Episodes

  • 13: James Vowles – How To Take An F1 Team To The Next Level

    13: James Vowles – How To Take An F1 Team To The Next Level
    Oct 23 2024
    This week we are looking at how you get an F1 team to the next level. In a super competitive environment like F1, where no-one stands still, how do you go from 8th in the championship to the top of the standings using technology and people?
    We welcome another F1 team principal James Vowles, who is 18 months into his programme to take Williams, F1’s second most successful team, back to the winner’s circle. It’s been 11 years since Williams last won a Grand Prix. James doesn’t want that to reach 15 years.
    We’ll talk to James about how he’s empowering youth, as he’s done with Franco Colapinto, why plenty of F2 drivers are now getting into F1 but it’s not the series champions and what AI is already doing in F1 and what role it will play in the future.

    With James in the studio to fill in the picture is Autosport F1 writer, Jake Boxall-Legge.

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

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    49 mins
  • 12: Daniel Ricciardo – What Was Special About Him And What Went Wrong?

    12: Daniel Ricciardo – What Was Special About Him And What Went Wrong?
    Oct 8 2024
    This week we delve into the curious case of Daniel Ricciardo. He once rode a horse into the paddock at Austin, but will not be lining up there in at this year’s US Grand Prix - or any other Grands Prix - after being dropped by Red Bull.

    Daniel was one of F1’s biggest fan favourites and an 8-time Grand Prix winner. But he’s not been the same driver for a few years now. As always with F1, a sport all about technology and hardware, at the heart of this is a very human story.

    On this podcast we drill down into that story - what made Ricciardo special? And what went wrong? We hear from a Chief Engineer whose job was to develop Ricciardo for his big-time 2014 move to Red Bull Racing and from the Australian F1 TV host, who’s known Daniel since his early days.

    With James in the studio are two top F1 journalists who covered Ricciardo’s entire career, Autosport’s F1 Editor Jon Noble and Chief motorsport writer Ben Hunt.

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

    Guests: Phil Charles, former Chief Race Engineer, Toro Rosso F1 team (now RB) Greg Rust, former Network 10 F1 Presenter

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    57 mins
  • 11: Show Me The Money - F1 Style

    11: Show Me The Money - F1 Style
    Sep 24 2024
    F1 runs on money and this week James is in Singapore to dig into how F1 is now raking in around $2.5 billion a year in sponsorship.

    Since Liberty Media took over in 2017, sponsors have flocked to the sport and its 10 teams and there are now over 300 active sponsors for the first time in F1 history.

    One of the most effective operators in this space is Jefferson Slack, who heads up Aston Martin’s commercial team. In just five years he has taken their sponsor income from around $30 million a year to closer to $300m.

    How have they done it, how important is having world champions like Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in the car? And how much of a difference will it make to prospective sponsors having the GOAT racing car designer Adrian Newey in the team from 2025?

    In the studio to analyse all of this, James is joined by Autosport F1 Business Correspondent Mark Mann-Bryans and Matthew Marsh, an F1 sponsorship broker, who covers the Asian market, based in Singapore.

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

    A Motorsport Studios Production for Autosport
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    51 mins
  • 10: Why Success In F1 Is Never Guaranteed

    10: Why Success In F1 Is Never Guaranteed
    Sep 11 2024
    This week we look at why it is so tricky to build a winning team in F1 and why success is never guaranteed.

    We go behind the scenes of Adrian Newey’s big-money move to Aston Martin and ask what this means for the competitive picture in F1 over the next five years. And we hear from celebrated manager David Richards, who took BAR Honda to second place in the World Championship 20 years ago against Michael Schumacher’s dominant Ferrari team.

    Joining James in the studio are Autosport F1 Editor Jon Noble and Chief Writer Ben Hunt, who were both at Aston Martin’s swanky new HQ for the Newey announcement.

    There is no doubting Lawrence Stroll’s bold vision, nor his willingness to back his instincts with hard cash to buy the world-class facilities and people Newey will work with. But success in F1 is never guaranteed.

    How will this change the competitive picture in F1 over the next five years?

    And what can David Richards’ many years of success at the top of motorsport tell us about how winning teams are built?

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

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    43 mins
  • 9: Paddy Lowe: From F1 Titles With Lewis Hamilton To Zero Emission Fuels

    9: Paddy Lowe: From F1 Titles With Lewis Hamilton To Zero Emission Fuels
    Aug 27 2024
    This week James looks into the future and asks what F1’s move to zero emission fuels from 2026 actually means.

