P1 with Matt and Tommy - What happened during F1's five-day Barcelona shakedown?

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Well, we made it - the most confusing week of F1 testing has come to a close and, thanks to one random Spanish outlet, we can take a look at how the various teams got on. And Ferrari... are so back. 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. Five day shakedown done and dusted. We've still got two weeks of testing remaining. This one was the most private of all, as we know. We did a day one podcast. We did a day one shakedown of the P1 channel, to be honest with you. But then we thought, there really isn't that much to talk about over these next few days. But we wanted to sort of highlight and speak about things that have come out

over the last few days since we lasted the podcast. Yeah, it was much better to round it all up once we had lots more information, lots more running. I mean, literally the second day, we just had Ferrari and Red Bull going out in the wet, not really doing a lot, other than Hadjar going off, of course, which you saw the... A small off. A small off, as they called it in Formula One, which was him going backwards into Wall and Red Bull, worrying they might not do any more running, but a small off. Tiny off.

We'll talk about... talk about that later and some of the other teams that even Formula One themselves were being very generous, I think, with the teams and what was actually really happening a lot. Yes, they were wrapping them in cotton wool, weren't they? And not wanting to say anything particularly harsh. Now, 10 of the 11 teams have run their cars. And as we said in the first day, but if you missed that, three of the five days, they could pick and choose to decide to run their car.

However, if they went out the pits, that was it. That is a day locked in. Doesn't matter if they do one lap or a hundred. And all teams managed to do three of the days, apart from Astor Martin, who managed two, and Williams, who of course did not even turn up. But there seems to be slightly more positive news coming out of that camp in the sense of passing crash tests

and being ready for the next phase of testing. What if? What if Daddy Vaz is actually cooked? He's hiding something. They've got the magic bullet double diffuser bronze. GP and they're just waiting for barrage so no one can catch up in time and they're like, boom, here you go. That would be quite something.

That would be quite the move to be so confident in an upgrade that you just, or an entire car concept that you're like, don't even need to test it, mate. We've got the virtual testing, whatever they were doing this week. But it'll be good to see them. The VVT or whatever they call it. Yeah, which is basically, VTT. Yeah, I don't know. It felt very much like just a simulator, which.

I mean, whoopty do. But still, look, we look forward to having Williams back on track and to see that car out for the first time in the next test, although not entirely sure how much we're going to see of that one. I think it's an hour we see at the end of the day. Surely on this, they announced that very early. You know, we'll get into this, but very similar to what we said on the first day,

it's been nowhere near as bad as 2014 with the reliability, not even close. Did they make that decision too early? Because it's not going to be that bad surely. Like, it's not embarrassing for the odd team to have a reliability failure here and there. Like you do normal testing. It's been nowhere near as bad as 2014 where, you know, we've not had teams failing other than obviously Williams with their struggles, but they didn't turn up. But no team's kind of done like one lap and packed in and gone, oh, the car doesn't work.

So, yeah. So you're all waiting to find out. this big bit of news. And that is, who was fastest at shakedown testing? Now, I want to preface this, preface it, preface, preface, whatever, either all, that these are unofficial times from Soy Motor, who have become the F1 pinnacle media, because it appears to be the only people that have been getting the inside scoop

of times, of laps. It's insane to me that this is... not being escorted from the premises. No, I know. It must have some insane zoom on that camera, but then also they're being fed lap times. Like, it's insane. It's insane to me that this private test

where no media have been allowed to have anything. And Soi Motor, they're like, we will have everything. We will share everything with you. I've learned a lot of Spanish over the last few days, watching their streams. But without them, we'd know nothing. So thank you for your coverage,

despite, I don't know how you got it. So, the fastest, unofficial lap of the five-day Barcelona shakedown Ferrari. Go get the flag. We are winning it all. So Lewis Hamilton clocked an unofficial 1 minute 16.348. A whopping one-tenth faster than George Russell and the Mercedes from a few days ago. It was a few days ago, one day?

Whatever. Russell's fastest lap was a 16-4-4-5, also of course unofficial. But I absolutely love the fact that Ferrari have bolted on a fresh set of softs at the end of the day in the fastest probable conditions and plonked in the fastest lap of all just to get my hopes skyrocketing. Yeah, it's not like Ferrari, is it, to aura farm? Not at all. It's a private test, Tommy. We're not even supposed to know this. How are you or farming?

