Back At Base: 2. Big Air
F1: Chequered Flag
BBC
4.2 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Williams and Mercedes Formula 1 teams have given us unprecedented access to their top-secret facilities as they work over the winter preparing their cars for the 2024 season. At Mercedes, the team’s superstar driver Lewis Hamilton is going into a restricted area to see how that crucial work is coming along. We follow in his footsteps as F1 experts Holly Samos and Sarah Holt get a VIP tour of one of the most important tools when it comes to designing and building the most complex race cars in the world.
From his position at the very top, Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff is reflecting on how the team lost ground when major new technical regulations on car design came in for the 2022 season.
At Williams, new team principal James Vowles is welcoming his first major hire - as they plot a return to the front of the grid for the nine-time World Champions. The duo are part of a crack team back at base who have been getting to grips with the 2024 car since last March.
At both teams, the drivers also have their wish-list for the new cars. Alex Albon knows what avenue he wants Williams to go down and there is one person Hamilton has on speed dial when it comes to car design.
The cars that will be driven by Albon, Hamilton & co during the 2024 season are being built by 1000s of people. It’s time for them to get to work - as the race to the 2024 season picks up pace.
F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC Narrated by Joseph Fiennes Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Holly Samos and Sarah Holt The Producers are Alasdair Cresswell, Joe Aldridge and Jack Winstanley. The Senior Producer is Ollie Kneen The Executive Producer for IMG is Steve Tebb The Showrunner is Holly Samos The Story Editor and Scriptwriter is Sarah Holt The Commissioning Editor at the BBC is Stevie Middleton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.2 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.3 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team has such a diverse |
| 0:21.2 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:26.0 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.1 | from all around the UK. |
| 0:39.0 | You're about to listen to F1 back at base. |
| 0:42.4 | Episodes will be released daily wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:45.9 | But if you're in the UK, listen to the latest episodes first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:53.0 | The new Formula One season is coming around the corner fast. |
| 0:58.0 | The teams have only 97 days to produce a new race car before the 2024 World Championship |
| 1:04.0 | begins. |
| 1:06.0 | And although, as Toto Wolfe says, the teams never stop being races, the winter still feels relentless. |
| 1:11.6 | There is no off-season at the top of motorsport, and the race to build a new car is ramping up. |
| 1:17.6 | I'm Joseph Fines, and in this series we are following two of F1's most famous teams, Mercedes and Williams, |
| 1:26.6 | as they prepare for the next year of intense competition |
| 1:29.7 | where racing rivalries are played out at top speed. |
| 1:34.9 | They have allowed us unprecedented access to their top secret facilities, where the story |
| 1:40.3 | of the season truly begins. |
... |
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