MorrisF1

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 13 of the Undercutters Podcast: the Chinese Grand Prix review. This was the second race in 2025 and followed hot on the heels of the Australian Grand Prix, which was a very wet event that saw half a dozen drivers crash out. As ever, you can find me on Twitter or Blue Sky under the name MorrisF1, or at morrisf1.blogspot.com, which is where I post episode transcripts and graphics such as standings and suchlike. The Chinese Grand Prix weekend also saw our first sprint race of the year. Chinese Sprint 00m 44s Qualifying for the Chinese sprint was pretty interesting. In the first session Lawson was slowest, and Hulkenberg exited while Bortoleto reached the second session. Both Alpines were out in SQ1, with Doohan faster than Gasly, while Ocon also left at this stage, meaning Bearman outqualified him. In SQ2 we waved goodbye to Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto, and Hadjar, the latter two screwing up their laps. In addition, this means Stroll conti...

The F1 2025 season has certainly started off with a bang, making it entertaining but also hard to call. Here’s how the sprint and qualifying went, and bets I considered for the Chinese Grand Prix. Sprint It was used medium tyres throughout the field for the sprint, with Hulkenberg making a pit lane start due to a setup change. The sprint is just 19 laps, roughly a third of the 56 we’ll see for the race proper on Sunday. It was mostly formation flying at the start but Ocon tumbled down the order and Antonelli fell down to 8th. Norris made a mistake and went down to 9th. Even on the first lap, Hamilton and Verstappen were close and both pulled away from Piastri. This led to initial pressure by Leclerc on Piastri, but the Aussie retained his position. Not only that, Russell was able to snatch 4th from Leclerc at the end of the long straight on lap 1. This was handy for Piastri as there was now a much larger gap behind him, while Leclerc and Russell continued to squabble. On lap 2, Hami...

This is up a day earlier than usual due to the timing of the sessions this weekend. First (and only) Practice In first and only practice Norris was fastest, almost half a second ahead of Leclerc. While Piastri was two-tenths further back this was down to an error and he should’ve been much closer. Hamilton was half a tenth off Piastri, and two-tenths ahead of his former team mate Russell. Just over a tenth behind Russell was Hulkenberg, bizarrely, with Albon, Alonso, Antonelli, and Tsunoda rounding out the top 10. Sprint Qualifying In the first part of sprint qualifying McLaren and Ferrari were looking the fastest. We also saw Bortoleto get through while Hulkenberg did not and Lawson was slowest. Those eliminated were Doohan, Gasly, Ocon, Hulk, and Lawson. Double elimination for Alpine, which isn’t great, with Doohan beating his highly regarded team mate. Bortoleto again beat Hulkenberg, which is no mean feat. Lawson being last continues his horrendous start to the season. This will ...

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 12th Undercutters episode. I’m your host, Morris. This time we’ve got a bumper podcast, combining a review of the Australian Grand Prix and a preview of the Chinese Grand Prix, which is this coming weekend. In addition, because we just had the first race of the season, I’ll be assessing how the pecking order looks for teams and drivers. As ever, if you want to find me online I’m MorrisF1 on both Twitter and Blue Sky, and you can leave comments at morrisf1.blogspot.com, which is also where I post episode transcripts and graphics. As the season goes on I plan to regularly post graphs about the title fights and suchlike. Australian Grand Prix Qualifying - 00m46s Everyone thought things would be tight in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix and the first session of the year proved very competitive, with surprises both good and bad. Q1 saw some top team drivers leave the stage, with Antonelli in 16th and Lawson 18th. To be fair, Antonelli was look...

Everyone thought things would be tight in qualifying and the first session of the year proved very competitive, with surprises both good and bad. Q1 saw some top team drivers leave the stage, with Antonelli in 16th and Lawson 18th. To be fair, Antonelli was looking pretty good but damage to his car dropped the floor and cost him around three-tenths on every straight. Lawson’s last lap was looking good but he ran wide late on, and he had been compromised by lack of running practice. This also means the Kiwi has no knowledge of the car on high fuel, which will make his race even trickier. Also out at this stage was Hulkenberg in 17th, Ocon in 19th and slowest on track, and Bearman, who did go out only to discover his gearbox wasn’t working. Because of this the British driver never set a lap time. Into Q2 we went, and I was pretty surprised that Hadjar was the fastest man eliminated, but good for him. Alonso was 12th, a tiny margin ahead of Stroll, with Doohan in 14th. The Aussie was so...

Just before the first race is one of the most exciting times as a follower of F1 but also one of the most difficult as someone who bets on the sport. Even with a couple of practice sessions, sandbagging is eminently possible. The first practice session of the year saw Norris top the time sheet, a tenth and a half up on Sainz (who appears to have forgotten he isn’t in a frontrunning team this year…). Leclerc was half a tenth behind his former team mate but two-tenths up on Piastri. The Aussie was just a few hundredths up on Verstappen, Albon, Russell, and Alonso. Hadjar was a tenth further back, and two-tenths ahead of Stroll. First practice had a red flag brought out by Bearman, one of the rookies with a few races under his belt. His Haas was roughly introduced to a concrete wall, which meant he didn’t run in FP2 at all. Tsunoda being behind his team mate and Gasly being 17th to Doohan’s 13th were little surprises. FP2 had Leclerc as fastest, a tenth ahead of Piastri and Norris (who...

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 11th Undercutters podcast. I’m your host, Morris, and we’re finally just a few days away from the start of the F1 2025 season. The Australian Grand Prix, the first F1 race of the season, is right around the corner. As always, if you want to get in touch you can leave me a comment on morrisf1.blogspot.com, which is where I post episode transcripts, or on Twitter where I’m MorrisF1. For those who prefer Blue Sky, I created an account there too, also under the name MorrisF1. Incidentally, the Formula 1 Grand Prix schedule is crammed at the start of this F1 season, with five Grands Prix in the first six weekends. The week after Australia we have China, and then there’s one week off in the Formula 1 schedule. This is followed by a triple header of Japan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. So any team that starts poorly will have very little time to turn things around in the initial run of F1 races, and any team starting well could rack up a lot of points very qu...