P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to the first SECRET F1 test in 2026

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

We're here with our reaction to one of the most confusing days of pre-season testing you'll see, as F1 tried (and failed) to keep secret an event they've been hyping up for weeks. So, did people hack into the timing tower?! How high up the trees were the photographers? And what does the information we did get tell us about the current state of the F1 grid, 38 days out from the start of the season?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 B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Day one of the secret shakedown in Barcelona. That's right. The secret test is underway. How secret was it? Well, we're going to get into all of that and more. But I think we need to, from the top, Tommy. Firstly, how are you? Are you feeling good that cars are back on track?

I am. It's nice. I would say it's nice to see them, but very limited. I enjoyed the spy shots on Twitter and random people streaming the data, which then got shut down by Formula One, which we'll talk about later. But yeah, crazy. What a bizarre thing. I've never experienced this in all the years I've watched F1. It's quite bizarre. No, exactly. And secondly, and I said firstly a long time ago, but secondly, Let's get into exactly what's been going on. If you've been living under a rock or if you're just not that bothered about Formula One cars being on track in January. You're like, well, Australia isn't until March. Fair enough. We're here to wrap it all up for you as best as we can.

So normally, obviously, without the regulation change, we will get a few days preseason testing in Bahrain. That's what we would have if it was just another year of the same regulation set. However, because of the rule shakeup, we have still official F1 testing in Bahrain in a few weeks. and there's two sets of three days. But before that, right now, we have a five-day shakedown. That's what's called shakedown. I don't know if it's because Bahrain have spent millions of pounds to be the people that are the testing place.

Whatever it is, it's shakedown time in Barcelona. And within this shakedown, as much as it is five days, teams are only allowed to run in three of those five days. So if they roll out the pits and do half a little bit, of an outlap, that is it, not half, even one meter. If they roll out the pits, full stop. That means they have taken part in that day. You allocated your day.

Yeah, and that's one of their three. And finally, no media or fans allowed at the test, and people were being kicked out. And people, they had like, it sounded like they had like the secret service going around, getting people to just basically remove them from the area. That's the bizarre one, isn't it? because in 2022 there was a new regulation change, albeit not as big as this one with engines and things, but a completely new kind of aerow package and everything like that.

Still obviously the hybrid engines. But they had a, again, a kind of non-televised test in Barcelona, so that we were kind of used to. But back then, they invited the media. They had photographers. They had everyone there. They weren't throwing people out that would dare stand near a tree near the track. And you could basically like, we were seeing lap times, we were seeing everything, we were seeing pictures, we could analyze things.

Whereas this one, my word, I've never, never seen it so secretive. It was insane. Right. Shall we get into the first question? And it's as simple as this. Why is the first F1 test so secretive? what are they hiding? What is going on in Barcelona that we're not allowed to see?

However, I guess we're not allowed to see, but clearly they didn't do a very good job of us not seeing because half of the day live timing was being leaked. So we were just chilling, doing a bit of a stream, trying to catch some information. Got that information, lovely jubly. But also, there were people around the circuit taking pictures with their lovely lens on their cameras,

their long distances. And I am, I'm just kind of sat here like, what is the point? It doesn't matter if they blow up. It doesn't matter if they stop on track. Who is going to be under threat here if we all had a little bit of eyeballs?

Because if anything, it's made people want to see it more. You know, when you hide it away, you're going to have these cheeky little photographers around the circuit. And information comes out one way or another. So for me, it feels pointless.

It feels so utterly pointless to keep this so secret, especially when Formula One is still very lucky to be in this position where they have a huge fan base, a massive fan base across the world, thanks to drive to survive and everything else. Why not use this as a way to hype up the season? And they might even say, well, we are. people are talking about it because the secret is.

So people are talking about it and they're getting hyped for it. I just think it's so, so silly and it makes no sense to me. It's very silly. It is a consequence of their inactions. They can't, Formula One can't have it both ways. You can't hype up the sport like crazy. So people are hyped for every single little detail in the sport that we love. They're doing social graphics saying,

this is when the shakedown is, and advertising when it's on. and then basically going, why in other people turning up? Because we want to see Formula One cars. It's a new regulation. And this is the thing, as you say, the actual reason behind this is because back when we went in testing before in a new engine era in 2014, the cars were so incredibly unreliable that maybe they thought it was a bit embarrassing. I mean, one, it shows that Formula One don't have faith in their own regulations, because actually the cars were pretty good.

