F1: Chequered Flag

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Your go-to destination for Formula 1 news, interviews and reactions.

F1 Chequered Flag from the BBC offers expert analysis of every F1 race, with exclusive insight into every twist and turn of the F1 season. Each episode brings you in-depth race reviews, breaking down the strategies that shape each Grand Prix and the key players making headlines. Hear from F1 stars like Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, and the bosses of powerhouse teams like Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. And get up to speed on the cars and tactics changing the game.

Coming up this season: what will it take for Max Verstappen to win his fifth consecutive world title? Can McLaren retain their lead from the 2024 Constructors Championship? Will Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris take the lead, the two McLaren team-mates turned rivals? How will Lewis Hamilton perform after his shock switch to Ferrari? And what can we expect from this season’s rookie drivers, Oliver Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto?

Stay tuned for the latest F1 updates, straight from the track.

Recent Episodes

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Recent Reviews

happy_sad123

Never miss it // except when the put episodes behind a paywall

My fav. Andrew Benson is always logical and pragmatic. But technically quite often the new episode doesn't show up. It shows as new in my feed but when I go to play it, there’s nothing there. Edit - old episodes are gone or behind a paywall? Like even the end of 2024 season wrap up? Is this now a different podcast or is this an off season show and back catalogue thing?
dwh24

One of the worst F1 pods

I still suffer through most episodes because they occasionally have information I don’t hear about elsewhere. But l think it provides an underrated service. Rosanna gives a look at what it would be like to be an F1 fan but not have critical thinking skills. It is wild sometimes.
jpncar

Thank you

Thanks to all the BBC Team. You the best.
MinnesotaMik

They Put The Brit in British Broadcast Corporation

Be prepared for a brutal British bias on the analysis parts. Lots of whinging if the British drivers get beaten.
late_apex

“I wasn’t excited for this GP” (2022 R1)”

Yes Jennie and Sam, the strange things you commented on are frequent - painful stabs at contrarianism or baseless condescension. You try too hard, JH. ***** Changed my review from 3* to 5* following Barcelona ‘23 Qually. Harry Benjamin, Ben Edwards and Marc Priestley bring excellent and agenda free insight and Andrew Benson is a consummate pro.
griffysenderson

Plenty of topics but they focus on only one.

Benson goes one full minute without mentioning Horner allegations challenge: IMPOSSIBLE
Rider-of-paso

Good commentary and insight

Sprint races…… sigh. Why not take 1 car frm the previous year and rn 1 driver from each teams backup, test or F2 respective friver pools and have a seperatw championship for them and the team. Gives the up and comers a taste of the F1 cars, sllows thwm to prove themselves and gain experience without jeapordizing the current years championship. Tgis could also add some fan interest in seeing the next gen drivers, creating fan bases and would likely provide a better race over all. After all, the teams really arent pushing themselves or the cars for 2 points.
drbuttons

Please do some sound editing

Great, informative podcast, but Andrew Benson’s disgusting lip smacking noises has me fast forwarding through his segments. It would be great if they would get him a different mic or edit out the smacking in post.
caitlinlorrainejohnson

International Women’s Day

Why is no one on this podcast acknowledging the seriousness of the Red Bull employee’s claims and the disgraceful way she’s been treated for speaking out about her own harassment?
SoCalCuster

All gossip, no racing

Pod team wants to spend the whole show talking about real or invented gossip versus discussing the on track racing.
Michigan Man2216

A British Lewis sycophant round table

Listening to the vacuous Jennie Gow slobbering all over Sir Lewis is a waste of time. The entire panel takes turns fellating LH. Sam Bird has been a very positive addition but has now received the memo and is a typical sycophant. Rosanna, Harry and Alice. I literally couldn’t make it 2 minutes before turning the podcast off. Which is amazing because I consume everything F1. How did Harry get his job? Vacuous inexperienced and no knowledge of F1? His dad has to be someone. Get well Jennie. Recently listened to Benson, Brundle and Palmer it was excellent and that crew is 5 stars. Harry Benjamin is the worst of a miserable bunch other than the aforementioned trio of Palmer Benson and Brundle
Alfonzy23

Haters of Perez

Massive British biased and hate towards Perez. If it was any of the British boys they’d be all over them. Very disappointing podcast. Absolutely disappointing how much they make it obvious that Perez is on Red Bull.
TitleSafe

Typical

Great podacast to hear journalists complain about the performance of the race winner and how early they had to get up to watch a race not on a daytime GMT schedule.
YanktheMike

Hard to listen to unless you’re team LH

I get that this is the BBC, but you can find a myriad of great F1 podcasts with British hosts that provide a much more measured analysis. Thumbs down. I’ll give a 3 star Edit : even worse today. Trying to feast on the Horner non story. 2 stars
mozzkid

Welcome Back Jennie!!!!

