The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Reasons to be excited for the 2026 F1 Season!

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

Ben, Sam, and Harry get into the storylines they’re most excited about for F1 in 2026. They also break down the shakedown and react to your hottest takes for the season ahead... 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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eyes appear one point four times bigger. See life in panorama because you're worth it. Shop Loria Paris Panorama Mascara on Amazon now. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. To the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking. And I can look across the room and see you both. I'm delighted about this.

It's always good to be together. Harry, you've just flown you from Switzerland to be here. Yeah, that's how much I love being on this podcast. I was in Switzerland three hours ago, but I've made it. That's impressive. And I was actually beat producer Kirstie, which is my biggest achievement for the week. Switzerland have won something.

Well done. Well done, Switzerland. Look, we've got some important things to talk about on the show. We're going to talk about the Barcelona shakedown. We're going to give things we're most looking forward to, but those pale in comparison to Sam's bit of news that he's teed up before we've started recording. But we don't know what it is yet. You guys are going to go while for this.

Okay. My toast could break. No. No. I was having hot cross bun this morning. Were you, mate? I was. I have an important question.

Okay. How was this coincided with your once a month toast? Well, you just had it. Well, that's the thing. I only use the toaster in this time period for hot cross buns. So do you substitute your once a month toast for hot cross buns? No, it goes on hiatus, and I will make up the numbers later on in the year. Post May, the toast comes back in the play.

Binge eating hot cross buns. I do. And the toast is getting worked. The bank toast is getting worked. The bank toast. toast for later. Exactly. I've saved the toast

for later on every year. It's like, you know, when you have a mobile phone contract, you get data rollover. It's like toast roll over. If you don't use it in the month,

you can... Exactly. I've got one bit saved now, currently. That's a sandwich. How do you keep track? In my head. Oh,

dangerous. I know. You know, producer, right before she left the studio said, don't do the joke about... Breaking you to be with living rooms.

This is better. Yeah, yeah. Hope you happen. I can hear the eye roll from it, from it, by the way. Why do I sign up to this show? Yeah, valid question.

As mentioned, we're going to be talking about the Barcelona Shakedown a bit later in the show. We've got hot takes from our listeners, and we're going to be responding to them as well as providing our own. Very excited to get into that later in the show too. But let's start with things to look forward to in 2026. Now, we've each got an individual top three list. So if you were listening to our midweek show, we were doing our under pressure list. And we came to some sort of consensus on that.

We did. So we did a collective sort of top five. But we found here, because there are so many things you can look forward to in the year 2026 when it comes to F1, we've got very individual answers. So we've got an individual top three each. And Sam, your reward for the Toaster Story is that you get to go first. What's number three on your list? Amazing. I can't believe that's got me first in the queue.

Shouldn't reward ridiculous behavior, but fine. I feel empowered. I feel empowered. For me, number three is Hajar at Red Bull. And widely, whether we see a balancing of this second seat, a rebel after so long, there has been almost this kind of dynasty of second drivers that have fallen by the wayside of this all incredible Max for Stappen. And I am incredibly curious to see if Hager, who has been maybe the most impressive second driver for a long time,

in terms of the B team, RB, now, of course, what was Alfort Tower or so all those years ago, if he actually gets a balanced drive, if Mekis is coming along, changing that culture. I do think that kind of taking 10% off the Stappan, which is still like 170% of everyone else, and then adding 10% onto Hajjar, Red Bull might genuinely be a threat both for drivers and constructors. I'd love to see. I'd like to see him qualifying in the top 7 or 8 every single race. I'd like to see him fighting towards the front, picking up somewhat regular pogimps if the Red Bull, of course, is that competitive. And I think that Hajar, if he's giving the tools, could genuinely prove to be a very, very potent driver at the front on this table.

So really exciting to see Hager and what he can do stepping up. Looking at the sort of emphasis with Vastappan versus Hager, we've seen that this car has been tailored to Max Vastappan for a number of years now. But we've also seen a great deal of change within Red Bull, particularly at the top. Christian Horner's no longer there. Big Rob Marshall over at McLaren now. Howard Marco now departing too. But of course, Vastappan and Yoss Vastappen is still very much there.

do you think there's a risk that the reduction in big voices elsewhere, meaning more ground gets taken up by Yoss and Max Verstappen, does that actually mean that things might stay the same? It's definitely a fair question to ask, and there is a threat of that, but I don't think, I don't think Max Verstappen works like that. I don't think he has a... Does Yoss? Well, that's a thing. I don't think Max is a hostile person. I actually think he's probably someone who turns up with a big smile on his face.

and goes, I just want to win, or drive fast and I want to win. I don't think he's plotting and scheming to try and go, oh, you know, doesn't suit Hajjar, give it all to me. I don't think that's the way he thinks. I think if the car is fast and he likes how it drives and it happens to suit Hajjar, even better. I just don't think that that mindset comes across when he's planning how he gives his development.

He gives his feedback throughout these shakedowns in this early part of the season. So, no, I don't think it's going to affect them. I think that Hajal will give his feedback. I think Mechis will try to balance between the two. But of course, they're always going to lean more Vastappan. He's their prize asset. He's their world champion.

Makes total sense to give priority to Max Vastappen. I do just think that with the way that Meckis is worked coming through Ferrari, of course, working with Hagar a bit, like he moved to R.B. I do think he'll understand the wider issue that Red Bull have gone through culturally and with championships missing out on the constructors. And we'll look to balance this slightly. I'd like to think that's a sensible way of thinking. Yeah.

It is Red Bull. We can be optimistic. Who on earth knows? We're looking forward. We're being positive. That is the whole point of this segment. Yes. Harry, when it comes to Hadchar, do you think that with some of the other younger drivers

that have gone into this seat, particularly thinking about Gasley, Albin and Sonoda, it's almost like they get stuck in this loop of they're not improving, they're asked questions by the media every week, they're struggling to come up with new ways to basically say the same thing of not being quick enough. How does Hadjan not get stuck in that loop? If he does have a tricky start, how does he like break that? for be quicker well that's a good start I don't I don't know I think a lot of it will depend on the as he's already said the culture of where Red Bull is now because I

think that for the most part all those drivers you mentioned Gassie Albon and Sonoda have had to come up basically and defend themselves Sunoda maybe less so but certainly Ghazi and Albon and Paris to an extent although I think Christian Hornet did a bit towards the end if that's changed and the team were a backing you know backing had drive he's in a sticky a sticky situation i think then he won't have to be coming out to media you know he'll have to answer the questions for sure but i think half the problem that those before him had was that they didn't have the backing behind them to be confident in their position so they were having to sure having to have to have to say his answers so

um yeah i i i'm excited for hadjar and he is the best prospect for that second seat rebel have had since Ricardo? Ricardo, yeah. I mean, Gasly, Gasly, maybe. I don't think he was there yet. I think Hadjar has a better start to his career in Formula One than Gasly had. I think Gassi is now a comfortably better driver,

obviously, whether those ceilings change as we go forward, different. But I think Hajar has cracked the one big issue, which is all these drivers that are moving to that second seat whilst they struggle with the car, they were not prolific qualifiers. Alba wasn't, Gassi wasn't, Perez definitely wasn't.

And Hadjar, his biggest strength in that Arby last year was qualifying. He got himself out of that midfield battle before the racing even started. If he can deliver even 80% of that this year in the Red Bull and qualify regularly inside the top seven or eight, he doesn't have to cut through traffic. He doesn't got to sit there and work through in cars that might be hard to overtake. He can focus on moving forward. I'm going to introduce the McLaren duo into the mix, because third on my list is Lando Norris versus Oscar Pia. It is quite rare that we see teammates go up against each other for this length of time.

Like this is going to be the fourth season that their teammates. It doesn't happen as regularly as you think it would. Obviously, reasons for drivers leaving that they're looking for an opportunity elsewhere. Maybe one retires. It's actually quite rare that we do get this length of time with two drivers. And it's always fascinating when we do because you get to see how the partnership and the rivalry evolves over time. And I think it's particularly fascinating with this one because

The team has almost evolved with the two drivers. If you look at their first season together, they finished fourth, 302 points. Second year, 666 points. They were first and they won the Constructors title that year. And then, of course, last year, 833 points. And they won both titles. So they've really grown with the team. And what was quite a one-sided rivalry initially is definitely no longer the case.

