Will Red Bull's resurgence continue? Oscar back to his best? – 2025 Singapore GP Preview with Jolyon Palmer

26:30Jolyon Palmer:So that means that you're way more likely to stuff it into the barriers. If you're a little bit more cautious on the brakes, but you release the brakes and you're hustling it on the entry, you're probably going to have a smaller moment than just locking the brake and never getting it back. And I think that's obviously what he did in qualifying. The grip level was coming down. It was super tricky for everyone. I mean, Leclerc also crashed. Obviously, Lando hit the barriers as well at the end. And so he's not the only one, but he hit it the hardest. And then the race, I think the race is a similar looking crash for a similar reason.

27:03Jolyon Palmer:Braking too late, trying too hard, and is still trying to find the time or the position on the brakes rather than trying to release the speed and carry it towards an apex. But it's sort of a different one as well because he was on the wrong part of the track out wide. And just scruffy, just scruffy generally, and a lot of braking issues for him. Problem is, though, as I said, the next one is Singapore. So you've got the barriers there again, and it's another tricky street circuit. So it will be punishing. Baku is the only race this year, really, where Oscar, I feel, regressed compared to last year.

27:34I know you make a good point about Monaco being scrappy, but I think pretty much every other racetrack we've been to this year, we've seen a huge difference, positive difference between the Oscar of 25 versus the Oscar of 2024. and he's going to need a decent step in in singapore if he's going to challenge lando right he qualified i think four tenths of a second off lando last year uh you know it was an emphatic weekend for lando last year and and if oscar's gonna put one over him he's gonna have to take

28:08Jolyon Palmer:a big step also your your the baku 24 race was like the race of his life still it was a pretty high benchmark to keep going but I do think on this the last few races I think we are seeing we're probably about to come to it but we are starting to see Lando be a bit quicker consistently so through Monza Lando was a bit quicker through Baku I felt like Lando was a little bit quicker I even think in Zanvoort Lando was a little bit quicker didn't do the lap in Q3 but through the rest of the weekend, he was just a little, probably a shade quicker. And that's probably also why Oscar's maybe starting to overdrive a little bit and why he's maybe feeling the pressure more than he has done.

28:50When you say he's overdriving, is that why he's missing braking points and being too aggressive? But when you overdrive, are you invariably aggressive under brakes? Is that what you do?

29:02Jolyon Palmer:Yeah, I mean, generally it comes from the entry. So it can be just braking too late or it can be, you know, hustling loads of speed and breaking too soft and whatever you're basically you're trying to find lap time but you end up costing yourself more lap time or making mistakes by being aggressive with it and that is that's what oscar was doing on when he crashed he was i think he was slightly up on lando by being aggressive on the brakes turn one turn two but then you see the risk around back you the all these breaking zones they they bite when you start to to keep doing that and and that's what he did it felt like he was yeah just pushing and then and then a little bit of of overdriving and you don't think his mindset going into Baku um had been upset by all of the the shenanigans after the race in Monza about team orders and then he arrives in Baku on the Thursdays in the press conference that's all anyone wants to talk to him about what do you what do you think you were you were there in the press conference um no I thought he he dealt with it all very well with a smile on his face um although interestingly someone did come up to me after the press conference, someone had been in the room and said, I'm no body language expert, but Oscar is carrying himself a little differently this weekend.

30:16I didn't notice that myself, but it was an interesting observation. And then you go and look and see, he was out of sorts all weekend, wasn't he? I thought it was interesting

30:24Jolyon Palmer:in that press conference, actually, when you asked him if he would have given up the win and he had a little retort back, but he sort of didn't mention, he didn't easily say, yeah, I would have given up the win. which is what I thought you'd just say, wouldn't you? Because you don't have to prove it. But it felt like there was a little bit more, a bit of bite in there. But I don't think it translates to being on the track. I think it's when you're on the track, visors down, you're not thinking about the outside noise, you're thinking about lap time. And if the lap time is not there, you start pushing harder, you start pushing harder and you start making mistakes.

31:00Talking of mistakes, I'm reminded, you know, we've just been a little earlier, we were praising Lando for his drive in Singapore last year. He wins by 20 seconds from Max. But do you remember just before half distance, he nearly put it in the barrier? Oh, yeah. You know, so it is a track where it does bite. He had like a 20 second lead as well, didn't he?

