F1 Beyond The Grid

Yuki Tsunoda may be the latest Japanese racing hero, but he’s got a way to go to match the achievements of Tom’s guest this week: Kamui Kobayashi. In 75 races in F1 for Sauber and Caterham, Kobayashi earned himself a podium on home soil at Suzuka, more points than any other Japanese driver in history and cult hero status among fans. He’s also the man Sergio Perez credits for teaching him the dark...

Having joined McLaren in May 2019, Team Principal Andreas Seidl has been a key cog in the Woking team’s recent renaissance. But get to know him and it’s easy to see why.  On this week’s show the German discusses his hopes and aspirations for 2021 and why he couldn’t be happier with his driver line-up of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo. He also opens up on his management style, what he learned on...

Beyond The Grid is back for a new season, and for our first episode we’re proud to bring you a driver who is firmly in the spotlight in 2021: Sergio Perez. No one on the grid has experienced as many ups and downs as the Mexican over the last 12 months, from being the first driver to catch Covid-19 to losing his race seat, to winning his first race to landing a last-minute dream move to Red Bull. C...

To millions of F1 fans around the world, Murray Walker was much more than an F1 commentator. He was the man that brought their passion to life, with his unmistakable voice sound-tracking – and enhancing – some of the greatest moments in the sport’s history.  As the world mourns his sad passing, at the age of 97, we bring you Tom’s conversation with Murray from early 2019, as he looked back on his...

Mark your diaries – Beyond The Grid is back Wednesday March 17 with more raw, open and honest conversations with the biggest names in F1, from world champions to new-gen sensations, engineering gods to mighty team managers. Don’t miss it!  

In the third of our Beyond The Grid Revisited episodes, where we delve into the show’s archives, we look back on Tom’s conversation with F1’s resident Iceman: Kimi Raikkonen.   At the time of recording, Kimi was just about to embark on his first season with Alfa Romeo, after departing Ferrari. He was in extremely good spirits and, in a rare feature-length interview, was happy to open up on everyth...

In the second of our Beyond The Grid Revisited episodes, where we delve into the archives, we look back on Tom’s conversation with a fresh-faced Charles Leclerc in October 2018.   At the time, Leclerc was still enjoying a first season of F1 with Alfa Romeo Sauber, but with one eye on Ferrari after signing a deal to race for the Scuderia in 2019. Listen to him discuss his hopes and emotions about r...

In the first of our Beyond The Grid Revisited episodes, where we delve into the archives, we turn the clock back to our very first episode in 2018 to hear from Lewis Hamilton - then only a four-time champion.  The Briton discussed how the sport had shaped him, how his interests away from F1 keep him grounded and much, much more.  Beyond The Grid will be back with a new series in March.

This is our final episode of 2020, and my goodness what a year it’s been, both in F1 itself and on this very podcast.  We’ve had lots of great guests, lots of wonderful anecdotes, lot of laughs and quite a few tears too. And - we hope you agree - some real insights into some of the sport’s high-rollers. On this special episode, Tom has picked some of his favourite stories and anecdotes from the gu...

The job of Ferrari team principal is arguably the most prestigious in Formula 1 – but it’s also the one that undoubtedly carries the most pressure. The man whose task it is to lead the Scuderia right now is Mattia Binotto. Binotto is a Ferrari lifer, having joined the team straight out of university and worked numerous roles over his 25 years stay. He tells us all about that journey, which include...

He’s one of the most exciting young drivers on the grid, with two podiums and one stunning pole position to his name, and yet Lance Stroll has had to deal with a minority of critics throughout his time in the sport. On this week’s show, the Canadian explains how he deals with those voices, how he’s evolved as a driver and person since his debut in 2017, how he was forced to learn from his mistakes...

When Hesketh Racing burst onto the F1 grid in the 1970s, they took everyone by surprise. They appeared to be playboys, having fun on and off track. But away from the yachts and the parties, was a small, well-organised group of passionate racers who were determined to win. With James Hunt at the wheel, they did. Lord Alexander Hesketh, who bankrolled and ran the team, tells Tom Clarkson how he ‘acc...