You know, year one, Norris pretty comfortably, the best driver. Piahtri beats him five times on track overall. Second year, Piatry beats Norris eight times. And last year, Piatry beats Norris ten times overall and out qualifies him more than the first two years combined. So if you look at that trend and that trend alone, you might say there's a very good chance Piaastri beats Norris this year, even with Norris winning the world championship in 2025. But you just don't know. Like Piaastri could be more of a Kimmy Reichen, where you feel like three years.

into their F1 career, they might already be at their peak. But you could look at it alternate, like, look at Max Verstappen, for example. I don't think it was until maybe year five or year six until we really saw the best of him. Piastri's not there yet. So it's going to be interesting to see what Piastri does versus Norris. There are other factors at play as well. Is Norris going to really benefit from now being world champion or is he going to feel more pressure?

That could go either way, I think. The team dynamic. Lando Norris has won them a driver's championship. Is there a chance that subconsciously a bit of bias forms within the team to give preferential treatment to Lando Norris? And ultimately, what's at stake? We don't know if they will be competing for a championship again. But either way, I'm really looking forward to this rivalry. On that rivalry, it should be very exciting because they're both such brilliant drivers at the very top of that list of drivers in Formula One.

Do you think that with the backlash that McLaren got publicly from Papaya Rules and the way they handled with Pia Astrid, Norris, oh, you owe him a favor and that favour's cancelled. Do you think we'll see a shift in the way that McLean handle things on track this season? No, I don't think so. I think they will trust what's got them here. Even if there are things that I think they can improve, they definitely are. They did wrap up both championships last year the way that they operated.

And I do think for the most part, they kept things fair between the two drivers. I questioned some of the things that they did, but I don't think I ever really questioned the fairness. of what they were doing, I don't think it will transform anything. With that, do you think that we'll see more of Piastri acting independently to try and assert himself within that team after he felt towards the end of the season, both the car and the team was slightly unbalanced towards Norris?

Probably depends on the last thing I said about what's at stake, because if they are, reverting back to where they were a few years ago, maybe they're good enough to win some races, but not the championship, is it really worth it from Piastri's side to upset the Apple Cup? probably not. But if they are competing, if they're in the same position as they were last year, you never know when you're getting your next opportunity.

I think he, Monza, for example, if that happens again, I don't think he plays that the same way. But it depends what's on the line. Yeah, it'll be more than anything. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Number three for you, sir.

Number three is Aston Martin and the prospect of a competitive Austin Martin. Now, I'm not saying championship winners straight away. That side parts. It's the skinniest thing. The hype around it and it's kind of crept up on me.

But I think it's kind of coincidental. But the fact that they were late to the shakedown, no one's really seen or heard much from them. They turn up their first image of the cars in black and white. They've posted it to say the first Adrian Newey, just like Nasty Martin. It's like building the hype up so much. And obviously the car itself is, I don't know,

I'm not sure there's an engine in it, which may be why they're having to run it so slowly at the moment. The Lonsso's runging under the Civic Engine again. Yeah. Fred Flitstone. The jazz is out. But there's a, you know, it's been building up to this season. The investment that Lawrence Strull has been putting into that team,

the people he's brought in, such as Adrian Newey, the facilities that they now have, has been burning up to this season and beyond, let's say, it's not now or never. But, yeah, I think they have got to be one of the things to look forward to this year, because I think you, even if the car, even a straightaway is not that, but during the year they keep developing it and it gets to a point where it's competitive for race wins.

Having Alonzo in the mix with maybe a Russell, the McLaren's a Red Bull, I mean, just sign me up. I've seen you've got to be missed there in that little collection. Oh, yeah, yeah, well, easily done. But, yeah, I think it's definitely one. to look forward to for 2026 because I think I'm not confident for the start of the season but I think at some point they're going to be there I think and we don't know at this point they might turn up to Australia and be the fastest team it's still a lot of time in preseason to go shape down doesn't mean everything you know what shockingly I don't think it knows like that's what it

translates you need to tell all of Twitter if you look at the lasting of shakedown it means means everything famously I think sees are brought out actually I think if um I don't think he did, by the way. Move on. Let's move on swiftly. Yeah. I think where they are quick and where they're not quick in the early part of the season could be really interesting. Because if they haven't got it all together to begin with, like you think maybe they won't.

But they are quicker, Suzuki, Monaco. You might think, okay, maybe that power unit's not there yet. But odds are it will get there. Over time in regulations, the engines tend. to work back to the medium. So if you've got a pretty good car and the engine's lacking, I know it's again shaped down

and I know he does have a pretty good game. Oh, does he have a good game face? Not sure. I've seen the interview with Alonzo afterwards. I haven't, no. It's the first time he's felt joying. He looks like he's trying to hide a smile. And I'm not reading anything into it,

but it just, but to your point that even if the engines, they're not running it at full steam, all drivers know when they jump in the car no matter what states in it, if it's going to be a good car or not. And I just think maybe he knows. What's funny about this, the way that you've seen certain individuals being very happy at this shape down through the mystic images through eight layers of trees, of course.

You're going to miss it. I am going to miss it. I think we should watch all F1 races, kind of looking through like a gap in the fence trying to work out what's going on. It's got a real vibe to it. I enjoy it. It feels a little bit voyeuristic. They've got nothing to compare it to, right? No one is running full speed.

No one's running a fully fit car. There's lots of parts being changed. These drivers are like, oh, yeah, I'm getting giddy. This is really exciting. You could be driving a tractor that just doesn't happen about overstere. Literally, you don't know how good it's going to be. So, let's all just simmer down. No, Sam.

It means everything. The Times mean everything. I've seen it emblazoned on the Blugging Coliseum. Shakedown. What are you? It's a new thing. That's what we are now. We're a history podcast.

He's talking about cars. We will be history if we keep this up. Very good. Very good. Are you a dad yet? You know what? Shockingly, that has actually. made me a dad.

Oh, that's how it happens, is it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. That's going to do it for the first part of this episode. We're going to get back with our second and first picks after this. Did you know that Staples Professional can tailor a custom program to make running your business easy? With a Staples professional account, you get one vendor, one delivery, and one invoice for all

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A weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility, from $30 for two people, up to $60 for five. So, no matter what day of the week, Go's got you covered. Find out more at go-transit.com slash tickets. Thank you, everyone. We covered off what is number three on our list of things to look forward to in 2026. Now, let's get to number two, Sam. Well, speaking of drivers that appear to be bouncing off the walls after a rather fun

shakedown is Lewis Hamilton. Now, I am extremely interested to see if a... Lewis Hamilton design car, which is what's being spoken about from Ved Bresor, VED. Ved Fraser, is his new name. We've had our first confusion there, folks. It's very good. We've had it's fastive.

Jungle is massive. Yeah. Old Freddy boy has come out and said a long time ago, and Lewis has kind of chimed in with this that they've had full inclusion on the car together. And that's really exciting. They're both very good at developing a car. Lewis Hamilton gives very good feedback, supposedly. And that's what this car is going through.

And there's a lot of images through social media of Hamilton and almost looking a bit giddy at how well this shakedown has gone. Now, obviously, as we've already discovered in the first segment of this show, it does mean everything. And because of that, Ferrari set the fastest lap time of the week, right at the end of the session,

a good old glory run, or was it a glory run? Nonetheless, there's a real chance that Ferrari, if they are competitive, maybe Lewis Hamilton actually likes a Formula One car for the first time in about six years. Is there a bit of a, like, almost if you imagine a graph and it's a bit of a curve of like Lewis Hamilton potentially leaving the sport after 2026. It's like if he wins the title and he wins an eighth, like that he'll probably leave.

Like that's my eighth. I'm done. I've got payback for 2021, whatever he might say. And then you've got like the other end, it goes horribly wrong and he decides like, I'm going to retire. And then there's just this sort of middle ground of like he wins a couple of races and things. I'll come back for 20. That is the problem.

