Our reaction to the first SECRET F1 test in 2026

There are a million reasons people start therapy, a breakup, burnout, a new job, whatever your reason,

there is one place to start. Grow Therapy meets you where you are, with support that actually sticks.

Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, Grow makes it easier to find a

therapist who fits you, not the other way around. They connect you with thousands of

independent licensed therapists across the US offering both virtual and in-person sessions,

nights and weekends. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity,

or availability and get started in as little as two days. And if something comes up, you can cancel

up to 24 hours in advance at no cost. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments,

you just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges

you're facing, Grow Therapy is here to help. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and

some pay as little as $0, depending on their plan. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans,

including Medicaid in some states. Visit growtherapy.com slash start now today to get started.

That's growtherapy.com slash start now. Growtherapy.com slash start now. Availability

and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Hey, this is US Olympic gold medalist,

Tara Davis Woodhull, and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist, Hunter Woodhull. As athletes,

our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came

to getting the best mortgage, we chose Penny Mac. Penny Mac is proud to be the official mortgage

provider of Team USA and you. Learn more at pennymac.com. Penny Mac Loan Services LLC,

Equal Housing Lender, NMLS ID 35953, licensed by the Department of Financial Protection

and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions

may apply. Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy day one

of the secret shakedown in Barcelona. That's right. The secret test is underway.

How secret was it? Well, we're going to get into all of that and more.

But I think we need to from the top, Tommy. Firstly, how are you? Are you feeling good

that cars are back on track? I am. It's nice. I say I would say it's nice to see them, but

very limited. I enjoyed the spy shots on Twitter and random people streaming the data

which then got shut down by Formula One, which I'll talk about later. But yeah, crazy. What a bizarre

thing. I've never experienced this in all the years I've watched F1. It's quite bizarre.

No, exactly. And secondly, I know I said firstly a long time ago, but secondly,

let's get into exactly what's been going on. If you've been living under a rocker,

if you just not that bothered about Formula One cars being on track in January and you're

like, well, Australia isn't till March. Fair enough. We're here to wrap it all up for you

as best as we can. So normally, obviously without the regulation change, we will get

a few days preseason testing in Bahrain. That's what we would have if it was just another year

of the same regulation set. However, because of the rule shake up, we have still official F1

testing in Bahrain in a few weeks, and there's two sets of three days. But before that,

right now, we have a five day shakedown. That's what's called shakedown. I don't

know if it's because Bahrain have spent millions of pounds to be the people that are the

testing place. Whatever it is, it's shakedown time in Barcelona. And within this shakedown,

as much as it is five days, teams are only allowed to run in three of those five days.

So if they roll out the pits and do half of an out lap, that is it not half, even one meter,

if you roll out the pits full stop, that means they have taken part in that day.

Yeah, and that's one of their three. And finally, no media or fans

allowed at the test. And people were being kicked out and people they they had like it

sounds like they had like the secret service going around getting people to just basically

remove them from the area. That's the bizarre one, isn't it? Because in 2022, there was a new

regulation change, albeit not as big as this one with engines and things, but a completely new

kind of aero package and everything like that. Still obviously the hybrid engines,

but they had a again, a kind of non televised test in Barcelona. So that we were kind of used to.

But back then, they invited the media, they had photographers, they had everyone there,

they weren't throwing people out that would stand near a tree near the track. And you could

you could basically like it, we were seeing lap times, we're seeing everything was in pictures,

we could analyze things. Whereas this one, my word, I've never, never seen it so

secretive. It was insane. Right, shall we get into the first question? And it's as simple as this.

Why is the first F1 test so secretive? What are they hiding? What is going on

in Barcelona that we're not allowed to see? However, I guess we're not allowed to see,

but clearly they didn't do a very good job of us not seeing, because half of the day,

live timing was being leaked. So we were just chilling, doing a bit of a stream, trying to

catch some information, got that information, lovely jubbly. But also there were people around

the circuit taking pictures with their lovely lens on their cameras, their long distances.

And I'm just kind of sat here like, what is the point? It doesn't matter if they blow up.

