BEYOND THE GRID: Norris’ champion evolution, Vowles’ podium pride and Brad Pitt’s ‘need for speed’ – The best of 2025

A title fight full of twists and turns, a new World Champion, rookies reaching major milestones and Formula 1 on the big screen – the 2025 season was nothing short of dramatic on and off track.

On F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Tom Clarkson has sat down with the people in the thick of all that drama and, in this end-of-year special, he picks out his highlights.

You’ll hear from the new World Champion Lando Norris, who reveals how he changed his mental approach to racing, and his race engineer Will Joseph. Norris’ title rival and team mate Oscar Piastri explains how he made so much progress from 2024 to 2025, while McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella tell us how they’ve managed to get Norris and Piastri to buy into the team’s racing philosophy.

Away from the champions, Isack Hadjar reflects on how he bounced back from a nightmare F1 debut in Australia, Esteban Ocon and his race engineer Laura Mueller explain how they’ve built a relationship in their first year working together at Haas, and Valtteri Bottas tells Tom why he’s got unfinished business with F1 ahead of his return with Cadillac in 2026.

From the cockpit to the pit wall, Williams Team Principal James Vowles shares his pride after Carlos Sainz secured the team’s first podium since 2021, and Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur gives his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton’s first year in red.

Plus, four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel reflects on the highs and lows of his career, and Hollywood icon Brad Pitt reminisces on what it was like becoming F1 driver Sonny Hayes for F1 The Movie.

To listen to this week’s episode, simply hit go on the audio player above or click here to listen via your preferred podcasting platform.

You can also check out a huge selection of previous episodes – spanning every decade of F1 – in our dedicated Beyond The Grid library here.