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BBC Radio 5 Live


Formula 1 interviews, reaction and reports. 5 Live presents a round-up of the race weekend.


F1: Chequered Flag

Jennie and the team look back at the final qualifying session of the season. They hear from the two McLaren drivers who will be hoping to secure their first constructors title since 1998. We also hear from Carlos Sainz who starts from third, and Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas who both had good days.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying review

Jennie and the team reflect on McLaren winning the constructor's title. They hear from Zac Brown, Andrea Stella, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Review

Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso sits down for an in-depth chat with BBC F1 correspondent, Andrew Benson. Alonso speaks about his season with Aston Martin, the addition of Adrian Newey to the team and whether that will make them more competitive in 2025 and 2026. Plus, Alonso talks about his dreams of winning a third world title.

BONUS: Fernando Alonso Special

Jennie Gow, Harry Benjamin, Jolyon Palmer and Andrew Benson look back on the 2024 F1 season, with the help of some special guests and some Christmas crackers! Where does Max Verstappen rank among the greats of the sport after winning his fourth world title? Can Lando Norris challenge next season? And will Ferrari be regretting replacing Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton? Plus, we discuss Alpine’s revival, Williams’ struggles, and we give our moments of the season.

Christmas Crackers 2024

In this series, we have been given unprecedented access to two of the biggest teams in Formula 1 - Mercedes and Williams. It’s a few days after the final race of the 2023 season, and the teams are returning home to their UK factories after an epic year. It’s time to enjoy the year’s hard-fought success with the workforce of hundreds back at base. And we are there with them - our F1 experts Holly Samos and Sarah Holt added to the guest list. 

After a dramatic season finale in Abu Dhabi, the sport’s seven-time World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, and team principal, Toto Wolff, are leading the celebrations at the Mercedes team’s twin facilities at Brackley and Brixworth. But there is a familiar face missing. 

At Williams’ home in Oxfordshire, the historic team’s star drivers, Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, have also come home. But for Sargeant, who made his F1 debut for Williams in 2023, the American’s future remains uncertain. Will he keep his place as one of just 20 drivers on the F1 grid? That’s a decision for James Vowles, who has had to make a few big calls in his first season as team principal - and his first since leaving Mercedes.

The homecoming - as happy as it is - is only a brief pause. Formula 1 is a shark. It’s always moving forward. Mercedes and Williams are not standing still. Because the winter is when the real work begins. For the teams. For the drivers. For the men and women designing, manufacturing and building the cars that will race in the 2024 season. 

It’s impossible to know what lies ahead but before he leaves to spend the holiday season in America, Lewis Hamilton has one more visit to make. He’s going to a top-secret part of the Mercedes’ factory.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC
Narrated by Joseph Fiennes
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Holly Samos and Sarah Holt
The Producers are Alasdair Cresswell, Joe Aldridge and Jack Winstanley.
The Senior Producer is Ollie Kneen
The Executive Producer for IMG is Steve Tebb
The Showrunner is Holly Samos
The Story Editor and Scriptwriter is Sarah Holt
The Commissioning Editor at the BBC is Stevie Middleton

Back at Base: 1. The Homecoming

The Williams and Mercedes Formula 1 teams have given us unprecedented access to their top-secret facilities as they work over the winter preparing their cars for the 2024 season. At Mercedes, the team’s superstar driver Lewis Hamilton is going into a restricted area to see how that crucial work is coming along. We follow in his footsteps as F1 experts Holly Samos and Sarah Holt get a VIP tour of one of the most important tools when it comes to designing and building the most complex race cars in the world. 

From his position at the very top, Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff is reflecting on how the team lost ground when major new technical regulations on car design came in for the 2022 season. 

At Williams, new team principal James Vowles is welcoming his first major hire - as they plot a return to the front of the grid for the nine-time World Champions. The duo are part of a crack team back at base who have been getting to grips with the 2024 car since last March.

At both teams, the drivers also have their wish-list for the new cars. Alex Albon knows what avenue he wants Williams to go down and there is one person Hamilton has on speed dial when it comes to car design. 

The cars that will be driven by Albon, Hamilton & co during the 2024 season are being built by 1000s of people. It’s time for them to get to work - as the race to the 2024 season picks up pace.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC
Narrated by Joseph Fiennes
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Holly Samos and Sarah Holt
The Producers are Alasdair Cresswell, Joe Aldridge and Jack Winstanley.
The Senior Producer is Ollie Kneen
The Executive Producer for IMG is Steve Tebb
The Showrunner is Holly Samos
The Story Editor and Scriptwriter is Sarah Holt
The Commissioning Editor at the BBC is Stevie Middleton

Back At Base: 2. Big Air

Inside the Williams and Mercedes factories, where F1 cars come to life, the workforce is putting its heart and soul into the winter tasks now well underway. There are just 14 weeks between the 2023 season and the first race of 2024 in Bahrain. In this series, we have been allowed rare access into the heart of the operations. And at the Williams facility, in rural Oxfordshire, we are about to go on a VIP tour to learn how to build an F1 car.

At Brackley, home to the Mercedes’ F1 team, the factory is united by a common purpose. Mercedes dominated F1 from 2014. But when new technical rules came in at the start of 2022, Red Bull overtook Mercedes as the fastest team on track. The desire to return Mercedes to the top runs deep - and for a very significant reason. 

The motivation to get the 2024 car right is massive for both teams - but first Williams and Mercedes have to absorb the lessons from last season’s car. And each team has a very specific problem that it now wants to put right. 

At Brackley, work continues around the clock on the new Mercedes and the Williams factory is also working at full capacity - with extra shifts and overtime standard at this crucial time in the car build. The factories are moving up a gear, because a new car for a new season - that’s a chance to start again.

