Bonus episode! Will F1's bold new era fly or fall flat?

Welcome back to the intercooler podcast everybody and welcome to a bonus episode of the intercooler

podcast with me Dan Proser and Andrew Frankel. Andrew, we don't do bonus episodes very often,

hardly at all actually. We felt it was necessary this time.

Yeah. Given what's happening this weekend.

So we wanted to preview the Australian Grand Prix but also the 2026 Formula One season

because it feels like a big deal doesn't it? It's a big change for F1, new regulations,

new cars, new teams and we thought it was appropriate and necessary to spend 30 minutes or so

just sort of looking forward to what's coming. Yeah, so what's going to happen is you and I

go through this podcast. We're going to spend about half an hour chatting about the season.

May he all sorts of predictions about the season in general and the race on Sunday in particular

and then on Monday, on our regular podcast, we're going to see just how wrong we were.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay, all right, so we need to.

Right, so we will be back again in our usual slot on Monday talking about the results of

the Australian Grand Prix, which even if by normal Grand Prix standards, it's really boring,

we are going to talk about because there's going to be some interesting stuff,

even if the racing isn't that interesting. So yeah, there's going to be stuff to talk about.

Before we get started, the race, the Australian Grand Prix for a UK audience starts at 4am on Sunday

and I appreciate that most of the Grand Prix's work out pretty well from a time point of view

to those of us in the UK and most of Europe. This one is not convenient.

I put a poll out on Twitter saying, will you be setting your alarm for 3.50am on Sunday morning?

24% said, of course. 40% said, no chance. 35% said, I'll watch it when I wake up, thank you.

And 1% said, I'm going to stay up all night. Which one are you?

I'm going to get up because, okay, I probably would have done it. Well, I wouldn't have got up

and suddenly I'd probably just be awake anyway because I'm just idiotic like that and get quite

excited when there's a start of the season. So I'll probably just be awake anyway. So every

stage I just go downstairs and watch it. But I just got sick of giving Sky 70 something quid a month.

The only reason I had Sky Sports was to watch Formula One. And so what I've done now is I've taken

out a subscription to now. Yeah. Yeah. But unless you know different, the only way to watch it is live.

Oh, yeah, I think you're probably right. I mean, they'll be running at some point, won't they? Or

there'll be highlights, but I don't know. I think all you can do is stream it. I mean,

there'll be highlights are presumably Channel 4 or someone's doing a highlights program. But,

you know, I can't not watch the first race and what some people are saying, the season which

has seen the most significant change in rules in Formula One history. I don't know whether that's

true or not. But it's certainly out there and I can't not watch it. So I'm actually getting

back from a car launch on Saturday evening. And by the time I'm driven back from Heathrow,

I'm not going to be in bed for very long. But yeah, of course I'll be up. I can't miss that.

And I'm not going to pay Sky 70 odd quid for the privilege of being able to watch it four

hours later or whatever. So yeah, I'll be there. Yeah, I'm undecided. We have a still quite young

baby at home. Sleep has been hard to come by in our household for the last eight months. So

I'm sort of going to have to take a view. If I feel rested come Saturday evening,

maybe I will get up, but I'm not convinced just yet. Although what I will say, this time last year,

again, it was the Australian Grand Prix, again, lewd across the clock for those of us in Europe.

I was actually in Amsterdam on a stag do. And like you said earlier, Andrew, I found that even

having had quite a lot of beer to drink, I found that I just woke up. I was so excited about the

start of the new season. I just woke up. I didn't even set an alarm. And so even though I'd only

been asleep for probably a couple of hours, I was awake. And so I did watch it. So maybe the same

thing will happen again. Now, there's a lot that we could get stuck into on this episode,

and we should touch on as much of it as we can. You know, there's a few elements going on, isn't

there? There's this curious, this intrigue, curiosity about who's going to win and who's

going to have got it all wrong. But I also think we should talk about the the regulation change

a little bit and just sort of try and summarize what those changes are, what the implications are,

and how we feel about it and why they've been brought in. Yeah. Yeah. So the big the big change,

you know, we've had turbo hybrid engines since 2014. But now roughly half the power comes from

electric motors. It's a big shift. It's what all the fans are coming for, isn't it? That's what

they were all saying. They did their service and they all came back and said, we need more

electric power. That's what we really want. It was all over Twitter, wasn't it? Yeah, everywhere.