31:21Jolyon Palmer:He was so far clear and nearly Ayrton Senna'd it straight into the wall. Ayrton Senna, of course. That's a tough mention for Senna, who did a lot of good. there's one moment where he put it in the wall at portia but who is favorite do you think norris goes in as favorite after the performance he put in last year and as you say he seems to the last couple of races had the edge over oscar yeah i i think norris would be favorite for this one i think the momentum's starting to go with him i mean he obviously had his own pretty tricky weekend last time so actually for oscar sitting on that chair at turn five, he'd have not been hating the way that Grand Prix was panning out.

32:04Jolyon Palmer:But the gaps come down anyway to 25. And I think the way that Lando's driving, I think he's getting more comfortable in the car. And he's getting consistent laps out of it pretty well. I know the Q3 one, he tapped the wall, but there was a bit of circumstance in play there. Generally, I think he's a little bit quicker than Oscar in the last few races. And as you say, Singapore was a great track for him last year. He was quick. You turn, you turn up, you've got to spring in your step. And I think that momentum is starting to go to Lando. Well, let's go a little bit further down the order now, because it's a fascinating battle between Ferrari and Mercedes in the Constructors Championship.

32:43Mercedes moved four points ahead of the Scuderia in Baku. I don't know when we go when you look at those two teams you look at Singapore you look at the fact that Lewis is a four-time winner at Marina Bay Charles Leclerc is a bit of a street circuit specialist how do you see it playing out between Ferrari and Mercedes this weekend right so I

33:06Jolyon Palmer:for a few weeks now I've been I've been uh been going big on Ferrari and now I'm going to go a It's a bit smaller on Ferrari now after a couple of false dawns. But I still think they have the better car than Mercedes. But their execution is not there. Monza was roughly okay. They probably finished where they roughly deserved, just outside of the podium. But Baku, you've got Hamilton on a used, soft tyre, trying to get around in Q2, and he goes out. Then Leclerc hits the barriers in Q3, and they end up 10th and 12th on the grid. I mean, that's so far away from what that car should have been capable.

33:42Jolyon Palmer:of and that seems to be a little bit the story of Ferrari season I think they've got more in there from what they should be posting and you look at someone like Max the McLarens generally even though we talk about little mistakes here or there and Baku was not a not a good example but they are putting the times on the board George Russell is putting times on the board Kimi was very good in Baku as well and yet Ferrari is not necessarily just the team but sometimes the drivers are making these mistakes and so again before Singapore I think they should beat Mercedes but I went back and looked at the results from last year and I looked at qualifying and Ferrari were 10th and 9th on the grid and Carlos Sainz had a crash and Charles Leclerc didn't get a lap time in for going over track limits at turn two that just feels like the most Ferrari thing possible on a circuit where they should be quick you know they the amount of times they have these catastrophic no points out of a race weekend that you've got to be at least getting a top five so logic would say they're going to be good again low speed better than mercedes but they've got to put it on the board in the way that carlos science delivered you know when there was the chance of a big result in baku carlos science delivered do you think lewis hamilton could do that for ferrari and he'll be spurred on by the fact surely that carlos has got a podium uh for williams before he's got a podium for ferrari i just i don't know i feel that as you say they keep tripping up when they shouldn't but at some point they're not going to trip over their shoelaces and they're gonna deliver and i i've just got a feeling about singapore it could this could be the moment i'm glad you're carrying on the torch of optimism for Ferrari because I've passed it on to you now.

35:36Jolyon Palmer:Yeah, there's a certain level of irony, isn't there, to Sainz getting a podium this year and Hamilton not. Yet Sainz is in the Williams and Hamilton's taking his seat at Ferrari. I don't know. I just, I thought, I really thought Baku was going to be the one. They ended Friday 1-2. And I thought this is going to be my genius prediction coming in. Finally, Ferrari going to get their win. but they they just there's always something going wrong for them and it seems to be going wrong firstly for Lewis at some point being on the wrong tire at the wrong time finding traffic going track limits uh you know having a big rear lock or whatever in Spa there's always something that seems to be going wrong for him and he's very dejected and then you know the other car can be hit or miss you're you're absolutely right that both drivers have got great form in Singapore.

36:23Jolyon Palmer:The circuit is as close as you can get to Monaco, which is low speed. They qualified what's second and fourth. Lewis had his penalty. Charles was very nearly on pole. The car has actually made some steps over the summer since that moment as well with suspension upgrades, floor upgrades. Obviously, everyone else is moving forward as well. But I think they can be quick, but I'm just a little bit scared to predict that they're going to be really good after the last couple of weekends so I'll let you do that instead. What about Antonelli? Let's stick on the Italian theme for a moment. He needed a big weekend in Baku.

