P1 with Matt and Tommy - F1 Testing – Day 2

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Reliability issues started to show on the second day of F1 testing… but a certain Monégasque driver IS BACK AT THE TOP. Sign up to our Patreon! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It is a phenomenal day to be alive because Charles Lecler has topped a session, albeit, yes, an eight-hour testing session on day two of the 2026 season. However, it has happened. The dreams, the hopes. Tommy, I might be ridden with cold, but I'm also ridden. with hopium. Indeed.

Yeah. What Charlotte Claire P1 does to a man, 3.9 seconds clear of the Nui rocket ship, which we'll talk about later. And, well, yeah, it's been another very interesting day and a lot more reliability woes for some than we kind of thought after talking a lot about how it wasn't as bad.

And then, yeah, obviously, of course, we're seeing that only the final hour again in kind of video form. and a live format but they kind of went straight in and it's like look at all these cars breaking down was basically the kind of summary of all the first few hours of the kind of testing

so I'm sat there like why are we not watching it then the camera operators are there is it because they don't want to pay the commentary like what is the reason at this point because we see the breakdowns it's not like they're not showing us it's absolutely bizarre

But yes, a few twists and turns, I would say, for day two of testing. In terms of some teams we thought were unbreakable, and they had a few struggles, Mercedes being one of them. Right, let's get into a question straight away. Let's dive into it. From P1Petri member Longo, 1996. Are we feeling better about Ferrari's season after LeCler's performance during today's testing? Do you think?

Do you think maybe I'm getting ahead of myself slightly? Yes, absolutely. However, however, and we will come on to Aston Martin and their lack of pace, there is nothing wrong with topping a testing timesheet. It means Ferrari will not be the slowest car, which is something I can now relax about, because you never know with big shakeups, they can easily get it massively wrong.

But that Ferrari engine, more specifically, looks consistent, currently, bulletproof. I'm saying words I'm going to regret from Australia. But at the moment, Charles Lecler did 139 laps today. You have Olly Behrman up in third, at 1.1 seconds off of Shao LeCla. Of course, also with a Ferrari engine,

130 laps for him. And look, I'm not saying Ferrari are clear. But it's positive signs. And positivity is not. something I've had in quite some time. So I will take it. It's very positive signs for Ferrari. I think it's a surprise.

Obviously, there was a lot of negative chatter beforehand about where they'd be with their engine. And obviously, we don't know the pecking order as of yet, but from kind of what we've seen so far, it does feel like Ferrari are at the very least in that kind of top four pack with the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull, which is kind of hilarious that those are normally the big four and we've had this massive rule shakeup and it's looking like those four are still ahead potentially. But Ferrari have done a really good job

and I think not only have they been quick and surprised people they did in the shakedown, they did again in testing. It is the reliability. Cadillac, yes, they've had a, you know, a couple, of moments where the car's kind of stopped, but you maybe expect that more from a new team, not saying like the Ferrari engine is, you know, completely bulletproof, but has been incredibly impressive. And then, yeah, like Ferrari putting in all those laps, while other teams have had issues and every other engine seemingly like had those issues, it's looking very nice

indeed for Ferrari so far. It certainly is. I'm a happy, happy boy. Right, next question. Fire breath. asks, do Ferrari have the best engine when it comes to reliability and power since both Mercedes and Red Bull have had problems? Meanwhile, Ferrari are still using the engine from the Barcelona test and it's still doing just fine. I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say in terms of like power, we're still yet to kind of find out. Reliability, yes, has definitely been very impressive. They do have, you know, it's not like their engine is completely hopeless and they're off. It's looking strong. I wouldn't say, I've not seen paddock chatter being like, oh, they're really, really, really fast. Like we've seen with maybe Red Bull, which has surprised a lot of people, whether it's Mercedes deflecting, and now we're going to hear Toto Wolf go. Yep, Ferrari clear of the whole pack.

Definitely not us again. God, if he said that. Can you imagine? You'd take that as gospel then that time. I would. I'm like, Toto has never lied to the media or said anything that might deceive us ever. Exactly. But reliability, yes, they definitely have that one.

