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

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Five Live Formula One We are so back. Welcome to your first checkered flag of the season. My name's Harry Benjamin. Joining me is former Formula One driver Jolian Palmer. Also got Ex-MLA and F1 mechanic Mark Priestley. We're here at Mercedes HQ and Brackley in the Silver Arrows room. And we've got uh Lewis Hamilton's. I think we worked this out 2018. 2018. And how big is that car? It's so wide. Yeah. You really don't.

The pitchers didn't do it justice back then, but it's uh it's a pretty awesome uh backdrop for our first uh checker flag of the season. Thanks for joining me guys. Um Jolion, twenty four, ready to do it all over again? Yeah. I I wintered okay, you know. I had a little bit of time off, had a holiday and then I've already been to preseason testing, but I'm raring to go.

Uh a lot of teams and drivers didn't have much winter at all. So uh so twenty four might be a lot by the time we get to December, but we're all fresh now. Well, I'm relieved knowing that you're well rested at least. Are you well rested, Harry? Uh I am well rested actually. I I did winter well as well. Um bit of beach time. I'm glad we've all wintered well. Sorry, where did that come from? Wintering well. Wintering well. Isn't that I feel like it's some sort of Is that a thing? We'll go with it.

Look, uh no one cares about our wintering. There has been a bit of scepticism though, coming into this new Formula One season. Mark, is it as bad as everyone is painting it out to be? No, it's not. I think it's I think there's massive intrigue coming into this season and I think that's justified. We should all be intrigued'cause this is literally the biggest technical change I think we've ever had in one go in the history of Formula One, right? So who knows how this is gonna go?

There's gonna be things we could get better, we can improve at, there's gonna be things that work really well. What I'm most intrigued about is just to get down to Australia and see what happens. And I think that's the thing. We're going into a season, we have no idea what's gonna happen, who's gonna come out on top and

That's what you want, isn't it? I'm so excited. I you you open with the most negative question you could possibly find for the start of the year. Well, there's a lot of scepticism going into it. There there is, and I think a lot of it is is unfounded really. I was in Bahrain, like I said.

And went track side, the cars look good. They are I mean there's massive changes as as Mark explained. Uh both on the on the chassis side, so the your car design, uh the ground effects of of last generation have gone, the downfall center is a little bit less. Uh but the bigger thing is the the power units. So now we've got a much bigger emphasis on the on the electric motor. So it's a pretty much fifty fifty split uh electric power versus combustion engine power.

So it's different, but honestly watching track side. It still looks like Formula One. It still looks really good. The drivers are working, the cars are s uh are sliding around more. That is exciting. Okay. I thought I'd start negative so we could then build it back up again. So it gives us a good place to do that.

Straight away. Exactly that's what we wanted, isn't it? Uh look, we've got so much uh to discuss throughout the course of this show. As Jolion and Mark have both alluded to already, massive regulations overhaul, so we're gonna discuss the new rules and regs in a bit more detail. We're gonna be hearing too from reigning world champion Lando Norris. Can he maintain that title this year?

We've got a rookie on the grid as well, British rookie Arvid Limblad. So we'll be catching up with him and his plans for the season. We'll introduce you to a new member of our checkered flag team as well. That's coming up later on the show. We'll look ahead. to the new season and give our predictions and we'll answer some of your questions. B B C S.

First, Jenny Gow, let's head over to you. Uh as uh as we've touched on, a new era for Formula One. There's there's the technicals and the regulations, but as I said, there's a new F1 face in in Arvid Limbla, but we've got new teams as well on the grid. Well, we've got Cadillac coming in. That's the big news, the eleventh team. Where Sabah were last year, now it's Audi and we have a new circuit for twenty twenty six as well. Madrid. We're going there, so watch this space.

And watch this space as well because I'm going to be speaking to Bradley Lord at Mercedes, who was one of the people that can tell us a lot about what's going on in this team. So come back soon. We shall do. There is a a lot s to discuss. I dunno we're gonna run over time, I think, and we're not gonna have enough time. But that's why we're here after every single race this season. But We're gonna talk about the rules and regs in depth now. So um actually not before I come to you guys

Lando Norris, the world champion, has been uh speaking to us and and explaining the rules in in the simplest way possible. Let's hear from him. I'll try and make it simple. So basically this year we just have a much bigger battery unit and

effectively almost a smaller engine in some ways. And that just makes things harder on track in managing the the battery mainly. So when you're when we're behind the wheel it's not as simple as just saying we're driving as flat out and only thinking about the corners, we're also having to think quite a bit about how we can use our battery in a a defensive way and also attacking way.

Um and that's just the rules. That's just what F1 have said. This is what we're gonna do. And as a driver, we just have to oblige and go, okay, this is the car we've got. How can we make the most of of that? Um So in essence the cars are gonna be like uh quicker in a straight line, slightly slower in the corners. Um but

a lot of these things I think are aimed at also trying to make uh more racing happen, more more situations where you're having to defend an attack and uh being able to catch people off guard in in better ways this year than you have been in previous years. Um

I think that's as simple as I can make it. It's it's a lot more complicated when you're behind the wheel and I think that's one of uh that's our challenge is as drivers and also, you know, my team, my engineers that I work with in figuring out how to make the car work in the best way and manage all these things in the most simple way.

Yeah, so it's it's complicated. Landon Norris there, uh explaining the very complicated rules. Uh Mark, uh anything to add? Is he is he nail there? It's such a complicated set of rules and if you're a team and a driver, if you're in the competitive sense here.

There's been so much to do. I mean you talk about wintering well, their winter has been very difficult because they've had to figure this out, not just the technology, but now we've we've developed and produced this technology, it's in these cars, now we've got to work out how to use it. So

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Um we've also got smaller cars. We referenced how big this 2018 car is behind us. This year, even from last year, they've shrunk in size. And that has had the effect of making them hopefully more nimble around the racetrack, a bit more drivable, which is great. Um but also a lot less downforce. There is lot less downforce coming from the size of the wings, the size of the floor. So we've got a a car that's got huge grip, uh sorry, huge power.

Not enough grip. That's gonna be interesting. We're gonna see cars sliding, we're gonna see wheels spinning up but the power comes in a very, very different way. And that's the thing that Lando's referencing there. How they have to manage the deployment of all of the energy they have coming from a petrol tank and a combustion engine and an electrical battery and an electric motor. It's a different way of going racing.

