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Formula 1

The risk-takers, late-brakers and history-makers of Formula 1 slow down for in-depth interviews. Tom Clarkson brings you revealing, feature-length conversations with drivers, team bosses, engineering experts and F1 legends.

Hit the follow button for the fastest way to get new episodes. Watch episodes exclusively on the F1 YouTube channel.

An official Formula 1 podcast. For race reviews + previews, listen to F1 Nation. To learn more about how F1 works, listen to F1 Explains

F1: Beyond The Grid

As Formula 1 enters an exciting new era of fast, thrilling and sustainable racing in 2026, what can we expect on track?

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, and Managing Director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, Hywel Thomas, explain how the new power units and advanced sustainable fuels will enhance performance and demand different skills from the drivers and teams.

Toto and Hywel tell Tom Clarkson how they feel on the eve of this new rule cycle compared to 2014, when they went on to win eight Constructors’ World Championships in a row, and what they make of rumours in the paddock pitching them as pre-season favourites.

You’ll also hear their thoughts on how George Russell and Kimi Antonelli performed in 2025 and what they can achieve in the coming years.

This episode is sponsored by: 

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Toto Wolff + Hywel Thomas: racing towards 2026

2025 has been a year of firsts for Laura Mueller and Esteban Ocon.

For Laura, it’s her first season as a race engineer. For Esteban, it’s his first season with Haas. And it’s their first time working with each other.

So how are they finding it? What do they need from one another to get the best out of each other? And how do they communicate in and out of the car?

Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Laura and Esteban take us inside their first year working together and how the relationship between a race engineer and an F1 driver works.

They provide fascinating insight into how they talk to each other on team radio – explaining when the right time to speak during a lap is, how often they should speak and why that can change in different scenarios.

Laura and Esteban also reflect on the highs and lows of this year – including how they bounced back from a challenging season-opener in Melbourne to score points in China the week after.

And you’ll hear all about Laura’s path to becoming F1’s first female race engineer and the childhood hero who inspired this journey.

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Laura Mueller + Esteban Ocon on their race engineer-driver dynamic at Haas

Winning four Formula 1 World Championships is a feat only six elite drivers have achieved. Competing under the highest pressure, year after year, has given Sebastian Vettel rare racing insight. Since retiring from the sport in 2022, he’s been raising awareness of causes he cares about, and reflecting on his career – the peaks, how he learned to balance risks and rewards, and the years where his competitive fire started to fade.

The four-time World Champion looks back at his life on the F1 grid with Tom Clarkson. He gives his thoughts on the three drivers racing for the 2025 title: how he admires Lando Norris for being a role model, why he thinks Max Verstappen is under less pressure than his rivals, and how Oscar Piastri’s intelligence impresses him.

Sebastian also remembers his time racing at Ferrari, and why he felt he was ‘on his way down’ in his final years with the team. Plus, he shares the advice he gave friend and rival Lewis Hamilton before he joined the Scuderia.

This episode is sponsored by: 

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LEGENDS: Sebastian Vettel’s World Champion wisdom

Every driver who wants to win with Red Bull needs to impress Helmut Marko. The veteran Motorsport Advisor oversees the team’s young driver programme and helped launch the careers of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. A former F1 driver himself, he knows what it takes to race under the highest pressure.

Helmut tells Tom Clarkson about his life in racing: childhood adventures in Austria with future world champion Jochen Rindt, and the serious eye injury which ended his driving career just as he was about to join Ferrari. He tells the story of how he met Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, and how they started the F1 team which would go on to win races and championships with Vettel and Verstappen.

Plus, Marko explains how Verstappen and Team Principal Laurent Mekies have changed the team’s approach in 2025 and picks the young driver with potential to be a future champion.

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Helmut Marko: choosing champions at Red Bull

With three rounds left of the 2025 season, Oscar Piastri is still in contention to become Formula 1 World Champion for the first time.

So what’s it like being in the thick of an F1 title fight with so much at stake?

Speaking to Tom Clarkson before the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Oscar opens up about the pressure of a title battle and why fighting a teammate is different to racing against any other driver.

He also discusses whether his relationship with teammate Lando Norris has changed this year and how he feels McLaren have handled the challenge of treating them both equally.

It’s easy to forget that this is only Oscar’s third season as an F1 driver. With seven wins, seven podiums and five pole positions, he’s taken a huge leap forward. What exactly did he work on over the winter to make so much progress this year? And how are race engineer Tom Stallard, manager Mark Webber and new physio Artturi Simila all helping his development?

As well as reflecting on the highs, Oscar also talks about dealing with setbacks in Australia, at Silverstone and in Azerbaijan, which is good insight into how he’ll bounce back from a difficult weekend in Brazil.

It's All To Drive For in 2025. Be there!

Book your seat for a Grand Prix this season at tickets.formula1.com

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Every race analysed on F1 Nation

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Oscar Piastri: fighting for his first F1 title

McLaren have won back-to-back Constructors’ titles for the first time since the early ‘90s.