And the power unit is looking very good indeed. And yeah, this is the big thing, is the fact that in the morning session, Red Bull have been very reliable. The only time we've kind of seen Red Bull have problems was when Hadjar spun and crashed in the shakedown. But Mack did loads of laps yesterday. Hadjar only did one lap in the morning session. and then Antonelli only did three laps in the morning session. So the two kind of big players going into the season, it seemed, were having all sorts of problems while Ferrari were just like,

thank you very much. We're going to keep doing lap after lap. McLaren as well has to be said, 149 laps for Lando today, the most of anybody in terms of on his own. On a slower tire, again, McLaren just being completely underrated. Yeah, it feels always. Half a second off of Sharl,

was on the one step harder tire than Char was. C2 for Char LeCler, C3 for Lando Norris. Is that the right way around? No, sorry. C3 for Lecler, C2 for Norris. That's what I meant to say. But yes, I think that it's more just, it just tells us a little bit about the fact that these regulations

aren't as easy as perhaps we first thought with everybody going around in Barcelona and doing it a huge amount of laps. And the fact that Mercedes and Red Bull both had problems this morning, shows that, yeah, hardly any team bar Ferrari are bulletproof. But I would say it's a good turnaround for Red Bull today for Hadjar. Yes, he'd only done one lap, but he ended on 87. So still a huge amount of laps put on the board for the afternoon.

A shame for Antonelli, I would say, the fact that he only got three laps and wasn't able to bounce back because Russell got in the car for the afternoon session and put in 54 laps. So 57 in total for Mercedes. still more than what Aston Martin had done previously, although Aston Martin today, 98 laps for Fernando Alonzo.

98, very slow laps. Yeah, at least more mileage on the board. Question, P1Petri member, Dennis Roll. Is this season going to emphasise driver skills even more with the different ways they can regenerate energy at the cost of stability? So Dennis is sort of speaking about this Max Verstappen driving, driving technique thing that came

apparent from day one where there are plenty of techniques in order to recharge the battery. The battery is what we're going to hear about the entire season. How they can recharge it the most efficiently and how efficient generally that the battery and engine can be in order to deliver power lap after lap after lap. Sounds thrilling. What were you laughing at?

It's just ridiculous, isn't it? Because they've got all these you know, it is part of the sport technology, but it is, I'm already slightly concerned about, you know how when we had the Pirelli era and it was all about tyres and tires and the tires and the tires and the cliff and the degradation and stuff that it's just going to be battery, battery, battery, battery, battery. And I do worry that, yeah, like all these new fans that are coming in and and even just, you want to see the most exciting, what you want is wheel to wheel racing. You don't want to just be hearing about batteries the whole time. As soon as you say it, I'm like, oh God.

Yeah, I'm a little bit concerned that drivers, very good, talented drivers are going to be hindered by their engine, Alonso. So that's maybe what we're going to see for this season and potentially beyond. But Max, there's been a few things spoken about, which I find fascinating with the way in which Max was driving on day one in terms of essentially going to first gear in slower corners where usually and all drivers were using second gear.

And I love the fact they've then all the teams have seen Max's driving style and gone, hold on, what's this then? First gear. Okay, let's try it. The Audi drivers, I believe, tried it on day one. And it looked like they were having an absolutely torrid time going for it. So it's not just going to be like for like, just because Max is doing a certain driving style. They've got different engines. They've got different cars.

They've got different, completely different aerodynamics. So the fact that they're all trying it, they think that Max might. be on to something and also as well like double downshifting rather than no no no no it's no no no no pause no no no no and these are the the techniques that max is is trying in in testing and i fear tommy that your prediction of max not winning a single race this year with the fact that he's able to master up these techniques could well end in round one indeed yeah the way that they're like downshifting and stuff is insane i compared it on the watch along to if you've ever played like the Formula One game or or racing games in general when you put on

like reliability and engine failures and you could like basically break your own engine by downshifting really quickly it sounds it sounds like that but obviously what they're doing is a technique that's really helping with this whole like battery charging and stuff and it's a very on brand for Max Ostaappan that he's gone out there and found this technique there everyone's gone oh wow okay this is the way to do it. One, why is you doing it? Save it for Australia, come on. And then just win the first race by 50 seconds.

But it's also very interesting because you mentioned about Audi and how they tried it, maybe it didn't quite work. Red Bull and in the simulator and everything, no doubt they have built their power unit and everything around the style of driving with Max and the simulator, with them pushing this kind of idea. So it might not be as easy for the other teams as just going, you know, this is happening. Maybe that's what Aston Martin were doing because, my God, they were locking up on every single corner, it felt like. Very early lockups as well we saw from Fernando today.

