July 19, 2022 • 33 mins
It's time to leave the land of energy drinks and switch gears to the world of the Prancing Horse. In part one of this two-parter, Lily and Michael take on the long history of Ferrari, the only team on the grid that's participated in every season of Formula 1. But before we get to who's driving the cars, let's meet the man at the center of the team and much of its controversies: The legendary Enzo Ferrari.
Special thanks to our guests: Josh Revell and Aldas Kavaliauskas.
This episode was produced by Lily Herman and Senior Producer Yochai Maital. Sound Design by Yochai Maital. Mastering by Sela Waisblum. Recording at The Cutting Room Studios by Rob O'Leary II. At SI Studios, Max Miller is Executive Producer and Brannan Goetschius is Head of Audio. At iHeartRadio, Sean Titone is Executive Producer.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, the old Newman, Mike, the old Newman seven, Everyone's
favorite pop hot. We can start the race. So Michael, Uh,
you know, we had a little bit of a bit
(00:20):
going here. We had red bulls and we talked red
bull I wore that very delightful, not flannel flannel Mercedes hat.
What we did today is I actually have because I'm
a fan of F one, I have coasters with several
different drivers and like sayings from them on So for you,
I have Ferrari driver Charlotte Claire and his quote him stupid,
(00:47):
I am stupid. I am stupid. I am stupid. I'm stupid,
which we'll get into that in a bit. But my
wife make you give this one to me or I
surprised she's here. Radio from I Heart Radio and Sports
(01:08):
Illustrated Studios. This is choosing sides one. Wow. So to
dive in today, Uh, no team has like more history
(01:28):
more stuff going on than Ferrari. They're the only team
on the grid that has taken part in every single
Formula One World Championship going back to so of course
that comes with plenty of scandals, plenty of rivalries, plenty
of very controversial team bosses and a whole lot more so.
(01:49):
Today on the podcast, we are diving into part one
of a two episode look at Ferrari, So we'll get
into the team and their history and they're very very,
uh kind of hot headed founder, and then we will
get into the driver's awesome. You know, I grew up
in Michigan unaware of motorsport, but somehow I had a
(02:11):
Ferrari poster on the wall. What does that say? I
don't know. I had pictures of Ferrari's on the wall.
So they are embedded in my brain as something that's
fast and cool, and no one you knew how to Ferrari.
These other brands you're thrown around, red Bull and Mercedes Williams.
Still no idea what the ship Williams is. They all
got different things. For me. Ferrari is racing and is
(02:34):
being number one, or at least attempting to be so.
Ferrari obviously also sometimes called the Prancing Horse. Prancing Horse
sounds like a bad cologne, it does, it really really does. Yeah. Uh,
the Prancing Horse team, So their their whole distinction, and
what they're very into is that they're the only team
(02:55):
that has been on the grid since the first official
season of Formula One back in ineen fifty. Yes, they
have been there since the very first season. This is
f one expert. I'll just kevlowskis whom you might remember
from previous episodes, and so for all we obviously you
know the guy, the guy who's the founder of the company.
He actually wanted it to be a race team. The
only reason he built you know, Calls, is to fund
(03:15):
his race team, so they've always been an integral part
Formula One. They are also the most successful team in
the sports history. The second place team is a team
called McLaren, so Ferrari's crushing the game. Of course, keep
in mind they've been around for seventy two years. McLaren
didn't get started in the sport for their sixteen years. Uh. Interestingly,
the third place team on that list is Mercedes, which
(03:36):
has only been around for twelve years, so that I'll
give you an idea of how dominant Mercedes has been.
But but Ferrari's very into the fact that they are
on top. The Formula one team is kind of the
crown jewel of Ferrari's time and motor sports, but they
do also compete in sports cars and endurance racing and
other stuff. But they don't have NASCAR. I don't think
(03:58):
they do. They would stoop that loan. You say, you
just said, you just said I got fans in Arkansas. Okay,
I don't know if I do. Um so I when
I was thinking about this episode of Just Time Aout Ferrari,
it is very hard to discuss the team without discussing
Ferrari's founder, Enzo Ferrari. Uh. He is a former racing
(04:23):
driver himself. He built up Ferrari's name from scratch. She
then proceeded to kind of destroy the name by fighting
with a lot of people over many decades when we'll
get to that, but it still lives today. So obviously
despite all of his problems, of which they are tons,
both personally and professionally, he was onto something. So we'll
go down a little bit of team history. But also
like Enzo Ferrari biography because they're one of the same.
(04:46):
When I hear Enzo and I was watching a couple
of videos about the history of Ferrari, and Enzo's name
would come up. Is that the same guy for all
those years? So here's I had to look this up.
Enzo Ferrari was born and died at like age ninety.
So the dude was around for forever, and he was
like actively involved for forever, like he did not want
to leave before the combustion engine. He was probably actually
(05:12):
riding a prancing horse. He was in fact riding a
prancing worse at one point. Yeah, as legend has it,
Enzo Ferrari prancing horse rider. Oh yeah, let me also,
I fred to start to show your pictures. Yea, So
here is Enzo Ferrari. Oh yeah, the mastermind. So we've
got three different pictures here, different decades, it feels like
different decades. Two are in black and white, ones in color.
(05:36):
And he uh, I'll tell you what. He looks the
least evil of all the people I've looked at. Uh,
he might be the most which I don't know, but um,
he kind of looks like in the color picture like
he might be blind and those are seeing eyeglasses, but
I don't look that's true. He's casually chilling though in
all this photos he looks very Yeah, he also looks rich.
(05:58):
I mean they always look rich. They is look alpha
uh and yeah, I mean I'm impressed that he stayed
in it for so long. So and so Ferrari has
a lot of like myth around him, particularly amongst Italian fans,
but essentially so he's born in he does not come
from a racing family or a rich family. In fact,
(06:20):
his dad, after trying a bunch of different stuff, has
a small carpentry business, and the old story goes that
and Zo Ferrari ends up at the eight uh Sir
Quto di Bologna. There's an Italian driver named Felice Nazzarro
who wins this race and from there and Zo ferraris hooked.