I think if you finish he's like third in the championship and he's right next to clear. and Fred is like, but next year, the car could be even better. I don't think. I think he's like a long soap. It's just, Charles, like, I've heard that before. Lewis, don't listen to him, Lewis. Get out of here. I think, Charles says, well, she's still there.

Yeah, that's hilarious. Sign me up. I'm ready. First guy in the room. Check out this idiot. Ferrari hooproops. The last seven years of his life. Yeah, there is a real chance of that, of course.

I do think if it is disastrous, and we have almost a, what was it, the last terrible year they had, 2020, where they were awful. Yeah, 2020 was, yeah. Yeah. If we get like a seventh place overall Ferrari here, I wouldn't be shocked if we see Lewis in Hans retirement. But if we get a second place Ferrari, I think the copium kicks in. I looked up the comments on social media when they posted these kind of results from Shakedown. The first coming, all in capitals with over 3,000 likes was, we're winging it all.

Oh, no. I thought, oh, Ferrari fans, you really, you want that copium, aren't you? Wow. Wow, indeed. So Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari in his second year. It's number two for Sam. It's number two for you, Harry. I'm going to go for the potential for George Russell to be a championship contender.

Spice. A championship challenger, George Russell, we have never seen before. A little bit of spice. I like it. A little bit lemon herb. He's definitely a little bit of a lemon. He's definitely a lemon. guy he is you know he's he has a cormer and no disrespect not a coma but he's having a

corma okay cora russell there's a bit of a kick to it though yeah there's a bit of a kick to not to a corba to george russell's being quite creamy yeah it's george russell's not creamy um there there's a real potential that george rossel and that Mercedes car could be competing for the for the championship this year and i'm excited by that prospect i don't i don't want a dominance from from Russell and Mercedes, and I'm hoping they won't be, but I think the potential of him being in a proper fight, which we've, like I said, we've never seen. He's been just the odd race when Mercedes somehow have a working car, Singapore. And never like back to back, because it's once every, like, six months. He's only won what, five races? Yeah. He's been prominent for a long time now.

The only like real, like, back to back period they had in the last era was like summer 2020. Oh, that's fair. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. he got it's qualified so there you go um and austria was a bit a bit lucky yeah but um yeah so i think the prospect of a georgia russl championship challenge is is an excited one being in the mix with again i don't i mention all the names but the likes of vestape and maybe and maybe a Ferrari um but yeah i i'm really excited to see it because we've just not had we've not had the opportunity in f1 at least to see him in that in that fight so um definitely want to do a forward do i didn't want to put it in here but i think also if the merciless is that good then

antonelli being in the mix as well could be spicy yeah i i do want to see george russell in that championship fight and i mean i've got no i've got no leaning as to who who wins i don't really care but like if george russell was just in that fight i think that will make things more entertaining like he's been the one driver that's shown he's willing to stand up to max for stab and if he was also in the championship fight. I think based on him not of having had that opportunity before, he will perhaps be incredibly determined to make it count if he's in with a chance. If he's going to dominate anything, I want him to dominate the radio waves. I want to hear radio messages from Russell. But he might not need, if the car's that good, he probably wouldn't

say much. I don't know. It could be the worst year in F1 history. Just watch it on mute. It's high point with any other sounds. Honestly, not worth it. I'm with you, though. I want to see him realistically go up against Max Verstappen. because I think he riles up Max Verstappen. And when Max is a bit annoyed, drama, you get good stuff on track. We've not had a proper rivalry in F1 for a little while now.

Schumacher Koolthar is probably the last. I mean, that is the last great rivalry you'll ever see, really. I mean, they're in the pantheon of sporting rivalry. He's in the Pantheon. David Kulthar is outside the Pantheon looking in. He's the first thing you see. Because of God takes LB clip. Rap done.

Good. I think I miss it. I miss that sporting rivalry, but a little bit too nice to each other. And that's great. You don't want it to get toxic, but I do want a bit of headbutton going on, not physical.

Argy Bargy. Yeah, Archie Bargy, you know, a little bit of elbows out, a bit of cap throwing will be good. Just miss it. Because I think, like, Vestappen didn't have much of a challenge in 2023 or kind of in 2024,

but you're getting into Norris and Piastri. He's coming across the car. Yeah, right. I feel like Russell and Lecler are the two drivers that I really want to see up against Max Verstappen, just because from the limited time we've had, Rustappen versus Lecler for like race wins and the like, think of like Austria.

Alrain. Arrain. It's pretty good. It's pretty tasty. So, but yes, George Russell could well be that against Forstappan as well. Number two for me, I've got Cadillac. And as an aside, just Valtrey Bottas and Sergio Perez, the lineup and what they do in their return.

to the sport. It's hard to believe that it's been like a decade since we've had a new team in this sport. And not to say that there wasn't hype around HASS because there definitely was some, but it wasn't as much hype as it could have been because firstly, we still had the stench of HRT and Virgin from a few years before where a new team just completely failed. And also we knew with Hass, it wasn't as big of a name when they came in. We knew that the model that they were operating at would get them to a level of competitiveness quite quickly, but they would struggle to kick on from that. Like they had a very close technical partnership with Ferrari, for example, which they still somewhat have now, but it was more intense at that point. And you also had

DeLara as well, essentially making the chassis. So you knew that based on who they were aligning themselves with, they were going to get to a good point, almost straight away. And they did. They scored points their first ever race, right, in Australia. But you didn't know if they were going beyond that. Cadillac have more long-term potential, no doubt. Like, they're going to have their own engine in a few years' time. They've got General Motors backing. There's a lot of money there. Like, they have a good chance long-term to make something of this F-1 venture, but we don't yet know what their starting point is going to be. And that's what I'm really fascinated about. They are starting a new era at the same time as everyone else,

which might lead you to think they've got a chance to be competitive early on. But equally, they don't have that new, like new team friendly model that has did, and that might see them struggle in 26. I'm not making any predictions yet, but if they scored no points this year, I wouldn't be shocked by that.

They're the biggest mystery for me. I don't know whether they're going to be so distinct in last place. And you know what? That's okay. It's your first year. That's all right. But equally, they could be fifth. or fourth in the championship.

If the Ferrari engine is good and they've managed to crack the code on this aerodynamic package, they could be fighting there in that midfield. I don't think they're going to be much higher than that. I must admit,

I think that's their ceiling. But with the skill that Bottas and Perez bring, the experience that they bring, and that's two really good level heads to get you through. It's going to be a really tricky opening year. And that sort of Botas and Perez

combination, like that is also really interesting because they're two drivers essentially at the same points in their career, looking to age-wise, similar experience wise very similar looking to kick start what i don't know restart what was a very good career for both of them and at the moment there's room for both of them in this team like they're both quite useful because for car development particularly like cadillac will will use that very early on but we don't know in a few years whether there's going to be room for both of them still and if

it looks like kind of like okay they're not going to be that competitive this year maybe not next year maybe even the year after that. But by 2029, 2030, they could be a good team in this sport. That's great for Cadillac. That's great for Formula One. That's not necessarily great for Bottas and Perez. At that point, there might be room for neither of them, but there might be only room for one of them, in which case, they need to be on it this year, even maybe without the potential for scoring that many points. They need to show on track that they're better than the other. And maybe more importantly, they need to show off track they have more value than the other because that's going to be crucial for the next couple of years.

I don't know how it's going to work out, and I'm really excited to see. Two number two is in one team? Yes. And that makes four. Great. Wow, quick maths. There you go.

Same section. Sorry, Harry, do second for you. Yeah, George Russell. George Russell, there we go. Number one then. I think we kind of share it, don't we? Well, yeah, my number one is the 2026 F1 regulations. I am very intrigued about how these cars are going to work this year.

