Celtic Sack Nancy: Rangers Win 3-1, Arsenal Surge, F1 2026 Engines

It's all about the gap. 25 years of age. It's 50 and 1.

Podcasting from Studio 2520 somewhere near Akron, Ohio, bringing you all the latest talk in motorsport soccer. This is Tackling the Chicane.

Ah, the unmissable Unmistakable sounds of John Runefelt, the house band. Correct. Renewed for the 2026 season.

All right, fellas, there'll be plenty of time to take a solo later.

So Tackling the Chicane enters its 4th year of production in 2026, and I think, uh, the soundboard is crying out. It's like an old dog that probably needs to be put to sleep. Yeah, so here's the problem with that is I have no idea where to start. Yeah. Um, I think Google is your best friend there.

I guess they do. Yeah. I'll do a little bit of research, but yeah, this has served us well, but we could use, uh, correct inputs. Got a lot of, uh, adapters and use an upgrade. Yeah.

Just, just plainly speaking. Yeah. I like the simplicity of this and honestly, it doesn't sound horrible. But no, the sound's not really the issue. It's the everything else, like the effects and everything.

Yeah, we've lost a few. Probably need to spruce that up anyhow. But I suppose, uh, we'll take a look and see. There's got to be something else out there. Maybe we can get something that's, uh, in between this and a professional board, because I believe this has served us fairly well for the $100-something that it costs.

Yeah, back in the day. Yeah, I, I'm sure that's like most equipment, especially in the audio sphere. It's very easy to start spending a lot of dough on said equipment. But I think the echo still works though. Yes, it does.

Echo. Got a few, uh, few sound effects.

Classic. Very, uh— oh, still echo here. Oh geez, start clicking buttons and surely— nope.

There we go. Haven't been around that side of the board for a while. I remember in the early days that was— we reprised, uh, power engine failure a couple times this past year. Yeah, that's always a— the thing was, there weren't many years went by. Yeah, I'm sure next year we'll bring a few, right?

With a brand spanking new team. We'll, we'll talk a little bit about the outgoing power unit versus the incoming power unit in a later segment, but I'll let you go ahead and kick off. Yeah, yeah, we will talk, uh, the new F1 car for 2026 as we work through this offseason. Uh, we know Red Bull is unveiling their 2026 vehicle next week as we record. But, um, I guess I, I don't particularly know where to start.

We're— this is going to be a Celtic-focused next few minutes here, and we will dive into some Premier League as well. Don't worry if you're a fan of that side of things, but I— the game against Rangers is more so just a microcosm of all of the issues that, that plague Celtic right now. Um, I don't know about you, I wasn't particularly surprised that Celtic were beat by Rangers. Um, maybe not in the fashion— I didn't expect maybe the fashion that it happened, losing 3-1 at home. But at this point, I can't really sit here and pretend to be shocked that Celtic have lost a game, uh, as we march into January of this season, which this is completely unprecedented territory for for this show in particular.

But, um, yeah, well, I, I had to rely on just the score updates for that particular match. I wasn't able to sit down and watch it, um, so I, I can't speak to the performance, but it— I'm sure it was much like the, the rest of this particular season and While I applaud the efforts and I really enjoyed some of the way the team got set up in the last 7 games, but the struggle is, is that takes a season or 2 or 3 to perfect. We're not Celtic. They, they're not going to give you a season to perfect. Not even one season.

No. They're not going to let you say, well, this is a write-off until we can get this system working and get the correct players in place. That's not how it works at Celtic. At Celtic is, oh, you lost 4 out of 3. It ended up being 6 out of 8.

Okay. 6 out of 8. Then All right. See ya. Yeah.

Which now, yeah, I guess the big question is, is, and it was, is it Winfried? Is that Wilfred? Wilfred. I can't ever remember the guy's name. Well, you don't have to anymore.

No, I suppose not. Put into a difficult situation to begin with and then uprooted the scheme of things and Yes. In any other sport, it may, he may have been given some grace to try to see what they're going to end up looking like. But that's not how this particular league and specifically this particular fan base and team works.

I don't know when the expectation of perfection came to this particular team. I think probably a long time ago. Yeah. I mean, and we, so this guy got sacked and also there was a pretty prominent person up high that got the boot as well. Paul Tisdale, the, I believe his title was director of football, who was appointed by Dermot Desmond, the So partial owner, right?

Let's say you, O'Neal's going to come back. He's going to finish the season.