But Palmer, are we gonna get good racing? Why why have we done this? Why have we hit the big reset button almost? You've seen testing. Are we gonna get wheel to wheel action? Are we gonna see lots of overtakes? Is this what it's all for? Uh well it's for sustainable reasons as well, you know, moving towards uh fifty fifty split, more electric power, uh more bigger emphasis on hybrid, the road relevance and all of that. Sustainable fuels are aside

thing that are that are in uh amongst a huge amount of different changes as well. So there's a bigger picture here and the F one regs have been changed every so often in th throughout the history really, so it's not necessarily purely to spice the racing up.

But hopefully it will spice the racing up a little bit as well. So uh the pecking order will likely be different from from last year, but the racing will also be different. There's no DRS, which is a a major change actually in terms of how races are run on on Sundays. For anyone tuning in, watching, you'll be able to see what looks like DRS working, but it's now called Active Aero, and that's where the the rear wing and the front wing both have a a a flap down to basically reduce drag.

But everyone does that all of the time. So there is no gain really in doing that. That's just something that happens and it means that the speed comes up on the straights. To overtake now, there is something called Overtake. No. Yeah you won't believe it. But it's this is now this is the the new DRS basically.

So if you're within one second of the car ahead, it gives you extra energy that you can deploy effectively. So you'll need to recharge, you'll need to harvest the energy, but then you get a little bit more that you can you can deploy. And so effectively your overtaking tools are done now on the battery.

Formula One twenty twenty six is gonna be quite a lot about the battery. That's what Lando was explaining. That is the massive emphasis. Yes, the cars are different. Uh there's less downforce, they're more nimble. They're different to drive. The the ways of engineering is different. There's no ground effect. It's it's very different. But the biggest thing is the power units. And if we get good racing or not, it's gonna come down to energy deployment.

Harvesting energy and being tactical with with when you use it.

You know, in previous eras, you sort of build a car as a team, you drop it onto the racetrack at the first race, you sort of know the pecking order, because everyone's got a certain amount of performance. Yeah, you tweak it and you improve it over the year, but during a Grand Prix, we know that this car's fastest, this car's slowest.

What's going to happen this year is that performance is going to swing dramatically even during a lap, let alone a race, as the battery depletes and then is recharged and through the harvesting process.

You bear in mind half of your power is coming from that battery. So you could find a point in a lap where a car has a depleted battery having used it all down the straight. If someone else has got a full battery, they've got twice as much power as you. That could provide some really interesting races. That's that's the hope. So there's there's uh people listening in will probably be like, This this all sounds so confusing, it's complex and kinda those two are both true.

But there will be some racetracks as well where you'll barely notice the difference because energy harvesting will be really easy in the corners. When there's big breaking zones that the drivers can recharge the battery. when there's short straights they don't d deplete the battery so much. There'll be many tracks where

It's still Formula One just with more power and less down force, which will be fun. But in those races it'll actually be harder to overtake. When it's difficult to manage the battery, you'll get better chances to overtake. So somewhere like Melbourne to tee up for the for the first race. It's gonna be really difficult to to charge the battery because you haven't got big braking zones. The the track was changed a few years ago to make it faster.

Uh and that means that the speeds are higher. There's a lot more time on the straight. They took out the fiddly chicane uh that I famously hated. turns nine or ten, maybe that's why they why they did it. So now it's it's it's all high speed. And it means that the that the energy management's gonna be huge there. So if anyone even tunes in for the first race.

It's gonna look a bit different and I don't know what it's gonna do to the racing. If if you were still driving, Jolene, would you would you be looking forward to this new regulation, all the new tactics?'Cause it it feels like there's gonna be a lot on the driver here and how they How they manage the deployment and and harvesting and recharge and all these new terms that we're gonna get to grips with. It will really favor a thinking driver. Uh

I dunno, I think I would have quite enjoyed the challenge of being the thinking driver. So if you think that you can gain something, then of course it it benefits you. Uh the driving styles will be will be quite different as well. Um and the drivers are all getting to terms with sort of cars harvesting energy at the end of straight, so they they don't have all the power all the straight because they need to to regenerate power to the battery.

Um you know, it's really it's really complex, but I like the idea that there's some sort of high speed chess. So on one straight, if you want to go for the overtake, you have overtake mode and you and you try and go for it. You m you don't get it for free. So with DRS you just get it for free. You press the button, the rear wing opens and now you got extra speed. You get a little bit more more battery, but you still have to deplete your battery.

So if you overtake someone, they might be saving and they just zip you back on the um on the next trade. I'm intrigued. I cannot wait to see how this I think it's just so many unknowns, even for some of the teams who are still scratching heads right now, you can believe that. They haven't got this figured out completely yet.

So many unknowns, I can't wait to see how it works out. And that's the thing, I think we we'll get to Australia and th and we'll see whatever comes our way and then it'll be a could be a totally different picture. a week later in China or even five races in by the time we're rocking up to, you know, Miami and places like that. I think that's gonna be the thing, right? We always talk about the development rate of some of these teams and they are so good at bringing performance to the car.

Normally that's in sort of aerodynamic upgrades there, the bits we often see. There's so much to learn here, both aerodynamically and on the chassis side, as Jody had said, big changes in that regard. But this power unit, this hybrid system and the way it operates, there is so much to learn. Even without bringing technology, there's so much to learn and performance to be gained in just how you use it.

So there will also be people that are thinking, Oh, this sounds uh is it a bit gimmicky having this sort of three D chest, just get the drivers to to go and race. But DRS came in and was sort of gimmicky as well. But we just we got used to it. But the drivers also had to get used to that as well. And do you remember the sort of DRS game?

that we that we'd see play out where you'd say, Oh no I don't want to overtake you here, I'm gonna wait and I'm gonna try and get you on the next straight because if I pass you there'll be another detection and you can get past on the on the the following straight. So all of this stuff's gonna be back into into play where Twenty two drivers will line up on the grid. They won't really know how to necessarily go about overtaking in the best way.

They'll figure it out. They'll probably watch the race afterwards or they'll listen to your great commentary, Harry, I'm sure. Absolutely J And and they'll be like, Oh, that was actually pretty clever from from so and so. I'll try that the next one. But then someone will get on top of that and It's a snowball effect in the early days. And it's why we love Formula at the end of the day, isn't it? Is it a bit?

On a on a surface level, is it a bit Mario Karty where you're sort of sliding and drifting through the corners and building up that kind of nitro and then you're boosting and then you get that power down the straights with when it comes sort of Trying to think about how we're harvesting and deploying the energy because that's gonna be the biggest thing when we're watching on the TV screens at home. That's the biggest thing we want to try and see happen.

Yeah, I I mean look, Max Verstappen's already called it Formula E on steroids, so that's his view on that. But I think look, you've got to understand Formula One's always been developing and changing over the years. All the people that are shouting in my socials right now and I'm sure yours, bring back V10s, you know, I want to go back to the eighties. Well, even back then, we weren't just going flat out from start to finish. You're managing tires, you're looking after your gearbox.

