The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Could F1 lose Max Verstappen?

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Ben and Harry discuss some fresh testing takeaways, as well as the noise around Verstappen's future and what it could all mean for F1. They also tackle new race start concerns, Barcelona's contract extension (kinda), and fire up the Panic-o-Meter to see which teams should be feeling calm heading into the season, and which should be starting to sweat... Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get: Ad-free listening Full-length bonus episodes Power Rankings after every race Historical race reviews & more exclusive extras! Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking: You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats! Get in touch any time at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead and me, Ben Hocking, here on this Wednesday episode in between the two Bahrain tests not long to go until we're in Australia and the F1 season is underway. But more importantly than that, Harry, no Sam today means

we get to do an outro together everyone's cheering with joy as they realised this at the start of this episode yeah we've tagged in I wasn't here for Sunday tagged in Sam's tagged out I'm here for Wednesday

next Sunday Salt the Rivers again yes I think so good stuff yeah well if that's not a treat to entice you to listen to the entirety of this episode then I don't know what it is to be honest The four people that follow us on Facebook are going to be absolutely delighted with this episode. Oh, big on Facebook.

Come on. Let's slow down, but we'll get there in time. But yeah, stick around for the outro. But outside of that, we have a Panicometer game, which honestly, maybe that's even more exciting. You're going to have to wait for that one. You didn't answer me earlier on when I asked this. Have you made a cardboard panicometer panacometer? I'm afraid I haven't.

It is, to be fair. If I knew where the bouldometer was, I literally would have just scribbled out, bold, and put panic on it instead. I think the baudometer is in a flat in London and we'll never see it again. If you've seen the boulder, please do let us know. Writing if it's out there.

We've got some news in terms of the, I'll say the Spanish Grand Prix, but it won't be the Spanish Grand Prix. The Circuit to Catalonia is staying around on the FAA, on calendar, albeit on a sort of rotational basis. Ferrari and McLaren are other ends of an argument involving race starts. We had a brief chat about that before we got going, so that'll be interesting when we get to that.

But let's start with, you weren't here, sadly, for the review of the first Bahrain test, and I know you were devastated to miss that. I cried all weekend, mate. That's because I missed it. You guys actually did the recording on Friday, so then I spent the entire weekend crying because I missed it. And you're not that's like to be there for the second Bahrain test because you're more of a first Bahrain test guy.

Another question for the audience. If you're a barrain test, are you a first or a second Bahrain test sort of person? The Degnar Curves Part 2. Yeah, it strikes again. Good for all of them, Lesmos. Yeah. Yeah, anyway.

Any takeaways from it? As I said to you just now, really looking forward to seeing the first competitive start in 2026 because judging by the sort of practice they did, it's going to be completely comical and ridiculous. Franklin Colour Pinto couldn't actually get to the starting grid without falling off the road, and then his Alpine decided to go into the anti-store immediately.

Look, with testing always, everything's with a pinch of salt, but I genuinely don't think anyone knows what the pecking order is. And that's superb. that's a superb thing it may even itself out may sort of become a bit more clear as it going to test number two

but off the back of this week there are teams running different different upgrades etc one day we had to Red Bull looking good the next day Ferrari looked good the day after Mercedes looked good and some of them had troubles along the way so honestly hard to tell

who's out of the front it looks like the big four in the Mercedes in some order McLaren yeah in one of those but then that could shop and changes to go through the season

which in itself again would be excellent um Aston Martin stinky uh bit whiffy bit wiffy so far

but we'll see the I try to remember remain positive on that one well they Lance wasn't but everyone else was he wasn't doing it he wasn't telling the line

like no we're four seconds slow so uh read into that way you want um yeah it's going to be

going to be interesting that obviously the radical design of the Audi side pods as well. Yes. Whether it's worked. But you know what? That's by the bike. That doesn't matter. It looks interesting. It's interesting.

Got people talking, didn't it on day more than so. Yeah, I think not a lot to conclude from it. But there was some interesting moments on the way. I think this week will be somewhat more telling. I think you're probably right because we're going to get into some proper race simulet. I reckon when we do this second test and also mentioning sort of upgrades, there are teams that are going to bring their Australia upgrade essentially,

which sounds weird because it's the first race of the season, but they're going to bring that to the second test. So I think we'll have a clearer idea maybe on the pecking order to start the year. And that's an important thing to mention is that that's just the start of the year. Yeah, I think maybe one of my key takeaways outside of just the pecking order itself for more just the overall running is that F1 didn't need to be very worried about it.

Same amount of kind of breakdowns that you'd see at a normal first test of the year. Also, some of them were just like, was it fuel limit test? Well, they'd literally do it on purpose. Yeah, so Hamilton did on the phone all day, didn't they? Yeah, I think a couple of others I thought I sort of did that.

So, yeah, F1, trust in your teams next time or teams trust yourselves, I don't know. Yeah, of course, because the shakedown was more orchestrated by the teams than it was F1. I'm not to say I'm devastated about the fact that we didn't get eight hours of testing per day for three days straight. I actually think it's a reasonable idea to only have that one hour on each day just because it is testing. It's not supposed to be that entertaining. But if there were reasons about them being worried about the reliability of these cars, I don't think we're going to get to Melbourne and seven cars are going to finish.

I can't wait for that's happen now. It's going to be excellent, yeah. There were plenty of comments sort of going around across the three days about how these cars, a lot of comments about the pecking order at the top and very frustrating from everyone, essentially saying we're the four fastest car. The other three cars are definitely quicker than us. But outside of the running order, we had comments about how the cars drive more generally from the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonzo, suggesting his show.

chef could drive the cars, which is great. But also from Max Verstappen. These are comments that me and Sam discussed briefly on Sunday's episode about how he's not necessarily happy with how the cars are driving, comparing it to Formula E on steroids. Lano Norris responding, saying, if you want to retire, go and retire. Is there any chance that actually happens? we've said this before I wouldn't rule it out from Max

I don't feel like he he would stay here just for the sake of it being F1 I don't think that's in his nature as we've seen from his exploits in in GT racing already he just likes to go and race a car at the weekends

and I think if it doesn't satisfy I think there's two things it has to be competitive for Max He doesn't want to run around in the middle of the back or at the back. And also, I think he has to enjoy it. And even if, even if he's winning, which will obviously help, I don't, if he's really not enjoying driving an F1,

I still don't think he stays. So say he walks the championship this year, but hates driving that car. I think he can still leave the five and done, you know, Niko Rosberg style, what is it called? Rosberg only won four titles. Oh, sorry, mate. Yeah. so yeah I genuinely can see it and I think it's

this is this is kind of classic F1 you mentioned two other drivers who made comments about this Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonzo nowhere near as much heat about this from anyone else no maybe because they Alonzo's Alonzo and his chef has apparently got a new job but even Hamilton and maybe he was less aggressive than how he's saying it but he compared it to his GP

two car. Yeah. Like, that's not, that's not a good thing to say. So, but I haven't seen anywhere near as much heat from it. So it's kind of like a,

yeah, because it's Max almost in some way. But, yeah, genuinely, I think if he's not enjoying it, I think this happen, you know, you do risk losing Max.

