7: Otmar Szafnauer On How To Run An F1 Team And Make Driver Decisions

This week we meet one of the small group of broadcasters who can call themselves an F1 TV commentator. Alex Jacques is the voice of Channel 4’s F1 coverage in the UK and his commentary is carried on F1 TV in the US and around the world. He works alongside former F1 drivers David Coulthard and Jolyon Palmer.  Alex worked his way up through F2 and the W Series and by 2018 he was a full time F1 commentator.  He was voted Commentator of the Year in the 2022 Broadcast Sports Awards and his voice has appeared in Drive to Survive and F1 video games. Alex’s new book Grid to Glory, highlights 75 key moments from F1’s 75 year history.  But it’s not one anecdote per year, it’s much more interesting than that. He describes the kidnapping of the F1 World Champion driver, the day the F1 drivers went on strike, the Grand Prix that featured just six cars and many other great tales.  Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

5 Nov 37min

In this special edition of the James Allen on F1 podcast we hear from Aston Martin Chief Technical officer Adrian Newey, who shares some insights into his process and defines what has made him so successful.  He reveals fascinating detail on what he learned from failure.  He also names out the greatest driver he has ever worked with.  We also hear about a unique new initiative from Sir Jackie Stewart to raise funds for his charity Race Against Dementia.  Jackie and his son Mark have managed to collect the signatures of all 20 living F1 World Champions – including Michael Schumacher - on one of Jackie’s race helmets. This unique piece of F1 memorabilia will tour the world next year in the F1 Exhibition, but not before a one-off replica has been created which fans can win in a prize draw.  The competition is live now and closes on 23 November 2025. The winner will get an all expenses paid VIP trip to the season finale Abu Dhabi GP in December to collect it and witness the final signatures of Sir Jackie and the 2025 F1 World Champion – likely to be either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris… or could it be Number 5 for Max Vertstappen? For details on how to be part of the prize draw go to https://win.raceagainstdementia.com/ Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport =

30 Okt 43min

This week we have a special edition featuring interviews with Toto Wolff and Eddy Cue from the Autosport Business Exchange event we hosted recently in New York. It was a gathering of leaders from across motorsport, exploring the intersection of sports, entertainment and culture with the theme of the “Rise of Racing in America.” Mercedes F1 team principal and CEO Wolff gives his take on how F1 has exploded in the US, the potential for further growth and why he’s keeping the same drivers next season. As a one third shareholder in the team he receives a dividend every year of around £50 million and he has seen his team’s valuation soar to the point where his holding is worth over a billion dollars.  Eddy Cue is the senior Apple executive who signed the Brad Pitt F1 movie deal and followed up by clinching the five-year exclusive US TV rights deal.  The interview on stage at ABX was 36 hours before that deal announced, but Eddy was happy to share plenty of detail about how Apple sees F1’s potential and what the movie has done for the company for F1.  Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

22 Okt 54min

This week we have the latest in our series of F1 team principal interviews as we sit down with Sauber boss Jonathan Wheatley.  He has been in F1 since 1991 and contributed to eight Constructors’ World Championships and 153 Grands Prix victories in various roles with Benetton, Renault and Red Bull Racing, where he won six of those titles. He started life as Team Principal with Sauber in April this year, shortly after the Japanese GP, arriving at work on his first day in a classic Audi Quattro. Since May, the team has seen a significant uptick in form. From 2026 the team will be rebadged as Audi, with a bespoke engine and, along with Chief Technical Office Mattia Binotto, Wheatley will carry the hopes of one of the world’s leading manufacturers in their first foray into F1 racing. What skills has he had to learn? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having such a long drawn-out transition from Sauber to Audi? And how high does he feel Gabriel Bortoleto’s ceiling is as a driver? Joining James Allen in the studio to discuss the interview are Autosport F1 writers Ronald Vording and Jake Boxhall-Legge.  Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

