Football Daily - Champions League Debrief: Man City rocked by Real Madrid comeback

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Having been 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go, Manchester City are left to rue conceding late goals in a 3-2 at home to Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie.Kelly Cates presents reaction to Tuesday night's action, with football correspondent John Murray alongside Chris Waddle at the Etihad Stadium.Andros Townsend and Spanish football journalist Manuel Sanchez also join the podcast to provide their insight, while football reporter John Bennett looks at the results elsewhere in Europe.You can also hear the post-match thoughts of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.Finally, in the evening's other big story, John Acres is at Exeter City, where Premier League side Nottingham Forest survived an FA Cup scare and beat the League One team on penalties after an entertaining 2-2 draw.TIMECODES: 00:32 - Manchester City 2-3 Real Madrid 06:10 - Pep Guardiola 07:24 - Manuel Sanchez 14:02 - Carlo Ancelotti 23:30 - Other Champions League games 24:43 - Nottingham Forest's FA Cup win over Exeter City on penaltiesBBC Sounds / 5 Live commentaries this week:Wed 12 Feb - 20:00 - Celtic vs Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League on 5 Live Sat 15 Feb - 15:00 - Manchester City v Newcastle United in the Premier League Sat 15 Feb - 17:30 - Crystal Palace v Everton in the Premier League Sun 16 Feb - 12:15 - Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur in the Women's Super League on 5 Sports Extra Sun 16 Feb - 14:00 - Liverpool v Wolves in the Premier League on 5 Live Sun 16 Feb - 16:30 - Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United in the Premier League on 5 Live Tue 18 Feb - 20:00 - Bayern Munich v Celtic in the UEFA Champions League on 5 Live

BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. On the Football Daily podcast, the Champions League debrief. With Kelly Kitts. Listen on BBC Sounds. Manchester City's Champions League hopes hang in the balance. It finished 3-2 to Real Madrid in the first leg of their playoff. Another great game between these two sides at the Etihad Forest. Chris Waddell alongside our correspondent John Murray and John City had it within their grasp twice in this game.

Yes, not for the first time in this shock season of underperformance. Manchester City are staring at an early exit from the Champions League and it is another agonising story of a late collapse for them. Manchester City led twice on the night. They were 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go yet they will have to go and win in the Bernabeu next week if they're to make the last 16. Erling Haaland had opened the scoring in the first half after a strong start from the holders but Real Madrid came on strong again at the start of the second half and Kylian Mbappe's miss hit, sliced shot made it 1-1. City rolled their luck and won a penalty converted by Harland which looked

to have swung it their way but then cue yet another late capitulation as substitute Brahim Diaz equalised and then in added time, Vinicius robbed Lewis and set up Jude Bellingham to slide in the winning goal that means Real Madrid have one foot in the next round. Chris, there's always an argument that whatever the scoreline says is the way that it goes, but on the balance of play, what do you think City deserved from the game? I thought they deserved a draw, I thought Real Madrid carried that threat as we talked about that front four, always looked dangerous when they had time on the ball to release them players, got terrific pace. But I thought City managed the game pretty well, first half especially.

Second half they dropped right off the pace and tried to slow it right down. I thought when they went 2-1 up you thought, well the game plans worked. But this is Real Madrid and they live for this competition and they just went for it. And they've ended up winning the game. City, unfortunately, picked a few injuries up as well. I looked at the players and I thought a few of them were physically tired, you could say that, but they'll have to keep rolling their sleeves up and go. It's going to be a massive task to get a result over there.

Andras Townsend is with us this evening. Andras, what were your thoughts on the game? Draw was probably a fair result. The second half went similar to the first half. Real Madrid came out the trap so quickly, so explosive, looking to play the ball in behind at the earliest opportunity. Had so many chances in behind. Ended up equalizing from a scruffy effort,

but brilliant in that first half of the second half. And then Petro on Kovacic, Rico Lewis was able to show his qualities in midfield as opposed to defending 1v1 and Man City regained control again, got the goal 2-1, you're thinking okay, City are taking something to the Bernabeu with a 2-1 victory. Real Madrid done what Real Madrid have done in the Champions League in the last two or three seasons and just pulled off an unexpected comeback in the last few minutes. It is those late goals as well, Chris, that are really particularly worrying for Manchester City, not just because it's this game.