There's always something to manage as a driver. This is just another different set of those things. These things will not look like Mario Kart. Yeah, I'll be back. Trust me. Trust me. I I get the I get the analogy. When I was standing trackside in Bahrain for testing It looks like Formula One. It it d doesn't look that different. What you notice is

They are rocket ships on the exeter corners. So in in seconds there are just I don't know five upshifts just straight through the gears because there's a thousand horsepower and the torque now is massive. You I was speaking to a couple of the drivers and they are wide-eyed and they're telling me the power is insane coming out of the corners. That's fun. That's fun. They're having to handle snappy cars with less downforce.

Yn, mae'n ymwneud â phobl ymwneud â phobl ymwneud â phobl ymwneud â phobl ymwneud â phobl ymwneud â phobl. And they generally I know there's not a lot that's been shaved off the the width and and the wheelbase, but they do look smaller visibly when you see them on on the T V screens for anybody who was able to watch testing. They look they look more fun just visibly to watch and and that's good to see.

I I just wanna get slightly technical, if I may,'cause I think we need to say two words which are probably banned in these parts and I wanna if Mark, you could just sort of explain Compression ratio and why the groan is. I think we need to cover it up. And just explain why that's been a bit of a controversy and where where we're at with it now.

Uh well look I'll do my best in the simplest terms, right? But in the the regulations this year we've had a change to the compression ratio that's allowed within your engine. Now that means effectively how much stuff you're allowed to squash inside the cylinder down into the the combustion area, right?

Uh it's become less than it was last year. There is talk amongst some of the teams that maybe Mercedes, potentially others, have found a way through thermal expansion of materials so that when they do the test, when the FIA carry out their test in cold temperatures, they pass

That sixteen to one compression ratio limit, but when the car's out on circuit running at temperature, as materials expand, that compression ratio is allowed to expand higher than that, therefore giving more performance. That's been the controversy of the winter.

But it's been a story, so we'll keep an eye on it. We will, we will, and I'm sure Andrew Benson will be reporting on it on the BBC Sport website as well. Uh thank you, Mark, for explaining that so eloquently. Um right, we're gonna go over to Jenny Gow now, I think, who is speaking with one of the big boxes. Yes, thanks Harry. I'm here with Bradley Lord, team representative at Mercedes. Now, Bradley, testing went well. I think it's fair to assume that, but There are some gremlins on there.

Yeah, there are. I mean testing did go well. I think we did the most miles of any team, but it was far from trouble free.

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A lot of people are talking about these challenges for this year. Some are very excited about it, some are a bit apprehensive about what we're actually gonna see. So how has the team approached these big changes? I mean it's been years of work. I think we started in the middle of twenty twenty two on the power unit, um certainly early in twenty twenty four on the sort of concepts and designs of the cars. So it's been a massive project to get this far.

Um there have been I think a lot of negative expectations around the cars and the rules so far, many of which have proven unfounded. Um I think for those who were trackside in Bahrain you had louder engines and a sort of better noise from the cars. They're a real handful off the corners. There's way more power than there is grip. Um they're like rocket ships down the straits, thanks to the SLM mode as well.

Um there will be some changes. Yep, straight line mode. So the active aerodynamics that um reduce the drag and, you know, help to um keep the lap times close to where they were last year. Um there is gonna be some change in how we go racing owing to the challenges of the energy management, how we recharge and then deploy that energy from the battery.

Um but that's a bit of a journey into the unknown and I think everyone's quite excited to see how it pans out in racing conditions, how the drivers cope with the pluses and minuses of that and how they can adapt to take advantage really of the situation. So when it comes to this season, obviously George Russell, Kimmy Antonani back in the cars, who do you think's got the upper hand?

Ooh, that's uh not a very fair question to ask, is it? Yeah, but that's my question. Um, look very evenly matched as you would hope for and as you would expect. Um there's a lot of positive expectation for George, I think. Um he's, you know, obviously one of the standout drivers of last season, very much ready to

take on a title challenge if we can give him the car to do that. I think he would back himself and is feeling very confident about that. As for Kimmy, it's second season, um he's kind of unrecognizable from the driver that turned up twelve months ago and was very wide eyed and everything was new for him and everything was happening for the first time. So we're excited to see them competing very closely and hopefully doing it at the front of the field.

I think a lot of people think that you guys might be the favourites for this year. I've spoken to a lot of fans. They're heavily backing you at the minute. Is that a moniker you would like or would you prefer to be the underdogs? I think In F one. At the start of New Regs in particular, everyone is always looking to put the pressure somewhere else. So all of our rivals are talking us up.

we're determinedly saying, well, you know, Ferrari look very strong, Red Bull look very strong, McLaren look very strong, which is what our numbers are showing. So um there's also the precedent of twenty fourteen, the last big engine regs change that Mercedes got absolutely right, the team at Brixworth at HP P did a incredible job. So

I think we can live with the expectation. We understand that pressure's being applied to us and then it's up to us to go out there, make the most of what we've got and hopefully, you know, put on a really good showing. Well good luck this year. Thank you so much. Thank you. Right. The big thing we all want to know

Who's quickest? Who's gonna win Melbourne? What's what's the pecking order? Jolion, you're out in testing. I'm glad you went to him first. I'll I'll give you a break. But he was he was in t at Bahrain to be fair. It feels like and what from everybody's saying

The top four teams, the usual suspects, are all in that sphere, but we can't quite pin them in terms of one, two, three, four yet, or can we? Uh no, we can't. They're all close. They're all pointing to uh each other being being the quickest. So to to break it down, Charles Leclerc was the quickest and Ferrari looked pretty good. Uh Leclerc at the end of testing did a load of laps that were basically qualisim laps. But even before that he'd looked pretty sensible in the Ferrari.

Uh and and so he grabbed the headlines, but a lot of people are thinking that Mercedes still have some more pace in hand. and they were holding back, they didn't do any headline grabbing times. They didn't really do any long runs when I was out there in uh in Bahrain either. So they they were obviously pretty happy with where things were at. Uh McLaren and Red Bull somewhere close as well.

But maybe just a a tiny bit adrift of those two is the is the feeling, but we are very liable to be surprised in Melbourne. Oh could it be Mark Ferrari? And and the year. If no one's seen that amazing video of the the practice start, didn't they? And Lewis Hamilton absolutely roaring through to the lead by turn one from starting like midway through the pack because of how powerful that is he started ninth by the way.