Where would, where would you be satisfied? I mean, let's be honest. Where would you be satisfied to see this team in, in the table? Well, knowing what we know, I, the thing is, I don't really know. This is such a, an odd situation just entirely this season because it's one thing to— for Celtic to be not very good.

Um, in fact, the last time they did not win the title in 2021, Rangers were so far ahead of them that second was really the only possible outcome because the rest of the field wasn't good enough to, to challenge for second, and Rangers were— I think they finished 25 points ahead that year. Um, this year is weird in so many ways, not only because Celtic are, I would say, bad. Rangers started out historically bad, if you'll remember. I believe they didn't have a win in at least their first 5 matches. And, um, if you look at the table, have a ton of draws from mostly early on in the campaign.

They've actually lost less games than Celtic this season. Um, and Danny Roll, their manager, who they appointed I think back in October, uh, or November, has really kind of steadied the ship over there. Meanwhile, at Celtic, we know Rodgers back in October resigned, and the form was not very good at that point. And we had that whole podcast where I exploded at the board and all that. And then Martin O'Neill came in, won 7 of 8 games, wasn't playing exactly mesmerizing football by any means, but you know, really did truly steady the ship.

And then the board decided that appointing Wilfred Nancy, who we knew would completely shift or try to shift the way Celtic played, uh, hiring him in December and then throwing him into 4 super important games right off the bat, which he lost all of, um, occurred. Then you have Hartz who this is the best Hearts team since over 20 years.

So what am I actually satisfied with? The only satisfaction I would take is if they win the championship, like is expected every single year with Celtic. What is realistic is not that. I really don't think at this point a Celtic fan can sit here and go we realistically can win the title. And I know some people are saying, okay, we're only 6 points back, 3 points back from Rangers, that's easily, um, a surmountable gap.

But based off what evidence— and I don't care that Martin O'Neill's back— based off what evidence with this team do, do you have to say they are good enough to win the title?

What do they call that?

I think most Celtic fans are of the same, cut from the same cloth in that there's always hope. I will say this. It's interesting to me that we have to go to 6th position on the table to get to a team, Falkirk, who has lost one more game than Celtic. Yeah. Which is interesting.

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. We have Motherwell who drew 9 fucking matches and have only lost 3. Dundee United drew 10 matches in 7th position. Dundee United's in 7th with 6 losses.

Right. Right. So, I mean, it's a little topsy-turvy right now with the table.

Um, I don't, I don't think that, I guess, I guess we're going to have to see at least 2 or 3 matches under O'Neal again to see, all right, is he going to completely reverse the strategy? I'm sure he's got his own way of setting the team up and everything. Yeah. So I guess we'll just have to see. I don't know.

Listen, this is sport in the fact that everyone thinks that their team should win the championship or the Super Bowl year or the World Series or the Scottish Premier Cup or the Premier League Cup every year, year after year after year after year. That's just not the way this shit works. You're going to have a down year. That's just statistics, math, life. Yeah.

You know, and it would suck. It would— I mean, sports in general would really suck if the same goddamn team won the cup every year. Yeah, I, I think the expectation has grown at Celtic, especially since about 2012 when Rangers, uh, folded and then came back to life in the 4th tier, that Celtic are going to win the league every year. And it will take an insane effort from usually Rangers, but maybe in this case Hearts for this season, for them to be taken down. And that has been the case— it been the case every single year since 2012 minus one season where no team has shown really that they can compete at all for a title.

So now the fan base comes to expect the title. Not only that, so does the ownership, so does the board. They come to expect the title, and not in a way that we expect to win because our standards are super high. It's a, we don't really have to try that hard and we can still win a title. And that is what is called complacency.

And what happens when you're complacent for a long period of time? It eventually bites you in the fucking ass, right? Yeah, I mean, there's There's that. No truer statement. This is more than an indictment on the management or coaching of this team.

You can elevate your complaint as a Celtic fan to a board who refuses to lay out the proper budget, maintain and re— and retain talent. Spend money. You know, that's from my short 4-year stint in this league now coming up here. And I think you and I have talked about this many times. You're not going to win cups by harboring your, your, your money and, and Burying it in a shoebox somewhere.

Yeah. Where's the, where's the razzle and the dazzle? This team has the fucking budget. Yeah. Clearly.

But no, we, you know, we depend on players that are, are good, but we don't have superstar talent. No, not even close. You know, we don't have, and I have to go back to my notes here.

