The Late Braking F1 Podcast - New Year, New Goals: 2026 F1 Resolutions for Drivers & Teams

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

We're back! Did you miss us? Ben and Sam dust off the microphones and look ahead to the new season, starting with New Year's resolutions for a handful of drivers and teams. They also chat about Ford��s role within Red Bull, before finishing with a special game... 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! 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

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Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Hello and a very well, welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. We're back. It's 2026 and what do we do next? I'm not sure. Talk about Formula One probably, mate.

It's been a while. No, that's definitely something we don't do. Come on. What have we got coming on? What have we got coming on? Well, we've got a new game. It's the only time this game is ever going to be played a little bit later on in the show. A little bit on Ford and Red Bull and that partnership that's set to become even more important

as we head into the 2026 season. But we're going to start the year. we always like to, Sam, with some New Year's resolutions. Have you got any of your own? I actually don't. No, I don't. No, I stopped doing that a long time ago. I can never stick to them.

No, I'm the same. I want to hear people's wackiest New Year's resolutions, though, in the comments. I'd like to learn how to do the perfect cartwheel. I believe in you, mate. Thanks, mate. We can practice that off the show. Sure. But not our own resolutions.

We're going to be giving out resolutions to some of the teams, some of the drivers, we've handpicked a few of each. We'll deal with the teams a little bit later on in the show. We'll start with the drivers. Just something we think that maybe they can improve on going into this season, something that they definitely need to add to their resume as a driver. We've left this fairly open, so we can go a number of different directions with each of these. Seems to make sense, Sam, to start with,

and it still doesn't quite sound right saying this. the world champion Lando Norris Yes, the number one is going to be on the Papaya McLaren this season That's going to take a few weeks in it Yeah, first time

World champ Lando Norris I mean, congrats Well Harg for But what is he need to do For the 2026 season Well, I've actually Kept it on the same path to what he did last season

and that is to keep it consistent is his New Year's resolution Now we can't necessarily say How good the car is going to be at this point We don't know if the McLaren's going to carry on being a title contender? Is it going to be something that maybe slump, step third or fourth in the championship? Who knows it might do? So keep it consistent in something that is entirely in his control. Last season, he picked up 18 polions on his journey all the way through to taking

that title. And that was pretty much the key moment where he state his claim to be part of that title fight. When Oscar Piascu fell off in the latter part of the season, it was Landon Norris's consistency that brought him back into the title fight. Now, if he wants to be part of that title fight again, or at least a regular competitor at the front of the field, if McLaren is worthy, that he used to be there every single time. And he made a good case to do that in 25, and he'd carry over that consistency for 26, or will possibly the resurgence or emergence of new or current teams disrupt where Landon Norris is going to sit in a student. Yeah, I think, and the point you say at the beginning of all this is going to be relevant as

we go through all of these teams and drivers. We know less this year than we have done in previous years as to what the pecking order is going to be. So it makes it a little bit more tricky to give out these new year resolutions because we just don't know if the form book is going to be consistent with the previous set of regulations. Yeah, Lano Norris, if he keeps that consistency, as far as I'm aware, he didn't go more than three races last year without a podium and, you know, Piastri had that stretch, like you say, Vastappen and Red Bull had a bit more of a difficult mid-season.

If he maintains that, maybe even improves on it. Who knows? Maybe we're talking about a two-time world champion. this point next year, at which point he unlocks the dance. Well, don't bring up the dance this early, come on. My tempted fate there, yeah. Just early in January doing the two-time world champ dance.

Yeah, that's a bit wild for January 6th, isn't it? Seeing as we've started with Lando Norris, might as well go to the runner-up of the 2025 championship, the driver that was looking for five straight titles and came up just two points short of that, Max Verstappen. My New Year's resolution for him is don't lose your head. And I don't mean that literally, although that would also be a pretty good New Year's resolution if he was to do that.

Yeah, that would be pretty good. But more in a sporting sense. I think 2025 was maybe Vestappen's most mature season to date, putting Spain to one side, put all the other 23 to the other side. I still think it was his most mature season yet. And I think a big reason, maybe an understated reason why he was in that championship fight at the end of the year was how he kept his head in the middle part of the year when it wasn't going well for Red Bull. People were rightly in years to come about the 2025 season talk about the way that it ended.

They'll talk about the way last 10 races for Stappan, 10 out of 10 podium, 6 out of 10 wins. He was phenomenal down the stretch. But they won't talk as much about the P9 at Hungary where the car was atrocious. but he didn't make any stupid errors to cost himself two points. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that was enough to get him in the mix. And we're going into 2026, again, we're not sure what the pecking order is going to be. It might be that we have a situation where Red Bull don't start out very well. It would be within his best interests to, you know, don't lose his head,

keep it going, keep the consistency, because it could turn around midseason, end of the season. There's going to be more unreliability we think. in a new regulation cycle. Like, it just makes sense for him to not lose his head, lose his head. And that Spanish GP incident is just proof. I know he doesn't like to focus on it. And there were so many individual moments that could have decided the championship. But that was the one instance all year where he lost his head for a couple of seconds,

maybe costing the title. Yeah, it's tough to find some kind of resolution for Max Verstappen because he is so top dog at the moment. He is obviously pretty much the best racing driver world. So finding something to pick up on is tough one. I think you've made a good point that on the very, very 1% of time that Max Verstappen isn't on his A game, a lot of the time he lets something a little bit personal maybe getting in the way.

He gets frustrated at a scenario. We see it maybe once a season these days. I think you saw it when he was defending against Landon Norris and the likes of Mexico as well the season before in 24 each. He pushed the line, we went over a little bit. Now, in theory, this season would have taught him another page for the book. It will have learned him another lesson that he is able to go. right, I haven't got the best machinery, I'm not in competition. I get to do everything I can

to make sure that later on down the line, if the car comes good, I put myself in a championship winning position. And that's what he almost did, of course, in 2025. So yeah, I think not losing your head very sensible. You gave me Lewis Hamilton then. I did give you Lewis Hamilton, yes. And this is going to be an interesting one based on how 2025 went, a long way from maybe our expectation, his own expectations for what he wanted to achieve. But we said going in, into last season that 2026 would have been the goal. He was moving there more for this set of regulations rather than the previous set. With that in mind, what's his New Year's resolution?