36:56He did deliver it and Singapore's a confidence track right so that will only have helped him big time going into Singapore.

37:04Jolyon Palmer:Yeah I think good for him to get a result in Baku because it is also a confident circuit. They're obviously quite different but they are street circuits fundamentally, quite narrow quite punishing different ends of like the downfall spectrum and the physicality and and everything else but uh yeah i we spoke after monza didn't we and i thought he didn't do such a bad job but toto wolf came out with with his underwhelming race that line that sort of got bandied around his qualifying pace was pretty good he was obviously ahead of george you have to say george was feeling and sounding pretty groggy all weekend so actually for him to end up second is a pretty phenomenal result, I think.

37:44Jolyon Palmer:But Kimi did the job that Toto, I think, would have been really happy with. Fourth, not quite a podium, but it was difficult to overtake. And you're right, the confidence that he'll take from just putting a clean weekend on the board when the amount of other big-name drivers were finding barriers, having mistakes, even Hajar, rookie of the year contender, and he's made a couple of quite significant mistakes at key times. Antonelli's there putting it together so that's why Mercedes took such a big jump before they've been a one-car team really with Russell but you add in some points for Antonelli and they are going to be a bit of a threat for Ferrari.

38:22And let's not leave Red Bull out of this P2 in the Constructors' Championship conversation they're only 18 points behind Mercedes now and if Tsunoda can start scoring points regularly in this rejuvenated car I think it's a three-way battle

38:38Jolyon Palmer:for p2 i think it is again you got obviously max carrying carrying the the burden there at red bull if max is going to win the driver's title then red bull will probably come second because they'll need all of those points for it um but yeah it was a good race for yuki just good to have a solid performance uh absorbed pressure late on from lando pretty well absorbed pressure early on from charles pretty well so they're good contenders in a ferrari and a mclaren he won't start that high up every day he was lucky to start where he did obviously you've got big names having issues you've got leclerc piastri in the barriers you've got hamilton out in q2 you've then got norris hitting the barriers and he was the last car over the line in q3 so everything was stacked in his favor to start what sixth position in the end so there's work for him to do but at least in the in the the realm of confidence chats it's a good one for him to to get some points and i still think second driver there will let Red Bull down.

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42:09God, it's so funny, isn't it? On the Thursday of Baku, the Italian media was going very strong on science to Red Bull next year. And yet on the Sunday night, Carlos was talking about Williams being his life project to get that team back to the front of the grid. So it was a real sort of silly season.

42:35Jolyon Palmer:That is just an absolute synopsis of the F1 media, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, this is going to happen. No, it's definitely not. It's definitely not. Shut the door. And Carlos, I mean, he was back to his bold best, wasn't he, in Baku? Do you think Williams will be sharp in Singapore as well? They were just, I seem to remember, just outside the top 10 in qualifying last year at Marina Bay. I think they'll be, you know, flirting with the top 10. They won't be as good, I don't think, as they were in Monza or Baku. but they are a team that they like short radius corners long sweeping fast turns has never been a good strong point of them I think Barcelona was a particularly bad weekend for them this year and for every year really so the the corner layouts will be good they like a nice long straight as well which is where their car was really good in the last two weekends I think they've done a they've done so much right haven't they Williams and obviously Sainz's podium has taken so much pressure off them in terms of that fifth place in the championship now and I liked it because you could see the value of a race-winning driver slotting into a midfield team because he looked like a front runner he was the car was painted blue but if it was painted red or silver it would have just looked like oh Sainz is doing the job in a fast car but he was in a Williams and that's what you get I think you get an accomplished driver who knows what it's like to be fighting on the front row of the grid he's not overawed by a big occasion and he just concentrated on his own pace on his own race the car was good and and finally he almost doubled his points tally dinner with James Valls is obviously a powerful thing to do James spoke after the race about him having dinner with Carlos on the Thursday night and they just laid the cards on the table saying look it's been tricky what more do you need from us the team and then let's just exchange ideas and bang that suddenly 48 hours later he's stood on the podium should we book in a dinner with with james vows then what for the pod for the pod we're gonna take it from strength to strength let's just um discuss williams a little bit more are they doing better than you were expecting pre-season uh yes i think i mean getting a podium great alban's been great fifth place in the constructors is as good as anyone could have hoped i think they're doing better than than anyone could have expected aren't they i think given where they were last year particularly the start of last you remember when we arrived in melbourne they had a really good pre-season test in bahrain i think science was like second quickest and i think we all we all started to think is this the williams of 1997 again we were like is getting really carried away with williams are back in the golden era and And James Vowles had been saying for the last six months of last year that they had the best driver lineup in the field.

