T F1 Podcast

A review of the 2026 Austin Grand Prix, where Kimi Antonelli took a commanding win on a Mercedes one-stop strategy and moved closer to the championship. The episode covers Ferrari's qualifying struggles, Red Bull's strong turnaround, McLaren's team-order moment and George Russell's controversial five-second penalty. It closes with post-race reactions from the drivers in their own words.

The 2026 Singapore Grand Prix delivered one of the season’s most dramatic and strategically rich weekends, with Max Verstappen completing a flawless sweep of both the Sprint and Grand Prix, marking his first-ever win at Marina Bay on his 250th Formula 1 start. Despite the notoriously tight and humid street circuit, Verstappen controlled the race from lights out, fending off an early challenge from Charles Leclerc, who kept him honest and ultimately secured second place. Kimi Antonelli claimed third, a result that not only extended his championship lead but also put him on the brink of clinching the title heading into Austin. The weekend wasn’t without chaos: Saturday’s wet Sprint race saw delays and tricky conditions, but Verstappen still emerged dominant, setting the tone for Sunday. Ferrari, meanwhile, faced strategy missteps that cost Lewis Hamilton a potential podium, while George Russell struggled to climb from the back after an engine penalty, finishing only ninth. By the end of 62 laps, the story was clear: Verstappen’s resurgence is real — even if too late to stop Antonelli’s title march — and Marina Bay once again proved why it’s one of F1’s most unforgiving battlegrounds.

A very strange software glitch saw the 1st rain race for the 2026 F1 cars cause all sorts of chaos and 40 min delays. Once the race started the Merc`s were shot out of cannon to take control, but in the end the weekend belongs to Max and Red bull. They had a brilliant weekend and were the fastest car out there. Mercedes had a frustrating weekend as their highly anticipated upgrade didn't see to work, and then they suffered an engine issue on Russell`s car which unfortunately has happened before to the Merc engine. Ferrari and Hamilton did a good recovery to come in 3rd and 4th with Lecrec !

We were treated to an amazing Baku weekend where for the 1st time this season Russell seemed to be on top form. From the start of practise to an amzing performance in Quali, to a brilliant race this could be a turning point for Russell which had a Merc car that was leaps and bounds above every other car this weekend ! By contrast the unflappable Champ leader Kimi had his first rough weekend of the season. Huge unneccassary crash in Q1, good recovery drive to 5th but not his mistake free wknd. Max and Hadjer did a fantastic job to show RB was the second fastest car this wknd, while Mclaren faltered with zero points this weekend. The biggest talking point was Calpointos massive unnecessary accident which took out 3 different cars including his teammate. This was a really huge mistake that cost Alpine dearly!

The inaugural race in Spain was heralded by a masterclass from Merc and RB who take advantage of a VSC to take a much hard worked for victory , and for Max to secure unexpected 2nd for Red bull. It was really unfortunate for Norris who secured pole on Saturday, and drove a very tough battle to lose out on the win just based on strategy. A tough day in the office for Hamilton who had car brake issues and had to retire his car !