over his shoulder and around him and just try and calm him down.

[00:18:40] Because this is where you can really spiral down that route where you start questioning yourself if you're good enough, if you're able to convert the car's pace. And if you're letting down the rest of the team, I'm sure his crew will have to do a little bit of work going into tomorrow. And if you see between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, they had very contrasting struggles in qualifying. Oscar didn't seem to have the pace compared to Lando in that car, which he's kind of mitigated this year.

[00:19:08] But Lando, for as long as I can remember, even was it Qatar 23? Was it Abu Dhabi 23? When it seemed that Lando really has the pace to put this car in pole position, it just seems that he makes that little one mistake. So it always seems that when it comes to the grandest of stages, when he really has to perform and deliver, it just feels it takes a little bit more pressure. And like that person said, he probably is trying to overdrive that car going beyond the limit.

[00:19:35] And in a season like this, it's even more punishing. And even the sort of tracks that you go to, Saudi Arabia is a track that has no margins, no margins at all. And especially when you're going at 280, 290, 300 kilometers per hour, the margins are even smaller. Monaco is, you're trundling around at maybe 170, 180 kilometers per hour. Here you're doing it at 250 kilometers per hour on average. So your margins are even more smaller. But that is what defines a world-class track.

[00:20:04] And I don't need to go speak about this, but Lando really needs to get out of this rut. Because it's important for him, for his career and his championship hopes that he can really come out of this reset and is able to... He's still leading the championship. That's fine. He still has that very small cushion, but he will really need to get on it from the next race. Maybe Miami being the race where he first won his Formula 1 race, his first Formula 1 race, and there's a little bit of a two-week gap before that race.

[00:20:34] Might just give him the sort of reboot that he really needs. But we really, really need to see Lando back up there. And I hope he's able to do that very soon. And you know, you're right. Because in a triple header, races come to you so fast. Lando was asked, have you had some time off this week? And he said, well, I had a week off, but it's just a three-day week for me between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. And it doesn't help that there are millions of people talking about it, journalists like us, with him, with the boom mic, saying,

[00:21:03] what happened, you know, and why are you struggling? And, of course, more comments around Max. Stiglitz71 says, GP made the call to first to a banker lab so Max could take all the risk in the final lab. And that's what he did, checked the onboard. Yes, that's what we spoke about in the opening moments. We explained why he did that. We explained how he did that. We explained how that helped him build the rhythm for his final push lab in Q3. We explained why he took, how he was carrying more fuel.

[00:21:33] So, you know, feel free to go back to the start of this live stream and hear what we had to say. Because now, Sundaram, I think it's time to move on to George Russell, Mr. Consistency himself. I loved his post-race radio message. He was told, George, we're P3. And he's like, what's the cap? And, you know, he was told the gap. And he said, but what's the cap? You know, George, we're P3. And he said, what's the gap?

[00:22:00] And they said, just over a tenth. And he said, what's the exact number? And he said, 113 milliseconds. Okay. And I think that in itself, because Oscar was told the same thing. And he said, he was told 10 milliseconds to Max Verstappen. And I think it just sounds even more grand when you say it in milliseconds. But okay. And yeah, George Russell, again, he's made qualifying his own, I would say.

[00:22:28] He's at two second places in China and then in Bahrain and now a third place. He's always sneaked it in, into qualifying. And I think I, I'm loving this, this avatar of George Russell. And, you know, he, he was, he actually pointed out how they discussed the, the two attack lap in Q3. And he said, Mercedes chose to not do it.

[00:22:56] And he said, that's why I took turn one easy in my only lap in Q3. Because if I binned it at turn one, I would be P10 straight away. Okay. So he said, having that banker lap gives so much more comfort into chasing more lap time and on the second attempt. And I think just goes to show that if Max were to be at Mercedes, he would have pushed them to say, you know what? I need that second lap. You guys go figure it out. This has to happen.