Because I just think he, he, much like Kimi Reichenen in a sense, just likes turning up and driving the car fast and doing well. I think when that goes away, I think,

as we saw with Reikland, I don't want to make too many comparisons here, but when that enjoyment goes, he's had enough and he'll walk somewhere out. He'll go off and do rallying or something. So, yeah, there's a genuine chance. It could happen if, again, he's talking after testing.

So, you know, we can get into a race situation. And maybe it makes racing really fun. We just don't know that yet. Racing could be really fun for them this year, in which case, I think that changes. But right now, driving it just around barring testing he's clearly not having that much fun yeah and that's a it's a good last point you made there as well because we are and he is just talking at the moment from that reference

point of doing testing is relatively dull for people watching it but also for the drivers doing it like they are not essentially they often have targets that they'll have um based on what they're doing what sort of run they're doing but they're not in battle with other drivers they're not you know racing against the strategy of another team, like that they are just focusing on themselves. And these are long days that they're doing. Like they are going around doing well over 100 laps per day. That's more than one and a half barangre Grand Prix. But it's going to get a bit boring after a while.

So it is possible that when we get to Melbourne or maybe later in the season, if things are tweaked slightly, that he and others might have a more positive viewpoint of these regulations. We just don't know that yet. I mean, I believe what he said with those comments, and I believe there is a chance. It would be unusual, even for Vastappen, because there aren't many drivers that have chosen to leave F1

just based on not enjoying the current set of regulations, not to say it's not impossible, but most drivers are either, I don't know, forcibly kicked out or, you know, have retired on their own accord. It's very rare that a driver will say, I just don't want to do F1 anymore because I'm not enjoying the racing. But it is possible with Max Verstappen, I guess.

It's not the first time that he's said this sort of thing either. I don't believe, by the way, that they are. I think some people might view these as a threat almost to F1, say if you don't change things, I'm going to go. I think he's just speaking his mind. I really don't think there's any malice or intent behind them outside of this is how he feels at the moment. That's kind of been consistent with how he talks in the media

since the start of his career, really. And to your point about him having fun, like, it sounds a bit blasé that he just wants to have fun now in F1. But he has kind of ticked the success box, right? Like if he retired tomorrow, he'd go down as a top 10 at least driver of all time. He wouldn't have to win another race to cement that. So you can understand how now everything for him, even though he does want to go after wins and titles,

a lot of it now is having fun behind the wheel. It's maybe a bit similar to Lewis Hamilton's situation. Not saying he hasn't gone to Ferrari for success, although we know you don't win titles at Ferrari. But we know that that's kind of a childhood dream of his that he wanted to do. Now he's won all of his titles at Mercedes and McLaren, of course. Maybe Max Verstappen is in a similar mindset to that. I think you're right about how he doesn't necessarily need to win to to stay in the sport and he doesn't have to,

the reverse is true as well. Like last year, for example, like he, the last season would have gone a lot differently without Max Verstappen. And even though he didn't win the title at the end, I got the sense at least late on in the season. He was really enjoying the challenge of that push to the championship, chasing down the McLaren duo.

There were times like, particularly after the Catargo, on pre when he won that one. He looked like he was having a lot of fun. So I don't necessarily think he needs to be dominating every week in order to to stick around. But yeah, who knows? How costly would his departure B2F1, do you think? It would be, it would be really costly.

You know, he's up there. He's got that star factor with Hamilton, Alonzo, you know, Lechler, Norris, etc. He's one of the one of the big draws. and I think one of your, you know, as I say, easily a top 10, top 10 driver, even if did nothing more, you lose that from your sport because he's not enjoying it. And like I say, I agree, I don't think he's making a threat to F1 here, like change your rules, otherwise I'm off.

But it's not a good look for F1. He decides to leave because he's just not enjoying this new formula of car. So big old thumbs down to the regulations, isn't it? That's not a good look. Yeah. This is terrible. I'm leaving. So, also, side note, Formula E-Catch and Strais, just for no real reason.

Don't worry. They managed to capitalise on the added attention this weekend. They really picked up the ball and ran with it. Yeah. Maybe don't put YouTubers in your cars, guys. And maybe think about your team radios and what you do there as well. That's less about the sport itself. but you know.

Maybe. But yeah, it would be, it would be a big loss. And especially, you know, there's a scenario here where you can go into 2027 and F1 has lost Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonzo and Max for stopping in one go. That would hurt. That's not good. And now the other two have, you know, much further in their careers, Alonzo, certainly. And he's made no bonus about the fact that he may go.

He may go. and if Hamilton doesn't go well from this year there is a possibility although I'm pretty more likely to stick around so yeah but yeah if you lost double three I think that's a terrible look for F1 but particularly if this happens going just because he hates driving these cars so much

yeah that would be the biggest possible vote of no confidence in these regulations possible I think we know that Zambor is departing from the calendar at the end of this year but of course there are many other European races that are heavily attended by Max Verstappen fans, particularly Austria Springs to Mine,

but also spa, Hungary. Could you see any European race attendances hit if Verstappen were to leave? I would say so. I mean, Austria, particularly. That's before we had the Dutch GP, that was pretty much his home one because they've got a whole stand that come and see him.

