Japanese GP Preview: Will Mercedes’ Dominance Continue?

This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Today's episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a podcast from NerdWallet. Do you have a friend who treats airfare like a puzzle and somehow always ends up with a first class upgrade? Smart Travel is like that friend, minus the group 10. Nerdwallet's travel journalists break down the pros and cons of travel decisions, like when lounge access is worth paying for, and which hotel loyalty programs actually pay off.

Make your travel dollars work harder. Follow Smart Travel on your favourite podcast app. The Global Gaming League is presented by Atlas Earth, the Fun Cashback App. Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do It Gaming team take on Gilly the King and Wallow 267's million dollars gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown, plus a halftime performance by multi-platinum artists.

Travy McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match right now at GlobalGaming League.com. That's GlobalGaming League.com in partnership with Level Up Expo.

Five Live, Formula One. Hello and welcome to the land of the rising sun as Japan hosts its fiftieth Grand Prix weekend. It's the third round of the championship as F1 moves from China to the east coast of Japan, around 900 miles, and I've done my mass. That is the distance between Lands End and Dronego. Just so you know. A fact for you. Uh I have some lovely guests joining me in the pasta outlet that is set up at one half of

the paddock, which is very bizarre. But Andrew Benson, F on correspondent, you came and had some pasta, didn't you, earlier on? I did, very nice it was too. There's a one one has an official pasta supplier and they don't come to all races, but when they do it's it's very welcome.

Uh'cause the the the organizers here do put on food for us in the media centre, but it doesn't quite match up to the standard of the food in here. Judge. Obviously I can't name the official pasta supplier because other pasta suppliers are available. Unlike the race, which I'm sure can bandy about any type of sponsorship they want. Scott Mitchell Mom, Formula One journalist, has joined us. Thank you for Lending us your ear and your voice. Um and you've wrapped up warm. Yep, it's uh quite chilly.

Not uh not too bad in the sun, but just when you get caught in the shadows it i it can it can catch you out slightly. You should have been wandering around Tokyo in the rain yesterday, Scott, if you thought this was chilly. I wasn't in Tokyo but I was in Hisai, which is where we're staying, which is about a thirty minute drive from Suzuka Circuit and I did uh

I got sh uh shunned from the first Tonkatsey restaurant I I aimed for and then had to find a second emergency backup restaurant and was wandering around in the cold and rain trying to do exactly that. So you needed a Benson because Benson had a broly. So he very kindly let me share his brawley through the streets of Tokyo. We also got turned away from the first restaurant we went to.

We did and I I had the Broly Jenny because I was looking for cherry blossom earlier in the day, which wasn't that hard to find, given this is Sakura season as they call it here, but it was raining then as well and everybody else around me, all the locals all had their brownies and I thought

better pop into a convenience store and get one myself. Oh hang on a minute. But you didn't tell me that was like a local body. I thought you'd bought it from home. Yeah, I got it from well I w again I won't name the brand, but there are a couple of quite famous convenience store brands over here in Japan and it was one of them.

Well that's good. So w what did our second best restaurants that we couldn't get into the first ones, what did you have last night? Because part of coming over here to Japan, I think, is uh being local and eating amazing food and Uh yours obviously wasn't the first choice, but what did you have? It was it wasn't stunning, unfortunately. I did have to resort to uh I did have to resort to what was available, which was a mildly underwhelming beef curry. I did get some caraago, which is always my

a a snack of choice here. What is that? Um fried chicken. Oh, lovely. Uh that was uh that was very nice. But the best thing about it was um the incredibly leary and colourful menus in the in the restaurant and the little uh robot that served us the food, which is a little feature of certain restaurant chains in Japan.

and it amuses me every single time it happens. It's very cool when it happens, yeah, it really is. Oh, that's awesome. So we went for sushi, and then we ended up having double dinner. Cooking fresh. So you went for raw fish as the starter and then cooked fish as the mate.

apart from y the atmosphere, the food, the culture, what makes this track so good, Scott? The track itself is uh is fantastic. It's obviously uh it's a classic circuit, one of the driver's absolute favourites. Um I was talking to Arvid Limblad earlier and he very excitedly ran the track yesterday on on Wednesday. Has he ever driven it here? No, so he's super excited to get going.