He wants to be a racing driver. He wants to
(06:42):
work in automobiles. You know, he's like eight, nine, ten
years old, so like you can imagine just when you're
a kid at age, that like sticks with you, that's
a core memory. Unfortunately, life has a different plan for him.
So yeah, right, so, uh, you know, World War One
breaks out in nineteen fourteen, and then unfortunately in nineteen
sixteen both his father and his older brother die from
(07:03):
an Italian flu outbreak. Yeah, his dad's carpentry businesses and
complete shambles. It's just not gonna happen. So you know,
he's trying to fare it, wants to do he's he's
got kind of a weird, kind of a clean slate
yet not I mean already a lot of issues there.
But he decided to start looking for a job in
the automobile industry, and he eventually, after searching around not
(07:24):
getting anything, lands himself a gig as a test driver
for a kind of random manufacturer in Italy, So he
starts off there. He eventually becomes a racing driver for them,
and then in his early twenties, we're talking like year
nineteen twenty, he makes the jump over to a car
manufacturer called Alpha Romeo, which the name might sound familiar.
(07:45):
Alphermeo is also on the Formula one grid. We'll talk
a lot more about them in their episode. But along
and short of it is ferrari as in the team
and Alfameyo is in the team, have this special relationship
that lasts to this day. But essentially and Zo works
with them, begins to race for them in earnest he
does well enough, so he is, you know, by the
early nineteen thirties, he's he's doing things. Things are good.
(08:08):
But he does have several friends who are also drivers,
and they die because as you can imagine, yeah, like
driving in the twenties and thirties is not the safest endeavor.
Uh and then who knows to just everyone who lived
from eight to nineteen whatever, you know, it's just it
was just tougher. Yeah, you know, your dad gets the
(08:29):
flu and it dies in your carbonry businesses toast, and
it's just everything was just harder. Man, we we we
think our life is hard now. It is in a
lot of ways, but I'm thankful I live in two usually.
Well imagine being like, yeah, your gig is a test driver.
It's like, no, you could die like like a test
(08:49):
driver in like the late nineteen tens, Like yeah, so
so so Enzo is uh yeah, in early nineteen thirties,
he has several friends die in the sport, and then
he also has a son, his first son, and he decides,
and I think there's mortal life than driving cars and
almost dying every time. So he decides he's going to
(09:10):
retire just his racing career at that point. So here's
Enzo late twenties, early thirties, and he decides to found
a team called Ferrari in nine, which sounds like a
great idea, except the financial house of cards collapses and
the overinflated stock market plunges into a great depression. Just
(09:31):
gonna say that that that year always triggers so he yeah,
poor timing, So he has to fold the original Ferrari
team in three and uh and essentially Ferrari and his
his uh band of misfits, they basically become the de
facto racing team within Alfa Romeo for the next couple
(09:51):
of years. There's some disagreements between him and Alfa Romeo. Uh.
He's like, I'm gonna go do my own thing, me
Enzo for Ari, because I am angry and I am important.
I will stop here and say that. Another fun fact
around this time is also when Ferrari comes up with
its logo is in the thirties, and the Ferrari logo
(10:13):
the horse, has a weird backstory. So there was a
fighter or an ace A fighter pilot in World War
One Italian fire fighter pilot named Francesco Baraka, and he
used to have this little symbol of this horse in
his fighter jet when he'd go out and whatever. And
(10:33):
after the war, his parents were friends with Enzo Ferrari's family,
and they suggested he used the horse as a logo
for good luck in his very dangerous racing endeavors. That
is a good story because also we've drawn comparisons before
of these engines two fighter jets. I like that. I'm
(10:54):
buying into that story really full circle, full circle. And
you know it's not like this is the horse that
used to plow the land. No, this is the horse
that kept me alive during World War One. When I
was flying fighter jets, it was not frolicking through a field.
It was fighter pilot jet piloting through a field. Yet
I was killing because of this horse. And that's what
(11:14):
you're gonna do metaphorically racing. You know, I'm going too
far with it, but you know what I'm saying, I
appreciate the commitment. This kind of that's not making sense
like thirty seconds ago, but it was. I'm gonna google
the Ferrari logo. I need to be reminded. Ferrari logo,
aggressive stance of the horse, Italian flag up above. Even
(11:40):
the f in the Ferrari logo is like, it looks
like it's racing. It's a great logo. The shield, the crest,
it elicits a feeling of kind of excellence, yes, let's
say excellence, luxury it's got it's got real heft to it.
So okay, so enzos here uh, and continuing his string
(12:00):
of excellent luck, he says, I'm going to start my
operation as Ferrari in nineteen forty Oh my gosh. Ship.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, his factories actually
bombed in in Italy. Yeah. Really terrible timing, really bad luck. Uh.
(12:23):
It does not seem to have a mind for for
for you know how larger socio political events affect him.
So so yeah, so things are not looking great. It
takes them a couple of years to really rebuild, as
it does everyone. So I guess the good news is
everyone else also needs to rebuild because of this terrible
multi year event uh and perfect loss of life. Uh.
So they have time to rebuild after the war, and
(12:44):
finally when things get going, they're ready to enter the
first ever Formula One World Championship in nineteen fifty. I mean,
he started Ferrari the first one in nineteen and then
now he's starting Ferrari twenty years later, two years later
in the second Grand Prix. It's a long time, yeah,
twenty two years of figuring out, struggling, starting another one,
(13:08):
getting bombed great depression. I mean, it's just it takes time. Yeah,
it definitely was not an overnight success. And he did
not come from money, and you know, unlike a lot
of these guys, so he really had to build from scratch.
We'll get right back into the chaos after the break.
So and so, among the many things, he has been
described as autocratic. And he was known for very intentionally
(13:32):
pitting his drivers against each other, like his own Ferrari drivers,
and and because he believed personally that a person could
not be pushed their full potential unless they had that
extra bit of antagonism, especially coming from within, so that
was really great. He used to encourage drivers to pull
moves or or really go past their limits to the
(13:54):
point where it was actually dangerous. And as we're saying,
we're talking about the middle of the twentie things weren't
really that's safe to begin with. And then your boss
is telling you that he expects you to basically be
as unsafe as possible without and especially without crashing the car.
