James Allen On F1

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 ChampionshipAnd 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 

This week, we have the latest in our series of F1 team principalinterviews as we meet Ayao Komatsu at the HQ of Haas, F1’ssmallest team.What Haas may lack in headcount, they more than make up for inteam spirit, as this engaging interview reveals.Ayao has been at Haas since the team debuted in 2016. Last seasonGene Haas picked him to succeed the charismatic, but swearyGuenther Steiner as team principal. Ayao was born in Japan andmoved to England as a teenager to study English and pursue hisdream of working in F1. He rose through the ranks as an engineerwith Lotus and Renault, where he worked closely with RomainGrosjean.As a highly competitive F1 season comes to a close, Haas is fightingAston Martin and Racing Bulls for 6th in the Constructors’Championship. Ayao reflects on some key decisions taken earlierthis season, which have boosted Haas’ recent competitiveness. OllieBearman equalled the team’s best ever result with P4 in Mexicoand then backed that up with another strong points haul in Brazil.Joining James Allen in the studio for a wraparound chat is formerRed Bull and Aston Martin F1 technical leader Dan Fallows.Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on Xorjamesallenonf1@autosport.com.Producer: Ben Holmes, Andrea SidlerA Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

This week we discuss some of the significant developments that took place during the Brazil GP weekend, which saw Lando Norris take command of the F1 Drivers Championship and look ahead to the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In particular we delve into the role influencers are playing on helping F1 to reach new audiences in the United States, enlarging the fan base well beyond the traditional motorsport audiences. We hear all the time about the growing role of influencers in the coverage of the sport. F1, the teams and brands all now regularly invite them to attend races and interact with the stars. This is especially true of influencers in the US, some of whom have followings as large as mainstream media platforms, among demographics that F1 has not previously reached. How much more growth is there in F1?To find out more about their role and what the life of an influencer is about, James went to meet Brian Muller and Matt Elisofon, who host the popular Red Flags podcast, featuring former F1 team boss Guenther Steiner, to get their take on it. We also welcome back our F1 writer from the Netherlands Ronald Vording, For details on how to be part of the prize draw to win the replica Jackie Stewart helmet signed by all 20 living world champions go to https://win.raceagainstdementia.com/ Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.=A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport 

This week we meet one of the small group of broadcasters who can call themselves an F1 TV commentator.Alex Jacques is the voice of Channel 4’s F1 coverage in the UK and his commentary is carried on F1 TV in the US and around the world. He works alongside former F1 drivers David Coulthard and Jolyon Palmer. Alex worked his way up through F2 and the W Series and by 2018 he was a full time F1 commentator.  He was voted Commentator of the Year in the 2022 Broadcast Sports Awards and his voice has appeared in Drive to Survive and F1 video games.Alex’s new book Grid to Glory, highlights 75 key moments from F1’s 75 year history.  But it’s not one anecdote per year, it’s much more interesting than that. He describes the kidnapping of the F1 World Champion driver, the day the F1 drivers went on strike, the Grand Prix that featured just six cars and many other great tales. Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport