His father is a tough act to follow, but Mick Schumacher is loving writing his own Formula 1 story. In his debut season he’s often out of the spotlight at the back of the grid, but he’s proving he’s got what it takes to compete with the front-runners. Mick tells Tom Clarkson about adjusting to life in F1, the lessons he’s still learning from his father’s career, and drops some hints about his future. Plus he takes us inside his F1 support system: he’s got Haas, Ferrari Driver Academy, Sebastian ...
Sep 01, 2021•38 min
The story of how Michael Schumacher made his debut, 30 years ago this week in Belgium, could have been lifted from a Hollywood movie. The German rookie got his chance when Jordan’s regular driver Bertrand Gachot was dramatically sent to prison on the eve of the race – the rest, as they say, is history. But what of Gachot himself? This week the Luxembourg-born racer joins Tom to tell his incredible story – including the full, incredible story of how he ended up in prison, what life was like for a...
Aug 25, 2021•55 min
This week we welcome F1 royalty onto the show: Sir Patrick Head, co-founder of Williams and an engineering legend. After going into business with Frank Williams in the late 70s, Patrick helped build one of the greatest teams in history, his engineering acumen leading to world championships aplenty. He speaks about that journey, including what it was like to work with Frank, how he responded to Frank’s life-changing car accident, what he looked for in the drivers that shaped Williams and much mor...
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr 32 min
This week’s guest has spent 30 years in F1, working with some of the sport’s greatest drivers. As Driver Coach of Ferrari’s vaunted academy, Jock Clear’s job is to help the likes of Charles Leclerc and Mick Schumacher perform to the best of their ability – a role he’s performed with others before. Clear became widely known to many F1 fans as race engineer to Jacques Villeneuve at Williams in the late Nineties and then – surprisingly – as engineer to the man who famously ran into the Canadian in ...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Nicholas Latifi always thought he’d follow his father into the world of business – but childhood karting and trips to the Canadian Grand Prix made him dream of racing in Formula 1. Chasing that dream meant leaving home to compete in Europe, and it’s a home he still misses at times. He earned his stripes in Formula 2 alongside Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon. His second season of Formula 1 has brought improved performances and his first World Championship points. He’s also closing in on Williams team...
Aug 04, 2021•58 min
Daniele Audetto was a key figure in arguably one of the most tumultuous and exciting seasons in F1 history: 1976. As team manager at Ferrari, he reported directly back to Enzo Ferrari from each race – and that included giving him the bad news when Niki Lauda was critically injured at the German Grand Prix. In this week’s show, 45 years on from that dreadful moment, Audetto recounts that weekend in detail, as well as Lauda’s heroic comeback and that tense title finale with James Hunt in Fuji. He ...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 24 min
This week’s guest may not be a household name, but for 20 years he was at the epicentre of Formula 1. Between the late 70s to early 90s, Peter Collins worked for Lotus under Colin Chapman, then Williams under Sir Frank, then Benetton alongside Flavio Briatore, before returning to run Lotus. In various managerial roles during that period he worked with some great drivers too: Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell, Gerhard Berger, Mika Hakkinen and Johnny Herbert. And the great news for us is that Peter has...
Jul 21, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Charles Leclerc returns to Beyond The Grid for a second time – and hasn’t a lot happened since his last visit? Charles last came on the show in 2018, when he was in his rookie season with Alfa Romeo Sauber but had just signed to race for Ferrari. Since then he’s become a superstar of the sport, winning races and taking brilliant poles, but also having to endure heart-breaking loss and team mate tension, amongst other things. He chats to Tom about all of the above and more, including what he like...
Jul 14, 2021•43 min
This week’s guest, Norbert Haug, held one of the most influential jobs in motorsport for more than 20 years. As the boss of Mercedes-Benz motorsport, he oversaw all of the company’s racing activities – indeed it was him who decided to return the Silver Arrows to F1 as an engine supplier in 1993. Once back, Mercedes enjoyed great success in partnership with McLaren – and Haug has great anecdotes to tell about Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. He also opens up on h...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 2 min
F1 Beyond The Grid welcomes back Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who was one of Tom's first guests on the back in 2018. Since then the team have re-emerged as title protagonists, with a real chance of taking both titles in 2021. Horner discusses their turnaround in fortunes, plus the journey they’ve been on to reach this point. There’s talk about the key staff in the team, the new power unit department, the most influential drivers in squad’s history, and of course the team’s dynamic driver duo ...