Between nineteen fifty and nineteen seventy one, eight different Ferrari
drivers died on circuits. What Yeah, so dead, Oh my god.
(14:19):
And so Ferrari's sort of defense was, well, people are
dying anyway, and also none of the official causes of
these deaths was mechanical failure. So these guys just it's
the driver's fault, basically, was his was his point. It
must be really fucking fun to drive one of these cars.
I mean it, it's it must be so fun that
(14:42):
these drivers are aware of this risk. It's almost like
an addict. Look, I gotta do it. It makes me
feel so outrageous. I'm going to risk my life for this.
That is insane. Yeah, the men home speeds, those rules crowdy.
Why in the minutes on the Steaming comic they ride
(15:02):
with life as the passenger on that tail lift. I
love tennis. No one's ever died playing competitive tennis at
this level that I can remember. Imagine if it was like, hey,
one to two tennis players are going to die year
just from playing the sport. And it's the point where
it's just like it's literally part of the culture. It's like, well,
there's twenty of us on the starting line. You've got
(15:24):
a five percent chance that you're not going to make
it to the end of the season. Yeah. So grim,
very very grim. And and you can't just say it's
not the car's fault. If you're pushing these guys to
go go go, like there there is some responsibility there. Yeah,
he really didn't particularly seem to value human life to
a certain extent, especially once he stopped racing. And it
wasn't you know, he's personal friends who were dying for
(15:47):
that reason too. He really tried to not get emotionally
attached to his drivers, which again, I mean, this is
like how farmers don't name their cattle because they know
they're going to slaughter them. Yeah, I have no comeback.
Is just very depressing. That's a very valuable insight because
it tells you a lot about that person. That's Enzo anyway,
(16:08):
So that's the guy who's running in the background here
of of the team, but we'll switch gears to the
actual team. So Ferrai has seen excellence since the very
beginning of Formula One. They had several World champions and
Constructor's championships in the fifties. Yet another fun fact, there's
only two American Formula One drivers who have won World
driver's titles, and one of those and the only American
(16:29):
born one, Phil Hill, won his World championship in nineteen
sixty one in a Ferrari cool. We have to make
it about ourselves. So now I really like Ferrari because
Phil Hill one. We do. Yeah, as as a country
we have a connection to this team, a very thin
thin connection from sixty years ago. But Phil did it
(16:50):
for us. Uh so two more recent fans of the sport. Though,
what's considered the real like modern golden era of Ferrari
is the brand's Don minutes in the early two thousand's
featuring your guy, Michael Schumacher. He won five straight World
Drivers Championship titles between two thousand and two thousand four,
(17:12):
and aside from a year where he was disqualified from competition,
he actually never finished lower than fifth in the championship
standings while at Ferrari just completely annihilated the competition. So
it's just a real, a real highlight of a time
for Ferrari. In two thousand seven, uh is the time
they win their last drivers title. This was a decade
(17:35):
and a half ago and it was with legendary Kimmy Reichinen.
Well they called him the Iceman. But there's a bit
of a show of emotion going on in that cop
fit now he's still there. Their last current uh you know,
championship winner at half seven by my calculation, and we
win the championship by one point, and then we spend
(17:55):
the next decade and a half, you know, they don't
win it. Well. The jenny of Ferrari from post Schumacher
era has sort of been one of hope and disappointments
constantly over and over again. This is Josh Rebel and
one YouTuber. It has been a rocky roads. They bought
in Frontnando Alonso, who was generally regarded as the most
(18:19):
naturally gifted driver on that grid at the time in
twos and ten, and it almost paid off for the
five years they had him, and then it didn't work.
And then they bought in the four time world champions
Sebastian Fettle, and that almost worked as well. But then
you had scenarios where Ferrari would just throw it away.
(18:45):
So we have this real low point for the team
comes in where this is kind of funny to talk about.
So I know we've discussed that F one is very secretive.
So essentially Ferrari does something to their car and they
start off the season going very fast and things look
very great. And essentially all the other teams or some
(19:07):
other teams say, we don't know what they're doing. It
must be illegal. And the reason I'm talking in such
vague terms is because the governing body, the f i A,
takes Ferrari aside behind the scenes and kind of says, well,
you can't do that anymore. The problem is they don't
tell us the public what that is anymore, and they say, yeah,
and Ferrari, you can stay in it, and like you
all are good to keep competing. You just got to
(19:28):
tell us if another team is doing the same thing,
but we don't know what the thing is. That's like
you know when the parents says, can I talk to
any other room please? And then you know it's like,
we'll keep this secret, but you can't. Yeah, exactly. How interesting?
So much drama. There's so much like soap opera. No, oh, absolutely,
it's like, yeah, it's a literal back room deal, right
(19:50):
like we still do this day years later. I have
no idea what happened, what the actual thing was. There's
all these conspiracy videos. You found a very good loophole,
and we don't even though it is lead all, we
don't want you to do it. Or whatever. Literally what happened?
And what doesn't help is that a lot of especially
at the time, a lot of the f i A
leadership and other people within the f i A used
to work for Ferrari or work with the F one
(20:10):
team in particular, So it's just looking very sketched from
every single angle. It's just not looking good. And did
they slow down them? They end up in sixth in
the Constructor's Championship. It's one of their worst finishes ever
as a team. Wow, difficult to find words at a moment.
I'm that's so. It is just bleak city at Ferrari.
(20:32):
What can expect this weekend? Oh yeah, they have a
very intense fan base called the Fosy. That's kind of
their fandom name. Well, I'm not gonna die. It's not
going to be an easy weekend foss So the FOCI
is upset. Everyone's upset. The team is not in a
good place. And as if this isn't bad enough, this
is all going on during the season, right as the
season is starting. You'll recall that when we talked about
(20:52):
Red bull their dominant driver who won all those world championships,
Red Bulls guy Sebastian vettle uh. Sebastian Mettle at this
point is driving for Ferrari and in a surprise move,
they announced basically as the season is starting that they
are not going to resign Sebastian Battle at the end
of the season. Lame duck. Yeah, there's a Drive to
Survive episode that is centered on this whole controversy. Basically,
(21:14):
there was starting to be Yeah, just this idea of
you know, Sebs aware this this younger guys, the golden
boy of the team. He doesn't feel like he's getting
kind of equal treatment and opportunities. It's just a bad situation.
