This is a rebroadcast from the earliest days of 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1. We've cleaned up the audio as best we could, but as independent creators, we were still learning as we went, and it shows a little. What doesn't show its age: the story itself.

You'll hear a familiar name today: John, who helped start this podcast from the very beginning. He had to step away from the show unexpectedly, for personal reasons outside his control, and we miss him. If you're new here, this conversation is one of the best ways to meet him, and to understand why this show exists at all.

Before there was a podcast, there was a kid flipping to the back pages of Road & Track at the grocery store, hooked on race reports from a British gentleman-driver-turned-journalist named Rob Walker. That's how John found Formula 1, decades before American broadcasts made it easy. In this conversation, Sabrina asks him to trace the whole arc: the early amateur races in Texas, a fateful week at a French driving school that had already produced dozens of F1 drivers, and the specific reasons his own F1 ambitions stalled out that had nothing to do with how fast he was. He also talks about the driver-development effort he's spent years building since, and why, when he finally had a specific person and a specific set of questions in mind, he decided the right way to answer them was out loud, on a podcast. This is where 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 actually starts.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Formula 1 just left Zandvoort for the foreseeable future, and Dick and Joe Saward can't quite agree on how to feel about it.

What starts as a normal breakdown of Lando Norris's tire gamble and Max Verstappen's home-race crash, and how Nico Hulkenberg avoided a spinning Gabriel Bortoleto in a cloud of smoke and dust, turns into something else entirely: a conversation that wanders through Zandvoort's atmosphere unlike anywhere else on the calendar, decades of paddock history, a few stories about past FIA presidents that go somewhere darker than you'd expect from a race review, and exactly why this circuit couldn't survive its own success.

Somewhere in there is an actual race review. Getting to it is half the fun.

Formula 1 left this circuit for the foreseeable future. By the end of this episode, you'll understand exactly what that costs, and it might not be what you think.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send us Fan Mail

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

Lando Norris won in Hungary. The tarmac failed again. And Oscar Piastri lost his race, and nearly his cool, in a blue flag battle with Carlos Sainz. Dick also breaks down just how narrow a Formula 1 setup window really is, and why temperature, air density, and even a passing cloud can swing lap time more than most fans realize. But the conversation that mattered most wasn't about any of that. Bahrain can't hold its own Grand Prix this year, so it's paying Malaysia to host it instead. Sabrina and Joe couldn't agree on what that means for what a Grand Prix actually is.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send us Fan Mail

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

Dick didn't get everything out during the Belgian Grand Prix Race Review, so he's back with the thoughts he kept turning over afterward. Kimi Antonelli's win, he says plainly, was never really in question. George Russell's race ended in the gravel after an electrical glitch caught out Lewis Hamilton too, and the championship gap is back to where it was weeks ago. Dick also breaks down Isack Hadjar's pit-lane-to-points drive and previews what Aston Martin and Williams's weight problems mean for their upcoming B-spec upgrades.

Send us Fan Mail

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

Kimi Antonelli won at Spa like it was never in doubt. Charles Leclerc briefly led after a caution that made at least one voice in the booth uneasy about how it came about. And by the closing minutes, Dick, Joe, and Sabrina couldn't even agree on whether this was a great race or a manufactured one, or whether that question even makes sense from a TV screen versus trackside. There's also a paddock story making the rounds about a coming change to a rival team's driver program that nobody's confirming yet.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send us Fan Mail

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

Max Verstappen's rear wing failed again, this time in the race, triggering a late safety car the FIA blamed on a software glitch. Neither Dick nor Joe is convinced by that explanation.

What followed was a chaotic last lap sprint. Charles Leclerc inherited the win. George Russell gambled on worn tires and got lucky into second. Kimi Antonelli, who'd done everything right, got nothing.

Sabrina wasn't able to record this week, so it's Dick's notes and Joe's notes covering Silverstone’s record breaking crowd and a Red Bull problem that isn't going away.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send us Fan Mail

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

George Russell won the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix from a controversial pole position. But the race told a more complicated story than the trophy suggests. Joe Saward says he was fortunate all weekend.

Max Verstappen arrived at the Red Bull Ring with what Dick called a new weapon and by the closing laps both he and Kimi Antonelli were closing on the leader fast.

Then there is the qualifying incident itself. Joe unpacks the controversy in detail. Whether the outcome was technically valid or simply not right is a question Dick, Joe, and Sabrina work through -- and don't fully agree on.

Ferrari came to Austria off the back of Lewis Hamilton's Barcelona win. Austria told a different story. McLaren brought upgrades. The results did not reflect it. And underneath all of it: is Mercedes' lead in the 2026 season starting to compress, or was Austria a one-weekend anomaly at a circuit that punishes specific weaknesses? The three of them could not agree. Whether the answer becomes clearer at Silverstone -- or whether it stays open -- may be the most important question in Formula 1 right now.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send us Fan Mail

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

Listener Heath asks: what's the biggest business change in Formula 1 over the last 20 years? There's no shortage of candidates — Liberty Media's acquisition, Drive to Survive, the end of tobacco money, the Concorde Agreement restructure. But Joe Saward lands on one, and makes the case that everything else followed from it.

In this episode, Dick and Sabrina dig into the business transformation of F1 with Joe, who watched the Bernie Ecclestone era up close and has covered every twist since Liberty took over in 2017. Joe's answer is the cost cap — and his argument is that it only became possible because the pandemic forced the issue. Teams burning hundreds of millions a year suddenly faced a world with no racing and no revenue, and Chase Carey's proposal went from impossible to inevitable almost overnight.

What followed is a story of franchise value explosion that would have seemed unthinkable in the Ecclestone era. Teams that were money pits are now serious investment assets — and the private equity interest in F1 tells you everything about how much the sport's financial profile has changed. Joe gives the paddock view on who's buying, who's selling, and what that means for where the sport is heading. The conversation also takes some detours worth hearing: Rob Walker, Bernie's forgotten racing career, the Paddock Club as a global networking engine, and how a phone call to a former British prime minister got Formula 1 back on the road during COVID.

Check out Joe online:

• JSBM Newsletter
• Grand Prix+
• The Green Notebook

Send us Fan Mail

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