So that one, as I said, Hungary is always pretty well attended. I think there would be, I mean, I don't think the F1's going to, I think they still sell the tickets, it's not going to be wrong. But you'd certainly lose, I think you'd lose a chunk of falling because there is such a, he's such a home hero in the Netherlands that it would be, it would be a loss to F1 in that sense. Obviously, the Dutch GP is going as well after this year. So I think that that would be, it would be the same, it would be the same,

this isn't, we're not talking like we, you know, we're favourite during Master Stappen here, but the same if Fernando Lanzer leaves and in Spain. I think it'll be the same if Hamilton regies in, in the, well, everywhere, but in the UK somewhat. Well, obviously they've got Norris and Russell to pick up the mantle. I guess that in itself is a bigger point, is that there is no one else.

He is the only Dutch driver in F1. Yeah. Apparently, certainly the big one. and yeah, there's no one else to pick up the mantle in the same way, maybe that Alonso has signs and Hamilton has the Norris, Norris, Russell, you know, duer to pick up the baton. What's interesting, though, is that, like, if you think about Michael Schumacher and when he left the sport,

and you would have thought with particularly the German Grand Prix at the time, there was Sebastian Vessel ready to go and Mercedes as a constructor. And it never quite, like, that Schumacher mania from the 2000s, never held together for the next generation. So, yeah, it's interesting. I think Vestappen would be a massive loss to the sport, obviously outside of the reasons you've mentioned, but just the sport is worse without Max Verstappen, in it?

Like, again, if you think of last season, just try to picture how last season would have gone with no Max Verstappen in the mix. It would have been a significantly worse year. We would have been talking about papaya rules like three times more than we already were, which doesn't sound like a great way to spend an F1 season. Please know.

Just think of some of the races where even when he wasn't winning, he was in the mix and was causing more entertainment in terms of that lead fight than otherwise, than otherwise would have been. Like Melbourne, for example, the first race of the year, he was in the fight with Landon Norris right to the very end. Saudi Arabia, I know he ended up taking the penalty for cutting the first corner, but he was the only one challenging Piastri that day. Even Miami, where he had no hope whatsoever,

that he still made both McCarons overtake him in order to win that race. So it would be a worse sport, I think, if Fustappen was to depart. Last question on this. How important do you think faces of the sport are a bit more generally? We've seen Schumacher, maybe Hamilton still now, Senner in the past. How important are these bigger characters, these world champions to the success of F1? they are they are super important and whereas they definitely were back in the day you mentioned senesumackery etc i think even more so now with in the you know the drive to survive era of

fom we now live in the personalities whilst it is has shed a light more on the entirety of the grid i will say those personalities are you know right they are right at the forefront of a lot of the reason why people watch f1 now that not necessarily people watching f1 because they love the sport they've they've they've they've been captivated by the personality of a certain driver so having these big characters is super important and someone like of estappan or an alonzo or hamilton etc i think it is it's um it's usually important and yeah if you were to lose him or uh a few of them i think the sport would be it would it would again it's not going to fall over but it would be a it'll be a worse place.

Yeah, I agree with that. And there's a reason why, rightly or wrongly, people care about the driver's championship more than they do the constructors championship. Like if you were to ask people, like two situations, if you were to ask people, what did you make of the 2025 title decider? People would go, oh, yeah, you know, Vestappan did everything he could in that Abu Dhabi race, but it came up just short and Lando Norris was overtaken by Piastri, great first

call it and it will live long in the memory. And then if you were to ask that same person, okay, what did you make of the title decided the year before? They'd probably go, there wasn't a title decided the year before. I mean, there was. McLaren versus Ferrari. It went right to the last race of the year. But people aren't going to remember that anywhere near as fondly as they will a driver's

championship battle because of that very reason of these drivers and their personalities and people, I don't know, they associate that they're, they're, remember faces, they remember stories far more than they do, they do teams. Again, rightly or wrongly. So, yeah, I think Vestappen definitely lines up with the best of Hamilton and Schumacher and Senna when it comes to when it comes to those greats. Let's take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we already referenced the potential for a tough start to the year, a tough race start in Melbourne. We're getting into that a little bit more. Welcome back, everyone. Something that has been doing the news rounds over the last few days is how the first race start is going to

happen in Melbourne. What's going to happen there? Because Formula One looks set for renewed discussions over possible changes to the Grand Prix start sequence, despite an earlier attempt to modify the rules being blocked by Ferrari. The topic has resurfaced due to safety concerns surrounding the increasingly complex procedures required to execute clean starts with the 2026th Achieving the ideal launch now involves balancing several competing factors, including keeping the turbo spilled for about 10 seconds to reduce lag off the line, while also avoiding overcharging the battery. The struggles several teams and drivers have experienced when practicing starts during testing,

combined with how easily the process can unravel, have fueled pallet discussions in Bahrain about whether the situation is becoming a genuine safety concern. I mean, the good news, Harry, as reported by Sam Collins of F1 himself, Ferrari don't have to deal with this issue. Folks, if you've not seen this clip doing the rounds of social media, I've reposted it, and I don't know if anyone else has, I don't have Ben has either, but it is beautiful. it's Sam Collins from F1TB explaining that Ferrari were blocking this change to the start procedure because they don't need to rev their engines

for 10 seconds at which point there is Hamilton pulls up and revs his engine four and I've counted this 20 seconds it's like being on the office it's so good the camera pan back to Sam Collins is fantastic

oh superb well yeah I mean I mentioned this earlier on, the start, practice start that they sorted in, which in itself was farcical and they should, F1 should have, is it just too complicated, like. Yeah, but F1 should have, even for that practice start, just made it clear that we are doing a race start because some teams didn't do that. Some teams did it like they do on a race weekend sometimes where they just go one after the other. Well, my understanding is that is what it should have been and some teams didn't comply with that.

I think. and it should have been a race start. So it should have been one after the other. One after the other, right, fine. Either way, they should have, that should have been made more clear. And obviously that entire clip of Franklin Colabinto almost hitting the arm coat and then going into Andy Storrh is second favourite from the week after the Sanford Collins one, just pipped it.

But it's, it's, this is a, we're in a dangerous position here because we are not many weeks away from the first race. Great news, obviously. But this needs to be, like, we need to sort this out before. Like, we can't go into the first race, not knowing how we're going to start it. Because it's the literal start of these new reculations.