We'll get into this later, but did way more running than expected. And yeah, it's just embarrassing that they want to hide it because, as you say, I think it makes it worse because you seeing a picture of a car breaking down, which will get out because there's people hiding and blooming trees and things with cameras and stuff and trying to find everything, you're more likely to receive misinformation and things like that. So say a car breaks down on track, they might have got back in the pits

and been out in five minutes, but it looks way worse to go, oh, this is a big story. Why is this car stopped out on track? It looks worse for them. So, yeah, they're desperately trying to control the narrative and it's just pretty embarrassing, really. What narrative are they trying to bring to the table

that we have to be secret? Like, what is their reasoning as a brand? But also it's 2026, like, they cannot be that naive to think that no one is going to see anything. Everyone has camera phones. Everyone has like, like big zoom lenses on cameras have never been more accessible. There's the internet. Like there's so many of these things.

They cannot think that you can have a secret test now. And if you can, don't plaster it all over social media saying this is when it is. And I might be one of the few here, but it kind of, annoys me rather than hypes me up. Like, I want to see it because I'm interested in Formula One, and I don't feel like they're giving us that opportunity to be able to see the first time these cars go out on track. I'm not saying I need eight hours a day of full filming testing

that we're going to get, not even the next test in Bahrain, because it's one hour at the end of the day, but the one after that is going to be televised. I'm not saying we need full broadcast coverage. Yeah, Bahrain, you can have your test. You can have your official Formula One test. Yeah, it was. It was destroyed that.

Anyway, let's get into the next question. Otherwise, we are going to rant on for a very long time. Gavin Curley 90 asks, do you think it was the right decision for F1 to block all media from covering the shakedown? No, because clearly they've managed to get around things anyway. As you say, there were a lot of pages that were somehow managing to get a feed from the live timing, which Formula 1 shut down. And there's still people there reporting about lap times and information

and how many laps people have done and taking pictures and stuff and a Spanish page that looks like they're hiding in a tree somewhere and grabbing all this information on the inside so that they're obviously, you know, able to get it. And it just looks embarrassing for Formula One themselves that I knew we were cooked here

when Formula One hyped this shakedown up and go, Formula One. And Formula One trying to be this big media brand, aren't they? Of like, we all come to Formula One. Formula 1.com, F1, social pages. They're acting like, this is the only place you need information now. Everything comes through us. And when I saw the first thing that they posted from the test run cars right on track was happy birthday, Sergei Perez.

I was like, we're not getting anything here. Speaking of timings, I think this is where we bring in soy motor, who is, they're a Spanish media outlet. And this is the thing as well when it comes to banning all the media, this, that and the other. it gives advantages to some media that clearly have inns at the track or whatever it might be. And Soi Motor, they've posted a full-blown classification for the day, not even the morning where, of course, the live timings were being hacked into or whatever was going on. This is a full, well, from what we know, this is a full first day. You can tell they're at the track.

And I know this is what people are, of course, going to want to find out. So let me run you down exactly from ninth to first. That's nine cars were out on track. So in ninth place, Perez, 1 minute 25.974, Bortiletto, a 1 minute 25.296. Bottas, a 1 minute 24.651. Then Lawson on a 21.513. Ocon, 21301.

Antonelli, 20.70, 20.10, 18.189. Russell, a woman at 18.69. And the fastest day one was Isaac Hagear with a woman at 18.159. So Max just happened in the mud, Tommy, is from what I'm saying here. Didn't do any running. Yeah, didn't do any running. And that just shows that Hajah is the number one driver at Red Bull now. So, but what we can obviously take from this is absolutely nothing.

Okay, we're seven seconds a lap off the qualifying poll time. You're going to say we can take something? Absolutely. Laps, lap counters, are you about to say? No, I can say that what you can take is that the cars, Formula One were absolutely wrong to think that the cars were terrible and wouldn't work because there have been very few problems and red flags from what's been reported.

I've got the... There's three red flags now in the morning session? Yeah, but there's not loads, is it? No, it's not the devastating we don't need to show anybody. Exactly. So let me just compare for people that weren't around in 2014. So in that morning session, obviously, before they switched the timing off and we didn't get to see anything, this is just the morning that I can see that Hajjad did 44 laps, Antonelli did 56, O'Conn did 67 laps.

You know, the worst running was Colapinto and the Alpine that did 28 laps. And you look back to 2014 and only six cars set a lap time. Two of them managed no time at all. They couldn't even get out the garage because the cars were so broken. Ferrari were fastest. My goats. My apse. They were terrible that year as well.