And I said to him I'cause I had the uh I had the the fortune a few years ago of doing one of the um sponsored hot laps here um in in uh I think I can't remember which which one it was, but it was it was amazing. One of the things that caught me out was how much

how hilly it is, the elevation changes around here. So I said to him, Did did anything surprise you like that? And he said, Yeah, the the elevation is a good one. He said, But the how narrow the first sector is like you get out there and you're just like, This isn't as wide as I thought it would be So you just have this amazing combination of um uh of of sweeps, fast corners, tricky corners, but uh also a a lot where there's basically no margin for

for error because the track limits here are pretty much grass and gravel and there's also often not a very particularly big distance between the track limit and the tyre barrier on the outside. It's a very punishing circuit. It's one of the best rests on the calendar, Jenny, uh on every level. arguably the greatest driver's circuit as they call as they describe these things in the world.

Certainly on the Form One calendar. Uh people might make a case for Monaco or Spa, but it's s cer certainly right up there. Every driver loves it as Scott says. The atmosphere here is like no other the fans. are so enthusiastic, almost childlike in their enthusiasm. They've all got these fancy hats and costumes that they wear. They pr give they bring they make presents to give to the drivers. Um and then coming to Japan

It's what's so special about it is that it's just unique. It's one of the very few countries in the world where you can go and it's just other. It's it's not like anywhere else. And you combine all of those things together. quite hard work to get here'cause it's a long flight and then a couple of train journeys or a bus journey or whatever, uh it's totally worth it. Yeah, exactly. The payoff at the end is is fabulous. It was uh for me it was a fourteen hour direct flight and then

five hours or so across three trains from the airport and by the time I slept I think I'd been awake for about thirty four hours because the the fly wasn't very kind to me. But I didn't care because coming here when you're driving in this morning and to to Andrew's point about the fans As we're coming into the circuit there was this group of uh three guys walking in and with full on uh tire hats.

So their their hats were uh soft, medium and hard late uh coloured uh coloured ties on each of their heads and I just thought I hope they don't get broken up'cause then the costume doesn't make any sense. Puncture, puncture, man down.

Um okay, so we know this circuit is special. However, the big question, Andrew Benson, is Will it continue to be special when we've got these new roles? What are people making of the new roles? Well, there are two ways of looking at the new rules. One is there's there's a sort of superficial way and then there's a in depth way. And the superficial way is they've provided what Lewis Hamilton calls some of the best racing he's ever seen in Formula One.

And some of that's been a little bit fake with uh Battery levels higher or lower depending on the cars the two cars that are fighting each other and that's what's and it's this the the various modes that are coming about through the new rules, the new engines that have been introduced this year that are allowing that sort of yo yo racing as they're calling it, cars swapping positions from lap to lap.

That's all very exciting and I think everybody agrees that. Um on the other hand, there's there is a level of artificiality about that which is a concern for some people, but the m the wider concern is that These engines are energy starved as they're referred to. In other words, they're constantly going up and down in terms of the levels of battery power. And that's leading to certain parts of the circuit being compromised. as from a pure driving point of view.

So for example here at Suzuka the S is is probably the most technically challenging part of any racetrack anywhere in the world. because of its succession of left right swerves going up a hill, um, different cambas and so on. Um the challenge of that for a racing driver is extreme. Uh but because the cars are in what they call a zero kilowatt zone there, so the engines only have half of their total power.

So the the the challenge that they're being that the drivers are being presented with is much reduced. The same for the Degna corners here, Degnas one and two, which uh Degna two is the place where people most often crash in Suzuka and that's because Degna one is very, very fast.

and then you have to be on the limit going through that corner. Often the your car will be unsettled over a curb and then you're breaking down into a much slower, also right handed corner where the runoff as Scott was saying earlier is very, very small. any small mistake there on corner entry, a little bit of overspeed for example, you're gonna be off the track and in the wall. But now again it's another zero kilowatt mode, the power's limited, so the cars aren't to have

on the edge as they would have been. So that challenge has been reduced as well. And it's that aspect of Um th the the the concept of Formula One being man and machine being taken to the limit or person and machine being taken to the absolute limit.

That's been diminished by these rules, even if the spectacle has been enhanced by them. And Formula One as a sport is sort of wrestling with the sort of philosophical paradox that that's created. Yeah I'd I'd say that the the qualifying spectacle is for for me at the moment currently the most pressing concern and where it has taken the biggest

the biggest knock o overall. Because the racing side of things is on the more extreme end, but people's idea of good racing has always it's always been a subjective thing. And I don't think it's a problem if people get if people do derive joy from this kind of Grand Prix racing. I think that's absolute I think that's absolutely fine. I'm not gonna go full max for stapping on it and say they don't know anything about racing if they like what what they see.

