P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to the Audi F1 car launch (Live from Munich)

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Join us live in Berlin for the Audi F1 launch! We chat about the new car, which we got a sneak preview of earlier today as part of an awesome launch event. We also spoke to Audi's Team Principal, Jonathan Wheatley!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. We are here in real life. Stop touching me for the Audi Revolut F1 team car launch. That is right. We're here in Berlin. We've seen the car. We've got an amazing backdrop. We are almost professionals of the game. Tommy, how are you feeling?

I'm feeling great. It's happy to be here, happy to be at a car launch. I can literally see Gabrielle Borsoletto right there. We're proper in the thick of it here. Yeah. Nico Holcombberg walked past a little while ago before we started recording. It's electric, to be honest with you. The venue is awesome.

We're going to talk about all of that. Talk about our experience of just what it's like to go to a car lawn. I think a lot of you are probably wondering. And of course, talk about the car, the livery and everything else in between. So you're happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. This is a very cool backdrop, as I say. Lots of helmets.

Do you actually know the colours, by the way? I do. I've been told the colours. You need to come over to YouTube because it's a very cool backdrop. It's a very cool backdrop. So these are the colours in the livery, which you'll have seen by now. Chalk. titanium, graphite, lava red.

So there you go, they're the official colors of the new Audi Revolut F1 Team Libury. Unsurprisingly, and by the way, we have been brought out here by Audi and Revolut, big shout out to them. I would say that's my favorite by a country mile. I wonder why, the lava red. But I will try and steal one off the wall if I possibly can. It pops, doesn't it?

It does. So we've seen the car. First thoughts. Let's talk about it. It's been revealed. My first thought is that I've already seen it. To a point, yeah, yeah. I've already kind of seen the livery. It was revealed quite...

Two months ago. Two months ago, they did the initial kind of Audi launch. Obviously, since then, they've gathered many, many sponsors. Yes, lots of writing. Many sponsors on board. They're not short of sponsors, that's for sure. Revolut title sponsor, of course, as well. And yeah, they've launched the car as it's going to look on the track. Exactly. And what do we think of delivery? For me, like, I struggle a little. little bit with the blocks of color. It's something that I have always done. I prefer it when it flows.

And like Hasse, for example. I really like the way the Hasse has kind of flowed with the more prominent white this time around. For this, it feels a little bit jarring in that sense. But I do quite like the silvery grey. I don't know what color. I'm sorry, what colors that? Titanium. Titanium. I like the titanium on the front. I think that's really cool. Yeah, that is cool. But yeah, like just to be here and to see the car unveiled in person, to see the old, sheet come off. I think there's definitely more professional and cool term than sheet coming off the car, but the presentation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing like it on track as well, because like here, as we mentioned, that that kind of lava red, as we've mentioned, like that

colour, it's so, so vibrant, like it stands out loads. Would have been cool to see maybe even more of that on the livery. The back in particular, like the rear wing looks great with the the Audi logo on the back in that lava red on the black. It's very cool. It's very different, like you say, the fact that they've gone for that kind of block colour is going to stand out and be very different on the grid. And yeah, it's cool to see it in person here.

And I think that the most exciting thing for us, not just going outside, but to see a 2026 Formula One car in person for the first time, not just delivery, but also what the cars are going to look like. And for me, I can't get out of my head that it looks rather formula too. The front wing in particular,

a lot more narrow, of course, on the front wing, than you have these very strange-looking M-plates, which are kind of almost coloured very dark, so you don't really notice them as much. But yeah, the small changes of the 2020-6 car when you see it in person, it doesn't, and as we said before on the podcast, it's not like a radical, massive change.