So this is a thing to... That's all that matters. They always love to win testing. We'll find out later whether they will again. But Ferrari, they did the fastest time, and they also did the most laps, but only 31. You had Bottas in third six laps, 18 laps, 10 laps, 15 laps, 7 laps. And then, like you say, the other two runners didn't do any running at all. So this is, this data here is why people were so, and Formula One themselves were so scarred,

that they wanted to make sure this didn't happen again and thought it would be embarrassing. but not to go back to the thing again, but my argument is that how do you draw the line here? Because there's always teams that have problems in testing. Is it unfair on them if they don't work? Do you hide it? Do you pretend, oh, no, we can't show this team? It's like embarrassing.

Like, where do you draw the line? It's so silly that they're trying to hide this because clearly in 2026 you can get information. I do wonder if it's the engine suppliers that have sort of pulled some strings. They're clearly all agreed together. Push to not show, yeah, because there's not much gain, I guess, for them to have, especially if you are trying to develop an engine, develop a car.

It's not a gain for them as a brand to have it televised. It's all going to be, if a certain engine keeps blowing up over the course of a day, it's going to look terrible for them. So I can understand from a, if they've been sat around in their board meeting, they're obviously going to push for this to not be televised, just in case it was a 2014. But yeah, it's still, this is the route they've gone down. We're not a fan, but of course we're not going to be a fan.

We're Formula One fans and it's, of course, going to have a lot of negative sentiment around it. Let's go to the next question. P1, Patreon member, Captain Ovs 3420. What are your thoughts on the fact that F1 cut the timing data feeds off for Barcelona? Not surprised in the slightest. I think this was an oversight from them in the first place that they could, clearly there's been some sort of link between the live timing at the circuit. and some sort of gateway or whatever is still running into the website of the Catalonia F1

Lifetiming website or whatever it might be. So I'm not surprised in the slightest and I can't be angry at them either for doing it when they have said all of this stuff about it being a private test. They obviously did not want the live timing out there because you can deduce a lot of things from a set of live timing data because it literally says stop running in pits. you could know who's broken down at all times. So I was annoyed, obviously, because I want to see the live timing, but I am not surprised and that they have to go down that route.

They can't go, yes, teams, we promise you a private test, but everybody can look at your live timings at all time. I want to know what F1 were thinking, though, because I watched a video when I was trying to learn more information about this test because it was very secretive. And, you know, it was a reliable Formula One page, like accredited media, and they were saying like there will be testing times and and you know they will be available so clearly that was the case you know they didn't switch them off from the start and people got hold of them

at the end of the day potentially but they're going to have the the monitors on aren't they and for the people there even though it's secretive they're going to be there showing but what i don't understand is like formula one can't have did formula one either see that these other pages were posting these timings and going, yeah, that doesn't look very good for us that people are getting their kind of source elsewhere, or did they really not think that this was going to happen? Like, come on, like, Formula One fans are the most obsessive, like, we know we are them, like, the most obsessive, nerdy people. We want every nugget of information. We're, you know, we're there talking about, like, give me a mini box. I need to see this and this and that and stuff.

So, yeah, it's crazy. Next question and a dog is now on my lap, so there's clearly been an edit, from underscore R2F1. Is it true, there is a rule by F1 about how many pictures the teams can release this week? Yes, I saw that. That was one of the most shocking things that I've seen, that basically teams are even limited from how much they can share, and they are allocated six pictures to basically share per day of their test, which is, yeah. So modern and so very 2026, isn't it, to share six photos a day? I can only imagine what their chats must be like prior to running.

Like, right, what are these six pictures going to be? How many of them can be memes? No, no memes. Six pictures. To be fair, though, they probably want to show as little of the car as possible with those six pictures. Because isn't that what the teams are constantly trying to do is hide what they've come up with it? I guess especially at secret testing. Indeed.

No pictures are released, apart from if you're in a tree. Well, it's very interesting because, yeah, even the pictures were so limited because we saw Formula One essentially on their website post a bunch of pictures of the cars rolling out the pit lane. And then six hours later on social media, they're like, they shared those same two pictures on social media. So it's clear that the teams want to keep everything secretive as well. But the teams are all snooping around anyway with looking at looking at, looking. at things. Yeah. I mean, from the tech side of things, here we go.

Hello. We're looking at... Oh, my God. Twice in a year already, and it's only January. We always get it, don't we? Where teams release their car that looks very much like a show car and then release something completely different. And the one kind of big talking point this year is that Red Bull have now showed what

their actual car is like the RB22 and it looks very very very similar to the zero side pods that we saw on Mercedes in 2022 they they barely have any side pods at all um so yeah very interesting to see that they've gone down that route will it will it work for them so far obviously they are fastest um so far they are and for those of you that missed the live stream where we were live for about an hour and a half and went, oh my God, we're finding out hardly anything. Let's just leave. The second Red Bull went fastest. Tommy changed completely.