It can happen once or twice in a season, but this is now becoming a pattern for City. It is, second half, I don't know what it is with them, they come out and then, you know, we know that they're very tactical in the way they play, they love possession, they love to keep the ball, but they are very vulnerable, you know, there's not a lot of pace in that back four, what started it out, there's not a lot of pace in the team really, when you look at Bartom Harlan, you know, when they went two on up you just thought, right, just sit back a bit. Real Madrid keep them in front and actually hit them on the break. They didn't they still kept playing that high lane even though they kept trying to keep the ball.

They went higher and higher and it's just one ball you've got to think somebody just pulls it on one side and drops it in behind and the pace of the players that Real Madrid have got are always going to carry a threat and maybe if they drop 20 yards and thought no you can have the ball at the back you can have the ball in midfield you're not hurting but you know Real Madrid saw the opportunity and they took it. John the other big story as you've highlighted throughout the game is the injuries in that Manchester City squad. A kanji, Grealish. Foden came on for Grealish but it looked like he was he was sort of injured in the the penalty

incident as well and it's just it that's as worrying for City as anything really. Yeah I mean a lot of what we've seen tonight has been typical of everything that's happened to Manchester City since October really when that when that initial losing streak started for them and and yet you know just at a point where as was mentioned right at the start of the evening that um you know they have a bend they've got players now back from injury and yet to lose Grealish and Akangy in the way that they did you know seeing his injury tonight you have to doubt that he'd be available for the second leg they're obviously been very careful with Nathan Aki as well but still even

though I thought Stones did very well tonight in the in the positions that he played you know there's still that gaping gap from the man who was on the banner at the start of the evening in the stands, Rodri. Having said that, there's not a gaping gap in terms of the scoreline. There is only one goal in it at the moment, Andros. Were there positives from Manchester City in that performance that they can take to the Bernabeu? Of course there are positives. Man City controlled large parts of the first half and large parts of the second half, but Real Madrid, I think they're a different team.

I said at the top of the programme, they're a different team this season to they were in the last few seasons. Now, as we saw, they have the ability to keep the ball, to have large amounts of possessions for a large amount of time, and then they have obviously the threat in behind with the pace. So it's going to be extremely difficult.

Man City are going to have to come out. They're probably going to have to play more attacking than they did. They're probably going to have to sacrifice Stones as the number six and maybe play Kovacic and get on the ball more and try to create more. And as we know, that's going to leave gaps in behind for the explosive front four of Ramadjid. So of course they have a chance. But as we've seen in previous seasons at Bernabeu,

it's not going to be easy at all. Let's hear from Pep Guardiola. For time we played in a row against Madrid here. The previous three were much, much better than them. And today was tight in certain moments. They have chances that Ederson was our best player. And yeah, there was some times happened there. How many times a team is better

and after that the result doesn't work. And I think they start really well, the first 15 minutes after we took the game, we played really, really good with the ball. The second half, they could not have the passes that we need to play and we wanna attack so quick. And when you attack so quick against the strikers that they have at front it's more more difficult but after the 2-1 it happened to resume a little bit this season so

many games happen against Feyenoord, against Sporting Dresden, against Bramford in Premier League and Man United and many games like at the end we give away so we give a little bit for ourselves and in that level it's so difficult. It's not the first time unfortunately, it happened many times and that's why it's difficult. So Manchester City beaten 3-2 by Real Madrid at the Etihad. We can bring in Spanish football journalist Manuel Sanchez. Good evening Manuel. Good evening.

What did you make of Real Madrid in this game? Very tough to sum up. They most of them after this kind of match because Madrid is believable and unbelievable at the same time. When you reach that moment, losing 2-1 and Real Madrid always believe that they can turn this around and they have tough moments this season in which they cannot, they were frustrated because they cannot capitalize on those opportunities like back in Barcelona against Atletico de Madrid and tonight was one of those nights that nothing was going to go in and eventually in some way two mistakes from Man City and Bellingen and Mbappé and Brahim has won this match for Real Madrid. I think it's a bit frustrating.

They haven't been able to kill off the tie, but it's a great result for Real Madrid. They finally have won in Etihad after, I think it's seven times they tried and it's the first time that they won here. Yeah, and it's a significant win for them, especially with that second leg still to come in Madrid as well.

