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

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Well, it wasn't quite the in-person launch we had planned for, but Williams have unveiled their new car! Can all the snazzy blue paint and sponsor logos distract from the fears that they could be in real trouble? Let's find out... 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. You know what time it is. It's another livery reveal. It's another discussion. I am sad, Tommy, because this was supposed to be us, firstly, seeing each other in real life, me seeing that gorgeous complexion of yours. But secondly, and less importantly, seeing the Williams in real life. We might have even got time with the drivers and daddy vowels.

But instead, we are given a video, which I'm... I'm still, you know, we're still going to talk about it, but I'm a little bit angry because I, you know, it's quite an exciting thing that could have happened. Yeah, I know. It's always, we joke about car launches and that, you know, we're in the comments going, oh, just show the car. But when they actually put on a vent and you can, you can go and you can experience it and, like you say, it looked like we might be able to, you know, see daddy vows in person. I mean, what more do you want in your life? So, sadly, it didn't happen. And it's just another kind of thing that makes you maybe a little worried for Williams with how the season started.

It can't really go a lot, a lot worse than how it's gone so far. So at least it can only get better, I guess. I reckon Williams probably breathing a little sigh of relief that they didn't have James Vowles and Tom Bellingham in the same room. Because I don't think people will be able to cope with that amount of sexual energy. So I just, you know, just... Wow. Let's a start to the podcast. You can tell we're only talking about a one-minute video, can't you? And no, we're not getting into the Hamilton Kim Kardashian Rumors.

That's for a separate podcast. Yeah. Oh, sorry. That's a four-hour bonus episode for the Patreon. My bad. That's my fault. So yes, a livery launch. Of course, no car to be spoken about because, of course,

Williams aren't going to unveil the secret double triple diffuser that they've created that we've discussed previously and that we thought that maybe this is the biggest brain move ever from Williams to not show their car yet because they're, They've got all of the knowledge. That is a very far-fetched scenario. But look, let's talk about the car, shall we? But before we do, we have to tell you something that we haven't told you in a little while

to remind you all, Australia, we are coming down under. We are taking the P1 Live Delusion Tour to Australia this year. And there's a question, right? We've had a question from Link 040409. This is not a burner account. This is a real person. that came in with a question. This isn't a question, great, for the podcast,

but could you guys convince my mum to buy tickets for your show in Perth? It would be appreciated. All right, let's do it. I mean, firstly, you get to see Tom Bellingham in real life. We've already said this, right? That's something that's once in a lifetime opportunity. It's a high energy show. It's not just a sit-down podcast.

Oh, do you like F-1? Yeah, I do. Do you like... No, it's games, it's high energy. I come into the audience. questions, we get your opinions. It's just an awesome thing that you can come to on your own because people make friends. We've had so many bits of feedback, which I absolutely love, is that the fact that people genuinely make friends when they come to our P1 live shows.

We do a meeting greet at the end, so if you want to, for whatever reason, meet me and Tommy. It's free as well, don't worry, we're not charging for that stuff. To meet every single one of you that decide to wait and things like that. So there's lots of awesome things to do. And yeah, how else would you say it, Tommy? And we're going to be extra hyped because, well, we're literally flying to the other side of the world, which is insane. I can't get that in my head. I'm getting like the nerves and good, good nerves about it. Now I'm starting to like book the travel there and staying and stuff.

And it's really exciting because I've never been to Australia before. So excited to see some new places and bring the P1 live show. Yeah, to some new places. And my word, you guys in Australia have come in with some serious love with how quickly some of them sort. out that we had to put new dates in. Don't believe it when Tommy says he's booking things. He has three personal assistants that are working furiously. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. We're going on a little Aussie tour. Yeah, you are. Kangaroos and koalas and all sorts. Grace is coming to Australia, guys. I mean, that is in itself. She might even turn up to a show. That'd be amazing.

So to tell you the dates, the 5th of May, Adelaide, Norwood Concert Hall, the 6th of May, Melbourne National Theatre, which is a new show that we've added, because the 7th of May, this is also at the National Theatre, has sold out. The 9th of May is the Seymour Centre in Sydney. A matinee show has been added because we sold out the evening show, which is mental. And then the next two shows at the Seymour Central, as I said, Sydney on that same day sold out. And then Brisbane at the Tivoli on the 11th of May is also sold out.