All of those little tricks of Enzo or you know,
pitting people against each other, that all can be overlooked
when you're winning, exactly, winning is this thread that kind
(21:37):
of holds it all together. But as soon as you're
at sixth place for the first time in your seventy
year history, it just unravels. So, yeah, was a real
low point for them, and and it's also in the
midst of the pandemic, right, so the race season is
already weird, it's already truncated, you know, and on top
of that, now they've got, yeah, a team member who
already knows he's not being resigned. They've got another they've
(21:57):
got a car that just doesn't work. They've got the
d deal with the f i A to keep that
all the secret. Yeah, and then they've just plummeted through
the standings. They've got teams beating them who they can't
believe or just casually passing passing them on the track.
So that's there, that's their their dark day. Ferrari, especially
in Italy, is not a race team. It's a religion.
Elder kavskis again. I mean, people follow it unbelievably. Everywhere.
(22:21):
There's more Ferrari fans then there is of any other
race team. And that's kind of the emotion that it evokes,
you know, in people when they see the red car.
When you think of a race car, you think of
a red car, you think of a Ferrari, and it
you know, that romantic kind of that romanticism just gets
to everyone's heads. And the problem with that is that
sometimes it kind of builds expectations. Sometimes it kind of
gets to people a little bit too much, and it
puts pressure on the race team. It puts a hell
(22:44):
of a lot of pressure because when Ferrari are winning.
Everything was amazing. You know, the world is a better
place when they're losing. It's a drama, it's you know,
a catastrophe, it's controversy in Italy and it's that pressure
that makes it harder for them than any other team.
So before we get to health, we're alreadys doing now.
So a couple of years after that low point, we
(23:04):
need to talk about the team boss. We're gonna talk
about that after this break. We need to talk about
the team boss. So it's Mattia Benado, Mattia Matia. It
seems to go every number of ways. I've even listened
to clips of him saying his name and he'll change
it slightly, which is not helpful for our purposes. Um,
(23:27):
but I'll just show you a picture. Um, here is him,
and I actually have a photo of him with Mercedes
team boss Total Wolves. You can get a difference. Yeah,
oh my god, this is not what I would exist expecting.
He almost feels like like a cartoon he does. Yeah,
the glasses are waldo, frizzy, fluffy hair that goes upright
(23:52):
to the sky. Looks pretty chill. It's not exactly who
I would envision to be wearing the Ferrari uniform. It
almost looks like you're silly, uncle who works in the
arts is coming in from the city. That's what he
looks like. He loves to work with pastels. So he's
relatively new. He replaced the previous team principle for starting
(24:15):
with the twenty nineteen season, so he hasn't he hasn't
been in that position that much. But he's also interesting
in that he has been with Ferrari for a long time,
I believe since the nineties. But so a lot of
these team principles come through sort of that like executive leadership,
executive track so to speak. They're kind of business guys.
They come into the sport through through That means he's
(24:36):
kind of a funky pick in that he actually is
an engineer first and foremost and came up through engineering
and that side of the team. And often, you know,
those guys would become, yeah, the CTO or the the
engineering director. They have different titles and things for it,
so you'd think that that's where he would end up,
and he was in fact the you know, the chief
technology officer before becoming you know, the team boss um
(24:58):
and kind of the face of a team. So yeah,
he's he's coming from a cool different side. On the
plus side, he knows everything there is no about the
engineering of the car. I guess the disadvantages that he's
not necessarily from a more kind of traditional management side
of things. He can sometimes be a little bit aloof
(25:18):
There's been criticisms of his management of the team. Obviously
the whole Sebastian vettle mess. He's gotten that sort of
flak for just not always running the tightest ship, and
I think part of that is he's just from a
different brain than He doesn't look like He goes to
executive training where these other guys look so they look
like generals, you know. He he does not look like that. Yeah.
(25:41):
So where is the team now? Really? How are they doing? Yeah?
So remember how even with Mercedes we talked about, you know,
Mercedes came into those new regulations and just blew everyone
away and they were just dominant. So, you know, coming
into two, everyone said, you know, who's going to be
the Mercedes of this era of Formula one racing. It's
great seeing a resurgence from Ferrari, the most prestigious popular
(26:03):
brand in Formula one. Josh Revel again it's great to
see them at the forefront. Again, not so great with
um their Italian engineering, sometimes remembering that it was Italian
and sort of blowing it slows Um midway through the race.
But at the same time, you know, this still in
the Hunts. So heading into the season, there was a
(26:27):
ton of hype around Ferrari. People were saying they've got
the car figured out. They have these two great drivers
face for the scoot Arena. You know, Charlotte Claire has
long been the Ferrari golden boy and this is his
time to shine. And people also do like Carlos, but
we'll get to that more in our driver episode. But
(26:49):
there was a lot of excitement, a lot of fervor. However,
we're kind of coming up at the middle of the
season here and things are just to be not looking
as promising as they once did. Claire has an engine
failure that is sharing plumes have smoke onto the track,
(27:09):
and Ferrari have a double DNF. Ferrari's reliability issues have
kind of involved everything from the car just sort of
puttering out on the side of a track all the
way up to Carlos Science's car at the Austrian Grand
Prix exploding into flames while he was still in it.
(27:30):
He was engulfed in flames and the car itself was
rolling down a hill. Luckily he is safe. Everything's fine.
He was totally fine. But hell of a site to
behold to see a Ferrari burning down to its parts
on the side of a track. That was a proper
blow up, that absolutely destroyed it. So so the second
(27:52):
problem is one we'll discuss way more in our second episode.
About the drivers, There's been a lot of questions about
Ferrari strategy with seeing some of the same problems reservice.
You know, they don't have kind of the best strategy.
They don't have the best reliability as well, and that's
the really big challenge for them because as a race team,
i mean, forget about the driver and the team principle.