I mean, again, initial impressions from the person stood on the hill through the trees. Four miles away. Yeah. They look, they obviously look visibly smaller. I think they look like they're going to be nimble. Initial driver feedback is faster on the straits, less downfalls in the country. corners. I guess a big two thumbs up from me. I like that. Yeah, I'm just intrigued to see how how this transforms the racing. I think when we got to start

2022, we had that was a big transformation because initially those cars worked, but as we got further and further in, they worked less so and especially, you know, last year was just qualify well and then do nothing. So this year I'm hoping that we know it improves the racing. I mean, tires as to the questionable thing as to whether it were, but again they're smaller so less grip as well so hopefully that means they chew the tires up quicker etc unless you're house i don't see how house because they don't stop um yeah i'm just in treating how how these regulations play out i think there will be i think there'll be some interesting teething problems and not even problems but i just think teams drivers working their way around

how to work these cars and you know the various new bits of uh new bits they've got they've got to using the car like the active aero, the new new overtaking system, etc. So very intriguing one. I mean, I'll jump on the bang, wagon, because that was also my number one. But I was going more the engine wars. And we haven't seen engine wars now since it feels like 2014 with the new hybrid power coming through. We've lost a big part of the engine, of course, the very, those it, the MGUH, she's gone. Yeah, bye bye, bye, bye. Thank goodness for that. See you later. You have you missed. And this 50% battery, 50% power is, is, it's a very big part. It's It's really relevant, really modern.

It's up to date with how cars are running hybrid is becoming way more common on the roads, of course. I just think with the fact that you've got Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda, and Ford rebel power trains coming in. With reliability, finally, looking like it might genuinely be a problem again in Formula One, I think championships could be one I lost this year on reliability. I think it's going to be really exciting to see who can nurse their car, who can get the most out of it, what engine gets ahead first.

I think it's going to be so fascinating combined with, active aero and the way that these drivers are going to be using their boost button. There's a lot to be exciting about in Formula One. I just hope it actually works and we don't get a really dull, no one can actually ever get past anyone type system. Yeah, it's going to be different from the last couple of years for sure, because if you think back to 2025, even the McLaren duo battling for the title, with the Stappen getting in the mix as well, if you had two mechanical DNFs across 24 races,

that was curtains for you. Like the margin for error was so small with these retirements because they were just bulletproof towards the end of the era. I doubt we're going to get that, at least at the start of this set of regulations. So if you've got a team that can put together 24 races and, I don't know, between the two cars, we say that's 48 races essentially, and you have like, let's say four retirements across both of them, you're probably going to be ahead of the curve.

Like, there could be a lot one-and-lossed from reliability. I wanted to ask you, because the new set of regulations is kind of mine as well, but in terms of the FIA and its flexibility and maybe adapting rules as and where it's needed, we know that some of them are going to be set in stone like the engine, nothing's going to change there. But there could be things that don't work as well as they thought they might in the first couple of races. Do you think, and do you think the FIA should be quite, I don't know, should they be listening to people, listening to feedback and changing things quite quickly,

or do you think they'd give it time and see how things work out? It depends what feedback they're listening to. Well, we've heard with previous installments such as sprint races that apparently the world loves them. And our dear league has said that the world loves them. Therefore, that is the message we have to tow along the party line. But I do think, yeah, they need to be nimble on their feet when it comes to any kind of development within the rule set. For example, if Mercedes have somehow managed to create, let's just go dramatic, a one second a lap faster engine due to this compression, maybe they've got to put a stop to it within that season.

Maybe it's got a bit, you've got to change up by the summer break, because people will get bored quickly. I brought this up recently that F1 is under pressure this year. They've built up such a new and exciting fan base, new markets. But if this is dull, they've got to quickly shift in a way that manufacturing. can shift with them. It can't be ridiculously expensive. It can't be alienating to the likes of Kagalakku

are coming in new. You've got to find a way to get around a problem in an efficient and sensible way that creates close wheel to wheel racing. I think particularly when it comes to these more tactical deployments, so we know that, rest in peace, mom, which was the...

Mission mum. Yes. We know that that was like the first installment of the boost button, so to speak. And I think they recognise that that phrasing was going to be maybe difficult to explain over commentary, over broadcast, and sort of went with this new approach. That gives me a bit of encouragement that they are willing to update things as and when they're required. Maybe it won't be needed again, but it's good that they're not just set in their ways of

this is what it's called, and that's what it will always be called, and we don't care if people don't understand, we'll make them understand. That is very old-school, F-1. it is, yeah. I also had sort of these new regulations. More specifically, the cars being agile, the cars being nimble. I know we haven't seen much of them yet, apart from four miles away. But the early look from these sort of shakedown sessions, they look fantastic. And it's hard to describe, but they just look more aggressive and like untamed almost, which is what you sort of want from an F1 car.

It's almost something like quite primal. I enjoy it a lot. The old cars that we've just had were brilliant, but they felt more like engineered, manufactured beasts that were there to do a job. And these kind of look more, again, unpredictable. They've been let out of an experiment. I think so.

Running free. Yeah, yeah, which I enjoy to an extent. They're probably going to be slower. We don't, again, we're not reading too much in the movies. I don't need the fastest race in the world again. No. Yeah. Oh, I love that.

Did you know that you had the fastest race all time? Oh, God. But you think like 2005, so that era of car, I'm not saying the racing was brilliant at that point in time in F1. They looked really quick. They weren't. No. But they looked it.

And I think sometimes we get overly obsessed with being the pinnacle of motorsport. Like, there's more. it than just that. I want to be the funniest of motorsport. Yeah. That's what I want. I also just want to say, like, in terms of these regulations, I think maybe I've said this before,

but we need to applaud the teams and the engineers for the job that they have undertaken here, because essentially F1 have turned around to say, okay, you're going to, the minimum weight, 32 kilograms less than it was last year. And teams would be like, okay, challenge, but we'll get it done. Oh, by the way, the battery needs to be resumed. responsible for three times more power than it used to be.

That doesn't come without weight. Oh, batteries be heavy. Yeah. And the fact that they, we don't know who's going to meet the minimum weight and who's not, but it's pretty impressive from these F1 teams. I think that needs to be said. That's how Austin Martin will win the championship, like you said. It's no engine.

No battery. No battery. It's just all. It's a V-10. It's all hype. It's like the Red Bull down hill. We are powered by hype. Hopium is the new power unit manufacturer for us.

I love that. It's what Honda is short for. Anything else you want to say on new regs? Cut that off. It looks like there's a double DRS system going on, doesn't it? With the front and rear wing doing the old wink down the streets. Yeah. They won't buy-bye DRS.

Hello, DRS times two. Yeah, I don't know why that had to be like, why I say goodbye to DRS? Because the rear wing is exactly the same. If I think it's more. The whole wing drops. I know why, because like, the zones of DRS. DRS no longer exist, but it's still a...

It's less of a tactical system. It's still... They could have just changed the... The way it works. Yeah. We're changing DRS. It's still DRS. Yeah.

Yeah. I understand what they were getting at in terms of like, we want to take away the notion that DRS is the overtaking... Yeah. Almost got a back wrap by the end of its time. Yeah. So we were part of that and we got a little bit bored of seeing a DRS overtake. But it's still...

Sneaky. It's still here. Hey, still here, guys. But it's also not that sneaky. because you can just see it like it. Because it winks at you down every strength. I wonder, by the way, do you think if you were a sponsor on a front wing this year, do you think you pay less?

Or do you think you pay more? Because I was watching the wing going. You don't see it. They have to. I'm not. I don't know. Maybe it does balance out because you are paying more attention to the front wing overall for when it happens.

So you'll see it just before it happens. But also then you don't get it. Imagine like people like whoever sponsoring, the sponsor is and they're like see the cargo pass for this and look like where's my sponsor? I thought didn't we pay to be on that? Where's the wing? I think a lot of the time the sponsor that's on the front wing as well is the main

title sponsor so but yeah I'm not sure how they've managed that. Calling, let us go. If you are a sponsor or if you are an F1 or a DRS. We won't put a wing down so you can't see your name. This podcast has been the same for a long time. Much to its detriment. We will never learn.

No. Right. Let's take our second break. Let us know, by the way, things that we might have missed, because we've covered off as much as we can in terms of our top three list, but we know there are plenty of things to look forward to that we haven't mentioned, so please let us know in the comments. We'll take a quick break, and on the other side, we're going to be doing a full deep dive analysis into the Barcelona shakedown. The most important thing to happen in F1 history. It means everything. Yeah. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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please go to conicsonterio.ca. We mentioned, of course, midweek, that the Barcelona shakedown. We only had two days of it at that point done and dusted, and one of those two days, the Tuesday, was pretty interrupted by rain. I think only two or three teams ran on that date. But of course, now we're at the weekend, which means we've got all five days that we can take a look at.