So happy you’re back
Rcpowered

British racist crap. Don’t even bother if you are from any other country.

The British racist bias makes it impossible to listen. Just trash talking about Perez week after week.. enough is enough. It’s ok to criticize objectively.. but this is just pure racist crap. They would never talk like this about a British driver. Will not listen anymore. Have fun in your little island.
Daveth1218

Jack?

What happened to Jack? Is he no longer working Five Live F1? Sorry, if the answer is obvious, I apologize, as I am in the USA, and we don’t get any other BBC F1 content besides the podcast (meaning I can’t listen to the actual races).
Robert Henry Holtz

Enjoy the show

The less Andrew Benson the better. Enjoyable show, well produced, so much better than the typical BBC woke trash! Sticks to the sport.
Getbetterbeforeplayoffs

Listed episodes frequently unavailable

You click on a new episode and it buffers for a minute before saying the episode is unavailable. They also frequently upload the episode on the wrong podcast. I don’t have this issue with any other podcast. This should not be happening with 2023 technology.
Shegraha

Decent but deteriorating podcast.

The podcast is an average show be when it sticks to the events and action of F1. Far too often it veers into political commentary and the related opinions of its hosts. I do not listen to or watch racing entertainment to hear their opinions on politics.
Mbn79

No fun anymore

This used to be my favorite F1 podcast but I can’t listen to the new hosts. They always seem angry and argumentative. Nothing fun about this podcast anymore. Really hoping Jennie Gow can come back someday and revive this podcast but until then I’ve unsubscribed.
JJS013

Unlistenable this season

I used to look forward to listening to this podcast after each race for the past few years. This year, the podcast is absolutely unlistenable. The changes made to the hosts were not successful.
Leg Humped

Comparing FL to Saudi Arabia?

To hear them compare Florida to Saudi Arabia in terms of human rights violations is both ignorant and disgusting. Not sexualizing education for kids in elementary school and younger is a far cry from what goes on in Saudi Arabia. Their peice talking to Lewis is fraught with misinformation and ignorance, it’s flat out embarrassing. Shame on the BBC and these journalists
Dave890711

Great F1 Pod, stop talking politics

I’ve been a longtime listener and thoroughly enjoy this podcast. Missing Jennie this season, Jack Nicholls is fantastic, and a riot. However, if their goal is to grow the sport, talking about politics and using incorrect information is not the answer. I was aghast that they said racing in Florida is like racing in Saudi Arabia, when discussing the Miami GP. If you’re going to bring up politics on a sports podcast get your facts straight. Pathetic.
Bballfan75

Dreadful

Listen if you want F1 talking points rather than thoughtful analysis of the sport.
Lost on the trail

Get well Jennie

The show is great and was sad to see Jennie’s health issue. Get well soon and hope to hear you again at the start of the season!
SonnyD19

Sam Bird is a hidden gem

Sam Bird should consider recording guided meditations or him reading children's stories for bedtime. What velvet pipes along with his racing knowledge. Read me a bedtime story about racing, Sam. Please?
Matteo L. Inter

Decent

It’s immediate coverage after races so you can’t blame them for occasionally having misinformed views. I just wish they would occasionally ask Jennie to actually have reason behind her opinions, seems that she’s just there to spew controversial remarks.
El_Plan_2023_and_beyond

Great podcast but late updating (sometimes)

Probably the best F1 podcast with anti PR commentators 👌 The only thing to improve would be the timing of the update to me. Sometimes the podcast is updated the next day, which makes it already outdated (especially for gp preview and qualifying)
xSirPaul

The Chain

Enough for five stars.
Jkmtres

The Race?

I’m a new F1 fan this year and just discovered this podcast. They spent more than the first half of the first, and I guess now last episode I listened to discussing racism not the upcoming British GP.
FallmeadowFlyer

Commentary is the bomb!

