P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to the Mercedes F1 car launch

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

We’re fresh off our *amazing* win at the Autosport Awards for a chat about the new Mercedes livery - slapped on a car that will probably bear no resemblance to the actual car come testing. And we’re disagreeing over it! Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us in the Autosport Awards, we couldn’t have done it without you!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. If you're noticing a gravelly voice, it's when you go to places and talk to a lot of people and you project your voice and now it sounds like this. If you missed it, we're going to just start it and say right now, we went to the Autosport Awards last night, not hungover. Neither of us are hungover. We were very sensible because we knew about this Mercedes car launch. However, my brain decided, you know what you need, Matt, at 7,8,

after going to bed at like half two. It's some adrenaline. Why don't you just remember everything that happened at the Autosport War? We won. We won. We won. And it's thanks to you because it was the fan vote. We are creators of last year, I guess.

Yeah, maybe. I still haven't processed it. My brain is very sleepy. But thank you. Yeah, can't thank you enough. We did a little video on P1 Extra. Go check that out if you've not seen it. subscribe to that channel because yeah we just wanted to share our thoughts while it was

still fresh in the mind and it's still very much fresh in the mind it was an amazing night so apologies that were a little bit groggy and tired but we're going to be chatting about the Mercedes of course can we call it a launch it's a render a render so Mercedes they are doing a car but I believe they're doing it after when they get a car but obviously so many of the teams are just doing these livery launches so they can say like here's our design they have the moment in the sun, but it's so secretive at the moment. There's so much going on with the new rules. There'd be so much changing.

Mercedes are a prime example when we went into 2022. I remember them dropping those renders of their car. Of course, they ended up with that zero side pod concept. It looked completely different. And do you remember everyone showing those renders of side by side versus the real car? So don't be surprised if Mercedes, you know, have a six-wheeled car when it comes to testing or something.

and it's completely different. Yes, because I don't want to give away any secrets. You know, this is not to show off what innovations they've done. It's to show off their livery and that's about it. Well, let's speak about it. Let's speak about it. I really like it. I'm a big fan. I wondered whether Tommy is going to say, I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like this.

That's fine. I rolled over in bed, saw that the Mercedes had launched and went, oh, oh, damn, that's hot. So that was my initial reaction. And I like it. I've got it up here on the phone just to have it. I like the stripes on the side. I think that really does just sit quite beautifully. And it's flowing.

I enjoy it. You know, they've got the little sort of symbols at the back, which they've kept, haven't they? The stars, yeah. The stars from... When did they bring that in? Was it last?

A long time. No, like 2019. I guess they've had different colours to compliment it. Yeah, because they did that AMG logo for a while, Yeah, which was very bold. Definitely different. But I'm a fan of it. I like it.

I think it's a good looking car, and they haven't ruined it. We're going to start our post-award era with a disagreement. Oh, yeah, here we go. I saw it and I went, I don't think Tommy's going to like that. No, I don't. I don't. I think Mercedes actually, they're getting there with the whole silver and black, and actually, I think last year was really good.

They don't have the red anymore for the INEOS, and I think that really helps with the overall car. but looking at this, the front angle great, some of the side angle. And I think when we see it on track, I know a little bit more as well of how much the silver pops. Ring the Tommy when we see it on track. Because it can change your opinion. But for me, I'm looking at that going, graphic designer calm down.

You don't need to have too many ideas on one thing because the stars, as you mentioned, on the back, I don't like the stripes, basically. You don't like the stripes? No, I think they're really cheesy. I think they are too garish. And the bit on the back that I think is the coolest bit about the Mercedes is the faded stars. So why you'd put stripes on it as well, stars and stripes, are the American? I don't know.

Very weird. No, they're not. Exactly, they're not. It just screams like too many ideas. And a lot of the time with the best F1 liverys, in my opinion, it really is like less is more. And I don't, I really don't like the stripes at all. Like that is the one thing that I saw and I was like,

particularly the rear three quarters when you can see the stripes and the stars together. It's like, that's a lot going on. So that's kind of my thoughts on that. I didn't, it didn't wow me. I think initially like you see it from certain angles. It's like, that's really cool. But I was just like, those stripes. Not for me.