All the all the big YouTube channels were calling for more hybrid power.

Yeah, not not. So why have they done it? And it's not what the fans want. It's not what I want.

They've done it anyway, largely to appeal to car manufacturers.

I would say entirely to appeal to car manufacturers. And they would say that they have succeeded

because Audi probably I think almost certainly wouldn't be in the sport without these new

regulations. I think it's probably questionable whether Honda would have stayed in it. I think,

frankly, Cadillac would have been more likely to stay in it if you just put some big V8 in it,

powered by sustainable fuels. But yeah, I mean, it is to be more attractive to car manufacturers

because that's what Formula One deems to be important. Now, to be fair, it's not just about

you know, presenting a more environmentally friendly face. And we all know that's an absolute

nonsense because the whole circus flies around the world on jumbo jets. Anyway, it's also when

you've got rid of the so there was a the hybrid up until now. So for the last whatever it is,

12 seasons, there have been two ways of regenerating energy. One is conventionally like road cars,

hybrid road cars and electric road cars do through recovering energy, which otherwise

been lost through braking. But the other way was to recover energy through getting it through the

heat of the exhaust. That bit has gone. So the whole powertrain in theory at least is simpler,

and it's certainly less expensive. And to accompany like Audi coming into Formula One for the first

time, that simplification, that reduction in cost is undoubtedly a significant factor. So

it's not just about hybrids. But you know, these were all decisions which were made a very long

time ago. And if they could have been made last week, maybe they'd have gone in another direction.

But we are where we are. And but I mean, the problem has been is as the as reality has bitten,

as the true ramifications of this technology have become apparent. The whole car, the whole design

of the rest of the car, particularly the Aero package has had to be compromised, just to try to

deal with its shortcomings. And even then, it hasn't entirely worked. Because we know, don't we?

And I find this almost unbelievable is that on a flat out qualifying lap, the drivers won't

be flat out, because they won't be able to be flat out, because the cars won't be able to develop

enough energy for the car to get around a single lap flat out. Just before we came on here,

I was just thinking to myself, what would happen if you turned around, if you turned around to

James Hunt and said, you can't race flat out, not not just in the race, but even in qualifier,

you know, punched you in the face. Yeah, what have you said to Sterling, you can't drive as

fast as you possibly can. He'd go, well, see ya. He wouldn't do it. He would have no interest,

whatever. Because you know, Sterling always just say, I'm a racer. He wants to get in the car and

drive it as fast as he possibly can from when the lights go green to when the flag falls. That's

era is not going to be what's happening at any stage. Drivers are going to become managers

much more so, you know, we look at the cars, you know, even the cars that have gone in the past

and how unbelievably complex they are on how many stuff, how much stuff there is on steering wheels

and different strategies. And you can see the drivers, you know, all the time optimizing their

cars for the conditions that they are in. Well, I mean, that's going to be like a,

you know, joy compared to the amount of management that's going to have to go on

this year. And it's going to be the person who wins the race will be the person who best manages

the amount of energy that is available to them throughout it. Doesn't sound exciting to me.

It doesn't sound like F1. The frustration, I think, is that if you look at the FIA's top

racing series, Formula E, that deals with electric powertrains. World Endurance Championship,

now that could deal with clever hybrid powertrains. I know they have hybrids already, but that should

be the focus of that championship, arguably, you know, managing throughout a 24 hour race or a

six hour race. Those drivers, they talk about those endurance racing being a sprint these days,

but managing within that context is more natural, isn't it? Formula One, I think it should

favor pure combustion engines and particularly nowadays running on sustainable fuels. So they

can be carbon neutral. There's your environmental message, but we've got this exciting powertrains

and a great soundtrack. Why not? Yeah. So this is exactly the point that Karun Chandak makes. If

you're listening to this on a Friday, go and have a look on the website and read Karun's story

that he's written for us. And he says exactly that. He's talked about three vertical pillars

for the three premier forms of motorsports. So electric for Formula E, hybrids for the

World Endurance Championship and sustainable fuels in high revving VA engines with very small

push to pass hybrids on them just to enable overtaking. And it is such a clear-minded way of

looking at it and it seems to me so essentially, obviously right. And I despair, I really do.

That's, but do you actually think that I am being altogether too eorish about this and actually

when they're all out there and it's all the famous drivers and they're still going wheel to wheel and

okay, everybody's managing their energy, but you know, everyone's in the same boat so everybody

will still be racing each other. And also the other thing is that the vast majority of people

who watch Formula One because the vast majority of people who watch Formula One are new to Formula

One because viewing numbers have gone up 68% since 2018, which they have. Are they going to care

all about? Are they going to know about that? Are they, if they do know about it, are they going

to worry about it? Are they going to learn what the rules are or are they just going to go and

watch some cars go around tracks really fast? I think it depends on how it plays out and that's

the unknown at the moment, isn't it? If it's very clear that drivers are really managing,

particularly through qualifying, but if it's really clear that they are having to really

temper their pace through the race because they are trying to charge and if the commentators are

talking about it in detail, then people will be aware and it will take something away.

But if actually it, the impression is that they are racing as they've always done,

then you're right. People aren't going to know and not many people are going to care.

So it depends on exactly what the texture and the feel of a qualifying session and a Grand Prix

and in this new era is. That's what we don't know at the moment.

No. And what are the drivers going to say? What is Fernando going to say? What is Max going to say

if it all just turns out to be, I don't know, it's, you know, we have been here before when

we've had new rules which have made Formula One look pretty stupid. Remember the poor poisoning era

and that went away. They engineered their way out of that and that's cease being an issue.

So maybe this will too. But,

you know, the cars are a little smaller there. What are they? 30 kilos lighter than they used to be?

It's less than 5%. It's, you know, I think, I think Korean says they're still 165 or 160

something kilos heavier than they were 20 years ago. And they're certainly still enormous compared

to where they were. I don't know. Do you concern yourself with, you know, one of the things they

talk about is clipping. That's what that sort of word we're going to have a lot of clipping.

Oh, you're going to have to explain to me what super clipping is. Okay, I can tell you what

clipping is. So clipping is you're in your Formula One car and you're honking through some quick corner

and after a bit, your hybrid says to the engine, I've run out of juice. I'd like a bit more.

And so it starts to draw power from the engine, which is power that then can't go to your wheels.

And so the car just starts to slow down in the middle of the corner. Now, what if someone,

there's someone trying to follow quite close behind you who doesn't have this problem because

they've managed their energy. I mean, they're going to have, I don't know how that's going to

work. I mean, you get these circuits, don't you? Like, I think Saudi has one where you get these

very quick corners, one going into another, where you can't really, if a car just suddenly

starts to slow down in front, you maybe they'll slow down very gradually. I don't know. I'm sure

they thought about all of this. But, you know, the joy of driving, and I know the sport should be

for the fans, but if you're a driver, you know, if you Lewis, the whole joy is not

nagging your way through a hairpin, is it? It's chucking your car through, you know,

the Beckett's complex at Silverstone, isn't it? That's where you just think, yeah,

this is my element. This is what I do this for. And if the car is just going slower and slower,

as you go, it must be so frustrating. Yeah, it must. Maybe the problem is not going to be as

obvious and as visible and evident as I'm saying it's going to be. And of course, you know, it's

so easy, isn't it, for people like me to come on podcasts like this, A, without having any

responsibility for any of it, and B, knowing only what's being left behind, without even

having any kind of look. And, you know, I think Formula One might respond and say,

just just wait, at least watch it, at least see it before you judge it. And I think that's an

entirely fair thing to say. But, you know, we are trying to preview the season. And, you know,

it's not just us, there are genuine concerns, you know, up and down the paddock, drivers, commentators

have looked at this stuff. And now that we've seen a lot of what's required going through testing.