It doesn't matter if they stop on track. Who is going to be under threat here if we all had

a little bit of eyeballs? Because if anything, it's made people want to see it more, you know,

when you hide it away, you're going to have these cheeky little photographers around the

circuit. And information comes out one way or another. So for me, it feels pointless. It feels

so utterly pointless to keep this so secret, especially when Formula One is still very lucky

to be in this position where they have a huge fan base, a massive fan base across the world

thanks to Drives to Survive and everything else. Why not use this as a way to hype up

the season. And they might even say, well, we are people are talking about it because the secret

is people are talking about it and they're getting hyped for it. I just think it's so,

so silly. And it makes no sense to me. It's very silly. It is a consequence of their

own actions. They can't Formula One can't have it both ways. You can't hype up the sport like

crazy. So people are hyped for every single little detail in the sport that we love.

They're doing social graphics saying this is when the shakedown is and advertising when it's on,

and then basically going, why are other people turning up? Because we want to see Formula One cars.

It's a new regulation. And it's, this is the thing, like, as you say, that the actual

reason behind this is because back when we went in, did testing before in a new engine era in

2014, the cars were so incredibly unreliable that maybe they thought it was a bit embarrassing. I mean,

one, it shows that Formula One don't have faith in their own regulations because actually the cars

were pretty good. We'll get into this later, but did way more running than expected. And yeah,

it's just embarrassing that they want to hide it because as you say, I think it makes it

worse because you seeing a picture of a car breaking down, which will get out because there's

people hiding in blooming trees and things with cameras and stuff and trying to find everything,

you're more likely to receive misinformation and things like that. So say a car breaks down on

track, they might have got back in the pits and been out in five minutes, but it looks

way worse to go, oh, this is a big story. Why is this car stopped out on track? It looks

worse for them. So yeah, they're desperately trying to control the narrative and it's just

pretty embarrassing really. What narrative are they trying to bring to the table that we have to be

secret? What is their reasoning as a brand? But also it's 2026, they cannot be that naive

to think that no one is going to see anything. Everyone has camera phones. Everyone has like

big zoom lenses on cameras have never been more accessible. There's the internet. There's so many

of these things. They cannot think that you can have a secret test now. And if you can,

don't plaster it all over social media saying this is when it is.

And I might be one of the few here, but it kind of annoys me rather than hypes me up.

I want to see it because I'm interested in Formula One and I don't feel like they're

giving us that opportunity to be able to see the first time these cars go out on track.

I'm not saying I need eight hours a day of full filming testing that we're going to get,

not even the next test in Bahrain because it's one hour at the end of the day,

but the one after that is going to be televised. I'm not saying we need like full broadcast

coverage, but just Bahrain, you can have your test like you can have your official Formula

One test. Yeah, it was destroyed that. Anyway, let's get into the next question.

Otherwise, we are going to rant on for a very long time. Gavin Curly 90 asks,

do you think it was the right decision for F1 to block all media from covering the shakedown?

No, because clearly they've managed to get around things anyway. As you say, they were

a lot of pages that were somehow managing to get a feed from the live timing which Formula One

shut down. And there's still people there reporting about lap times and information and

how many laps people have done and taking pictures and stuff and a Spanish page that

looks like they're hiding in a tree somewhere and grabbing all this information on the inside,

so that they're obviously able to get it. And it just looks embarrassing for Formula One themselves

that I knew we were cooked here when Formula One hyped this shakedown up and go,

Formula One, and Formula One try to be this big media brand, aren't they? Come to Formula One,

FormulaOne.com, F1 social pages, they're acting like this is the only place you need

information now. Everything comes through us. And when I saw the first thing that they posted

from the Tesla and cars were out on track was happy birthday, Sergio Perez, I was like,

we're not getting anything here. Speaking of timings, I think this is where we bring in

SoyMotor, who is their Spanish media outlet. And this is the thing as well when it comes

to banning all the media, this, that and the other, it gives advantages to some media that clearly

have ins at the track or whatever it might be. And SoyMotor, they've posted a full blown

classification for the day, not even the morning where of course the live timings were being hacked

into or whatever was going on. This is a full, well, from what we know, this is a full first

day classification. And I know this is what people are of course going to want to find out,

so let me run you down exactly from ninth to first, that's a nine cars were out on track.