No, not for you. It's not to Adidas, I would assume. I don't know. People have been saying... You would say, yeah, you assume, but I don't... Adidas I don't think it's four. No, it's not, it's three stripes. So I don't really understand why.

Like if it had been, ironically, I'd even say the Adidas stripes would have looked cooler because it's like the three stripes and they're bigger and it's like a pattern. But why there's like four or five, maybe it's... Is it four? Four? Four. Four. Four.

Four. I don't know, maybe that's what it is. Oh, the po-po are out. The police are here to arrest me for my opinion. I was going to say they've heard Tommy's terrible opinions. The graphic designer has called for your arrest. But no, not a fan for me. I do think the Mercedes normally is one of the best,

but the stripes are just too much of me. I like it a lot. I like the stripes. I understand your point about the fact of it takes away from the stars. Like it does take away the focus slightly. But I'm a fan of the stripes. I really am. I think it's a really good looking car.

they've had worse for sure. Oh yeah, for sure. As you say, like the red's been taken out now. So I think it's cleaner from that side of things. Yeah, I think it'll look good on track personally. It will. I know this is such a cliche as well, but you know when you see certain cars,

and I think you've felt it from the Red Bull in years gone by away, just like, you know, that looks like a championship winning car. I don't know, there's just something about it. Maybe it's like the aura of it, or just that we know that they're going to be very strong. but when I saw that car, it's like, well, yeah, they mean business. Yeah, and obviously we went to the Autosport Awards, as we mentioned last night.

And all I'm going to say is coming out of the Autosport Awards, I am now even more concerned that there's going to be a Mercedes-dominated era. That's all we're going to say. That's the concern has been greatly heightened, and I think Ferrari finished. So good, I've lost all hope immediately. That's fantastic. So, of course, no car launch. at 9am, as Tommy said.

Nixie underscore 1 asks, should teams be obliged to do a live stream when revealing their car? Should they? I don't know. Like, the renders, maybe the fact that it could have been a video would have been nice.

Like in this day and age, Hasse is a great example. They drop renders, don't they? They had the renders of the car. It's not the real car. It is, and, you know, it is easy enough for teams, They dropped a video.

Yeah, they dropped a video. And I like that. So like even though it's not a car launch, you don't have, you know, the buildup and a physical car, it is a little bit nicer to have that anticipation, you know, obviously like where you can watch a video and there's a little, even if it's 30 seconds of lights and teasing a little bit, it's like, oh, this is, because that's what has obviously did, rather than just going, here's the car. But yeah, they dropped it.

They do love a little 9 a.m. launch Mercedes here in the UK. I don't know if it's the Mercedes admin just gets into work and it's like, no messing about. Come on. Post it. 101. Clocked out. See you later. But yeah, they do love dropping some renders. And yeah, sometimes Mercedes do do a big extravagant car launch. Maybe they're scarred because the one memory I have of a Mercedes car launch was when Lewis announced that he was leaving Mercedes for Ferrari and then it was just kind of like they had to do

this car launch and all the press were they just wanting to ask him about Ferrari and they're probably like let's just yeah they didn't want that news to come out just then did they um I think with the renders it's kind of lazy I'm not going to lie to you it feels lazy the fact that they as you say they haven't made a video they haven't done an like an anticipatory one minute 30 like has did or one minute 50 whatever they did now that's I think the least you can do of course as we mentioned they they are going to do a car launch from what we understand later on, I think early Feb. So, like, that's the thing that doesn't make sense to me the most is why would you do a car launch? And they've done this several times now.

