The Race for Barcelona

This week Andy breaks down the latest Formula 1 news, including Pierre Gasly’s shocking Monaco podium reinstatement, Red Bull’s power unit buzz, and the growing list of rookie drivers getting opportunities in FP1. Then it’s all about Barcelona as we dive into the history of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, qualifying reactions, George Russell’s pole lap, Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari resurgence, and predictions for race day.

Transcript

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I'm putting next month's rent on Kimmy and Snap, baby. What's up everybody? Welcome back to P22, your F1 podcast. We are everything F1, the hot takes, the beefs, the rivalries, all the F1 car upgrades, the movements and teams and members and principals and all the drivers, all that. F1 Academy, F2, F4, Formula E. Not really too much on those last ones, but I tried to stay caught up. It's just a lot going on and I'm super busy. So I know you guys were just yearning for my video this week. I am uh kind of thrown off a little bit because I didn't realize how off my schedule was with the bye weeks and the weeks off and stuff like that. So usually I would release this video or this episode on Thursday or Friday. It's now Saturday, but I've been used to kind of waking, waiting for my recap episodes to come out on like Tuesday or Wednesday. So it kind of threw me off a little bit. Not a huge deal. I'm super excited because this is the first episode I'll get to do after watching qualifying, which is kind of weird to me. Usually I um go into the whole weekend blind, which is kind of fun, kind of scary. Kind of don't know what I'm talking about. Kind of use some info from other podcasts or from uh Google, whatever. Go up and down. So this is uh I watched qualifying this morning. I watched free practice yesterday, and I'm pretty bummed because Kimmy didn't get to do free practice one, and I feel like he's just been a step behind all weekend because of that. I know there's a bunch of drivers that didn't get to do free practice one. Um let me get a little list here. I took a screenshot. So Beninovic uh sat in for Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari for Naroli sat in for uh I want to say Piastri for McLaren, Colton Herda, which we talked about a couple weeks ago, he sat in on for Cadillac, I want to say for uh Botas, and then Viesti sat in for Antonelli, Awase sat in for I want to say for Hajar, Browning sat in for Williams, and Aaron Aaron, no, no, uh Paulon sat in for Audi. So nothing crazy, but did want to talk about that. That we had some uh uh F2 drivers in practice this week, and it just made me feel like Kimmy just kind of wasn't, you know, at qualifying the very last lap, he was in the mix, but I feel like if he had that free practice one, he would have been all Q3 would have taken over. But we are ahead of ourselves. We flew right into this episode. My name is Andy. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. I'm sorry for the delay in this episode. I know that I probably have thousands of listeners that are pissed that I um have them waiting and that I was gonna release this episode after the race and act like I didn't, but I know that uh someone would have called me out. So I needed to stop packing for the cruise and I needed to record this episode. I needed to get my predictions out in the air. What's up, everybody? Thanks for hanging out with us. If you haven't already, go ahead and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, uh, Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the major platforms, Buzz Sprout. I want to see the statistics, I want to see the the stats on uh the you know the analytics on where my episodes are being streamed from, where they're being streamed at. Shout out to all my overseas listeners over the pond, all my F1 fans. Hell yeah. Appreciate y'all. So, cruise countdown. Like I said, we are leaving for the cruise in the morning. We uh construction update, count on construction, shout out to the big bro. He is just putting out fires every time I start them. So uh it's nice to have someone that has you back just because it's been a stressful uh week. I'm not gonna lie. It's been uh it's been a rough couple weeks, and we are getting it thrown at us in every direction right now. But um gotta stay strong, gotta stay uh headstrong and gotta keep on keeping home. And uh let's hop into F1 News. Actually, let's talk about a little Barcelona recap. So uh Barcelona was awesome. Kimmy led the whole time, it was amazing. Lewis was on his tail, and uh amazing race, five in a row for the kid. If you need to make a recap, go ahead and check out my last episode. And for uh F1 News, Pierre Gasly back on the podium. They appealed it and they won. If you see my last episode or heard it, you will know that I felt really bad for Pierre Gasly. They took him off the podium after the penalties. Well, he got reinstated. And now Red Bull and Mercedes and McLaren all are asking questions: why aren't their penalties being taken off as well? Who knows? Opened up a can of worms, gonna be a big mess. F1 news, Red Bull power unit looking the strongest performing power unit in F1 right now, which we are all surprised by, including Max Verstappen. And we don't know how it happened, but that's what the FIA regulations say. We obviously know their engine isn't there yet, and uh they're you know we know we know their car is heavy and their chassis super heavy, but they do have the most efficient battery unit, strongest power unit. And the rookie drivers taking over F1, so um, our free practice one. And we we talked about that. Here we are, Barcelona Grand Prix. Some fun facts. It is in Barcelona, Spain. We are used to be the Spanish Grand Prix that is now in Madrid now. So this is uh part of the 1992 development project, the Olympic development project. There are similar circuits around the calendar. We've been testing here for years, so they're all super familiar with it. And it's no it's famous for exposing weaknesses in cars, long straights, high-speed corners, technical sectors. We've already seen a bunch of people go off. Charles Leclerc crash today, of course, just having bad luck altogether. 14 corners, 2.8 miles, long straights, big overtake opportunities. Finally, tire wear is big this weekend. You've already seen the whole team go, every team go in and pit during uh practice. It's a big deal. Um, tire degration on a hot track like this. It's at 90 degrees plus out there. Um, big strategy um circuit. So, like you really need a good strategy here to work on your pits. George Russell on pole, which I think kind of caught me off guard. He led all weekend free practice, but I don't know. I just feel like he's been shaky, so I didn't see it coming. Lewis Hamilton front row, Kimmy Anson to P3. I mean, what a great day. It was uh a really fun, exciting quality and free practice, and I thought Kimmy had it. That last lap, everybody threw a really good and final last lap in. LeClaire, of course, wrecked out. We're gonna go into our predictions for the race. I think Mercedes is holding strong here, and I'm gonna be bold and say Kimmy's winning this race from fourth or from third or whatever wherever he's at, fourth, maybe. Third, um, no, he's uh he's in third, yeah. P P3, quality. I have him maybe getting up to P2 or one at turn one or two, and then a strategy move from that point forward. Either he's gonna be on George's ass and George is gonna slip up, or Mercedes or Ferrari will have a strategic error and Kimmy will take advantage. I have Kimmy, Piastri, Lewis. That's what I'm doing. Top three, boom, clock it. Kimmy, Piastri, Lewis, three different teams again, George Russell out of the top three, again, no Max, no Lando, no Charles. Dark Horse would be Max Verstappen. Sneaking in at that four for third spot would be sick. My P22 of the week is gonna be Charles Leclerc. Coming off of a wreck, another wreck in quality. I might have him finishing outside the top eight. Who knows what the future for Ferrari looks like for him? Driver the weekend prediction. I'm going with Kimmy, bro. Like, side off pre-practice one, not a great pre-practice two, almost in the mix in pre-practice three, Q uh P3 on pole, almost hit the P1. One more lap, five more minutes, he would have had P1, no doubt. Is that P22 in under 10 minutes? Because I freaking think so. Appreciate y'all. Love you. Have a great day. That's it, baby. See you guys on the track.