Obvious caveats we need to get in there now. Times don't really matter at this point. It's a private shakedown. There's still two more tests to go. We're not saying this is going to be the order, and you can't come back to this episode and say, you said no we didn't we just want to take a quick look at this and that's all all right so there were five days of testing and each team was permitted sorry five days of shake downing and each team was

permitted to run on three of those five days so we had a bit of a mixture of who did what the only two teams that didn't fulfill the maximum three days were astern martin who only did Thursday and the Friday arriving to barcelona later than the other teams and also we that decided not to take part whatsoever. But every other team did at least do those three days. And should we start with Mercedes? Because they did 500 laps, if my calculation is correct, to put that into a little bit of context,

that's seven and a half Spanish Grand Prix in five days, or in three days more accurately. And they love the Spanish Grand Prix. I think they always have. Yeah. It's pretty encouraging at this point. Look, if you're Mercedes, you've got to be walking out for him pretty smug.

500 laps just on your car, over 1,100 laps with Mercedes engine powered cars, as we joked about one of them didn't even turn up for the blooming shakedown as well. So that system is fully functional. They are starting this new era confidently. And this would be great for George Russell and Kimi Antingelli. Of course, we don't know outright speed, but the rumours of the compression appear to be true. They also have a massive air intake, which implies that they are runging that compression system. They seem to be going on weather, which is great.

We've seen images of other teams having spings or breakdowns. Nothing seems to be the light for Mercedes. They seem to have gone through with it. It feels a little bit ominous of 2014 when we had that old school testing back then when they were just going and going and going and nothing stopped them. They look pretty good. There was a bit of hype around Mercedes going into this shakedown. I don't think any of their three days would have died down, right?

No, not at all. and yet a very impressive number of laps. But for most teams, considering the whole point of this private showdowns because they were a bit worried about cars being unreliable, they mostly did a lot of laps. Red Bull did quite a few. HAST did a million.

That's been going. That's not allowed to get to cock on. Yeah, he doesn't get to stop. He's got allowed to scuff until they get to the Spangish crawl crew. Still going. Still going. Has did 387 laps, which is the third. Not far behind, is it?

No, not at all. And they had a reliability issue on a day. They missed a morning or something. Wednesday, they only did like 50 laps. Yeah. So they've only done one Grand Prix. Yeah, they did the most laps of any team on one particular day with a Friday. They did nearly 200 laps.

Occam again, not allowed to stop. Never, never stop. And they did split it at least. It's... Between Esteban and Okon. Okay, Estabang, if you could come in a swap with Okom. God damn it. gets out, takes how well, puts him

back on, gets it. Paul's like, why you stop him? Off you go. Does his own tires? Because no one else will. Five seconds ago to me? Oh, I left out being for this. You didn't leave?

Well, that's true. Yeah, the reliability of rule, I think, has been very impressive. So, yeah, whilst Mercedes, that is a very impressive amount of laps from them. And I think they are, we're not saying their favourites, but they're clearly the ones that people are keeping quite a close eye on, off the back of the shakedown. I think overall the reliability's been pretty good for most teams, but I guess Aston Martin, who did five lots on their first day and brought down.

But then did like 50 or 60 or something on the second day. So yeah, I think that that has been quite a surprise. I think we were expecting a lot more, especially from new ones. I guess you've got Audi in there, Red Bull power trains or Ford, have all been quite impressive to that in itself and to your point earlier

Ben making these cars light up you've got to have three tons of battery power etc all these new changes and most of them have run pretty pretty well

on their first go which is quite impressive I have a question about the shakedown oh Lord perfectly normal question as well I promise we keep going to Catalonia

in the middle of the winter to do these shakedowns and every time they go there's some problems with the weather spam though in it well yeah I mean it snowed last time

we had one of these and now it had sucked about rain that cars were struggling to get any kind of relative lap times in. Well, the F-1 teams wanted the shade down, and they had the testing already set off for Bahrain. But there's other places. I just think maybe it's logistics of like needing somewhere in Europe. Which is quiet, and that makes sense.

But there are problems. Although we got to see the new hazard lights on the wings. You know what? I wasn't more excited by anything than that. I quite like the big up hazard lights. Looks like they're indicating. Yeah, which I enjoy. That's what, heck lights and hazard lights.

Being off Formula One cars for a while. If they had indicators on an F1 car, there'd be far fewer crashes. How'd it road legal that point? Yeah. You get one down the A3O8. That's all you need to make it road legal. So going down the A30. Going down to, you know, Trego Mills.

Pick up yourself and go straight past the peacocks. They know what's happening. Oh, that's fucking quit down here. I'm not even going to try and explain Trego Mills, folks. Looking up. If you can spell it. Yeah, I was pretty. encouraged by what Mercedes did as well. It was not even just the number of laps, which was 500

laps on a shakedown, is ridiculous. But it's the consistency. Like they did 149 on their first day, 183 on their second day, and 168 on the, like really consistent across all three. And they didn't even need to do Friday. They packed up at the end of Thursday. George Russell did 263, Antonetti did 237, again, very well split. You saw the tightly unofficial timing. at the end of the day, and they were always very close to one another, which again, we're not reading too much into outright who's fastest at this point, but when you've got both your drivers lapping very consistently with each other, you've probably got something at least to work with for the rest of this season. So it sounds like they've already gone past the point of like

calibration and acclimatization. Like they're already at refining stuff, which is good going before you've even made it to the first official test. Ferrari. Now, they did the second most laps, 429. The only other team other than Mercedes to go over 400 and the Lewis Hamilton Glory run for the sponsors that no one could see at the end of Friday meant that they were just about the overall fastest team at this test. So the first time we've seen that at a test, and it hasn't always ended well for Ferrari. But for now. No, no, I don't even want to talk about it.

No, I don't either. I don't mind into it. I got suckered in last year. Made a fool. There you go. Two fools. Two fools on the show. I was really worried about Ferrari because their first run was the Tuesday,

which was the day that was pretty badly impacted by weather. Okay, well done, Ferrari. You decided your first day is going to be in wet weather. And they still did a load of laps on that day. And it, like Mercedes, didn't have a lot of trouble for other week. I've cracked it. Ferrari went, what were we worst at last year? They're going to be slow and dry.

Wet weather driving. So what should we work on? Let's get that sorted. Every race will be dry this year. And we're like, we were so set for the rain. Never comes. That's going to be their problem. Yeah.

Well, on Ferrari. Cadillight. Should we just mention them? Because there's going to be some negativity about Cadillac coming out of this because they were, again, the overall slowest team. Yeah. And apart from Astor Martin, they did the fewest laps. did 164, people are going to be negative for a new team. That's not bad. So we've seen some

absolute disasters from new team that come into this. And I think they've done all right. First year of HR team, they didn't make it to any testing. I barely made it to Arthur races. They didn't make it to the first race, really, did they? Fair play. Cagalack, you turned up. You got laps done. Mostly drivers got time in the car. You didn't have a monumental breakdown. It's all right. It could be much worse. You could be Williams. Well, exactly. I think for all the things. teams on the great the the shakedown private shakedown I think was mainly for Cadillac because yes whilst the other teams must have been naturally worried about this

new rule set I think they were probably over over over worrying and they were all going to be fine for Cadillac this is like this has been perfect because they did their filming or shakedown thing at Silverston which they did a couple of laps I think then they've had this then they still get to do another two lots of testing all the mileage they're going to get before their first race is a good thing. They've talked about four Grand Prix before they actually get to the first Grand Prix. Yeah, all of this is a good thing. So obviously all the other teams are doing it too, Barth Williams.

I think Audi kind of needed it as well. Yeah, well, yeah, sorry, that's a fair point now. Not as much as Cadillac, but there's a lot of changes going on. Also, I know this is, again, shake-down specs, they may change this. But if you look at the Audi car, the sidepods on it looks so chunky. I do. Versus literally any of the other cars. As to Martin and the Red Bull are like, tiging, tiny.