We're like, whoa, this is going to take some getting used to. It's not as far as that, but yeah, you can see that also the sort of older school potentially, Formula One-Cone. why it doesn't feel like a big change because it feels like I've almost seen that era before because as soon as I saw it, my first thoughts were like, that looks like a 2004 era car or a 2005 era car. You've got that kind of, as you mentioned, like the front wing is minus those big M plate

bits is very, you know, thin and smaller. We're used to like the car's feeling so wide. I think that that is one thing like looking at it in person. I remember when we saw those old, the, the, the, the most kind of recent before this one, those cars for the first time, you looked to them a lot of the time and went, they look absolutely massive. Like, no wonder they can't overtake at Monaco and things like that. These ones do look smaller, even though we were kind of maybe taking the Mickey a little bit about how like, oh, it's only this much in centimeters or

whatever it is. But they do actually look a lot more kind of reduced and less kind of enormous, I think. And yeah, the first thing that I thought was like, that looks like a car from like that 2000s era, which in my opinion is one of if not the best looking era of Formula One cars anyway. So I'm absolutely here for it. Yeah, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. They measure the decrease in size by millimeters, which sounds a lot bigger than it was to measure it by centimeters. Yeah. And yeah, I think it can be very cleverly done in the way in which the design is.

As I say, like the front wing looks a lot narrower, but it's not actually... But then when you actually look at it in person, you realize that it still goes up to the wheels. Yeah, exactly. So I know for a fact when we get to Monaco, they will still look enormous and they still won't be able to overtake. But we will have to wait and see. And they look cool. I like a moment. So of course, as we're here, right, we're literally some reason. We've been doing this for over seven years and I'm still like, cool.

We're here. Yeah. Because when you do it at home all the time, you kind of forget that anyone even watches or cares about our content. But Audi do, and they wanted us here. And what I will say is the car launch. This is an awesome car. I've been lucky enough to go to quite a few of them. This one, the ambience and the lighting and everything else that they've done here

looks awesome. It really does. You know, you come in. You might wonder what the process is, right? So first and foremost, obviously, we flew here from London City Airport. Never flown through that from that airport before. And a very pleasant experience. No cueing.

We flew in this morning to Berlin, got picked up, and then dropped at the hotel for literally five minutes, then got in a shuttle. Yeah. Then we arrived at the car launch. We sign and we have a little wristband. Look at that. Very nice. Very nice. There's another Audi motor sport cars downstairs as well, isn't there?

The Le Mans car and a rally car and a DTM car as well, which is really cool. Like they look awesome, like a nice light way to get you hyped as you kind of walk in and go, oh, okay, like Audi aback. I wonder where we are. Yeah, yeah, it's really cool. You know exactly where you are. Then we head upstairs and that's when, you know, we're getting to the big league stuff. You know, we can see the car under its sheets and things like that. you start to get a bit excited over there.

You have one of the Audi cars. I'm sure we can show you some stuff over on social or whatnot. But there's driver helmets, there's gloves. There's unbelievable food. I'm not going to lie to you. Wow, that prawn curry they were serving. Oh, no, the lights are going down. What's going to.

What's going to be happening? Oh, no, we're losing. Is it going to be complete darkness? Why is it every time we go to a car launch in person, the lights turn off? I think they're trying to say something. And now it's happened again at another. They invite us, and as soon as we start the podcast, they're like, come on, guys, get out.

We were supposed to leave 10 minutes ago, and they're like, right, these influences won't leave unless we turn the lights off, then they can't record the content. Either or, I'm still telling you about the car launch experience. We spoke to Jonathan Wheatley, which will include at the end of this podcast as well, some wholesome and funny answers from him. And overall, Tommy, you can't complain as a Formula One fan to have this kind of access. Absolutely. Like, you know, as you know, we've grown up watching Formula One for years and as fans. So to actually, like, be at the car launch, you know, it's something that you could. We'd never imagine being here at Kitsa then to get here and you're kind of like walking around and you're seeing the whole experience. It feels like you're kind of going behind the curtain,

doesn't it? Right. So they are getting ready now because this was like a media part of the day. They're getting ready for the big launch event later on. We'll add a bit of reaction piece after that as well. So for the first time ever, I think we're doing a podcast in two parts. Yeah, because we're getting kicked out. Take care. Goodbye. Okay, so you might be wondering. Matt, Tommy, where has your lovely backdrop gone? they kicked us out because they were getting ready, well, they would get doing their rehearsals, weren't they, for the actual car launch later? So it's like media car launch, rehearsals, actual car launch.