We don't have Declan Rice. We certainly don't have fucking Declan Rice. You know, or a player of that. Yeah. I know what you're saying.

Amplitude, right? There's no one on the squad that you would point to at this moment and go, that is a game changer. That is the X factor. We got close with a few guys. Like, I, I really thought Kyogo had a lot of chemistry, but he was, you know, shuffled off this mortal coil to go play in, of all places, France, which didn't work out.

And his current club in England isn't working out. Now there's rumors of, of course, swirling that he might return. Sure. But I mean, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Yeah. It is really truly a bit of a dumpster fire currently. I've never seen a team deteriorate so fast. And again, the, the situation in Scotland is so fickle that they, they might win the title still. Just because it's Celtic.

They still have the most money to throw around, whether or not they'll actually do that. And frankly, only about 2 teams can seriously compete with them over the course of a league campaign. So maybe Martin O'Neill steadies the ship. I will be ready to say here, if we win 3 games in a row, that we are right back in it, that in fact we might even win the title. That hasn't happened in— I don't know if that's happened all year, that we've won 3 games in a row.

Maybe once with O'Neal or early on in the season, but there's no real evidence to suggest that Celtic are going to be able to string together consistent wins that would ultimately carry them to the title. How many matches are left?

Uh, 17. Oh, 17. I mean, there's— like I said, there's a lot, but we're 18 for Celtic and Hearts, who are 6 points ahead. So you're— if you're thinking about like baseball standings, you're essentially 2 games back, um, but you can draw. So I guess that doesn't really work.

But the point being is it feels maybe a little worse than it is in terms of the actual table. Now, if you look at the structure of the club, where's the direction? There's nothing to point to. And you can say next, okay, next year we're going to be in better shape. No, no, we're not.

We're not because it's going to be the same. Cheap-ass ownership who don't know what the fuck they're doing and have lived off of being just better than Rangers. That's all they've done. They've been better than Rangers, and they've had Brendan Rodgers carry a team, uh, fairly deep into the Champions League last season, which gave them some more spending money, which they haven't spent. Now you get Hearts, who actually look like a competent team, and Rangers, who since maybe 2022 haven't just been kicked around by Celtic.

So who's to say that even if they win the title this year that they would be favorites next year or the year after? There's no vision with this club. It's just survive for the season, uh, do enough to just be better than Rangers. And now when that isn't starting to happen, it's like they have no fucking idea what they're doing. Yeah.

I think what, what this team needs is complete re— how do I say this? From the top down, somebody, someone needs to inject some change. At that level to come in and say, okay, we, first of all, anybody, everyone knows that you don't rest on the last victory or cup. You can't, you can't just assume that you're going to come out and, and beat everyone. It just doesn't work that way.

So you have to continue to spend money. You have to continue to build the roster. You have, What, what, what Celtic needs right now is a marquee razzle dazzle guy. Somebody who's going to come in and give the greater fan base something to look up to, to say, hey, we have a guy like You know, Declan Rice or throw out another, another name. Shit.

I mean, like, who's the guy from Arsenal?

The Eberechi Eze? Bukayo Saka? Saka. Yeah. He, it's somebody like that who, when you watch a match, you hear the name.

Over and over and over and over again. That means that he's dynamic. He's not just— yeah. And we had players like that. We used to.

Matt O'Reilly, Kyogo, you've already brought up Maeda when he actually gave a fuck, Jota when he's not blowing out his knee. Right. But that was so, so what the mission should have been is When those, when those guys go for whatever reason, we need someone in that position that's the same way, if not better. Yeah. Well, that's how a functional football club works.

Don't just fucking throw somebody in there for shits and giggles. When guys like Kyogo leave, they've been replaced with, uh, Johnny Kenny, uh, Kelechi Iheanacho, who's played 10 times and is hurt all the time and out of shape. Um, Nicolas Kuhn leaves, you don't really replace him at all. Instead, you rely on Yang, uh, to be a starting winger. It's fucking terrible.

Yeah, scored against Rangers, actually a fucking awesome goal. It'll turn out to mean nothing, sadly. Balaquisha has barely played because he's been fucking terrible. Shin Yamada, terrible. Like, the point is this squad is fucking garbage.

Midfield, Odin Thiago Holm, uh, you probably have never heard that name because he was on loan at LAFC all year. Terrible. Negren, probably the only, the only, maybe the only player I can point to this season and go, you've been good. Consistently. McCowan, very hit or miss.