What did Alonso say, you could get the team chef to drive the car?

Yeah, through a particular fast corner, yeah, because they're going so much slower through

there. That's right, we have to wait and see. The bit that I don't yet have my head around,

this sort of energy starvation, energy paucity thing, is that a fundamental issue?

Or is that something that the teams are going to engineer their way through and get better at?

Well, it is a fundamental issue. And for two reasons.

Reason, well, but two related reasons. The first reason is you're asking the hybrid to develop

three times more electricity than it did last year. But you're taking away half of the hybrid's

ability to do it. Yeah, that's one reason. The second reason is in taking away that second,

that half of the hybrid ability to produce that power, you're also taking away a turbo

charger's ability to stay rotating when the driver's not on the power.

Yeah. So on top of running out of electricity, these cars have also drivers are now also having

to deal with massive turbo lag. Karun talks in this piece about drivers having to be gears lower

in corners, not because they changed the profile of the corners or because the car's got less grip,

but it's the only way they can keep the turbo charger spinning. The whole start procedure just

sounds like a complete, I don't know, I mean, apparently you've got to sort of sit there with

your foot on the gas for 10 seconds. So is what going to happen is what if you're at the back of

the grid and say, you're tailing Charlie and Charlie and you stop and the lights go green,

you're going, well, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. So is what going to happen?

And we'll know this on Monday, I guess, is all the cars going to line up and then everyone's

just going to go bang for 10 seconds and then the lights are going to get home. Who knows?

And Ferrari, the Ferrari power unit has a smaller turbo, doesn't it? So it's,

by the sounds of it, it's going to be better off the line than the other PU's. And so that

might be a huge advantage for Ferrari, but the starts are a big question mark around F1 this

it's not just Ferrari, it's Cadillac and it's house as well, isn't it?

Yeah, that's right. The Ferrari PU's, yeah.

Yeah. So why hasn't everybody else done this? If they knew, which they must have known,

that lag is going to be a massive issue. And if they knew, as they knew, that actually the power

requirement from the internal combustion engine ain't going to be that great, why would they've

gone with big turbos? Why would they not just gone for the least laggy, the smallest turbo they

can possibly get on the car? For the power gains, you know, at other parts, it's a trade-off,

isn't it? And maybe they felt that was the better trade-off to make?

I mean, it's very possible that Ferrari pulled the blinder here. It is.

I can't hope it has. Well, because it wouldn't be lovely to see them, you know,

finally fulfilling and, you know, ending the drought.

Well, let's talk about the teams specifically then and see if we can come to some sort of agreement

about what we think the current pecking order is. Everyone talks about Mercedes, don't they,

being out there ahead of everyone else. Although Toto Wolff playing the typical

political F1 game was insisting it was Red Bull. But do you, from what you've seen?

Somebody said how amused they were to see that all the top four teams are desperate falling

over themselves to assure everybody that they're the full best team.

They're all at it, aren't they? But based on what we've seen and what's been said and written

over the past few weeks, is your impression that it is Mercedes?

With the massive caveat that we just don't know. I mean, how many times we come into a season where

after winter testing, Ferrari have looked absolutely amazing and we all gone, well,

we're not going to see which way the red cars go this season and they just, it just hasn't worked

out like that for them. So I think there are still some massive carriers. What I do, in fact,

what I've done in my extensive research with this podcast is I've been, I've gone to the bookies

and I've got some odds that there is and there are some interesting stats there.

And I think the team I want to talk about first, you're absolutely right,

Mercedes is favourite to win the Australian Grand Prix. It is favourite to win the Constructors

Championship and George Russell is favourite to be world champion. And that's what the

bookies are currently saying and I don't think that anybody who follows F1 even at a distance

will be terribly surprised by all that. What odds can you get on Lando winning?

