The Autosport F1 Podcast

AL UNSER JR has lived a double life - supreme racing talent and self-inflicted personal turmoil. He won two CART championships and won the Indianapolis 500 twice. It's rare for someone so successful in their motorsport career to open up on struggles with addiction, depression and abuse. His new book "Al Unser Jr: A Checkered Past" is a brutally honest look at some of the stories which racing fans will know, and some which he has never talked about before. Growing up in Indycar with a famous surname he was put on a pedestal. Nephew to Bobby, son of Al. The story of 'Little Al' would too often leave the pages of Autosport for the tabloids to chart the fall from grace of an American darling. JAMES NEWBOLD asks about how he was able to supress his anger at Emerson Fittipaldi after his crash in the 1989 Indy 500, and win an award for sportsmanship, when he had to fight every natural urge not to retaliate. He says what he thinks of the current crop of teams and drivers, and who impresses him the most. He also talks about the process of writing his book alongside noted author JADE GURSS and how he had to stop several times because he was in tears. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Day 2 of F1 pre-season testing saw global events overtake what was happening on track, with drivers and teams speaking out against the Russia/Ukraine conflict.  Meetings between organisers will soon communicate Formula 1's stance on the planned race in Sochi. Martyn Lee is joined by Alex Kalinauckas (Grand Prix Editor, Autosport) and Jake Boxall-Legge (Technical Editor, Autosport) to dig into the timesheets and work out what's really going on. We've been trackside again today and observing how some of the cars are suffering with high speed instability,  in a throwback to the 1980's ground effect cars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to a bonus episode of the show featuring some exclusive content from the subscriber area of Autosport.com. Autosport Plus  Red Bull was the first Formula 1 team to launch its 2022 season, but is the last to actually show off its new car. Finally unveiling its RB18 to the world on the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, here's what can be seen from the radical new challenger Max Verstappen will defend his 2021 title with. For a 50% discount on your first payment to the exclusive Autosport Plus subscriber area, using the code PODCAST at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Autosport Podcast will bring you coverage of Formula 1 testing at the end of every day of track action. On today's podcast we're looking at the first day of testing (officially a shakedown) and how any fears about early reliability were quickly dispelled. Eight teams achieved over 100 laps as they executed their individual run plans with little drama and no red flags to interrupt sessions. Martyn Lee is joined by Jake Boxall-Legge (Technical Editor, Autosport) and Haydn Cobb (Autosport.com Editor) to talk about what it was like trackside, and also analyse some of the technical aspects of the Red Bull RB18 which made it's first real appearance today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we're using the build up to the 2022 season to look back at who excelled last year, and therefore who we should be watching this year.  Settle in because this is a long one, with both Top 10 drivers argued out for British Touring Cars and the TOCA support series (Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Ginetta GT4 Supercup, Ginetta Junior, Mini Challenge and British Formula 4). We didn't rush this one out at the end of 2021 because so much of our time was spent with the incredibly late running F1 calendar, plus we knew that we had a healthy gap before these series started again. It's still around a month before we'll even see some F4 or Ginetta testing. And a couple of months before the opening round at Donington Park. Hosting todays podcast is Autosport's Chief Editor, Kevin Turner. He's joined by Marcus Simmons and Stephen Lickorish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Later than originally planned, the Autosport Awards 2021 were presented on Sunday 6th February at London's Grosvenor House. On the podcast today we bring you highlights of the winners speeches and some of the stars we met on the red carpet. The categories, voted on by readers of Autosport magazine and autosport.com, are below:  Racing Driver of the Year presented by Pirelli Race Car of the Year presented by Blink Experience Rally Driver of the Year Rally Car of the Year Rookie of the Year British Racing Driver of the Year UK Racer of the Year Esports Driver of the Year presented by Motorsport Games Esports Team of the Year presented by Motorsport Games Pioneering and Innovation Award presented by Mahindra Gold Medal Award Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Haas has become the first Formula 1 team to unveil its car livery and design for the 2022 season after releasing a series of renders on Friday. The Haas VF-22 car is the first produced by the American team out of its new design office in Maranello, and offers a sign of what the new cars will look like this year following the overhaul of the technical regulations. On the podcast today, Alex Kalinauckas is joined by Luke Smith and Jonathan Noble to discuss first impressions on the renders, and how Haas is changing the organisation to be more competitive in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jake Boxall-Legge takes over the reins of our Formula E coverage for Season 8. Martyn Lee hosts alongside Matt Kew as we look at the action this weekend and Season 8 as a whole. How will qualifying changes affect the action? Which teams and drivers are the ones to watch? And we ask how Formula E can reach a wider audience as it heads towards the Gen3 era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's one month until Formula 1 reconvenes in Barcelona to run new cars for the first time, and we’re reconvening on the Autosport podcast to start our F1 technical coverage for the new season. After a short winter break, attention has turned from a controversial title-decider to how teams will have interpreted a new rule book. This year we’ll be talking about the Venturi effect, listed parts and wheel covers. The rule-makers have even mandated some open source parts which forces teams to upload their designs for anyone to see (because sharing is caring?). Our man who scours the technical regulations is Jake Boxall-Legge (Technical Editor, Autosport) and he tells us what fans should be looking for when cars roll out of the garage. GP Racing’s Ben Anderson looks at what the extra year of development time could mean and, whilst people assume we’ll see a convergence of performance, it might actually mean the top teams stretch their advantage. Any new set of rules have the potential to throw the form book out of the window. But what is the chance of that happening this year? The last team to surprise everyone was BrawnGP in 2009 but, as Ben points out, the Honda team had written off two years of development to put all the might of a works team into that moment.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tom Howard is back on the Gravel Notes podcast for a new season of WRC. Joining him on the shows is Martyn Lee to talk about the new Rally1 cars and championship battle with Ogier running a limited season. We also hear from Sebastien Ogier, Craig Breen, Oliver Solberg, Ott Tanak, Kalle Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans ahead of action starting later today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices