F1 Beyond The Grid
Lando’s champion evolution, Vowles’ podium pride + Brad Pitt’s ‘need for speed’ – The Best of 2025
17 Dec 2025
A title fight full of twists and turns, a new World Champion, rookies reaching major milestones and Formula 1 on the big screen. The 2025 season was nothing short of dramatic on and off track. Here, on F1 Beyond The Grid, Tom Clarkson has sat down with the people in the thick of all that drama and in this end-of-year special, Tom picks out his highlights. You’ll hear from the new World Champion Lando Norris, who reveals how he changed his mental approach to racing, and his race engineer Will Joseph. Lando’s title rival and teammate Oscar Piastri explains how he made so much progress from 2024 to 2025. And McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella tell us how they’ve managed to get Lando and Oscar to buy into the team’s racing philosophy. Away from the champions, Isack Hadjar reflects on how he bounced back from a nightmare F1 debut in Australia. Esteban Ocon and his race engineer Laura Mueller explain how they’ve built a relationship in their first year working together at Haas. And Valtteri Bottas tells Tom why he’s got unfinished business with F1 ahead of his return with Cadillac in 2026. From the cockpit to the pitwall, Williams Team Principal James Vowles shares his pride after Carlos Sainz secured the team’s first podium since 2021 and Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur gives his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton’s first year in red. Plus, four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel reflects on the highs and lows of his career and Hollywood icon Brad Pitt reminisces on what it was like becoming F1 driver Sonny Hayes for F1: The Movie. Thank you for listening in 2025. F1 Beyond The Grid will return in 2026. To hear the full interviews with the guests featured in this show, click on the links below… Lando Norris Oscar Piastri Andrea Stella + Zak Brown Helmut Marko Fred Vasseur James Vowles Brad Pitt Sebastian Vettel
Chapter 1: How did Lando Norris become the new World Champion in 2025?
A title fight that went down to the wire. The crowning of a brand new world champion, rookies realizing their potential, and Formula One's Hollywood debut. 2025 was, at times, unbelievable. But all of that did happen. And on F1 Beyond the Grid, we've spoken to the stars of the show who made it happen.
Hello everyone, I'm Tom Clarkson and this is the podcast where the fastest drivers in the world slow down for an in-depth conversation. And it's not just the drivers. Engineers, designers, team bosses and people with incredible stories all share fascinating tales of their time in the sport.
From today's stars like world champion Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Isaac Hadjar, to legends of the past like Sebastian Vettel and even Hollywood icon Brad Pitt. You'll hear from all of them and many more as we listen back through the highlights of our eighth year, bringing you the biggest names from the pinnacle of motorsport.
Chapter 2: What mental strategies did Lando Norris use to improve his racing performance?
Welcome to the best of Beyond the Grid 2025. Let's start with the driver who added his name to the shiny silver trophy they all want to win. After 24 rounds, it's Lando Norris who takes his first world championship. It's the promised land for Lando.
Oh, my God. You made a kid's dream come true. Thanks so much. I love you guys. Thanks for everything. You deserve it. I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad. Thanks for everything. I'm not crying.
A magical moment for Lando Norris at the title decider in Abu Dhabi. That was pure, raw emotion after a rollercoaster season that saw him recover a 34-point deficit and realise his childhood dream. Lando's always been very honest and self-critical when things aren't going well.
The mental strength he showed to bounce back from such a challenging first half of the season puts any doubts about his resilience to bed. Back in the summer, Lando told me how he's changed his psychological approach. I try hard to make myself disconnect from things and take my mind away.
Chapter 3: How did Oscar Piastri progress in his second season with McLaren?
You know, I have to put work in to try, forget about a weekend and just kind of go and spend some time with my friends and do things. Like I've had to work on trying to disconnect myself so I can spend more time away so I can come back and focus better rather than dwelling too much on certain scenarios. How do you do that? Is it sport, bit of golf, bit of paddle?
Yeah, it can be sport and sometimes it's just being with my friends and sometimes it's simple things, just going out for dinners with my team or doing things. I almost forget what I do, forget that I drive in Formula 1, forget that I drive and just really try and leave the world that I live in. I think it's because I care a lot about what I do, therefore I'm always trying to think of
why did I do that? Why, why did I make that wrong decision? Why did I go too hard into this corner? Sometimes you're talking about like milliseconds of eagerness here or there. Um, and you can, you can pay the price, you know, so it sounds always so simple in your mind, but therefore sometimes it's very difficult to find clear answers for it. But, uh,
Yeah, many different things, but both on and off the track. I think you're calmer outside of the car, certainly. I think I made that observation a couple of races ago in a press conference. You don't seem to get overly happy if it goes well. You don't get overly doubt. That's the impression that you give anyway. Certainly, I don't think I'm at the level of Oscar Piastri.
Chapter 4: What insights did McLaren's leadership share about team dynamics?
Yeah, come on. Some just have to check. Have you got a pulse?
Yeah. He looks more happy when he's like six sometimes when he wins the race. You know, I'm still definitely tough on myself, but I definitely get down less than what I did in the past. And I think that's certainly been something I needed to improve on and something I think I have improved on.
Will Joseph, your race engineer, come and join us. Look, guys, how would you describe your relationship? You've worked together since Lando first came into Formula One. Good. I think trusting. Trusting?