So the current reigning world champion I'm winning in Australia, given that George is two to one.

No idea. I think surprisingly long.

Ten to one.

Really?

Ten to one.

You can get on.

Wow.

Okay.

Blindly.

Oscar, 12 to one.

So you're worth a hundred quid, isn't it?

Or they know something or they think they know something.

Yeah, yeah.

McLaren, three to one to win the Champion, to win the Constructors, Mercedes are evens.

So McLaren are regarded as being equal with Ferrari at the moment.

Lando's chances of winning the Championship, ten to one.

That is bizarre.

Oscar's chance of winning the Champion.

You look at Oscar, okay?

He was, well, I mean, Lando got unlucky last year as well, but they were neck and neck.

And I think it's certainly in the last two races, Oscar.

But he kind of went off the boil in the middle of the season, didn't he?

So maybe, you know, he deserved to come third, which is all he did in the end.

But I don't think I was expecting him to be 14 to one to win the title.

Wow.

Okay.

So behind George, Max, Charles, Lewis, Kimmy and Lando.

So Kimmy Antonelli, eight to one, Piastri, 14 to one.

Kimmy Antonelli, eight to one.

That's, yeah, okay.

So the bookies really do favour the Mercedes team.

It's not the Mercedes PU that they're favouring.

And I guess the argument there is that you, in this, at the start of a new rule cycle and a new

power unit regulation cycle, you need to be a works team

with your own power unit.

Exactly, because you've got so much advanced knowledge, haven't you?

And so you can absolutely optimise your car for that PU.

Whereas all your customers won't be able to do that until at least next season.

There's also the compression ratio thing, isn't there, which has been blowing up?

Yeah.

Can we just talk about that?

So if anybody doesn't know what we're talking about,

there is, there was a fixed compression ratio.

And you weren't allowed to exceed it.

And they measured the, and they sort of got the engines into a laboratory or somewhere

and they measure the compression ratio and you've got to be in that environment,

that's what the compression ratio has to be.

Mercedes have found a way of varying the compression ratio as the engine gets hot.

So basically the compression ratio goes up, the hotter the engine gets,

the more power you get.

Brilliant.

And all the other teams were, oh, don't like that.

And so after Monaco, this completely legal, it is legal.

If it was illegal, they wouldn't let it race.

So it is legal.

Okay.

So this completely legal, very clever way of exploiting the rules,

which is what they employ hundreds of people to do,

is going to get banned because it gives Mercedes an advantage.

I mean, A, I think personally, unless I've completely misunderstood it,

I think that's completely wrong.

Are they going to ban Ferrari for having had a good idea about having a smaller turbo than

everybody else?

They go, no, no, you've got to increase the size of your turbo because that's going to

give you an advantage.

I don't understand.

It's not Mercedes fault that they wrote the rules badly.

And so why should they be penalized?

It doesn't sit well with me.

It's part of the history of F1, finding loopholes and exploiting them.

It's what Adrian Newey has done better than anybody else.

The whole point of, frankly, any competitive series where there are rules,

doesn't really matter.

What sports you're talking about is you sail as close to the wind as you possibly can.

You push it and you push it and you push it.

Because if you don't, somebody else will and then they will beat you.

As long as you don't break the rules, bend them as far as you can make them go.

That is the art.

It's the skill.

It's the game.

And Mercedes has done that, done it really well.

And so all the others have gotten a half and now it's going to get bad.

It shows the power of the other teams combined, doesn't it?

If they're all very unhappy and who knows?

Maybe they make...

But what were they going to do?

What were they going to do?

Withdraw?

No, they're huge fuss.

They're not.

But they still have lots of power, they don't know.

Evidently, if this new rule change comes in from the Monaco Grand Prix.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a frustration.

Some of the other teams then, where do you think Red Bull will sit?