So in ninth place Perez, one minute 25.974, Bortoletto, a one minute 25.296, Bottas,

a one minute 24.651, then Lawson on a 21.513, Ocon, 21301, Antonelli 20.700,

Gallopinto 20.189, Russell, a one minute 18.696 and the fastest day one was Isaac Hajar with

a one minute 18.159. So Max just happened in the mud, Tommy, it's from what I'm seeing here.

Didn't do any running and that just shows that Hajar is the number one driver at Red Bull now.

So, but what we can obviously take from this is absolutely nothing. Okay, we're seven

seconds a lap off the qualifying poll time. You're going to say we can take something?

Absolutely. Laps, lap counters, are you about to say or just generally?

No, I can say that what you can take is that the cars, Formula One were absolutely wrong

to think that the cars were terrible and wouldn't work because there have been very

few problems and red flags from what's been reported. I've got the three red flags now in

the morning session. Yeah, but that's not loads, is it? Like what? No, it's not the

devastating we don't need to show anybody. Exactly. So, let me just compare for people that

weren't around in 2014. So, in that morning session, obviously, before they switched the

timing off and we didn't get to see anything, this is just the morning that I can see that

Hajar did 44 laps, Antonelli did 56, Alcon did 67 laps. You know, the worst

running was Colopinto and the Alpine that did 28 laps. And you look back to 2014,

and only six cars set a lap time. Two of them managed no time at all. They couldn't even get

out the garage because the cars were so broken. Ferrari were fastest. My goats, my abs. They

were terrible that year as well. Shut it, with one testing, that's all that matters.

They always love to win testing. We'll find out later whether they will again. But Ferrari,

they did the fastest time and they also did the most laps, but only 31. They had Bottas in third,

six laps, 18 laps, 10 laps, 15 laps, seven laps. And then, like you say, the other two

runners didn't do any running at all. So, this data here is why people and Formula One themselves

were so scarred that they wanted to make sure this didn't happen again and thought it

would be embarrassing. But not to go back to the thing again, but my argument is that

how do you draw the line here? Because there's always teams that have problems in testing.

Is it unfair on them? If they don't work, do you hide it? Do you pretend, oh no, we can't

share this team. It's like embarrassing. Like, where do you draw the line? It's so silly that

they're trying to hide this because clearly in 2026, you can get information.

I do wonder if it's the engine suppliers that have sort of pulled some strings here or pushed

to not show, yeah, because there's not much gain, I guess, for them to have, especially if you are

trying to develop an engine, develop a car, not gain for them as a brand to have it televised.

It's all going to be, if a certain engine keeps blowing up over the course of a day,

it's going to look terrible for them. So, I can understand from a, if they've been

sat around in their board meeting, they're obviously going to push for this to not be

televised just in case it was a 2014. But, yeah, it's still, this is the route they've gone down.

We're not a fan, but of course we're not going to be a fan. We're Formula One fans, and it's,

of course, going to have a lot of negative sentiment around it. Let's go to the next

question. P1Patreon member captain of 3420, what are your thoughts on the fact that F1

cut the timing data feeds off for Barcelona? Not surprised in the slightest. I think this

was an oversight from them in the first place, that they could, clearly there's been some sort

of link between the live timing at the circuit and some sort of gateway or whatever is still running

into the website of the Catalonia F1 live timing website or whatever it might be.

So, I'm not surprised in the slightest, and I can't be angry at them either for doing it

when they have said all this stuff about it being a private test. They obviously did not

want the live timing out there, because you can deduce a lot of things from a set of live

timing data, because it literally says, stop running in pits. You could know who's broken

down at all times. So, I was annoyed, obviously, because I want to see the live timing,

but I am not surprised, and they have to go down that route. They can't go,

yes, teams, we promise you a private test, but everybody can look at your live timings at

all time. I want to know what F1 were thinking, though, because I watched a video

where I was trying to learn more information about this test because it was very secretive,

and it was a reliable Formula One page, accredited media, and they were saying

there will be testing times, and they will be available. So, clearly, that was the case. They

didn't switch them off from the start, and people got hold of them.

As in testing times at the end of the day?

Potentially, but they're going to have the monitors on, aren't they? And for the people

there, even though it's secretive, they're going to be there showing. But what I don't

understand is that Formula One can't have... Did Formula One either see that these other pages

were posting these timings and going, yeah, that doesn't look very good for us that people are

getting their kind of source elsewhere, or did they really not think that this was going to

happen? Come on, Formula One fans are the most obsessive, we know we are them. The most

obsessive, nerdy people. We want every nugget of information. We're there talking about like,

give me a mini box, I need to see this and this and that and stuff. So, yeah, it's crazy.

This episode is sponsored by Factor Meals. You want to eat better, but you've got zero time,

and honestly, zero energy. I feel you. But with Factor, it's not down to you to meal prep or follow

recipes, it just removes the entire problem. Two minutes, real food, done. How often do you

stare at your fridge at 9pm, exhausted, knowing that healthy cooking just isn't going to happen?

Standing there googling, is cereal a protein? Health eating can be really difficult if you

don't want to give up three hours every night. Factor Meals are made by chefs,

designed by dieticians, and delivered to your door. They're full of lean proteins,

colourful veggies, healthy fats, the stuff you'd make if you had time. No refined sugars,

no artificial sweeteners, no refined seed oils. They've got 100 rotating meals every week.

High protein, calorie smart, Mediterranean, GLP1 support, even a new muscle pro line,

so you can pick what fits your goals. Head to FactorMeals.com slash Matt and Tommy 50 off

and use code Matt and Tommy 50 off to get 50% off your first Factor box plus free breakfast for

one year. That's FactorMeals.com slash Matt and Tommy 50 off. Offer only valid for new Factor customers

with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with Factor.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp February can feel like a lot. Everywhere you

look it's flowers, chocolates, big romantic gestures, and it can start to feel like everyone

else has their love life together. But the truth is, whether you're married, dating,

single, or just focusing on yourself, lots of us are still figuring it out.

No matter where you are on your romantic journey, therapy can help you find your way,

helping you understand what you want, what feels heavy, and how to take some of that pressure

off yourself. It can help you identify what's weighing your relationships down and find new

ways to brighten them up again. BetterHelp makes therapy easy. Their therapists are fully

licensed in the US and work according to a strict code of conduct. They also do the

matching work for you. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences

with over 12 years of experience they typically get it right the first time.

And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time.

So if you're ready to take a little pressure off yourself this February,

sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash p1pod. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P.com slash

p1pod. This episode is sponsored by eBay. The cars you'll find on eBay are just different.

They come with a story that you can't wait to share. Maybe it's the car history

or the story of how you found it. Like this 1973 Dodge Charger on eBay that has been tucked away

in an Arizona barn for over 40 years. Only 55,000 miles and somehow in great running order.

It even has a rare sunroof. Suddenly a car that was hidden for decades is uncovered on eBay

and ready to be delivered straight to your driveway. Thanks to eBay's secure purchase,

the new seamless and secure way to buy your next car. In just a few clicks,

the title and DMV paperwork is all handled for you. There are thousands of cars like this on

eBay from rare finds like the Pontiac Grand Prix SJ to unique builds and your next daily driver.

And now a new seamless way to buy them. eBay, things people love.

Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan.

Knock knock. Oh, who's there? A Boost Mobile expert here to deliver and set up your all new

iPhone 17 Pro designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever. You call that a knock knock joke?

This isn't a joke. Boost Mobile really sends experts to deliver and set up your phone at home

or work. Okay, it's just that when people say knock knock there's usually a joke to go with it.

Like I said, this isn't a joke. So the knock knock was just you knocking?

Yeah, that's how doors work. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro delivered and set up by an expert

wherever you are. Delivery available for select devices purchased at boostmobile.com in terms

of supply. There are a million reasons people start therapy. A breakup, burnout, a new job,

whatever your reason, there is one place to start. Grow Therapy meets you where you are

with support that actually sticks. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th,

Grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around.