Just put into context, how badly this Madrid team has been hit by injuries. Well it's been very difficult for Carlo Ancelotti to try to put a defence team that was capable to stop players like Haaland because Raúl Asensio is just a player from the academy who hasn't played much before this season. Valverde was playing as a right back. Ferland Mendy is not the most reliable player in terms of defensive tasks. Obviously, Rudiger has been injured, Militao has been injured, Alaba has been injured. Swamini, he's a midfielder and he hasn't had the best season this year for Real Madrid playing as a centre back. So I think many Real Madrid playing as a centre-back. So I think many Real Madrid fans were not believing

that they can get a win or a draw in Etihad, but I think they didn't know as well that Man City is having one of the worst season since Guardiola started. So it has been very difficult for Calvo Ancelotti, but when you have Vinicio, Rodrigo, Bellingham and Mbappé up front, if you try to have that fight against them, you know

you're going to have like 10, 15 opportunities per match and in the end you're going to be able to score two or three goals at least. So I think that's the game that Real Madrid are playing right now. Do you think though on the flip side in possession, the injuries in the defence could have played into Real Madrid's hands tonight because Chiuameni, Valverde are both midfielders with great quality on the ball and with Man City playing a high line they were able to play first time long balls over the top whereas maybe a Rudiger or a Carver Howe at the back probably wouldn't have had the quality to do. Yeah definitely that can be one of the things that Ancelotti was going through his mind because

I mean I think it's a matter of what Real Madrid needed and what Real Madrid had. I don't think Cabral and Celote has been able to play that battle mind against Guardiola of I'm gonna do this or that. And Celote had what he had, what he was through Aménie and Valverde, and he can make more of like the match that they played was amazing. There are two ways of hurting or damaging Man City. That is like low block, try to play like Benítez and Vapére run, or try to put a lot of pressure on how they try to build up the play. And I think they've done both things great.

And the way that too many Asensio and Valverde amended today, like in an emergency way they have played, it was amazing for them. And you said, Manuel, that it looked as though Madrid were creating chances and that maybe they just wouldn't go in on the night. That's one of the things that Jude Bellingham has been talking about to Amazon Prime. He started off by saying it was a weird game, we played some of our best football and then managed to find our way behind. He said the knockout games seem like they always have ups and downs, It's not just a technical aspect, it's a psychological one. But we were creating a lot of chances.

So we thought one would land and we were always confident that something would land for us. But those those opening comments that he made about the fact that actually, when Madrid were playing well is when City scored and when City were back in the game, that, that was when Madrid got back into it. Yeah, yeah, I think Bellegón was right, because I think Real Madrid has taken a lot of pressure off their shoulders with this match,

because if you follow Real Madrid, you have seen they losing against Barcelona and nil for this season. And in that match, actually, Mbappé had many chances, and Real Madrid was really frustrated, because they produced those chances and they were not able to capitalize on it. And it happened the same last weekend against Atletico de Madrid. It was a draw, but Real Madrid deserved to win.

And I think Real Madrid deserved probably a bigger victory because they were creating so many chances and it's very unusual that players like Mbappé or Benítez or Bellingan or Rodrigo are not able to score that chance. So I think this victory is going to boost the confidence of Real Madrid players a lot this season because they needed this. And it's always been very difficult for Real Madrid mindset to get this kind of victory against Pep Guardiola

when he was in Barcelona and when he's been in Man City. Madrid has never had this kind of victory with a lot of goals. I think the only time that Real Madrid has been able to beat Guardiola. It was when Guardiola was in Bayern Munich and Real Madrid won 0-4 there in the second leg of the semi-finals in 2014. So I think Real Madrid players needed this and the fans as well because they wanted this kind of victory against Aguero and Guardiola.