And we could see a scenario where lights go out and they're all still sat there because they've got to keep revving the engine. Or I said they got to, they could go. But then obviously they will have the turbo lag, which they've been referencing. It's a really niche reference, but it would be like the old late breaking

online racing league. Yeah, there was a glitch that as soon as the lights went out, the broadcast wasn't lined up with what the drivers were doing, so the cars would literally be sat there as soon as the lights went out for like five seconds. Yeah, but

in the, yeah, obviously the sense of them it will look fast school, not a good look for F1. Then there's the second point. What if, one team or one driver is then ready to go and goes and the one in front isn't. I mean, we saw it almost happened in at this practice start. We were watching it from Colapinto.

And there was, I think a Red Bull goes and there's someone in Mercedes or someone in front who doesn't and it almost crims into the back of him. I mean, there wasn't a full grid of cars. There was only nine cars or something on the grid of that practice one last week. We're going to have 22 come to start of Melbourne. and it's not a good position to be in from a safety point of view if we've got cars that aren't able to move or aren't go. It's not that they can't. They don't want to because of this.

They wouldn't eliminate the lag. So there needs to be a strict ruling and it needs to be made soon. And we shouldn't be in a position where Ferrari get to veto it because they think they, it would be the most Ferrari thing ever. Oh, my God. Because it's probably like nine seconds they need to do it for, and that's idiotic. But they mess it up and it actually takes 11 in their last. Like, come on. I didn't think this was a topic that was going to make me very mad.

But then the more notes I wrote about it, the more mad I got as I was writing them, because I don't understand how we've got here. Like, we are weeks before the start of the season, and we are worried about race starts. We're not worried about something complicated. We are worried literally about the cars getting off the line. One of the most simplistic things that should be factored into these regulations. These regulations have been known for years at this point.

They were officially, I think the concept car and officially launched in July or June 24. So that's like 18 months now. And we are two and a half weeks away. and we don't know if they're going to start properly or not. How have we, come on. How have we not before this point managed to iron this out? I'm all for fine-tuning at this stage. Sure, if you get to the Bahrain test and you realize,

I don't know, something to do with the modes needs to be altered ever so slightly to change when you're using it or how you use it fine. But we're not in that spot. We're in the spot of we don't, we're not very confident The cars are all going to start at the same time. It's insane. It's going to be rectified far too late.

It is way too complicated. I am all for F1 starts being difficult and requiring skill. I agree with that 100%. But this is just too much. I want to see them rewarded for a perfect launch, but I don't want to see 10 cars sat on the grid for an extra two seconds because they're waiting for the turbo to kick in. God.

The funnier part is that they not only just sat there, they're sat there revving the nuts off the car. I mean, it sounds cool, but like them just sat there, 22 of them revving, like flat out, trying to get the televised balled up. You're ridiculous.

New people are going to tune in and go, go then, go on. Go on, then. Is it on port? Is it frozen? What's happened? It's not great. I just, this is, I can't say this without sounding like proper, nostalgic, heavy, or back to my day, good old James Hunt.

But the F1 start, like, should be one of the more simple, like, cathartic sort of pieces of the weekend. Like, it should just be car start, car go, and you get that rush of adrenaline. Car start, car go. It should be that simple. it should just be that moment of like adrenaline like at the start of the race and you can't wait to see all these cars and we've just somehow managed to

overcomplicated to the point of well you need to get the turbo going but also don't overcharge that battery you've got to find it at I don't know can I not to not to make this a formula a kicking session wow but I hate it I've not really watched Formula really properly for a little

well but I still occasionally watch it or see it and the weekend was a certain prime time for that but I hate it when they because in formerly they don't do a formation after they they sort of they just start on the grid a bit further back and all do a burnout but they all do burnouts and make so much

tire smoke then they have to pause to wait for the tire smoke to disperse we are in we're on that level that's a ridiculous place to be I don't like it the formerly do it and formerly do some good things some that's not one of them and I don't want to be in that place

I would agree or disagree with you but I only watch the influencer championship so I see fine and they don't do race starts they just do the hot laps into the wall apparently I don't know if you enjoy it I'm not I don't want to blast you for that for that

but like I was looking at the FormulaE Twitter account earlier today the last and I swear down last 24 tweets were not about the Formula E Championship. They were all about whatever they're calling that influencer like Evo sessions thing. I'm not against it, but like that's ridiculous. Yeah, it should generate its own publicity that. You don't need to do it.

You shouldn't be done to do it for them. Yeah, anyway, sorry. This is completely off F1. Sorry, Formula E. We'll stop kicking you now. Stop is already dead. Back to F1. Should they do any of these potential changes?

There have been, one of the potential suggestions is that because the cars at the back of the grid are going to be at a disadvantage if they can't be sat there for as long, revving the, you know, what out of the car, there's a potential change that it's however many seconds after the, there's a minimum time after the last car gets onto the grid. would that work? I mean, yeah, but this goes back to my point I just made. We're in Formula Reistar territory. We were just sat waiting for the cars to go.

Even if the lights haven't gone out of that point, you just sat there with all revving. Again, 22 of them just going, I mean, from a safety point of view, if it works, great, fine, if we have to do this. But then there's got to be a different way that we get these cars off the line. This can't be the way forward. I've got it.

You know the start lights. We're going to get to Australia and someone's just going to have like done a really bad fix and put five underneath the five that exists at the moment. It's 10 red lights. But they'll sell it as if that's how it's always been. We just haven't noticed. And the one at a time. So actually be 10 seconds.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, look, if it works for a state to point of view, then great. But like you've already said, I think this is a fast cool way to be. There's going to be a better way for these cars.

Or you just say to the teams you can't do that, we're just going to go. You're not allowed to be doing it. You go, get on with it. And if you get terrible start, what's on you, sort of car up. Yeah. I feel like that's Ferrari's point of view as well, because they've essentially said they've made design, they've made the design of their car around this particular rule.

And they don't want to. You know they have. It gets off the line well, though, doesn't it? They are going to be first after every first lap this year. I have not scored any points. The master plan. Oh, man. If they did that in Belgium in 2021, they'd have been golden.