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC
Narrated by Joseph Fiennes
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Holly Samos and Sarah Holt
The Producers are Alasdair Cresswell, Joe Aldridge and Jack Winstanley.
The Senior Producer is Ollie Kneen
The Executive Producer for IMG is Steve Tebb
The Showrunner is Holly Samos
The Story Editor and Scriptwriter is Sarah Holt
The Commissioning Editor at the BBC is Stevie Middleton

Back at Base: 3. A Shot at Redemption

When it comes to designing and building the new Williams and Mercedes Formula 1 cars for the looming 2024 season, there is precision and, most importantly, there is a plan. There has to be because all 10 teams are facing their first winter shutdown - a new ruling by the sport’s governing body, the FIA. But things don’t always go to plan - and the teams face a race against the clock to finish key bits of the car build before the Christmas holidays. Holly Samos and journalist Sarah Holt are going behind the scenes at two of the biggest names in F1, to the heart of their mammoth operations

One of the first hurdles for the teams to clear are the FIA crash tests. This series of tests is designed to ensure the safety of the sport, and crucially the drivers. However, for the teams they present one of their biggest challenges in the car build. At the Mercedes factory in Brackley they are waiting anxiously for news from the sport’s crash-testing facility at Cranfield University. 

For the all-important drivers and team principals - the faces of Formula 1 - the winter is a chance to step back from the spotlight. For Williams star Alex Albon this is a time to reconnect with family while Lewis Hamilton has some thinking to do on his Christmas break in the U.S.

There are also holiday plans on the horizon for team principals Toto Wolff and James Vowles but the responsibility for the workforce back at base is never far from their minds. At Williams, Vowles knows his factory at Grove is preparing to dig deep - but what will he find when his workforce gets back to work in the new year?

F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC
Narrated by Joseph Fiennes
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Holly Samos and Sarah Holt
The Producers are Alasdair Cresswell, Joe Aldridge and Jack Winstanley.
The Senior Producer is Ollie Kneen
The Executive Producer for IMG is Steve Tebb
The Showrunner is Holly Samos
The Story Editor and Scriptwriter is Sarah Holt
The Commissioning Editor at the BBC is Stevie Middleton

Back at Base: 4. No Fat in the Plan

Back at base, Williams and Mercedes are returning to work after the winter shutdown. Now is the time for new beginnings – and whatever lies ahead for our two teams and the cars they are busy bringing to life inside their high-tech facilities. F1 experts Holly Samos and Sarah Holt are our guides as we catch up with the teams.

At Mercedes, there is one very familiar face that everyone is pleased to see - the team’s popular star George Russell. The British racer fell ill at the penultimate race of the 2023 season in Las Vegas and has been recovering ever since. George and his performance coach Aleix Casanovas have had to adapt their plans over the winter to get ready to go racing again.

Williams driver Alex Albon - who reveals he competes against his old friend Russell in other sporting contests - is also building up the strength and conditioning he needs to go racing. January is the most crucial time of the year for the drivers to get race fit. This winter it feels more important than ever, as the 2024 Formula 1 season will place even bigger demands on the drivers with a record 24 races on the calendar. Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali joins the podcast conversation as the sport continues to grow. 

Lewis Hamilton has been preparing for the new season in America, away from his Mercedes team. But on his last day at Brackley, the seven-time world champion spoke to this podcast about the crucial weeks ahead.

It’s not only the drivers who are operating at 100 percent. Williams team principal James Vowles and his Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff have come back from their holidays with tales of how they spend their time outside of their demanding day jobs. 

As our four star drivers do the hard yards to get race fit, it’s important to remember that they rarely drive an F1 car outside of the race season. BUT there is another tool at their disposal - the simulator. This is another top-secret facility closely guarded by the teams but for our podcast Williams driver Logan Sargeant is showing Holly Samos and Sarah Holt around. The drivers are doing all they can to prepare for the new season - but have the cars that they’re getting ready to race been built yet?

F1:Back at Base was created and produced by Holly Samos and Sarah Holt and is an IMG Production for the BBC.

Back At Base: 5. A New Year Begins

Inside their high-tech Formula 1 factories, Mercedes and Williams are in a constant cycle of pushing the boundaries in the car build. And the clock is ticking. With just a few weeks to go until the start of the 2024 season, Williams are working overtime as the final components of the car go into manufacture. Team principal James Vowles says these crucial weeks towards the end of January are the busiest time for the workforce at his Oxfordshire facility, bar none. But what will be the very last piece of the car to be made? Sarah Holt and Holly Samos are going inside the factories to find out. 

At the Mercedes factory in Brackley, COO Rob Thomas is aware time is now at a premium. The wind tunnel is still hard at work trialling aerodynamic upgrades that hold the promise of more performance on track. They then need to be put into production - but can the factory afford to leave it as late as possible to give the wind tunnel team more time? There are still some important milestones to go in the car build and for Mercedes’ technical director James Allison, that’s a cause for sleepless nights. 

Both factories are working as one to deliver the 2024 race cars for their star drivers in time to go racing at the opening Bahrain Grand Prix on 2nd March. The race team, who travel to the races around the world, are also honing in on their preparations. For the pit crews at Williams and Mercedes, it’s time to rehearse the quicksilver pit-stops that can make - or break - a race weekend.

F1:Back at Base was created and produced by Holly Samos and Sarah Holt and is an IMG Production for the BBC.

Back At Base: 6. Two Seconds to Shine

Rosanna Tennant, McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird, BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson, and Harry Benjamin react to a busy Qatar GP that was dominated by penalties and punctures. Race winner Max Verstappen gives his thoughts after yet another assured drive, while we also hear from Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and a disappointed Lando Norris, who was one of a number of drivers penalised in the race.

Qatar Grand Prix Review

Qatar Grand Prix Review

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