Go back to first by turn one. I think even the has of Ocon with the Ferrari power absolutely was like a rocket ship as well. It's the year of the horse. Yeah, I know. Are the stars aligning? Well, do you know what I think um I I totally agree with what Jodien just said. It's too difficult to call really at this point, but we do know that they, Ferrari, do have a much better car as things stand. What's what's gonna be interesting is as I said before, these swings in performance

are gonna happen quite dramatically as people figure this stuff out. That start you're referencing was early in testing. By the end of testing, it felt a lot closer that everyone was getting on top of how they, you know, deploy their energy to get off the line, how they get the get the power down, get the turbo spinning up. So so many Yeah. But also the new cars are going to suit certain drivers more than they're going to suit others.

Even a driver like Lewis who struggled in the last generation of cars, maybe this type of car suits him a little bit bit better. It's a a more nimble, slightly lighter, smaller car. Maybe it comes back towards his driving style. So the teams are one thing in the pecking order. The drivers within that could be shuffled around as well. I think the other thing as well though, on top that I've quite enjoyed seeing, I think just to go back from Ferrari's perspecti perspective as well, Jolie, and

All the cars look different, I think, in in certain areas and you can see developments already up from bar the first barrain test to the second barrain test. You spoke about the active aero earlier and we have straight line mode where the rear wing and the front wing effectively open. They all open slightly differently. And Ferrari brought well, they brought a wing that pretty much flipped completely a hundred and eighty degrees round. Yeah. Well, I mean that's impressive to see.

the the the dare of Ferrari to bring such a such a uh intuitive design in these early stages. It blew my mind when I saw that in testing. And that takes a lot. Yeah it does because I'm so I've y I've watched a lot of Formula One cars. I've seen a lot of modern day Formula One where I know in the past, you know, there was there was a Tyrrell that ran with six wheels. There were all sorts of

No, no. Blew my mind. I was I okay. I was I was uh it was about twenty years before I was born, so uh so I I didn't have a chance to blow my mind. But uh innovation has been much smaller. So Mercedes actually came up with a with something called DAS a few years ago, which was also one of these wow moments in testing where they're able to change the front geometry from a a pull of the steering wheel.

Um but even then just seeing this Ferrari rear wing where it literally so when they activate what looks like DRS, it's now called is is Active Arrow, straight line mode. Um but the wing just it flips, inverts upside down, which means that they're gonna get a a better top speed, effectively, less drag.

I don't even know if they'll run it. They literally did it for one lap of testing, came back in the pits, changed it back over, and then we never saw it again. But it was enough for them to get some data. F enough for for us to get a good look at it and replay it out to the to the world so everyone else has seen it.

I love stuff like that. And actually just looking at the rear wings alone, I think there's three or four different routes that teams have gone down in how they activate that active aero. So the way that these

flaps pivot. Ferrari were by far the most extreme. I loved it. I love the fact someone's daring enough and and bold enough to come up with something that seems on the face of it to be so crazy. They may or may not use it'cause there's gonna be compromises. There are a number of Penalties probably in terms of the weight. Mae'n ymwneud â'r mecanism yw'n ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r ymwneud â'r

You know, when it when it reattaches, it's vertical for a moment as it comes back round. That creates massive drag, which helps with the breaking phase of slowing down, but also puts massive load on it. So there's all sorts of factors to figure in. It's a brilliant innovation. Love seeing it like Jodie and said. Uh whether they bring it or not and we see it again, no idea. Started overtaking left or right before he just gonna go over the top. Shut it.

get on the ground again and hit the brakes. Quite literally off to a flying star for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. I mean there's a lot of positive rumblings coming out of Ferrari from testing. Of course we're not gonna know until well qualifying in Australia where they're actually at. But Lewis Hamilton don't in particular seemed uh

Well, much more jovial than he was after the first bar rangest and the shakedown in Barcelona as well that they did earlier too. Um but where where do we think Lewis Hamilton is coming into this season? Because one thing I wanted to pick up on was If I'm right, at the time of recording he had a he had a race engineer uh last year that is is now no longer his engineer for this year. He's had a a almost a temporary one for testing.

with still no announcement about who the man in his ear is going to be this year. That to me seems like quite a big uh question mark to have looming over such a big year in Formula You are right, yeah. It w he he has a a temporary interim race engineer who's who's a race engineer that has worked with Ferrari before, worked with Kimi Riken in there and and has a lot of experience. He's been in the in the in the back office at Ferrari.

Uh but he's he's gone away from his his Ed Race engineer from from last year and is expecting to get a a new permanent one coming up. It's not good for Lewis really to have that level of of doubt and a a change of personnel before such a difficult set of uh regulations to to get your teeth into. Communication's gonna be so important.

There's gonna be information overload I think for the drivers. So to to you wanna you wanna build up a rapport with your race engineer, you wanna know each other inside out. And Lewis hasn't got that. So he was a bit jovial in the in the last Bahrain test, but I I don't know, Ferrari looked good, but I thought Leclerc looked really good as well and Lewis is is going to be up against him. I was just going to say, unless it's someone that Lewis already knows.

Maybe we don't know who it's gonna be and maybe already has a relationship with that person. Well Bono. I don't think it's gonna be Bono. But you know it's not gonna be Bono, but it could be somebody it may be that it's not starting from scratch, but I agree it's a It's such a key relationship and it they're gonna be starting late with that potential. Yeah, well it's one of the big stories we'll be following. Um also we should touch on Red Bull, part of this top four gaggle.

Uh Max Verstappen and Isaac Hajar their lineup. Uh but also the first time that they are developing and and produce their first powertrain, Red Bull powertrains in partnership with Ford, another massive brand coming back into Formula One. And Mark, this seems to have actually this partnership seems to have generally impressed the paddock after their Pretty much seamless run through tested.

I think more than impressed, blown away. Most people have to do it. That's about as big as it gets from him. But I think they've done an unbelievable job, not just'cause it's the first time but actually midway through last year if you spoke to people who are connected to that project

They weren't full of confidence. They were behind schedule, they were running a little bit late, they were having all sorts of problems and and dramas. We get to the first test and it it feels like not only have they got a reliable power unit, they've got a powerful one. that at the moment a lot of the drivers are saying has the best electrical deployment of anyone on the grid. So so far it looks like an amazing job.

Well we'll see how they get on. And uh lastly on this one, Jolion McLaren. We haven't mentioned them already, but are we actually underestimating them a little bit? Because We're not they're the reigning champions. Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, but no one's going, Yeah, no, everyone's saying George Russell, Mercedes, Ferrari but are we are we actually missing something here with McLaren? I think we're underestimating them, definitely. I

They they're very happy for everyone to underestimate them. It's how they've basically existed for the last few years when they've been very good. Uh they have the Mercedes Power Unit, which seems to be the best one overall. Uh it's certainly not gonna be a hindrance to them having that. They have proven in the last couple of years that they can develop the car kind of better than anyone in the last set of regs.

