{"_":"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. \n \nHit the follow button for the fastest way to get new episodes. Watch episodes exclusively on the F1 YouTube channel. \n \nAn official Formula 1 podcast. For race reviews + previews, listen to F1 Nation. To learn more about how F1 works, listen to F1 Explains\n","$":{"audioboom:html":"1"}}
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The Formula 1 driver market is potentially just one domino away from exploding into a frenzy, so what exactly does an F1 driver need to do to get themselves into the best seat on the grid? With multiple wins, poles and podiums throughout his 15 seasons at the pinnacle of motorsport, David Coulthard was often fighting at the front. But how did he make his way into the fastest cars? Speaking to Tom Clarkson, David shares some of the remarkable tales from that journey – including his careful approa...
20 years ago, Jenson Button added his name to the illustrious list of drivers to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, when he emerged victorious at Hungary in 2006. A moment long overdue after multiple podiums, Jenson admits he did get to a point where he thought a win might never happen. So how did he feel when he finally did cross the finish line and take the chequered flag first? Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Jenson talks through the race in great detail, before describing the emotions of that huge milest...
Why would a double F1 World Champion at the height of his powers walk away from a winning car? For the 1976 season, Emerson Fittipaldi stunned the sport by leaving McLaren and setting up his own team. He wanted a challenge, and he certainly got one. 50 years later, Emerson tells Tom Clarkson why he and his brother Wilson launched Copersucar, a team based in their home country of Brazil. He also remembers the dramatic events that led him to start his own team – winning the World Championship with...
‘I’ve always been the youngest, the new kid, the underdog. It helps me not be intimidated’. Arvid Lindblad, the fourth-youngest F1 driver in history, is full of confidence. In his first race he fought wheel-to-wheel with World Champions. The Racing Bulls driver has made a fast start to his first season in Formula 1. He always believed he’d race at the top. He’s living his childhood dream and he’s loving it. Arvid tells Tom Clarkson how he went from watching F1 on TV aged 4 to racing in F1 aged 1...
Formula 1 has always been a dream for Colton Herta. Walking away from IndyCar to race in Formula 2 is a gamble. His reward, should he prove himself, could be an F1 drive with Cadillac. Colton has come close to F1 before. This time he’s determined to make it. Speaking on the day he had a seat-fit for Cadillac’s F1 car, Colton Herta tells Tom Clarkson about growing up at racetracks with his father, IndyCar legend Bryan Herta, his love of motorsport and F1 deals that never happened with Sauber and ...
At this year’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Bernd Maylander reached a remarkable milestone of 500 races as the FIA Safety Car Driver. Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Bernd reflects on how the Safety Car and his job have evolved since his first race back in 2000 and some of the most iconic races he’s been involved in over the last 25 years. He talks through what a Grand Prix weekend looks like for him, the role his co-driver Richard Darker plays and some of the challenges they face – like pick...
From the first time she sat in a kart, aged 9, Doriane Pin has wanted to race in Formula 1. F1 ACADEMY champion, Mercedes Development Driver, poised to drive an F1 car for the first time - Doriane is getting closer and closer to that dream. Doriane tells Tom Clarkson her racing story so far, from feeling like a 'superhero' in her kart, to seeking sponsors at the age of 11, taking on the Le Mans 24 hours, and being spotted by the Mercedes Junior Programme. In F1 ACADEMY, Doriane switched to racin...
Red Bull Racing were at a crossroads when Laurent Mekies took over as Team Principal halfway through 2025. After a difficult first half of the season, should they continue working on their 2025 car or write that year off and prioritise the new regulations for 2026? Their decision to stay focussed on the ‘25 car paid off, with Max Verstappen going from more than 100 points behind to missing out on the title by just two points. But in this new era of Formula 1, Red Bull have fallen down the peckin...
Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu is Tom Clarkson’s guest on this week’s F1 Beyond The Grid. Ayao has been with Haas since their debut season 10 years ago, but he’s only been in charge since 2024. What has he learned about leadership in that time? How did he guide the team’s recovery from such a difficult start last season? And what are Haas’ targets in the new era of Formula 1? As for the drivers, Ayao tells Tom what he wants to see from Esteban Ocon this year and how long they can hold on to Ol...
The son of a motorsport legend, a racer since childhood, Formula 1 was Jacques Villeneuve's destiny. In 1996, the young Canadian arrived at his first Grand Prix and immediately proved he belonged there by taking pole position. In his rookie season Villeneuve won races, went wheel-to-wheel with Michael Schumacher and took Williams teammate Damon Hill to a final race title-decider. 30 years on, he sits down with Tom Clarkson to remember how he shook up the sport. Jacques explains why he left IndyC...