Angles, when he gives a fuck, is good. Bernardo is gone. Hitate sucks now. McGregor's McGregor. And then you look at the defense.

Trustee was the only one who seemed to have any competence when Nancy was around, um, and not that that matters at all anymore, um, and you're relying on Dane Murray, Colby Donovan, Anthony Ralston, in your defense. These guys are not— Colby Donovan's too young to really have a, uh, a true opinion on him, but Ralston is not good enough. Dane Murray's not good enough. Um, Liam Scales has been a good servant to the club but really is not good enough to be playing for Celtic. Then you have, um, overweight, basically fat for an athlete.

Kasper Schmeichel, 40 years old. I challenge you, because I, I know you didn't get to see it, the 3rd goal Rangers let in— or Rangers scored on Saturday— that is the fucking nail in the coffin for me with Kasper Schmeichel. That is the worst fucking attempt at a save I've ever seen I am not even joking. That is the most pitiful save attempt I have ever seen. So I cannot stress enough to you how much I do not want to see that shit suit up for Celtic ever again.

Get him out. He's gone. Um, god-awful. So What, um, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna pull that up while you keep talking. When about when in the match was that?

Uh, like 70th minute. If you're on the highlights, uh, just go towards, towards the end, I suppose. Um, just terrible. He was god-awful the whole game, really, and continues to start some for some reason. Um, who's his, uh, his, his, uh, backup or counter?

Sinisalo, who's, who's been better, I think, when he's played. Um, so please, for the love of God, O'Neal, if you start him Saturday, I, I am going to be unbelievably pissed because he's fucking terrible. Um, Yeah, I'm, I'm seeing, I don't know. I, he went from, he went from a guy who was kind of revered a year or two ago for his prowess. He was serviceable last year.

Yeah. Well, and I mean, sometimes that shit happens. He's 40 years old, right? Ish. Uh, I, I— he's done.

There's so many— the problem, there's so many players on this team that I am just done with. Get the fuck out. You suck. You suck. And most of that comes from the people the board have put in place to scout new talent that have failed time and time and time again.

And it's like, these are just compounding issues because you can blame the scouting, but then who's, who's telling them their budget? When a scout goes, uh, you have £1 million to work with, find the best £1 million center-back, and then it's a guy who never even plays, or if he does, does absolutely nothing. So it's just These compounding issues at Celtic and that have finally reared their ugly head. Yeah. Well, as a fan base, we need to try to get through it.

I mean, I'm not going to tell you to back the decisions of the board because I'm not there at all. I guess it's more about hoping that we can put a roster together that at the end of the day, you just want to have, you just want to see a good match and you want to be able to revel in the fact that you could put a set piece together or you can have a corner kick or you can have a guy who knows how to, or not knows how, that has the skill to rocket a ball from outside of the You know, the big box. And watching this team this year, we, I just, we have seen none of that. So, um, just as a side note, uh, everyone who's listening, watch this Ole Miss team because I'm telling you right now, that quarterback is special. Rented ad shame.

It's D2. Uh, yeah. When I watched them play the other last weekend or whatever weekend it was, I have a suspicion that, I mean, Indiana is going to be very, very tough to beat. But I think this Ole Miss team gets past Miami. Well, hopefully they do because this podcast will, most people will be listening tomorrow and we'll know what happens.

So we'll see. All right, well, I'm just, just saying it's on in the background. So, okay, so enough Celtic for now. We'll have more to talk about next time, I'm sure. But, uh, Hearts have taken care of the business they've needed to after their Edinburgh derby thriller.

They beat Livingston 1-0 at home, um, and face Dundee United Sunday— or Dundee Sunday. Celtic play Dundee United, uh, first match of Martin O'Neill interim manager 2.0 of, of this season, which is incredible to say. Um, and Rangers with the game in hand, 3 points ahead of Celtic. Meanwhile, it's not totally insane to say Celtic could be as low as 4th at some point. Motherwell is 2 points behind Celtic, 36 points.

That's kind of a team that's floated under the radar a bit this season. And Hibs are also rock solid this year.

It really, I swear, this is the perfect storm for someone not named Rangers or Celtic to win the league for the first time. Since 1985. So hearts, uh, well, and long way to go, but so you have to look at this 2 different ways.

Yes, you can support your team. And I, I've never understood sports fans who can't deal with the fact that your team cannot and should not win the championship every single year. And I cast my glance to mostly Buckeye fans. Yeah. This is the same thing.