Just eight years ago, in 2017, they finished second to last, so how exactly have they transformed into World Champions since then?

Speaking to Tom Clarkson at the McLaren Technology Centre, CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella outline how they’ve masterminded McLaren’s remarkable turnaround together, revealing just how desperate the team’s situation was at the start of this journey, and how they’re planning to sustain their recent success in the years to come.

But in the immediate future, their eyes are on the next prize, as they chase a first Drivers’ World Championship since Lewis Hamilton won in 2008. Going into the final four rounds of the 2025 season, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are separated by just one point at the top of the standings. Zak and Andrea discuss how the pair have evolved during their time at McLaren, criticism of their approach to this title fight, and whether they’ll have any regrets should Max Verstappen beat Lando and Oscar to the crown.

 

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Andrea Stella + Zak Brown: McLaren’s transformation + the Drivers’ Championship race

30 years ago, a 120mph puncture sent Mika Hakkinen’s car spinning over a high kerb and into a wall of tyres. His McLaren did not have many of the safety devices modern F1 cars have. Mika suffered serious injuries which left him in hospital, unsure if he would ever race again.

Mika tells Tom Clarkson he thinks about his crash at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix every day, and he remembers the moment he lost control of the car and hit the wall vividly. He talks about his physical and mental recovery and the nerves he felt the first time he got back into a Formula 1 car after the crash.

Hakkinen returned to Formula 1 for the 1996 season, but says the crash had a lasting impact. He recalls how he shook off his doubts, rediscovered his speed and became strong enough to win the Formula 1 World Championship in 1998 and 1999.

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LEGENDS: Mika Hakkinen’s 1995 crash + incredible recovery

Ahead of a new era of Formula 1 in 2026, Italian engineer Enrico Cardile moved from Ferrari to Aston Martin. Working alongside Adrian Newey as Chief Technical Officer, his aim is to turn Aston into winners.

Enrico tells Tom Clarkson how he studied Ferrari at university, before joining the company as a young engineer in the road car division. He moved on to the F1 team, developing single-seaters which took Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc to Grand Prix wins.

Enrico left Ferrari and joined Aston Martin in summer 2025. He describes the differences between an established team and one which is still building. He describes working with Adrian Newey at Aston’s state-of-the-art factory, what Lance Stroll has in common with Raikkonen and how driver feedback from Stroll and Fernando Alonso is helping to drive the team forwards.

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Enrico Cardile: Aston Martin’s 2026 ambitions + working with Adrian Newey

Serial winner in sports cars, Formula 1 driver and all-out racer: Allan McNish is using his experience to give Audi a fast start in F1. A Le Mans and World Endurance Championship-winner with the manufacturer, Allan knows how ‘the Audi way’ of racing will translate to F1.

Allan’s own journey to F1 began with a McLaren test alongside Ayrton Senna. 13 years later, he finally made his Grand Prix debut. Allan tells Tom Clarkson how his sportscar career eventually led him to F1 with Toyota, and seeing a young Fernando Alonso’s unique driving style up-close while at Renault.

Plus, Allan explains his work with the new Audi F1 team ahead of their 2026 debut, and why he thinks Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto are the perfect drivers for the team.

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Allan McNish: winning ‘the Audi way’

With 16 Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships combined, Williams are the third most successful team in Formula 1 history – behind Ferrari and McLaren.

But they haven’t won a title since 1997 and it’s 13 years since they last won a race, so Team Principal James Vowles is on a mission to bring the glory days back to Williams.

In 2025, the team have taken big steps towards success. Carlos Sainz secured the team’s first podium in four years when he finished third in Baku, and they’ve amassed their highest points total since 2016.

Speaking to Tom Clarkson, James reveals what he and Carlos spoke about over dinner before that sensational podium, why that result means so much to the whole team, and the reasons Carlos had endured a frustrating season up to that point.

On the other side of the garage, James shares what he thinks is different about Alex Albon this year and how he’s risen to the challenge of having a much more experienced and competitive teammate.

And while Williams have performed better than expected in 2025 with such a strong driver line-up, their main focus is 2026. So what opportunities will the new era of Formula 1 bring them? Given James’s first-hand experience of the intense championship battles between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, what would his approach be if Alex and Carlos are fighting for a title in the coming years?

This episode is sponsored by: 

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James Vowles: podium pride + Williams’ winning potential

In his long career, Emanuele Pirro has experienced everything motorsport can throw at a driver. In the 1980s, the Italian raced for Benetton while simultaneously helping to develop Prost and Senna’s mighty McLaren Honda MP4/4. Later, he battled soaking conditions at the infamous 1991 Australian GP and won Le Mans five times. Emanuele has enjoyed an incredible career, and has great stories to tell. Why did he reject Ferrari? Why did Riccardo Patrese hit him on the helmet after his final Grand Prix? Emanuele also tells Tom Clarkson about his current role as an FIA Driver Steward.

Emanuele Pirro on developing an iconic McLaren and being a Driver Steward

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