I'm talking about pit stops, I'm talking about strategy. I'm
(28:15):
talking about making those calculated, cold blooded decisions in splits,
you know, a split of a second during a race.
Read Bull are just a stronger race team at the moment.
It's important to note though, that, as we've discussed, this
is not new territory for Ferrari. This seems to be
the story of the Ferrari as of late, of things
kind of breaking down as the season goes on. So
(28:37):
they're not out of it quite yet. It's just that
it's going to be a longer road than expected. It's
not all over. The season is still very long. There
is still plenty of points on the table. But yeah,
they're learning why it's so difficult to win a championship
for Ferrari. Alright, so I have now brought you up
to date on over seventy years of Ferrari history. What
(28:58):
are your thoughts? You know, Um, I like Ferrari. I
don't have any reason yet to dislike them. Um. I
think history is important. They're easy to root for, the
brand is easy, the colors are great. The I don't
know enough about Enzo to dislike him, but I like
(29:19):
kind of the I like that he created a team
around his name, you know, I like Mattea. I like
that he's different. I like that it's a different vibe.
I get Mercedes Team Principal and Red Bulls Team Principle
kind of mixed up in my head. They kind of
(29:40):
seem like the same kind of vibe. Plus it also
helps them tremendously and this is a testament to their history.
It helps that I had their posters up on my wall.
You know, there's a little bit of bias there for sure,
but that's yeah, for sure, there is. Um. I do
love the color. So here we go, this all of
this research you've done, Lily, and I'm gonna go I
like their colors, like the horse looks cool. Now, I
(30:05):
don't know the drivers. I don't know anything about the
drivers other than this coaster you gave me, which is
Leclair saying, I am stupid. I'm stupid. You have told
me in the previous podcast that there isn't necessarily a
number one and number two, so they are competing against
each other, and I I'm curious to learn more about them.
The drivers are very evenly matched. They're very evenly matched
(30:26):
on paper, though they both have very different backgrounds, very
different kind of standing within the team, and so while
they aren't a number one number two pairing on paper,
there's definitely some of those vibes going on in the
garage that make it incredibly interesting and and to even
at even more depth, these two publicly get along very well,
(30:47):
but are really at a point, especially if the team
is going to be fighting for wins and and potential
championship titles. There could be some some sparks flying. I
feel like the Ferrari drivers could stand around the garage
sipping an espresso talking about efficiency of the engine. Whereas
Mercedes I feel in Red Bull. I feel like everybody's
(31:10):
screaming at each other and there's like wrenches flying against
the wall. I have no I mean, this is just
I have no idea. If that's true, that's fine. I'm
just imagining Toto for Mercedes, like throwing a wrench and
at leaving a dent in the wall, and then I
keep it there as like a reminder do your job
or else this will be your head. Yeah. They have
like a whole like little plaque next to it. Yeah.
Yeah for me, I don't think it has the same.
(31:30):
They're a little more sophisticated. I guess that's they're they're aesthetic.
One time I was performing at Gotham Comedy Club and
a guy just kept a British guy just kept interrupting,
kept it drumping. Anyways, the security comes throws him out.
He takes a swing. I want a security guard. These
guys are all like served in Afghanistan. They like wanted
someone to swing at him. They threw his head into
(31:53):
the wall and there was a nice size hole in
the wall. Anyways, they kept it there for years because
they wanted to remind people if you yell at the
comedian some guy's head. Just to just a side note,
i mean, who says comedy isn't like formula one? Our
life is on the line here. I'm sure he felt
very threatened by this random for sure. Yeah, but it
(32:13):
got taken care of. Take care of field fashion alright.
So I'm excited to learn about these drivers. Yeah, I'm
excited to talk about them endlessly. There's also gonna be
many a thirst trap. His eyes are like green blue gray.
They just like look like an ocean. Like you just
want to, like swan dive into his eyes. Perfect eyebrows,
(32:39):
perfect cheekbones, The bone structure is unmatched. He's more beautiful
than the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Oh man,
this is I'm getting sun good. I needed some thirst
traps alright. This has been Choosing Sides F one production
(33:00):
of Sports Illustrated Studios and I Heart Radio. The show
was hosted by Michael Costa and Lily Herb. This episode
was produced by Lily Herman and our senior producer Yhai
Mi Tao, who also did the sound design at the
Cutting Room Studios. We are recorded by engineer Robot Leary,
the second mastering by Cello WEISBLU Max Miller is the
(33:24):
executive producer and Brennan get Us his head of Audio
at s I Studios. At I Heart Radio, Sean Titon
is our executive producer. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, where wherever
you get your podcasts, don't forget to subscribe to us
and leave a review. And if you want more F
(33:47):
one goodness, follow us on Instagram at Choosing Sides of
What
Oh, the old Newman, Mike, the old Newman seven, Everyone's
favorite pop hot. We can start the race. So Michael, Uh,
you know, we had a little bit of a bit
(00:20):
going here. We had red bulls and we talked red
bull I wore that very delightful, not flannel flannel Mercedes hat.
What we did today is I actually have because I'm
a fan of F one, I have coasters with several
different drivers and like sayings from them on So for you,
I have Ferrari driver Charlotte Claire and his quote him stupid,
(00:47):
I am stupid. I am stupid. I am stupid. I'm stupid,
which we'll get into that in a bit. But my
wife make you give this one to me or I
surprised she's here. Radio from I Heart Radio and Sports
(01:08):
Illustrated Studios. This is choosing sides one. Wow. So to
dive in today, Uh, no team has like more history
(01:28):
more stuff going on than Ferrari. They're the only team
on the grid that has taken part in every single
Formula One World Championship going back to so of course
that comes with plenty of scandals, plenty of rivalries, plenty
of very controversial team bosses and a whole lot more so.
(01:49):
Today on the podcast, we are diving into part one
of a two episode look at Ferrari, So we'll get
into the team and their history and they're very very,
uh kind of hot headed founder, and then we will
get into the driver's awesome. You know, I grew up
in Michigan unaware of motorsport, but somehow I had a
(02:11):
Ferrari poster on the wall. What does that say? I
don't know. I had pictures of Ferrari's on the wall.