I would love it, by the way, if Max and Red Bull are just playing the biggest trick on all of the teams. And it is an absolutely useless technique. It does actually break their engine. And they shift down. Max is the only one to finish the race, because everyone. Everyone does it. Yeah. I mean, that would be the biggest troll.

And I wouldn't put it past Max and Red Bull to do something like that. Next question from Matty Reed 1984. Are Aston Martin in danger of repeating what happened to McLaren in 2015, looking like they are well off the pace at the back? Very much so. I am getting flashbacks of that McLaren Honda era. I'm sure Fernando Alonzo is as well. and it's very concerning because this was meant to be Alonzo's year where he gets 33.

Is it Alcares? The tennis player was even doing Alcaraz was doing Alonzo celebration. I know you're the tennis guy. And there is so much hype, particularly in Spain, about this season and how Fernando Alonzo has finally got an Adrian Nui car after a career where he's not had the machinery that he deserves. for much of his career and he's always having to fight and deliver something better. And he's finally got one and whether it's the Adrian Nui design or the engine or both, they are beyond Struggle Town.

I mentioned this on the watchalong that a Spanish journalist, they've seen Alonzo throwing his gloves out the cockpit. We've also heard Lance Stroll say that they believe they're around four and a half seconds off. Alonzo, you know, he's under four seconds now, so he's getting there. But this is absolutely insane. They look, not even a case of not going to win. Like, genuinely could be a case of them fighting Cadillac with how bad they are if this is genuinely the best. I will hear no Cadillac slander with Valtry Bottas up in P8, two and a half seconds off of Charlotte.

Oh yeah, they might be clear. What a lap, one all, one all in testing between Bottas and Perez. we are keeping a close eye on who is fastest across each and every single one of every session over the entire year. Of course, I'm Team Bottas. Tommy is Team Perez as to who will come out on top in that Cadillac battle of the number two's. But yes, it is a very scary time for Aston Martin. Unless again, this could be some ultimate level of sandbagging where Adrian Neary just says, right, look. Fernando, Lance, I need you to really pretend the car is rubbish.

Throw your gloves. Tell the media we're four and a half seconds back. Let me cook. I don't think that's the case. I feel as though we've not seen a singular ounce of pace from Aston Martin. Not once. I know that we've seen in the past, I think Hasted last year, if I remember correctly. They just did not do any fast running.

Yeah, yeah. But apart from that, especially in new regular. You need to see an ounce of hope, and this is what we say about testing times don't matter, but they do to a certain degree. And Aston Martin is showing that side of it. Definitely, because there was maybe a bit of hopium, copium, after when Aston rolled out the garage during the shakedown very late, they weren't running that engine at full capacity. And some people were just saying, well, you know, once they actually turned the wick up, they're sandbagging, and it's going to be absolutely amazing. to do 98 laps and to be absolutely nowhere, you know, they've used the soft tire, it's not

looking good at all. And it's incredibly, incredibly worrying because I really wanted this to be a year where we saw Fernando Alonzo win again. And not only we're not going to get the 33, I think we're looking like we're not even going to be 33 seconds within the leader at this rate. You'll be lucky, man. It's so bad. 30 seconds behind after lap 3. Wow. But it's, yeah, it's tough to watch. I want to see Fernando fighting at the front and it's,

and I think we will see that sort of, you know, frustration from him because he knows that time is not on his side. He knows that, you know, this has to be it. And right now, it is by no means even close to being it. He has no filter either. He is not, if he leaves. He's got nothing to lose.

He can, he can, he's got nothing to lose. He can, he can. he's going to, exactly, like, at the end of the day, he knows this is his last, he's not going to go to a new team. I'd be amazed if he did, like, can you imagine? But, like, he's not going to care, and he's never cared in his career anyway about burning bridges. So, like, at the end of the day, he might just, like, completely blow up and just go out in a blaze of glory and, you know, I mean, imagine the team radios if they are for, four seconds off the pace. Like, we are getting Fernando Alonzo, a whole drive to survive series will be, Fernando Alonzo and Fernando Alonzo only because the drama will be unbelievable and not in a good way. Yes. It will make for some kind of listening, that's for sure. And yeah, imagine if he did sign to a new team. No, Aster Martin, I'm going to a new team. I will be claiming my pension as well as racing in Formula One. Thank you so much. Okay, next question from One Pablo SF1. What midfield team has surprised you the most so far? It is hands down

HASS F1 team. They look like they could well be just at the coattails of the top four. That's my feelings right now. Again, we're basing this of vibes, we're basing of what we've actually seen.