Do I want Celtic to be successful and be dynamic? Of course I do, because I'm a Celtic fan. But what you just said, if this league cup is taken by one of these other teams who since 1985 have not been able to do so.

Is that so horrible? No, it's not. No, especially for the sake of Scottish football in particular, which has been dominated by 2 teams since World War II mostly, but in the league in particular since the '80s. Yeah, I don't think that's a— certainly not a horrible thing, um, at all. I mean, it's I don't know.

I've always been a little bit different, especially as I get more aged.

I understand that there's going to be wins and losses and that other teams are going to take championships. And I don't, it doesn't slay me like it does some people, you know, I just, I don't know, whatever. So I think that's enough talk about Scottish Premier. Yeah, we can table that for now. We'll switch to south of the border in England where talk about a team that is incredibly functional, looks on their way potentially to a title.

It's certainly not done and dusted by any means. With Arsenal in the Premier League 6 points ahead of Man City and Aston Villa, of all teams, in 3rd place, both on 43 points. Um, Arsenal are just a fun team to watch and have been for a while, but this is the first year that under Arteta that you don't really see them falling away. Like they have tended to do in years past. Uh, 2022-23, top of the league at Christmas and, and fell away from that.

The year after, they were competitive and then fell away. Uh, and then last year, not so much. But this year, I don't really sense a way in which Arsenal fall off quite like that. And I think this game against Bournemouth from Saturday is sort of a, a real indicator of that because they went through some adversity and came out on the other side. Yeah, well, interestingly enough, this, this is what's great about this particular league is You can have a top table team go to another venue and Bournemouth is currently sitting 3 positions out of relegation.

So not having, you know, great success. No, they sit, uh, let's see, position is like 15th, I think. Yeah, 15th. And right from the rip, challenging this Arsenal team. And within the first 11 minutes, it was kind of a giveaway.

Yeah. A little bit of a giveaway pass. Safe to say. So this goal was mostly scored by the Arsenal player who kept it right into the path of Evan Nielsen. Evan Nielsen.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, that's the kind of stuff though that if you were a Bournemouth fan and you had come to the pitch knowing that you're going to be playing the number one team and you get a, you fire a goal off in under 15 minutes, that makes you happy. Yeah, absolutely. It's sort of an odd blunder from Gabriel, uh, this Arsenal defense has been incredibly reliable this season, so I have yet to see them falter in, in such a sort of cartoonish way like that particular moment.

Um, but talk about hero or zero to hero with Gabriel because it only took 6 minutes for him to equalize. And reminder, as a defender, he gets on the end of, uh, sort of a melee in the box. I have pinball written down here. Exactly. It really was pinball, uh, to make it 1-1.

Um, you felt like Arsenal would kind of turn on the jets from there, which sort of kind of happened. It, it took into the second half. I fully expected that goal to beget at least one more. And there were attempts, but not, I mean, so we go to the half from the 16th minute to the half. And yes, there were some attempts, good, apparently great defending on Bournemouth's side.

But it's really tough. A team like Arsenal usually shoots and scores and then shoots and scores. So we didn't really see that in this particular match in this first half. We have to go to the 54th minute. So just under 10 minutes into the second half, Declan Rice, 2-1 Arsenal.

And yeah, good strike. Strike as Declan Rice strikes, right? So a bullet typically. Nothing really new to see here. And then Unless you have anything that you have noted between that and Declan Rice's second goal, um, just about, uh, not quite 20 minutes later into that.

I think just the overarching theme here is how easily and how well Arsenal kind of plant themselves into a match and, and take control. And that doesn't always necessarily mean just pure possession, but they play the way they want to play so often. They, they're able to take their game plan to every team that they play, which is usually the mark of a champion, especially in the Premier League. Uh, the team that is able to dominate a match, not necessarily only statistically, but like I said, with their style of play imposed onto the other team. That is how Arsenal tend to win most of their games, and I credit that mostly to their amazing mid— truly amazing midfield.

Declan Rice, um, came to Arsenal with a lot of hype that some thought was undue with his time at West Ham, but he has proven to be maybe the most valuable midfielder in the Premier League this season. Um, and then you have Martin Zubimendi, who is a new signing for Arsenal for this season that has just really gelled into the team perfectly, uh, this year. And Martin Ødegaard, uh, who's been there a few seasons but has, has looked as good as he ever has, um, at Arsenal at times, um, this season. So I, I really enjoy watching the midfield work, especially Declan Rice. Um, and I think that is partially the reason why they are doing so well this year.