So they are embedded in my brain as something that's
fast and cool, and no one you knew how to Ferrari.
These other brands you're thrown around, red Bull and Mercedes Williams.
Still no idea what the ship Williams is. They all
got different things. For me. Ferrari is racing and is
(02:34):
being number one, or at least attempting to be so.
Ferrari obviously also sometimes called the Prancing Horse. Prancing Horse
sounds like a bad cologne, it does, it really really does. Yeah. Uh,
the Prancing Horse team, So their their whole distinction, and
what they're very into is that they're the only team
(02:55):
that has been on the grid since the first official
season of Formula One back in ineen fifty. Yes, they
have been there since the very first season. This is
f one expert. I'll just kevlowskis whom you might remember
from previous episodes, and so for all we obviously you
know the guy, the guy who's the founder of the company.
He actually wanted it to be a race team. The
only reason he built you know, Calls, is to fund
(03:15):
his race team, so they've always been an integral part
Formula One. They are also the most successful team in
the sports history. The second place team is a team
called McLaren, so Ferrari's crushing the game. Of course, keep
in mind they've been around for seventy two years. McLaren
didn't get started in the sport for their sixteen years. Uh. Interestingly,
the third place team on that list is Mercedes, which
(03:36):
has only been around for twelve years, so that I'll
give you an idea of how dominant Mercedes has been.
But but Ferrari's very into the fact that they are
on top. The Formula one team is kind of the
crown jewel of Ferrari's time and motor sports, but they
do also compete in sports cars and endurance racing and
other stuff. But they don't have NASCAR. I don't think
(03:58):
they do. They would stoop that loan. You say, you
just said, you just said I got fans in Arkansas. Okay,
I don't know if I do. Um so I when
I was thinking about this episode of Just Time Aout Ferrari,
it is very hard to discuss the team without discussing
Ferrari's founder, Enzo Ferrari. Uh. He is a former racing
(04:23):
driver himself. He built up Ferrari's name from scratch. She
then proceeded to kind of destroy the name by fighting
with a lot of people over many decades when we'll
get to that, but it still lives today. So obviously
despite all of his problems, of which they are tons,
both personally and professionally, he was onto something. So we'll
go down a little bit of team history. But also
like Enzo Ferrari biography because they're one of the same.
(04:46):
When I hear Enzo and I was watching a couple
of videos about the history of Ferrari, and Enzo's name
would come up. Is that the same guy for all
those years? So here's I had to look this up.
Enzo Ferrari was born and died at like age ninety.
So the dude was around for forever, and he was
like actively involved for forever, like he did not want
to leave before the combustion engine. He was probably actually
(05:12):
riding a prancing horse. He was in fact riding a
prancing worse at one point. Yeah, as legend has it,
Enzo Ferrari prancing horse rider. Oh yeah, let me also,
I fred to start to show your pictures. Yea, So
here is Enzo Ferrari. Oh yeah, the mastermind. So we've
got three different pictures here, different decades, it feels like
different decades. Two are in black and white, ones in color.
(05:36):
And he uh, I'll tell you what. He looks the
least evil of all the people I've looked at. Uh,
he might be the most which I don't know, but um,
he kind of looks like in the color picture like
he might be blind and those are seeing eyeglasses, but
I don't look that's true. He's casually chilling though in
all this photos he looks very Yeah, he also looks rich.
(05:58):
I mean they always look rich. They is look alpha
uh and yeah, I mean I'm impressed that he stayed
in it for so long. So and so Ferrari has
a lot of like myth around him, particularly amongst Italian fans,
but essentially so he's born in he does not come
from a racing family or a rich family. In fact,
(06:20):
his dad, after trying a bunch of different stuff, has
a small carpentry business, and the old story goes that
and Zo Ferrari ends up at the eight uh Sir
Quto di Bologna. There's an Italian driver named Felice Nazzarro
who wins this race and from there and Zo ferraris hooked.
He wants to be a racing driver. He wants to
(06:42):
work in automobiles. You know, he's like eight, nine, ten
years old, so like you can imagine just when you're
a kid at age, that like sticks with you, that's
a core memory. Unfortunately, life has a different plan for him.
So yeah, right, so, uh, you know, World War One
breaks out in nineteen fourteen, and then unfortunately in nineteen
sixteen both his father and his older brother die from
(07:03):
an Italian flu outbreak. Yeah, his dad's carpentry businesses and
complete shambles. It's just not gonna happen. So you know,
he's trying to fare it, wants to do he's he's
got kind of a weird, kind of a clean slate
yet not I mean already a lot of issues there.
But he decided to start looking for a job in
the automobile industry, and he eventually, after searching around not
(07:24):
getting anything, lands himself a gig as a test driver
for a kind of random manufacturer in Italy, So he
starts off there. He eventually becomes a racing driver for them,
and then in his early twenties, we're talking like year
nineteen twenty, he makes the jump over to a car
manufacturer called Alpha Romeo, which the name might sound familiar.
(07:45):
Alphermeo is also on the Formula one grid. We'll talk
a lot more about them in their episode. But along
and short of it is ferrari as in the team
and Alfameyo is in the team, have this special relationship
that lasts to this day. But essentially and Zo works
with them, begins to race for them in earnest he
does well enough, so he is, you know, by the
early nineteen thirties, he's he's doing things. Things are good.
(08:08):
But he does have several friends who are also drivers,
and they die because as you can imagine, yeah, like
driving in the twenties and thirties is not the safest endeavor.
Uh and then who knows to just everyone who lived
from eight to nineteen whatever, you know, it's just it
was just tougher. Yeah, you know, your dad gets the
(08:29):
flu and it dies in your carbonry businesses toast, and
it's just everything was just harder. Man, we we we
think our life is hard now. It is in a
lot of ways, but I'm thankful I live in two usually.
Well imagine being like, yeah, your gig is a test driver.
