George Russell heads into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as world championship favourite. But are he and Mercedes really up to the challenge, and will it be Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc or someone else who emerges as his main rival?

In the first episode of our two-part F1 2026 season preview, Edd Straw is joined by Ben Anderson and Glenn Freeman to look at the drivers who should be vying for race wins, the dark horses who could surprise, those with something to prove, and those heading into the season under maximum pressure to perform.

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Max Verstappen has been incredibly critical of the direction F1 has taken with its 2026 rules - but does he have a point? Is F1 still F1?

That's the key topic of conversation in the latest episode of Stay On Track, in which 1996 world champion Damon Hill and three-time grand prix winner Johnny Herbert look ahead to the season-opening race in Australia and contemplate what we can expect from the racing in this new era of F1.

They also discuss whether they'd have liked to have driven these cars, speculate on how the team-mate battles might play out in the 'big four' teams, and pick a winner for the first race based on what they saw in testing.

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The Race F1 Tech Show returns, with Edd Straw and legendary former F1 technical director Gary Anderson discussing all the big tech talking points heading into 2026.

Gary gives his assessment of each team heading into the new season, plus shares his thoughts on the new power units, deployment regimes, energy harvesting, the start sequence and more.

He also answers questions from listeners on bargeboards (or should that be floorboards?), the loss of the MGU-H, the weight limit, and lift wings vs downforce wings.

If you'd like to ask Gary a question, you can send it to podcasts@the-race.com

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.