[00:23:23] And, and yeah, so that's where we are. I think Kimi Antonelli, he was honest. He said he made a mistake into turn one and he said he lost three or four tents. And other, without that, he could have been P4. But what do you think Mercedes' race pace is like? Okay. Before we go to Mercedes, Abbas has another comment. Does Lando versus Oscar give the feeling of Weber versus Vettel? A more competitive version of that rivalry. Oscar is the Vettel here. Well, what do you think?

[00:23:53] No, it doesn't really give Weber versus Vettel vibes. Because in that, in that scenario, there was a very clear distinction between both drivers. Vettel quite clearly at that point was generational talent. Look at the experience, look at the age comparison and all of that. But here you have Oscar and Lando, two upcoming talents who are very similar in terms of age. And both also in terms of capability. You could argue maybe Oscar has the highest ceiling.

[00:24:20] Maybe Oscar is able to grasp and is able to control pressure and handle his stress in these situations better. That's there. But it doesn't really give me Weber versus Vettel sort of vibes. But I like the sort of rivalry we have between Oscar and Lando. We seldom see two young drivers fighting it out in a car that's capable and both being very equally matched. So this, I think, is going to be a rivalry of its own.

[00:24:50] But coming to Mercedes, they do have good race pace. You would see that George Russell, although he's been very good in qualifying, he doesn't really have that edge with this car in terms of qualifying to put it on pole. He was very close. Where was it? Was it in the China Sprint or in the China Main qualifying? One of those two. He was very close in that. But just not enough to take it on pole position. But still a very good race car on race day. And they will be right up there behind the McLarens.

[00:25:20] But not probably as close as them. But they will... I mean, if George Russell's taken three podiums out of four races, it goes to show that they are right there. They're not having the sort of problems a Ferrari is having or a Red Bull is really having. But they're going to be right up there. So with the sort of track layout that we have, with the sort of overtaking opportunities or the lack of overtaking opportunities, Saudi usually tends to see. You would argue that George Russell is in contention for a podium spot.

[00:25:46] And I mean, kudos to the sort of consistency he's putting in since the last 16 odd races. He's doing everything to ensure that Toto gives him a contract extension and make Max's life as hard. Because it's not going to be an easy decision for Toto to choose between George and Kimi if Max is in the market. But it's going to be an interesting race in that regard. Yes. Lady Blah Blah says, Russell did great again.

[00:26:15] I love how he stepped up in this team now that Lewis is gone. Frankly, that's a great way to put it. Because was... And my goodness, this is where the stream might go complete bonkers. But was... Mercedes might feel lighter after Lewis Hamilton has left. And I mean, yes, in the heart, but also as an operating unit.

[00:26:38] Because, you know, whenever Lewis wouldn't perform or Mercedes wouldn't perform and hence Lewis wouldn't perform, there was a lot of attention. A lot of negative attention that would come from his fans. LH-44 as we call them. I would say I belong to that. I'm a big Lewis Hamilton fan as well. But not the types who would go completely crazy with conspiracy theories and so on. But there are very few who would probably do that. But I would say they probably feel lighter. George Russell feels lighter. He feels that this is his chance.

[00:27:07] And I love that they don't have a pole car. But he's always been there or thereabouts. And I love that in the race also he's been maximizing. And if Mercedes chooses to not go to Max Verstappen, it's not because of what James Wawel said. That, you know, Mercedes has a different culture and blah, blah, blah. I think that's BS. I think that's true, yes. But when you have, you know, it's like this. That if you suddenly get a Max Verstappen, your culture revolves around how Max Verstappen treats you.

[00:27:36] Which is how it is, right? So if Mercedes doesn't sign George Russell, it's not because of what James Wawel said about culture and so on. It is because George Russell stepped up. And Kimi Antonelli hasn't been washed away either. A couple of tens here and there. And a lot of down to experience, a lot of down to just not having driven on these circuits, done lots of sessions in Formula One and so on.