Also, their defense is just— it is pretty locked down. They obviously— they have the blunder which leads to Bournemouth's first goal. They do give away from, again, a pretty good strike, uh, a goal in the 76th minute from Bournemouth. But over the piece of this season have been incredibly hard to breach. Yeah, but over, over all in all, uh, uh, entertaining match.

I mean, when you have a team like Bournemouth at the bottom of the table who brings it to within one goal, that's, that's a decent match to watch. And the commentators had great hope that possibly they could equalize this match. They had time. I mean, that was in the 76th, played about 20 more minutes, right? But then, uh, not to be, although, uh, entertaining match to watch for sure.

Yeah, and Bournemouth have been on a slide that they actually, uh, finally broke against Tottenham of all teams in the midweek. They beat Tottenham 3-2, um, in Antoine Semenyo's probably last match for Bournemouth. He's headed to Man City. Um, but yeah, I think Bournemouth's 15th place is a little bit Um, isn't quite the reality of how good that team is. Um, I had to be reminded of this on the broadcast, but in October they were sitting second.

Um, yeah, and I do kind of remember, uh, talking about them and have been on a winless run of 11 games before beating Tottenham. Um, we did get some midweek Action, which is tough to cover for us, is a once-a-week program, but I'll just brush over some of the more interesting results. Uh, every team in the top 4 actually drew in the midweek, so no change in the gap between the teams. Um, Arsenal still with the 6-point lead over Man City and Aston Villa. Um, So it was kind of as you were as we head into the next match week.

Bournemouth coming back and beating Tottenham, uh, was a pretty spectacular result. And Newcastle and Leeds played to a 4-3 thriller where American Brenden Aaronson for Leeds scored twice in that match. So someone to keep your eye on is— of course, we are now in a World Cup year And the United States need all the help they can get in the attack. Someone to keep an eye out for. Burnley drew Man United 2-2.

This is Man United's first match with interim manager Darren Fletcher because Ruben Amorim got the sack. Maybe we can spend a little bit more time on that next episode, but Amorim drew with Leeds 1-1. Amorim as in the manager of Man United, over the weekend. And he went in on the leadership at Man United in the press and then got shitcanned the day after, um, which made a lot of headlines. Remember, Man United finished, what, 16th last year?

15th? And, um, which is a historically horrible season for them. They currently sit 7th, so that is improvement, um, but they start over again with a new coach. So we're starting to see some heads roll. Yeah, across the Premier League.

Also noting, um, just because I've always liked the kit, uh, the Brentford Bees are in 5th position. And that is— I, I was keeping an eye on that score with my sort of loose Sunderland affiliation who've been on a little bit of a slide themselves, um, but still probably very safe from relegation. Brentford is an incredibly surprising story and maybe someone we need to pay more attention to in the coming weeks. They were tipped by many to be relegated. They lost their best player, Bryan Mbeumo, to Man United.

Uh, their manager Thomas Frank to Tottenham, longtime manager there, and appointed basically an unknown. Uh, I believe it was their U21 man— no, it was their set piece coach, I think their set piece coach as the manager. Uh, and I'm trying to— let me make sure I'm getting the name right before we move on. Keith Andrews is his name, 45 years Old Irishmen. They have been the complete surprise package of the season, sitting in 5th.

Many people were saying they were going to get relegated this year, so there you have it. Meanwhile, Wolves, who only had 2 points, uh, just a couple weeks ago, are now up to the lofty heights of 7 points. Which is still 14 points safe of relegation, but— or, uh, I guess of safety. But, um, they are trying to not become the worst team in Premier League history. Their target is at least 11 points.

So, uh, seems like things are ticking up for them as much as they could be. Yeah, well, so there you have it.

I assume, uh, fair— fairly same number of matches in this league left, or is it? I think it's 17 for everyone. Uh, all have played 21. This is an FA Cup weekend, I believe, in the Premier League, so the Premier League will take a week off, but, uh, there will be some FA Cup action to look at. Um, but that does it for our admittedly long-winded soccer segment, but a lot of shit going on.

Yeah. So where are we at the stamp here time-wise? We're at 46:25. Okay. I think we can squeeze this in here.

Then let's go to F1. Any overarching news stories that want to touch on before we get a little technical here, or— um, not really. Uh, it is sort of that, that quiet period before things really start to get into motion. Uh, you know, Zhou Guanyu is a reserve driver for Cadillac now, which whatever that really means. Some teams, their reserve drivers are little more involved than others.