Because the Red Bull Powertrain is building its own PU with assistance from Ford,

particularly on the electrical side.

But this is not a very well-established power unit manufacturer at all.

The likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, they've been doing it for yonks.

So do you see Red Bull being at a disadvantage?

Or actually, have they done a stellar job and built a very competitive PU?

Again, I don't think we know.

I would certainly have agreed with that statement before winter testing.

I would have said that's an enormous challenge to take on.

But actually, they were pretty good in winter testing.

They were very reliable, which in goodness me, that is the single most important thing to be,

which is why I think Aston Martin is in such terrible trouble,

and I'm sure we'll come onto them in a minute.

I'm not sure if they had no problems or just very small problems,

but I think the car just ran and ran.

So the remaining question is, will it be quick?

Well, you certainly know one of its drivers will be quick.

I really hope that Isaac Hajar doesn't just get steamrolled,

like so many previous Red Bull drivers have,

because I think he's a really likeable chap,

but I think he's also a major talent.

And there's nothing worse for major talents,

for failing to get major talents to realise their maximum potential.

By when you're very young, being put up against Max Verstappen,

who is a freak of nature in the best possible way,

and be humiliated, as so many others have been.

I mean, it's done for Yuki Sanoda.

I think Liam Lawson was pretty hard done by actually,

because I think that if they'd allowed him to stay in the team,

he would have performed an awful lot better,

but you know, and I hope that Hajar doesn't go the same way.

But they definitely need two drivers to compete for the constructors.

And as Christian Horner has said, I don't know, he's not there anymore.

The constructors title is what car manufacturers actually care about.

Not least, A, that's the pride,

but B, it's actually where the money comes from.

So, it'd be great if they compared it.

But I mean, I think it remains to be seen.

I think they'll be up there.

And if Max has a reliable car,

he's certainly smart enough to do all the management stuff,

and he's certainly quick enough to be up there.

So I think if you give him a sniff, he's going to take it.

Yeah, and what's interesting is we've got this brave new era of Formula One,

but everyone's still talking about the top four teams from last season

being the top four teams this season.

So that doesn't seem to have changed.

I did predict this.

Who knows? We may be wrong.

Can I briefly mention Alpine?

And then, frankly, I want you to talk about Ferrari.

Alpine came 10th last year.

I don't think they will this year.

No.

I think now they've got a Mercedes powertrain in the back.

If there is one team that I would bet

to make the most progress this year in the right direction,

I would say it would be Alpine.

Flav fully back in charge.

Colopinto, who I thought was pretty good last year,

now got a proper season under his belt.

Gasly is always class reliable.

Yeah, I think it could be a really interesting season for them.

Yeah, and actually just lingering in the midfield a little bit.

Williams have had a difficult start, haven't they?

So perhaps, although they have got the power unit you would want, it seems.

Yeah, but this was going to be Williams this season, wasn't it?

I mean, last year they came fifth in the constructors.

I think they'll be doing really well to hold on to that.

Yeah, I think so.

Despite this big, I mean, who knows?

But hang on, I can refer back to my Williams chart.

So yeah, in terms of the bookies, they are the sixth most fancied.

So Alpine fancies, the bookies fancied Alpine

for the constructors more than Williams.

Yeah, well, that would be interesting to see.

And I mean, those teams have got to be beating Audi, haven't they?

Even if it is a works team and it is the Salba team,

so a long-established team, but brand new PU.

Well, exactly.

They've been quite quiet about that, haven't they?

Yeah.

There's not been a lot of noise about Audi.

And I wonder whether they are just keeping it very much on the QT

because they want to arrive for the biggest possible bang

and really surprise some people.

Or use their way in without making too many bold claims.

Yeah, maybe.

I mean, Hülkenberg and Bortoletto, good driver lineup, not the best.

No. Solid.

Solid.

But I mean, if they are looking to be a championship winning team,

I don't know what Bortoletto's potential is.

Maybe it's vast, but they're going to have to have a top-tier

tier driver lineup quite soon, aren't they?

