Matt Gallagher and Tom Bellingham are two of F1’s most popular personalities
Formula One YouTube stars Matt Gallagher and Tom Bellingham have shared their Australian Grand Prix predictions and had their say on some of the sport’s biggest talking points.
The 2023 season continues down under this weekend at the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne, with Red Bull likely to win again after dominating the opening two races.
Max Verstappen leads Sergio Perez in the standings by a single point, with the likes of Fernando Alonso and Sir Lewis Hamilton scrapping to finish best of the rest.
Best known as the face of and founder of the wildly popular media outlet WTF1, Gallagher and Bellingham have started a new project this year: P1 with Matt and Tommy, a podcast series that has already amassed over 700,000 follows across its social media channels.
In the first week of launching, P1 had 250,000 listens and hit No.1 in Apple and Spotify’s top charts, with the podcast set for its first live show at the Leicester Square Theatre on 6th April.
But what do the pair make of the latest F1 news and developments? Metro Sport sat down with Matt and Tommy ahead of the Australian Grand Prix:
Can Fernando Alonso end his 10-year wait for a win? (Photo: Getty)
The first two races of the season saw Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso on the podium. Could we see a less predictable top three in Australia?
Matt: ‘It’s hard to see anything else at this point. Who’d have thought a 41-year-old Fernando Alonso would be our only hope for a championship battle!
‘But Alonso last year was incredible. People forget he had an off in Q3 and could have easily ended up on the front row of the grid in an Alpine, and the Aston Martin has taken a step forward since then, so I am holding out hope for a potential front row for Fernando Alonso.
‘But I don’t think much else will change. Unless Ferrari manage to sort out their correlation between the wind tunnel and what happens on track because they are bringing some small upgrades to Australia. But I wouldn’t say no to another Alonso podium.’
Tommy: ‘I could see Charles Leclerc being in the mix in qualifying but it depends on that Ferrari tyre degradation. That’s been their Achilles heel for so long now and it looks like it’s continued into this year.
‘But if Charles has a good qualifying – and doesn’t get another grid penalty – you never know, because Australia’s going to be very difficult to pass on. I know they’ve made changes and there’s going to be a lot of DRS zones but it’s still one of those circuits that’s very, very, very difficult for overtaking and it looks even tougher this season.
‘So I’m not holding my breath that it’s going to be great for overtaking but we shall see.’
Charles Leclerc could be a surprise podium finisher in Australia (Photo: Getty)
There’s a bit of tension between Verstappen and Perez following the events in Saudi Arabia. Nico Rosberg added that the former needs to be ‘more gracious’ in defeat. Do you agree with that, and will things boil over between the Red Bulls?
Tommy: ‘I think there’s probably a little thought in Max’s head that with that Red Bull being so good, if Perez finishes second every race and then picks up the wins if and when he has the unreliability, then he could challenge him for the title.
‘But for me, on a level playing field, I don’t think Perez is anywhere near Verstappen. Most of Perez’s wins have come through Max’s unfortune. I don’t think Max is worried about the pace side.
‘It’s easy to say, “be more gracious in defeat”, but I think all the best champions throughout history are sore losers – they want to win all the time. No offence to certain other drivers but I think nice guys are the ones who clinch a title here and there like a Jenson Button.
‘It’s not quite good guys finish last, but drivers like [Ayrton] Senna, [Michael] Schumacher, Hamilton and now Verstappen are the ones who are going to put their name in the history books because they don’t want to give the other drivers a sniff.
Max Verstappen’s third title in a row seems inevitable (Photo: Getty)
‘It’s alright going, “Oh let Perez win a race, Max you’ve won 15 already this year”, as was the case last season. But if you put your foot off the gas, he’s not going to be this ruthless competitor that keeps dominating. All the best drivers aren’t here to finish second. It’s not charity, it’s a Formula One race.’
Matt: ‘I don’t think it will boil over, not in the context of a championship fight. Max is clear of Perez over the course of most races. But the thing is, it will only take one incident for it to just go crazy.
‘For example, Brazil last year. That came out of nowhere and was apparently to do with Monaco earlier that year and Sergio allegedly crashing on purpose. That was something we didn’t know about and was still playing on Max’s mind.
‘All we need is for them to be on the same piece of tarmac for one moment and we could get fireworks. Will it have a great impact on the championship? I don’t think so unless other teams make steps forwards, but maybe that’s what we’ll need if we’re going to get some excitement this year.’
Tommy: ‘We needed Verstappen to catch Perez in Saudi and see him potentially go for a move because Perez is known for defending against his teammates pretty hard, so maybe that’s where it happens. That one moment on track.’
Sergio Perez is probably Verstappen’s closest challenger (Photo: Getty)
Despite F1’s best attempts to close the gap from the front of the grid to the back and produce better on-track racing, the first two races of 2023 were pretty dull and Red Bull look set to completely dominate the season. What’s gone wrong?