But, uh, Colton Herta, test driver for Cadillac and, uh, competing in his maiden F2 season. Yeah, so that will be interesting to follow. We'll have to follow F2 a bit to see how he progresses or does not progress. I mean, this has been on the talk table for several years now that he wants to come to F1 eventually. Um, so interest— we'll keep interest in that particular story.

Uh, liveries are going to start to come out. I think you mentioned Red Bull was going to be first, uh, in about a week or so. I think most teams are going to shoot for around the 20th of January and, and into next month as well. Yeah. So, well, for what that's worth, I mean, Usually it's like not anything.

I mean, although we're gonna see new, new teams this year, so at least we'll have that because mostly the liveries stay pretty much the same. Relatively the same. Yeah, you don't see big, big changes all that often, although Audi will be completely new, Cadillac. So it'd be interesting to see what those vehicles look like, but Yeah, I see you've got your tech sheet here and are ready to roll. Yeah, so we're gonna start talking about the migration to the new 2026 car, and we'll start in this episode with the power unit.

So comparison from the outgoing power unit to the incoming power unit and/or what most people would would call the engine. So the current generation, which is over now, is a 1.6-liter and it's a turbo hybrid. So it has, you know, some electrical capabilities and it's a V6. But of note, I think it's important to understand this for— I know there's, there should be a gearhead or two that listens to this podcast. And for those who aren't, then listen up and be educated.

Engine displacement for about the last 40 to 50 years is typically in liters. It used to be cubic inches back in the day, and you can convert back and forth if you like, but it's mostly liters. And what we're talking about is displacement. So how many liters does it take to displace the volume of 6 pistons in this case. So I won't go any further because I could rabbit hole that.

Regardless, just for, for some context, to give you an idea of how small this particular powertrain really is, 1.6 liter, okay, my BMW M2 has a 3-liter straight-6, so almost double the volume of what an F1 car is liter-wise. Saleen Mustang, 4.6 liters, uh, and your Honda Civic is a 2-liter 4-cylinder. Did you pull all these stats for the— well, I— for the show? I I know what they are. That's still good research.

Yeah. Good research. We're well researched on this podcast. So even your daily driver Honda Civic 2-liter naturally aspirated 4-cylinder has 4/10 more volume than an F1 car as far as the combustion part. Now, where they are going to immediately kick ass is the energy split.

So in the outgoing generation, 80% combustion, 20% electric. And the key components in the electric portion are the MGU, which is a motor generator unit. I know we've talked about that in the past on this podcast. There were 2 of those in the outgoing generation. One was a kinetic unit, one was a heat unit.

So the difference is kinetic units pull energy from braking.

Heat units pull energy directly from the exhaust. So there, there's some kind of a turbine or wheel that's taking speed from exhaust gases and converting that to electrical energy. Now kinetic energy on the brakes is friction. So picture a small motor on each axle that under braking is going to gather energy and and send that to the battery. Uh, 10% bio components in the fuel for the outgoing generation car.

And then that brings us to this new generation in 2026. The same displacement, 1.6 liters, still has a turbo. It is going to be a hybrid. On the fuel side, they're going to go 100% sustainable fuel. So the, uh, aiming for zero net new fossil carbon, which means they're going to— this is going to be corn-based or grain-based fuel versus, uh, a dinosaur-based fuel or whatever you want to call it.

Uh, power balance is going to go from 80/20 to 50/50. So that's going to be a big deal. That is what even people that aren't necessarily tech heads with F1, pretty much everyone turned their eye to that stat. Uh, and it's going to, I think we're going to see, I mean, in, in the grand scheme of things, these, these teams should engine the people who are building these power units. This is not new, but it's new to this racing form.

So it'll be interesting to see what kind of issues that garners. The MGU heat unit is completely gone, so they will not be pulling any energy reserve from the exhaust gases. The kinetic energy is significantly increased. It's nearly tripled under brake— energy recovery under braking is going to double compared to last year's car. So what that is, it's going to give you more— it's going to give you the ability to bring that capacity of energy up from 0% to 100% faster.

So when you expend that battery-powered energy in IndyCar, they have an actual— they have an LED indicator that shows you the level of battery. They don't do that in F1. They might this year because it's going to be a bigger deal.

