F1: Beyond The Grid Formula 1

He’s an engineer who won Formula 1 World Championships with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Now he’s working on the rules of the sport for 2026 and beyond.


Nikolas Tombazis is the Director of Single Seaters for the FIA. He is overseeing the regulations for the 2026 season, when F1 cars will be lighter, smaller and sustainably fuelled, with greater battery power and revolutionary active aerodynamics. He tells Tom Clarkson how the new rules have been designed to create close, competitive racing which is thrilling to watch.


Nikolas also looks back at his career in F1, when he enjoyed domination and experienced disappointment. Championships with Michael Schumacher at Benneton were followed by more success at Ferrari, with Schumi and Kimi Raikkonen. A move to McLaren during a difficult period brought challenges. His return to Ferrari brought agony as Fernando Alonso missed out on the 2010 title, in a showdown which still plays on Tombazis’ mind.



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As President and CEO of Liberty Media, Formula 1's parent company, Greg Maffei is at the very top of the sport. Together, he and F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali, are setting the strategy for the sport’s future.  

Since Liberty Media took ownership of the Formula 1 in 2017, we’ve seen thrilling races from the Las Vegas Strip to Silverstone, new fans around the world have fallen in love with the sport, and new stars have been given their chance to shine in F1 Academy.  

Maffei tells Tom Clarkson how he’s pushing to make F1 more competitive, more sustainable and more spectacular. He talks drivers, teams, races, golf, skiing, and the things that excite him in the coming years, including Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari and the upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt.

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At the end of his glittering career, four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel said he was in the ‘best shape possible’ thanks to his performance coach Antti Kontsas.

So how do you physically and mentally prepare a Formula 1 driver for a season of racing around the world?

With over 10 years of experience working in the paddock, coaching the likes of Sebastian Buemi, Jean Eric Vergne and Vettel, Kontsas tells Tom Clarkson his secrets to training these extraordinary humans for the pinnacle of motorsport.

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30 years ago, Karl Wendlinger’s Formula 1 career was just beginning to rise after a strong start to 1994 with Sauber.


But that all changed in first practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, when the Austrian lost control of his car as he approached the Nouvelle chicane and crashed into the barriers.

After a long recovery to regain racing fitness, Wendlinger returned a year later at the Spanish Grand Prix. He wasn’t the same driver though, and at the end of 1995, his time in F1 was up.


Speaking to Tom Clarkson, Karl talks in great detail about the crash; why he still doesn’t know the cause, how it affected him physically and mentally, what motivated him to race again, and how he processed leaving the sport.


Plus, Karl remembers coming through the Mercedes junior programme with Michael Schumacher and the warm welcome Ayrton Senna gave him when he first arrived on the grid.

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In 1984, Martin Brundle and Ayrton Senna made their Formula 1 debuts.


They had just fought each other in an epic battle for the 1983 British Formula 3 title. But while there was little to separate the duo in junior racing, their F1 careers panned out very differently.


As Senna went on to achieve hero status as a triple World Champion, Brundle’s 12-year career was significantly shaped by very serious injuries he suffered in just his ninth Grand Prix.


Speaking to Tom Clarkson in the latest of F1 Beyond The Grid’s LEGENDS episodes, Martin describes in great detail the crash that caused his injuries, how close he came to losing his foot, and what impact that had on the rest of his time in F1.


Brundle also talks about why he and Tyrrell Racing were disqualified in his first season, what it was like being a rookie back then, how Schumacher was different to Senna, where he thinks Adrian Newey’s future might lie, his thoughts on F1’s global standing, and much more.

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Listen to our first LEGENDS episode of 2024 with Juan Pablo Montoya, who reflects on how he lost the 2003 World Championship.

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McLaren are back on top of the Formula 1 podium, but their mission is far from accomplished yet.


Since taking charge in 2018, CEO Zak Brown has overseen a huge transformation on and off the track and the team’s progress has accelerated astronomically over the last 12 months.


Lando Norris’s long-awaited maiden Grand Prix victory in Miami is the culmination of an enormous amount of hard work to turn their fortunes around, after an awful start last season left them right at the back of the grid.


So how do they take the next steps to become serial winners and World Championship contenders?


Speaking in Miami, Zak tells Tom Clarkson how he’s instilling a winning mentality at McLaren, what Norris’s victory means for his and the team’s future, why he thinks Oscar Piastri is a match for Lando, whether he’d like his close friend Adrian Newey to join the team, and much more.


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For more in-depth reaction to Lando Norris’s first Grand Prix victory, listen to the latest episode of F1 Nation from the Miami Grand Prix paddock 

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