[00:28:00] But a lot of sessions in Formula One, one driver who's done Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. Right. If we can switch back to Ferrari, Sundaram. Because Hamilton has been outqualified by Carlos Sainz in a Williams, like you pointed out, two consecutive races in a row. It happened in Bahrain, has happened in Saudi Arabia. He said he had no rhythm whatsoever.

[00:28:25] And I think he was half a second slower than Leclerc in that Ferrari. Wow. Half a second slower than Leclerc and nearly a second of the pole pace. And this is where you really are confused. What is the problem? Is it Lewis Hamilton kind of losing his ability at this age? Or is it really him struggling with the car?

[00:28:55] Because he was also struggling with the Mercedes in the last two years. But then George is able to put into in pole position or within the top four there as well. That's where really all the conspiracy theories started coming out. But you start seeing that same sort of issues with here as well. And yes, people will say that he needs the time to kind of adapt. He spent 12 years with Mercedes. But you cannot take so much time, unfortunately. You're losing out on precious time.

[00:29:20] You're losing out on precious podiums, wins and points for your team as well. Ferrari has not been on the podium this season. If they don't be on the podium tomorrow, this is going to be the first time in nearly 15 years where they've not been on the podium in the first five races. So they will lose hold of the Constructors title in that regard. So you need to see Hamilton as close as Leclerc as much as possible. So even for him, it's very important that he bounces back.

[00:29:47] His record in Jeddah has not been the greatest since his first win in 2021. So the numbers and qualifying have been hovering around, I think, 8th, 7th, 8th and the like. So not a great qualifying for him in that regard as well. But even he needs to really come back and come strong in the next set of races. And he's been saying all weekend or in the build-up to the weekend that I'm going to have my setup go closer to Leclerc.

[00:30:17] Leclerc and how he was saying how Leclerc prefers a very unpredictable car, very oversteery car. And Lewis actually gave a lot of insight. He said, you know, it's normal to adapt a driving style, but I'm not adapting. OK, I'm actually adjusting. And he actually explained the difference in the two. And he said, when I actually have to push that little bit extra, I go back to my old ways. He said, and he actually said after qualifying, very, very interesting. And I love these bits and pieces that drivers actually put out.

[00:30:47] He said, I've still got work to do to get along with this car. He said, I'm so stuck in my muscle memory that it seems like it's never going to change for me. And honest, you know, as he always is. And he's saying the car reacts differently every time we go out. And he said, I'm grateful I could get into Q3 because he's been getting into Q3 with very small margins. But, you know, let's see.

[00:31:12] Sarika, who's here, who's saying Ferrari needs a new story arc enough with the development of a sub-par car. That could be true because they've introduced a new floor to, you know, to bring in more performance. And it didn't help much in Bahrain. If you go with what Leclerc said, he said it should help him more here. But Leclerc could manage just fourth place, which is if, you know, if we just go through those gaps, I think those gaps are shocking. He was two tenths off. Nearly four tenths, yeah. Yeah, right.

[00:31:41] Yeah, nearly four tenths. He was two tenths off Russell, right? So his overall gap was huge. And Leclerc actually was very disappointed. He said, I'm not here to be fighting for P4. And he said, that doesn't make me happy. We're missing a lot of grip compared to the others, which actually points out to what Sarika is also saying. You know, it's a sub-par car, if we were to call it that.

[00:32:05] But Jada was supposed to be the weekend where the true potential of that floor comes into effect. And like you said, it was kind of masked in Bahrain, not really the sort of layout where that floor would have been able to be put to use. But Jada was supposed to be a stronger weekend for them. They will definitely be better in the race. They've always been better in the race than in qualifying, as we've seen this year.