Put his, but daddy, I love him, T-shirt on and the hat and the cape. Yeah, we're so back. Yeah, you're going to be me this year. Like, both of us are going to be just trying and sort of every ounce of hope. We're going to be storing up ready for the start of the season. I couldn't really do that because Ferrari did not run, as did Ferrari. Aston and Williams. Maclaren, Aston and Williams.

What did I say? Ferrari, Aston and Williams. Oh, good. Perfect. Well, well done, Matt. McLaren, Ferrari, Aston and Williams. With the four teams, of course, Williams are not taking part at all. Aston Martin are actually going to miss a day. So they've said that Bruno's not happy at all.

I was sorry, miss a day in the sense of, yeah, potentially. They don't even know yet. I think it's quite worrying that Aston Martin said we're hoping to make the last two days. That suggests that that's the minimum. That's the best possible outcome is having two days of running. So Astor Martin, yeah, struggling again.

McLaren, they said from a few days ago at least that they would not be running today anyway. The interesting part as well, I suppose, is that there's rain on the horizon for tomorrow. Then you question whether the teams will decide not to run in those conditions. Obviously, it would be quite useful data to get some wet weather running. But dry is, of course, where they get the best and it's usually more dry. than it is wet throughout a Formula One season. So they have to pick and choose these three days of shakedown very, very wisely. But then I've looked at the weather forecast,

and Wednesday and Thursday also look like it could have some showers in. So do you want to leave it too late? Risk it. And actually Tuesday's conditions were a bit better than what Wednesday and Thursdays. There's a few sort of tactical, strategical elements here, Tommy, at the end of January. Can you believe it? I do wonder that, don't you?

That if how does it work in the sense that, obviously, as we mentioned, the start. They're allowed three of the five days and the second you roll out the pit lane that you're locked in. There are no, as far as I'm unaware, like are there loopholes here? Like we're talking about loopholes all the time this season already and it's only just started. But if you roll out the pit lane and it starts raining and it's rained off for the whole day, you've lost a day and you kind of probably wishing, oh, I wish I'd run yesterday when it was completely dry and I could have got the whole day with dry running. So it's going to be very interesting to see how the team decide and allocate it.

Obviously, Aston and Williams look to be in trouble, whereas from what we know, obviously, whether they're spinning that way off it is legit, that the McLaren and Ferrari is all part of the plan, and they are just coming later.

Trust me. Even if Ferrari don't turn up on Friday, I'll say it's all part of the plan, my friend. Don't you worry about that one. They don't need shakedown testing if they didn't turn up, you know?

What I would say is that, I think one positive for Ferrari is just how Hasse were, they were just lap after lap after lap from the sound of it. There's reports that they did well over hundreds of laps. I've now just come back to your point in 2014 when Ferrari did the most laps and also topped testing and they were rubbish. They were really bad, weren't they? That car was absolutely awful.

But the reliability is, of course, good to see. It's good to see that Hasse weren't just doing a couple of laps than having to come in the bits or stopping. Question, let's go into from Balaji Rith 7.0.276. How much trouble could Williams be in considering missing the shakedown test and rumours of them being up to 30 kilograms

overweight? I mean, the rumour of the overweight thing is probably true. A lot of teams are struggling with getting to the correct weight. There's links of it being, you know, they're failing crash tests and it could be due to

the weight that that car is currently carrying and all sorts. And to be honest with you, that James Vowse clip of him saying, forget the last three years, it's all about 2026, is not aging at all well at the moment. But this is the beginning. I'm sorry, mate. Are you a big James Vowels fan? For audio listeners, I'm releasing the dog from my lap.

Goodbye, Bruno. Okay, Bruno's gone. He was wearing a cute coat because it was wet outside. Anyway, back to the more important pressing things of Williams. and doesn't spell the best. This is a bad, a bad start to the year for Williams. You don't want to miss the shakedown test for Ashton Martin. Again, we talk about rumours, we talk about Pinch of Assault,

but all the rumours that we sort of heard about that Aster Martin were potentially struggling. Williams were, you know, again, not the greatest of things coming out of that camp. And it's sort of we're seeing that now, aren't we? And the fact they're not turning it up for shakedown testing for three of the five days. Yeah, Williams is deep. deeply concerning. I guess that only kind of saving grace is the fact that it is only three of the five days. They're not missing five days because they can only run three of them, but it's still not looking good. Obviously, the whole being overweight and failing crash test is all just

rumours. There's probably a good reason why they're kind of being rumoured. But obviously, we don't know if that's 100% a fact, of course. rumor. However, you can't sugarcoat the fact that they have not shown up at all. And the fact that they were one of those teams that was so, you know, as you say, James Thaus was so pushing towards 2026. There was a lot of hype around them, Mercedes engine, two brilliant drivers, a fantastic year last year. You know, we said, like, I just think how good they're going to be this year. And my word, they are in struggle town. I saw a picture actually today of them. I guess they're not at the test so they can share more than six pictures.

