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

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

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Check out Dick's karting documentary, Power Drive Vegas.
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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

Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix. His first win for Ferrari, at the circuit that rewards the car above almost everything else, after a year of being told that whatever he achieved before was the machinery and not the man.

Sabrina saw a driver answering his doubters. Joe kept pulling the conversation back to the things the celebration was skating over: a Mercedes that was quicker in qualifying, the heat, the virtual safety car, and a long history of Barcelona results that flattered to deceive. His read on whether this is the start of a Ferrari era is not the one social media wants to hear.

With Dick out for this one, it is just Sabrina and Joe, and the conversation ranges well past the podium. The Monaco mess that still has not been put to bed, and Sabrina’s argument for a fix that Joe thinks goes a step too far. What a struggling Red Bull and a quiet afternoon actually tell you about where this season stands. Whether Mercedes has a problem it would rather not name. And why Franco Colapinto being waved aside may say more about his future than his finishing position did.

Then the detail that reframes the whole day. Barcelona, Joe argues, is the most predictable race on the calendar, more so than Monaco, the one track built to expose exactly how good each car really is. So why, at the very circuit designed to settle the argument, did the two of them come away more certain than ever that nothing is settled?

A historic win at one end. A veteran who has watched too many of these to wave a flag at the other. And a season that keeps refusing to tell you what it is becoming.

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

For five straight races, the story of the 2026 season was Kimi Antonelli. In Barcelona, the story changed.

Kimi did not finish. Lewis Hamilton won his first Grand Prix in Ferrari red. And a result that had looked settled for weeks finally broke open.

In this Race Notes episode, Sabrina works through a Spanish Grand Prix decided by strategy and nerve as much as speed. Hamilton started on softs, committed early to a three-stop, and was closing on the lead when a late virtual safety car reshaped the race. Whether that safety car handed him the win or simply made an inevitable one easier is the first thing Sabrina takes apart.

Mercedes let George Russell and Kimi Antonelli race each other. Two title contenders, one constructors' prize, and a high-degradation track with Ferrari within striking distance. Sabrina works through whether that was the right call, and what the timing of the safety car and Kimi's late retirement may have spared the team.

Then there is George. After Monaco, Sabrina asked on this show whether his slump was a pattern or a blip. Barcelona gave an answer. She gets into what his weekend actually showed, and why she is not buying the narrative forming around him.

Kimi was extraordinary again until his car broke. Charles Leclerc ran up front before a power steering failure ended his day. And behind the win sits a quieter problem at Ferrari, the one Lando Norris pointed at afterward, that Sabrina is not ready to look past.

A few threads she is deliberately holding for the Race Review with Dick and Joe: the politics around the engine rules, a telling moment between the two Alpines, and the questions she still wants answered before she commits to a verdict.

Five wins, then a reversal. A first win in red. And a Mercedes team that may be dominant and vulnerable at the same time. This is where the 2026 season stops being a coronation and starts being a fight.

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