Why would you do a car launch when we all know what it looks like? And that's the main thing everyone tunes into is what is the car going to look like. Yeah, because people will complain and say that, like, are, you know, there's always this divide of some people, saying like, oh, you know, there's a car launch and a livery launch. They're two separate things. But it's so hard to understand, you know, even the most, the tech experts looking at it, everyone's interpreted everything different. So looking at a car, you don't know how fast it's going to be. So the main takeaway for 99% of people is what the livery looks like. So to do a car launch again where it's like, here's the same livery you've seen, but the barge boards are a bit smaller.

or there's a little end plate here and there, which will probably change by the next test anyway, is kind of a little bit. Yeah, it probably underwhelms people a bit, doesn't it? It does, yeah, because apart from obviously the tech nerds out there, Tommy, you talk about compression ratio. Like, you know, I don't think there's many people that would tune into the car launch to be looking at these innovations

that actually, again, feel like a little bit of a waste of time when we actually get to testing, and they've had private testing and they're trying all different things, it's not going to be the car that we see in Australia. So what is there really to learn? I don't know. I mean, it's obviously cool to have the car launch,

but I just feel as though I personally am tuning in for the livery the most because that's the biggest, most visual change we're going to see at this point in the year. And it's unusual as well this year with how the testing has fallen where you've got this secret test and it's very early. So some cars are releasing before, some cars are releasing after.

You've seen someone like Cadillac, for example, not reveal their livery yet. And I think personally, I quite like that idea of if you do really want to kind of do something before and reveal the car or whatever and have it on testing, do some really funky, cool testing livery and then do a car reveal later. So it is a little bit different because, you know, I'm calling it now, like Mercedes will do a car launch and you bet 99.9% of the Twitter comments of already seen this. Yeah.

Well, yeah, exactly. So yeah, it's not as if Mercedes don't have money either. That's my main gripe. Like with Hasse and smaller teams, I can understand maybe why they would just put a video out there and be like, cool, see you at the season. This obviously is the first of two parts, as we've mentioned, but it feels like I know the movie ending

before we even tune it at. It's all tiny and we'll forget about it come Australia, but this is what we've got to talk about in January. Next question comes in from B1BIT. Lex Wakeman with the rumoured Mercedes engine advantage this year. How many potential race wins could Antonelli have? Podium in his first year, maybe eyes on the championship in the second. I think that sort of trajectory makes sense for me.

I think Kimmy, what we saw last year were moments of brilliance, but not nearly enough to suggest that he can win a world championship yet. I think that's doing George Russell a massive disservice if we say that Kimmy, from what we have seen last year will be able to beat George. Yeah, imagine predicting him for the World Championship crazy. Imagine predicting Charlotte Clare to win the World Championship.

I'm already massively regretting that. I genuinely think there's more chance of Nico Holkenberg winning the World Championship. But back to Mercedes, back to Kimi. I think this makes perfect sense. I would expect him to get a few wins. I'd expect him to be on the podium a lot. What kind of step up we're going to see this year?

And I think we've sort of explored that a little bit is unknown. If we see an Oscar Piastri-esque step up, then perhaps. Kimmy does have the talent, he has the raw speed. And I'm in two minds whether these new regulations will actually play into the hands of the rookies and the not as much experience because they don't have as much muscle memory to sort of overturn. So there's that side of things. That's, again, an unknown, a bit of an exciting prospect for Kimmy Antonelli fans. But I don't think he's challenging for a championship in the first, but if we see a big step this year, then why not in 2027?

Yeah, obviously I predicted him champion and, you know, that mainly was at the end saying that it's because for me, George Russell is the obvious choice and I didn't want to like do a predictable choice, which again, like, it is so odd that it's the predictable choice when he's never won the world championship. Mad. But I am like, and no offense to George, I said it again, like, I hope I'm wrong in the that, you know, if he wins it, it's not a whitewash, but it feels like going into the season you're almost like so convinced. So I hope it's not going to be a whitewash for Mercedes and

they're going to be so clear because we want a close championship. We've been scarred by 2014 and how dominant they were and when a new regulation change comes in. Particularly, I think as well, like it's a new regulation, but it's a really, really, really complicated one. There's a reason why they're doing a secret test for five days and they're only allowed to do three of them of those five days because they think they're going to be breaking down a lot. The cars aren't going to be starting up. There's so much to learn. And this is the thing with it. So Antonelli, if Mercedes are clear, he's going to win, he's going to win races, surely. And the championship is whether he's got that consistency because the consistent, we know George Russell is one of, if not the most

consistent driver on the grid. Like that's something he's always been, even when he was like Williams and stuff. So yeah, I think George is obviously the favourite, but Antonelli, I surely, you know, if the car's good, he's going to have a great season because he's got a very high ceiling and he showed those moments last year where, you know, towards the end of the season, like Brazil, you know, he was amazing in that race and the whole weekend was clear of George Russell. It just, you know, it needs to be more than two or three races a year. Exactly.

