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BBC Radio 5 Live

F1 Chequered Flag from the BBC offers expert analysis of every F1 race, with exclusive insight into every twist and turn of the F1 season. Each episode brings you in-depth race reviews, breaking down the strategies that shape each Grand Prix and the key players making headlines. Hear from F1 stars like Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris and the bosses of powerhouse teams like Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. Plus keep up to speed on the cars and tactics changing the game. 

Stay tuned for the latest F1 updates, straight from the track. 

F1 Chequered Flag: Home of Formula 1. Subscribe for the latest F1 updates, straight from the track.

F1: Chequered Flag

Izzy Hammond and Harry Benjamin digest the latest F1 trends and biggest discussion points after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Are F1 curses real? Are the ‘burger curse’ and ‘Red Bull second seat curse’ impacting F1?

We also celebrate Izzy’s favourite Melbourne memes and discuss your hot takes, including the prediction that Aston Martin will win a race in 2026!

Chequered Flag Extra: Selfies, Curses & F1 Hot Takes

Are we going too early to say George Russell will be crowned the 2026 world champion? After his dominant victory in Melbourne, Harry, Jennie and Marc look back at the opening race of the new season and ask just how big Mercedes’ advantage over the rest of the field might be. They hear from Russell, his teammate Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton.

Australian Grand Prix Review

So, Mercedes are going to run away with both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles… right? After their dominant display in the first qualifying session of the season, Harry, Jennie and Marc pick through the bones of what happened. They hear from many of the drivers and discuss what it all means heading into Sunday’s race.

Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Will the two Aston Martin cars make Sunday's starting grid? Harry Benjamin, Jennie Gow, Marc Priestley and Andrew Benson look back on the first day of on-track action at the Australian GP. Who is the team to beat? And why are Aston Martin struggling so badly? We hear from their team principal Adrian Newey.

Aston Martin’s woes as 2026 cars run for first time in Australia

Are Mercedes really favourites? Can Lando make a successful defence of his title? And are things really that bad at Aston Martin? Just a few of the questions Harry Benjamin, Andrew Benson and Jennie Gow tackle ahead of this weekend’s season-opening race in Melbourne. Lando joins us on the pod to tell us whether life has changed since becoming world champion. Lewis Hamilton explains why he’s so positive going into the new season. Plus, we hear from one of the new faces on the grid, Arvind Lindblad.

Australian Grand Prix Preview

Harry Benjamin and Jennie Gow are joined by ex-McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley and former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer from Mercedes’ Brackley HQ ahead of the new F1 season. With the new rules and regulations dominating the build-up to the 2026 campaign, we ask whether they are a good thing for the sport. Will we have a four-way fight for the title? Will Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari have a resurgence after a disappointing 2025? And how will defending champion Lando Norris fare? We hear from Norris, as well as British rookie Arvid Lindblad, plus motorsport content creator Izzy Hammond joins the team.

F1 2026 Preview: New Rules, New Regs & A Four-Way Title Fight?

The countdown to Formula 1’s new era has begun in earnest. There are now just days to go until the teams unleash the new-look cars that will carry their fortunes in the landmark 2026 season. Concepts crafted inside the team’s fiercely-protected factories are about to spring into life on the track.

It’s mid-January, and the Cadillac Formula 1 team are preparing for a huge milestone on their journey to the grid. At Silverstone’s famous circuit, the race crew has assembled for a shakedown, a chance to run the 2026 F1 car for the very first time. Sergio Perez, making his F1 return for the American marque, is the first driver to put some miles on the clock for the team. The Mexican fan favourite is confident that Cadillac is “here to do great things” when it joins the F1 grid in 2026. It’s been nearly half a decade since America toasted its last F1 World Champion, 1978 winner Mario Andretti, who has also been offering his words of wisdom to the Cadillac F1 team.

The Haas team are also ticking off the milestones signposting the way to F1’s new era. Team principal Ayao Komatsu reveals how Ollie Bearman’s positive attitude is a real asset to the team’s ambitions. The British racer, about to enter his second full season in F1, has goals of his own, winning races and future World Championships.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff paused his birthday celebrations to outline how he is also developing the team’s next generation, Kimi Antonelli, into a future race-winner. As the sport enters a new era, Wolff is as curious as anybody about how the pecking order is going to shake out when racing resumes in 2026. The first questions were about to be answered when the new Mercedes F1 car took to the track for the very first time - and our intrepid guides Sarah Holt and Holly Samos were there to witness the all-important car shakedown on a rainy day at the Silverstone circuit. After completing the first flying laps, George Russell gave his verdict on the car that carries his hopes for the 2026 season. Mercedes Technical Director James Allison and the Head of Mercedes High Performance Power Trains, Hywel Thomas, were also on hand to give feedback on the fruits of their labours.

As Kimi Antonelli prepared to climb into the cockpit for the first time, he spoke of his gratitude to everyone back at base who had got him this far. The Italian has already been on an incredible journey with the Mercedes team but 2026 is just the beginning of what lies ahead in Formula 1’s new era.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC, hosted by Rosamund Pike
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Sarah Holt and Holly Samos
The Producers are Alasdair Cresswell, Joe Aldridge, Jack Winstanley and Mitchell
Marshall
Production Management from Abbie Collingwood, Katie Killeen and Giulia Duggan
The Senior Producer is Ollie Kneen
The Executive Producer for IMG is Steve Tebb
The Story Editor and Scriptwriter is Sarah Holt
The Showrunner is Holly Samos
And the Commissioning Editor at the BBC is Stevie Middleton

Back At Base S3: 8. Making History

The new year has been rung in and, for Formula 1, 2026 is here at last. The landmark year of change that the teams have been chasing for months. Inside the closely-guarded F1 factories, there are whispers of speculation about the redesigned cars and the potential for a new competitive order. But only when the cars break cover at the first race in Australia will the secret be out at last.