45:27Jolyon Palmer:They came out of the blocks flying and we were like, hang on, Williams are just genuine front runners. They're not, obviously. And I think that's why maybe it feels normal that they're fifth. But they've actually, when you look on year on year, they've had a really great effort. I like the fact that they signed Sainz. I don't know Val's put so much emphasis on how hard he had to work to get Carlos to come and the project and now Carlos is saying it's his life's work and it's great they're galvanized but remember last year they had Logan Sargent driving for them for half the year and then Franco Colopinto I mean they've they've come a long way but just having a race winning second driver means that they can put a car on the podium when Alex Albin has an off weekend and probably Albon's found a couple of tenths this year as well.

46:23Jolyon Palmer:So just focusing on having a really strong driver lineup, I think in that tight midfield, it makes all the difference. I said to Carlos in the post-qualifying press conference, you know, he just qualified second. I said, well, look, Carlos, the transition to Williams hasn't been the easiest for you this year. And then he interrupts me and he goes, no, no, the transition's been fine. I've just had a lot of bad luck and da-da-da-da. So he is, despite what's been a very difficult season for him, he's still really happy with the progress they're making for 2026. So let's get the crystal ball out. Next year, Williams, McLaren, Alpine and Mercedes all have the same power unit.

47:09Give me one, two, three, four.

47:10Jolyon Palmer:uh i'm i'm gonna be super boring and say the order that we have now i still think it's i think mclaren mercedes williams alpine but it's tough to know really isn't it is there is a whole new reg cycle how much emphasis are mclaren putting on this year have mercedes canned it early on and and gonna produce something more it's difficult to imagine williams making the jump to be on a level with the other two just because they are such powerhouses of Formula One teams and Williams are still it was at the start of last year that James Vals came in and was like what you're doing making a spares list on an Excel spreadsheet let's we need to update our systems here and it's it's a massive undertaking for them to to turn it around new regs will come at a good time I still think they're not going to be on a par with the others and then Alpine I can't help but think they're going to be on the back foot I thought they'd be better I thought they'd be quite an exciting prospect but that's my order jp of those four teams who has the best driver lineup so you've got lando and oscar at mclaren you've got let's work on george and kimmy at mercedes although that hasn't been announced you're going to have alex and carlos at williams and let gasly's been announced and it looks increasingly likely that it's going to be colopinto in the second seat who's got the best driver lineup i think i think it's again the same order tough with Mercedes I think McLaren have the best lineup of those four I think Norris and Piastri are both really high level drivers and one of them will be a champion I think Russell is at least in that bracket maybe better than those two but right in that bracket as well but Antonelli is not there yet we will see with the second year if he can get more consistent I think Sainz and alban are not at russell's level but both really good competent drivers for for williams and would be great you know worthy of a top seat and then what you know gasly and colapinto gasly's absolutely solid colapinto's still a bit unproven do you disagree with with any of the synopsis there of team pecking orders driver pecking orders i agree with you that i think mclaren are going to go into next year it seems to me everything mclaren puts on their car correlates that's the key everything they're doing at the factory seems to work on the racetrack so that applies to this current set of regs sure but there's no reason to see why that won't apply next year as well and they've got you know rob marshall peter padromu some absolute gold in their design and aerodynamics departments there so yeah i agree i think in terms of the car i expect uh mclaren to be there mercedes i can't understand why they've struggled as much as they have with these current rigs i get you know they missed a beat you know going for the ultra slim do you remember the slim zero parts rear end zero yeah on the car okay fine that didn't work that was three years ago now sure but it's still an inconsistent car isn't it yeah um and and why shouldn't those inconsistencies apply next year i see no reason why why they shouldn't um there's obviously some correlation issue brain power issue i've no idea what is understanding isn't it that has been mercedes downfall when they get it right they have a great car they've built a great car on 10 of the time but they don't know why it's not there more than 10%.

50:45And I think they'll win Las Vegas. And then Williams are just the dark horse, aren't they?

