The 2026 Formula 1 season is officially underway -- and the opening race in Melbourne left more questions open than it answered.

In this episode, Dick and Sabrina bring two distinct perspectives on the same race. Dick’s notes, drawn from 30-plus years in motorsport, offer a composed assessment of Mercedes’ race management, skepticism about the artificial nature of early overtakes under the new energy rules, and a pointed question about what really caused two of the weekend’s most alarming moments.

Sabrina frames the weekend as a global science experiment -- one where teams spent months theorizing and Melbourne was when theory finally met reality. She walks through what the results suggest about Mercedes holding something in reserve, why Ferrari's familiar strategic weakness looks even more costly under regulations that reward precision, and what Red Bull and Ford's opening performance tells us about a team still finding its footing under new leadership.

You'll also hear why Albert Park may have been the worst possible circuit to debut these regulations on, what Isack Hadjar's weekend -- before the car let him down -- actually said about a driver who came into this season under serious scrutiny, why Ollie Bearman's P7 in just his second F1 season deserves more attention than it got, and why the near-incident between Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson on the starting grid -- before the race had even begun -- is a safety story the sport needs to take seriously.

And then there is Oscar Piastri, who never made it to the grid in front of his home crowd. There is not much to analyze. That is what makes it so hard.

One race in, and the 2026 era has already produced a dominant Mercedes, a heartbroken home hero, a rookie who announced himself, and at least one moment that should be making people uncomfortable. Dick and Sabrina are here to help you make sense of it -- and to tell you what they think it actually means.

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Have episode feedback or ideas? Drop them a line at: sabrina@2guysagirlandf1.com

Follow 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 on Instagram.

Check out Dick's karting documentary, Power Drive Vegas.
Interested in Dick's return to kart racing? Check out, Begin Again.

Thanks to all who have become members of the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 via our “Buy me A Coffee” page. This community is growing because of you. To become a member, click here.

Like the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 background music? It's "An Adventure Called Life" by Score Squad. It's available for purchase at Premium Beat. Use referral code SNSAEDUB at checkout to get 25% off your first purchase.

2025 Sound Engineers: Paul Douglas and Elena Richey

This show is better when it's a conversation, not just us talking at you.

In this quick PSA, Dick shares why listener questions—like those from Heath and his son Drew about racing Monaco in reverse and F1's Americanization—create the best podcast moments. Whether you're debating with friends after a race, wondering about driver psychology, or curious about the business side of Formula 1, your questions shape what 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 explores next.

As we head into the 2026 season with major regulation changes and incredible guests lined up, now's the perfect time to get your voice into the conversation. Send your questions—wild hypotheticals, serious technical analysis, business curiosities, whatever keeps you thinking about F1—to sabrina@2guysagirlandf1.com.

Your question might end up being answered by one of our expert guests. Don't hold back—we read every single one.

Send a text

Support the show

Have episode feedback or ideas? Drop them a line at: sabrina@2guysagirlandf1.com

Follow 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 on Instagram.

Check out Dick's karting documentary, Power Drive Vegas.
Interested in Dick's return to kart racing? Check out, Begin Again.

Thanks to all who have become members of the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 via our “Buy me A Coffee” page. This community is growing because of you. To become a member, click here.

Like the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 background music? It's "An Adventure Called Life" by Score Squad. It's available for purchase at Premium Beat. Use referral code SNSAEDUB at checkout to get 25% off your first purchase.

2025 Sound Engineers: Paul Douglas and Elena Richey

War broke out in the Middle East on Saturday, when the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran. Iran retaliated with missiles and drones targeting Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan, countries that together host four races on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar. The Pirelli wet-weather test in Bahrain was cancelled, Gulf carriers were grounded, and F1 personnel were scrambling to reroute to Australia by any path available. By Monday afternoon, Joe Saward, one of Formula 1's most independent journalists was in a Dallas airport lounge, rerouted from France around closed Gulf airspace, after filing his JSBM newsletter analysis.

In this episode, Joe walks us through what the sport is actually facing:

• Why Formula 1 improvises brilliantly in a crisis
• The real decision-making hierarchy: who actually makes the call to cancel a Grand Prix
• Why the FIA is largely irrelevant in a commercial crisis
• The Russia parallel: when F1 cancelled its Russian GP contract overnight after the Ukraine invasion, it established a standard. Joe asks the uncomfortable question about what that standard means now
• His own 40-year read on covering this sport through the Gulf War, 9/11, COVID, and the 2022 Houthi strike near Jeddah

Sabrina brings the policy lens: arguing that sport's governance framework was never designed to handle a situation where a geopolitical actor and a commercial partner are the same country, a structural problem regardless of who started what. She also drives the business and legal elements: geopolitical cancellation insurance, force majeure in hosting contracts, whether the legal framework is any clearer after Covid, and what the soft power narrative of Gulf sport hosting looks like when the countries doing the hosting are being struck by missiles.

Dick, joining late from just across “the Texas border”, adds the grounding note the conversation needs: at the end of the day, this is still just the game, and Liberty Media has enough business sense not to put people in danger for a race.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send a text

Support the show

Have episode feedback or ideas? Drop them a line at: sabrina@2guysagirlandf1.com

Follow 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 on Instagram.

Check out Dick's karting documentary, Power Drive Vegas.
Interested in Dick's return to kart racing? Check out, Begin Again.

Thanks to all who have become members of the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 via our “Buy me A Coffee” page. This community is growing because of you. To become a member, click here.

Like the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 background music? It's "An Adventure Called Life" by Score Squad. It's available for purchase at Premium Beat. Use referral code SNSAEDUB at checkout to get 25% off your first purchase.

2025 Sound Engineers: Paul Douglas and Elena Richey