But if we go into this season with potential reliability issues, you have to expect reliability issues. If Hasse have a really good car, obviously not challenging the top for week and week out. But if they have a car to take advantage of certain reliability things that might go on, they could well get their first podium. You know, that's the kind of, if they keep this, this runner form up, if the Ferrari engine is really good. They could well be the Williams from

last year where Carlos Sines, you know, a couple of podiums and a sprint podium. That's my vibe at the moment for Hass. Of course, you know, we've got a long, long way to go. But once again, to be putting down solid lap times, putting in a huge amount of laps, you'd be silly to suggest that they aren't looking in a reasonably strong position for where HASS usually are. Absolutely. I mean, Hasse were really, really good out the blocks, and the shakedown did loads and loads of laps,

and they're also putting in impressive times. Obviously, BEM, you know, lap times don't matter too much, but they're also doing amazing mileage. So they matter to a certain level. and we're looking at the other midfield teams here and you know like Audi have had their struggles they've not really wowed alpine are certainly looking better but i wouldn't say they're like really like fighting at the front or anything v carb i guess they're another midfield team not really seen their their hand it feels like yet and williams maybe still yet to see

see what they can do so and if you can't asthmartan is a midfield team. They are doing obviously incredibly poorly. So it has to be Hass. They are definitely the standout of the

midfield quite clearly. It has to be there. And question from Dom EFC. On a scale of 1 to 10, how cool is Alpine's rear wing? Very cool. It's funny, isn't it? We said this in when we've

kind of talking before that if that had been Adrian Newey that done that, everyone would be like, wow, what's that? We need to copy that. That's amazing. Whereas it's Alpine everyone's kind of going,

That was pretty cool. Because it was really fascinating Formula One to share the fact that, you know, these kind of new wings and how the kind of active arrow and stuff and how the front wing and rear wing goes. Most of the rear wings look like just DRS of how it did last year. But Alpine's going basically completely flat is a really interesting take. And of course, DRS was a system. everyone had to install. It had to be the exact measurements, had to be this, you know,

legal thing that everyone did kind of the same. Whereas, you know, it is fascinating that teams have that freedom, whether it will be fascinating when the entire field spread is four and a half seconds. I don't know. And we'll be praying that for some more simple rules where we get back to the grid being eight tenths apart. But it's a very cool little, a little thing that Alpine have done. Yeah, I absolutely love the invention. I think it's a brilliant way of reinterpreting how, you know, you can open up that rear wing in a way that still fits in with the rules. If Alpine do not hit 400 kilometres an hour with that Mercedes engine at some point with the fact there is essentially no rear wing on the back at Monza or

Abaku, I will be thoroughly disappointed and I believe it's possible. It's not, obviously. But it is good to see and will it give them any kind of advantage will we see other teams look at other ways of sort of opening that rear wing we'll have to wait and see but yeah it's very cool. I'll pin to win Monza. Potentially. Yeah, there you go. All right.

We'll leave it at that. That's the standard testing delusion that you all know and love. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts? are very curious tomorrow to see how hopefully I'd like to think that the order is going to get closer and closer if we get to the end of day six and we've still got a four second field spread I'm very concerned but yeah it's been fascinating to see Formula One cars

back and see how these new rules are even if it does feel like I'm still constantly learning and we're getting a rule book out every time we see the cars to go oh, there's four different ways to charge the battery and all this kind of stuff. It's quite a lot to take in. You know, we're all in the same boat. We're all with P1. Learn with P1. Learn along with us. It's good. I enjoy change.

Just hopefully it's not too complicated. Right. On that note, we'll see very soon. Watch along tomorrow if you want to come watch the final day of the first week of testing in Bahrain along with us on YouTube, Twitch, from 3 till 4 UK time. And that's it. See you soon. Bye. Goodbye. P1 is a stack production.

of the ACAST's created network.