Matt: ‘The regulations themselves were more leaned towards having better racing so the cars can follow. There’s less aero wash, so they can fight for more than one corner before their tyres go off. When these new cars were first introduced last year, we saw great wheel-to-wheel action and cars sticking together a lot more.
‘But now, some drivers are beginning to say that because the teams have started to understand more about the new regulations, they’re already designing the cars to be more hard to follow and you’re like oh no!
‘We had one year of good racing and now the teams are ruining it by sticking bits on the car to clearly make it faster but also to make it harder for rivals to follow. It’s a constant battle.
‘One team dominating has always existed in F1. You had the Mercedes era, the Red Bull era, the Ferrari era. But I would maybe argue that as much as it is painful to have six or seven years of dominance, you then get that one year when there are a few teams battling for the championship.
The Red Bull RB19 looks unstoppable (Photo: Getty)
‘It’s the best feeling in the world. I would like it to happen a bit more often than every five, six, seven years but that is just the way F1 goes.’
Tommy: ‘The budget cap will take a while to naturally affect things and that, with the wind tunnel time, should allow the slower teams to catch up. You’ve had Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari spending way more than anyone else in the past, so hopefully in the next few years when others have caught up and no one can spend more to develop the cars, we’ll have a much closer field.
‘But the problem F1 are going to have in this big boom period with Drive to Survive and huge ticket prices, is they can’t wait for the field to close up.’
Matt: ‘With the cost cap, as much as it’s supposed to bring the field closer together, if one team starts out really on top of the regulations, the other teams won’t have enough money left to spend on fixing the car.
‘For example, Mercedes are having that exact problem. They can’t just whack on that concept, this concept, it costs a hell of a lot of money so the cost cap is a double-edged sword. It may work, it may not.’
It is uncertain whether Mercedes can afford to improve the W14 (Photo: Getty)
How long should F1 give it before they switch up the regulations to ‘nerf’ Red Bull and give the others a chance?
Matt: ‘I’d like to think teams will close up to Red Bull over the course of the year. Aston Martin have got the much greater wind tunnel time and they’re the closest to Red Bull. I’d like to think this dominance won’t last the entire year – but perhaps that’s my Ferrari coping methods being called out here!
‘It’s really difficult because at the end of the day F1 is a sport – why should a team be punished for doing a good job? I think there have been periods of time like in 2021 when Mercedes were clearly pegged back to produce one of the most epic title fights we’ll ever see.
‘But then you have to take into account the entertainment factor and this boom period isn’t going to last forever. F1 are very aware I’m sure that this bubble won’t last forever and people will eventually say we’ve had three boring years now and you’re charging double or whatever it is for a ticket.
F1’s popularity could plummet if the quality of races doesn’t improve soon (Photo: Getty)
‘They have to think quite carefully about how they do it and work with the FIA and so on, but those lines between whether it’s sport or entertainment first are blurring and I think it depends on what side they prefer to go on it.’
Tommy: ‘And you risk it going the other way as well. Some people have been saying that they changed the rules and raised the ride height to help combat the porpoising but that may have actually made following and overtaking harder. And you could argue that since they’ve made these changes Red Bull have actually gotten further ahead.
‘It is possible that they’ll bring in something to nerf Red Bull, but Adrian Newey is a very clever man, and he’ll find the best fix around of anyone and they go even further ahead, so I would worry that could even be the case.
‘Otherwise, we’ve just got to hope that naturally all of the teams will catch up, but it may take a bit of time. But if you constantly change the goal posts it could have the opposite effect where a team ends up more dominant because they’re getting on top of the regulations and pulling an even bigger gap.’
Is it time for F1 to introduce reverse grids? (Photo: Getty)
If there was one change – and it could be absolutely anything – that you would make to F1, what would it be?
Tommy: ‘I would go reverse grids in some of the races at least. Even if they did have them at every race, we’ve seen with the Red Bull this year it might not matter – they’d still win.
‘Even if they started at the back and Williams at the front for example, Red Bull would still win the championship. But it makes it a hell of a lot more exciting and F1 is a weird sport in that the best people start at the front. You put the car that’s one second quicker 1-2 and then wonder why there’s no overtaking!
‘I personally would not be against reverse grids, but I know a lot of people would argue that that ruins the integrity of the sport. But it’s been around from the 50s – it’s always evolving.’
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Matt: ‘Serious answer: One shot qualifying in Q3 so that we might have some element of change or difference in that session. So the 10th quickest or the lowest in the standings, depending on how you want to grade it, would go out first and then reverse from there.
‘I think that would be quite exciting and if there’s some rain at the end of the session then we won’t have a Verstappen on pole and we could get an exciting race.
‘Non-serious answer: If Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO] wants to get rid of practice sessions, let’s get rid of practice sessions! Scrap those and let’s have an equal car championship where everyone goes in spec cars, and it’ll just be a bit of fun. People would love it, the entertainment value would be through the roof!’
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‘I don’t think Max is worried’