And we're currently in this spot right now where we've seen the car and everything else, but we haven't had the real thing that everybody else is going to see. Exactly. So they're going to be the car launch that you've all seen by the time this has gone out, reveal the car, you know, the big lights and everything, and speaking with the drivers and all that stuff. because we had a little bit of a speak with the drivers, although we were observing. We basically saw what it was like to be in a press conference, like a media pen.

They called it the F1 driver roundtable, and that just made you think of the traitors, which if you watch that one, you'll know exactly what I mean. But yeah, we were essentially just sat there, people were asking questions. The funniest thing that happened was, of course, you know, there was loads of different influences from different countries, and there was this German influencer that I'm... You're saying influence a journalist. Journalists. It was supposed to be for influencers.

No, it was a journalist. Well, it was supposed to be for influencers, because he was supposed to give us a taste of what it's like to be in the media. So, realistically, he should never have been there. However, what was the funny part was that he essentially recreated the 30 years ago mean. Not deliberately, I might add. Not deliberately. But it was the longest question ever in German.

Nobody else had any idea what was going on. And then he was told to repeat it in English. So it was literally, yeah. Yeah, it was quite something. So we had that. Another funny story is that, of course, where we're staying in Berlin, everybody is. The whole of Audi, everyone that's going to launch. Everyone that's here.

I was in the lift going up to my room and Matea Bonotto steps in and he needs to go down, not up. So I had to say to Matea Bonotto, I'm going up and he went and then left. What a lovely interaction. That is, I think, as we kind of mentioned about when we're at the car launch, all these surreal things. It's a nice little behind the scenes of all those moments where you're just like,

what is my life? When little things like that happen, it's so bizarre, isn't it? It's like a fictional character walking into the lift and you're going, that is a real person. Do I ask you about Charlotte Claire's hard tires

at Silverstone? Or do I not? Is this an inopportune time? You imagine. Not over it all these years later. And I never will be. But yes, I think another thing that I think I alluded to

at the start of the podcast, that would love to do now is to give you a bit of an insight to Jonathan Wheatley, the team principal, of course, of Audi, and I got to speak to him for a few minutes. So why don't we roll into that interview right now? Okay, so we're here with Jonathan Wheatley. Thank you so much for coming on the P1 channel. Got some questions for you at the car launch, very exciting time of the year.

First thing, look, F1 team principal, how does that feel? What's the feelings coming into this season and with a brand new look and feel? Well, firstly, thank you very much. inviting me. It's nice to be stood here now with something that we've been calling a project for some time that is now real. It's now a Formula One team. And of course to stand here as the team principle of the Audi Revolute Formula One team and to say that out loud is an incredible, I don't know, it's a moment in your life that you want to savour. Now as an F1 team principle, could you go and drive the F1 car if you wanted to? Oh 100% without doubt. Yeah. When are we lining

No, you know, I wanted to be a racing driver, never quite worked out for me. And what these guys do, I wouldn't want to belittle that in any way. You know, it's extraordinary. Their level of ability, the things that they do in a car is something else. And I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in this car. Now, if you could change one rule in Formula One, we ask drivers this when we get them on the channel. What would you choose? What would be one rule you'd change?