Yeah, I'm sorry, Lewis Hamilton fans. It's not going to be a glowing New Year's resolution for him. It's not bad, but it's definitely not what you're going to want in here. And that is simply to stick with LeCler, which I think after what happened in 2025, he fell short of that. There was a larger points gap than I think we expected to 142 points to Lecler and 156 points to Lewis Hamilton. You know, that's almost 90 points if it's between the two of them.

You only beat him three times in a Grand Prix across the entire season. Again, that's got what you want to see. Talk about Lewis Hamilton. Which is essentially the greatest of all time. I mean, I only beat the Clare three times. You can pick up a podium, of course. The Clare picked up multiple. His best position was fourth twice.

This is something that needs to change. If the Ferrari, and this is a big if, is actually competitive. And it can perform right at the very top, right at the sharp end. Lewis Hamilton's got to dig deep. He's got to find something. And if LeCleur wins this title, Lewis Hamilton comes second place, at his ripe old age and another new car

that he's had to adapt to, fair enough. I'm not going to judge him. I think he'll judge himself, but I'll be like, you know what, your 40 points off, LeCleur has gone one hitting a Ferrari that's actually good.

I think that's solid. I think that's acceptable. But if it's a hundred point gap and Ecclors again picking up a wing or a podium and Hamilton hasn't done that again, it gets a little bit harder to swallow each time around. I just need to be on the Clare's heels.

How early will we know? Is it going to be a case of Hamilton turns up to the first race and we just know from the off, this is going to be a repeat of 2025? Is it a case where he might grow into the car, into this, this area? Like, when do we do you think we know whether this is going to work or not? So, tricky question to ask, there's a number of factors there. You look at last season, of course, he won the Chinese sprint rompring.

And then they were disqualified, right? So you think, wow, okay, he's. got it. Lewis Hamilton's here. Ferrari works for him. Never again. And then you look at the other factor in the sense that these are brand new regulations and that Ferrari might come good in the first race or two and it might never be good again because they bring an update that doesn't work. Or everyone else suddenly clicks on to something and they bring an update that does work that forces them back. So it will be tricky. I'm going to be generous in my time. I'm going to give it to the summer break until we really know where the Claire and Hamilton are sitting. I don't

know necessarily if that's how we know where the car will sit and where Ferrari are going to be. But we will know the difference in those teammates, I think, by kind of race 10, 10, 11 and that point, on Silverstone, we'll know if Hamilton's got all it takes in these new regulations to fight at the top. I'm very curious, and this isn't one for 2026. I am curious in years to come as to what this Ferrari spell will do for his legacy. Because obviously, if he turns it around this year, it wins a title, then it very much boosts his legacy. But if it carries on the same as last year, I just don't know how this will be viewed, maybe in comparison to say the Michael Schumacher Mercedes years

and there was a couple of years where Schumacher was out of the sport and he was a little bit older than what Hamilton has been at Ferrari. I just wonder whether people will give Hamilton Grace and say, look, the McLaren and Mercedes years just far outweigh, anything that happened at Ferrari, we can just almost brush the Ferrari stuff under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist

or whether if we're talking, who's the goat of F1, how much this plays into it? I just don't know. The phrase got out of the bang, definitely. feels like it has a place here. Maybe he should have gone out when it was at his very best. But who goes? A conversation for another day. It is indeed. I'll go for the driver that Hamilton leaving Mercedes, of course, left a space, and that was occupied by Kimmy Antonelli going into his second year in the sport. I've been very zen with this one, apparently, because I've got Be at one with the car.

Oh, okay. Which sounds wonderfully vague. he's a talented kid and there were times last year where he showed really good pace whether that's going to be enough to compete with George Russell in his second year

who knows, we'll see but what he does need to do is learn from what went wrong in 2025 and specifically we're talking about Italy to Italy so Imola to Monza that was a 10 race stretch where he scored just 18 points

15 of them came at one race which was the Canadian GP that podium to score just 18 points in 10 races where Russell in the same period scored 101 isn't going to get the job done and we can very easily point to the suspension update that was made that Antonelli just did not gel with whatsoever. It introduced rear instability and Antonelli himself says it probably cost us two to three months in terms of development. It's a long time in F1 and if you want any chance of beating John, George Russell, you cannot let that happen. So what I want Antonelli to do, and hopefully what he's

already been doing, is being inquisitive, asking the questions, okay, Russell was able to drive around those issues. I wasn't. Why? And really get, you know, get to grips with this before we head into the new year. Could he have done anything to get out of that slump earlier than what he did? Could he have improved his communication, his feedback in any way to influence the decision of Mercedes in the first place? I think that's asking. a lot of a rookie driver, and certainly more of that goes on Mercedes than Antonelli. But there is teamwork involved here, and you would imagine that Russell was able to manage the situation maybe a little bit better than Antonelli was. If they do have a competitive car,

he can't afford the same sort of stretch next year. So that's what I've gone with. Love it. Another driver who is heading into a second season is Isaacajar, although unlike Antonelli, it won't be with the same team. It will be with the sister team of the team he was in in the first year. He is being Max Verstappen's teammate. Yeah, well, good luck. Yeah, literally. Hold on.

Yeah, this might be the most interesting seat to look at in 2026. Of course, you've got your new entries, your Audi, your Cadillacs. But this might be the most interesting seat because not only are we going to a new regulation, there's a whole new setup at Red Bull. management development system, we knew it was Max Central and rightly so, realistically, for the last what, six, seven years at Red Bull, rightly so. But Lauren Mecky's, I think, he's doing something a little bit different. So I think this maybe opens a door for Hajjah. And because of that, I've gone with emulate 2025 qualifying in 2026. Now, you might be thinking, okay, yeah, he was qualifying like

nine or 10th, sure. If you're taking it literally, I get what you're saying. I mean, hush in qualifying. because if you look at the other secondary drivers that are being at Red Bull for previous years, their biggest downfall is starting too far away from the front of that grid. They are so regularly getting knocked out in Q2 or qualifying P-10 or something like that. Even Sergio Perez, who had the best of it in that second seat.

It was probably the best driver to appear in the second seat for a good few years. He was regularly qualifying outside of the top 10. And if not, it was between 8th and 10th. Not good enough. And it means it when it comes to racing, if the cars are close together, he can't move forward.

He can't keep up with. the likes of those top runners, or even being near Max Verstappen. But if Tagiar can take that step forward in the Red Bull and qualify, let's say he qualifies every single Grand Prix this season in sixth place. That would be sensational for a second driver at Red Bull. It'd be the best we've seen for nearly six years at Red Bull now. And if he finishes every single race in sixth place, he'll have destroyed the points at the likes of Yuki Senoga picked up.

So if Max Verstaff is in title contention, that genuinely puts Red Bull in the Constructors Hunt as well. It makes a massive difference. So, how John needs to be there on a Saturday to have any chance with keeping up with Max on a Sunday. There's no way I can say this without sounding disrespectful to Yuki Sonoda. It can't go much worse. Like, there's not much further down the pecking order that you can go,

which might help how Isaac Hachar in this situation. You know, he might be able to deliver a season that a few years ago might have been seen as nowhere near good enough and you're out the door half a season. He might have a little bit more grace, maybe due to the organisational changes as well, but just based on the expectations set by the predecessor, maybe that helps him out. And I know how Mark, I know how Marko is more involved in bringing junior drivers up to

racing balls rather than racing balls to Red Bull. Maybe the lack of his presence. He has a big input or does have a big input. Yeah, he's kind of, even if he's not directly involved in the conversation, he's always there like that his shadow is just in the background. you can see it out of the corner of your eye almost. There's that famous shot of Anakin Skywalker, and then in the shadow is Darth Fader.

Yes. It's a bit like that with the rookie drivers, Helmut Marcos, is there. Final driver to look at is, I'm going to go with Oscar Piastri here. We've had a look at both of the other championship contenders from 2025. Makes sense to round out the trio.

And there's not really a way for me to say this sentence without sounding savage. Oscar Piastri, your New Year's resolution, is learn that the calendar is not 10 months long. And if you were to ask Oscar Piastri, oh, mate, months of the year, completely forgotten.

What is it going like again? He would say, oh, easy. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, December. Like, what's there to a question here? I'm a winner, baby. I'm like I'm all. For whatever reason, this man does not like October and November. And we're specifically talking about a four-age stretch

that every single year he really struggles at. and it's Austin, then Mexico, then Brazil, then Las Vegas. And if you just take it, he's been in F1 for three years, at least three complete seasons. 2023, he is coming off his first ever sprint win at Qatar. He also had a podium there and Japan the race before, really good confidence going into this stretch. And then he has retire P8, P14, P10. We then have 2024 where he has three straight podiums, including a win at Baku going

into this four race stretch. P5, P8, P7. And then 2025, he is leading the championship going into Austin. P5, P5, P5, disqualified. Twelve attempts across these four tracks, no podiums. Yeah. I don't know why, but he needs to figure that out. And a part of that comes when McLaren beat the record for most podiums in the season. And he had that run in that season across those four races. It's how good the car was and how off the pace he was in those four grand prix. You're going to get it together. The good news is, I think this time last year, I said, I saw three mini New Year's resolutions for Oscar Piastri,

and they were to qualify better, start the year better, and end the year better. And if he did all three, you might win a championship. He did two out of the three very well. If he just completes that three, that might be good enough for a title. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

Well, that's six drivers we've picked out and given resolutions for, but we've got some teams to look at. We'll do that right after this. Our first break of the new year. Oh, we got there. Brings a two to my eyes. Bring on the hands. Welcome back, everyone.

It's enough of the drivers. Let's have a look at some teams. And again, I'm going to milk this point for the next three months. We have 11 teams to choose from when we do something like this. Come on. Do you want to visible by three, is it? No. You need another one, I think.

You do need another one for that, eh? Yeah. Think about the late breaking podcast and how we divide up segments. Come on, F1. Then will anyone think of the late-breaking podcast? Just bring back HRT, make the numbers even. Shall we start with, I don't know, should we start with Ferrari? We all like a good laugh after an outbreak, don't we?

So why not? Yeah, I put two words down. Be good. No, I know, sorry, Ferrari, sorry, but the fact that you've come off a wingless season for the first time of a few years, you've got Lewis Hamilton, who, as we've already mentioned, on the show, statistically the greatest of all time. Look, Charlotte Kler, who is one of the best drivers we've seen

for over a decade, and he's at his peak, and you are squandering it. But John Elkin thinks you've got a great car already, so therefore we must be champions of the world, I'm sure, to Fosy in 2026. No, you need to be competitive. You cannot be given a bigger, better, more clear opportunity to be successful. You stop development of your car, as you mentioned in April 2025. It is giving you endless time. So much time to turn around a really solid project.

And you've got far less moving parts than many of the teams around you. You've got Tagalog coming in, Audi taking over, Red Bull are bringing in Ford, which we're getting too later on in the episode. You know, Mercedes are trying to come off the back with a rookie driver. There's so much going your way that you should be able to grasp. Even your management is saying the same. I'm like, Sebastian Martin, we've had to change that again. It genuinely couldn't be better for you.

How will you squander it this time? You just need to strike on the eyeing is hot and have a race swinging car. It's all you need to do. That's it. Come on, Ferrari. I saw some comments from Domenicali, our dear leader. Of course, I have to get his name in in the first episode of the year. Still annoyed that he didn't get an LB Hall of Fame nomination.

But anyway, I saw some comments from him about Ferrari saying that, you know, we want as a sport Ferrari to be competing again. and Ferrari deserves to be in a stronger position. I'm just like, no, they don't deserve to be in a stronger position just because of their heritage, just because they won some championships 20 years ago. The great thing about F1 is you get what you deserve. Like, what happens on track, points don't lie, and wins don't lie, and Ferrari don't have any of them in quite a while.

Just as if Ferrari keep up this attitude of just expecting to be at the front because of who they are, they're not going to get anywhere. What was the last time they won? Mexico, 24? Yeah, that sounds right. It's a long time ago now. It's nearly 18 months ago that they picked up their last victory.

By the time we get to the new season, it will be over 18 months. It's a Ferrari win. On a smaller scale as well, because I think you're right to focus on the bigger picture of Ferrari, but if I wanted to pick out something a little bit smaller,

one particular decision, Lewis Hamilton's race engineer, I feel like... It's got to change. I'm not sure that can be turned around. But, yeah, be good, Ferrari, please. Or don't. It's not bad for the content.