And Jonathan Wheatley knows that.

Yeah, but they will be taking a, I mean, I guess that's...

If I was them, I would be there on 26, 27, forget it, 28, podiums, championship,

winning races, 29, championship 30, something like that.

I think they'll be taking a five-year view over it.

It needs to be a long timeframe.

It really does.

Yeah, yeah.

So tell me about, well, a Ferrari.

A Ferrari, I think of, well, they always do tend to do well in winter testing,

but I think that there is genuinely a warm buzz about Ferrari that the...

I don't think anybody would say, oh, yeah, this is definitely the year for them, but

I think that we are looking for...

I mean, they came forth in the constructors last year,

which is pretty disastrous for them.

Do you think, as I'm acknowledged, I'm a big fan of Lewis, but I'm not in your...

Do you think this is the year that now the ground effect area, the story always was,

that Lewis just couldn't get on with the cars of the previous generation and the way that they

didn't allow him to drive the cars the way that he likes to drive cars.

That's all gone.

He's on the record, isn't he, of saying that these cars are far more to his way of thinking,

that he massively prefers driving them.

So really, this is it, isn't it?

There are no more excuses.

I think that's right.

As long as all this speculation is accurate, that these cars are more to his liking, that they...

He said that to me.

Yeah, but let's wait and see.

Do they really flatter his natural advantages?

And that's the thing that was missing over the last few seasons.

He could drive those cars and he won Grand Prix and took polls and,

you know, in the second season of the regulations, he finished third in the championship.

He beat all the rest, apart from the Red Bull drivers.

But as they became...

As those ground effect cars developed into seasons three and four,

and they became more like ground effect cars because they're producing more downforce,

he just...

He went off the boil and off the boil.

And so let's see.

I mean, I think he will be back in better form this season in these new cars.

But he's also 41 and he's up against a phenomenally quick and talented driver in his prime.

So it's a tall order.

But, you know, if he is able to be competitive with Charles and the other

hot young shoes this season, that will be maybe his finest achievement in F1 as a 41.

I agree.

I think if he comes back and wins the championship,

oh, my God, yeah.

I think that'll be one of the greatest students in Formula One history.

And I think that, you know, that will just, you know, there will be people,

I don't believe in Gates, but as you know,

but it'll be people who quite understandably want to pin that on him for all time.

But even just being competitive again, winning a few Grand Prix, you know.

That'd be great.

To me, that would be phenomenal.

If he wins the championship, amazing.

But just to see him not in that mood anymore,

not to see him being downtrodden and sad.

And I just want to see Happy Lewis.

I want to see Lewis having a great time.

I want to see Lewis winning races in the Ferrari.

I think that would be absolutely what I think it would be wonderful for the sport.

It was miserable.

It was miserable last season.

It's a Lewis fan.

Yeah, I think one of the things that things like,

oh, you need to get yourself another driver.

And, you know, and you think of the pain that must be going on in his head

when he says those things.

I just hope that after such a difficult season,

this is what, you know, the dream of driving for Ferrari,

which turned into a nightmare last year.

This is when the dream finally comes true.

I really, really hope that.

I hope so.

So, I mean, we're slightly overrunning here.

Do you want to do some predictions for the Australian Grand Prix?

Well, I mean, three days time.

I have to come back on the podcast until you are wrong.

I was not really.

I just, you know, over the course of the season,

I mean, a Grand Prix, anything can happen, can't it?

With all that's going on in the Middle East,

I'm not even sure that everybody's going to know.

I think everybody will get there.

And I think all the freight was out there a long time ago.

The course of the season, you know,

bookies aren't stupid and all the commentators point towards Mercedes.

I think it is still too early to say.

I wouldn't completely rule out something quite unexpected happening.

I don't think anything unbelievable is going to happen.

I don't think we'll be crowning a Cadillac driver world champion this year.

But I think it is, I think it is, I don't say Georgia's to lose.

That's a really silly thing to say, you know,

before the first of even 24 races has taken place.