So that's a positive. That they were sharing pictures of their merch and doing their merch drop. And I can't imagine the drivers must have been like already hating media stuff to then be like, come on guys, pose for the pictures. And probably not in the best of enjoyment right now for the Williams guys. They must be absolutely gutted with the news and wanting to be out there while these other teams. you know, they'd have been hoping that they were breaking down, but they're doing loads of laps,

and seemingly a lot of them are fine, so not good for Williams. They are really losing a lot of mileage. Not good at all. I would like for them to sort it out, because selfishly we were going to go to their car launch, and I hope that everything is sorted by then, because that would be nice to have gone there,

and things are a little bit happier than perhaps they are right now, but we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully James Vowles can do his cooking and sort something out. Now, what can we expect from the rest of the test is a big question? I don't know, doubt. I think it's clear unless Formula One make changes, which I really highly doubt they will. This was the most information we were going to get.

I feel as though F1 will up the security. I feel as though they will be surveying every corner of that circuit from here on. and we will have to make do with the six pictures and the happy birthday to whoever its birthday is that day in the paddock. Well, exclusive. I've just seen that Sky have dropped a one minute,

40 second video of testing. So there you go. We've got some footage. Okay. All right. So that's something. What? I will tell you, I've got them, I guess they've got cameras from Formula One, so they're filming something. So they have got cameras there. I'll tell you what. I can see that Mercedes circulating. I can see Bortoletto coming out of a trek recovery vehicle, which doesn't look great,

and being covered up by the boards, the Alpine being wheeled. So this is the thing, like we're seeing these highlights anyway. So why are they showing it? Why aren't they showing it? You might as well. Yeah,

I'm watching the same video right now. It's just a kind of very quick roundup, which I'm sure we're probably going to see on F1's YouTube channel later as well, maybe. I don't know. This is the thing, like, how secretive are they going here? Oh, little squirrel for the Audi car. They're not going to be happy with that. They did not want that to be shown to... To broadcast. They're going to be on the phone going, excuse me. Can we make the highlights one minute and 30 seconds next time, please? Okay, I mean, this kind of just annoys me even more. I'm like, not annoys me in the sense of seeing, because I love to see these cars out on track, but it makes no sense compared to... There are literal camera crews there.

Manning the cameras. Like, why are we not? I don't know. Bizarre. Very bizarre. And what's going to happen tomorrow. This is the thing. Like tomorrow, what are we going to see?

Because at least today we had half a day of lifetiming. I imagine they'll be shutting that off tomorrow. And is it just a case? You know, it's all going to be rumors. I've seen, you know, there's been journalists and things trying to get in, fans trying to get in and being kicked. out constantly. So yeah, it's not, it's not looking good for how much we're going to see. And in a world of like, you know, information where you're trying to get it all reliable, I think

Formula One just shooting themselves in the foot with it, really. Yeah, exactly. Now I know a lot of you probably sat there going, guys, relax, it's testing, who really cares? We do. We care because we're Formula One fans. And if they're going to tell us about something, if they tell us about something, then, you know, we want to see. Don't hype it up to then hide everything. That's what I would say. Right, that is it. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in to this day one wrap-up.

Unlikely that we're going to be doing daily episodes of this because it will be the same rant every single day with even less information probably. But say things do change or we do get a lot of information. You know where to come because we will, of course, be here. Turn the timing back on. So yeah, exactly. Turn it back on and let us have a glimpse.

That would be nice. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts It's nice to see that video But I wish there was more of it As always And come on Formula One It's 2026

We're so selfish are we as fans We always want more It's never enough I know Unless it's free practice one in Australia And Tommy's like Get that off my screen I don't want to see it

Go Just now go watch the The video from Last year where it's like How could we improve Bahrain testing Uh Maybe they should be a sprint race

Obviously we were joking that we don't want that. How can they improve a secret F1 test? This is the thing. It's like the car launches all over again, isn't it? When we had eight hours of just cars on track, it's like, oh, this isn't that interesting? But I like it, I like it.

Just having it on the background. It's the background thing, isn't it? Yeah, for sure. Exactly. Right, thank you, everybody. We'll see you very soon. Lots of love. Bye!

Enjoy secret testing day two. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.