And obviously having the second leg at home is a big advantage for them. Looking forward to the second leg though, do you think Real Madrid will take confidence from the good spells they had at the beginning of each half and look to go toe to toe with Man City in the second leg or are we going to see them revert to type and get men behind the ball and look to frustrate City and hit them on the counter? I think for Real Madrid it's impossible to try to approach a game in that way, especially when you're playing Santiago Bernabéu, just the atmosphere and the fans, they don't allow you to do that. But I think probably Real Madrid players have realized now

how bad Man City are defending and how bad they handle the nerves in those moments. So when they are going to see how Santiago Bernabéu is, I think these players are going to know that if we put pressure, if we pressure, and I think it's one of the things that Rodrigo was saying in the press conference before the match, that we have to run, we have to defend, we have to try to recover the ball

next to the, close to the box of Man City, because that's when the chances are going to come. And just seeing how Rico Lewis was defending against Benicio, so how nervous Ederson or Cobasi were in those moments, I think the level of confidence right now for Man City is so low that Real Madrid has smelled that blood and they're going for it and they're going to go for it in the second leg as well. Let's hear from Carlo Ancelotti. I always say to the Spanish journalists that defence is not an individual problem. Defence from Carlo Ancelotti. we are able to play a good game because the team work really well defensively.

Manuel, you said that the Real Madrid players will understand now how frail City are defensively. Obviously we've all seen a lot of Manchester City in the league this season. Were you surprised at how frail City were? Did you notice a difference from previous seasons when they've had that matchup with Madrid? Not really because I follow a lot of Premier League. When my friends told me like, oh Man City is the worst, you know, playing Man City in February in this round, it's usually semi-finals, a quarter-finals, all that kind of match, but we are playing them so early in the competition. So it's going to be tough. It's Man City, they have Erling Haaland, they have Kevin De Bruyne, they have Phil Fallon,

they have great players, they have Guardiola, the best coach in the world. Why? It's gonna be very difficult. I was like, well, I mean, yeah, it's always difficult against Man City. It's a great team, obviously, but they are in the worst season and they're very fragile in the defense. Some players are not at their best. They don't have that kind of player that they used to have, that it was Kyle Walker, that it was the antidote against Benicio. The player

that when all of them were made a mistake, he was able to record where the goal go toe by toe with Benicio, with Mbappé, with any of those players. And now without him, I couldn't see like Ricolet was doing that at the work, Rubén Díaz or John Stones or Manuela Kanji. It's very difficult and I think Guardiola needs to recover this team, to rebuild this team, to get the confidence back to this team and they will be able to compete again. But I would not say confident, but after last year's I thought it was Man City, they were always favourite again Real Madrid and this year I saw a slight advantage for Real Madrid.

Manuel, really good to speak to you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. And you too, Manuel Sanchez, a Spanish football journalist with the Real Madrid insight there. Daily podcast, the Champions League debrief. Listen on BBC Sounds. The 72 Plus on the Football Daily. I'm Aaron Paul. And I'm Joby Mackenna. And on Wednesdays on the Football Daily, we bring you 72 Plus, the home of the EFL from Five Life's Sport.

As we'll get stuck into the latest from the Football League and beyond. We're punching well above our weight already. We're a part-time team in a full-time league. Hopefully we can stay in the league and that ASDA. We're in a great position at the moment and long may that continue. That's 72 Plus, the EFL podcast only on the Football Daily. Listen on BBC Sounds. On the Football Daily podcast, the Champions League debrief. with Kelly Kitts. Listen on BBC Sounds. In terms of that second leg at the Bernabéu, Manchester City is only a goal in it. They do have to go to Madrid and win. What's their best chance of doing that?

Well, Real Madrid are not allowed to basically park the bus and sit deep and just play the game out. The fans demand them to attack, it's Real Madrid, the players they've got on the pitch they'll want to attack, they're not going to sit back and think yeah we'll just play for a 0-0. So that's the opportunity for Man City but it's going to be very difficult as tonight they couldn't cope with the pace of the front four or front three and Bellingham coming in behind. They couldn't cope with the pace and going there, City need a goal. I think they'll be very patient. I think people have them organised where they'll keep possession and they'll bide their time. We saw Harlan score again tonight and obviously scored a pen, but they're going to have to basically wait for the opportunities and when they do create anything, they're

going to have to take it. Defensivelyly they're going to have to play an unbelievable solid game and it's minute and time when you watch them over the last course of the last couple of months you can't see Real Madrid not scoring. I think they contain in the especially in the first half they contain other than the first 10-15 minutes they contain the Real Madrid front four quite well with the four defended four centre halves that they played at the back and John Stones's in the six. So if they can get a Kanji fit in time to go again, I think they've got a chance if they approach it the same way they did tonight. And just to go back to a point that Manuel made when we were talking about it, and it was the point that Jude Bellinger made, which is the opposition scored when their opponent