Uh so the the the downpours will be generated in a different way this year. But even then the correlation between what they able to to put in the wind tunnel versus what goes on the on the car and gives them performance. Mae'n sylweddol iawn. Mae'n sylweddol iawn. Mae'n sylweddol iawn. Mae'n sylweddol iawn. Mae'n sylweddol iawn. They are n they are not going to be far away. So I I thought it might be Mercedes V. Ferrari just at the front, but McLaren certainly could be could be there.

And I'm not gonna you couldn't you just can't rule out Max Verstappen, can you? He he could make the difference from from Red Bull being to being race winners straight away. Well the Red Bull the car could be four. fastest, but actually Max Verstappen will put it second or third. Max Verstappen can win. I think we've seen that now. And you know what we should say here is this this year with so many new complications and new rules, new things to get the head around

The teams that have the slickest operation are likely to come out of this on top. If you look back over the last few years, Red Bull have been right up there as one of the best, even though they didn't win the championship last year. I'd say operationally, you could probably argue they might have been the best team last year. So that bodes well for them. Well let's hope it's uh tight in the top four at least. Let's hear.

From our world champion again, shall we? Lando Norris sat down with Natalie Perks prior to testing in Bahrain and gave his thoughts on how open the title race will be this season and whether the order at the top will be tighter than ever. Um the it's an opportunity for everyone. Um and we of you know we were so f we were fighting for the constructors and also for the drivers for a long way into the season.

And you know, I won the championship by two points. So and two points could easily have been if we didn't bring that final upgrade or that final piece of to the car. um somewhere along that way I could have lost two points, one position. So, you know, it's um There's a l lot of focus then and you had some teams able to care less about the end of the season and just switch their focus to this year a bit earlier than what we may we were maybe able to do. Um

But it's it's hard to know. I think you're still gonna most likely see the top four teams that you you have seen for for a while um being the most competitive. But you can easily also see some surprises from some of the other teams who have been able to focus a lot more on this year solely and kind of forget about last year a bit more. So

Um it's an exciting one'cause I don't know. I don't know what it's gonna be like. Uh but we've worked hard to try and obviously give ourselves the best chance to repeat what we've done the last few years, to fight for wins, to fight for championships. And uh We focus on the part of the internet that most people don't know about. It's called the dark web. Undercover. US special agents can be a very good thing. Move in now. From the BBC World Site

Jag ses vilken tråkig radiospott det här. Tryck på knappen där det står tidsmaskiner. I framtiden har Skelleftkraft gjort så alla kan köra på en. Wow! Trycka igen! Блять. Hoping that's gonna be the case.

Landon Norris speaking there. Right. Earlier I promised I would introduce a new member of the chequered flag team for this year, and I always keep my promises, so please. give a very warm checkered flag welcome to Izzy Hammond. How are you? Hi, I'm very well. How are you? I'm very well, thank you. It's nice to have you here. It's great to be here. Now we are we are in vision on the BBC Sport website, but we are also on BBC Sounds on the Checkered Flag podcast. And for those of you listening,

cannot see that Izzy is actually having to stand on a box. And I'm stood on a pelly case. Yeah. How tall are you? I'm four foot eleven. And I'm six foot five. So this is a match made in heaven. But tell you what, being small is actually quite good. For being a racing driver. I knew that was gonna get brought up. And we have to address the elephant in the room. And actually

So Max Verstappen said about these cars, the new generation of Formula One cars. They're a bit like Formula E on steroids. Yes. Now you're actually out of everybody on the panel today, and that includes a former Formula One driver, you're the one with the most recent racing experience. having raced around was it the Jeddah track in Saudi Arabia in a Formula E car but that you did find the wall. It didn't go well. No. No, it didn't go well. I did hit a concrete wall and I'm absolutely fine.

Yeah, I jumped out, walked away, not a problem. Car was less fine. But you know, it's all part of the learning. How was it being in a in a single seat racing car that literally just been racing that weekend? Yeah, yeah, just come off the back of a double header actually in in Jedi. So um yeah, it was pretty amazing. It was probably the best kind of

few minutes of my life until obviously I hit the wall, then it was less fun. But it was a unbelievable experience. Now I I heard somewhere that y you went to university, but if you could do your time again You'd bin that off and you'd try and be a racing driver and try and sort of be an F one Academy now, the all the all female racing series. Is this giving you more hope for that? Well, I don't know if it's given me more hope. Uh I'm thinking maybe I made the right decision by not doing that.

Uh but it was so much fun. Don't regret it. Would do it again. Maybe try and practice a bit more. Uh maybe try and steer a bit more, break a bit. Would have been good. Those all sound like things you should do. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh in the moment. A little bit more difficult. Turns out yeah it's quite difficult.

Well I don't envy you. I don't think I'd be able to fit in the car anyway. But No, you wouldn't actually There's definitely some content goal to be had there at some stage. But we should also say you're a content creator, you people will know you from Drive Tribe and and doing quadrant uh Landon Oris's quadrant stuff as well.

Um and and you are an F1 fan. So so talk to me. What what have you made of sort of all the build up to to this twenty twenty-six season, which feels like it's gonna be like no other? It's very exciting, isn't it? There's a lot of people talking about a lot of things. It's just quite overwhelming.

Um no, I'm super excited. I think having a couple of new teams on the grid is gonna be amazing. Audi particularly for me as a as a car sort of road car person, that's really exciting. Having a manufacturer like that on the grid again, that's gonna be amazing. Um lots of young people. I I put Arvid in his first F one car. Really? Yeah, I did. You're responsible for him being a Formula One driver. And I broke it.

Immediately. It's you're gonna Yeah, it's kind of a running theme with me in these cars. I do tend to break them. Um I was doing some stuff with Red Bull and we popped him in a car and he did his first of up and down in in Texas and then they just made him do donuts all day. That was the first thing he had to do in the F1 car. And I was there. I sort of put him in and strapped him in and pulled the pin out, broke it.

But then he did great. And now he's a Formula One driver, so So it was all me, really. I gave him the confidence to do it. There is a common theme here, is he? Okay. Well look, you're gonna be kind of joining us this year, uh, doing uh some checkerflag podcasts where We're kinda we're gonna leave the sort of tire strategy and and the kind of stuff to you know, we'll leave that on the check a flag post race shows, which will be there for you in sound and in vision.