And the Audi is like, I'm wider than I am longer. You've got two engines in there. I reckon so, like jet power. I don't mind that. Two engine Audi. It's terrible that says you can only have one engine. It's like the Doctor Who of F1. We had the fan car.

What? How does that work? He's got two cars. Oh. So where's this? Daleks? So what's going to cyber men? What's that mean?

I'll take away the red from the Audi. Maybe you get a Dalek livery. I don't mind that. Right. So the algae is now a TARDIS. But no, that's... Where's this going? I don't know.

Moving on. I did want to mention as well, McLaren, because I don't want to say that there was panic, but they were certainly later to the party than some of the other teams. Papaya panic. Papaya panic, as it will now be known. They didn't look particularly great over the first couple. They didn't do many laps over the first couple of days, but kind of pulled it all together for Friday, it felt.

It's almost the opposite of Red Bulls. It started quite well the week. and then you went badly. Yeah, I don't think they could find the car. Oh, it's not bright orange. I think they went,

where did we pull it? What the end of the rest of year? That's the livery. Apparently, that's... Oh, they'll change it next week. If the car,

I'll have an 83 special livery, one for each practice. Can't wait for the Mexico FB2. Oh, the flag will be, I'm sure. It'll be a minor change to a logo or something.

Yeah, no, this is not ideal, as the famous late-breaking expression goes, for our New York Championship winners of last year. You all have come out. with confidence, you've got a power unit that is expected to be possibly dominant.

That's what the rumours have been saying. And when the providers have said power unit, who you beat last year, are outdoing five hundred laps, perfectly split between their drivers, walking away with smiles on their faces, and you've got the championship winging car, you want to be a bit closer to that. You want to be up there, I'm saying this, with Ferrari, realistically. That's what you've got to be aiming for, and they were quite far off. I think that would be a little nerving. There's no headlines from McBarran, but that's not always the worst thing in the world.

It's true. Very true. And we have got another test properly to come. And you can have good and bad headlines. There's your journalistic lesson for the day from me. Wow. Make note. But I, yeah, it's not, I agree. I don't think it's been perfect.

But I think they're sort of just getting on with it a bit for now. I'm just getting the basis of their car sorted. But yeah, I wouldn't panic. I wouldn't papaya panic yet. Hold your papaya panic. I did actually still see a comment literally this morning. that said, can't wait to see this new livery on track. It looks so good in black.

And I wanted to find that person. Did you respond to them? No. I hold myself from. How much did it take? A lot. I had to shut the app very quickly. From the phone at the window.

Sick of it. Well, I'm right clear. I have. I bloody, it'll be this colour. Not this colour for the camera. That is entirely for the camera. Yes, Sam's was an orange phone. As an audio-based show, you won't get that.

No. Last bit, just on Aston Martin. I know we kind of touched on this as part of the things we're looking forward to, but they did 54 laps across the two days they were there. So they're obviously trailing some of these other teams by quite a lot just in terms of pure lap count. Should they be worried about that or is this all part of the master plan? I don't think there doesn't seem to be any sort of worry coming out of that team at the moment. They're all pretty pretty positive about.

No headlines. No headlines. Yeah. And obviously he did only do four laps on that first day. But this, again, whilst all the others have run pretty simply, these sorts of things are going to happen, especially for those who've got new engines in their cars. Given how tightly packaged that Aston Martin looks and whether there is an engine in it at all, still TBC. Audi 2 engine. That's why Honda did their launch because they're not actually in the car.

It's all on display. I've left them out in Japan. This is what we wanted to put in the car. Adrian you said no. So they just have to be on display now. We've sussed it. We've got it. Worked it out.

It's the fastest museum in the world. But, yeah, I do. I think if they get to Bahrain and they're having it, they do 54 laps again, then panic. Yeah. Not by panic. No, of course.

That's in mind panic. Panando panic. Panando panic. A.MP. Yeah, I don't think Ashtamarsing are the problem. I think Honda might be the problem. And we've seen with Honda before. They do things a little bit experimentally sometimes.

and it doesn't work. We've had major failures with Honda previously. When that car rolled out of the garage and it's all black carbon fiber, I got excited. Exciting as a viewer of Formula One knows because it looks mean, it's different,

the sidepogs be crazy skinny. It feels like the excitement of when Mercedes rolled out and they didn't have side pods in 2022. That didn't work as we know. But this could work because it's Adrian Newey and that thing looks scary. And I like that about Formula One car. I just hope the engine can justify it.

They might be the most up and down team of the year. They might be super quick, and then they might break down a lot. Who knows? Well, we're going to get some more answers when we get to those two Bahrain tests, and of course the first race in Australia. Got a few launches still to go as well

that we'll, of course, discuss as and when they happen. We'll take our final break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to be reacting to some of your hottest takes for this 2026 season. Everyone needs help with something. If investing is your something, we get it. Cooperators' financial representatives are here to help.

With genuine advice that puts your needs first, we got you. For all your holistic investment and life insurance advice needs, talk to us today. Cooperators, investing in your future together. Mutual funds are offered through Cooperators Financial Investment Services, Inc. to Canadian residents except those in Quebec in the territories. Segregated funds are administered by Cooperators' life insurance company. Life insurance is underwritten by Cooperators' Life Insurance Company.

that studio your new foundation. Use PDF spaces to generate a presentation. Grab your docs, your permits, your moves. AI levels of your pitch gets it in a groove. Choose a template with your timeless cool. It's those two. Drive, design, deliver, make it sing. AI builds the deck so you can build that thing.

Acrobat. Learn more at Adobe.com. Do That with Acrobat. Everyone to the final part of today's episode. And as promise, we are going to be responding to some of your what takes for this 2026 season. We'll discuss whether we think that there is a legitimate chance they could happen or if we think you're absolutely nuts.

But before we do that, we've actually prepared one of our own, one each of our own. Apparently we have. Harry, what is your hot take bowl prediction for this season? Right, I just can see how far off the hot I am when it comes to these. At the end of the 2020, 2020s season, Carlos Science will still be the last driver to have won a Grand Prix. for Ferrari.

Oh. Oh, no. That would be pretty disastrous. Yeah. Oh, no. No Ferrari win. Not again. Because spring races don't count, by the way,

if you can't come with me for a lot. No, it's Hamilton is absolutely kicking the war. We're in that. It doesn't count. If that happens, Leclair, Hamilton, Fred Vassur, no more than one of those three is still at the team. Like a maximum of one.

Do you hear a hot take? They got turned down by Kirsty? What? Like I said by the same. summer break, at least two of those people will be gone. That was tepid. Not good enough. What? That's pretty.

Throwing out the big. Shwain, that's rubbish that. Do the other one that I sang over. Well, what was the other one? What was the other one? Pierre Gastile finishing the top six. In the championship. Oof.

You've had two from me, folks. You let me know. I've actually got an LP one myself. I can't wait. Because as you work there and are the biggest fan. Yeah. And are the biggest sponsor. I'd like to know what you're delivering.

But it's not about Pierre Gasly. Okay, here we go. Franco Colopinto wins a Grand Prix this year. Oh, yes. Okay. Yeah, that's a hot. That is a hot day. You know what?

That's Argentinian hot. Yeah. That's Riz. I think if that Merck engine is as good as we think it is, they might be competitive at some of these races. I said, we spoke about a shakedown, didn't mention them once. Yeah. To be fair, they were pretty solid shakedown as well.

But that's it. They were solid. And that's okay for our showdown. Yeah, that's fair. I think Colopinto, I'm not quite sure what his potential is yet, but I think we might be overlooking him based on what happened last year, where that car was just atrocious. We saw his debut year against Albin what he could do in that Williams

without a preseason, like he jumped in that car mid-year and did some pretty good stuff in just a few races. I think if Al-P can give him a car that is more competitive and they get lucky at a race, I think there's a chance that Colopinto shows us that 2024 was more representative of what he can do than 2025 was. Now, the winning a race is, I will admit, very, very hot and it will need multiple things to happen outside of just Colopinto being better. And we know with your bowl predictions, you are always spot on.