was actually having the better of the game. Does that happen because Madrid's defences had so many injuries? Because Manchester City's defences, just coming back to fitness, but actually then they lost players throughout the game. When they're on the front foot, actually they leave themselves vulnerable. No, I don't think it was that. In terms of the second half, I think Pep made a change. He took off stones and he put on Kovacic to try and regain control of the game because, like I said, Real Madrid started on fire. So I think there was minor tactical tweaks throughout the game, which brought the game towards Man City, took the game towards Real Madrid.

So it was a great game to watch from a tactical point of view, to see the managers make changes in game and how it affects the game. So I think there's more coincidence that both teams scored against the run of play, so to speak. Yeah, it wasn't a sort of feature of the of the defenses. It was more of a kind of a tactical tweak, as you say, from from both of those managers. It's going to be very interesting to see what Pep Guardiola does in this game at the at the Bernabeu in terms of how he sets up. And Chris Andros was just saying

you know he thinks that that you know protecting that that city defense is the way to go it gives them that solid base from from which to build where you can see the best of those those city forwards is that is that their best chance of getting something out of this game? Listen I think if he goes there he's going to have to be solid. We know they're fragile though, we know they've got the lack and pace at the back, they're fragile. He's going to have to play a really solid game, it's very difficult. How do you stop Mbappe and Rodrigo and Vinicius getting in behind you with running with the ball or without the ball? It's very, very difficult to know when to drop, when to keep them in front here. It's not going to be easy The advantage is we saw tonight that when City had the ball that front four eight times

Didn't really close them down and let them come into the midfield and let them come into Basically the final 30 yards of the pitch quite comfortably. It's when they lose the ball. That's when Real Madrid come to life and Listen, I'm sure with the players they've got and the players he can bring in and there's going to be a few injuries I will see what you need to do but you know there is there are they are capable they've got experience they're a class-a Man City we know that and they will get opportunities I'm sure it's Real Madrid because of where Real Madrid play but on the other hand Real Madrid I'm going to say will have more far more chances in Man City Alan Shearer has said on television It'll be an absolute miracle if Real Madrid don't go through now Manchester City's confidence will be absolutely shattered

It's almost over. He said not quite over but almost and there's a message coming on on the BBC Sport website from Alex Who says our game management all season has been pathetic. Once again, under pressure, we have caved, sick and tired of this every week. And at the full-time whistle, John Murray, it sounded like one, maybe two voices at most who were booing quite loudly. It certainly wasn't across the ground

and they were just very close to the microphone. But is there a sense of frustration at the Etihad, the way this season has gone? Yeah I think disbelief really that it's come to this. Mention of Alan Shearer, that's Manchester City's match this weekend. They play Newcastle here on Saturday afternoon, that's our three o'clock commentary actually this Saturday afternoon, so tough match before they go to Madrid next week. It's extraordinary isn't it this season what we've watched from Manchester City, the fact that this team, this team of these players have, you know, it looks as though they've just lost the belief and that's what makes you think and I

would add to that, that this competition, this Champions League, you know we've seen enough of this over the years to know that it can throw up some incredible results and incredible surprises so that's why we can't write them off but I'm afraid this season it actually stretches belief to think that they're going to be able to turn this around next week. You mentioned that game against Newcastle. Do you think he kind of has to make changes and let the Premier League go and sort of focus on this Real Madrid game next week? Or is it more important to get a bit of momentum really, you know,

and for the players to actually play themselves back into form, you know, and to find something, to find something that they can take to Madrid next week. And the last thing they want to be doing is facing a team with their tails up like New Castle United, who of course are on their way to Wembley, and have got that really good run of form in the league as well. Andros Townsend, John Murray, Chris Waddell, thank you very much for your company this evening.