But on the qualifying thing, Andrew's right, like if you end up in a position where the best drivers in the world are being grip limited. Like oh uh sorry, aren't aren't being grip limited. So the car's just not on the edge anymore. You've taken that that that brilliant ballet dancing that they're doing around through some of these corners.

i is removed and i I've been concerned for the last few days looking ahead to this one, thinking about it and wondering trying to imagine qua a qualifying lap on board in my mind's eye.

And I take the point about turns one and the sweeps through the first sector that's been a big talking point. A lot of people have been wondering just how slow the cars are gonna be going through one thirty R, which is another legendary corner here, even though it's not been a much of a corner it's to that challenges the drivers for a while.

But the w ones that really worry me are two that Andrew's mentioned, which are the Degna curves, because for me I think they're the two best corners on the entire circuit. I love the challenge that they pose the driver. I do think they catch drivers out more than any other.

And they are the types of corner that in this rule set will be completely neutered. One driver told me earlier that it's not even just, you know, not running the the MGUK, the electric motor there. It's that's where you are super clipping, charging the battery in that way, and that's doing your braking for you. So they're flat out. On the sim going through Degna One.

That that is a that that is to me that's a that that's a travesty to to eliminate that. And then you're basically coasting down into the second part. So you've eliminated the challenge of both of those turns. Yeah, and just to clarify that, super clipping is where the engine is recovering uh power. electrical power at its maximum capability.

um while the driver's still on full throttle. Um and it's not that and so w the the issue with what Scott's talking about there is that it's not Flat out through Degna One in the old days would have meant the driver had done something incredibly special because he was having a thousand horsepower

being driven through the rear wheels and he had managed to find a way. It wasn't possible by the way, but trad traditionally in a corner if you were flat out through a corner that was right on the edge. You were you were challenging yourself to balance the car on the limits of adhesion Or risk a crash.

Now they're flat out, but the because the power's been cut by so much because of this super clipping as it's called uh in Formula One jargon, so we're reducing by two hundred and fifty kilowatts, which is about three hundred and fifty horsepower. then the the forces that are going through the car are much reduced, so the challenge for the driver is not as extreme. He's not as on the limit.

even though the car is flat out in terms of throttle position. That's what the drivers are concerned about. And Scott mentioned Max there, Max Verstappen. He is he you can see he's almost physically pained by what has happened. And it's not because he's not winning. It's because he genuinely cares about what he thinks Formula One should be. And This i and uh not everybody is as vocal as Verstappen about it, but the others do actually agree, even if they're not really saying it.

I think they all realise that there are tweaks that need to be made by the FIA. They're trying, they brought in a new tweak this morning in in J Japanese time. Um So they're trying but i it's a work in progress and no new rule set has ever come in and be been perfect from the beginning. I think the the concern that or th the the problem that a lot of people have with this is that so much of this had been signposted in advance.

There were opportunities to do something about it. There was potentially I don't know, maybe there was overoptimism that it would all be sorted or naivety in in how bad it would actually be in reality, whatever. But then the reality started to become quite clear during testing. So there is a bit of a feeling from some people that It's a shame to have to be going into the start of the season

and then reactively making changes, having suffered through some problems. But the counter argument to that obviously is let's see if it is as bad as everybody's saying before you make a knee jerk reaction, so that's fine. What's been changed for this weekend is obviously a it's a it's a plaster over the problem for now and then they'll discuss it more after the Suzuka weekend. It

might help some of the stuff that we're talking about. What it what they've done is basically imposed more of a limit on how much you can charge the battery over a lapping qualifying, which should mean that there is less aggressive charging tactics over that qualifying lap, which means even though the lap will be slightly slower overall because there will be less overall electric power to spend

for lack of a better word, silliness in terms of the extremes people are going to to charge the battery because they they they won't get as much of a benefit from it. So it's worth saying that I think everybody would agree there's been some surprising positives about the new rules. A lot of people were concerned about what the racing would look like.

and uh many people in Full One agree that the racing looks more exciting and even the people who are involved in it, like Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, the two Ferrari drivers who battled in China two weeks ago Uh that been they've been very positive about w what what that looks like from a racing point of view.