I don't know. Like you say, if you go with this idea that the cars would just be revving on the grid for 10 seconds, it will look a bit farcical. and you will need to, from a broadcasting standpoint, find a way around that to make it not look as awkward as it probably would be otherwise. The other potential option is the MGUK, which isn't, you're not allowed to use that in any way until the car hits 50 kilometres an hour. There's a potential for changing that. So the turbo lag is lessened because you aren't just relying on the combustion engine rather than using the MGUK as well. that's where Ferrari would probably argue the point,

but we can't, we cannot have, there's going to be so much attention on that first start of the year. It can't look awful. We can't, we can't be ruled on something because of Ferrari, because that reeks of Indianapolis 2005. I am, what happened there? Well, not a lot, actually, me. That's a good point.

Good point. Yeah, so we can have that. Yeah. I think it was Pierre Gassely that said, make sure you watch the first start of the year because he's clearly thinking something's going to go like that. I saw from, I don't know who it was, whether it's a team or a driver saying this,

but apparently at the moment they're optimistic, it should be about one in every 20 starts are a real problem, which given we've got 22 drivers would imply that at least one driver's, going to get away properly on the grid in Australia. On that point, I don't mind them not being able to get away properly as in terms of it's down to you to get to judge it and do it right.

Obviously not from a safety point of view, but it's been a thing, so often now it's just assumed the drivers all get the same sort of starts that we get away. It hasn't always been like that. It used to be a much more manual, more difficult process. Some drive is stalled. Some would just get more wheel spinning and get worse.

I mean, YouTube's some Mark Webber starts, especially when he was on pole. Painful. But it's just the way it used to go. And I think we may be taking that bit of granted. So I don't have an issue with that. It's just more the farcical aspect. And obviously don't want to be a safety issue where they don't move at all. But I can't imagine that's the case.

It just will be going slower than the others. Yeah, exactly. the other thing that I didn't remember until I started researching this topic was that Valtry Bottas has a five-place grid penalty for the Australian GP Oh, that's superb, I completely got that fact.

I don't even remember what... It'll be the back anyway, it's pointless five-place grid penalty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know he started 22nd. I'm trying to remember what he got the five-place penalty for. Obviously, it wasn't for anything in 2025

because he didn't race, but it was for whatever happened, I guess. Yeah. He must have done something in Abu Dhabi, 2020. Please hold everyone. Just going to Google this one. It's not as funny as if, you know, Jensen Button would have came back and got the five-place square penalty

for what he did at the Monaco GP, like nearly 10 years ago now. Oh, yeah. No, he absolutely nailed KMAG. Of course he did. But then he couldn't serve it so that he couldn't serve his penalty, so they gave him a five-place square penalty. He was probably laughing. away like ha ha suckers i'm not going to serve that oh hang on australian gp 26 haven't considered that

i'm back yeah um so yeah tough starts dear for valtry botas i'm sure um we're gonna take our second break on this episode on the other side circuit to catalonia it's sticking around everyone uh before we chat about the circuit to catalonia and it somewhat keeping its space on the calendar a quick shout out for for the patron um you know we haven't done this in at least like three days. So it was about time that we gave the Patreon a shout out. Of course, the F1 season right around the corner. Power rankings are going to be back very shortly. So after every single Grand Prix, we go through every single driver, grade them out of 10. We keep track of these ratings as we go throughout the year. We'll see where the three of us agree

and disagree. It gives a good opportunity as well to get into every single driver, every single team. Because whilst we do our best on these race reviews to cover as much ground as we possibly can, we'd be here all day if we did that. So we do have to pick our highlights a little bit with those episodes. When it comes to power rankings, we're able to get into absolutely everything. But outside of that, the benefits that are already there, of course, you get all of the episodes ad free. You get bonus episodes. I believe one has just gone live for the month of February, where we did a no world champions draft,

which got very interesting indeed with some of those selections. And there'll be another bonus episode that's coming up later on. in February, a historic race review that's yet to be recorded in February as well. And I don't even know how to describe the most recent beer of breaking that we did in person, in studio. Yeah, I rewatched the other day. It's super, some of our best work, actually. It really was.

It was, I can't remember what the game was cool, but we had to describe things. Poetry for Neanderthals. That's what it's cool. Yeah, we had to describe things, but with words that only had one syllable. and it was actually really difficult. Yeah, you think it's easy going into the game and then we started playing it and you realise very quickly it is not that simple.

Not at all, not at all. And if you want to give the gift of Patreon, we do offer Patreon gift cards. Gift cards. Gift subscriptions. Let's say. So as you listen to this, it's Ash Wednesday, I believe.

It is. What a big one. Celebrate big Ash Wednesday with a big Patreon subscription for the special person in your life. Pancakes and Patreon. So what it was made for, to be honest. Maybe that's a new episode we could do, pancakes. This is likely a stupid question,

but Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, UK? Probably very UK-based. Right. Yeah. If it is, I apologize. But I mean, it's a great day for us because it's just a random cheese though where we can have pancakes. I mean, we can have pancakes whenever, but it's like you must eat pancakes.

The government ensures we don't eat pancakes apart from that day. It's our once a year government mandated pancake day. It's like Sam's once-month toast. It works the same way. Yeah, perfect. So there it goes. So if you want to give the gift to Patreon this, Ash, Wednesday, please do. I think Sam will be very pleased with how we did that plug.

Let's move on to Formula One confirming a multi-year extension with the Circuit to Barcelona, Catalonia securing Grand Prix in 2028, 2030 and 2032, alongside the already scheduled 2026 events. From this season onward, the race will be known as the Barcelona-Catelunee with the race in Madrid taking on the mantra of Spanish GP. The Barcelona event will run on a rotational basis with the Circuit to Spa Francahomp, which is hosting a Grand Prix in 2026, 2027, 2029 and 2031.

Are you happy that it's sticking around at least in some capacity? I am happy. I'd be happy if it was still the Spanish GP and we weren't going to the mudgering. But sadly, that is not the way the world works anymore and we must sign up to street circuits for 10 years at a time.

So I'm glad that it's sticking around. it's, you know, whilst it hasn't always produced the most exciting races, in the past few years it has, and I'm hoping that will continue, especially with the removal of that final chican. And it's kind of cemented itself as a bit of a classic.

Now, you'd say it's not like it shouldn't be a classic, but it's been in the calendar since 1991. Like, sadly, that's actually quite a long time ago now, as much as we probably all don't want to admit it. So I'm glad that it is, I, it's like the same as it was when we got this, and the announcement for SPAR being on a rotational basis.