And then the 13th of May, Perth, Astor Theatre. There's still tickets available. Okay, let's get into the livery. First thoughts on the 2026 Williams. I am going to start off by saying, I prefer last year. I prefer last year's livery. I feel like it was cleaner. I cannot get out of my head the sort of the template

of what this car must have been at the start of going into a new season. It feels like they've just had a bidding war to just pop sponsors in different parts of the car with different colours. The Kamatsu has a white background. The Barclays has a light blue. background. Then of course the main colour of the Williams, which is dark blue. Don't get me wrong. It is not a bad livery by any stretch. And I still do like it. However, it, yeah, I think that's something that I can't quite see past. If you look to the Hasse, the greatest livery ever made, it's growing

on me more and more every time I see it. It's just, it's not as flowing as a car like that. Whereas, yeah, last year's Williams was a lot more blue and a lot more darker blue, right? And I like that more. I actually prefer this one. Another disagreement. We love to see it. Finally. I think it's really cool. And I do agree with you in the sense that it does look like a car where traditionally in Formula One you tend to have like you have your livery. All the sponsors are just like a white logo and then you have one title sponsor that may be allowed to be in full colour. And clearly Williams here have gone Duracel have your battery bit

Barclays you can be light blue come out so you've got to be on a white background cracking you've got to have your purple leg on this white background you know this casino sponsor you can have a roulette wheel in a in a tire and everything and they've kind of agreed to everything and that could in theory

make for a very very very horrendous and messy livery and I don't think it is that at all I think they've implemented it incredibly well and it looks really slick to say that yeah they have kind of seemingly looks like they've made every

sponsor very happy maybe they're lucky and fortunate in the fact that a lot of those sponsors are blue which helps things but I think it's really nice and they've done a really good job with it okay it's getting to a question P1 Patreon member Piper MZ mimic should more teams be getting

creative with the wheel rims? I mean it's a very clever idea isn't it I think McLaren are the kind of OGs with this with the the Chrome logo, which was a genius bit of marketing. And you're kind of so used to seeing it on the McLaren now. I do think, you know, if I take my, like, they're a bit of fun. Yes, they are incredibly garish. And they kind of do make it a little bit cheesy.

But at the end of the day, if you want to impress sponsors, just look how much the jurorcell, like when jurorcell got revealed and everyone was like, wow, that's really clever. they've made like the airboxer battery like it got spoken about so much it added you know even more chatter which as a sponsor is exactly what what you want so to do something creative with that sponsor and put it in the wheel rims and make it like a roulette wheel or something it's a very clever idea so yeah um in terms of yes it's fun um i think yes it does make the car look a bit garish and horrible if you if people start to have do loads of crazy stuff but it's also a fun thing and clever marketing i'd say exactly uh yeah it's not the first time we've seen this as you've said tommy red ball with poker

stars i guess it's a similar thing uh with what williams have done here with their wheel rims i think they did it for Vegas yeah yeah so for me i think they look great with white hard tires on chuck a yellow medium on or red soft who knows how that will uh will go i think there's a clear reason as to why they've gone for the white wall tire for these renders because it looks the best and it's the most neutral colour with those patterns. But I'm happy to see them get creative. How much more creative you can get, I don't know. And of course, yeah, gambling sponsors are absolutely loving the idea of having a roulette wheel in the wheel rims. So you would be surprised if you see more of that as we continue on in this, I guess, yeah, they are going a little bit crazier

with deliveries and where they can fit sponsors in. Formula One teams are like, where else can we sponsor the car? Well, it shows that what a great place Formula One is for sponsorship. There was a stage in the kind of 2000s, wasn't there, where, or maybe like early 2010s, even up to early 2020 before Drive Survive really kicked off. We know, like, Formula One is thriving right now. And Williams, in particular, are just signing sponsors for, for, fun it feels like but so many you go back maybe like 10 years and so many the cars are so bare

like there's no sponsorship on them you maybe got like one or two title sponsors now they're seemingly can't get enough of it and and everyone seemingly getting involved and you see you know these companies that are sponsoring Formula One itself and the circuits and everything like it seems like all these sponsors are now getting involved in the sport and that's making the teams you know have all these big sponsors get involved and, you know, be very prominent on their liveries now, which is not something we saw maybe five or six years ago. Yeah, financially, teams are looking pretty good, especially when you look at Williams.