Other commentators are available but Jack Nichols is the man! 🏁
Hjbnikinkjnjknkjn

Remains the gold standard...But

This podcast has been the gold standard and will continue to be so with it's current team but please guys....if you're going to spoil the result of another series event (indy 500) right at the end of the podcast PLEASE give us a warning for those of us who don't get to watch everything live......you completely ruined a whole weekend's plans I was so excited for
JSAC1689

Ignores the Politics of the Sport

It is incredible that a Formula 1 podcast from the BBC has not touched on the exit of Mazepin, the FIA report about Abu Dhabi, and the explosion at Jedda. How they can completely ignore these crucial events surrounding the sport, is mind boggling to me. In general their analysis just touches the surface and for these reasons I don’t recommend it.
volivas

the best f1 show

This show is the best formula 1 show out there (but there’s not many). Jennie is one of the best moderators in entertainment, and the experts are really expert. You come away from the show feeling more informed about the sport, and the show is very entertaining even for people who aren’t really interested in car racing.
jcpilot1995

Where are you guys?

This is my go to F1 podcast. You guys generally do a good job. However, the first race of the 2022 season is just days away, every team has attacked the new regulations differently, there have been TWO separate testing sessions separated by an open week, and you guys have said not one word!!! How about a season preview? How about a new car review after some of the testing? How about keep me from having to listen to the bilge on those other F1 podcasts. C’mon, get to work!!!
anarduzzi

Lewis bias(ish)

Great except for Jenny’s constant bias towards Lewis. She may deny it, but it’s plain for us to see. Love the commentary on everything else though!
readerreaderpumpkineater

I want to like this podcast

But the claim of “BBC impartiality” is absolute crap. You alienate fans of other teams, especially of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. New flash, Max is not the devil incarnate, and was voted the fans’ favorite driver. Consider your audience.
myohmy2cents

Great as usual!

Expertise humor charm this is the best F1 podcast by far. But I missed Ms Gow of course.
949463)2825278

Biased Commentary

Seems to favor the Hamilton for every conversation.
file_under/store

There’s gotta be more objective analysis

I’m a relatively new fan to F1. Been keeping up with it for only 5 years now. BBC doesn’t analyze without bias, which I get if you’re appealing to British fan base I guess. Clearly a pro Lewis Hamilton fan club podcast. Jenny is a great host, but the guys remind me of the typical and blatant English bias seen in Premier League commentary.
MNFledermaus

Love this pod

Great podcast. Never releases soon enough for me. I want it right after the race!!! Lol. #maxftw #MNFledermaus #whatanamazingseason #cantwaitfordrivetosurvive
Dub Nation in East Coast Exile

Unofficial Lewis POD

Unfortunate in a season full of compelling stories, another biases POD. Shame, BBC credibility is better than shorting itself for this
Shwagger167

Typical British Cringe.

This podcast is the absolute worst. There’s much better ways to spend your time listening to British F1 podcasts than endure this trash. Try WTF1 or the late braking F1 podcast. I honestly don’t know how Jolyon, or however you spell his name is employed. Far better broadcasting talent out there….
buuuuud12

Another Lewis fan club

For a moment I thought this would be a neutral podcast, but what a waste of time. The commentators are after Checo for not getting the points off Hamilton, but failed to see where he got RB in the constructors standing. Of course there is always room for improvements, not disagreeing with that, but the criticism is just out of proportion. And saying Ricciardo would do better job is so hypothetical, look at how other drivers who switched the teams have done this year. Everyone knows the importance of track position, easy to catch up but hard to pass, just check how Lewis did last race.
WorldWideWinder

Spa

That was pathetic. A race without racing is not actually a race. What a disgrace.
bobtris

Please rename

Something like “Lewis Hamilton can do no wrong”. So biased towards Hamilton.
sned1117

Should be called the Lewis Hamilton Fanboy Podcast!

Ever since Silverstone this podcast has devolved into a “let’s find new ways that Hamilton and Mercedes are victims” podcast. I don’t think of any of you as journalists, not a dig just a statement of fact, so I cant hold you to a journalists code of ethnics. but I thought and hoped you’d hold yourselves to a higher standard and not just complain about RedBull. As a fan from the US from the outside this podcast now feels like it’s sponsored by Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. The two stars might seems harsh but I have had to shut off your last two podcasts because I just can’t take the Hamilton cult of personality. I hope to be able to change my two star rating in the future as I find the mix of individuals on your show to be excellent and looking forward to being able to listen to a complete podcast. Thanks
jp54545454

Awful podcast ran by glorify fan brits

These wankers are going off how iconic Lewis’s flag celebration was after he crashed Max in to the wall and put him in the hospital. Only crooked tooth stink mouth Brits would be carrying themselves in this manner. Have some class guys! Your fans are already the biggest joke in the sporting world.
Bbubalouie

Incredibly Biased

This is probably the most Hamilton-biased podcast I’ve ever listened to, everyone has their opinions but it shouldn’t be this obvious when making a podcast for an entire audience.