It's also important to say that the sport as a whole recognises this issue in qualifying as a genuine issue. There was a meeting of the team bosses with the FIA in Formula One last week at which it was agreed that it needed to be addressed. that they would look at what happened in Japan this weekend and then... take a view on what the changes should what changes should be made.

before the next race in Miami, which is now five weeks away because of the cancellation of the Bahrain and the Saudi Grand Prix because of the war in the Middle East. On top of all that, however, just to finish off this point, um there is a level of complexity in the rules.

that doesn't need to be there. You know, there's this zone and that zone and rules about what the engine can do in if in this set of circumstances and what it can't do in that set of circumstances. And that's kind of been A a lot of people in Form One would agree that that has come about be almost because the FI almost feels like it's willfully complex.

And I I think there's also beginning to become feels like there's beginning to become an agreement whereby um people realise that that also needs to be addressed, but that's gonna be slightly longer term. One of the things that has amused me today uh in reaction to that the to this qualifying change and the way they're going about things is

to Andrew's point about the the recognition within the within F One's rulemakers and everybody in the paddock pretty much that something needs to be done. It's really good that they've tried to do something sensible for this one. There is y universal agreement as far as I can tell that it was a worthwhile thing to do.

that all the engine manufacturers have agreed. They ran it past the teams in advance as well as a courtesy. They didn't need to'cause the teams don't don't have a sa didn't have a say on this particular matter. Every everybody agrees that this

This probably is a step in the right direction for this one, but there's still discontent over it because at least two of the teams, based on h the team bosses I've spoken to, are annoyed about the timing because even though it was discussed in a meeting last week and agreed in this meeting last week

It wasn't signed up until yesterday. So no one has any experience, no one's simmed it, no one's done anything. To quote uh Alex Alban at Williams, all of the sim racing work he's done over the last uh in the build up to this race is now in the toilet.

Love it. Okay, let's move on. Mercedes. They obviously lead the way. Um in the championship it's George Russell with fifty seven points, Kimi Antonelli with forty seven points. One apiece, really, isn't it, with um Kimmy getting his first win last time out. Is this the beginning of a new dawn, a new era, um with Mercedes dominating and Kimmy and George battling in intra team fashion?

Well we're yet to see aren't we? George Russell is ob ha started the season as favourite. He remains the favourite for the championship. I think it's hard to imagine that Kimmy Antonelli in his second season is going to be able to mount a s a consistent title challenge, not least because he's not been on Russell's pace generally since he started Formula One. That's not to say he won't get there, but y it doesn't look like he's there at the moment on a consistent basis.

There's still twenty races to go, including this one. Um and lots of room for team other teams to develop and get into the f the the frame as we'll hear from McLaren's Andrea Stella later in the programme, Jenny. Um But at the moment there is no question that the Mercedes are a step ahead of everybody else. So right now, as a fact, it is between Russell and Antonelli and therefore as a fact Russell is a strong championship favourite.

Well let's hear from both of them starting with George Russell. Uh it's a very long season. Um, you know, twenty-two races. I think I hope it's not gonna be decided from sort of reliability issues and problems. You know obviously we had the issue on Saturday. In in Shanghai, the McLaren's had the issue on Sunday, and the truth is that can happen to any one of us. So you know, I would have loved to have been on the top step last week, but with all the problems that the Mercedes engine.

faced that weekend, I kind of see it as 18 points gained and not seven points lost, if you know what I mean. So it's a long year. I'm very happy with the start of the year and when you include the sprint races, you know we've been P1, P1 and then P2 in the race

in Shanghai so um yeah it's been very good. Hi Kimmy, congratulations for China. Can you just talk me through some of the feelings and reactions that you got from friends and family and yourself as well reflecting on that amazing moment when you stood on the podium at the top steps. Yeah definitely I had a lot of nice messages, uh you know, a lot of lot of support and um definitely coming back home, seeing my whole family was uh was a great moment, seeing my mom, my sister.

Uh obviously my dad was there with me but you know seeing the rest of the family was uh was great and my friends made me a surprise as well. Uh they they actually were at my house when I when I landed uh so it was uh

was super nice and uh yeah and also I took a little bit of time f uh for myself to uh analyze and realize uh what has what happened but uh yeah it was uh it was great. It was a great week. Uh you know managed to to recharge, give it the batteries and do the preparation ahead of the UC we can

The Global Gaming League is presented by Atlas Earth, the Fun Cashback App. Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do It Gaming team Take on Gilly the King and wallow 267's million dollars gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown, plus a halftime performance by multi-platinum artists.