For Kimi Antonelli, a fresh start for 2026 began a little closer to home as the teenager flew the nest and moved into his own house in San Marino. The next milestone in his preparations for the new Formula 1 season is a training camp in Florida with his performance coach Sergi Avila, who already has a long list of physical goals for the Mercedes star.

Back at base, Mercedes reserve driver Fred Vesti has been putting in the work on the driver-simulator to unlock the secrets of the 2026 car. Holly Samos and Sarah Holt went to meet the Danish driver at the team’s Brackley HQ to find out what he’s learned about the new car so far. For Haas driver Ollie Bearman planning for the race season ahead is also now in full swing. He’s on a flying visit back home to Britain to don his 2026 race suit and the new Haas kit at a series of photoshoots. But, like all F1 drivers, he’s already thinking about getting back inside the car and is seeing the new set of technical rule changes as an opportunity.

At Cadillac’s Silverstone base the fledgling team are also counting down to the looming season. There are just over 50 days until the team makes its F1 race debut in Australia and the hustle-and-bustle at the factory is now in fifth gear as Sarah and Holly found out on their latest visit. There is an air of concentration in the race bays as the car build begins, overseen by chief mechanic Nathan Divey. Cadillac Formula 1 team’s CEO Dan Towriss wants to bring an American spin to Formula 1 - and it doesn’t get any bigger than the Super Bowl. The team will unveil the livery for its 2026 car in a TV advert aired during American football’s season showdown - watched by hundreds of millions around the world.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC, hosted by Rosamund Pike
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Sarah Holt and Holly Samos

Back At Base S3: 7. Shooting for the Stars

Formula 1 is in a moment of pause. The 2025 racing cars have been wheeled into storage, and the racetracks have fallen silent. But inside the top-secret F1 factories, each team is facing a winter like never before. Revised rules for 2026 are reshaping the cars and redefining what powers them, and that means the pressure is on for the hundreds working back at base.

Before diving into the future, the team at Brixworth, the home of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, are marking the end of an era. It’s here that the engine - which drove Mercedes to eight straight Constructors’ Championships between 2014 and 2021 - first came to life. Brixworth boss Hywel Thomas has planned a very special celebration to mark the end of this engine cycle and our expert guides Sarah Holt and Holly Samos were there to join in the festivities. This is an important time of transition for Formula 1’s engine suppliers. Thomas and his Brixworth team have been developing the new engine that will power Mercedes and three other teams, on the grid in 2026.

There is parallel work going on at Brackley, where Mercedes Technical Director James Allison is overseeing all other aspects of the new season’s car design. The British engineer has more than three decades’ experience in F1 but even he is a little daunted by what he calls the “biggest ever” rule change in the sport’s history.

While the work intensifies inside the F1 factories, it is, in contrast, time for the drivers to unwind. Italian Mercedes star Kimi Antonelli is heading home to spend some time with his family and friends, while Haas driver Ollie Bearman is holidaying in the Maldives before spending Christmas with his family in Monaco. Back at base, the Haas team are hard at work preparing for F1’s new era in 2026 and that means both sides of the garage are collaborating too. Laura Muller - who works alongside Esteban Ocon and is an F1 trailblazer as the sport’s first female race engineer - has just wrapped up her first season on the pitwall. Like Bearman, she knows the experiences of 2025 will help her navigate what lies ahead.

F1 race-winner Valtteri Bottas is preparing for his return to the grid with the Cadillac Formula 1 team in South Australia. But even in an idyllic spot for winter training, the Finnish favourite is already counting down to pre-season testing and getting to the first race in Melbourne, Australia as he starts the next chapter of his F1 career.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC, hosted by Rosamund Pike.

Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Sarah Holt and Holly Samos.

Back At Base S3: 6. A Clean Sheet

We open Episode Five checking in at the airport with Haas driver Ollie Bearman as he prepares to take off for the final three races of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship. But there’s only one thing on his mind - will he get the dreaded middle seat?

Fellow rookie Kimi Antonelli is also flying high as Formula 1 touches down for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Mercedes teenager takes a gamble on tyre strategy but will it pay off when the cars hit The Strip? Antonelli and his race engineer Pete Bonnington are looking back on the teenager’s rookie season in 2025. Bonnington, aka Bono, was one half of F1’s most successful driver-engineer pairing with seven-time World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, so how does it compare working with a rookie making his first steps into F1?

While the competition is nearly over on track, the race inside the team’s top-secret F1 factories has only just begun. It’s early December, and all the teams are pushing
hard to build a completely reimagined car for F1’s new era, when a new set of technical regulations are set to shake up the sport. At Mercedes, our F1 experts Sarah Holt and Holly Samos are given a guided tour by Chief Operating Officer Rob Thomas on the factory’s busiest day of the year.

As the sport prepares to move forwards into its new era, the dust is settling on the 2025 season at the finale in Abu Dhabi. There’s time for Bearman and his race engineer Ronan O’Hara to also give their verdict on his rookie season and formulate lessons to take into the British racer’s 2026 campaign. But the clock is ticking on Cadillac’s F1 debut… There are now less than 100 days to go until the US team joins the grid and team principal Graeme Lowdon is beginning to feel the pressure.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC, hosted by Rosamund Pike.
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Sarah Holt and Holly Samos.

Aston Martin’s woes as 2026 cars run for first time in Australia

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