No, true. Well, yeah, they have been aura farming a lot with their posts. They also, you know, they've been posting a lot. Worth bearing in mind they were fastest, as we joked on day one of 2014. Why? Why have you got to? No, I will. Why have you got to just bring me down the second I get excited? I'm actually not.

So I will say right now that they are a lot better than I thought. I think it's, I think it's very promising. I think it's very, very promising, actually. Surprising. Stop it. If I was to predict again, I would not be putting them as my biggest flop, that's for sure. Would you not? No, I think, I know we joke about testing and no, I don't look too much into testing, but

yeah, it's impressive what Ferrari have done. You know, they've Hamilton and Leclair, two of the fastest five times of the whole session, like the whole shakedown. The whole, yeah, the whole shakedown. I love how like, don't take testing times, you know, take it with a pinch of salt. if that, where does shakedowning times? Because this isn't even a test. We're in

shakedowning, which should be even less. It's not a shakedown. I know that, no, it's not at all. It's a test. What I will already I can hear the comments coming in of, why are you getting so excited, it's only testing? What I want to say to this, right, is that, you know,

people that say, look, you can't learn anything from testing, you shouldn't be getting excited, this, that and the other. First and foremost, we're Formula One content creators that really enjoy the sport and we will take any tiny smidge of information that we can and as a Ferrari fan

I will run with it that we're winning it all if that's the way I want to absorb this unofficial soy motor lap times that I've received then I will do that you don't have to get excited but I will and also let it's not the it's not going to be the final classification order

of the world title that's not what you're saying, but the fact that they're quick. Yeah, hopefully not, Samson would win and look like I'd be fourth in the championship. But, but look, it's incredibly, it's not, people, people get confused between, don't take too much into lap times and, and, you know, it's not a bad thing being fastest in a session. Like, how can it be, how can it be a bad thing? They've also done a lot of laps, you know, Ferrari have clocked over 400 laps over the,

over the kind of three days that they've done as well. One of those was in the wet, of course, as well. But yeah, they've done a good job. Like, you can't deny that. We'll know a lot more after official testing. And of course, there's going to be two of them, two three-day, extra three-day tests. And we'll know a lot more then.

We'll maybe, you know, the media will be covering it, so we'll know more about run plans and things like that. But you can't just shut it down as like, no, no, this means nothing because we know it does in the past. Like it definitely does mean something. Yeah. And I think that is a crucial thing to say here is that, yeah, as you say, it doesn't determine the order.

But if Ferrari are toodling around in one minute 22s, you can read something from that. You can read that they're struggling a little bit because you wouldn't actively go that much slower than what the fastest time is of that day or of that week. And also the mileage. We've said this many times when we've reviewed testing before, but yeah, it's all about the mileage.

And Ferrari have been phenomenally reliable and consistent. Charle-Cla is smiling in interviews. That in itself is worth everything to me, as you know. But I think, you know, we look at, again, these numbers are unofficial. They come from Soimota. And I believe this was halfway through the last day. This is the last accurate information. This is the last up-to-date information.

that I've got. So for the overall power trains, so not just the team, but whatever teams are running those particular engines. Mercedes, it was 963 laps that they'd run across shakedown testing.

Ferrari 815, Red Bull Power Trains 575, Audi 161 and Honda 54. Now, remember that's engines and obviously Mercedes, yes, an engine,

you've got to remember that that's, obviously it looks good for Mercedes and Freight, but they've got multiple teams. So you don't want to be, like, you don't want to look at Audi and go, oh, that's really bad. Like, obviously, they'd have loved to have done more. But I would argue in some ways, of course, yeah, it's inflated for the Mercedes and the Ferraris of this world. But also, that's crucial information full stop for developing that power train.

As much as, yes, Honda have had the lowest amount, they don't have as much data just in general to try and improve on what they've got. yeah and Ferrari you look at look at obviously like 815 they've got they supply engines for for Cadlac and Hass and Has did an awful amount of running right at the start of the session they looked amazing with with their reliability but yeah they've done like 400 laps Mercedes of those 9663 laps 500 of them just their own team so obviously like someone like Audi who will speak about later yes it's only one car and same with with Honda but it's 54 161 it's it's a lot less than the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari that are doing, yeah, like over 400 laps of their own team and yeah, can be very, and are also obviously topping the time sheets as well. So very impressive from those two. Exactly. I'm taking a look at today's running of laps and Ferrari across Hamilton and LeClerre did 147 laps.