Travy McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match right now at GlobalGaming League dot com. That's GlobalGaming League.com. In partnership with Level Up Expo, ranked number one in innovation eleven consecutive years. Arizona State University isn't just ahead of the curve. It's creating new paths to success. Learn from notable clinical and research faculty. Online, that's a degree better. Explore programs at asunline.asu.edu.

Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance, and now we're customizing this ad for your morning commute to wake you up, which could help your driving. Science says that stimulating the brain increases alertness. So here's a pop quiz. How many months have 28 days? What gets wetter as it dries? What has keys but can't open locks? If you don't want to hear the answers, turn off this Liberty Mutual ad now. Twelve months, a towel. Piano. Enjoy being fully alert. Liberty, liberty.

Scott, how impressed were you by Kimmy's win last time out, or do you think it was more circumstantial? Um there was definitely an element of that. to it. But what impressed me was basically Russell had a large part of the race in which he could have won that Grand Prix and could have caught uh could have caught Antonelli in the second it would have been very difficult to to to win.

But there was a point in the race where I was wondering if this was gonna go down as uh an Antonelli first win with a little bit of an asterisk against it because of

you know, Russell's problem in qualifying and then losing ground in the race. But actually the win the more I thought about it and the more I I looked at you know how much of the race Russell had to be able to to run in second place, the fact that, you know, he had He had put himself in position to to try and chase Antonelli in the first in safety car.

uh undid that and then obviously he lost ground to the m he had to get past the Ferraris again. I I think that was I think that nudged it into more of a sort of just out and out proper Antonelli win than just one that was handed to him. There there's still a little bit of the let's see him out qualify Russell in a flat out you know.

straight Q three battle, conventional Q three battle and then beat him on the Sunday. But you can only you can only race in the conditions that are presented to you. You can only beat what is in front of you and I I think Antonelli did that uh generally very very very well in in in China.

And I suppose one of the biggest questions coming into this weekend is can Ferrari challenge the first time. They have been challenging, haven't they? For a limited periods of time. And this is another thing that's a fast lap. This is something that's related to the new style of racing that we're talking about. So there's an and this is another facet of it.

So they're qualifying behind the Mercedes generally'cause overall it's not as quick a car, but they're getting better starts, so they're getting ahead at the start. And then when a car gets into one of these sort of multi-lapse scraps, it compromises its overall potential. So the Mercedes potential is kind of drawn down more to the Ferrari level until they can get themselves into a place where they can run at their actual pace and then they build a gap.

And I don't see any real reason why this race would necessarily look any different from the last two on that basis. The Ferrari. basically doesn't have the engine performance or the straight line performance um of the Mercedes. They're pretty much equal in the corners. Maybe Ferrari has a bit of an advantage there. Overall though the Mercedes is a quicker car and generally in Formal One the quicker car wins the race.

Let's hear from Lewis Hamilton, despite the fact they were br being drowned out by a a um Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â'r hynny'n ymwneud â'r hynny'n ymwneud â'r hynny'n ymwneud â'r hynny'n ymwneud â'r hynny'n ymwneud â'r hynny'n ymwneud â'r hynny He's enjoying it. And he's back to his best.

When I joined Ferrari last year I had nothing to do with any of the build of that car. That's obviously I joined the team and the car was already in the process of being made as I joined. Um and it was an evolution of the previous year's car. And so I arrived and I was learning

About a car that had been built, obviously not built really for me and um generally didn't suit my driving style, wasn't something there was there was elements that I was asking for, but we couldn't put in the season because it takes, it's too expensive.

suspension to build with the lim with the um uh budget cap. So the positive thing, you know, it was a really really hard season. We didn't develop the car through the year because we decided to focus on this year's car. I got to work on the simulator and really get to learn and engage

with all the engineers and the things that I was asking for. It's like we have to have this in the car next year. And they pushed, I pushed and pushed and pushed. We come to this year's car and it's obviously a completely new era. It's a begin, new start for everybody. But they've got a couple of things on there that I that I'd asked for.

which I'm really grateful that they listened and did. And Charlotte and I has tested them and we both love it. And um and then just the cars are lighter and nimble, less downforced, but it's it's a lot more go-kart esque, you're throwing it around. It's quite fun. Now of course if we were if the car was really bad it would it would feel I think everyone's it's all about perspective and obviously we've got we're one of the top teams and we've got better down force than for example

the teams are right at the back and I understand there when you're at the back it's never a good feeling. So but it's just a combination of it just being new and also we're in a development phase so it just gets better from here. We're adding performance, we're chasing performance in the wind tunnel.

