In-Car Insights: We discuss Friday's F1 action in Belgium
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome to In Car Insight. So-called because we're in a car and we like to think we offer insight. Ed Straw here in the passenger seat. Ben Anderson is on driving duty this weekend for one of his rare Grand Prix weekend appearances. And bringing up the rear in the back seat is Val Harungi, who we will pass the mic to later on. Now, it is an in-car podcast, so that's why you can hear things like indicator noises as Ben fights his way in. through the Spa traffic, but we've had Friday here in Belgium. Ben, Mercedes fastest, no particular surprise there?
Were they? I was trackside the whole time, so I barely saw what was going on. Antonelli was quickest, wasn't he? He looked quick from where I was watching.
Yeah, well, Mercedes had an interesting day, actually, because they struggled a bit in FP1 and then made a big change in FP2. And partly that was just because the lap times were just not as quick as they were anticipating. Right. So we saw quite a big step year on year for Friday practice. So with the deployment challenges, that's really costing lap time, perhaps even a little bit more than was anticipated. But let's see where we settle tomorrow. But, yeah, Mercedes looking good. I did ask Andrew Shovlin, the trackside engineering director, if... The fact that they were a little bit on the back foot in FP1 meant that there's maybe a bit more low-hanging fruit overnight to make a bigger gain than usual.
And he sort of accepted that principle, if they get it right. But there's a lot of teams with a lot of head-scratching about deployment. But you pre-empted me because I was going to get you on trackside fairly shortly. Now, you went out in both sessions. to join you in fp1 but some uh some tech stuff came up which is always uh interesting so uh you were solo this is your first time seeing the 2026 f1 cars that you hate with a passion correct in the flesh and i think you you just you discovered a little bit the duality of them i think yeah there's good things and bad things yeah i mean i've always known that there's this disconnect
present. You see it in the fandom, right? It's love or hate. It's become the Marmite Formula One. And I experienced that. So when I went out for FP1, I went to Eau Rouge because you can walk there quite easily from the media centre. And it's the iconic spa place, isn't it? So I always think it's a really good place to start. And I've watched various iterations of F1 car through Eau Rouge over the years, starting in 2014 when I started covering Formula 1 and piecemeal times haven't been to spa since 2019 so it's been a while uh and they they look so impressive through there because they're deploying all the way down the hill from a source they arrive at a real rate of knots they're arriving at high reach faster than they were before
Yeah, and it looks that way. And also, you instantly see that new nimbleness the cars have because they've been made lighter and shorter and what have you.
Isn't that nimbleness so much easier to see trackside? I mean, we're lucky to do it. But the reason I say that is because you can't see it on the TV so much, but trackside, you absolutely see it. It's right there.
And they looked as though they were... going up the hill and turning right, just that little bit skittish where they were just lacking a bit of grip. Obviously, they've lost downforce too. So that was quite spectacular to watch. And I think if you'd just left it there, if I just left it there, come away thinking, this is brilliant, this is the best F1 I've ever seen. F1's absolutely fine. I left Eau Rouge after maybe 25 minutes of the session and did that... yomp that you have to do where you loop around the Radeon grandstands down and then go up the hill so I could get level with the Kemmel straight. And I joined the Kemmel straight towards the end. And then you see the other side of F1 2026, which is flashing red lights indicating MG UK not running at full power, engine note dying, cars sort of not exactly crawling because they're still going really fast, but relatively speaking, crawling towards Lecombe.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:13–5:17
2
How are teams struggling with energy deployment and what effect did that have on Friday practice?
5:17–7:58
3
How did Ben’s first trackside view of the 2026 F1 cars at Eau Rouge change his opinion?
7:58–14:28
4
What differences did trackside sightings reveal between TV and in-person impressions of the 2026 cars?
14:28–19:43
5
Why are cars appearing ‘skittish’ on long deceleration zones like Kemmel and Les Combes?
19:43–37:40
Speakers
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