I am going to go with a team that, at least for now, is going to be supplied by Ferrari, that being the new entry of Cadillac. Very excited to see them. Valti Bottas, Sergio Perez, back in the sport. My New Year's resolution for Cadillac is don't lose sight of the long term. So many teams are going to be banking on 2026, specifically in the midfield, if you think about Audi,

you think about Williams definitely, Hasse, Aston Martin, a lot of these teams have been gearing up for this regulation change. And I don't know how competitive. We've said this a few times about other teams and drivers, but particularly about Cadillac, we don't know how competitive they're going to be. They might be a distant 11th.

They might be like Alpine last year, where they're last, but at least competitive for some part of the season to get points. They might be in the mix. We don't know where they're going to be on that scale. But we know with these other teams putting so much emphasis on 2026, jobs are going to be on the line for some of these. Like James Vowles, there's pressure on him.

If it doesn't go his way, he's basically putting a stake in the ground for this regulation change. I would advise Cadillac don't get too sucked into a battle for 10th or 9th in the Constructors' Championship and focus on the long term of why you're here. Focus on getting that power unit ready to go in a few years' time. Invest in the future. I know they've got Colton Herter.

They've just signed Joe Guan Yu as well. Invest in the future a little bit more. Like there's some talent out there in F3 and F2 where you could build something of a smaller driver program. It's something that has the last, obviously, new entry, never really got off the ground. This is an opportunity to make yourselves a bit, different. Separate yourself from Hasse in terms of a new entry. And even if it costs you a

position this year or next year, so be it. If it gets you a championship down the line, it's going to be worth it. Yeah, I think you are bang on. You need to separate hope versus expectation. Now, I'm sure us, everyone listening goes, oh, we hope Kangelax's in the mix. We hope they're competitive. We hope they're fun to watch. I'm sure Sergio Perra's about Reebotus are hoping that they can attain something out of this car. But the expectation is far different. We are sitting here a year while they're thinking they're brand new to the sport. They barely had time to get themselves sorted. They went through this giant legal battle and everything changed with Angeretti

to make sure they can get into this sport. They're an 11th team. We're grateful they're here and we're excited for them. Settle in. Go for the long game. I think you're right. You're almost going to look at Williams over the last three years. And they need to emulate that now over the next three years.

And then if they're winning races by 2030, solid. Really good first four seasons in Formula One. Well done. Honestly, if they had like, they're not a dis, not an agent. H-R-T-esque last, but if they are last this year, it might be a blessing in disguise. Like, just to not get them in the mix with these other teams to, I don't know, entice them to fight this, like keeping options alive for 2028, 29, whatever it looks like, that might be the better play for them right now.

Speaking of new teams, slightly different new team, and Audi, of course, taking over from Salba, what's their new year's resolution? I've got here, establish a midfield spot with a plan to progress. So it's a bit like Kagalak that's slightly further down the road. We saw how well Salber actually managed to revitalise their performance over the most recent season, 2025 of course, Rip Salba. I'm sure you'll be back very soon. Now we'll be back, Salba.

Peter Salba. What Carrag wants to half take over, Peter Salber? His name is probably up for sale at this point. It'll get half livery as he walks around. But they progressed well under that kind of exchange leadership. They picked up a lot of great people from a lot of big teams around them. And I do think that they make some really good strikes. Because at the end of 2024, it was dire.

It was an absolute state. You remember the pit stops? Remember how far behind they were? And we were expecting similar things in 25. And they didn't deliver. They went above and beyond. Now they need to take that step forward again. So for me, I would need to make sure that they are established in that big field.

I think the car, because they are taking over an existing team, should be able to step forward and be in that fighting regularly for the back end of the points. And I think if Audi come away from the end of the season, and they go, we're P6, not too far off P5, and we had a good fight with P7 and 8, that's solid. That's a step forward from where Savon were last year. We've developed well, we're happy, give it a couple of years, move forward, to progress. And I just think they need to, again, a bit like Cadillac,

not get too wrapped up in the now. See, this is a foundation point, a leaping point. and step forward over the next two or three seasons and they really bet themselves in. Hopefully, as a truly long-term and generational Formula One team, I would be gutted if we finally get Aldi in and then they disappear again in four or five years. That'll be a real shame.

Yeah, if they can say all of that and also, say, Bortoletto has improved year two to year one, Holkenberg is still doing the same job that we expect from him. They're in a pretty good spot moving forward. I think maybe my biggest interest with Aldi, at least this year, is going to be, and I think they're unique in this situation, is going to be the expectations for the power unit side of things versus the expectations for everything else.

Because, of course, the regulations are changing across the board. It's not just one thing that's being changed this year. The power unit's completely different, aeros changing, chassis's changing. But whereas everyone else kind of has to either continue on making their own engines and then also go ahead with this chassis change. change. Audi, their power unit is making a debut in 2026, and Matea Bonotto in particular has been quite careful about saying we're not going to be up there, at least in terms

of outright power in the first season. Do you think, therefore, that the expectation should be a little bit different depending on the side of the business, almost? Are they more likely to be competitive at Monaco, Hungary, Zambor? yeah it makes a lot of sense the engine is a really tricky thing to get right and we're talking about Ford and Red Bull in the next segment and you'll see why

it's so tricky to get right to understand this new engine there's a lot going on this direct separation of 50% of 50% of being electric and combustion it's really tough to get right and they've got to get it right but more importantly this sounds like a really silly thing to say can't really

get it wrong they just need to be solid they just need to make sure they've got a good jumping off point. And if they can have a car that powers them to be competitive, not winning, just not losing, then yeah, they can make sure that aerodynamically they've got the car on a solid place and build on that power train. So it would be interesting to see how Bonoso takes all of experience from the likes of Ferrari and previous employment and puts into a brand new project where he has total control over something like this. It'd be quite fascinating to see how him

and we work together on it. Yeah. We'll see how it goes this year, but there is at least the chance, if they do make those strides versus last year, I was worried about their position when Andreas Seidel left and it was unclear about where this team was going. At least at the moment, it's looking fairly positive. So we'll see how that goes as 2026 unfolds. Another team very much looking forward to 2026 is Williams. I'll be real. My New Year's resolution for Williams is business jargon nonsense. And honestly, I can barely see it through the vomit on my piece of paper here.

My guess I'm going to be sick. Yeah, you might. Because it's kind of true, but it just sounds disgusting. Put yourself in teachable situations. Oh, yeah. Fucker off, Ben. Yeah, it's fair, though, isn't it?

