F1 Beyond The Grid

When it comes to giant killing in F1, few have done it better than Racing Point in recent years – in fact in 2016 and ’17, with the smallest budget on the grid, the then Force India team outperformed many well-healed opponents to finish fourth in the constructors’ championship. One of the architects behind that success was long-running Technical Director Andrew Green, whose F1 career started in the very same squad in 1991, in their Jordan guise. 

On this week’s show, Tom chats to Andrew about what makes Racing Point such a lean, mean fighting machine, why under an Aston Martin re-brand they could become race winners, what it was like seeing Michael Schumacher drive an F1 car for the first time and much, much more…

On the 12th April, the world of motorsport lost a giant with the news that iconic 16-time Grand Prix winner Sir Stirling Moss had passed away aged 90. In the final few years of his life, Moss stopped doing public appearances and interviews because of his health. But he did sit down for a chat with Mia Forbes Pirie, a close family friend, for what is believed to be his final in-depth interview, providing us with a compelling and poignant first-hand account of an incredible life lived at full speed.

F1 turns 70-years-old on May 13, so to celebrate we have invited perennial favourite Martin Brundle back on the show to discuss the best F1 cars he’s ever driven. The Englishman, a nine-time F1 podium finisher, is one of the only people on the planet to have driven race-winning cars from every decade of the sport, so he’s perfectly placed to describe how the unique challenge of driving flat out has evolved over time…

Few drivers have experienced as many ups and downs as AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat in his near century of Grand Prix starts, from the elation of three brilliant podium finishes to the dejection of demotion and losing his F1 seat. This week, the Russian opens up on the mental resilience needed to bounce back in F1, why his sabbatical year with Ferrari inspired him to fight back, that redemptive podium in Germany last year, and his thoughts on Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko’s school of hard knocks…

As one of the most successful driver managers in the history of the sport, Julian Jakobi has worked with the very best – including managing rivals Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the same time! Currently managing Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, Jakobi – who oversaw some of F1’s biggest ever deals - gives us the lowdown on how an F1 driver’s contract is drawn up, plus regales us with some must-hear anecdotes about Senna, Prost, James Hunt, Michael Schumacher and more!

This week’s guest was one of the quickest and most consistent drivers of the 2000s. In fact, Nick Heidfeld stood on the podium 13 times, which is the most any driver has in history without winning a race. But don’t think of that as a dubious honour, more a reflection of the quality of a man who went toe-to-toe in equal machinery with the likes of Robert Kubica, Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen and frequently came out on top. 

On this week’s show Quick Nick chats to Tom Clarkson about his 183-race F1 career;  the cars, the teams and the rivals who impressed him most – plus what it was like to grow up in the hot bed of driving talent surrounding Michael Schumacher’s home kart track…

John Barnard can stake a claim to shaping all modern F1 cars. Not only was he responsible for victoriously introducing the now ubiquitous carbon fibre chassis to F1, he also was the brains behind the semi-automatic gearbox that is now an integral part of every Grand Prix car. 

On this week’s show he gives us an eye-opening look into these innovations, as well as describing what it was like to negotiate setting up a Ferrari factory in the UK with Enzo Ferrari, what it was like to work with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost, and the remarkable story of how he discouraged Ayrton Senna from joining Benetton…

Like Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Nico Rosberg, David Brabham knows only too well what it’s like to forge a path to F1 under the shadow of a famous father, in his case triple world champion Jack Brabham – the only driver to win the title in a self-made car. 

On this week’s show, Brabs tells us about his unconventional start to racing, the perhaps surprising influence of his father, his stop-start Grand Prix career, the legacy of Brabham, and that dark weekend at Imola in 1994, when his team mate Roland Ratzenberger was tragically killed…

Fans of F1 racing in the Nineties will remember Mark Blundell well as part of a brilliant ‘Brit pack’ of racers including Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and his pal Martin Brundle. The gritty racer reached the podium in underdog machinery three times in that period, whilst also acting as test driver for the two best teams at the time: Williams and McLaren. 

On this week’s show he discusses all of this and more, including the financial realities of racing for a back-of-the-grid outfit, his ‘useful’ friendship with Brundle, filling Nigel Mansell’s hastily vacated seat at McLaren, learning from Ayrton Senna and much more…

He may have been out of the sport for a few years now, but how could anyone forget Flavio Briatore? The former Benetton and Renault boss was one of the biggest and most controversial characters in F1 throughout the Nineties and Noughties, but he was also one of the most successful, with his inimitable style leading Benetton and Renault to multiple championships. 

On this week’s show he opens up about his unlikely journey from the fashion business to F1 team boss, about working alongside Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, locking horns with McLaren boss Ron Dennis, and that most controversial topic: crashgate...