McLaren across Norris and Piastri did 166 laps. Vastappan himself did 118. Gassley did 164 laps. His neck's going to be hurting tomorrow morning. Goodness gracious me. But yes, there's a lot of running and a lot more running than anyone anticipated. So let's see all of testing

because they're going to have the camera set up. Just press live. It's that simple, right? Let's get into some questions, shall we? We've been waffling on because we're excited about the season that is still a month and a half away. Coup-a-moire,

I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. Why does everyone get all excited about lap times in testing when we all know it's just about laps and each team's program and if they were able to complete it? Let me go back to what I just said. We get excited because we love the sport. Yes, we might well get ahead of ourselves. Yes, I might believe Ferrari are winning it all. But that's my prerogative. That's what I'm allowed to do.

You can go as far or as near as you want. want with this information that has been leaked rather than displayed by Formula One. But what I would say is, look, be your own Formula One fan. Don't watch it at all. Watch all of it. It doesn't matter. This won't matter, of course, when we get to Australia. But we want to have just small little jigsaw pieces to try and put together who is going to be fast in 2026.

Exactly. You can choose to ignore this information if you want to go in completely blind into the season. And it'd be a complete surprise. No spoilers, Tommy. Or the people that watch Drive Survive and then they don't watch the season. But that being said, you know, we do know a good amount from what we see. And I think there is a little bit of, I think it's maybe overplayed and it feels like something you can be like, don't look too much into times and things. Like, yes, that is true to some extent.

But, you know, Mercedes were fastest in 2014 by like a second and they obviously were very, very quick. year and you look back at kind of years gone by there's so much information now available and particularly when we get to barren obviously we'll know a lot a lot more i i fully believe that after barrain we will and when we've got everything there and we've seen a lot more and there's the information the media there and everything will know even more about what what the kind of pecking order is because you can say like oh it's only testing but realistically after the test after testing last year

we were like our McLaren are really really good aren't they they won the championship really comfortably the year before our Red Bull and Mars Clit they won the they won the championship comfortably

you know years gone by that it's kind of happened Tommy McLaren won the constructors so you're saying Red Bull 1 in 2024 that's you know as they were like dominant they got one two's for fun I could hear the keyboards

okay okay but But basically, like, you do get a good idea. So to say that it's like all irrelevant is not true. Yeah, absolutely. Question from R&B sheep. Do Mercedes look like the clear favourite and can we expect another 2014 season? There's two parts of this question. I'll start with the good news.

I would say that I don't think another 24 season, 2014 season is happening hopefully. Fingers crossed or prey manifest it. because we don't want one team being miles ahead. I think the key thing here is that Mercedes can't do what they did in 2014 and have the best engine by a mile and make sure none of their other teams have a prayer because they're not allowed to do that as much as much as they can in this new regulation. MacLaren, like Lando did the third best time of the test. They've obviously got pace.

McLaren we know have beaten Mercedes before. They did it last year with their power unit. so it can happen. It's not a case of just because the Mercedes, if it is the best power unit, they're going to win. It's not going to be that same as 2014. However,

whether they're clear favourites, there's a reason they're the favourites. They were favourites before any running. And I think what they've done so far is incredibly impressive, quite ominous, actually. They were first to roll out the pits. They did the most laps.

They were incredibly quick. They even mentioned, well other teams are obviously talking about how you know they've got teething issues and things Mercedes actually said that they completed their program a day early which is quite a quite a flex so they're they're talking themselves up quite a lot and I think they can be it's quite clear to me that I would be surprised if Mercedes weren't the favorites and fastest going into the season but I don't think they're going to have an obscene advantage and I'm actually very reassured by looking at the kind of lap times that we've seen so far.

Lap times mean nothing, Tommy, apart from when Ferrari go fastest. Yeah, I mean, it's more heavily regulated, isn't it? The advantage that Mercedes can have with their engine, when they also give their engine to their customers, I believe that it can't be as big as 2014, surely, you know, clip it up, get it ready for Australia when they're on pole by second. I just cannot see it.

I think that McLaren, you know, we haven't been speaking about them that much, but they've had a very quiet but solid test. You know, I just mentioned they did 166 laps today. They're kind of weirdly going under the radar with everybody talking about them, not talking about them, when they have the Mercedes engine. And as you said, they literally won last year. So for me, I don't know if this is copium, opium, that I feel it'll be closer than what some people might anticipate. this 2014 chatter. And if we do, we are having to change sport because I can't be doing five years of

Mercedes winning every race. Safety car restart, three laps in there seven seconds clear. I can't do that again. I really can't. But I'm hopeful that it'll be a lot closer. All right. Next question. P1 veteran member sector three. Did Aston Martin screw up

leaving a Mercedes engine for a Honda one, especially with Mercedes track record. For me, having not turned a single competitive lap in Australia, on paper, it feels like maybe. I don't know if Aston Martin have thought, right, we can't beat Mercedes in their own backyard. We're going to have to go with an engine that nobody else has and pray to God that Honda cook up an absolute banger.