It's mixed feelings of I'm happy it's still here, but I'm sad that it's got to be every other year because I don't think it necessarily deserves that. But if that's what we have to do to keep these sorts of tracks, then I'll accept the fate. But I, yeah, I wish it wasn't this way. I am of course happy. I don't know if you know, I love turn one at this circuit.

Yeah, I think it's a really good turn one. That is interesting and brand new information. Yes. As brand new as the Duracel battery on the Williams car. That is brand new though. Very true. Both brand new bits of information. Like you kind of say, the reputation of the circuit has really,

I think it's really transformed over the last few years because if 10 years ago the news broke that it wouldn't be on the calendar, calendar full time, I think we'd be doing cartwheels because at that point, it was, I think, generally viewed as a bottom five track, maybe. I think back to like 2016 or so, you'd probably go, well, Abu Dhabi, Sotchi at the time, Catalonia is probably maybe the three ones that you'd want to strike from the calendar or something like that. But now, though, I mean, I actively enjoy seeing these races. And I don't think we've had a bad race. here this decade, at least one that I can remember, since like 2020 or so, I think they've all

been pretty solid. Yeah, that's fair. That's very fair, actually. They've all been good. Even when they're not absolute bangers, like, they're still pretty solid. Last year's race is a good example of that. It wasn't, I don't think it was in discussion for, like, top three or top five races of the year, but it definitely wasn't anywhere near the bottom five either. Like, it was absolutely solid. And then Max Verstappen decided to come along and make it really, really interesting late in that Grand Prix. When I've been shouting about rotating races on the calendar, this is actually the sort of track I've been thinking about the entire time.

There are racetracks like Brazil. I want to see that every year. No excuses. Silverstone, exactly the same. Monza are the same. But Catalonia is the type of circuit where I am happy to see it every two years. As long as it is rotating with another. track that I'm happy to see every two years. I'd rather see two tracks I like once every two years

rather than one of those tracks every year and the other track never. I would take the rotational basis. It does give the opportunity to get around the tracks a little bit more than we currently do. But I should be clear, whilst I like the idea of Catalonia every two years and I like the idea of rotating calendars more generally, I did not bring this forward. bring forward this idea with the intent that Madrid and street circuits would be taking the place of these Grand Prix and then making it a rotational race. Like I don't want, like you say, don't want street circuits being given 10-year contracts to lose out to, you know, lose, and you've got the likes of Catalonia losing out to that.

That's not okay. Yeah, it's, oh, look, it's hard, that's one to say because we haven't been to the Madurian. Yeah, and we're only based on the fact of we hate the name of it and the promotional video they did was terrible. Oh, that's good. Really? There was no better take you could have done. No, that's the lap. That is the lap. But so, you know, we might get to Madrid and it might be stellar

and we might love going there because I, you know, I can remember when we had Baku introduced, you know, pre-26, was introduced in 2016. Being before that, I remember looking at that as a concept and be like, that looks dull and terrible. And for the most part, we get pretty good races at Baku. So it's tough one. Maybe Madrid will deliver.

But it's a shame that it's not, like you say, it's not the one that's being rotated with Catalonia and it's just got his own. It's just taking over the Spanish GP. I think the thing with Baku as well, and you're right, it does produce pretty consistently good races. There are a few duds in there, but they're generally pretty good.

When Baku was introduced, and I know the first year was not a good one, but after that it was fine. It was joining as a street circuit when the calendar had Singapore as a street circuit, Monaco, Melbourne, and is that it?

I can't immediately think of another one. I mean, Sotchy, if you're counting that as a street circuit, but already, was it? No, I'd, maybe Canada's like somewhere in the middle, isn't it? But like... But yeah, not many.

Yeah, at that point we didn't have many, which is why I think it was more exciting that you would have a street circuit, but now we have... Now we're at Miami and we're at Vegas and we're at Jeddah and there's so many street circuits now that it does lose its appeal a little bit

to have... Oh, we're going around the streets of us cities. It doesn't have the same appeal it would have had 50 years ago. And we've become the informary podcast at this point. The weird thing is, that's how formula you started out, right? wanted to do like all cities and they're going the other way

we seem to be like crossing over paths in that sense but yeah you're right the appeal of the street circuit we said this before it's just not the same or the novelty I should say is not the same as it once was in F1 the race of Barcelona is going to be known as the Catalonia Barcelona Grand Prix I can absolutely assure you now it will be known as the Catalonia Grand Prix

it will be known as the Barcelona Grand Prix and no one is going to call it the Catalonia Barcelona Grand Prix Crossy's going to have to, though, isn't he in this intro, right? It'll probably have to do it. I mean, he will, but. But who's going to, we'll call it the Spanish GP still. I will forget.

It's like we still call the Sao Paulo GP, the Brazilian GP, because why is that ever changed? I don't know. I've got no idea. I also thought as well, I could be completely wrong on this, but I thought this year was, it was going to be the Spanish Grand Prix, and Madrid was going to be the Madrid Grand Prix, right? That one under the radar and just thought we wouldn't notice.

Sneaky half one. Stefan. I'd like to use this opportunity as well to make my claim for the return of the European Grand Prix. Why not? At this point, why not? Any Spanish race that is known as the European Grand Prix goes really well. The last one did. Yeah.

And that's the only one I remember. I still think it would be good to have There are a number of tracks like We know Zanvort and Imola are sort of leaving the calendar We've got a rotational basis for Spar and Catalonia as well now Portemau obviously is coming back

Next year as well for two years It'd be good I think to have a rotational European Grand Prix That is very specifically a one year contract And you go around these tracks I mean why yeah why not I know that's a bit old school But it worked and it gets

it gets around the awkwardness of calling it all these different races. You have the European GP and it's a rotational race. Goes to Portemau, goes to Catalonia, goes to, I don't know, spa. I don't know, well, that's Belgian GP. Don't do that. I'll take that last bump. Ignore that last one. Zolder.

Yeah, but that's how it used to be. I mean, the European GP bounced around all over the place. I'll see Valencia, Jerez, as he mentioned. Nürberg ring, Brandt hatch back in the day. hey, now we're cooking, now we're talking. Brandtash, European GP. Brandtatch would be very interesting. I don't think the cars would actually fit on the track at Brandt's Hatch anymore.