He will be second. Yeah, three times. But I, that's my hot tape. I do think Alpine, despite all of the slander, I've given them and we've given them for getting in the arranging, moving to Mercedes, becoming essentially a customer team. They've done it at the right time. If you're

going to do that, this theory sounds like a very good part, but can they get the aerodynamics right? Well, you don't want to hear about our pot takes. Let's hear from some people. We've got some that have come in via Instagram, so thank you very much for commenting there. And also, we did a form that was sent

out in our Discord. So if you're not already part of our Discord, please do get in there. There is a link in the description. And you'll get the opportunity to take part in these things. And the first one we've got is from Discord, and it's from Abbey. Williams are sandbagging by not participating in the shakedown. Carlos Signs' race winner with Williams coming soon. Oh, I like the idea that Williams have gone, actually, we're so good.

But it's just not turn up. Parking really wants to believe it, because it's not the first person to say that they, well, they're hiding something. It's the airbox. Yeah, the world's crazy. Apparently. If they have intentionally missed this Barcelona shakedown because they think they are that good already,

respect, I don't know how James Vowels carries his bull. It's in the giant airbox, that's the point. I don't know. I've got some massive dodecahedron airbox, and that's where he deposits them. Gosh, I wonder where that was going. It said, dodecahedron. I've kept it PG.

You don't usually get a dodecahedron reference on this podcast, to be first. Shapes go past square, folks. Expand your palp out of context But the squares Yeah I don't know I get the same You're two third place

Yeah two odiums Yeah two thirds last year Yeah not a second Can you get a pin? Because we put the W of respect Dorian Can you get a pan It's the same sort of logic as Alpi though.

If that engine is pretty good and Williams keep on the development, they've got a better starting point than what Alpine have. If I can keep Paddy Lowe away. What do you mean? Bat him away. He's like William. You used to keep Pat fry away. Pat fry's cooking, mate.

Okay. I think that's a good start. I think that's a good start. But whilst I love the name, Abby, it's a great name. It's not as good as junior asparagus that's up next. Another Discord. Like Christian name. I was wrong with our listeners.

You've seen your asparagus. I'd like to meet them. Their dad? Yeah, but I like to meet them. King Daddy Fernando and his big neck and a big neck energy. Gosh, that was close. There's actually, there's a reason why I've just done that. I understand.

Yeah. I'm going against that. Will at the very least finally get his fabled 303rd win, if not at least make a decent title run? without going too much into predictions it does feel like if it's going to happen it's now and ever I think

I actually think I want to see it the 30 third win I'm happy with it it doesn't have to go for a championship a wing I'll take because that in itself we got there the journey was complete

it was a pilgrimage he'll celebrate as much as it did in 2005 in Brazil tomato did you see Carlos Alcaraz I did see that yes The tribute dance to Alonso when he got into the final.

I love that. It's asking him doing the two-time world chump dance. Do you know what I really don't like is that I really want Alonzo to get another poll and another win. But the main reason I want that is so that the commentary team will not say every single qualifying session,

he hasn't been on pole in bubba birthdays. Right. That's why I wanted him to get one. Just to shut up. Yeah. And I hate that that's the reason. But it's valid. Whatever your motivation, we all walk the same thing.

Same a goal. We just need to see this next one off quickly because we want hot takes, not one, not ridiculous statements that are never going to come true. Harry takes the LB Fantasy Crown is from Wondering Carl. You like a moment. That's statistically unlikely. Yep. Hey, the only way is up, which is my team name last year, because I wasn't last.

But remember, your team name. this year needs to be about Kiefer Sutherland. Oh, I love Kieferland. But remember, the Sufferland needs to be spelled with an F. Yeah, Sutherland, Sutherland. Kepha Sutherland. Kepha Sutherland. Also, you do at the end of the show, Keep Breaking Late.

Yes. What I would really love to do is get a collection of celebrity stars to do that line that we can start playing at the end of the show. Like, if we get Kiefer Sutherland, just say. I love your ambition. Yeah. It's going to be the most F-list celebrities. If you know any celebrities.

Rochelle Humes is going to be in, right? It's going to be lower than that. If we get Rochelle Hume's, we've had a field day. An activist field on Emmerdale, like, three times. Like, that's probably what we're getting. But, you know, if we get like Craig Charles, Azee Harriet, you know. Hot and spicy breaking. If you know, this is a call to action.

If you know any celebs, get them to say, keep breaking late and send it him. Yes. Dave Benson Phillips. We'll give it another. We've tried that one. Thanks. You sent out to us once. Please.

Next one is from Amanda Sue 34 on Instagram. We will finally see some reliability issues again, and the championship will come down to the last race. Now, I am on this boat. I bought a ticket. We're off on sale together, me, Amanda Sue. And I do think that reliability will play a key part in the championship fight.

Whether it comes down to the last race or not, we can all hope and pray. But I do think we will see some big moments where someone was in it, and then they're very quickly not because of reliability issue. I think that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah.

I am aligned on both. I think yes and yes, Amanda Sue. I think this next one's really good. It's hot. It's hot, but the more I look at it, the more I think, yeah, maybe. Raff 476 on Instagram, Max will pull a Nico Rosberg if he wins the championship. I don't think that's that mad. They have had moved the 24-hour, haven't they, for him?

him to be able to actually competing it. Yeah. That is hotting up. Over the last 12 months, we've seen that really increase in likelihood that he wants to start going into proper endurance racing. Five titles. It's a good number.

Five and done. That famous expression. I don't think he's like, I need eight to be the best. I don't think he's that. But I also think he would secretly take eight. I mean, I'm not saying he wouldn't, but I don't think he's looking at Schumacher and Hamilton

and saying, I have to be ahead of them at the end of my career. I don't think he sees it. that way. It's definitely possible. He's that decisive that he could be that guy. I think that's a good one. JNAV-7 Snitch on Instagram.

George Russell is absolutely getting replaced. Wow. By who? The Stappen's just gone off to GT racing. In fairness, I think they are independent hot takes. Luke Badoa. For

Antonelli shows a lot of progress. Max Verstappen wants to be there? I don't know. There's a lot of moving factors going on here. But it is definitely possible. I think it will maybe be a bit of a crying shame if that does happen, but it is possible. But the Mercedes is that good yet this year

and Russell gets a championship. You can't, I mean, when was the last time they kicked out a reigning champ? Damon Hill? Surely, yeah. It's got me the last time that happened? Yeah. I don't think it's likely.

That's hot, though. It's hot. The next one, and I've got no idea where I'm breaking this username up, but it's Tim or maybe Time O-T-W-Y. I don't know where we're splitting the word there, but on Instagram, Leclair and Piastri drive a swap to be announced before the end of the summer break.

Wow. Sorry, drive a swap. As in LeClaire straight to McLare and Piastri straight to Ferrari? Yeah. I mean, unlikely. That one does feel a bit extreme. It does. But what's Piastri?

What's happened to Piastri that he's gone? I know the answer is Ferrari. And LeCler, who is doing really well at Ferrari, is going, now is the time I'm going to leave. Well, yeah, because Ferrari must be good for Piastri to work. Surely. They've got to be like of a similar standing this year if that was to happen, right? Or there's got to be a major fallout at one of those teams.

And they've gone. Both. Or both. And we're going to pay big money. And both of them are sitting there like, yeah, between third and fifth or something, going, right, he's free. We'll have him straight away. It's always, that's a, that's a,

reach. It's like, and the only reason LeClaire would want to leave is if Ferrari are not doing very well, but then the only reason Piastri will want to join Ferrari is if they're doing well, and both of those things can't be true. Unless it's the only seat available, one of them does get booted out for internal issues. I'm going to go with that's unlikely chief. Unlikely chief. Next one is from IK on Discord.

Sergio Perez is self-promotional being up in the off-season. We'll come back to bite him when he. underperforms compared to Botas. Herta will prove to be at least marginally competent in the F2 season and he replaces Sergio going into 2027. It's announced just after Vegas. There's a lot of bitterness in the start of that statement. Self-promotion.