15 Okt 36min

In F1 the numbers never lie – whether it’s the number of zeros on your pay cheque, the thousandths of a second on the stopwatch or the points of downforce on your new front wing. By looking at the underlying numbers of driver and team performance we can spot trends and learn more about what’s really going on this season.  We did this at the quarter stage and half stage and now after three quarters of this F1 World Championship we look again.  To help James Allen find the numbers that count are friend of the pod, former Ferrari and Williams engineer and now data guru Rob Smedley. Autosport’s technical editor Jake Boxhall Legge and F1 writer Ronald Vording joins from Singapore.   What is the most important number when it comes to Max Verstappen? What record could the pairing of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll break later this season? Williams, Racing Bulls and Sauber have all made big points gains, but at whose expense? Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

8 Okt 38min

This week James Allen delves into a topic that has always fascinated him - the way F1 teams and drivers present themselves – in other words their identity. The F1 season launch at the O2, London in February showed which teams had figured out their identity and those who hadn’t.  F1 teams go to endless lengths to refine the tiniest details on their car to gain performance, but could they be doing much more to make the cars and drivers look good to fans and sponsors? Is an F1 car livery just a blank canvas to showcase a team’s sponsors, or should it say much more than that about the team?  How teams show up and what they stand for is really important. Think of the change McLaren went through when Zak Brown took over and switched to papaya orange or when Mercedes switched from Silver Arrows to black cars.  We explore this in the company of celebrated designer Nick Downes, who has been creating F1 car liveries and logos for over 30 years, including the iconic yellow “snake” livery for Jordan in the late 1990s, the Jaguars in the early 2000s and more recently for Williams.  Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com.   A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

1 Okt 38min

This week James Allen welcomes Manish Pandey, the film maker and master storyteller who shot to prominence with the award-winning 2010 documentary Senna, which he made with Asif Kapadia and James Gay Rees of Drive to Survive fame. Since then Manish has followed up, gaining exclusive access to F1’s ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, to tell his behind the scenes story in the streaming series Lucky. Now he’s done it again with a new film, Seeing Red, about another of F1’s biggest characters, Luca Di Montezemolo.  Montezemolo was only 28 years old when he won the 1975 F1 World Championships as Ferrari team manager with Niki Lauda. He then came back in the 1990s to lead Ferrari’s renaissance, putting in place the “Dream Team” of Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne that dominated F1 with Michael Schumacher. At the same time he brought the magic back to Ferrari’s road car fleet.  Manish talks about what has drawn him as a film maker to tell the stories of Senna, Ecclestone and Montezemolo, what they have in common and how their stories intersect. He reveals the conversations that Montezemolo and Senna had in 1994 about the great Brazilian joining Ferrari and looks at the Ferrari of today and asks: how important is it that the person at the top of Ferrari loves F1? Seeing Red is on a limited cinema release via Everyman Cinemas in the UK and will be released on major streaming platforms soon. Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

24 Sep 44min

This week we welcome Ted Kravitz, a bona fide sports broadcasting legend, who has carved his own niche since 2001, patrolling the F1 pit lane for Sky Sports F1, BBC and ITV Sport.  His Ted’s Notebook segment on the Sky coverage is a must-watch for all fans of the sport, from the US to the UK, Australia and beyond.  He’s just released a new book, F1 Insider, telling his story as well as some great stories and anecdotes from his 25 years as the voice of the F1 pitlane. James Allen, who mentored Ted early in his TV career, chats to him about the F1 personalities that have stood out, moments of high drama that he found himself in the middle of and the toughest moments he’s faced. Ted lifts the veil on how live F1 TV coverage works behind the scenes.  He also looks ahead to the final three months of the season and his gives thoughts the battle for the F1 Drivers’ Championship.  F1 Insider: Notes from the Pit Lane is out now, published by Octopus Books. Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X or jamesallenonf1@autosport.com. A Motorsport Studios production for Autosport

17 Sep 49min