When City AM sat down with Matt Gallagher and Tom Bellingham 18 months ago the podcasting duo had just set up their own F1 startup, P1 with Matt and Tommy.
A season-and-a-half and two Max Verstappen world titles later and the duo are enjoying a run of sold out shows replicating their streaming set up, with some added extras.
Like P1, Formula 1 has evolved massively over the past year with mega moves, twists and turns giving the Drive to Survive era audience a first taste at a competitive championship.
Lewis Hamilton announced he’d be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari, F1 design guru Adrian Newey ditched Red Bull for Aston Martin and seven drivers won more than one race in a frantic 2024.
“This year has been phenomenal,” Gallagher told City AM. “Our expectations were through the floor at the start of the year, and with Max winning left, right and centre he had a massively healthy lead.
“We’re thinking it’s another 2023, but to have seven multiple race winners across the board, with four different teams being fastest at some point in the season, that’s the dream for Formula One fans.”
F1 dream
Adds Bellingham: “It’s the dream for Formula 1 fans to go into each weekend not knowing who’s going to win. And it makes our predictions a lot more interesting as well, because when we had started that prediction series and it was just “Max Verstappen is going to win”, it was less interesting, whereas now we’re always wrong, but at least it makes it more interesting.”
Next season, which will see a return to Australia as the opening race on the calendar, is the last under the current regulations with major changes set from 2026 onwards.
So the 2025 F1 season will see Hamilton in Ferrari red, the Qatar Investment Authority begin their background work in preparation for Audi’s entry in 2026, GM/Cadillac begin construction, Newey at Aston Martin, major changes at the sports governing body the FIA, further information on an African grand prix and the next chapter in the battle between Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell. There’s no time to breathe.
So much going on
“There’s so much going on and that’s kind of what you want,” Gallagher says. “Formula 1 isn’t resting on its laurels and it knows that it needs to capitalise on such an awesome season that we’ve just had. And it’s nice to see Formula One now looking at other places other than America. I love seeing Formula One go to a new track that we’ve not seen ever or for a very long time.
“But the thing that excites me the most is Hamilton to Ferrari. I think it’s the biggest driver move in the history of the sport, and it came out of nowhere.”
Bellingham agrees that the move is one of the biggest in the history of the sport. “The fact that you’ve got the biggest driver in the sports history with the biggest team in the sports history,” he says. “It doesn’t really get much bigger.
“It’s one of those rumours that’s been going around for forever, and feels like the thing that always got wheeled out on a slow news day. But then when it actually was “Oh my god, this is actually real”, it was quite insane.”
Unpredictable year
Matt and Tommy aren’t the first streaming/podcasting set up to head to the stage, others have gone as far as selling out the London Palladium. Their show run finished in Manchester this week but they plan to return to the road next year, in what could be a hugely unpredictable year for F1.
“I genuinely think that Ferrari will win the constructors next year hands down,” Gallagher says.
Adds P1 host Bellingham: I personally can’t see Mercedes being there. I think they’ll put all their focus into the engine regulations next year, and probably see it as a bit of a learning experience for Kimi Antonelli.”
Both think Max has a solid chance at picking up a fifth consecutive Formula 1 title because Ferrari’s Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are bound to take points off each other.
“You finally let all the teams learn just how these regulations work, and then they change them again,” Gallagher said of the pending changes. “And I know there are reasons for that, and but at the same time that they do make such massive changes, which then you just roll the dice as to who’s going to be fastest again.”