They connect you with thousands of independent licensed therapists across the US

offering both virtual and in-person sessions, nights and weekends.

You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity or availability and get started

in as little as two days. And if something comes up, you can cancel up to 24 hours in advance at

no cost. There are no subscriptions, no long term commitments, you just pay per session.

Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges you're facing,

Grow Therapy is here to help. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little

as $0 depending on their plan. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans, including Medicaid in some

states. Visit growtherapy.com slash start now today to get started. That's growtherapy.com

slash start now. Growtherapy.com slash start now. Availability and coverage

vary by state and insurance plan. Next question and a dog is now on my

lap so there's clearly been an edit from underscore R2F1. Is it true there is a rule by F1

about how many pictures the teams can release this week? Yes, I saw that. That was one of the

most shocking things that I've seen that basically teams are even limited from how much

they can share and they are allocated six pictures to basically share per day of their

test, which is so modern and so very 2026, isn't it, to share six photos a day?

I can only imagine what their chats must be like prior to running. What are these six

pictures going to be? How many of them can be memes? No, no memes, six pictures. To be fair,

though, they probably want to show as little of the car as possible with those six pictures

because isn't that what the teams are constantly trying to do is hide what they've

come up with it? I guess especially at secret testing where no pictures are released apart

from if you're in a tree. Well, it's very interesting because even the pictures were

so limited because we saw Formula One essentially on their website post a bunch of pictures

of the cars rolling out the pit lane and then six hours later on social media, they're like,

they shared those same two pictures on social media. So it's clear that the teams want to

keep everything secretive as well, but the teams are all snooping around anyway with looking at

things. Yeah, I mean, from the tech side of things, here we go, we're looking at

Oh my God, twice in a year already and it's only January. We always get it, don't we,

where teams release their car that looks very much like a show car and then release something

completely different. And the one kind of big talking point this year is that Red Bull have

now shared what their actual car is like, the RB 22. And it looks very, very, very similar to

the zero side pods that we saw on Mercedes in 2022. They barely have any side pods at all.

So yeah, very interesting to see that they've gone down that route. Will it work for them?

So far, obviously, they are fastest. So far they are. And for those of you that missed the

live stream where we were live for about an hour and a half and went, Oh my God,

we're finding out hardly anything. Let's just leave. The second Red Bull went fastest,

Tommy changed completely, put his but daddy I love him t-shirt on and the hat and the cape.

You're going to be me this year, like both of us are going to be just trying and

sort of every ounce of hope we're going to be storing up ready for the start of the season.

I couldn't really do that because Ferrari did not run as did Ferrari, Aston and Williams,

those 14. McLaren, Aston and Williams. What did I say? Ferrari, Aston and Williams.

Oh, good. Perfect. Well done, Matt. McLaren, Ferrari, Aston and Williams were the four teams,

of course, Williams are not taking part at all. Aston Martin are actually going to miss a day.

So they've said that Bruno's not happy at all. Two days. Yeah, I'm sorry, miss a day in the

sense of, yeah. But potentially they don't even know yet. I think it's quite worrying that

Aston Martin said, we're hoping to make the last two days that suggests that

that usually means that's the best possible outcome is having two days of running.

So Aston Martin, yeah, struggling again. McLaren, they said from a few days ago,

at least, that they would not be running today anyway. The interesting part as well,

I suppose, is that there's rain on the horizon for tomorrow. Then you question whether the

teams will decide not to run in those conditions. Obviously it'd be quite useful data to get

some wet weather running, but dry is, of course, where they get the best. And it's usually more dry

than it is wet throughout a Formula One season. So they have to pick and choose these three days

of shakedown very, very wisely. But then I've looked at the weather forecast and Wednesday

and Thursday also look like it could have some showers in. So do you want to leave it too late,

risk it? And actually Tuesday's conditions were a bit better than what Wednesday and

Thursday's. There's a few sort of tactical, strategical elements here, Tommy,

at the end of January. Can you believe it? I do wonder that, don't you, that if,

how does it work in the sense that, obviously, as we mentioned at the start, they're allowed

three of the five days and the second you roll out the pit lane that you're locked in,

there are no, as far as I'm unaware, like, are there loopholes here? Like we're talking

about loopholes all the time this season already and it's only just started. But

if you roll out the pit lane and it starts raining and it's rained off for the whole day,

you've lost a day and you kind of probably wishing, oh, I wish I'd run yesterday when it was

completely dry and I could have got the whole day with dry running. So it's going to be very

interesting to see how the teams decide and allocate it. Obviously, Aston and Williams

look to be in trouble, whereas it from what we know, obviously, they will,

whether they're spinning that way off it is legit that the McLaren and Ferrari

is all part of the plan and they are just coming later.