Poor guy's backing F1. I think he deserves a bit of marketing. I do. I mean, for both, but I think certainly Perez, this is a it's a second chance, a redemption art for them. And like you said, Ben, good for this first or second year in terms of developing the car. But if one of them isn't necessarily got the piece of they once had, then Cadillac may look elsewhere. I don't think they'll go, I don't think they'll go over with either one of them before next year.

I think they'll keep these two for a couple of years. That's kind of the point of having an experienced driver that you kind of give them a couple of years to help you at least develop that car for a while. and Hurt is going in time. But Herta is your backup option. Do you know, until that, you read that out, forgot Herta was in F2. Can't wait. Oh, I'm so excited.

Happy about that again. Yeah. Happy about it. It's made my day. I think they're looking at Herta for 28. Yeah. I don't think they're looking at it as for 27. Give them two years an F2.

We'll see. It's unlikely he'll win it straight away. May them develop. Get those super points. Get them in. Mr. Max Blank on Instagram again. We're looking for something serious here. Saudi invests even more.

That's not hot. Of course they're going to invest. You need to remember. They've invested a lot. They have. And they will keep investing. Have you seen the images coming out of that gigantic ramp that they're making for the F1 track that's coming?

No. Yeah, I'm really excited for it. When someone crashes at the top of that, what do we do? It's going to take hours to get a car off there. This podcast ends because F-1 will be cancelled. Right. Then we go. It will become a baseball podcast.

Baseball, that's what we're going for. Yeah. Is it? Do you watch baseball? No. Do I? No. Oh.

Me neither. I didn't ask. That's why it would be a good start. Yeah, Saudi will invest even more, don't you worry. An anonymous one on Discord. Piastri drops off compared to Norris with the new regulations of car. So the progress doesn't continue and instead goes back to maybe where it was. And he and the clerks swap.

We're putting it all together. Yeah. It's a fair one to consider, and not just for Piastri, there maybe drivers who do stroll with this car. Who were good in this ground effect era of F. Watton, who may not be as good. I mean, for the most part, they've come from like F2 or whatever. Well, they didn't have ground effect. So theoretically it shouldn't be a problem. But they have seen driver struggle.

Daniel Riccardo, Sebastian Vettel, etc. And Piazsche was so good in F2 and so good in his junior career. I think it's unlikely. I think it would more go the other way. It could be right. I think we might see Piascribe thrive. Ali, H.R. 1010 on Instagram. Monaco will actually be interesting this year.

Ah, don't be selling. We say it. Come on, we say hot takes, but. Always is. Not ridiculous, thanks. Always is. Are you excited for that two still? Always. Oh, I forgot.

I'm bringing that back. That hasn't gone. It worked so well last year. I don't know what we talking about. Are you a spokesperson for racing balls? Craig. Jabel, 0-119. on Instagram.

That's half of the amusement of this segment. It's just me saying names. Alpine, with their Mercedes engine, get a win before Ferrari. Hashtag sausage is out. Without the hashtag, I guess we're almost like they're kind of both,

ours could both be true without also being true, but he put sausages out of the end. So I guess he means Gassley. That's how he's brought me in. Yeah. It just included me there. And they're all true. I appreciate that. No, Gasly wins a race but doesn't finish top six in the championship.

I swear. it could happen. In fact, I think it's that good. It could happen. This might be the boldest one so far from Kingdom 852. Cadillac will win a race. Ah, come on. Come on. I think Cadillac will get a podium is very bold. Can't lack more. Can they get a lot of points. I think that's quite bold. Yeah. I think if they clear 100 points, they've done very well. If they win a race, by the way, kingdom, come back to this and laugh at us. Please do. Because... Yeah, fair. Yeah. feel free to clip it, send it in. You've got us.

And if you're confident and want to put money on that, you'll probably get a good return. So, yeah. Toto's husband is next up. I don't think it's actually Toto's husband because Susie Wolf, but on Discord, Christian Horner buys into Alpine

and yet is later somehow ousted by Flavio following a public falling out. That would be hilarious that Flavio still somehow reigns supreme even after a whole ownership and leadership change. Christian Porter of Flavio. They can't coexist. That's war.

That's war. There's no way. Surely Flav is, if these rumors are true about Christian Horan and stuff, surely this is Flav handing the reins over. Man's old. Yeah. Man's old and had some ill health as well. Let's not forget. This is an inch, but I think you'll get it.

You know, Robert California? Yes. That's Flavio Briatore. But the moment the new leader walks in, he goes, hi, I'm Bob Zemeckis. I'm like, who is this? Who is this? he leaves immediately. That's what it'll be like. Who's the guy that Will Ferrell plays?

Oh, yes. Who's the... Julio. What is the home is? Yeah. Who's the F1 equivalent? Oh, crikey. Oliokes. Goes out after three episodes, yeah. Thank you very much, Toto's husband, if indeed that is you. Vig and Spiker, Adrian Newe will not be with Aston Martin by the end of the season.

That one I'm not very convinced by, just based. on he's not just there as a designer as a standalone job like he's invested in the company at this point. MacGis feels unless he commits some kind of genuine crime, which he wants. Macdon's a lovely man. Silly. He's delightful. So that just feels silly. Last one is from Adam Lambert. Got a bit of time away from Queen. Queen. We saw you live. Yeah. It's great. On X. Kimmy Antonelli, 2026,

Drivers World Champion. I didn't know Adam Lambert was such a big fan of Kimmy. Well, made him. Incredible. If the Mercedes is that good, and he prefers this type of car, I think Kagalak winning is less likely

than Kimi Antigli being world champion. Oh, if you gave me the option of those two, yes, I would take Antonelli world champion over Kerala winner race. If it's a Mercedes-Lonement season, you could end up with like a game. 2014 where reliability issues come in. George Russell doesn't get the points

he needs and Antonelli sneaks one. Imagine Bono on the radio. Get in there, Kimmy. Lewis. Your eight first world title. No, no. No. No. On the trophy. Lou.

Scrubbed it out. Even when he wins a title, he doesn't get the notoriety. Lewis. Lois. No. No. No. No. No. Don't do it Doesn't speak like that At all Running ice good

I win the title I do it I'm a Have you seen the video By the way Of Kimi Antenetti showing Bono The

Um Jet 2 holiday things from TikTok Bono's like Ha ha Yeah Thanks He's got no idea

It was going on I'm a dad I've got a life Bono Bino says a line Are you going to show me something from the internet again

He's like Bono C really loves Jetsu Holidays Yeah And he's like Don't make a joke of this Yeah. That's what's on already.

Can we go and sent it from Holkenberg. Oh, God. You know what's actually on TikTok. Nothing beats Jet 2 holiday. You know it's 200 pounds, but for a family of 50, that's four. 50 pounds. Darling. No, okay, we are, we are done.

Get out to you, the late break his side off. Just cling. Oh, we are done. I like that episode. I hope the people at home did as well. That's all we can hope for, man. Yeah. We're starting off with toaster.

We ended with Giskel in. Those hot takes, by the way, we only used about 10% of the ones we were sent. There was such fantastic take-up of that across social and on that form. So thank you very much. And apologies, we couldn't get to more of them. But we did our best. Some really interesting takes in there. Sam, if you wouldn't mind, getting us out of here.

Folks, thank you so much for listening. As always, join the Discord as been mentioning. Follow us on social, late-breaking F-1 everywhere. If you wish to join in with these kind of debates, questioning of the week and whatnot. And honestly, we love the support, the debate that we get in our comments, whether it be British bias or whether we hate every driver on the grid. Get involved.

We love to see you kick-chatting. Come and join Patreon City. You know, we've got delightful accommodation free electricity. I'm in the river handing out beer on a swan boat and you get many, many episodes all ag free. You get the whole black catalogue. Beer breakings been recording very shortly for February. So checking out. It's a lot of fun.

We had a great one for January. I won't spoil it, but there's a log and laughs. Thank you for listening. We appreciate your support through the winter break. And we'll see you in the next one. In the meantime, I'm in Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hawking and I've been how I eat. And remember, keep breaking late.

Darling, hold my hands. Jess!