We're chasing there's things that we're asking for, hey if you build that this is where we would end up being and and they're gonna come over the next like eight months and that's exciting. So I guess I'm just overall enjoying that and also I've just prepared my mind and my body better than ever this year and I'm feeling good about it. So Lewis Hamilton obviously enjoying Japan, enjoying being back racing, uh at the sharp end, even if they're not in a position right now.

where they can challenge for a championship. Yes, it's clearly bringing the best out of him again and just generally speaking Ferraris in a better place than it was. um last season in the competitive order. So so that helps. L Lewis has two moods which is I'm reacting to something good that's happened, so therefore I'm in I'm buoyant and there is This is this is terrible when I'm in a dark place. That's pretty much what he he swings swings between.

But I think the one the one element to it that I'm very curious about for this weekend is ha uh if what we've seen in Australia and China is replicated here in terms of his proximity to to Leclerc, whether he's ahead or behind doesn't matter.

I think that will be very encouraging because it's worth pointing out that Hamilton had a very good start to a very perfectly decent start to his Ferrari career twelve months ago. He won the sprint in China, he was there or thereabouts versus LeCleur on pace in Australia wasn't a perfect weekend, but then there and then the China

main element of that Grand Prix weekend. But then here was where Leclerc just, you know, he's back in places where he where he likes driving. He he's by his own admission not been great at Melbourne and Shanghai in recent years. So this is where we should start to see the best of Leclerc again in principle. Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â'r hynny, neu'n ymwneud â Leclerc a Lewis yn ymwneud â'r hynny, rydyn ni'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hyn.

Right, before we let you go, because we realise you do actually have a job to do here, um what are your predictions? Well we'll do ours at the end, but what are your predictions this weekend? Uh I I think this weekend's a step too far for Antonelli to beat Ross when a straight fight. I'd like to be I'd love to be proven wrong'cause that'd be the most interesting outcome.

But you saw last year Antonelli really, really had to deep dig deep inside himself to to find a massive chunk of the gap he had to rustle through practice. He was struggling quite a lot. And he did do a very good job. If he can start this weekend sort of somewhere close to that, then he's I think he's got a better chance. But

I think for all the reasons we've said about how challenging this track is, and I think it'll be quite a complex one with energy management, I just think all of the things that make Russell so good and well placed will will um will win out there and I just can't see anyone really taking the fight to Mercedes in in that way, not least because Ferrari's got a great opportunity of nicking track position here and last year we saw what Max Verstappen could do with track position.

But it's a different Formula One now, so that won't that won't count for as much. Okay, Scott, thank you very much. Off we go. Thank you.

So Andrew and I have come into the McLaren Hospitality Unit which is nice and warm. It's nice in the sunshine. As soon as you get into the shade, it's freezing cold. And we've been joined by Team Principal Andrea Stella. Thank you so much for having us. plan, I suppose, and people at home will be questioning, well, hang on, two times championship winners and then all of a sudden it's it's not gone as you hoped it would. Can you just give us a little bit of insight as to what's gone wrong? Um

The first couple of races in this 2026 season have not given us what we hoped for. As you say, we are double world champions. We won 14 races last year and we we go racing to win races and this year so far even if we take the reliability problem on one side and we'll come back on reliability. Even from a performance point of view, we have to admit that we will not be able to win on merit because Ferrari and Mercedes

Um so from a performance and reliability point of view we have uh work to do. Andrea we came to the McLaren factory in January for f for the first of a number of sort of pre season events and you were talking about the McLaren design this year being aggressive. myself.

And yet, as you say, the performance hasn't been what you expected. But you've also talked about developments coming uh down the line, perhaps for the next race in Miami. So is it the case that the car hasn't delivered what you expected, or is it that it's just not quite yet at the point where you expected

it to be uh at its sort of optimum compared to the rest? Um I think we should um split like I said before what is the reliability, the HPP power unit which looks to be extremely competitive, probably the con l'HPP e come ho detto in termini di explotazione della unità di potenza e della relazione, credo che siamo in una situazione forte. Quando si tratta del chassi,

We have understood the reasons why we are not at the level that we wanted to be. Especially over the last one month we have put in place some corrective actions in the way we developed. Come from Miami and Canada, and we should be able to take a step forward. I'm quite confident that this will be an upwards trajectory that we will be able to sustain throughout the season.