It's like, no, you could die like like a test
(08:49):
driver in like the late nineteen tens, Like yeah, so
so so Enzo is uh yeah, in early nineteen thirties,
he has several friends die in the sport, and then
he also has a son, his first son, and he decides,
and I think there's mortal life than driving cars and
almost dying every time. So he decides he's going to
(09:10):
retire just his racing career at that point. So here's
Enzo late twenties, early thirties, and he decides to found
a team called Ferrari in nine, which sounds like a
great idea, except the financial house of cards collapses and
the overinflated stock market plunges into a great depression. Just
(09:31):
gonna say that that that year always triggers so he yeah,
poor timing, So he has to fold the original Ferrari
team in three and uh and essentially Ferrari and his
his uh band of misfits, they basically become the de
facto racing team within Alfa Romeo for the next couple
(09:51):
of years. There's some disagreements between him and Alfa Romeo. Uh.
He's like, I'm gonna go do my own thing, me
Enzo for Ari, because I am angry and I am important.
I will stop here and say that. Another fun fact
around this time is also when Ferrari comes up with
its logo is in the thirties, and the Ferrari logo
(10:13):
the horse, has a weird backstory. So there was a
fighter or an ace A fighter pilot in World War
One Italian fire fighter pilot named Francesco Baraka, and he
used to have this little symbol of this horse in
his fighter jet when he'd go out and whatever. And
(10:33):
after the war, his parents were friends with Enzo Ferrari's family,
and they suggested he used the horse as a logo
for good luck in his very dangerous racing endeavors. That
is a good story because also we've drawn comparisons before
of these engines two fighter jets. I like that. I'm
(10:54):
buying into that story really full circle, full circle. And
you know it's not like this is the horse that
used to plow the land. No, this is the horse
that kept me alive during World War One. When I
was flying fighter jets, it was not frolicking through a field.
It was fighter pilot jet piloting through a field. Yet
I was killing because of this horse. And that's what
(11:14):
you're gonna do metaphorically racing. You know, I'm going too
far with it, but you know what I'm saying, I
appreciate the commitment. This kind of that's not making sense
like thirty seconds ago, but it was. I'm gonna google
the Ferrari logo. I need to be reminded. Ferrari logo,
aggressive stance of the horse, Italian flag up above. Even
(11:40):
the f in the Ferrari logo is like, it looks
like it's racing. It's a great logo. The shield, the crest,
it elicits a feeling of kind of excellence, yes, let's
say excellence, luxury it's got it's got real heft to it.
So okay, so enzos here uh, and continuing his string
(12:00):
of excellent luck, he says, I'm going to start my
operation as Ferrari in nineteen forty Oh my gosh. Ship.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, his factories actually
bombed in in Italy. Yeah. Really terrible timing, really bad luck. Uh.
(12:23):
It does not seem to have a mind for for
for you know how larger socio political events affect him.
So so yeah, so things are not looking great. It
takes them a couple of years to really rebuild, as
it does everyone. So I guess the good news is
everyone else also needs to rebuild because of this terrible
multi year event uh and perfect loss of life. Uh.
So they have time to rebuild after the war, and
(12:44):
finally when things get going, they're ready to enter the
first ever Formula One World Championship in nineteen fifty. I mean,
he started Ferrari the first one in nineteen and then
now he's starting Ferrari twenty years later, two years later
in the second Grand Prix. It's a long time, yeah,
twenty two years of figuring out, struggling, starting another one,
(13:08):
getting bombed great depression. I mean, it's just it takes time. Yeah,
it definitely was not an overnight success. And he did
not come from money, and you know, unlike a lot
of these guys, so he really had to build from scratch.
We'll get right back into the chaos after the break.
So and so, among the many things, he has been
described as autocratic. And he was known for very intentionally
(13:32):
pitting his drivers against each other, like his own Ferrari drivers,
and and because he believed personally that a person could
not be pushed their full potential unless they had that
extra bit of antagonism, especially coming from within, so that
was really great. He used to encourage drivers to pull
moves or or really go past their limits to the
(13:54):
point where it was actually dangerous. And as we're saying,
we're talking about the middle of the twentie things weren't
really that's safe to begin with. And then your boss
is telling you that he expects you to basically be
as unsafe as possible without and especially without crashing the car.
Between nineteen fifty and nineteen seventy one, eight different Ferrari
drivers died on circuits. What Yeah, so dead, Oh my god.
(14:19):
And so Ferrari's sort of defense was, well, people are
dying anyway, and also none of the official causes of
these deaths was mechanical failure. So these guys just it's
the driver's fault, basically, was his was his point. It
must be really fucking fun to drive one of these cars.
I mean it, it's it must be so fun that
(14:42):
these drivers are aware of this risk. It's almost like
an addict. Look, I gotta do it. It makes me
feel so outrageous. I'm going to risk my life for this.
That is insane. Yeah, the men home speeds, those rules crowdy.
Why in the minutes on the Steaming comic they ride
(15:02):
with life as the passenger on that tail lift. I
love tennis. No one's ever died playing competitive tennis at
this level that I can remember. Imagine if it was like, hey,
one to two tennis players are going to die year
just from playing the sport. And it's the point where
it's just like it's literally part of the culture. It's like, well,
there's twenty of us on the starting line. You've got
(15:24):
a five percent chance that you're not going to make
it to the end of the season. Yeah. So grim,
very very grim. And and you can't just say it's
not the car's fault. If you're pushing these guys to
go go go, like there there is some responsibility there. Yeah,
he really didn't particularly seem to value human life to
a certain extent, especially once he stopped racing. And it
wasn't you know, he's personal friends who were dying for
(15:47):
that reason too. He really tried to not get emotionally
attached to his drivers, which again, I mean, this is
like how farmers don't name their cattle because they know
they're going to slaughter them. Yeah, I have no comeback.