[00:32:29] But still, the sort of gaps that we see isn't really representative or isn't really comparable in terms of expectations for Ferrari. So not a great qualifying for them as well, even in that regard. Yes. And Leclerc said we actually were on the lap. I hit the sweet spot for the entire lap. But this is the maximum performance I could extract from my car. He's right. Yeah. He couldn't have gone faster in terms of ideal laps as well.

[00:32:58] He couldn't have gone even faster. Right. Barely 300, that's all. Wow. And Frederik Basuwer actually said that turn one is their Achilles heel in qualifying in Jada. He said that we need to find a solution in turn one. They were two tenths down on Max Verstappen into turn one. And then they lost another tenth around the entire lap.

[00:33:24] So he said turn one was a big challenge for us, which typically means, you know, it's a slow speed stuff, which is where Ferrari's usually been better, quicker. Good point. In the slow speed stuff and in the heavy traction areas as well. But we've got... Leclerc is losing nearly three tenths. Leclerc is losing three tenths in the first sector itself. And then he kind of picks up pace in the next two sectors. But no, he's really losing nearly four tenths in the first sector. And Hamilton's losing nearly six tenths.

[00:33:54] That's like you said, the first corner or even the first sector in that regard is probably where that problem is. Absolutely. So we're going live from Oslo. That's where I'm sitting. Sundaram is in Mumbai. That's where he's sitting. We're trying to, you know, dissect the race. We don't really sleep. We are just always sleeping, living, breathing Formula One. Somil, who usually hosts the show, of course, the voice of F1 in Hindi in India.

[00:34:21] He's at a family function for all his family members tuning in. Guys, y'all should know this by now. Do not have a social plan on a race weekend. As simple as that. If it's a triple header, too bad. You've got to wait for the fourth race weekend when that happens. But on a more serious note, we should, you know, I'll tell you why I switched to Somil. Okay, I'm going to take some comments that have come. Can Lando turn this around in the coming weeks? Mohamed says that. Mohamed Saud Hanfi. Hello, welcome.

[00:34:50] We've actually spoken about Lando turning it around with the break coming up and top five in the race tomorrow. Go back. Hear it. Will we also see Oscar in a wheel-to-wheel battle in the front of the grid tomorrow for which Lando gets too much flack for thoughts? Yes. Mohamed, again, go back. Thank you for tuning in, even though you're a few minutes late. Hit the subscribe button. You'll be able to know when we go live. We're actually looking forward to this. We're actually looking forward to this battle. Absolutely. We've spoken a lot about Lando, Oscar, Max versus Oscar.

[00:35:20] That's what we're all going to be tuning in for. And if George Russell can sneak in somewhere. Because Carlos Sainz sneaked in a P6. Williams is best position in Jeddah. He is coming around in that Williams, right, Sundaram? Yeah, he is. And you really tend to see a lot of this not just in the timing charts, but also in the press conferences. And even when they go back to their team statements.

[00:35:47] For a change, you can actually see Carlos Sainz sounding and feeling a little bit more confident. Even during the sessions on the radio, he was saying that in the high-speed sections, I am feeling comfortable. I feel at ease. So he can... And I think he said that in FP1. So throughout the whole weekend, he's actually been able to put in strong performances. And that's kind of translated. It's a confidence game. It's a momentum game as well. So when you have the confidence, especially around a track, that's so quick. And that has 27 corners.

[00:36:16] You're really just darting from one corner to another. If he's having that sort of confidence, P6 is ideal in that regard. And that's going to be a good... I think he will be a little disrupting to someone like a Lewis Hamilton or even a Yuki behind him. That puts him in a very good position. But he is potentially on course for points. Maybe not P6, but he could probably be P8 at least. Yes.

[00:36:46] In fact, I think he's going to disrupt even Lando Norris's charge up to the field. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. If this is Uttara we know, who is wonderful with our social media, says that's why one needs to stagger little naps. I have no idea what that is for, but I'm pretty sure there's a Formula One reference to it. Because, you know, Carlos Sainz in the way he always explains things. He's so technical. I'd love to see if he ever proposes to his girlfriend how technical he can get about the ring or the diamond or, you know, whatever.

