Episodi

  • 65: Meet the woman who makes sense of F1’s most complex puzzles

    65: Meet the woman who makes sense of F1’s most complex puzzles
    Jan 14 2026

    This week we meet a woman who has worked in F1 for Ferrari, Haas and Sauber. She has been at the heart of decision making on the pit wall as head of race strategy and has now turned that into a new role as an F1 TV commentator and content creator.

    Ruth Buscombe can speak to the vast new audience of F1 fans that have discovered the sport in the last five years as well as to the most committed and knowledgeable purists, with her unique insights into what is going on in F1 races.

    After getting a 1st in Engineering at Cambridge University why did she choose a career in F1? What was it like to advise the lead actress in the F1 movie? What is it like to make a high-pressure strategy call on the pit wall, knowing that you could make or break the entire team’s race weekend? How many bad races per season are strategists allowed before they get fired? Ruth answers all these questions and more in this fascinating insight and provides a window onto what fans can expect on track from the 2026 season under new F1 rules.

    Watch out next week for news and highlights from the Autosport Business Exchange and Autosport Awards events taking place in London on 21 January.

    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

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    36 min
  • 64: Superforecasting the 2026 F1 season

    64: Superforecasting the 2026 F1 season
    Jan 7 2026

    It’s the first week of January, the slate has been wiped clean, a whole new year of F1 lies ahead. Before a car is launched and a wheel has turned everything is possible and at all the teams and drivers are equal.

    At this stage we like to look ahead to the new season and do some superforecasting.

    We did it last year and some of the forecasts were pretty accurate, while others haven’t aged so well...

    Who will win the 2026 F1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships? What percentage of Max Verstappen’s points total will new team-mate Isack Hadjar achieve? Checo Perez got 49% in 2023 while Yuki Tsunoda managed just 8% last year.

    What will be the most high-profile driver move this year and which drivers will we be saying goodbye to?

    Which F1 team bosses will not be in post in 12 months from now?

    To help us today we have a couple of subject matter experts, former Aston Martin Technical Director, Red Bull Head of Aerodynamics and friend of the pod, Dan Fallows and our F1 writer attending races around the world, Ronald Vording.

    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

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    56 min
  • 63: How the F1 calendar works and why promoters are signing long term

    63: How the F1 calendar works and why promoters are signing long term
    Dec 31 2025
    F1 Grands Prix have become much than sporting events. They now stretch over four days of fan engagement with star name music acts, cultural events, top chefs and diverse activities for fans. Promoter fees generate around $1 billion of income annually for F1, almost a third of the total revenue. They can also have massive economic impact for a city or country; Las Vegas has pulled in over $900m each year from its race, while Sao Paolo reported a positive impact of £329 from November’s race.
    No surprise then that there are more cities and countries wanting F1 races than there are slots on the calendar. Fitting in 24 Grands Prix is no easy task. It falls to Louise Young, Director of Race Promotion at F1, who works closely with CEO Stefano Domenicali and Liberty Media. Louise rarely gives interviews, so what she has to say here is a must-listen for every F1 fan.
    We are seeing a trend for longer term renewals, with Miami contracted to 2041 and many races including Monaco GP and the British GP at Silverstone signed up for a decade.
    What do these long contracts say about the confidence on both sides that F1 will still be booming beyond 2035? How is the F1 calendar decided each season and will we see more races in Asia, the US or Africa at the expense of rounds in Europe?
    James is joined in the studio for analysis by Autosport F1 writer Filip Cleeren.
    Voting is still open for the 38th Autosport Awards. Vote for your Driver, Team and Rookie of the Year. Go to https://www.autosport.com/awards-voting/ to cast your votes.
    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    39 min
  • 62: Freezing speed - F1 life through a lens

    62: Freezing speed - F1 life through a lens
    Dec 17 2025
    F1’s surge in popularity in the last five years is not because the sport itself has notably changed or improved. It is because people have discovered it, a sleeping giant. The sport lends itself so well to social media - being such a visually rich spectacle. With its extreme personalities and electrifying speed, it is also a wonderful platform for storytelling.
    This week we are going to explore this side of the sport with one of the great photographers of the modern era of F1, Darren Heath.
    Darren works with speed, spectacle and personality. He freezes it, capturing a moment that would otherwise be lost forever, memorializing it for people around the world to enjoy. So what goes through his mind when he looks through the viewfinder and presses the shutter? How does he weave rich storytelling into an image?
    Which drivers’ faces are the most interesting? How do today’s compare to the greats like Senna, Prost and Schumacher?
    When he is trackside, the cars moving at 180mph a few feet away, what aspects of F1 does he see that don’t come across for fans on other media like TV or the written word? And how much can someone achieve trackside with an iPhone?
    This revealing interview takes the audience behind the veil of F1 and offers a fresh, close-up take of the people that make our sport.
    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.
    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    48 min
  • 61: Lando Norris World Champion – Proves nice guys can finish first!