Williams were struggling only a few years ago, weren't they? They were really struggling for backing. Well, that plain white car that they had in like 2020, I think it was. And yeah, it was just like completely bare. They're at the back of the grid. Now look at them. And now look at them. So many pieces of writing on that car.

Okay, next question. Harry and Haynes, what would be considered a successful season for Williams in 2026? I guess it depends. If you're asking me now compared to at the end of 2025, I think I would have given you two very different answers. At the end of 2025, they're getting podium for fun with Carlos Sines.

I think it was two main podiums and one sprint. podium if I'm not. Yeah, I believe so. Either all, right, they got podiums when they shouldn't have got them. You're then thinking, how do we build on that? However, everything then kind of went wrong with the 2026 car. James Vals has been meaned to high heavens with the clips from that podcast about caring about nothing other than 2026 and then the failing of the crash test being really overweight. So you kind of have to factor that in that the team has been on the back foot coming into this year. So a successful season, honestly,

like if they were able to replicate what they did last year, I would consider that as of right now, successful considering the problems that they've been facing. I've never seen a team have more hype and then no hype before they've even turned a wheel because, of course, we went into the end of last season. Williams were doing well and the whole narrative was if they're that good this year,

think how good they're going to be now they've completely like put all their eggs in 2026 they've really gone for it they're going to have a Mercedes engine which based on testing so far looks like is very strong and a lot of chatter of you know could be the best or this whole engine compression ratio and all that kind of stuff as well so like the the Mercedes package is the one to have and they've put all their eggs in 2026 got two great drivers sure it's going to be an amazing year and then it completely flipped on its head when you know the only team not to make any, you know, days on the shakedown. James Vows has kind of said, you know, he's not, he's not concerned and it's not as big of an issue. I guess their saving grace is the fact that

there are a lot more tests, you know, if years gone by when there were three days at Bahrain and you miss all of them, you don't really want to be rolling out for the first time in free practice one. Like that's not good. And so at least there's more time, if they do indeed bring a real car and it's not just a render and they do indeed turn up to Bahrain. Here's hoping. But yeah, a successful season, they'll be hoping to just kind of replicate and maybe do a little bit more than last year. But I completely agree with you that there was so much expectation that if you'd have asked me this at the start of the season, I'd have said they want to be getting wins and maybe like a P3 in the Constructors Championship,

like top three in the Constructors or something. Now I'm kind of like, well, yeah, just another solid season and grow from there and see if they can do any better than last year, which was already an amazing season. So question, how much trouble do we think Williams are actually in missing the shakedown? Now, this could be, this could age incredibly badly, but I, and maybe this is me just trusting anything James Vow says and he could tell me that the earth is flat and I'll be like, yeah, I'm. I agree. But he, him, I don't think it's as extreme as people are saying where like, I'd be amazed if they're like, just because they missed the shakedown, they are the worst car on the grid by a mile. I don't think that's the case. And I do think people, you know, they're getting meme to high heaven now, aren't they?

And you're seeing things like, oh, Alex Albin on track. And it's like a, just a figure floating and going, you know, with no car and saying, where's the car? they're not going to have a car and all this kind of stuff. I'd be amazed if they're last. Again, this could age incredibly badly. But I don't think they're going to be as bad as maybe people are thinking just because they missed a shakedown. Yes, it's not ideal because someone like Mercedes and Ferrari

have done like four, 500 laps. That's a lot of in real life running. But it's not the end of the world. It's not going to make or break their season, in my opinion. I think they are in a bit of trouble. Of course James Valves is not going to come out and openly say, yeah, we're cooked, guys. We are absolutely finished. I was wrong.

I wish we'd tried in 2025. We would have won the world title. I firmly believe that they can, of course, turn this around, as you say, two more tests to go. But they are 500 laps behind Mercedes. They're 430-odd laps behind Ferrari in terms of actual mileage. That's with the power train. That's with figuring out this new aerode. a huge amount of different systems that they have to get their head around, which they're going

to have to do in two tests. That is a lot of time. But it's not just the case of they're missing it. It's the case of what we're hearing about the car being incredibly overweight. I know there have been other teams as well that rumored to be overweight, but to have all these problems going into two weeks of testing, not knowing what's really going to happen. These virtual track testing, I really do doubt they've learned anywhere near as much as what's. the teams out in Barcelona would have. So for me, I think they, yeah, they've got their work cut out for them. And it's, I genuinely believe they'll be crossing their fingers when they roll out on the first day in Bahrain and pray to God it all works.

