What we learned on day 1 of F1's frustrating private test
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
F1’s first group test of 2026 got underway in Barcelona on Monday in a strange locked down environment, completely free of media and fans. The Race’s Edd Straw and Jon Noble were amongst a handful of hardy journalists who spent the day trying to observe from a distance while evading over zealous security guards, and on this episode of The Race F1 Podcast they report back on what they found.
They discuss which teams ran (and which didn’t), who lapped the most, and who set the benchmark time, and also share their initial thoughts on what the new cars look and sound like on track. They also explain why they were left with the impression that the whole event was a big missed opportunity for F1.
Fill out a quick survey about your podcast habits by going to theathletic.com/survey26 and you could win $/£100 worth of Amazon vouchers
Get your 7-day free trial to The Race Members' Club on Patreon today and enjoy bonus F1 podcasts and ad-free listening.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | The Races |
| 0:02.7 | The Races on, and F1 pre-season testing kicked off behind closed doors in Barcelona |
| 0:17.0 | today with Red Bulls Isaac Hajjar setting the pace. |
| 0:20.1 | But what do we really know about what |
| 0:21.6 | went on and why were only seven out of the 11 teams on track for day one? I'm Ed Strawer and joining me |
| 0:26.9 | to look back on a strange day of covering testing is John Noble. Well John, we're here in Barcelona |
| 0:33.2 | or just outside Barcelona by the track. Comfortably the weirdest day of F1 testing coverage I've ever done, |
| 0:40.9 | and surely the same for you. |
| 0:42.4 | Well, as I just mentioned to you before we started, Ed, |
| 0:44.9 | is this the first ever day you have gone to a Formula One test and not seen a car? |
| 0:51.1 | It must be. |
| 0:52.8 | It must be. |
| 0:53.9 | I mean, unless there was a day when I just didn't look up from |
| 0:56.2 | the laptop or something, but no, it's that kind of day. I spent quite a bit of time studiously listening |
| 1:02.2 | and not drawing very good conclusions from it, but yeah, it wasn't for want of trying. But you |
| 1:06.9 | did at least get sight of plenty of cars because we kind of split our resources. |
| 1:11.5 | So you saw actually a fair bit. |
| 1:14.1 | Yeah, I've had a quite interesting day of seeing cars from lots of different places, |
| 1:18.0 | primarily because of kind of the way the security panned out. |
| 1:23.1 | So yesterday I'd gone on a wonder just to scout out some locations near the track |
| 1:28.3 | and found what's known as the hill, which is up above the final section. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Race Media Ltd, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Race Media Ltd and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.