Like, goodness me. The reason I've put this is they have had so many years of complete uncompetitiveness, not including last. year. But they had a number of years where they were just loitering around at the back. And it's no good for anyone because obviously, number one, you're not scoring any points your car's very slow, but you're not putting yourself in the situations where you can make mistakes to learn

in the future. Like the strategy team, the drivers, it's easy to become quite rusty when you don't actually have to do a great deal, just knowing that your car's going to be 18th and 20th, nearly every weekend. We saw in 2025 that there was far more situations such as the Qatar podium where Carlos Sines needed to, and the team needed to see off Kimmy Antonelli and Lando Norris behind strategically working that out. As Sines was dealing with a little bit of damage or it was something with the car, wasn't it? Situations like that. Situations like Albin going up against the Ferraris at Imala, something that kind of worked out for them, but it's irrelevant. They're just putting themselves in these positions where they will learn from it in

the future. If they can keep doing that this year, I think they're in a fairly good spot moving forward. Final team from your side, Sam, a team that was a letdown, let's say, for the previous regulations, at least versus what they've done previously, that being Mercedes. There's a lot of expectation, a lot of hopium coming from the Mercedes camp at the moment. What's their New Year's resolution. Well, yeah, if you're Audi, they might be saying that it to be a proper German team because Audi claiming, of course, to be the own German team, which is very funny. Enjoy that rivalry.

Looking forward to that properly when we get to the track. I'm riding, Matt Hopiom, and I've said to Mercedes here, make good on the rumors. These rumors, you know, that no smoke got out of fire, someone hasn't made this up, you know, this whole 0.4 faster via engines due to a little way of manipulating the intake and things like that there's a reason why these rumours exist. Someone hasn't just walked in and gone, I'm going to say that Mercedes has been 0.4 fast, for fun, it doesn't work like that.

It doesn't. So, make good on this. If you have found an advantage, if you have been let off via the regulations and the stewarding, take full advantage. And go ahead, let George Russell run right from the radio, up front, dictating whatever he wants to dictate, because it brings you a title again,

and you're back at the front, that's what's on the like Mercedes-in. And for me, Mercedes has got one chance, really, it feels like, before they start to slump a little bit, because they've had their down moment. They need to make sure they immediately get back on the horse, and this isn't a regular thing to now be fighting for second, third, fourth, rather than fighting for titles.

So make you all the rumors. Sees the day with a championship. What I am fascinated by this year, outside of what's going to happen on track, obviously, with Mercedes, let's say Antonelli does a better job in year two than year one. He improves, expected, given his age, like in his experience, that is expected. George Russell continues to be great. Max Verstappen picks up the phone.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind moving to Mercedes, if that's an option, because I do not know how they deal with that. That is a tough situation. Yeah, I don't have to do with that either. Mercedes, Tocopriguez. Hello, can I get three. cards on the wrist track, please. Honestly,

I'd give it a go, because if Antonelli shows that improvement, I genuinely not sure how they'd play with that. I think actually, it sounds awful, the easiest way the decision gets made for them is if Russell actually has a chance of winning the title

and doesn't win the title. If you could legitimately get to the year ago, he maybe should have won that this year. He hasn't. Maybe that's when they pull the plug. Potentially. Interesting. Final team that will look at,

here for these New Year's resolutions. Aston Martin, again, a team with a lot of expectation going into 2026. We saw beginning at 2023, Astor Martin showed something and then kind of haven't done a great deal for the last couple of years, hoping that this new regulation cycle would unlock whatever they need. I'm kind of saying this tongue-in-cheek, and I'm kind of not. My New Year's resolution for Aston Martin is get stroll a win. and when I say stroll, I'm talking Lance.

And do you make an actual win on the racetrack? An actual win on the racetrack. I knew that we were kind of a comedic podcast at times, Ben, but that is maybe the belter of the year. Here's my logic here. Good. And if Aston Martin just hasn't improved, then this is for nothing. But if they have actually cooked up something

and Adrian Newey has cooked up something pretty good, getting Lance Stroll a win might be a good play here. This team is building for the future in terms of their wind tunnel in terms of the acquisitions that they've made in terms of personnel. Honda, of course, Andy Cowell's now working closer with Honda. I'm not quite sure how the power structure is going to play out, but they have all the pieces there to be seriously successful apart from the driver lineup.

And I don't believe the driver lineup as it is right now is good enough to win a Constructors' Championship because to mitigate Lance Stroll, I think you need Prime Max Verstappen. I think that's the only way you win a Constructors title with Lance Stroll in your team. And as good as Alonzo is, and I still rate him very highly, he's not that, not now at least. I wonder if they can get Lance Stroll a win, that might finally be the trigger point for Lawrence Stroll to do something about the lineup. Because we've seen Lawrence Stroll has had the opportunity to make a move for years now. There was a time where he could have had an informed Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel in his team, and he declined it because he wanted his son still there.

And a part of me respects it, because this is a loving father who wants the best for his kid. I know that. But there's also a lot of other hardworking people at Aston Martin, where you do eventually have to put that to one side. If he can see his son on the top of an F1 podium just once, would that maybe be the thing to say, okay, now we go for a championship. It can't be with my son. I don't know. No. You think it's still...

I think he gets a new lease of life. I think Lawrence goes, he can do it. Now we go one more. And it'll just be it until I die. I'm so curious and I always have been as to whether it's a genuine blind spot or if he knows that Landstrol is not the best, but he's just doing this for him.

he did not have this much wealth and success in his life being a potluck moron that completely avoid statistics and... Right. That was always my line of thinking of why I always thought that they would go with Perez and Vettel and he didn't. No, he adores his child. I have the

utmost respect for that. I really do. I mean that really sincerely. But when you are funding people's lives, their jobs, it's a competitive sport, you won't win. And you're son is the thing stopping you, you are right, when does it actually become a complete hindrance? The answer is it already has, sure, when do you remove that?

And obviously, they do have the issue that ending in the season is very likely that Fernando Alonso will step away from the sport and he's pretty much taken this one opportunity. Have you seen, by the way, that Mrs. Fernando Alonso is having a little Fernando Alonso. Indeed. That's who's going to replace Fernando, by the way.