The newest team in Formula 1 are here to compete. Cadillac have earned the respect of their rivals. Now they’re pushing to get faster. CEO Dan Towriss takes Tom Clarkson back to the start of the story - how he and his TWG Motorsports company first became involved in discussions about F1, conversations with General Motors and Cadillac, the work to build a team, choosing their race drivers and making their F1 debut in Australia. Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas are the first Cadillac F1 drivers. W...
In this episode, Carlos Sainz discusses his commitment to Williams as his "life project," aiming to bring the team back to the top. He candidly recounts the frustrating start to his 2025 season, the eventual breakthrough with podium finishes, and the invaluable lesson of perseverance. Sainz also provides his first impressions of the new 2026 F1 regulations, highlighting changes in driving feel and the need for team collaboration. Additionally, he opens up about the personal impact of Formula 1's growing fame and his aspirations for a post-F1 racing career.
A title fight full of twists and turns, a new World Champion, rookies reaching major milestones and Formula 1 on the big screen. The 2025 season was nothing short of dramatic on and off track. Here, on F1 Beyond The Grid, Tom Clarkson has sat down with the people in the thick of all that drama and in this end-of-year special, Tom picks out his highlights. You’ll hear from the new World Champion Lando Norris, who reveals how he changed his mental approach to racing, and his race engineer Will Jos...
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 t...
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 e...
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 w...
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 ...
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 h...
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...
F1 legend Mika Hakkinen vividly recalls his 1995 Adelaide crash, a 120mph puncture that nearly ended his life and career, leading to significant safety improvements in F1. He details the arduous physical and mental recovery, the support from his family and McLaren, and the trepidation of returning to racing. Hakkinen candidly shares how this life-altering event transformed him personally and motivated his path to becoming a two-time World Champion, ultimately influencing his decision to retire.
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 Ferrar...
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...
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 amasse...
A whirlwind rise to Formula 1 with its most famous team in the 1960s, and one of the greatest sportscar racing drivers in the world during the ‘70s and ‘80s, Derek Bell has established an incredible legacy in motorsport. Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Derek talks about being personally picked by Enzo Ferrari to make his Formula 1 debut for the team at their home race and what it was like going out for dinner with Ferrari’s founding father. While he only registered one championship point during his F1...
Franco Colapinto didn’t take long to make a name for himself in Formula 1. He became the first Argentine F1 driver in 23 years when he debuted with Williams in 2024. It only took him two races to then become the first Argentine points scorer in the sport since 1982. More than a year since his incredible breakthrough, and now racing for Alpine, Franco tells Tom Clarkson the story of how a boy from the outskirts of Buenos Aires reached the pinnacle of motorsport. Franco remembers the sacrifices he...
Six months before their first race, the new Cadillac Formula 1 Team is already moving fast. The drivers have been signed, the car is being developed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and engineers are running simulations to prepare for Grand Prix racing. Leading Cadillac to the Formula 1 grid is Team Principal Graeme Lowdon, who knows how to launch a brand-new team. He did it in 2010 with Virgin Racing, which raced at the back of the grid and was graced by the talent of the late Jules Bianchi...
Aged 11, Gabriel Bortoleto left Brazil, determined to make it in motorsport. His family’s passion, hard work and sacrifice gave him a start. His talent saw him accelerate towards a racing career. A two-time World Champion saw he was special, and helped guide him to Formula 1. Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Gabriel looks back at his childhood, how his parents worked hard to fund his racing dream, how he made the difficult decision to leave them behind and go to Europe to further his career, and why Fe...
‘Pressure is the best motivation for all of us’. Fred Vasseur knows all about pressure. He leads Formula 1’s most storied team. At the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the tifosi – Ferrari’s passionate fans – want to see Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton on the podium. But what they, the rest of Italy and Ferrari fans all over the world really want Vasseur to deliver is the Formula 1 World Championship. Fred tells Tom Clarkson how Ferrari are building a team to fight for titles, and the high-priorit...
Today he's on F1TV giving us expert racing insight. But 10 years ago, James Hinchcliffe suffered a near-fatal accident during practice for the 2015 Indy500, which left many people doubting that his racing career could continue. A year later, he scored a sensational pole position at the very same racetrack. Speaking to Tom Clarkson, James talks through the freak injury he suffered and how he made such a miraculous recovery. A six-time IndyCar race winner, James also explains what it takes to be q...
Jacky Ickx didn’t grow up wanting to be a racing driver, so how did he become Belgium’s most successful Formula 1 driver and one of the most versatile racers in the history of motorsport? Competing in all types of cars and competitions, not only did Jacky win eight F1 races and finish runner-up in the Drivers’ Standings twice, he was also a serial winner in Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship and even the Paris-Dakar rally. Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Jacky tells the remarkable story of how ...