Jun 30, 2021•47 min
Jacques Laffite was part of a wave of fast French F1 drivers who hit the grid in the 1970s and 80s. His 12-year F1 career brought six race victories and he had more than one shot at the World Championship. It’s a record he’s pleased with, but as he reveals, his career is tinged with regret. Jacques tells Tom Clarkson about his eye-opening debut at the original Nürburgring, his championship chances, and admits he wishes he’d worked harder. He tells great stories about turning up to practice in hi...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Ivan Capelli is probably most familiar to F1 fans for driving that iconic ‘Miami blue’ Leyton House March car in the late 1980s. It was for that underdog team that he scored three podiums, worked with a young and innovative designer by the name of Adrian Newey and caught the eye of Ferrari. As an Italian, a move to Maranello was a dream come true, but it soon turned into a nightmare that lasted less than a year. In a feature-length and highly engaging conversation, Ivan discusses all of the abov...
Jun 16, 2021•1 hr 41 min
Our guest this week is a driver who never actually raced in F1 – but he did test an F1 car and very nearly raced one: Jeff Gordon. The Californian is a four-time NASCAR champion and global motorsport icon, who in 2003 enjoyed a life-changing F1 test with Williams. He tells us all about that outing, how close he came to a switch to F1 afterwards, why he loves Grand Prix racing, the differences between NASCAR and F1, his friendship with Lewis Hamilton, and whether an F1 driver would succeed in sto...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Some drivers seem destined to race in F1. Others have to fight for it. Roberto Moreno was in the latter camp. He arrived in Europe from Brazil with no money, yet he managed to climb the racing ladder on talent alone. An F3000 champion, he got test roles with Lotus and Ferrari, yet the bulk of his career - for one reason or another - was spent with teams at the very back of the grid. In this week’s show he tells us his inspirational story, from performing heroics to make the cut in Monaco with An...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 24 min
On-track he’s been audacious, daring and fast; off-track he’s been witty, animated… and has occasionally used very colourful language. Yuki Tsunoda is a very welcome addition to Formula One this year and on this week’s show he discusses the start to his Grand Prix career, his infamous radio mannerisms, his love of food, his relationship with Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko, and much more…
May 26, 2021•40 min
Olivier Panis was a very fine Formula 1 driver, but if there’s one thing he’ll be remembered for, it’s his remarkable victory in an utterly crazy Monaco Grand Prix in 1996. On this week’s show, the Frenchman talks us through what it was like to win on that day, for a French team, and how his life changed afterwards. He also discusses the other big moments in his career, including the leg-breaking shunt in Canada from which he was lucky to recover, his departure from Prost, driving for McLaren, B...
May 19, 2021•1 hr 20 min
Romain Grosjean returns to the show for the first time since September 2018 to discuss a life changing last six months for him. The Frenchman, of course, made headline news around the world for his miraculous escape from THAT dreadful fiery crash in Bahrain – and as he tells Tom, the episode has had a profound effect on him. He discusses the aftermath, the flashbacks and his recovery, plus his subsequent decision to continue racing in Indycars. Grosjean also talks about how his upcoming F1 test ...
May 12, 2021•41 min
Monisha Kaltenborn is an F1 trailblazer. After growing up in India, she moved to Europe with her family and went on to study law. It was as a lawyer that she first came into contact with F1. She’d go on to become an integral part of the Sauber F1 team, first as CEO and then as the sport’s first ever female team principal. She discusses that incredible journey, plus her experiences of being a high-profile woman in a male-dominated environment – and what the sport needs to do to have more women fo...
May 05, 2021•58 min
Paddy Lowe’s career in F1 took him from Williams to McLaren to Mercedes and then back to Williams. Over the course of that journey Paddy developed some of the biggest tech innovations the sport has seen – including active suspension - as well as working with the likes of Senna, Prost, Hakkinen, Mansell and current superstar Lewis Hamilton. On this week’s show he’s open and honest about it all – including his departure from Williams in 2019 and the new mission he’s on…
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 17 min
Jost Capito has as good a motorsport pedigree as you’re likely to find. His most recent successes on the world championship stage have come in rallying, when he oversaw Ford and Volkswagen’s world title successes – and now he's charged with bringing Williams back to the front of the grid. On this week’s show the Grove team’s CEO opens up on what the Williams family made of his appointment, how his background on the Dakar rally will help him in the role, what Jenson Button will bring to the table...