He joined Benetton in the late 1980s as a bottom-rung mechanic and he’s been with the team ever since, as it morphed into Renault then Lotus and now back to Renault. Alan Permane, Renault’s Sporting Director, has seen and done it all in his time at the Enstone factory. He was Michael Schumacher’s mechanic, Giancarlo Fisichella’s race engineer, and he stepped up to lead the team after the Crashgate...

Jochen Mass’ F1 career began with a bang and ended more than a decade later in a fiery crash. In the 1970s he shared podiums with the likes of Lauda, Hunt, Fittipaldi and Scheckter. His talent deserved more than a single victory, which came on a dark day in Spain in 1975. Tragedy struck again in 1982, when Jochen played a blameless part in the crash which killed the legendary Gilles Villeneuve. To...

Eric Boullier was Team Principal at Renault and Lotus before he became the Racing Director of McLaren. He resigned from that role in 2018 before switching camps to Paul Ricard, where he is now managing director of the French Grand Prix. In this episode, Tom probes Eric about his life in the sport, from the challenge of managing Kimi Raikkonen to dealing with the aftermath of Robert Kubica’s accide...

He's led hundreds of laps in F1 – but you may never have heard of him. That’s because Bernd Maylander is the Safety Car driver, and has been for the last 20 years. When the weather is bad or there’s a serious incident, Bernd takes to the track to lead the field around at a safe speed – not fast by F1 standards, but still seriously quick. He gives us the inside line on his job, revealing who is the...

He’s a workaholic, whose team is about to win a record seventh consecutive constructors’ championship. Yet his desire for more trophies remains all-consuming. We welcome back Mercedes boss Toto Wolff for an intimate and relaxed chat at his home in Oxford. Topics up for discussion include his future, how Niki Lauda remains a big influence in his life, the realities of the Rosberg/Hamilton relations...

Chase Carey has been CEO and Executive Chairman of Formula 1 for the last four years, and it’s fair to say he’s been busy in that time. New rules – including F1’s first ever budget cap - have been crafted, a new governance structure has been negotiated, and new races have joined the calendar – and that’s before you consider having to navigate through a global pandemic. On this week’s show – the 10...

He’s a four-time world champion and racing icon, yet Sebastian Vettel’s fiercely private nature means we don’t know as much about him as we do many of his rivals, whose lives are plastered all over social media. We get to know the German racer a little better, discovering how his attitude to F1 has shifted over his 250 Grand Prix starts, finding out how he likes to spend his time away from the tra...

A sponsorship guru for more than 20 years, Zak Brown landed his dream job in 2016 when he became executive director, and later CEO, of McLaren – the team he’d supported as an F1-mad kid in California.  On this week’s show, Brown discusses how he’s guiding McLaren back to the front of the grid and why he made the moves he has in the driver market. He also gives us the lowdown on his own racing care...

In the second of our special episodes chronicling what it’s like to drive for Scuderia Ferrari, F1’s most storied team, we fast forward into the modern era, to hear what it’s like to race for the Prancing Horse without founder Enzo at the helm. There are superb stories from Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, who guided the Maranello team into the Nineties, plus eye-opening insight from fan favourite R...

They’re the most storied team in Formula 1 history, the one that’s been around the longest, the one with the most wins and championships, the one that generates the most headlines, and definitely the one with the most mystique. But what’s it like to drive for the biggest F1 team on the planet, Scuderia Ferrari? In the first of two special episodes, we speak to those who have been there and done it...

Think you know Antonio Giovinazzi? Think again. Most of you will know that he’s an Alfa Romeo driver. You might also know he’s the only Italian driver on the grid – the first since 2011. But what else do you know about him? On this week’s show we get to know Kimi Raikkonen’s lion-maned team mate a little better, finding out about his unique path to F1 via a stint in China, the inside line on his s...

September 5th marks the 50th anniversary of Jochen Rindt’s death, during practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix. He’d go on to be crowned F1’s first – and thankfully only -  posthumous world champion – but his legacy is much more than that. On this very special episode, we look back on Rindt’s rebellious upbringing and racing origins with friend and current Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Mar...

This week’s guest is one of the grid’s most influential people.  In fact, he’s arguably one of the most influential people in F1 ever. Since the dawn of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014, Mercedes engines have won 80% of all Grands Prix, and the man overseeing that success is Andy Cowell, Engineering and Programme Director of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains since 2008. Listen as he discusses how...