Because if it doesn't, I think they're in serious trouble. Because if you think the amount of time the teams have now with this off week, they have so much time to absorb the data that they have. Oh, this didn't work very well. That front wing wasn't deploying the way we wanted. Williams don't have that luxury. Yeah, because if they go into that test and yeah, the car breaks down straight away, they're like, oh no, we're wasting more time. So yeah, yeah, you're right in that sense, yeah.

Fingers crossed for Williams, not there, because I love the team and I love the drivers. So fingers crossed for them. Now, before we go, a massive story in Formula One. No, not Lewis Hamilton and Kim Kardashian rumoured to being dating. But India's sports ministry is actively working to bring Formula One racing back. to the Buddha International Circuit. Yes, please. Okay, India.

Yes, please. That track I played many, many times in F1 League racing on the Xbox. Wasn't the greatest on a controller, I'll be real, better on a steering wheel. You know, not competitive in the slightest, just thinking about how I lost a couple of tents here and there. But the circuit itself was awesome.

I genuinely think it was, I don't know, it felt like the best of a lot of world, Similar to like Austin in some ways, you have the fast, long straits, you have the heavy braking zones, you have the technical, I think middle sector, trying to remember exactly how it goes.

But yeah, I was a fan of the circuit and India has a massive Formula One following. I know the P1 podcast has a massive Indian following. Be shout out to each and every one of you if you're there. So they deserve a Formula One track. They deserve a Formula One weekend. And I am fully in support of this,

this track in particular returning? Absolutely. Yeah, like India are hugely passionate about Formula One. We saw that when they had the circuit there. Unfortunately for them, that they got into Formula One, and this can be said for like South Korea and maybe even, you know,

Sapang to some extent. These great tracks that came in and they were kind of pre-drive to survive, where we mentioned about all these sponsors coming in and Formula One's absolutely booming. If they'd have just waited another five years and been on the calendar then, you know, the sport's absolutely thriving,

their kind of loving life, and they kind of missed it. But from what I remember about that circuit and looking to how it is now, the thing we always complain about a lot of tracks is like the cars are too big. So we need like wider circuits, heavy braking zones, long straights, but also still exciting fast corners.

And that's exactly what the circuit had from memory. It was the widest long straight, if I recall correctly. It was definite opportunity for a little dive bomb. Exactly. So these are the circuits that I think would be so heavily suited to this modern Formula One, although it's all changing again this year, of course, but even the year gone by. Although have you heard now there's rumors that, Espan Okon told the media that the cars are harder to follow than last year. I love it. I love Esty Besty, but I really hope he's wrong.

I'm just going to say he's flat out wrong. Like, Esty Besty, what do you know, really? You know, you're a Formula One driver of many, many years. What do you know that we don't? Driving the car. Be delusioned, like us. I mean to be delusional and not agree with Estebanokon that they are harder to follow. Please, God, no.

Why would we end the podcast with this? note, Tommy. We're talking about India coming back to Formula One. Yippee. Let's just leave it at that. Leave it at that. Not anything to do with the overtaking. Exactly. So it's going to be hard to overtake. So we need tracks like the but international circuit. Say that again. So it's crazy. Okay. So just ignore what Tommy has just said in the last 90 seconds and Formula One is going to be the best ever this year. They're going to be able to follow and everything else in between. So look forward to that. Tommy, what your final thoughts as long as it's nothing to do with overtaking? Final thoughts

As we mentioned at the start of the show Grab your tickets If you're in Australia Because we can't wait for it And well It's going to be Time before we know it It's already gone incredibly quickly

Remember when we announced it It was so long away And here we are And you guys You guys bought your tickets In your thousands It's mental to see the support So thank you to each and every one of you

That has bought a ticket They will be Yeah right up there With some of the best shows I think we've ever done just because of how excited we will be there. Not that we're not excited for other places. I can see Twitter.

Are you not excited to be? Very excited to go to Australia and that's it. So thank you everybody. We'll see you very soon for the next car launch. Can't wait to not talk about car launches. And we can just talk about racing, but we still have a while to go and at least we get to do podcasts.

So that's a positive. So my final thought is, overtaken is going to be great. It will be. It will be. Bye. Oh God, that's enough. Bye.

Bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.