But I think he is the favourite and I think he is rightly the favourite.

I think the time is right for him in his personal development as a driver.

I think he's got the right support behind him.

I think he's got the right teammate in the other car

and it appears that he's got the right car underneath him.

So he is where my money would be,

but the odds are so bad and I'm not sure it's worth it.

Yeah, I agree with that.

The final point to make then is that we're at the start of a new rules cycle

and the rate of development over the coming months is going to be so rapid

that just because one team or driver is fast, it wins in Australia.

Doesn't mean they're going to win throughout the rest of the season.

Yeah. And also hang on, just hang on.

So we haven't mentioned, can we just do, I'm only going to do two minutes

so that we haven't mentioned Aston Martin.

I mean, as we talk, as we have this conversation,

there are these rumours going around that the Honda Pound is so unreliable.

They're only going to Australia because the fines if they didn't would be astronomical

and the cars are going to go around for a few laps and retire.

That has been scotched.

I think someone official has come out and said,

that's a nonsense, we're going to Australia to race and that's what we do.

But it's clear.

I mean, Andy Cowell has now basically been sent to Japan to sort of sit on that project

and try and knock in the shape.

But clearly, I think the view is that you can't even tell

how good the Adrian Newie car design is going to be

because it's going to have to be so compromised

because the power unit is not necessarily reliable but so down on power

that the car will not be able to function the way that it's designed to

until they can get on top of the powertrain issue.

And given so much hype has gone into this season

because they're always the last piece of the puzzle

because they got the factory and they got the wind tunnel and they got the designer.

And they are going into referring back to my odds again.

Okay, they're not actually for the constructors dead last,

racing bulls and Cadillac behind them.

But P8 is where they are in terms of the bookies.

And that's not what they would hope for.

I think maybe there's been a bit of naivety on part of the commentary

at thinking that all those elements could come together

and in one season just suddenly happen.

Perhaps next season is the season where we'll actually see

the true capabilities of our organization.

But yeah, so far this year I think it's really looking,

I mean, not not good but terrible.

And is your sense that it's a Honda problem

or is there some aspect of a very, very,

let's call it a greedy new design causing the PU problems?

Oh, I don't know about that.

I'm not sufficiently technically minded.

You do hear stories or I have heard stories about data from factories,

from wind tunnels, from testing, not correlating.

And we've had, we knowed of other Formula One teams in the past

that those sorts of problems and maybe it's all just inherent

in breaking in this new, very sophisticated state of the art wind tunnel.

I don't know, I don't know.

I also wouldn't rule out if the engine problem appears to be a single thing

or a couple of things which within the rules, within what you can do,

because all these things obviously have to be homologated

for the entire duration of the rules before the season starts.

But if the engine can be fixed and I think that's a pretty massive if,

if it can be, then I certainly wouldn't rule out that car coming good

as the season progresses.

But I suspect by then all chances of coming anywhere will be long gone.

Yeah. Well, let's wait and see on Aston Martin.

Let's wait and see on the Australian Grand Prix.

Enjoy it if you're getting up early to watch it.

I'm in two minds about my plans for Sunday mornings.

Okay. But either way, we'll be back with you on Monday morning,

by which point we'll have a far better idea of how F1-2026 is looking.

So we'll talk to you all again then.

And thanks everyone for tuning in for this bonus episode of the podcast.

All right. See you then. Bye.

Bonus episode! Will F1's bold new era fly or fall flat?

About this episode

Formula One

Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1 season

Oldsmobile Intrigue

Honda

Audi

hybrids

Aero package

Formula E

World Endurance Championship

energy management in racing

Beckett's complex

Dodge Charger

Ferrari

turbo

Mercedes

Red Bull Racing

Constructors Championship

world champion

exploiting loopholes in racing regulations

Adrian Newey

Monaco Grand Prix

Ford

constructors title

powertrain

Williams

Alpine

works team

championship winning team

ground effect cars

Cadillac

wind tunnel

Aston Martin

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