Trust me, even if Ferrari don't turn up on Friday, I'll say it's all part of the plan,

my friend. Don't you worry about that one. They don't need shakedown testing if they didn't turn

up. What I would say is that I think one positive for Ferrari is just how

they would just lap after lap after lap from the sound of it. There's reports that they

did well over hundreds of laps. I've not just come back to your point in 2014 when Ferrari did

the most laps and also tops testing and they were rubbish.

And they weren't really bad, weren't they? That car was absolutely awful.

But the reliability is, of course, good to see. It's good to see that Haas weren't just doing

a couple of laps and having to come in a bit or stopping.

Question, let's go into from Balaji Rith 700276, how much trouble could Williams be in

considering missing the shakedown test and rumors of them being up to 30 kilograms

overweight? I mean, the rumor of the overweight thing is probably true. A lot of teams are

struggling with getting to the correct weight. There's links of it being, you know, they're

failing crash tests and it could be due to the weight that that car is currently carrying and

all sorts. And to be honest with you, that James Vowell's clip of him saying,

forget the last three years. It's all about 2026. It's not aging at all well

at the moment. But this is the beginning. I'm sorry, mate. Are you a big James Vowell's fan?

For audio listeners, I'm releasing the dog from my lap. Goodbye, Bruno. Okay, Bruno is gone.

He was wearing a cute coat because it was wet outside. Anyway, back to the more important

pressing things of Williams and doesn't spell the best. This is bad, a bad start to the

year for Williams. You don't want to miss the shakedown test for Aston Martin. Again,

we talk about rumors, we talk about pinch assault, but all the rumors that we sort of heard about

that Aston Martin were potentially struggling. Williams were, you know, again, not the greatest

of things coming out of that camp. And it's sort of, we're seeing that now, aren't we? And the

fact they're not turning it up for shakedown testing for three of the five days?

Yeah, Williams is deeply concerning. I guess that only kind of saving grace is the fact that

it is only three of the five days. They're not missing five days because they can only run

three of them. But it's still not looking good. Obviously, the whole being overweight and failing

crash test is all just rumors. There's probably a good reason why that they're kind of being

rumored. But obviously, we don't know if that's 100% a fact, of course.

Another rumor.

However, you can't sugarcoat the fact that they have not shown up at all. And the fact that they were

one of those teams that was so, you know, as you say, James Thouse was so pushing towards 2026.

There was a lot of hype around them. Mercedes engine, two brilliant drivers.

A fantastic year last year. You know, we said like, just think how good they're going to be

this year. And my word, they are in struggle town. I saw a picture actually today of them

I guess they're not the test that they can share more than six pictures. So that's a positive

that they were sharing pictures of them merch and doing their merch drop. And I can't imagine the

drivers must have been like already hating media stuff to them be like, come on guys,

pose for the pictures and probably not in the best of enjoyment right now for the Williams guys.

They must be absolutely gutted with the news and wanting to be out there while these other

teams, you know, that had been hoping that they were breaking down, but they're doing

loads of laps and seemingly a lot of them are fine. So not good for Williams. They are really

losing a lot of mileage. Not good at all. I would like for them to sort it out because

selfishly, we were going to go to their car launch. And I hope that everything is sorted

by then because that would be nice to have gone there and things really a little bit

happier than perhaps they are right now. But we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully,

James Fowles can do his cooking and sort something out. Now, what can we expect from

the rest of the test is a big question? I think it's clear unless Formula One make changes,

which I really highly doubt they will. This was the most information we were going to get.