[00:37:15] Or, you know, if he's kneeling at a particular angle or, you know, how much pressure he's putting on the kneel or whatever. Because he said this is the highest adrenaline peak on a push lap around the whole calendar. He's like, it's like Monaco. He's like Baku. He's like Singapore. He said the grip is very high and you can also push in the race as well. So I'm curious to see that. But if we can switch tack. This is just one point. Just one point since you said Sainz will be disrupting Norris's charge as well.

[00:37:45] So let's take a look at the top speeds that these cars have been having. So Sainz has a top speed of 332, which is fairly towards the front end of the field. Whereas Lando Norris, who was, like we said, McLaren has a high drag, high downforce car. So both McLarens are towards the bottom end of that field. Max Verstappen also does a top speed of 332. Carlos Sainz also 332. Oscar Piastri, 327. 5 kilometers per hour slower than Max Verstappen.

[00:38:14] And Lando Norris, 328, which is around 4 kilometers per hour slower than Carlos Sainz. So it's going to be something to really watch out for in tomorrow's race in the DRS zones. Who has the measure of whom? We'll get to see that tomorrow. And his teammate, Alex Alban. Okay. I would say Alex Alban, I think he's also been outqualified two times in two weekends. Right. That's how Carlos Sainz has just stepped up.

[00:38:40] But I wouldn't really call it being outqualified. And I'll tell you why. Because they've been so close to each other. Now, when they are, you know, within a tenth of each other, the team is really, wow, we're really pushing each other and going. And Alex Alban actually used what we've seen drivers do in Formula 2, which is to go in between the brakes. Because he was out on track all by himself, doing his thing, trying to get in the lap times.

[00:39:05] And he said, that's actually what cost him a position in Q3. He missed Q3 by 0.007 for all the James Bond fans. Since you all don't have, you know, Aston Martin to cheer for right now. At least you'll have Alexander Alban to cheer for. But he missed out by 0.007. And he was asked, what do you think cost you that 0.007? And he gave a very interesting answer. He said, I went out when there was no one else on track.

[00:39:34] There was no track circulation, as we call it in motorsport. And he said, hence, I had no toe or anything. He said, I had no use of track evolution because he also went in the middle of the session. Can you imagine? He's trying to go get a clean session, clean lap in, focus on himself. But you actually need to also time your sessions when the track is evolving and getting quicker. But do you think they can score points tomorrow? I think I definitely think they can.

[00:40:01] Saudi is a race where you tend to see a fair bit of DNFs. Unless it's Williams who's actually causing those DNFs. I think we are in a very good position to score points. You will almost certainly see a safety car from some car or the other. And that can actually kind of turn strategy around. So with Carlos Sainz starting P8 and sorry, where is he starting? P6 and Alex Albon starting. Yeah, P11. I think they're in a good spot to take double points. Yes.

[00:40:31] And I'd love to see that because Williams have never scored in Saudi Arabia. Yeah. If they are able to change that, that would be fantastic for the two drivers, James Wawls, etc. But there was another driver. So there was all four drivers of two drivers of all the top four teams in Q3, which means eight slots taken away, which also means that the balance two slots. One was filled by Carlos Sainz. We just spoke off. And Pierre Gasly was in ninth place.

[00:41:01] Yeah. You remember Q1. There was that embarrassing moment. There was a, what do you say? A tire blanket shroud. Tire blanket. Yeah. It looked pretty embarrassing. And, you know, honestly, I think Pierre Gasly has been doing fantastic. You know, the cars there and that two different kinds of circuits, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which means that the step they've made forward is actually very, very, very good.

[00:41:27] Haas said that, that, you know, Williams and Alpine have already made a step forward, which means they're a little out of touch for us, including racing bulls as well. But I'll tell you what, when Jennifer Lopez entered the paddock in that pink suit, I almost thought she's going to sit in that Alpine car and take Jack Doohan's place or whatever, given how his seat is always under threat. But great, great stuff for Alpine. Oh, definitely.