It's not good news because Fernando Alonzo will now want to race with his son. He's already got more to that phone. And then he's like, right, I need my actual child now. We know for a fact now that 18 years from now, Fernando Alonso will still be racing to give himself a chance of racing with his son. Yeah, yeah. I can't wait for nearly 60-year-old Franonso and his child.

No, but if you use Alonzo Maths, he's actually only going to be 24 at that point. Correct. I forgot that I'm going to be older than like a long song a couple of years. Well, that's all of our New Year's resolutions. appreciate we've only handpicked some of the drivers, some of the teams, so if you have New Year's resolutions for some of the teams and drivers that we haven't picked out, please let us know in the comments. We're always very interested to read those.

Maybe you've got a better one for the ones that we have actually done. Again, very interested to hear what you have to say. Let's take our second break on this episode. On the other side, we're chatting Ford and Red Bull. Welcome back, everyone. Before we chat about Ford and Red Bull, Sam, I want to say a massive thank you to the wonderful people of Patreon City because as of a few days ago, over 1,000 residents now reside in Patreon City.

It's very humbling. I just think, for those of you not part of the 1,000, you might be missing out. I don't know. I mean, Krushki accommodation. The electricity is free and the benefit, I'm blaming love. Yeah, the city grows. I mean, if you actually look at it in terms of size of British towns, we're bigger than a village now, genuinely. Knocked down the city walls.

We need to, we are Rome at this point. Someone build us a citadel so we can hire a mayor for the city. Maybe what's you? Please join. Great Bigger Fits. You get Power Raggers after every Grand Prix, of course. You get Bill of Breaking, which is a blimming laugh. You get a birthday shout-out from all the fame legend to the Father Christmas and birthdays. And there's many other things like classic reviews and other bits and pieces. So get involved. Everything's ag-free. You get videos on there as well. It means the world to everyone that already supports. Genuinely, thank you. Over a thousand

is crazy. Yes, indeed. We had some lovely messages over the festive period as well. So thank you to everyone who reached out. Hope you all had a wonderful couple of weeks and glad to have you back with us for 2026. Let's chat Ford and Red Bulls, Sam, because Ford says it's contributing more to Red Bull's F-1 engines than originally discussed. In their first discussion, which was a few years ago now, and of course, Christian Horner would have been leading the talks from the Red Bull side at that point in time. It was said that Ford were going to contribute financial support and electrical components and they have and continue to do both of those. But the reality is more than that because they have started to contribute to the combustion engine owing to Ford's roadcar strategy

changing and also wanting to apply the knowledge of Formula One's combustion engines to their road cars. Firstly, just a quick thought on that. I thought it was really interesting. I thought it was interesting that first, the Ford were so integral to the battery side of things rather than to the combustion side of things. And initially it makes sense if Ford as a company were trying to steer their road vehicles to a more battery electric power, to a hybrid-focused car, but due to the way that a lot of regional areas around the world are still focused on purely combustion engines, it shows you that Formula One still has a very contemporary place in the world of the automotive day-to-day, you know, where people like you and I might go out and buy a car, we still might

genuinely evaluate a petrol option, similarly to a hybrid or a fully electric option. And it's great to see that a company like Ford, who has been supplying cars for so long and will hopefully continue to do so for many a year, find it so relevant and so usable that they have picked up their efforts in Formula One because they're such a reputable brand, there's such a big name. I think it's fantastic that actually they're seeking more involvement in Formula One than less. So I was really pleased to hear this initial news. Yeah, I think there's a fine line between being aimless and being flexible,

if that makes sense. So with this, you could look at it either way. And I think it's just down to people to give their own judgment on it because you could say that, you know, Red Bull and Ford have come together as a result of needing the others' expertise. And if things are being added as you go and you get Ford Performance Director, you know, Mark Rushbrook talking about overhearing conversations and getting involved in more, were your objectives that clear to begin with?

You could look at it that way. or you could look at it the other way, which is being that flexible, why would you limit your opportunities? You know, if there is some other way that Ford can get involved and they're willing and able to, why would you turn that down? That would be foolish from Red Bull's side. So I think there's maybe a fine line between those two lines of thinking. And again, it's probably just down to whichever you want to subscribe to.

But yeah, I think it's intriguing going into this year. There's a little part of me that did wonder if Red Bull were, holding on a little bit too much. Actually, maybe this wasn't a Ford conversation. This was actually a Red Bull conversation. And they went with the relationship we have with Honda. We know how to build a combustion engine for Formula One. We've done that longer than what Ford had done.

Of course, the last time before we've been remotely involved in Formula One, it was Cosworth so many years ago. I think Red Bull were maybe, and we've seen this with their environment and their culture before, closed doors, quite close-minded, maybe, and a little bit protective of what they were trying to achieve. and how over if Ford had gone, oh, actually, this aligns what we're doing and we haven't seen this before. We know a bit about this. Can we help? And I wonder if it hadn't actually dawned on Red Bull to even ask someone like Ford to help with the combustion side of things, but just the battery. It's interesting. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for how that relationship kicked off.

And it certainly sounds like the, at least in terms of the launches of both teams coming up, that seems very Ford heavy. Aligned as well, very aligned. Yeah, that's what I grabbed from this as well. And I wonder whether this is sounding more like a true partnership between the two rather than just a Ford sticker on the side of a few places, or whether it is Ford talking things up for a PR game. Where do you stand on that? I would be surprised if there isn't a little bit of both going on,

is the obvious answer there. It benefits them to be involved in a sport that's growing so heavily. they are true and true car creators at the end of the day that's what their breaker busser is but when Formula One, especially in the Americas which of course is their primary trading area is growing so rapidly it makes sense to be with a team that has regularly won so many titles

and is so successful talking about a more positive light and more collaborative light at the same time actually behind closed doors in the technical area it makes total sense to be working with a team that Vega fitted so heavily from the likes of Honda was so strong the engine department over the last few years and achieved so much. So, genuinely, it's a win-wing situation for Ford. I genuinely think they should just throw themselves into it, be sure that

they are the best technical partner that they could be, and benefit from Max Verstappen being brilliant, benefit from the European marketing, it will probably gain them with the likes of Red Bull and use this as a major marketing opportunity, because at the end of the day, that is what a lot of Formula One is, is marketing. Sure is. I'm not fully convinced just by the PR argument as well, because in theory, if these comments were just said for a PR purpose, I feel like they would wait until the engine's actually been out on track because Ford as a partner kind of had the flexibility to up or lower their involvement in this project, right? So you've got, you know, things go really well next year from a PR perspective.

