The Race F1 Podcast

On Thursday it was the turn of Mercedes to release the first images of its 2026 F1 car, the W17. Mercedes has long been tipped as a favourite, largely because of paddock rumours that its development for the new engine regulations was going extremely well. But what more can we glean now we've seen imagery of the car?

From an airport bar, Edd Straw is joined by Jon Noble to discuss that topic, before talk turns to McLaren. The world champion team has announced that it will miss day 1 of the private test in Barcelona as part of a wider plan on upgrades that seem to run counter to what its rivals are doing. Tune in to hear why Edd and Jon think it could prove a clever move in the long term, plus we share the latest we know about the upcoming meeting on engines, where the compression ratio saga will be discussed.

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It was another busy day in F1 on Tuesday as Audi had its season launch in Germany and Honda held its own event in Japan. Linking them was a common message - that of managed expectations for 2026, as Edd Straw, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Scott Mitchell-Malm discuss on this podcast.

First, we join Val in the party atmosphere of the Audi launch in Berlin. After speaking to various members of the team, he tells us what messages the team were sending out on the eve of the new season.

Then we hear from Scott on Honda, who reports back on an event in Tokyo in which the Japanese manufacturer revealed its new 2026 Formula 1 engine - but kept part of the design hidden for now...

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Haas became the latest F1 team to release imagery of its 2026 F1 challenger on Monday, days after F1’s newest team, Cadillac, ran its first ever car at Silverstone - and on this episode of The Race F1 Podcast we discuss both.

Scott Mitchell-Malm joins Edd Straw to chat about what we’ve learned about each team, including what the prominent Toyota branding on the Haas means and whether Cadillac's successful early debut says anything about its prospects for the coming campaign.

After that, former F1 technical director Gary Anderson joins Edd to discuss some of the technical details on display in the renders Haas released, and how what can be seen on the car compares to what could be gleaned on the similarly Ferrari-powered Cadillac.

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When should an F1 driver retire? It has been a big topic of late, with F1's two most experienced competitors, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, struggling with unwieldy and uncompetitive machinery as they bid to recapture former glory.

When is the right time for them to hang up their helmets? That's the subject debated by 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill and renowned F1 journalist Mark Hughes in the latest episode of The Undercut, the podcast where we give the duo a thought-provoking starting topic and then see where the conversation takes them...

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While the F1 world is a little quieter, we’re dropping a special three-part series into the feed as a winter bonus, all about the barely believable story of how Indycar racing was torn apart in the mid-90s.

The third and final episode deals with how the CART/IRL war finally came to an end after more than a decade of fighting - but not before one of the most controversial Indy 500 finishes of all time…

We hope you’ve enjoyed this small foray away from F1. We’ll be back to cover the rest of what should be a thrilling F1 pre-season very soon.

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