Do you know what? The inner, I don't know, the inner, I don't know, the inner passion. a race fan would be to get rid of nearly all the regulations and say you have a box, it has to fit in and it can't weigh less than this. So I think, you know, to see that engineering freedom, given that we've got a cost cap would be fantastic. But in the real world that we live in, that would never work. Dreams, dreams are there. So you started off as a mechanic. What would you tell your younger self now considering what you've said about the fact that it's an amazing position you're in? I think just try to enjoy every step on the journey that your

career is, you know, Formula One's been amazing to me and maybe it's a great example for everyone out there that dreams of doing something special in their life. I mean, I was largely unambitious. I started out as a front-end mechanic on a Formula One car and then I got asked to run a car and then I got asked to run the test team and then run the race team and then I got asked to join Red Bull. You know, I've had an extraordinary career and I've loved every second of it, but sometimes you just have to stop and take it all in and appreciate it for what it is. and I'm going to try to do that today. Absolutely.

Now, we've heard about drivers group chats. Is there a team principal one? And do you send each other memes? Do you argue? What does it look like? If there is one, I've not been invited to it yet. Maybe I'm the black sheep. I'm the one that they don't want to have in their group.

No, I mean, we have a great working relationship, I think across all the teams, to be honest, because what do we all share the same ambition, which is to treat this sport carefully, look after it, look after our teams, and provide the best show that we possibly can, for all of our fans out there. Awesome.

And one final thing. On our podcast, we like to do crazy predictions for each weekend. Can you give us a crazy prediction for the entire season? What will be something that just out of the blue

might happen this year, putting you on the spot, first interview the day? Yeah, exactly. And I don't know. You know what I'd love is that at the end of the year you said, you know,

the surprise was just how competitive the Audi Revolution Formula One team was in its first season. And I would take tremendous amount of pride if we could just keep the momentum that we started last year. and just show the world what we're capable of, you know. But we're on a long journey.

It's an ambitious journey, but I would love to be making progress. And one final thing I want to ask, as you are, you know, used to be a mechanic, the new regulations. As fans, we're excited, cause a massive shake-up. How do you see it from your side? Is it a huge opportunity? Is it quite scary with the amount of change that's coming? How do you see it? Well, firstly, you say, you look at my background, and I guess something draws me to the car every year.

So when the car's being built, I like to be around it, I'd like to see the bit of the that go on the car, what makes it, where the new technologies are, where you're doing something different, bringing together this incredible chassis and power train. I mean, for us and for everyone in Hindfield, it's the first time for a very long time they've had a works engine installation into our chassis. It just looks like a racing car and I'm excited to get it on the track. Awesome. Thank you so much man. Thank you. Just to meet you. Right, we're back once again in the hotel room and hopefully you've enjoyed this car launch. I would say chaos. It has been, it's been chaotic. It's been a chaotic podcast video, whatever you're watching on. So Tommy, how would you go about

giving your final thoughts? My final thoughts are, yeah. I hope you guys have got a little insight into just how, you know, manic but amazing these car launches are. Like, it's amazing that they can put on these events for like so many people. Obviously, so many people want time with drivers and things everyone's doing their own thing. You know, massive event, really cool to be here, like absolutely awesome. And yes, we're on a flight here to do this. Then we're flying back and then we're doing the Autosport Awards,

which is amazing. And I just want to again say thank you so much for everyone that voted for us and that because we'll be wearing some suits tomorrow. We'll be all smart. It sounds luxurious. The realistic view is that we've packed our suits into a small. small suitcase, come to Berlin because we're going straight back to London and then going straight to the award show. So I'm not looking forward to how creased my shirt. Don't look at any pictures

from the Autosport Awards because it will look like we have just wrung it out. But look, thank you again, as Tommy said, for the Autosport Awards voting. Maybe, just maybe fingers crossed, potentially maybe you might win. I hope so for everybody that has supported us to show something to be like, oh my God, we actually got recognized for something. That would be cool. That is it. Thank you, everybody for listening and we will see you very soon probably for another car long. Indeed. The next one will be Mercedes. Mercedes. A couple of days. Can't wait for the leak at 9am and the actual launch at 1pm. Oh they love that don't they? Beautiful stuff. Bye. Bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.