Um, so the total, uh, power output of these units is going to be over 1,000 horsepower, which is pretty impressive considering the weight of these cars. Um, there's also going to be a cost cap, so they're going to introduce, uh, specific cap on how much you can spend on power units or how many. There's always been a rule about how many you have throughout the season, but there'll be a cost cap on power unit expenditure. So there you have a nutshell of the difference in the power unit. Now in the future episodes, we're going to talk about dimensions and we're going to talk about aero.

What are the changes in both? Um, DRS is going to be a lot different. It's not going to be there. Yeah, not— yeah, but it's going to be replaced. It'll be replaced by 2 other technologies that we'll get into in a later episode.

Yeah, uh, almost— and this is, I'm sure, a gross simplification, but, uh, almost push to passy, like, like IndyCar style. I don't think it's a, uh, putting more horse into the engine situation. Uh, it gives you immediate power, but it albeit from the electrical side. Okay, electric, electric, not electrical, electric side. Different but sort of the same theory, right?

There, there's going to be 2 choices. One will be quote-unquote, uh, push to pass, and the other one will be a boost button. So we'll get into how those are going to work in future episodes. Yes, that old— that the racing should maybe— I think all these designs are tailored to making the racing look different next year. F1 needs to be more competitive.

F1 needs to do what IndyCar does, and they need to highlight those technologies, and they need to provide the, um, viewer with when those are deployed and at what level. That's what IndyCar does. Now, they don't do it for the entire race, but when they do a cockpit view, you can see that telemetry. That's going to be important this year in F1 to, to be able to see who's deploying what technology and when and where, uh, vis-à-vis the passing. So yeah, yeah, that, that's gonna make things at the very least interesting from just a tech standpoint for the beginning of the '26 campaign.

Uh, obviously a new team involved, which will automatically cause drama, I would imagine. So I, I am looking forward to sort of our first, uh, on-track looks at, at the new team and the new car with, with preseason testing, which isn't super duper far away. I think only a few weeks, uh, and then obviously, uh, probably what, 2 months from the first race as we speak. So a lot to look forward to. Um, tangentially speaking with racing, but did see footage of Mick Schumacher getting his seat fitted at the RLL shop in Indy.

So, uh, I'm pretty excited. Sometimes I, I forget just in the long IndyCar offseason, but there is a Schumacher racing in IndyCar, which, uh, that should by default put some eyeballs on on the series. Yeah, I'm excited for that too. I'd look— I'd like to see, you know, what that dynamic— how that dynamic is going to change that team for the better, I hope. Yeah, um, nothing would make me happier than to see a contender in Ray Hall Lederman.

Um, I don't need a Will Power out of it, but I need you to be there. Yeah, I need you to be in that top 5 fight, you know. So we'll see. Will Power, his first day with Andretti was this week, which is strange seeing him wear Andretti stuff after— yeah, it's gonna be a fun— it's gonna be a really fun IndyCar season with the— there was a pretty major shakeup between teams and it, uh, should be very interesting to watch. So more to follow.

Yeah, looking forward to it. Uh, we will have, I imagine, more 2026 regulation discussion next time around. Uh, we will have more on the Scottish Premiership as things, uh, move towards a potential conclusion later in the season. And of course, no Premier League. We might discuss some FA Cup though.

Next time around and, uh, any other news occurs. So yeah, and of note, according a new sponsor who also sponsors the Ferrari F1 team, is Peroni 0.0. Oh, I didn't even realize that those were NA. Yes, uh, cleaning up the act during the week and going to the NA, uh, at least for the Uh, hops and barley portion. Monday, Monday through Friday.

Correct. Correct. Big competition coming up later this, uh, this winter. Don't need to get into that, but, uh, yeah, had to, had to put the old training hat on. So same great flavor, no booze.

Uh, actually it is, and this is from a very seasoned beer drinker. Uh, it— if you had, you could discernibly tell a difference between one and the other. But as far as, um, just, yeah, it tastes like a beer, you know. I don't think I've ever had an NA beer. Yeah, it's a nice alternative to when you'd like to have a refreshing beverage, but, uh, don't necessarily need all of the saddlebags that come along with it.

So yes. All right, well, Peroni Zero Zero, uh, definitely totally sponsoring this program, and, uh, whether they know it or not, we will, uh, we will see you next week for another edition. Oh yeah, we'll see you next time.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka. This has been Tackling the Chicane, Studio 2520, copyright 2026. We'll see you next time.

Yeah, we're taking fire.