[00:41:54] Because another thing which we kind of tend to forget is the Renault power unit is the least or can I say the most underpowered power unit amongst the four of them. So if Pierre Gasly is being able to put the car in P4, if he's able to bring it into Q3 with such fine margins, it's really a testament to how much he's been able to drive or overdrive that car. Jack Doohan is there or thereabouts, but not as close to Pierre Gasly.

[00:42:23] But it really goes to show the sort of driver Pierre Gasly has grown into ever since his demotion from Red Bull. He's done exceptionally well at Alfa Tauri. It took a little bit of time for him and Alpine. But I think since the latter half of last season, he's done really well in terms of consistency, in terms of results. And this is really a good CV that he's building together. If at all, there's another seat available after 2026. So he's firmly putting himself in that midfield fight.

[00:42:51] Tomorrow, it's going to be a little tricky to see if he can hold on to points, but very commendable effort to put himself in Q3 once again. Yes, his Q3 came, like we said, at the cost of Albin, who Abhas Amol says Albin's run plan was a bit poor from Williams. Well, hindsight is always when you can win a world championship. I'm sure they had the reasons to try it and do something else. Zare is saying, Sainz P6.

[00:43:20] Carlos, Sommel Sainz. I don't know where Sommel Sainz is. But yeah, Sommel Sainz is busy eating some dessert at a family function that, you know, I'm sure that family member is pretty unpopular, at least for me, I would say. But who else do we have to talk about? Should we talk about Mr. Unlucky 13, Fernando Alonso 13 for four consecutive races? Can you imagine his consistency?

[00:43:50] Sundaram, you should take a bow. Because if he is Sommel Sainz, you are Sundaram Alonso, as we all know, right? I don't know you as F1 stats guru. I know you as Sundaram Alonso on the Inside Line F1 podcast. But 13th four times in a row. That's incredible. He's the only driver to have made it to Q2, but never progressed to Q3. That run continues.

[00:44:14] Still yet to score a point in 2025, which means he's somewhere 17th in the Drivers' Championship or thereabouts. And Lance Stroll continues to have scored 100% of Aston Martin's points, even though he's had his third consecutive Q1 exit in 2025. I'm going to have one more Lance Stroll stat. Of course. I do have a Lance Stroll stat, but I was looking at Fernando's qualifying positions this year.

[00:44:44] So in Australia, it was 12th. In the China Sprint, it was 11th. And like you correctly said, in every other qualifying after that, it's been 13th. So quite clearly, he's being very consistent. So I think he can definitely spend another year in Formula 1, even if Max Verstappen is on the market. Please keep Fernando in the car, at least for my sake. But Lance Stroll, yes, he did something. He broke a record today.

[00:45:10] He actually broke the record for the most Q1 eliminations in F1 history. 75 of those. And I was actually looking at the numbers amongst all the drivers who've at least had 100 races. He's at the very top in terms of Q1 eliminations. Not the sort of record you want to be very proud of. He's just surpassed Kevin Magnussen. There is Marcus Ericsson on that list and the likes. But yeah, it's not looking great for Lance.

[00:45:36] I think on this track as well, Lance has never scored points, if I'm not wrong. So, yes, he's never scored points and he's actually DNF'd from the last two Saudi Arabian Grand Prix's. And if you actually go back to the race preview that we did, he was my prediction for who's going to call out the safety car this weekend. But yeah, where is he starting tomorrow? He is starting... Where is he starting tomorrow? Somewhere. Q1. Q1, no? Yeah.