Manchester City beaten 3-2 at home by Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League play-off and elsewhere in the Champions League this evening. John Bellet has been across everything. Perry St-Germain with a big win, John. A 3-0 victory, Kelly, over Stubb-Restaurant. A fantastic performance again. They're in brilliant form, so they've continued their momentum. And Usman Dembele has continued his amazing scoring streak as well, he's the form player in European football at the moment, he's scored two goals in this game,

18 goals in his last 11 games. Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund were excellent against Sporting, a three-nil victory. Seiru Garasi on the score sheet, 10 goals in nine games this season in the Champions League for Seiru Garasi. Sporting haven't won in the Champions League since Ruben Amorim left in November to join Manchester United. And last but not least, a brilliant win for Juventus, 2-1 against PSV Eindhoven. It's crucial that they took a lead into that second leg and the highlight was an amazing strike by Weston McKennie. This will be worth watching on the highlight show on Wednesday night on

BBC One, a half volley which flew into the top of the net and Lloyd Kelly made his first start for Juventus in this game and they got the win. John, thank you very much for that. Manchester City have it all to do next Wednesday. Full time at Exeter, John Akers. Well, Nottingham Forest have survived a real scare here. They were behind after five minutes. Josh McGinnis bundling in after a mistake from the Forest goalkeeper, Miguel.

Forest then took control. Looked like they were going to win comfortably. Sosa scoring, really determined run and shot right foot. He came off the back of the goalkeeper and went in. Awanyi then with a lovely finish from 20 yards with his left foot to make it 2-1 before half time. And at that point, you thought that with their dominance, they would go on to win it comfortably.

But Ekstra in the second half really showed some fight. McEnnis made it 2-2 five minutes after the break. They went down to ten men with Ed Turn's getting sent off and then that's when they showed such fight, such determination, throwing their bodies on the line. Awanyu went off injured, he was down injured for about 12 minutes, looked really bad but it looks like he's okay. He did walk to the dressing room afterwards after being put in a neck brace. Extra time, penalties, they lost 4-2. Here's the reaction from the manager for the winning side, Nottingham Forest, Nuno Espirito Santo.

It was a tough one, tough one. This is the FA Cup, we knew how hard it was going to be. Credit to Ester, but probably we didn't do one of the best games. Hard to play, but we started well after the goal that you can see the reaction was good and half time we tried to settle down and unfortunately again on a set piece but at the end we are happy, this is more important but a lot of things to take a look. It was all about getting through and four really good penalties, when it comes down

to it that was a good way to finally get through. Yeah, yeah, and Mats did well. So I think penalties are not a lottery. We have to prepare them and the boys were really focused on doing things properly. We take our penalty shots on training sessions and really well done here. So Forrest threw to face Ipswich in the next round, but what a performance from Exeter City, the lowest ranked team left in the competition,

particularly from their captain who scored the first goal, but every single one of them put a real shift in as they're struggling in League One for form at the moment. They really did belie their position in the league and gave Forrest a real scare. Here's their manager, Gary Caldwell. Heroic effort. It feels like we've been playing for about three days.

With the living men, I thought the game plan worked. We bought into it. We gave up position to a team that wants to play counter-attack and I thought we frustrated them. Disappointing thing was the two goals. I thought they were soft goals from our point of view and we could have been better in those actions. I didn't feel like they carved us open.

The sending off obviously has a huge impact on the game. But again, we dig in, the finishers come on. We really gamble the game with the last 10 minutes. I didn't want extra time. I'm pretty sure Nuno didn't want extra time. And both teams had chances. We had two brilliant chances at that moment. The players were outstanding, the mentality, the teamwork, the looking after

each other and protecting each other in difficult moments, doubling up, running back, it was incredible and it's something we have to take forward, we have to use this performance, we have to use this feeling that we've got from tonight and take this into the next 17 games. A Devon Derby Wembley final, it shall not be, but Exeter City fans who were here will remember this night for a long time, finished 2-2 after extra time, Forrest winning 4-2 on penalties. Thank you very much for that John Acres. That's it for this episode of the Football Daily.

On Wednesday Steve Crossman will have reaction to Five Lives commentary game between Celtic and Bayern Munich. What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world? Oscar Piastri. Your head's trying to get rid of one way, your body's trying to go another. Lance Stroll. It's very extreme in the sense on how close you're racing wheel to wheel. We've been given unprecedented access to two of the most famous names in Formula One, McLaren and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Aris, racing driver for McLaren Formula One team. They opened the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its peak. They work to build a beautiful bit of machinery that I get to then go and have fun in.

I'm Josh Hartnett. This is F1 Back at Base. Listen on BBC Sounds.