The Autosport F1 Podcast

Listeners of the Autosport podcast asked us to tell them more about what it's like doing our job, behind the scenes. Our Grand Prix Editor, Alex Kalinauckas, has been in Bahrain since he flew out to cover F1 testing. So we asked him to record a few comments at the end of each day and explain about the tasks our Autosport staff do to bring Formula 1 to your screens or magazines.At the end of the podcast today we come up to date with his analysis of Saturday evenings qualifying and what kind of race we could expect tomorrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso emerged as the fastest driver in the second practice session for the 2023 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. The session saw the top 13 drivers finish within one second of each other, with Charles Leclerc of Ferrari in fourth place. Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg produced an impressive effort to come fifth. Temperatures were down to 22C in the evening running under lights, prompting several teams to immediately head out on the soft tyres. Alpine's Esteban Ocon used the softs to take first place, followed by Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, who had set the first-place benchmark on the mediums a few moments earlier. The first round of performance runs saw Leclerc surge ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz and take the lead, which lasted for 20 minutes. Perez then shot into first place before Alonso took over the lead with a time of 1m30.907s, which remained unbeaten for the rest of the session. The drivers then completed the typical late-FP2 long-run data-gathering exercises. The stewards will investigate a pitlane incident where Nyck de Vries's AlphaTauri was released into Lando Norris's path. Alonso’s time followed his impressive performance in the first practice session where he split the two Red Bulls. Despite attempts by Alonso and Aston Martin to downplay their impressive pace from testing, they continue to be strong contenders. Aston Martin had two cars in the top six, with Lance Stroll finishing sixth in his second session back in the car. However, there were some concerns about Stroll's mobility, as he replied "I can't" when asked to compromise his line for Turn 1 later on in the session. Red Bull's pace on long-run simulations still appeared to mark them out as the team to beat. To discuss the action on track is Martyn Lee and the Editor of Autosport.com, Haydn Cobb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we're getting ready for a new season of racing and looking at the season-preview issue of GP Racing magazine. Our cover features Red Bull, who seem to be the ones to beat based on their form and pre-season test. But with 23 races scheduled, there's still hope for an exciting year of competition.Joining Stuart Codling to discuss the pecking order are special guests Mark Gallagher and Matt Kew. We'll be looking at the second year of the new technical regulations and whether they have succeeded in bringing us closer and more competitive racing. We'll also be discussing Red Bull's penalty for breaking the budget cap in 2021 and whether it will affect their performance this season.Testing has given us a glimpse of what to expect in the season opener, with Red Bull looking fastest, Ferrari close behind, and Mercedes potentially lagging. We'll be exploring how the teams have adapted to rule tweaks that aim to slow the cars down and reduce bouncing.We'll also be discussing the new Aston Martin factory and whether they can manage the logistics of moving in during a month with three GPs. Plus, we'll take a look at the revolving door of team managers and the transition to a football manager-style culture of regular hirings and firings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join us in this F1 analysis podcast as we break down the data from the top F1 teams, including Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren to give us a glimpse into the upcoming F1 season.From analysing fastest laps to understanding the impact of pace vs degradation, we leave no stone unturned in our quest to uncover the insights hidden within the data.We’re joined by an expert panel of guests, including Blake Hinsey, ex-Red Bull Performance Engineer as well as Autosport’s Jon Noble and Martyn Lee, to share their perspectives on the data and offer predictions for the upcoming season.Whether you're a die-hard F1 fan or just curious about the science behind racing, today's podcast brings you some valuable insights and analysis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Martyn Lee is joined by Matt Kew who is now back in the UK and Alex Kalinauckas who stayed in Bahrain to cover the first race this weekend. Today we look at five of the biggest questions we have before F1 goes racing this weekend in Bahrain:  Are Red Bull as quick as everyone is saying? What do Ferrari have to do in order to leapfrog Red Bull Why can nobody work out if Mercedes is looking good, bad or ugly? Who predicts Aston Martin could be a dark horse this year? How can McLaren dig themselves out of a pre-season funk? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stuart Codling watched the cars trackside at the Bahrain International Circuit today and joins Martyn Lee to discuss everything we learned from Formula 1's only pre-season test. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top teams Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari were all being careful with their performance predictions after reliability ended some runs and kept others in the garage.Aston Martin gave Fernando Alonso plenty to get on with as they continue to look like their 2023 car is handling well.Stuart Codling joins Martyn Lee to analyse the track action. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our team are at the Bahrain International Circuit to watch trackside as F1's 2023 challengers leave the garage for the first time.Autosport's Alex Kalinauckas and GP Racing Editor Stuart Codling join Martyn Lee to analyse the early running.We saw Red Bull's RB19 unveiled in the pit lane before Max Verstappen put in 157 laps to top the time sheets (not that today's time mean a huge amount!).In fact we saw just one Red Flag when the Aston Martin stopped on track with an electrical issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Following last night's Alpine event we've now seen all ten Formula 1 challengers for this year. Or rather more specifically, we've seen all their liveries. How much each team revealed varied from simply repainting a 2022 car (here's looking at you, Red Bull) to the Ferrari with its innovative front wing and suspension setup.Luke Smith joins Martyn Lee today to look back over the entire F1 launch season and talk about what we learned about the year ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And Alpine makes 10! We've now seen the entire grid (or at least, liveries and some of the cars), now Alpine have unveiled their A523 F1 2023 race car at a star-studded event in a London club. Even with the two liveries, are Alpine confident they can maintain their "best of the rest" position? And what does their new Rac(h)er mean for the future of women in motorsport? Matt Kew joins Martyn Lee straight from the busy Alpine club launch to discuss all this and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices