Back At Base S3: 2. Master vs Apprentice
F1: Chequered Flag
BBC
4.2 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The new Cadillac Formula 1 team reveals who they’ve chosen as their race drivers for their debut 2026 season.
Returning fan favourites Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, with more than 500 Grand Prix starts between them, are set to make history as Cadillac’s first-ever F1 driver line-up. In an exclusive for this podcast, former Red Bull race-winner Perez explains why he’s chosen to make his F1 return with the Cadillac F1 team on his first day at work at the team’s Silverstone facility.
We lift the lid on life away from the track with Haas hotshot Ollie Bearman. Beside every F1 driver is a family unit that can get left behind, but the British racer’s family have taken the unusual step of supporting his career by relocating to join him in Monaco. But the move has prompted some sibling rivalry over just who gets to use the driver simulator.
At Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli has been relying on support from soon-to-be Cadillac driver Bottas in his apprentice F1 season. The Finnish racer is a reserve for Mercedes in 2025 and has taken on a mentoring role to help guide the Italian teenager before his own return to the grid in 2026, when the master will take on his apprentice.
F1: Back at Base is an IMG Production for the BBC, hosted by Rosamund Pike
Co-hosts & Executive Producers are Sarah Holt and Holly Samos
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. |
| 0:26.0 | However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. |
| 0:30.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.7 | Episodes of F1 Back at Base are released weekly |
| 0:39.0 | wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:41.7 | But if you can't wait, |
| 0:43.3 | you can listen to the latest episode now, a week early, |
| 0:46.8 | first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:52.6 | For the last nine months, two |
| 0:55.0 | For the last nine months, two of Formula One star drivers |
| 1:00.0 | have sat on the sports sidelines, uncertain where their future may lie. |
| 1:05.0 | Now, the duo, with more than 500 Grand Prix starts between them, |
| 1:10.0 | are about to re-enter the spotlight. |
| 1:16.8 | F1 is an exclusive club. |
| 1:22.7 | The arrival of Cadillac as the 11th team in 26 |
| 1:26.1 | saw two extra spots on the grid open up, and competition |
| 1:30.4 | to win them has been fierce. Now, in August 2025, the hotly anticipated driver reveal is here |
| 1:39.0 | at last. Cadillac are a team split across continents. |
... |
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