I feel as though F1 will up the security. I feel as though they will be surveying

every corner of that circuit from here on. And we will have to make do with the six pictures

and the happy birthday to whoever it's birthday is that day in the paddock.

Well, exclusive. I've just seen the sky have dropped a one minute 40 second video of testing.

So there you go. We've got some footage. Okay. All right. So that's something.

What? They weren't there, were they? I guess they've got cameras from Formula One.

So they're filming something. So they have got cameras there. I'll tell you what I can see.

I can see that the Mercedes circulating. I can see Bortoletto coming out of a

Trek recovery vehicle, which doesn't look great. And being covered up by the

boards, the Alpine being wheeled. So this is the thing like we're seeing these highlights

anyway. So why are they showing it? Why aren't they showing it? You might as well.

I'm watching the same video right now. And it's just a kind of very quick roundup,

which I'm sure we're probably going to see on F1's YouTube channel later as well.

Maybe I don't know. This is the thing like how secretive are they going here?

Oh, little little squirrel for the Audi car. They're not going to be happy with that.

They did not want that to be to broadcast. They're going to be on the phone going,

excuse me. Can we make the highlights one minute and 30 seconds next time, please?

Okay. I mean, this kind of just annoys me even more. I'm like,

not annoys me in the sense of seeing, because I love to see these cars out on track,

but it makes no sense compared to... There are literal camera crews there manning the cameras.

Like why are we not... I don't know. Bizarre, utterly bizarre.

Very bizarre. And what's going to happen tomorrow, this is the thing like tomorrow,

what we're going to see, because at least today we had half a day of

live timing. I imagine they'll be shutting that off tomorrow. And is it just a case,

it's all going to be rumors. I've seen there's been journalists and things trying to get in,

fans trying to get in, and being kicked out constantly. So yeah, it's not looking good for

how much we're going to see. And in a world of information where you're trying to get it

reliable, I think Formula One just shooting themselves in the foot with it really.

Yeah, exactly. Now I know a lot of you probably sat there going guys, relax,

it's testing who really cares. We do. We care because we're Formula One fans.

And if they're going to tell us about something, they tell us about something,

then we want to see. Don't hype it up to then hide everything. That's what I would say.

Right, that is it. Thank you everybody for tuning in to this day one wrap up.

Unlikely that we're going to be doing daily episodes of this because it will be the same

rant every single day with even less information probably. But say things do change or we do get

a lot of information, you know where to come because we will of course be here.

They turn the timing back on. Exactly. Turn it back on and let us have a glimpse.

That would be nice. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts. It's nice to see that video,

but I wish there was more of it as always. And come on Formula One, it's 2026.

So selfish, aren't we as fans? We always want more. It's never enough unless it's one in

Australia. And Tommy's like, get that off my screen. I don't want to see it.

Just now go watch the video from last year where it's like, how could we improve

Bahrain testing? Maybe they should be a sprint race. Obviously, we were joking that we don't

want that. How can they improve a secret F1 test? This is the thing. It's like the car

launches all over again, isn't it? When we had eight hours of just cars on track,

it's like, oh, this isn't that interesting. But I like it personally. I like just having it

on the background. It's a background thing, isn't it? Like practice. For sure. Exactly.

Right. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you very soon. Bye. Enjoy secret testing day two.

P1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST Creator Network.

If you're a smoker or vapor ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

But with ZIN nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons. ZIN is America's number one

nicotine pouch brand. Plus, ZIN offers a robust rewards program. There are lots of options

when it comes to nicotine satisfaction. But there's only one ZIN. Check out zin.com

slash find to find ZIN at a store near you. Warning. This product contains nicotine.

Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Our reaction to the first SECRET F1 test in 2026

About this episode

Formula One

preseason testing

Bahrain

shakedown

new regulations

engine era

unreliable

lap counters

red flags

morning session

live timing

Catalonia

Dodge Charger

barn find

Pontiac Grand Prix SJ

daily driver

Formula 1

Red Bull RB 22

side pods

Mclaren 14 Mclaren

Aston Martin

Williams

Ferrari

crash tests

Mercedes

Alpine

sprint race

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from P1 with Matt and Tommy