The other side of me thinking this is that the only reason that Adrian Nurey wouldn't be able to cook is if he doesn't have an engine in the back of that Aston Martin that's the best, or like at least really competitive. So I guess on paper, an Aston Martin Mercedes, and we might well be talking very different in terms of our expectations. We saw the Aston Martin roll out the garage and the, I mean, I know very little about aerodynamics and the way in which the car is structured, but it was very unique. Yeah.

It's very, especially at the back with the suspension and the way it's put together, it's an Adrian Newey design and it could well be something that's incredibly fast. But if they don't have a Honda engine to match the design, then they won't be able to compete. Yeah, I was very, I had GP2 engine flashbacks when I saw it roll out the pit lane, all the aura about the Aston Martin and how kind of good it's going to be. and then them stopped five laps in and the car broken down. But there's two sides to this, isn't there, that I agree that Adrian Newey, you'd kind of, do you bank on the fact that you can beat Mercedes with their engine

but do better aerodynamics with Adrian Newey on board? Or is it a case of like we need to be significantly better and we have our own power unit that no one else has on the grid and it's the perfect blend and harmony because of course Adrian Nui and Honda have already had that working relationship with Red Bull so he's already got that experience working with Honda to build his car around it

so maybe that was more the thinking behind it as well but of course it is a risk to go down that route we all know Fernando Alonzo doesn't have you know time on his side so even if the Honda does get better and makes Lance Strolled champion of the world in 233 or whatever Alonzo doesn't have that time

he can't wait for another Honda to do what they did with McLaren and Red Bull and the last hybrid power where it takes seven years for them to deliver a championship winning engine. You never know, like it's what is 52nd birthday? That could be... Happy birthday, Fernando. You got to 51 and you finally got a Honda engine. that's good.

Yes, I hope for his sake that doesn't happen and he can compete a little bit sooner than that. Question from Varun goes beyond. What are your thoughts for the Aston Martin rumours and developments? Is there a big surprise, hidden? I love how much aura Adrian Nui has that that car rolls up the pits. And I've seen people like describing it as like the greatest, work of art ever and oh my god it's like the Sistine chapel and stuff it's like it's like a watch it's like a beautiful craft and i'm like i'm sorry if that same if if that same design was on the v carb no one

would even bat an eyelid and they'd be like what on earth is this direction they've gone with yeah yeah they'd be like oh that's that's interesting because it's new it's like wow this is unbelievable and it's funny isn't it because yeah like it rolled out the pits and within four laps it was broken. So you don't, obviously we, that might be the, it's the power unit, but you know, it's all part of the car together. So we're yet to find out more on that. But it's amazing how yes, they've gone for a very aggressive car. It's super secretive. The kind of, there's so much expectation and it only added to the aura that they were kind of like, everyone was waiting for that car to come out on track and they hadn't made it on time and

they'd got out the garage just at the end. And it. it finally hit the track. Yes, it is very extreme. Like, you know, weirdly the, the kind of rear suspension is attached to the rear wing, which is very bizarre. There's also, again, it's all hearsay and rumors, but the potential front DRS flaps that they believe that one team, there's rumors that one team might have found like a loophole

where they can manage it electronically rather than hydraulics, and it'll save loads of weight and stuff. Is it Aston Martin? Who knows? But whatever the case, there's a lot of hype around that car, and the amount that they have gone in on Adrian Newey, the height,

you cannot do a black and white hype post saying the first Adrian Newey car rolls out the pits. You can't finish seventh in the constructors after that. I'm sorry, it has to be good. Yeah. It has to be good. I mean, I'm not going to complain about aura, farming because I've experienced it a lot with my beloved red team.

But there's a lot of excitement for Aston Martin. I want to see Fernando Alonzo fighting at the front. Of course, my prediction was the complete opposite, and I thought it was going to be a bit of a flop, the car itself. And Alonzo wouldn't be able to get the most out of it. And look, I am going to come back to my previous point. If my Ferrari were to doodling around in the one minute, 22s or 20s or whatever, I wouldn't be too excited.