    If the cars are zero emission, you don’t need hybrid technology anymore, so will it open the door for the return of the lighter, great sounding V8 and V10 engines of the past? Or is hybrid tech the only thing keeping the manufacturers in F1?

    And what exactly are these magical fuels? Former Mercedes F1 technical chief Paddy Lowe tells us synthetic fuels that cost a fortune today will be cheaper to buy than normal fuels in 10 years and therefore affordable for owners of the billion-plus cars on the road.

    Here to help demystify all of this are Autosport F1 Editor Jon Noble and special guest Joe Brown, former Executive Editor of Wired and founder of One5C, a platform dedicated to sustainable solutions to real world problems.

    Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X/Twitter.

    A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport
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    52 mins
  • 8: Sky TV Presenter Bernie Collins On Why Women Make Great F1 Strategists

    8: Sky TV Presenter Bernie Collins On Why Women Make Great F1 Strategists
    Aug 13 2024
    This week we meet top F1 race strategist Bernie Collins, who has made a successful switch to TV, becoming a hugely popular presenter on Sky Sports coverage of F1. Bernie gives viewers the inside track on crucial decisions on the pitwall, bringing a new level of enjoyment to the fan experience.

    Bernie grew up in Northern Ireland and started as an F1 performance engineer with McLaren, before switching to Force India and latterly Aston Martin as chief race strategist.

    Bernie explains how she could make split second decisions under intense pressure during races and why we see teams like McLaren and Ferrari sometimes get key decisions wrong. We also explore why many women can reach the top ranks as strategists, but not yet in race engineering and other senior team roles. She also reveals which driver has the best understanding of race strategy and who is the hardest working.

    James is joined in the studio for chat and analysis of this fascinating topic by Autosport Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Clancy and F1 Writer Jake Boxall-Legge.

    Bernie Collins’ book, How to win a Grand Prix is published by Quercus.

    Email your comments or questions to: jamesallenonf1@autosport.com
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    52 mins
  • 7: Otmar Szafnauer On How To Run An F1 Team And Make Driver Decisions

    7: Otmar Szafnauer On How To Run An F1 Team And Make Driver Decisions
    Jul 30 2024
    This week we take the audience into the heart of an F1 team and look at how crucial decisions get made that can push the team up, or down, the grid; from where to spend the budget to get the best results, to hiring and firing drivers.

    Otmar Szafnauer is a very experienced F1 team principal of Force India, Racing Point, Aston Martin and Alpine, with strong track record of getting bang for buck. He was fired by Alpine year ago, over a disagreement with Alpine management on what was the right pathway to success.

    We discuss what data teams use to choose their drivers, whether hiring a rookie for 2025 is a smart idea and what has made McLaren competitive this year. Plus Otmar gives us a teasing view on new teams coming into the sport.

    To break this all down James is joined in the studio by Autosport F1 Editor Jon Noble and Chief Motorsport Writer Ben Hunt.

    Email your comments or questions to: jamesallenonf1@autosport.com
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    52 mins
  • 6: Guenther Steiner And The Importance Of Personality In F1

    6: Guenther Steiner And The Importance Of Personality In F1
    Jul 16 2024
    This week we welcome one of F1’s most charismatic figures: Guenther Steiner. His expletive ridden rants on the hit Netflix show Drive to Survive turned him from a cameo role in F1 into one of its most recognizable figures.

    Guenther brought Haas into F1 a decade ago with a different model, using as many components from Ferrari as possible. They achieved 5th place in the 2018 Constructors’ Championship, beating legacy teams like McLaren, Williams and Sauber.

    But in the 2020s Haas languished in the bottom three and team owner Gene Haas didn’t renew Guenther’s contract for 2024. He is now on the sidelines, with plenty to say.

    We discuss the importance of personality in modern F1, what he misses about being a team boss, whether F1 is now a show and what advice Guenther would give to Andretti as they struggle to break into F1 as a new team.

    James is joined in the studio for chat and analysis by Autosport Chief Motorsport Writer Ben Hunt and Will Buxton, narrator of Drive to Survive and host of F1TV.

    Email your comments or questions to: jamesallenonf1@autosport.com
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    51 mins