So just to pick up on that, are you saying that the car didn't behave initially in the way that you had predicted it would do? Yeah, yeah that was actually your question. So let me reply more specifically. let's say that compared to the timeline where we would have liked to be at this moment of the season we are a little behind and when I said before about corrective actions that's actually to do with having a fast

faster rate of development. I think we have understood from a methodological point of view in terms of approach to these 2026 regulations that there's more effective ways. Of utilizzare. Eh. the know-how, the expertise that we have available at McLaren. So, like I said, I'm really looking forward to when we will be able to deliver upgrades and this will come soon. And then from there, I think we will have a strong trajectory.

during this season, which I'm still uh confident it will be a strong season for McLaren. championship but did you have to sacrifice some of the performance and and thinking about and and resources about this year? I think um on one side uh you are right when you are busy with such an intense season like 2025 where you compete for the double championships?

This is going to utilize your resources. The focus has to stay on the ongoing season and also by being the On one side, both these factors were effective and are true. А та сам там дозне бекан excuse. Start to twenty six. I think McLaren has never been as strong as now. in terms of the team. So we are in condition to be competitive despite having been in the fight.

up until the end of the season in 2025 and like I've said before I'm quite optimistic that we will see on track the results of the good work that is happening at McLaren as we

speak. Andrea you're a person who thinks very deeply about situations that you're involved in and in Formula One at the moment we've got a situation where on one level, on a surface level, the racing has been quite exciting. On another level quite a few drivers

Are dissatisfied about the reduction in the challenge that they're facing in qualifying. And there's a lot of talk's been going on between people like yourselves and the FIA and Formula One about how to square that circle if you like. What's your position on that?

Um my position is um actually a position that uh reflects the general consensus and uh while teams have identified that uh racing as you said is um needs to be looked into because it's not only like the driving is going on throttle and actually this is an advantage because you use less energy

Abbiamo avuto una presentazione positiva delle nuove regolazioni, ma restano alcuni elementi molto specifici, e credo che è l'obiettivo della comunità F1 di guardare questi elementi specifici e applicare qualche misura corretta. Measures.

Andreas thank you so much for joining us. I know your time is precious. Hoping for two cars to start and finish this race for you guys? Well compared to the last race definitely prendere parte nella scuola è già un buon miglioramento, vogliamo scoprire buoni punti qui nel Japone e vogliamo tornare alla combina per i podiomi e vittori nella scuola di 2026.

season and thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you. Right, we have must to talk about Max Verstappen. Um he's been busy in between the last race and this one, um racing all sorts of things He's got a good track record here as well, but surely Even with his four wins, four poles coming into this race weekend, he can't challenge.

I don't think he'll challenge for the win, but Red Bull season so far there's only been two races. It's been quite confusing. Uh so in Australia Isaac Hajjar, Verstappen's teammate, put it on put the car on the third on the grid. Uh in his first qualifying session for the team. Verstappen had a problem and uh went out on his on his first lap in qualifying, uh so he was stuck at the back for the beginning of the race.

And then Hajar in the race retired with an engine factory. But it made the car look competitive. It was qualified ahead of the Ferraris. But then in China Red Bull were nowhere. So the question is, what's Red Bull's true performance? Is it Australia?

Or is it China? Or is it gonna fluctuate from race to race? We don't know. They've got a new engine which they've built themselves for the first time this year, um, which has obviously struggled for reliability because Verstappen had an engine related failure that took him out of the Chinese Grand Prix to follow Hajar's failure in Australia.

The car looks like it can be quick in certain circumstances, but wasn't in the circumstances of China, but here we are at a very different racetrack in a different country. So we'll have to wait and see. Um I don't think it there's no way Max Verstappen is the sort of driver who will allow his mindset to affect his performance, but it's also worth saying that, you know, he he was talking again today in his press conference about um how

Uh he's been quite measured about it now, w the w as opposed to being quite critical of the first two races, but he's talking again have w once he was asked.

about how this circuit has been compromised by the new rules as we were discussing earlier. So that won't be helping him. But um it's gonna be I think on that basis it's gonna be really interesting to see e exactly where Reb will shake out because I think there's probably there's more potential in the car than they showed at the last race in China.

Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Mae'n gwybod. Briefly He has left.

hasn't he? We just don't know where he's gonna stop. I do know. He's going to go to Aston Martin. Basically he was he's been offered the job of team principal at Aston Martin by Lawrence Stroll, the team owner. He's accepted it, my understanding, but he hasn't yet signed a contract, or at least he hadn't by last Friday, which was when

the Audi board meeting was that agreed that he had to leave, that his position was too compromised now that he now that those talks with Audi uh with Aston Martin, sorry, had broken out into the public domain. It's a slightly bizarre situation the way it's been handled. Uh but we'll end up Jonathan Wheatley I think will unless something changes, which always can happen in Formula One, we'll end up with Jonathan Wheatley at Aston Martin. One of the reasons for that, Jenny, is that

Stroll has been talking again to Christian Horner. Though people may remember that uh a few months ago at the towards the end of last year there was rumours there was talk about Horner going to potentially to Aston Martin in a kind of senior leadership role. blocked that because Horner and Newy fell out. That was why Newey left Red Bull in the beginning of twenty twenty four. And I understand that Newy has blocked a second attempt by Stroll to bring Horner in. Horner had

uh further talks with Stroll last week. Um he's made it clear he doesn't want uh Horner in the team according to my sources. So Wheatley's a kind of happy compromise, uh, it seems is the way it's ended up. Um but all it does really, Jen, is underline the sort of continuing mess that Aston Martin are in. They've started the season, the first with their new engine partner Honda, who owned this racetrack. Um

And therefore are desperate for it to be a better race weekend for them than the last two. In a most abject position. The car's not competitive, the engine's not competitive, the engine's not reliable, it's shaking the car to bits, it's ha shaking the drivers to bits. um and it's uh you know, it they're not in a happy place and both Aston Martin and Honda need to make a step forward. He's not here today.

On Thursday he'll be back in the car on Friday or not at n or they're not for first practice because their reserve driver Jack Crawford's driving his car in which is convenient because it means Fernando Baronzo a little bit more time um at home, which I'm sure is much needed. Um so that's the news from the paddock um predictions.

Um we've already had one from Scott. What's your prediction? Has to be Russell. Yeah. I can't see anyone beating Russell this weekend. I just wonder if reliability will be an issue still. We only had sixteen at the first race, so reliability up and down the paddock easily.

Well interestingly, Mercedes were the ones who were concerned about their reliability in preseason testing'cause they were having a number of failures, but they have not been affected by any reliability so far. Whereas McLaren, who are a Mercedes customer team, the leading Mercedes customer team uh had a terrible weekend in China as Andrea Sella was discussing.

where both their cars didn't make the start of the race because of a failure in the power unit, um, which he refers to as HPP because that's the name of the company that builds the Mercedes engines, but it's fully owned by Mercedes. So th n nothing has hit Mercedes yet. Reliability of course it can always be a problem for any team at any time.

Um so we can't rule that out. But you you know, I might of obviously have to answer that question on the basis of what's the expectation of performance levels? And I think the expectation most people up and down the paddock here in Suzuka would say that the expectation there would be that Mercedes will be leading the way and Russell starts as favourite.

in prime position to get twenty five points from this race weekend. Uh well thank you very much to Scott who's already left and departed. Thank you to Andrew. What's for dinner tonight? Still to be decided, Jenny, isn't it? We'll work it out on the train and bus ride home. I know. It's a i it's a complex race to get to, but it's worth it for every moment of it. And we'll bring you checkered flag podcasts throughout the weekend.

And race reviews on Sunday will also be available on iPlayer and YouTube. You can listen to the Japanese Grand Prix at five thirty AM. It's worth getting up for on Sunday morning live and on the go with the BBC Sounds app, so you can listen in bed, don't worry. Uh this has been an IMG production for BBC Radio Five Live. You teams. New era. People are getting excited. on BBC Sounds. On Five Life Sports.

Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance. And now we're customizing this ad for your morning commute to wake you up, which could help your driving. Science says that stimulating the brain increases alertness. So here's a pop quiz. How many months have 28 days? What gets wetter as it dries? What has keys but can't open locks? If you don't want to hear the answers, turn off this Liberty Mutual ad now. Twelve months, a towel. Piano. Enjoy being fully alert.

The Global Gaming League is presented by Atlas Earth, the Fun Cashback App. Hey, it's Howie Mandel, and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do It Gaming team take on Gilly the King and Wallow 267's million dollars gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown, plus a halftime performance by multi-platinum artists.

Travy McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match right now at globalgamingleague.com. That's globalgamingleague.com in partnership with Level Up Expo.