[00:46:05] No, he's 16th. Oh, we shouldn't make that mistake. Two positions. Two vital positions. He's also Aston Martin's 100th race in Formula 1. Yes. And we're going to end the stream in about three, four minutes. We're going to do predictions. All the questions that you guys have, put them in the chat. We'll pick them up. We'll try and answer what we can. Very good engagement that's coming as well. We should predict the driver of the day now itself. Now that we see the starting kid, who's going to be the driver of the day? I got to read...

[00:46:32] You know, somebody after a preview actually sent me a Reddit page where they try and fix the driver of the day. And most of the times they end up getting it right as well. I would pick Lance Stoll as driver of the day. 100th race of Aston Martin. Aston Martin wouldn't have been back. They wouldn't have been back in Formula 1 had it not been for him. And his father, Lawrence Stoll, as Zare de Lora actually says, I wonder what Lance Stoll is thinking after that five-year plan they were talking about.

[00:47:01] Well, that five-year plan is going well because they've got Honda, they've got Adrian Newey, and they've got Lance Stoll and Fernando Alonso. And Andy Cowell, who's now the new team principal CEO of various titles that he's taken for himself or he's been given. He said, we are very pleased with the two long-term contracts we have with Lance and Fernando. And the team is actually focused on giving them a quick car. Of course, he's not going to walk out in the media and say, actually, we want Lance. Sorry, actually, we want Max Verstappen.

[00:47:29] Can you guys go tell him that as well? So that's where they are, I would say. But who else in qualifying? We had, for the first time in 2025, Isaac Hartjar. No, sorry. We had Liam Lawson out qualifying a teammate in 2025. His teammate. There's a reason why you said that. Why don't you explain? Yeah, because in Japan, although he did not out-qualify Isaac Hartjar,

[00:47:58] he did out-qualify the driver who replaced him in Red Bull. So he was, I think, a position or two ahead of Chuki Tsunoda. But this is the first time Liam Lawson has out-qualified a teammate. That's going to be a massive confidence booster for him. You've also heard the team principal or the team CEO say that when Liam came back into the team, he looked a little lost. He looked a little dejected, quite obviously. But that if he's able to find his feet once again and kind of deliver in that racing bulls car where he's more comfortable around,

[00:48:27] that's a good showing for him. So even he's very close to the points position. So if anyone triggers a safety car from the top 10, he could be within points scoring position as well. Yes, that would be fun. So what's your prediction? Top three. Max, what's happened starting on pole position? It's almost impossible to displace him when he's starting on pole. And he has a very good pole to win conversion. So I'm not going to look beyond him. Max is winning. Oscar is taking second.

[00:49:00] Third is very difficult. But let's say for the fun of us, Charles Leclerc is taking P3. So you are saying there will be a new face on the podium in Charles Leclerc. Yes. And Ferrari will finally have their first podium in 2025. After all that hype that was there in the preseason. Well, and driver of the day is going to be Carlos Sainz. You think Carlos Sainz? Okay. You mean that's on? Okay. So my driver of the day, Lance Stroll, 100th race in Formula One.

[00:49:29] I'm sure our stream is going to get him more votes as well. Well, in qualifying, the smallest pole margin in Jeddah has been 0.025. Okay. This was Perez beating Leclerc a few years ago. Max and Oscar have already beaten that by half. 0.01. Right? That's the number we've had. Which means that they're going to have a similarly close margin in the race win.

[00:49:58] That's my guess. The smallest win margin year was Leclerc being beaten by Max Verstappen by half a second in 2022. The famous DRS battles, etc. that they had. Right? So I get a feeling Max Verstappen is going to win this. I just get that feeling. And I get a feeling they're going to have a massive scrap for the race win. And Lando is probably going to be in the top five.

[00:50:28] But Oscar is going to realize, you know what? Let Max win this. No problem. I'm going to take the lead in the Drivers' Championship. I will score the maximum points. I don't get to prove anything by meeting Max in one race. I need to beat him through the season, which I mostly probably am going to do so. So that's what's going to happen. So it's going to be Max and Oscar. And then I think it's going to be George Russell. It's going to be the same four drivers that we're going to pick from. I don't think it's going to be Charlotte.