And Tom Ingram would win. Yeah, obviously Ash Sutton second and Max was tap on third. I want to see that though. Yeah, but no, I like that. I like that idea. Why not? Do you think that this rotation between Spar and Catalonia might be the catalysts, for further rotations in the calendar?

I mean, yeah, it's like they're testing this out, aren't they? I don't know where they'll be looking next. There aren't actually many contracts up in the next few years. Quite if you're locked in now, aren't they? Even things like Monde, for example, but I think the Italian GP is relatively safe on its own for now.

Because Stefano is Italian, and he grew up next door to it. that was similar, I take back. But, yeah, I don't know. But this will be a test bed, I think, for it. And I can see them rolling it out, rolling out elsewhere on the calendar. I just don't know quite sure where.

Yeah, because you look at the circuits where their contract is up before 2030, you've got, Vegas is a weird one because Vegas's contract is up in 2027, but they've got a contract with the city until 2032 for, like, road closures and the like. So in theory, I think that's going to extend beyond 2027. And then you've kind of got three in 2028. You've got Singapore, Mexico and Portemau, but again, that's only just rejoining the calendar. And then Suzuki in 2029. But everything else and all the European races that are not leaving do have a contract that go to at least 2030 at the moment. So yeah, not sure if it will carry on elsewhere.

Well, let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, It's the debut of the Panicometer. The non-existent panicometer. This winter, we are cheering for our home nations, but your story might stretch far beyond one flag. With ancestry DNA, you can discover all the places from your family's past. Now, up to $65 off for a limited time.

Explore the cultures that shaped you across more than 3,600 regions worldwide. More pride, more connection, more to cheer for. your journey with Ancestry DNA today. Sail on February 19th terms of life visit ancestry.ca for more details. Welcome back everyone. It's time for the debut of either the Panicometer or the Panicometer. Pattern very much not pending. We're going to take five teams and we're going to list them based on how much we think

they should be in panic mode right now ahead of the new season. So one is the, there's nothing for them to worry about whatsoever. five is Ralph Wiggum. Okay, five. He's prepared. See, he may seem like he wasn't, but he was prepared, folks. When I say he prepared, like that is literally the only thing. It's just Ralph Wiggum.

We'll take it. So we'll start with Williams, which I feel like might have been off the charts coming out of Barcelona, which, of course, they weren't at. But they did do a fair number of laps in Bahrain, at least for the first test. Can we start to lower the panic omies? to yeah I

I think like say in Barcelona we would have been would have been high on the high on the scale there but yeah

I sorry was it five was five was five's the most ones to least yeah I would put them but two and a half

maybe they've really come down it's still there's still a bit of work to do but it you know the the things that James Vals were saying and the things

that we sort of said in that they didn't need to retest the Mercedes engine like that and been done for them. So whilst they were on the back foot, I think there were a few small issues during barren.

I don't think it was, they covered a lot of laps when they got into it. So, yeah, that in itself has lowered it significantly, but still a fair bit to do and maybe a little bit of worry on where their actual pace is, given how much has been riding on this year.

But again, as be said at the top of, the show, that's really not going to be, we don't want to know much about that. I mean, really, until we get some Melbourne, but certainly more this week. Yeah, I think it would have been a four or a five after Barcelona, but I've lowered it down to a three. Yeah, James Vowles has states his reputation on this set of regulations.

To then miss that first test, shakedown, whatever you want to call it, is pretty rough. But Bahrain was pretty solid. They made up for lost time in terms of, in terms of tract. time. They did 422 laps over the three days, which was tied for first place of all the teams. So with that Barcelona miss, they are still ninth in terms of overall, sorry, they're 10th in terms of overall mileage. But they're not that far behind Cadillac and Audi in front of them.

And as you say, on the engine side of things as well, Mercedes and McClare have done plenty of laps. And Alpine, of course, as well. So I don't think they'll be too worried in that regard. Still a bit of concern because, again, we don't know how all the teams are going to stack up exactly, but it does look like they aren't close to the top four teams, which there'll be some frustration from other midfield teams as well. It won't just be Williams. But Williams were the team that were fifth last year. They were in theory the closest to stepping up to that group, and they don't look particularly

close to that right now. But maybe, again, they were focusing on a lot of mileage in Bahrain. maybe as we get to the second test, that's when we see some more performance-based runs. Hasse, where would you put them? I think a two. Hasse are Hasse, aren't they? It's really, there was nothing screaming out saying

they're going to be world champions this year, which obviously would have been unlikely. But there's also, there was also nothing to be really, really worried about, I don't think. They also had an issue which did wipe out the mornings, or was it? It was certainly... Yeah, it was one of the... Yeah, there was a bit of time, maybe an afternoon or something I can't quite remember now,

which, you know, wasn't a great start to the test, but it was, you know, apart from that relatively, relatively solid. It's almost like, because the expectation of House is... it's the same almost every year. The panic shouldn't be too much because I think they're kind of just where they normally are. Yeah, I went for 1.5 here because they don't have too much to be concerned about right now.

They have looked really reliable, really solid. Both drivers are apparently, according to Ayokomatsu, giving very similar feedback on the car, which is very good to have at this early stage in the season. You're always going to have a bit of concern about Hass because they are just the smallest team on the grid quite comfortably. But you look at only Ferrari have done more mileage than they have so far across Barcelona and Bahrain. Their times have been better than all of their other midfield rivals.

Sure, they're not. Again, they ain't going to be world champions. They're not competing with the top guys. But they have been clear of their rivals so far. So even if it doesn't, let's say worst case scenario, these other teams all catch back up to Hass as we get to Melbourne. They're in the mix. As the smallest team on the grid, that's not too bad.

McLaren, any cause for concern there at all? I'd get for a one or a 1.5. There's no, nothing jump. They look, as we said in that top four, the only thing that would give me some concern is that they've been quite open in saying that the car they've got they had last way and the car they've got is the car they'll have in Melbourne.

Like they've, they've said that they've brought that car, which, you know, isn't the worst idea in the world. Obviously, everyone could see it, but you are then testing the car that you have when you get to the first race, which there's some proper logic behind that. The only thing is it wasn't like blowing, you know, blowing anyone away in the same way

than maybe they were last year. But again, again, caveat central here. you don't know until we get to that first race or until at least the second test. But that would be my only thing that they maybe might be slightly worried about is that whilst other teams hadn't fully brought their final car, McLean is pretty much there and it wasn't like ahead of the pack. Yeah, I went with a one with a two here. Good mileage.