Uh but we're kinda be gonna be taking a look a sort of a sideways look at Formula One because there's so much that happens on track, but there's so much that happens off it as well. Yeah, we're gonna do the fun stuff. Yeah. Basically. We'll leave the the boring stuff to those guys. We don't need to do that. We'll do the fun stuff.

Exactly. Well we're gonna go back and do the boring stuff in a minute, but um but what that means we wanna hear from you as well throughout the course of uh the well, the year, uh hashtag BBC F one. on X and you can get in touch go on email as well, F one

at bbc dot co dot uk because sort of no question is off limits really. No. What are you most looking forward to sort of what do you want to find out about this year? What's sort of the burning questions that you have coming into this season? Just sort of how it all works, really. It's all a bit complicated. Yeah.

Um, I'm quite happy to ask some pretty stupid questions, I'm not gonna lie. So I can take that role and then hopefully we can all learn together and then we'll know more about it because it's more fun the more you know. It is more fun to watch.

um if you get really nerdy about it. So Yeah, well, looking forward to it. I can't wait to do it as well. So excellent. Good to have Izzy with us for the season and she's also you're gonna be joining us later at the end of the show as well uh to uh ask some fan questions That have been sent in. In the meantime, let's hear from the rookie on the grid this year. A man as he knows well, Arvid Limblad will be racing for Racing Bulls, and he caught up.

With the BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson out in Bahrain, where we hear all about how Arvid is preparing for his debut year. My paternal side of the family's massive. Sort of motorsport uh fan. My my grandfather is a m massive motorsports fan. He'll watch anything with wheels and an engine. And um

He did a little bit of motocross with my dad um when when he was younger. Unfortunately they did they couldn't do it for very long. Um but he sort of passed that passion down to my dad who passed on to me. So when I was three my dad got me a motocross bike.

Um and to be honest that didn't last very long. It was a bit too much for my mum, uh little three year olds on on on the motocross bike. So that um that died out quite quickly. But then when I was five I I went karting for the first time and and loved it from the beginning. But I'd say that's a good thing.

A big sort of turning point for me that I remember very well was when I was when I was about four, uh, my dad had the F was sitting on the sofa and had the F one on and I came and sat down next to him and, you know, was watching watching the race and sort of asking him like Is it possible to be there? You know, how c could could I? How does it work? Um and that was really the moment when I I saw the cars and w wanted to to be there one day and that sort of

Fuelled the start of the journey. Now you mentioned your mum and your dad there. obviously you've got a very interesting backstory in terms of your family. Could you run people through that briefly what exactly that is? Yeah, so um my my dad's from Sweden, he's born and brought up in Sweden. Um my Mum is from the UK but her parents are from India. Um they're from the the Punjab region.

Um they grew up there and lived there for uh a big part of their lives so um I have quite a diverse mix. Uh it's quite yeah, quite quite a rare combination. But um yeah, I'm very proud of my heritage. Um, all three parts. have really shaped me, um, to who I am today. I've been very exposed to all three, um, even though my grandparents, you know, um have moved to the UK when th when they had my mum. Um they're still very traditional Indians, um and I've gone through

I uh I've been exposed to a lot of their sort of cultures. Um rituals, the food, the prayer, all that sort of stuff from an early age as well as the Swedish and it's really Shape. who I am today. Arvid Limblad speaking with Andrew Benson there. I mean and Jenny Gow's joined us by the way. Hello Jenny. Welcome back to the panel. Um well let's start with you Jenny then. Arvid Limblad, another British driver to add to the grid. We had what, six rookies lining up last year, just the one.

for this year and it all falls on Limblad. How are we expecting him to get on? I am hopeful for him. We knew kind of halfway through last year that he was the most likely to get picked, although they didn't announce it at that point. But I think he's talented. Um but look how well he did when he actually got to that seat. So

He's propelled up to Red Bull and let's see what he what Arvard could do at racing balls but he he has a lot of potential and I'm really excited for him. Yeah, sixth in F two last year, youngest winner in Formula Two and actually what's quite interesting is one of his mentors or his manager Is the uh Formula E world champion Oliver Rowland, uh, who's a British driver. I wonder how helpful that could be, Mark.

I think sometimes having a manager who has experience just gives I mean maybe you'll know this more than me, but just gives you the ability to have conversations, knowing that the other person understands what you're talking about from a driving perspective. yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw.

Do we want to go back there? I think I think you did make the the journey after testing, didn't you, or in between to to see the former Lee race in Saudi Arabia to watch how they all Conserve energy. But it's a slightly different type of way of doing it. But uh I'm sure it's a good thing.

Um well he'll be uh racing for racing bulls uh alongside Liam Lawson. But let's let's talk about this kind of we've we've got the top four teams, then Jolene we think there's a gap and we have this best of the rest, the midfield. I'm throwing in Hass, I'm throwing in an Alpine, a racing bulls. A Williams, where are we at? Do we have a sort of clear best of the rest?

No, not at all, I don't think. Uh basically the teams that he threw in are gonna be are gonna be there. I maybe I maybe Williams don't look like they're in a great spot to start the year. But the other three teams are are close, I think. Uh Racing Bulls and Alpine. I'll relist them. Uh I don't know which order they'll be, but I think the the key thing is they'll all be fighting for points on the regular I think and it'll probably change race to race.

Alpine having the Mercedes engine them, not saying that just because we're here at Mercedes and the PR guys next to me, but I think that does give them a massive help. Renault were really struggling and it was a bold move to move away from their own team. we know Mercedes Ace power units and if they can do the same again this year i i it looks like they have, um then Alpine right there. So I'm gonna jump the gun.

And uh I know you g we're gonna come to Aston Martin at some point. But Aston Martin have gone away from Mercedes Power. And they've gone to Honda. And I think that shows how sensible Alpine's approach was to ditch the Renault power units that they've basically always had.

And just say it's not good enough. We're not going to win with this. Let's just bolt a Mercedes in the back, like McLaren did to win the title last year. And at the least we'll be competitive. And I I having watched testing, seeing how new power unit manufacturers basically are struggling. Not that Rena were new, but it's not a good thing.

They had they would have one team, they would have not the resource probably of Mercedes and they in the last set of of rule changes they they fumbled it massively in twenty fourteen. It's a great movie.

Alpine to rebuild as a customer team. Because they're in Formula One to promote their own road cars. They want to sell more Renault cars off the back of the Alpine smart. Alpine slash Renault. And they're accepting the fact that They can't make an engine good enough and they're going to go to one of their main rivals in that automotive sector market and borrow the engine from that and go, Well, here we go, we are doing well in Formula One now but it's

I get it and I get it and I think when they have good results in the sport it will translate into the brand looking good. But it's just an interesting PR move, isn't it? It is, but it I in my opinion it doesn't matter at all. McLaren won the title last year. That helps drive McLaren sales. The fact that they had a Mercedes engine in the back. No I don't think anyone cares. McLaren were with the were the champion.