It would have made sense for Ford to say, yeah, that Red Bull Ford engine, that's going pretty well, isn't it? that Ford engine with Red Bull on the side, yeah, Ford, good stuff. And if it goes horribly wrong, they might, oh, the Red Bull engine that we attended a meeting on three years ago. Yeah, we've heard of it. You can play it depending on how results are going out on track. I actually think it might be good news for Red Bull that Ford are willing to say and willing to up, you know, their involvement in this from such an early stage, because it gives a little bit of confidence that actually Red Bull might be on the right track if Ford are willing to throw their weight behind it

at an early stage before they've seen anything out on track. Yeah, the only other thing I'm quite curious to see alongside with this aligned launch between the two teams and their increasing conversation is, and this might be an awkward one for those listening, how prominent Ford is on the liveries of the two cars that are coming out.

So if Ford is very distinctive blue, Red Bull have a bit of a rebrand, and it will be a real tell-tale sign if Ford are almost trying to put themselves forward as a major cosmetic part of the country. car as well as what's under the hood. That will tell you a lot about how they want to be seeing, I think. Marketing geniuses, Ford, I've just realized what they're doing.

That's all they're doing this for is publicity because all of us are absolutely sick of the Red Bull Engine, Red Bull livery being the same every single year. It doesn't matter what it looks like. As long as it's different, we're going to love it. I mean, that is true. I'm quite easily pleased at this point. Big Brainstrap. It's the same with Haasst, right, with Toyota coming in.

Have you seen that Toyota's just launched a new Yazoo racing in? It's got a lot of red on it. Well, that's, I was actually going to bring up Toyota because it does feel like the two situations are kind of very similar where you've got two powerhouses in Ford and Toyota kind of involved in F1 but not kind of dipping their toe in without getting fully committed as is expensive if they want to reverse this thing and get out of there.

Yeah. It does feel like they maybe both have long-term ambitions and are just not stretching themselves too thin at this early stage. Sensible, especially with this changing a regulation and the fact that we might get a change again in a few years' time. So very sensible, very curious to see how it works out. And when we do Pimp My F1, curious to see how those liveries look. There are some very exciting episodes coming up, even before the season starts, ladies and gents. In terms of just to finish this conversation on Red Bull and Ford, we've seen Red Bull be partnered with Honda before.

We've seen them be partnered with Renault before. They aren't like Mercedes. They're not like Ferrari where they are producing their own engines. And as a result of that, you have an increased dependency on someone who isn't you. Does Ford becoming more involved potentially lead them back to a situation where they are too dependent on an external party? Well, I think this is why they want to keep the combustion engine in-house and keep it to themselves. They have obviously branding Red Bull Power trains. And that is a thing, right?

Honda had taken a slight step back before moving to Austin Martin, and I think Red Bull were trying to essentially become more self-sufficient. They have been a victim of an engine not performing. The Renault engine wasn't great for them at some points. The Honda engine, of course, initially wasn't fantastic, as we also saw in the McLaren car when it first arrived. So you are at the mercy of a team not making a good engine. And the same could be said for, you know, what happens later down the line of Toyota getting it wrong?

And I'll start using Toyota engines. And they go, this is rubbish? This is really not good. We like the Ferrari one. That was always all right. You know, that can happen. The same can be said for Cadillac until they get theirs right. Their aerodynamically might be a fantastic car.

What was it if the engine that Ferrari built is terrible? You're at the mercy of this customer engine. So I do think that's for a little bit of the tentative behavior from Rebel probably claiming. And I imagine that they are only wanting to embrace Ford fully if Ford feel very confident they are building a product that is able to deliver top class results. Yes, I would agree with that. We've seen in the past how Red Bull have been at the whim of these power unit manufacturers

and they've kind of gone as they've gone. So we've had, say, Renault from 2010 to 2013 where the engine is good enough to compete, Red Bull win four championships back to back. You then also have Renault in 2014 where they're considerably behind Mercedes. They can't compete. And again, if you look at the Vastappan years that we've just had, not as much of a power unit regulation as maybe we've had in the past, it hasn't been as dependent on the power unit.

They were able to compete. They don't want to get back in that spot. Even if, like, we know the Macquarie model is working quite well recently, where they, again, aren't producing their own engines, but they have chosen to move away from that and to go more towards this factory approach that Mercedes and Ferrari, say, have. There's little point in committing to that. committing all the infrastructure, all the money that would have gone into it,

to then back out of it or to find yourself back in a similar situation because you've let Ford in too much. So they'll be wary of that. I think this partnership will continue to work, though. I think they'll keep it at the level they need to. I'm curious because actually you just mentioned them, if McLaren ever make a decision to go entirely either in-house or they go, like Astor Martin, they want to take a one manufacturer entirely for themselves

that aren't in the sport on their own. It is interesting timeline-wise because, I know we're just starting this new regulation cycle where it could be power units are more important that they have been for a few years. Let's say the next cycle is 2030, 2031, which seems likely. You need to be thinking about that now. If you're thinking about that in 2028, you're too late.

Yeah, I think you've got 24 months, I think. By the end of the 27 season, that is the absolute final time. And you need to have contracts sorted. They're in the game, research is starting. it cannot be, shall we do this? Do we now, maybe this is... No, it needs to be fully underway by that point. I think it'll be interesting to see what McLaren do

in the next 18 months with their engine supplier. They'll find an answer. They can call the world champion hotline or something. Oh, fuck off. Valid. Let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, we've got a brand new game. What is it?

It's never coming back after this. Welcome back, everyone to the final part of today's episode, a quick game to to finish off the episode. And I'd encourage you all to play along at home as well. There are eight questions to this. See if you can match Sam's score, maybe even better Sam's score. If you get eight out of eight, please do let me know. The game is called It Was a Very Good Year.

Like the song? Yeah, like... It was a very good year. Thank you. Cheers, Frank. Thank you. I thought you might play the Homer Simpson. It was a very good beer song, actually. Oh, I forgot about that.

Which is a fantastic episode. When I was 17. So, yeah, Frank Sinatra's here to help me out for this. So there are eight questions. I'm going to give you, there's a driver and a stat. And I'd like you to tell me whether they broke their own record in 2025 or not. So, for example, if I was to say Lando Norris most wins, you would say it was a very good year because he got more in 2025 than he has done in any other season.