Apr 21, 2021•51 min
This week’s guest was a brilliantly fast racing driver – in pure pace terms, arguably one of the best over his years in the sport. Jarno Trulli won only the one race, at Monaco in 2004, but he put in many sensational qualifying performances - often seemingly out-performing his machinery. We spoke to him about all of the above, as well as what it was like to be Fernando Alonso’s team mate, how much he enjoyed driving for Alain Prost, why he never won for Toyota (despite some close calls) and much...
Apr 14, 2021•56 min
We’ve done something a little different this week, because we haven’t got one special guest, but four! And the glue that links the fab four is that not only do they all work at Mercedes, they’ve all been with the Brackley-based team since the beginning – back when they were BAR, then Honda, then Brawn GP and finally Mercedes. Join Tom as he shares the stories of Ron Meadows, Andrew Shovlin, Simon Cole and James Vowles and the collective highs and lows that bond them together like brothers. Spons...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 23 min
Yuki Tsunoda may be the latest Japanese racing hero, but he’s got a way to go to match the achievements of Tom’s guest this week: Kamui Kobayashi. In 75 races in F1 for Sauber and Caterham, Kobayashi earned himself a podium on home soil at Suzuka, more points than any other Japanese driver in history and cult hero status among fans. He’s also the man Sergio Perez credits for teaching him the dark art of tyre management. Kobayashi discusses all of the above and more, including the famous first im...
Mar 31, 2021•52 min
Having joined McLaren in May 2019, Team Principal Andreas Seidl has been a key cog in the Woking team’s recent renaissance. But get to know him and it’s easy to see why. On this week’s show the German discusses his hopes and aspirations for 2021 and why he couldn’t be happier with his driver line-up of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo. He also opens up on his management style, what he learned on the way up with BMW in F1 and with Porsche at Le Mans, and why standing on the grid at Monaco will a...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Beyond The Grid is back for a new season, and for our first episode we’re proud to bring you a driver who is firmly in the spotlight in 2021: Sergio Perez. No one on the grid has experienced as many ups and downs as the Mexican over the last 12 months, from being the first driver to catch Covid-19 to losing his race seat, to winning his first race to landing a last-minute dream move to Red Bull. Checo speaks about all of the above and much more, as well as giving us some fascinating insight into...
Mar 17, 2021•41 min
To millions of F1 fans around the world, Murray Walker was much more than an F1 commentator. He was the man that brought their passion to life, with his unmistakable voice sound-tracking – and enhancing – some of the greatest moments in the sport’s history. As the world mourns his sad passing, at the age of 97, we bring you Tom’s conversation with Murray from early 2019, as he looked back on his incredible life story, from the battlefields of World War Two to F1 commentary boxes across the globe...
Mar 14, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Mark your diaries – Beyond The Grid is back Wednesday March 17 with more raw, open and honest conversations with the biggest names in F1, from world champions to new-gen sensations, engineering gods to mighty team managers. Don’t miss it!
Mar 12, 2021•2 min
In the third of our Beyond The Grid Revisited episodes, where we delve into the show’s archives, we look back on Tom’s conversation with F1’s resident Iceman: Kimi Raikkonen. At the time of recording, Kimi was just about to embark on his first season with Alfa Romeo, after departing Ferrari. He was in extremely good spirits and, in a rare feature-length interview, was happy to open up on everything from his party boy past to the joys of fatherhood. Beyond The Grid will be back with a new series ...
Mar 03, 2021•45 min
In the second of our Beyond The Grid Revisited episodes, where we delve into the archives, we look back on Tom’s conversation with a fresh-faced Charles Leclerc in October 2018. At the time, Leclerc was still enjoying a first season of F1 with Alfa Romeo Sauber, but with one eye on Ferrari after signing a deal to race for the Scuderia in 2019. Listen to him discuss his hopes and emotions about racing in red, and about overcoming hardships in his emotional journey to the top of world motorsport. ...
Feb 24, 2021•49 min
In the first of our Beyond The Grid Revisited episodes, where we delve into the archives, we turn the clock back to our very first episode in 2018 to hear from Lewis Hamilton - then only a four-time champion. The Briton discussed how the sport had shaped him, how his interests away from F1 keep him grounded and much, much more. Beyond The Grid will be back with a new series in March.
Feb 17, 2021•53 min