Honest? Yeah, trusting, honest. Enjoyable? Yeah. I hope. I think so. On the whole.
Chapter 5: How did Carlos Sainz achieve his first podium with Williams?
Most of the time.
uh yeah like people often refer to other engineer driver combinations as uh husband and wife and stuff like that i don't think we're like that at all no i think we're more moments you know older brother younger brother type thing probably yes you know please do what i ask you to yeah don't embarrass me yeah that kind of thing it goes both ways yeah yeah like that i'd say do you get to the point where it's telepathic
Can Lando just look at you, Will, and you know what he's thinking? I tell you what I am telepathic with is like car setup. I know what direction Will's going to go in. This is so not true. No, it is. It is. You need to elaborate on that. It's only because I put it in the notes. Yeah. I certainly think we can be looking at data or the TV together.
You can point at it and we both know what you mean, even though we don't say anything. That kind of thing.
But not like we say things at the same time. But telepathic in terms of our understanding of things is aligned and all the stuff that you need to be having the same understanding for is aligned.
So I think that's the most important part. Right, radio etiquette. When does Lando want you to speak to him? Never.
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Chapter 6: What challenges did Esteban Ocon face in his first year at Haas?
I was going to say, not much. He's never like, the less we say, the better. Yeah, but we can't not say stuff.
if that makes sense. Like everything that you'll say is of use and good information should something happen. You know, sometimes it's like a gaps dollar cars.
If there was to be a safety car or if there was to be a safety car, what tires and how is the pace so they can have a better understanding of, you know, how much more I can push and are we going to try and do another 30 laps or five more laps?
So I think there's a lot of information that's information, but you don't always act upon the information. It's more if any situation arises, you can execute whatever you've got to If you could not speak, I would probably prefer it.
But I think we have a good balance of him also understanding. I think he can probably, between Will and Jav, who's looking at like my driving stuff, Jav can see when I'm not happy or like what mood I'm in by my driving.
There are some subtle signs, some more obvious. And obviously that will get passed to Will and then Will will maybe say something or understand that or say something in order to, you know, get me to be back in a better mood or calm down or whatever it is. So... I think our communication gets a lot of focus. And I think each driver... That started in Hungary last year, didn't it, really?
I mean, I think it's sort of probably forever. But I think each driver-engineer combination has their own way of communicating and no way is right or wrong. But we've developed our way, which suits the way that we would like to work and the information that we as a team would like to pass and gather.
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Chapter 7: How did Brad Pitt prepare for his role in 'F1: The Movie'?
Some people might say it's too much and we should let Lando drive. And Lando will come back and say, if you see me doing something wrong, tell me. I want to go faster. So, you know, there's a balance in how we achieve that. I think we get the balance right. There have been times where we haven't. And when we haven't, he'll say.
The only time it seems to me there's been crosswords was Hungary last year. Is that fair? No, Monza. Monza as well? Yeah, Monza. You told me to stop talking to you whilst you were trying to overtake. That was, yeah, I was side by side with the car. So Lando, can you tell me how the tyres are feeling? But the funny thing is... No, that was like once. Yeah, once.
And afterwards you said, I wasn't being aggressive, but on the radio, it sounded pretty punchy.
Yeah, there was a moment where I came, even when I listened to myself after, I was like, whoa, do I always sound like that?
Yeah.
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Chapter 8: What reflections did Sebastian Vettel share about his F1 career?
Yeah, it always comes across differently because when you're in the helmets on and everything, you don't hear yourself. So even though I talk on the radio and I speak, you don't hear anything you say. You're basically mute. But obviously they hear everything quite clearly. So when I first listened to myself on the radio, I was like, oh, is that what I sound like?
Well, guys, how much time do you spend with each other away from the racetrack? Well, I'm coming around for dinner soon. You keep saying that. We are cooking, I think. We have talked about coming over. Yeah. I think my daughters are going to go nuts when that happens. So I think that'll be the most interesting thing. Whatever you'd like me to cook. Probably chicken, right?
Some sort of chicken dish. Pineapple and teriyaki sauce. I can do that.
The order's in. Yeah, order's in. No, I mean, we see each other in the factory between every combination of races. So if there's a double header, we probably won't. But after every grouping of races, we'll spend at least a day together. And it's, you know, a fairly full-on day. Like, it's fair to say we're not best friends outside of work, but I don't think we need to be.
I think we work as a very close pairing. That doesn't mean to say that I need to text Lando every five minutes. Yeah. I'll speak to Lando when I need to and I'll leave Lando alone when I don't. And I think that's probably the best way to be, right? Why does the relationship between you work so well? Trust.
Trust. Passion. Not in a weird way.
Passion of goal and love of racing. Passion to win.
I think enjoyment, like I want to enjoy every moment I have, whether that's even before I'm in the car. Of course, I enjoy the car stuff, maybe not always, but most of the time the most. And that's why I'm here in the end of the day is to drive. But I also don't just go to my room for the rest of the day and don't do anything. You know, we still have good laughs and good jokes and whatever.
Like we still want to enjoy, I think, every moment. A moment that we do have, whether it's at the track or away from the track or out for dinner, you know, it's different things. And we both want to achieve the same goal. The goal for you is a personal goal for me too.
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