Well, Alonzo today did a one minute 20.7, which is four and a half seconds slower than what Hamilton did. But again, testing time has been nothing, but I'm telling you just in case you care. Because it's not like they've been writing any kind of headlines since they have come out on the track. Question, mangoes dot mermaids. How promising are the Red Bull power trains looking? I would say they could be pretty happy. Of course, the Hadjar Smalloff was something that they would. would rather have not had.

It was a big, I think they had to wait for parts and all sorts of stuff. So not ideal for Red Bull there. But in terms of, you know, they had a lot of good mileage. I would say for a team that, of course, in a transition phase of doing their own one. And look, I think it was a pretty strong shakedown for the Red Bull Power trains. They didn't make any headlines for having low lights and struggling out there. So from what we can gather, reasonably good. Yeah, I think so as well.

We talk about being scarred from 2014 with Mercedes. Maybe this is part of my Maxisapen, not winning a race prediction as well, but have also been scarred by Red Bull in 2014 because, of course, they were completely dominant with Sebastian Vettel for four years. We went into the hybrid era and my whole memory of that Red Bull Renault in those tests.

during the kind of early power unit tests in 2014, was it just breaking down all the time? They did like one or two laps on the first day. They continued to have multiple reliability issues. So the fact that they'd have probably had that in the back of their mind, you know, building their own power unit, working with Ford, it's a big change. And yeah, the fact that they've kind of managed to seemingly not have major reliability,

tissues obviously you know they've been able to hide things to a point but you know we've not seen them breaking down or catching fire yeah exactly we're all we've seen through the trees is how jar having an off um which was of course uh we don't know if it was driver error or just um or a car that's all i can tell you that's what i can tell you it was a tiny backwards into a wall at the fastest corner of the track i i also want to just quickly come in because soy motor you know again the goats out there. They've come in with the confirmation of the amount of laps for each team. So Mercedes 500, Ferrari 437, Hasse 390, Alpine 347, Racing Bulls 321, Red Bull 303,

McLaren 287, Audi 240, Cadillac 164 and Aston Martin 66. So that is the unofficial official amount of laps. Well, that answers your question about Red Bull, right? they're certainly nowhere near off. I mean, I'd love to compare that to 2014. I imagine it's probably, you know, barely double figures from the first three days that they had back in 2014. So it's a positive start for a brand new engine to be doing that many laps. You know, you look at there and the one that stands out is after Martin only doing 66.

but of course they did only do one full day and one very, very, very, very short day. And 66 more laps than Williams, so at least they're not last. Exactly. Interesting that Audi managed 240 considering they did make a few headlines for red flags. I think on day one and day three of shakedown testing. But 240 laps for them is nothing to be upset about. I think that for a new team coming in and with their own,

engine, I think that's a pretty awesome amount of laps considering. Yeah, they've done a good job. We mentioned that we're joking about like the Formula One wrap up videos and how they're keeping everything a secret and you know like the Asson Martin's rolling out the pits and they're sharing the videos on social and pretending. The first day they're like, Audi are new to the sport. Meanwhile, like the footage is the car on the back of a flatbed truck and Vortoleto walking into the garage.

They're just like, how do you return to the sport? sport after, like, back in the sport, the legendary name and you're just like, I can see the visual here. That does not look good. That's not quite matched the voice over, has it? No. Really not. But I think they've bounced back pretty well considering.

For a completely new power unit and, you know, coming into the sport, if you'd have said that you would have barely, you know, you'd be pretty close to McLaren. I think you'd absolutely take that, wouldn't you? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Okay. that is us done and dusted for the shakedown five-day summary. I look forward to actually seeing cars out on track in some fashion next time they hit the circuit for the second week of testing.

Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Final thoughts? I completely agree. I just can't wait for the nice comfort blanket, which is a timing tower, to come back into our lives. Just give me that timing tower back. I need it. I need it. I just can't we can't live without it now having just

relying on a tweet every four hours from a page that you just kind of hoping is correct is not the way to go with all due respect

and thank you so much I will look forward to never speaking about soy motor again so I can actually just watch the cars rather than looking at tweets so there you go

thank you everybody for tuning in appreciate you as always we will see you in a bit weren't we? Whereas the next will be the Williams car launch, but they're now not doing it in real life anymore. Yeah, so we'll do something for that.

So look forward to that. And yeah, see you soon. Lots of love. Bye. P1 is a stack production and part of the Acast creator network.