    61: Lando Norris World Champion – Proves nice guys can finish first!
    Dec 10 2025
    We have a new F1 World Champion, Lando Norris. He held his nerve in Abu Dhabi to finish on the podium, which is all he needed to do to become one of only 35 drivers in history to win the F1 World Championship.

    It’s a proud moment for Autosport too, because in 2016 Lando won the prestigious Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award. The prize was his first test in an F1 car – a McLaren - the following year, his first step on the F1 ladder. Norris follows Jenson Button as the second Young Driver Award winner to become F1 World Champion.

    James Allen wraps up Abu Dhabi and closes the cycle on our Season in Numbers series. At each quarter stage of the season we have looked at the underlying numbers to spot trends and learn more about what’s really been going on.

    Joining James in the studios are Autosport F1 writers Jake Boxhall Legge and Ronald Vording.

    Fan Voting for the 38th Autosport Awards is open. To vote for the Driver, Team, Rookie and Moment of the Year go to https://www.autosport.com/awards-voting/

    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. PA Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    55 min
  • 60: What the pressure feels inside an F1 team at a title showdown

    60: What the pressure feels inside an F1 team at a title showdown
    Dec 3 2025
    It’s crunch time in Abu Dhabi, with a three-way fight for the F1 World Drivers Championship.
    From McLaren’s point of view it didn’t have to be this way. If they had avoided the disqualifications in Vegas, or made a better strategy call in Qatar, they would now be guaranteed their first World Champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
    As it is Lando Norris will be champion if he finishes third or higher, while Max Verstappen is only 12 points behind him and has chances. Oscar Piastri needs luck to go his way after the crushing disappointment of losing a certain race win in Qatar.
    James Allen explores all of this and what it’s like to be in the middle of a title showdown, with someone who was in the thick of it in 2007, when McLaren lost the championship from a position not unlike today’s - former McLaren mechanic now journalist and broadcaster Marc Priestley.
    And our F1 writer with his ear to the ground, Ronald Vording, joins us from Abu Dhabi.
    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.
    --
    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    44 min
  • 59: Inside the mental battle as F1 2025 reaches crunch point

    59: Inside the mental battle as F1 2025 reaches crunch point
    Nov 26 2025
    This week we go inside the minds of the competitors for the F1 World Championship.

    We explain some of the things that happened during an intense Las Vegas GP weekend – including the dramatic double disqualification of the McLaren cars that sets up an incredibly tense final two rounds for the World Championship

    And we look ahead in depth to what happens next. We focus particularly on two areas: which teams will have the best car for the Qatar and Abu Dhabi circuits? And with so much pressure riding on it, what is the mental game here? How do the drivers and their trainers cope with the 11 hour time difference from Vegas to Qatar so they can maintain peak performance? How do they cope with the stress and the pressure? And with McLaren making such a costly mistake in Vegas, how do the leaders make sure the team doesn’t lose confidence?

    With James Allen in the studio to discuss this we have two real subject matter experts. Nick Harris, who trained and mentored many great drivers in the past 20 years from Mark Webber, David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine to Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg. And Autosport’s F1 writer who can demystify the technical side, Jake Boxhall Legge.

    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

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    36 min
  • 58: Meet the leader making F1’s smallest team punch above its weight!

    58: Meet the leader making F1’s smallest team punch above its weight!
    Nov 19 2025
    This week, we have the latest in our series of F1 team principal
    interviews as we meet Ayao Komatsu at the HQ of Haas, F1’s
    smallest team.

    What Haas may lack in headcount, they more than make up for in
    team spirit, as this engaging interview reveals.

    Ayao has been at Haas since the team debuted in 2016. Last season
    Gene Haas picked him to succeed the charismatic, but sweary
    Guenther Steiner as team principal. Ayao was born in Japan and
    moved to England as a teenager to study English and pursue his
    dream of working in F1. He rose through the ranks as an engineer
    with Lotus and Renault, where he worked closely with Romain
    Grosjean.

    As a highly competitive F1 season comes to a close, Haas is fighting
    Aston Martin and Racing Bulls for 6th in the Constructors’
    Championship. Ayao reflects on some key decisions taken earlier
    this season, which have boosted Haas’ recent competitiveness. Ollie
    Bearman equalled the team’s best ever result with P4 in Mexico
    and then backed that up with another strong points haul in Brazil.

    Joining James Allen in the studio for a wraparound chat is former
    Red Bull and Aston Martin F1 technical leader Dan Fallows.
    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X
    or
    jamesallenonf1@autosport.com
    .
    Producer: Ben Holmes, Andrea Sidler
    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    55 min