[00:50:58] But I would love to be proven wrong. But, you know, again, there is a scenario. If Max keeps the lead at turn one, that's the scenario. If Oscar leads at turn one, then I think Oscar is very clearly going to have one of the largest winning margins here, which previously has been 21.8 seconds. Oscar might just take that. Yeah, I'm just taking a look at the Drivers' Championship as well. So Lando is leading with 77. Oscar is behind by three points. And then a further five points behind is Max Verstappen.

[00:51:28] So speaking about it, we can actually see Max leading the championship tomorrow if something goes wrong for Oscar or if Lando doesn't score a lot of points. That's also a possibility. How unlikely would it be to see Max leading the championship in a season when quite clearly both drivers, McLaren drivers and that car is the quickest? So that'll be some statement. Why don't I put another scenario out there since we're going absolute crazy with this?

[00:51:55] If Oscar and Max take themselves out and George Russell wins... That's not happening. No, no, no. Okay, whatever. Okay, well, I'm just building that. If George Russell wins, okay, George Russell could lead the Drivers' Championship as well without actually winning a single race this season. Or maybe then Saudi would be that race that he wins, which sort of gives him his opportunities.

[00:52:20] But wow, we have got some fantastic racing up ahead of us. Any more thoughts? Any more questions before we end the stream, Sundaram? You know, I love your stats. I'm yet to come across someone who doesn't. In fact, I just realized Pierre Gasly has been ninth in Jeddah for the last three races. So he's been here ninth, ninth, ninth. But any more stats before we call this fantastic stream an end?

[00:52:50] I think I'm done. I think my favorite stat is the fact that this is the fifth smallest margin in the turbo hybrid era. No, a good point. Since you mentioned stats, I really want to highlight the pole margins that we are seeing this season. Because I was doing a little bit of digging before this session started. So the pole margin in this season is the average pole margin is literally less than a tenth of a second.

[00:53:16] And if you go back to all the races, the turbo hybrid era, if you take the season average in dry races, or even if you take the first five races, the average of those, this is the smallest of them all. And by a huge margin, you don't have pole margins that are less than a tenth of a second. So that just goes to show the sort of season that we're having where everything is so, so close. A tenth here and there could literally drop you from pole position to the third row.

[00:53:45] So really a testament to how the budget gap, the sliding scale aero of how that's been set up. Everything is really coming together. And even the limited test sessions and the sprint races taking away a few practice sessions has eventually led to 2025 being the closest season we have seen ever. Indeed. And 2025 continues. It's just the fifth race of a 24 race season.

[00:54:12] There's a massive rule change that's coming in mid-season with the Spanish Grand Prix. I really hope that that rule change doesn't take away all the competitiveness that we are seeing in Formula One 2025 right now. But this stream has been a lot of fun. I will make sure Somal doesn't attend the family function tomorrow. And he is here to celebrate Sundaram's prediction that Carlos Sainz is going to be the driver of the day. Scoring points, disrupting a few people's races.

[00:54:40] But this stream has been so much fun that I almost want to end it, even though I think we should end it. And Sadhana is actually saying we need live race watch-alongs. You know, actually, we should consider doing that, given how much you, Somal, and I are dissecting through the race as it goes along as well. Maybe we just put it on when Somal's doing his commentary in Hindi for the official F1 broadcast in India as well. But for now, thank you very much. It's been fantastic.

[00:55:11] Goodbye. Go to sleep. See you guys in the stream tomorrow after the fantastic race that's going to be. And subscribe to this. Put on the notification so you all know when the stream is on. And we get to have everyone back here. Thank you, Zaret. Thank you, Sadhana. Thank you, Abbas, Uttara, Mohamed, and everyone else, and Sarika, and so many others who actually sent in comments. We love interacting with you just as much as we love Formula One. Good night.