Okay. We're going to get through this together lessons. Okay. When I get through it together, I'm going to get them wrong, and you can laugh at me while I don't understand. Yeah, semantics, you know, it's fine. What number would you like to start? Can we just go one to eight, bang?

Yeah, fine. Why are you hesitant to do one to eight? I'm just trying to think if the pattern of one to eight means I'll be giving too much away, but it's fine. Okay, well, you just pick the question. All right, fine, I'll go one to eight. But I'll give you the opportunity to say number three. It's fine.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Number one, George Russell, most points in a season. 2025, it was a very good year. No, Frank, shut up. It's going to get very old, George, Chris. We know it was a very good year. You are right, though.

It was a very good year for George Russell because he got 319 points, which beats his previous record from 2022, which was 275. Well, on, George. Well done, George. Not well done Mercedes that you took that long to get all of it. Yeah. Question number two. Yes.

Oscar Piastri, points finishes in a season. Oh, that's an interesting question, actually. I'm going to go with this being a very good year. 2025. More points finishes in 2025 than 2024, I assume, would be the most equivalent year. It wasn't that good of a year, I'm afraid. Oh, my goodness. not correct on this one. So he had 22 points finishes in 2025. The only two he didn't were Baku, where he retired, and Las Vegas, where he was disqualified. But in 2024, it was only Miami he didn't score. So he got 23 out of 24 the previous year.

Well, Oscar, not good enough, really, is it? No. I mean, he'll claim that he got more wins, more podiums for the championship. But we care about points finishes, Oscar Pia. Well, same amount of titles. Ooh, boy. On January 6th, son. Jesus, it's early. I love number three. There it is. First three of the year.

Isaac Hadjar. Now, this one's slightly different because obviously he's only done one season. Most Q3 appearances for a Red Bull slash tour or so slash that team rookie. Oh. Ever.

Ever. As a rookie. Oh. No, I don't think he holds the record for this. He does hold the record for this. Ezek, you're a bowler, mate. So he had 16 Q3 appearances last year, which in terms of all rookies matches what Antonelli also did last year

and is one short of what Lewis Hamilton did back in two. 2007, should probably claim at this point that Lewis Hamilton was 17 out of 17, so his might be slightly more impressive. But I think the nearest Toro-Rosso or Red Bull rookie would be Vastappen who got 10 in 2015. I suppose I was counting their first season in the team not as an actual overall rookie. And they're like, Daniel Ricardo in 2014, surely dig more. But okay, I'm with you. Number four, Lance Stroll, most points in a season.

It's always tricky with Lance. Isn't it just? So many disappointments. I'm going to say, no, it was not a record-breaking year. In many respects, it was not a record-breaking year, including this one. He had 33 points. He had 75 back in 2020, which is the most he's ever got. Yeah, he did you go right back then in the couple of Grand Prix.

Yeah, in that Force India, the racing point, that definitely wasn't the Mercedes. Nothing like any other car at all. No, definitely not. We're back on track. That's two out of four. We can hit 50% here. Don't raise your expectations too much. All right.

Two out of eight. That's what we're going to. We were targeting here. Yes. The next one is, Charles LeCler. Okay. Surely he can't have broken any record, right?

But did he break his own record for most Q3 appearances? in a season. Oh, oh, blimey. He did have quite a few. Did he ever go out of... I'm going to say he did break the record. 2025 was a very good year. It was a very good year.

Frank! Jesus! Yes, we know it was a very good year. It actually wasn't, but in this respect somehow was. 23 out of 24 Q3 appearances for him broke his record by 2. So he had 21 back in 2022 and in 2024. So were there only 21 races in 2022?

There might have been. There weren't 24. Yeah, well, that's fair. Charlotte Clerk can, you know, hang that up in the trophy cabinet, can't he? Most Q3 appearances I've ever had in the season. John Elkin will walk in and go. Told you. Yeah, we can replace where the driver's championship should be.

Oof. Right, next one. for Stappen, most Grand Slam wins in a season. So just to confirm Grand Slam for anyone wondering, that is pole position, led every lap, fastest lap, and of course then the race win as well. I feel like you've got to be double bluffing me. Surely 20203 beats 2025.

That's what I'm going for. A sensible play, well done. Because he did have one Grand Slam win in 2025. That was the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but he had two back in 2023. Is that it? I mean, one more. The fastest lap point was still around at that point, though, wasn't it? Grand Slams are actually particularly hard to come by.

They really are. I mean, Max Verstappen has now gone five straight years with a Grand Slam win. That's the first time that's ever happened in history. No one's ever done that before. How many is the overall most got? It's Jim Clark. Yeah. Is it 12?

I don't think it's double figures. I don't know how hard to tell you how they are. Yeah, it's not that frequent. But yes, you're absolutely right with that one. Next up, Carlos Sines. Most qualifying wins against a teammate. Ooh, okay. I need to think about Carlos Sites' previous teammates.

Not against the clerk. That did not happen. Hulk? We have this happened previously. I'm going to say yes, this was a very good year. It was a very good year, indeed. Frank. I swear to God, this guy.

He won't shut up. Yes, he was 59 against Albon last year. His previous best, he had 10 wins against Lando Norris in 2019. That was 10.11 in the favor of Lando Norris, actually. Right. And the last one for you, Lando Norris, weirdly enough. most poll positions in a season. Ooh, well, say.

It wasn't a very good year. 2024, he had more. He did have more in 2024. Good show. Just one more, but he had eight in 2024. He had just seven in 2025. So six out of eight. I think that's pretty good going.

You know what? I'll take that. Harry, you didn't your heart out of sunshine. How many did you get? Doesn't matter because you got here. He's just texts me to say he got nine. nine out of eight. Right, that is going to do it for this game forever.

And that's going to do it for this podcast as well. Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here. Yeah, maybe go more Frank Sinatra for a little while on the podcast. But thanks for stopping by at the start of the year. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining us. Sit with us for the whole year. We are so excited to talk everything, new regulations, new season.

Who knows, is going to be on top. There's a lot to see and do. Join the Patreon. Join the Patreon. If you have a chapter, everyone, get involved. It is growing, the same as Patriot. It's great to see that community blossom. Thanks for listening.

In the meantime, I've been saying this. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. Thank you.