50:52Jolyon Palmer:I'd love to see them. I'd love to see them. You know, when you look at those teams, JP, and you look at, you know, I mentioned a couple of names at McLaren and of course there's loads more there and Andrea Stella and all these stellar people who have had great success in Formula One. You can point at Mercedes and look at a whole bunch of people there, led by James Allison, Simone Rester, all of these people have had great success in Formula One as well. Then you look at Williams and the only sort of headline engineer there who's had lots of success before is James Fowles, but he's actually the team principal and not the guy designing and building the car.

51:30So that's not to say there isn't brilliant talent at Williams, but there's no headline name there that you'd sort of hang your hat on. That's not to say they can't deliver. But that's why they're a dark horse, because we don't, I don't know just how good they can get. Yes, they turn the tap off this year's car before anyone else. But just how effective is everything back at Grove? We're going to find out next year. And ditto, in a way, Alpine as well.

51:58Jolyon Palmer:And also, I mean, we've just compared them to the other Mercedes runners. But if you compare them to the rest of the field, Aston Martin, Racing Bulls, Haas, I would expect them to be ahead of all of that lot next year. And I think they're the one from the midfield who could become a front runner. Maybe Aston Martin's a, you know, the Adrian Newey Aston Martin movie I shouldn't rule out too quickly. But I still think Williams, with their line-up, with the way the team's going, have the best chance to become a top team again. Well, who's going to be top this weekend? It's prediction time. I know we spend a lot of this pod making predictions, but let's focus on Singapore now.

52:3962 laps what have we got the c3 c4 c5 uh compounds with us the c6 we're not seeing again uh this year that's what we had in in baku give us your top three right i'm gonna go i've thought

52:53Jolyon Palmer:long and hard about it this week because i'm off the back of a couple of dud ferrari predictions so i'm gonna let i am gonna let you go for the ferrari one two and it's all fine uh i'm gonna go back to basics because i want to get i want to get one on the board here i'm gonna go norris from Piastri manages to dig in but it's still Lando and then Max is third and that seems to me the obvious top three for Singapore I agree on Lando as P1 but I think we're going to see a bit of jeopardy this weekend and we're going to see Hamilton get his first yeah there's the Ferrari Hamilton get his first podium because I do think Singapore is a track where the driver can make that little bit of difference and definitely so hamilton for p2 and i'm actually going to put max in p3 and we're going to have a much closer championship table uh at the end of the singapore grand prix weekend look anyone else we should be looking out for a quick question to you go if the championship tape so if you're right with your prediction and the championship goes down to sort of 12 points 10 points towards oscar do you think then lando's a heavy favorite for it with this run well then you look at what races we've got coming up um Lando is always very good at Austin Oscar's never really had a great season running Qatar he's been strong at yeah but the other circuits are a little bit unproven for him I mean so many he's stepped up this year I think if the momentum goes like that is I'm fascinated to see how Oscar goes in Singapore how he bounces back from the disappointment of Baku um we've never seen him so out of sorts in a formula one car as we did in baku and i think a lot will rest on the cool calm collected oscar coming back i think if if that returns oscar is i think still favorite yeah for the championship irrespective of the point scores after singapore um but if we see a tentative oscar who's too aggressive on the brakes making mistakes then then i think lando might be your man but don't leave out Max Verstappen as I say look one final thought anyone else we should be looking out for in Singapore I mean you know Fernando Alonso two-time winner do we think Aston will be a little bit more competitive in high downforce trim yep even Haas uh Nico Hulkenberg qualified in the top 10 last year yep uh that midfield battle is so close still isn't it just trying to get a car or two into the points is so critical and I feel like every weekend all of those positions you can be you can be 20th on the grid or you can have two cars in the top 10 and it's literally a tenth or two in Q1 and then the same in Q2 makes makes the difference Alonso for me is high downforce we're back to both Astons having a good chance I think Fernando particularly in in Singapore is going to go well the other one I would say is let's watch out again for hajar high downforce um that car i know they've just had a great run on the low downforce of baku but there's again the short radius corners i think hajar on a street circuit is gonna gonna do well well jp thank you very much great to chat to you as ever always a pleasure it works with the highlight montage at the start gets me really fired up for these and remember folks that in selected countries you can hear joelian's analysis of all the action in Singapore this weekend on F1 TV.

56:24And you can keep up to date with everything that happens on and off the track at FormulaOne.com, the official F1 app and at F1 on social media. Well, thanks very much for listening. We will, of course, be back on Monday from the Marina Bay paddock with our review of the Grand Prix. F1 Nation is produced by Formula One and Audioboom Studios.

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