They were a little bit slow at the blocks in Barcelona, but otherwise they've been fairly solid, good headline times as well, particularly from Norris early on in that Bahrain test. They're already doing full race simulations as well, which it's good to have that on the about at this early stage. A few concerns maybe and seemingly legit that maybe their longer run pace is a bit off some of their rivals. It is tough to say at this point.

But I don't think they've got too much to be worried about. And again, you've mentioned that they aren't looking at upgrading that car before we get to Melbourne. So on the positive side, that will give them a bit more time to acclimatize themselves with that particular spec of the car and could be quite helpful

for Norris and Piastri in the first couple of races. But if these other teams do have a bit more yet to come in terms of outright performance, maybe they could be struggling versus the others. We'll see.

Audi. What do you think about that? A three for Audi. I again we we it's not like we were expecting them to come out the blocks and be looking like they're challenging for for race wins or or championship you know championship championship challenges I should say but they've not looked all that convincing given that there's a lot been invested in this project from the Audi side now I know there's a lot of transitioning to be done between them you know Salbert becoming Audi etc but there's a few reliability concerns out of the test last week and again pace didn't look much more different than where you might have expected them to be if they were still called steak or kick so yeah not panic stations

this is a long project we trust in Alan McNish no we always trust in Alabama Nish but I think there's a long way to go and this isn't about you know winning it this year. I think it just maybe they might have hoped to be slightly further up, at least the apparent pecking order than where they are now. I'll go over three as well. I think the thing that maybe is going to panic them most at this point is, and it's hard to describe, but it does feel like every other team is kind of, and this is a bit visual, is like here in this little bubble in terms of the direction of travel, like what they're doing with the car, it does feel like Audi is somewhere like

three miles west of that. Like they are not saying they're wrong with anything they've done. It does feel like their approach is quite radically different though. We've seen it in the side pods. We've seen it in the front suspension. Even if you look at the gearing, so we know that there's a lot of focus on, particularly the lower gears going very high up into the revs before shifting up to the next gear. And essentially the further up the gears you get, the,

the shorter it gets. Audi have basically done the complete opposite to that. It's quite funny if you look at it on telemetry because it just doesn't look like it makes sense. It looks like it's actually an anomaly and someone's made an error on the graph. But yeah, they go really short on the first gear, but then they're really struggling when they get up to sort of sixth, seventh,

and eighth gear. So if it works, if Audi have done anything really clever, I'm fairly confident no one else is going to benefit from it this year. but if they've done anything wrong they are the only ones who are going to suffer from it so I've gone with the three yeah it's like it's like when Mercedes came out with the no pods isn't it

I know this kind of similar and what I'll have done but it's that kind of moment where they're like well no one else has done this though either we've got this really right or as it turned out quite wrong we'll see last one Astor Martin oh four I've gone for four I've gone for

4.5 because it's not good it's not looking good is it some reliability concerns the pace does not look good at all but I think why I've given them 0.5 off here

is because I think they also didn't get the mileage in Barcelona they didn't get a lot of mileage in Bahrain a lot of fact that they've not been running the car at full steam yet in terms of the engine. There's obviously some cooling concerns.

But again, the Honda, and it wreaks of 2015, but Honda don't seem to be too panicky about it at the moment, and neither does Adrian Newey. And if you're going to trust anyone, you trust Adrian Newey. Now, I'm not saying they're going to turn this around in three days. And in Melbourne, they're looking like a championship or race winner. But there should be a lot, a good deal. of panic at Aston Martin, but I think there's still some hope,

reason to believe that this can be turned around and just the fact of the way that car looks and the way that is talked about, there's something there. And I don't want to start using that for this team this year rather than Ferrari, but I might have to. There is something there. They just have at this point nowhere near putting all the pieces together. I've gone with a four, which is appropriate because four to four, 4.5 is how many seconds Lance Stroll thinks, Astemeyer and off the pace.

It's actually just Lance is not... Alonzo's like, I'm half a second behind. What are you on about? I add this at a five, but then I knocked off half a point because they've still got Alonzo, and then I knocked off another half point because they've still got Adrian Newey, and that's how I've got a four, but they do need to find something relatively quickly. Even if that doesn't lead to much success early on in the season, so be it. but they need to find something for at least later in the year to give them something to something to fight with.

They just got to get miles under that car that they haven't been able to do so far. And even with before the first test at Bahrain, they were able to say, well, at least Williams didn't show up. Well, now Williams have got like nearly double the mileage you have. So you kind of by yourself at the back at the moment in that regard. I hope they find something because I don't think I can do it. Fernando Alonzo at the back in a Honda engine night I can't relive it again man I can't do it

I'm not my soul is not prepared for that there's nothing left yeah I yeah I've the hope is to it maybe it's pure hopium but there is some left for me here because of the the structure they've got in place there well we might have some more answers to that

on Sunday's episode because of that. Of course, at that point, we would have had three more days of Bahrain testing. And at that point, there will be no more cars running on track until we get to that first weekend in Melbourne. I have to say, folks, sometimes outtros are difficult, but this one, it really writes itself, because on Sunday, we will have that second Bahrain test review. After that, Wednesday of next week, one week's time,

teammate wars goes live. we have 11 teams and we will pick which driver we think is going to score the most points across all of those 11 teams. See who gets the most by the end of the year. And if you think that's good, the following Sunday, we will then have our championship predictions where we will run through constructors and driver's championship and work out what we think is going to happen in this 2026 season. Once those three episodes are wrapped up, we're into Australia preview. So we are really right there when it comes to F1. is not too far away, folks.

We've already plugged Patreon, so we won't bother you with that again, but we will say leg-breaking F-1 across all social media. Instagram, good place to be. X, Twitter, whatever you call it. Join us there too. And our friends over on Facebook,

you know where to find us as well. We'll, of course, be all over-socials in the lead-up to the F-1 season as well. Anything you want to say, Harry? This has been a joy and a pleasure. Oh, man. In that case, we will get out of here. I've been Ben Hocking.

And I've been Ash Sutton. Remember, keep breaking late. Oh, panic. I forgot to do that then. Big up Ash Sutton.