Uh the same with when Aston Martin they had a Mercedes engine in the back. They now have a Honda. They're Aston Martin, powered by Honda. But it's it's a it's a side note, isn't it? Alpine if Alpine hey, if they can win a race It'll be amazing PR for LP. No one's gonna be saying, but you should have a Renault in the back. Forget it. They'd be at the back if they had a reno in the back. Why um why are Williams not if they if they were fifth last year, what was a pretty pretty

Good year for them. A couple of podiums with Carlos Sainz. W why are they not in the conversation for sort of top at the best of the rest pile? I think that it's that's really disappointing for them. And it bear in mind this is just at the beginning and there's a long way to go here, a lot of development as we keep saying. But there's been so much focus on twenty six for them, building over the last couple of years towards this moment.

Mae'n rhaid o'r talk o'r car yn ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol at ymwybodol. it's slower than it should be. So those things will improve and they will find ways to to shed the weight, to improve all the other aspects of their car, but it's not a great starting point. I think it's gonna be a huge disappointment for the guys and girls at Williams who've had so much hope. pinned on twenty twenty six.

No, it's not it's not the start they wanted, isn't it? And then well, okay, let's go there. You did jump the gun but we'll we'll happily go there anyway. I mean Aston Martin, you think they've got all the it seems like they've got all the money in the world with with Lauren Stroll backing it, Jolion. State of the art facilities. in Silverstone. This is a team that always used to be kind of the the plucky minnows. They they were always

uh able to kind of stretch D did good with little. Well exactly. You know, y go back to Eddie Jordan or y your Force Indias, your Minardis, your Spikers, that's what this team is born out of, right? And now you think, okay, this is the year Honda off the back of success with Red Bull powering them to world championships.

And then you put Adrian Newey as the designer of the car, the GOAT when it comes to design in Formula One. You're you're hiring new engineers, you've got Fernando Alonso in one of your cars. This is the golden ticket. So surely with the state that they're in after testing where it looks like they could be last, behind Cadillac, a brand new team, do do heads roll or can they recover in time for Australia?

There's no big heads to roll at the moment, they've all just joined. I if I I look at Aston Martin like Real Madrid assembling the Galacticos. You've got Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Bex joins from from Man New and they uh you know, what twenty years ago? They assemble basically all the the best players or title winning players. And it didn't necessarily work, and it took a it took a bit of time considering the the the sum of their parts.

The output was I think they probably did all right, the Galactic O's, but not not they weren't they it took it took a while to to tell. No, exactly. And um and and I think Aston Martin right now, you look at Adrian Newey, headline signing. So many titles. Pretty much every car he's ever built has been winning winning races, titles, uh or at the very least a good check. Fernando Alonso's still driving there. He's a two time world champion.

Aging a bit, but he is still I believe it's a big no no hey Jenny Jenny we're all aging a bit to be honest. We're aging at the same rate. But he is gonna be forty five this year. In in modern F one standards that's the oldest driver we've had for I uh quite some time. I haven't done the stats. Don't wanna yeah, pin yourself to the moss on that one. I'll I'll look it up before we get to Melbourne.

You know, he time is not on his side, but I still think Fernando's driving at a really high level and he's a two time world champion and he is hungry for it. He doesn't turn up if he's not wanting to put everything into it. And then finally they've they've added Honda to the mix and Honda have really had a a good power unit for the last few years. With Red Bull, they've been win winning titles. They've managed to turn around a a bad start to be

in in some ways the the s the standout power unit. It was all tiny margins. But you thought that is a great signing for Aston Martin. On top of that, Lawrence Stroll, the team owner, has done a huge amount of work upgrading the the factory, the wind tunnel, putting everything together at base. And you're thinking they uh they now, twenty twenty six, new set of regulations, they have the designer, they have the driver, they have the factory and they have the power unit that have won title.

So when you piece it all together and you get the most disappointing winter testing Can maybe remember certainly for a long time. They're on the back foot, yeah. S so far on the back foot. They're not just slow. I mean we don't even actually know if they're slow because they haven't done enough laps to prove that or otherwise. They just couldn't even put a handful of laps together a lot of problems with a power unit, so much so that I think they're so far on the back foot

And even beyond that, you get a car that can get to the end of a race. They've only got one team with that Honda Power unit that's done no mileage so far. There's no learning happened. They're so far behind in the data collection and the understanding compared to everyone else.

They are miles behind the rest of the field right now. And that's the problem. Anyone that's starting from from scratch is playing catch up. Uh Honda's starting from a little bit uh behind on the in terms of the the engine product. In terms of the engine project. Uh Newy joined a little bit late, so they're playing catch up on the chassis side. And then for this year, they they just hit the ground late and they have done so few miles.

I didn't see the car that much when I was in Bahrain. I c I can't tell you what it looks like too much because it was in the garage for most of the time. They did six laps total on the on the final day. Uh the Fernando stopped with a with a a power unit issue on day two.

They're just struggling and if they make the checker flag a in Australia that'll be a good start for them, which is a sad state of affairs. Well, if you think about my conversation with Bradley Lord at Mercedes, they started their project in twenty twenty two. It just goes to show Aston Martin have left it so late. They've brought all the top bots in.

And Honda were on the cusp of leaving at one point and they came back. So, uh yeah, there is certainly work to do down at Aston Martin Cadillac, kind of where I think people expected them, towards the bat, but actually a fairly promising uh testing program for them. Further forward than we thought they might be. The reason they didn't get an entry for so long was because they didn't think they were going to be competitive.

They've come, they've turned up to testing, they've wheeled it out, they've done some decent laps. They're I think for me, they're further along the plan than I expected. Where did you think they were gonna be? Well people thought they would be like Aston Martin, not being able to compete. I I think they will I think they will probably be lost. But I think uh behind Aston Martin.

But i I guess it's a case of expectation versus versus reality, isn't it? They're a brand new team. So w you know, I don't I'm not expecting that no one's expecting them to be anywhere near the points. Or even if they outqualify anyone That's all right for a brand new team. They've got two drivers that have won races.

And it's fine. At some point we'll say, Come on guys, you need to you need to get on with it and get closer. They've hired a lot of good technical minds. You walk in the garage and you see people from from other teams with loads of experience uh that have joined.

I think Bottas will be near the back. I'm pretty sure he's got a grid penalty, hasn't he, to serve after his last race uh with the sourity. I think I think they have changed the rule, but they can't backdate when they gave him the penalty when it was under that rule.