So I think it's quite clear where we both stand on how Mercedes are going to do this season. I will sort of say on top of this that we can't discount McLaren. We really can't discount McLaren. I think as well, not for the championship, but for great results. Again, Williams, it's the Mercedes powered cars that genuinely, it's not, we are thinking, of course, Mercedes will have the advantage because they're the ones developing the engine, they're always going to have first dibs in terms of the information and everything as it comes in. But I think it would be very silly to say that McLaren don't have a chance of winning the

World Championship back to back. They're not being spoken about. We've sort of, of course, said that we think it's unlikely just from what we've been hearing. But we've heard many a rumor in the last 25 years of watching Formula One. And a lot of them involving Ferrari being the fastest car after testing and then ending up not being the fastest car after test. So, you know, there are plenty of rumours that go around, especially into new regulations that don't come true. Yeah, you never, you never know. And yeah, even if Mercedes are clear, you've got McLaren, as you say, you've got, you've got Williams who are an amazing trajectory as well, who are going to have, and have put everything into this regulation. You've got

McLaren who you could argue were very, obviously like very, very, very good last year. And maybe that's helped them in being able to put more focus onto the new year, because they already had a really good car from the get-go. And you can't count them out. It is funny there how like all the talk is that Mercedes engine. And, you know, it goes back to the prediction that I made about Maxa Stappen not winning a race. and I know like it's triggered a lot of people, but it is my concern that, you know,

we are going to get a situation where we, if that Mercedes engine is clear, it's an engine formula, if they have found this trick that makes them half a second clear, you've got three tenths or whatever. Clear, clear, but clear. But yeah, it's a huge margin. You've got Mercedes McLaren,

Williams, and Alpine, where there's engine. That's the top eight. So it's going to be very hard for people to get a sniff. And there's going to be like people breaking down and things. I hope that for other like people and other teams and with their engines and things like they can develop and catch up if that's the case. But look, we're going to find out. And we said this when we did our predictions.

We're going to, we're going to, even though that's a, test is secret, there's going to be, there's going to be rumors, there's going to be things, like they will know stuff. Like we're in a world now where there's social media, it's not as, it can't be secret in this world. You will know what's happening. They had a secret test before. We saw pictures, we knew everything that was going on and times and everything. Basically like, I think even in those like first couple of days, we are going to go, oh, okay, it's not as bad as we think. Or we're going to go, I told, yeah, oh no, our fears are here.

We told you so, my word, Methodes, have built something amazing. Yeah, yeah. And then we will be launching a podcast in a different sport, because we can't do 2014 all over again. Absolutely not. But yes, we will keep, obviously, our ears to the ground and see what we can find out over the coming weeks when testing finally starts. Of course, more car launch is coming your way.

Some live streams. We'll be back for our live streams from sort of, well, today onwards, we'll be back to do any events that happen. Looking forward to see how, just how many points Ferrari, aura farm when we get to them. Oh my word, yeah. Because that is the one championship we do win, is aura farming. So, uh, well, they do a 50 minute car launch where they're just constantly like,

you know, catwalks and cool lights and fire and stuff. Good distraction. Good distraction from the actual car. And then don't reveal the car. They're just like, well, by the way, here's a render. Okay, bye. All right. there you go. Thank you everybody for tuning in to this Mercedes livery reveal chat and looking forward to proper racing in a couple of months. But until then, or a month and a half,

until then, we will see you soon for more car launches. Thank you again for voting for us for the autism. Thanks for that. Crazy scenes and we'll see you soon. Bye. Bye. Bye. P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast Creator Network.