So he got penalty in his final race with with the Salva team. Yeah, no, imagine he'd pole and tempt. Sorry mate. Yeah. Well we'll see. Um and Audi as well. Uh look kind of in the lower end of the midfield, but uh again another solid testing for them too. Uh right, you have been sending in your questions in droves using the hashtag BBCF1 and I believe, Izzy, you have some for us. I do have some questions for you all. I hope you're excited to answer them. Let's do it. Number one, we have

What race circuits should we look forward to in this new era? That's from Alistair. Great question. Hit Australia. 'Cause it's the first one. Absolutely. Other than that, any more exciting ones? I'm looking forward to Madrid. We've got a new circuit on the calendar. Jenny mentioned at the start of the show, street track.

Bit of an unknown. I'm I'm all for going into the unknown. Have you looked at the layout of Madrid at all? Y I don't wanna judge it until we see it, but I agree with you the racing opportunities don't look that great. I'm just excited to go to every track, bearing in mind these cars, we don't know what they're gonna do, we don't know how they're gonna react. specifically to drivers. So every racetrack is gonna be hot property, I think. It's gonna be exciting to see.

I th I think that's good on the circuits. Guys. Do you wanna know mine just for fun? Yeah, go on. I wanna see Monaco because we've got smaller cars now. So they might look a bit cooler when they're going round and doing their things. Thank you very much. Still not that small, are they? You never know. They might do something weird. Could be cool. Okay, next question is from Ashley. Which driver do you think is going to surprise us this season?

And you can name only one. Oh, a surprise driver this season. Good or bad, good or bad. I'm gonna go in a good way and I'm gonna say my surprise driver of the year will be Isaac Hajar for the fact that he will actually be able to show competitiveness within the second Red Bull seat. So we can hold you to it at the end of the season. So he he will be able to finish uh behind Max Verstappen by only one position where possible. That's quite a big claim.

He'll be able to help the team get points. Okay, good. Alright, you're really rowing back on that now, aren't you? At least ten. But yeah. Well I tell you what I'm really intrigued by with a driver, and that's Fernando Alonso, because I'm intrigued to see How far into the season it's gonna be before he chucks his first grenade out towards the media when everything's going wrong. Everyone. We all know it's gonna happen. Yeah, he's already had a few

Not the Hassan. I I I'll say Ollie Behrman, but I I don't think it will surprise me if he does well because I I'm kind of expecting it, but I think Hass are looking good and he finished the last year really well. I think I think he'll surprise everyone. I'm gonna go Pierre Gasly. I think he was one of my standouts last year, even though the car was terrible. Give him a decent engine and the car looks good. Um I think he'll win a race.

Wow. I know. Wow. That's my news. That's right. I didn I I didn't know if you could Up Harry's prediction of boldness. But wow. Is he who you go for? Whom I go for. You've stolen mine. I was gonna go for Hadjar as well. Okay, we'll share him. I think he's gonna break that curse. I think he's gonna do it.

Someone's got it. Someone's got to. Okay, final question. I'm gonna combine two into one. So this is from Isaac and from Tati. So can Hamilton win number eight this season or is George Russell taking home the championship? It's a savage either or but you've got to make a decision. Oh, that's a bit black and white though, isn't it? Can he do the first question is can he beat his teammate, right?'Cause even if Ferrari have a world championship winning car, can he beat Charles Leclerc?

And I still think that is a really tall order. even for the might of Lewis Hamilton, but I really do think he's a lot happier. I think these cars are gonna suit him better. So I do think there's gonna be it's gonna be a much closer battle. The difference between Mercedes and Ferrari, php I've still got no idea. I don't think Hamilton will win number eight this year. I hope he can win some races. I'd love to see him challenge again. I don't I think there's too much going against him.

for him to win number eight, but who writes off Lewis Hamilton? Uh probably a fool. Well you just did. A fool. Uh but I I will go with the second part of that and I think this will be George Russell's yeah. I would love for Lewis to win his eighth. I think a lot of people Mae'n rhaid i fod yn ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud ei wneud He's in a good frame of mind, but I I just don't believe that he will this year. Um and who George Russell. Can he do it?

Look, we had a big debate about this in Austin last year. Um, you thought he would I I wasn't so sure. So I'll I'll stick with I'm not convinced, yeah. Well, thank you very much for all those questions. We'd love to hear from you throughout this season. You can use the hashtag BBCF One on X or you can email us any and all questions. It's F1 at BBC.co.uk. Uh right, I know, I know Palmer, you gave your your champion, but just for the sake of it, I want your definitive

world champion for twenty twenty six and I'm gonna hold you to this all the way to the checker flag in Abu Dhabi. Mark Priestley, who is your world champion? George Russell. George Russell. Jolien Palmer for the take. Still George Russell. Jenny Gow. I'm gonna go bold. I'm gonna go Max Verstappen. Not that bold. I thought she was gonna say Pierre Gatti. Izzy Hammond. I'm going Lando Norris, number two. Oh Yeah. I think he's got another one in him.

And I'm gonna go for George Russell as well, world champion. Right, they're locked in until the end of the season. I think we'll uh we'll see how twenty twenty six. Unfolds. Really looking forward to it. The F1 season is officially launched, and you can hear live coverage of every session at every race. Of the 2026 season across the Five Live Network and BBC Sport. Plus, the team will bring you checkered flag podcasts previewing and reacting to every single race, both as a podcast.

And on YouTube as well. Alongside the team you've heard from tonight as well, we've got all your favorite checkered flag names. Back again, 1996 F1 World Champion. Damon Hill, uh former E Sam Bird, F1 Academy champion Abby Pulling, uh, former W Series driver Alice Power, and of course the BBC's F1 correspondent, Andrew Benson. Andrew Benson's one of your favourite checkered flag voices.

I didn't say favourite, but he's one of them. Uh that just about does it from us. Thank you for your company. F1 is back, the checker flag is back, and uh Palmer is still here with the sarcastic comments. Order is restored. Thanks, team. We'll see you in Melbourne. Five Live Sports The Six Nations. Rugby's greatest championship. What a day of the Six Nations it's been! Live commentary of every man. Just a stunning Podcasts will be daily.

tournament with all the best insight and analysis and the biggest names in the game. Listen on BBC Sounds. We focus on the part of the internet that most people don't know about. It's called the dark web. Undercover in the furthest corners of the Website. Move in now. From the BBC World. Secrets. Yeah. En bilan. Kom til Circle K. Och medlemsrabatt på alla våra bilträttar. Du väljer själv om du vill tvätta med eller öttöppen. Enkelt och hållbart från endast 159 kronor. Välkommen till Söker K.