Is just very depressing. That's a very valuable insight because
it tells you a lot about that person. That's Enzo anyway,
(16:08):
So that's the guy who's running in the background here
of of the team, but we'll switch gears to the
actual team. So Ferrai has seen excellence since the very
beginning of Formula One. They had several World champions and
Constructor's championships in the fifties. Yet another fun fact, there's
only two American Formula One drivers who have won World
driver's titles, and one of those and the only American
(16:29):
born one, Phil Hill, won his World championship in nineteen
sixty one in a Ferrari cool. We have to make
it about ourselves. So now I really like Ferrari because
Phil Hill one. We do. Yeah, as as a country
we have a connection to this team, a very thin
thin connection from sixty years ago. But Phil did it
(16:50):
for us. Uh so two more recent fans of the sport. Though,
what's considered the real like modern golden era of Ferrari
is the brand's Don minutes in the early two thousand's
featuring your guy, Michael Schumacher. He won five straight World
Drivers Championship titles between two thousand and two thousand four,
(17:12):
and aside from a year where he was disqualified from competition,
he actually never finished lower than fifth in the championship
standings while at Ferrari just completely annihilated the competition. So
it's just a real, a real highlight of a time
for Ferrari. In two thousand seven, uh is the time
they win their last drivers title. This was a decade
(17:35):
and a half ago and it was with legendary Kimmy Reichinen.
Well they called him the Iceman. But there's a bit
of a show of emotion going on in that cop
fit now he's still there. Their last current uh you know,
championship winner at half seven by my calculation, and we
win the championship by one point, and then we spend
(17:55):
the next decade and a half, you know, they don't
win it. Well. The jenny of Ferrari from post Schumacher
era has sort of been one of hope and disappointments
constantly over and over again. This is Josh Rebel and
one YouTuber. It has been a rocky roads. They bought
in Frontnando Alonso, who was generally regarded as the most
(18:19):
naturally gifted driver on that grid at the time in
twos and ten, and it almost paid off for the
five years they had him, and then it didn't work.
And then they bought in the four time world champions
Sebastian Fettle, and that almost worked as well. But then
you had scenarios where Ferrari would just throw it away.
(18:45):
So we have this real low point for the team
comes in where this is kind of funny to talk about.
So I know we've discussed that F one is very secretive.
So essentially Ferrari does something to their car and they
start off the season going very fast and things look
very great. And essentially all the other teams or some
(19:07):
other teams say, we don't know what they're doing. It
must be illegal. And the reason I'm talking in such
vague terms is because the governing body, the f i A,
takes Ferrari aside behind the scenes and kind of says, well,
you can't do that anymore. The problem is they don't
tell us the public what that is anymore, and they say, yeah,
and Ferrari, you can stay in it, and like you
all are good to keep competing. You just got to
(19:28):
tell us if another team is doing the same thing,
but we don't know what the thing is. That's like
you know when the parents says, can I talk to
any other room please? And then you know it's like,
we'll keep this secret, but you can't. Yeah, exactly. How interesting?
So much drama. There's so much like soap opera. No, oh, absolutely,
it's like, yeah, it's a literal back room deal, right
(19:50):
like we still do this day years later. I have
no idea what happened, what the actual thing was. There's
all these conspiracy videos. You found a very good loophole,
and we don't even though it is lead all, we
don't want you to do it. Or whatever. Literally what happened?
And what doesn't help is that a lot of especially
at the time, a lot of the f i A
leadership and other people within the f i A used
to work for Ferrari or work with the F one
(20:10):
team in particular, So it's just looking very sketched from
every single angle. It's just not looking good. And did
they slow down them? They end up in sixth in
the Constructor's Championship. It's one of their worst finishes ever
as a team. Wow, difficult to find words at a moment.
I'm that's so. It is just bleak city at Ferrari.
(20:32):
What can expect this weekend? Oh yeah, they have a
very intense fan base called the Fosy. That's kind of
their fandom name. Well, I'm not gonna die. It's not
going to be an easy weekend foss So the FOCI
is upset. Everyone's upset. The team is not in a
good place. And as if this isn't bad enough, this
is all going on during the season, right as the
season is starting. You'll recall that when we talked about
(20:52):
Red bull their dominant driver who won all those world championships,
Red Bulls guy Sebastian vettle uh. Sebastian Mettle at this
point is driving for Ferrari and in a surprise move,
they announced basically as the season is starting that they
are not going to resign Sebastian Battle at the end
of the season. Lame duck. Yeah, there's a Drive to
Survive episode that is centered on this whole controversy. Basically,
(21:14):
there was starting to be Yeah, just this idea of
you know, Sebs aware this this younger guys, the golden
boy of the team. He doesn't feel like he's getting
kind of equal treatment and opportunities. It's just a bad situation.
All of those little tricks of Enzo or you know,
pitting people against each other, that all can be overlooked
when you're winning, exactly, winning is this thread that kind
(21:37):
of holds it all together. But as soon as you're
at sixth place for the first time in your seventy
year history, it just unravels. So, yeah, was a real
low point for them, and and it's also in the
midst of the pandemic, right, so the race season is
already weird, it's already truncated, you know, and on top
of that, now they've got, yeah, a team member who
already knows he's not being resigned. They've got another they've
(21:57):
got a car that just doesn't work. They've got the
d deal with the f i A to keep that
all the secret. Yeah, and then they've just plummeted through
the standings. They've got teams beating them who they can't
believe or just casually passing passing them on the track.
So that's there, that's their their dark day. Ferrari, especially
in Italy, is not a race team. It's a religion.
Elder kavskis again. I mean, people follow it unbelievably. Everywhere.
(22:21):
There's more Ferrari fans then there is of any other
race team. And that's kind of the emotion that it evokes,
you know, in people when they see the red car.
When you think of a race car, you think of
a red car, you think of a Ferrari, and it
you know, that romantic kind of that romanticism just gets
to everyone's heads. And the problem with that is that
sometimes it kind of builds expectations. Sometimes it kind of
gets to people a little bit too much, and it
puts pressure on the race team. It puts a hell
(22:44):
of a lot of pressure because when Ferrari are winning.
Everything was amazing. You know, the world is a better
place when they're losing. It's a drama, it's you know,
a catastrophe, it's controversy in Italy and it's that pressure
that makes it harder for them than any other team.
So before we get to health, we're alreadys doing now.
So a couple of years after that low point, we
(23:04):
need to talk about the team boss. We're gonna talk
about that after this break. We need to talk about
the team boss. So it's Mattia Benado, Mattia Matia. It
seems to go every number of ways. I've even listened
to clips of him saying his name and he'll change
it slightly, which is not helpful for our purposes. Um,
(23:27):
but I'll just show you a picture. Um, here is him,
and I actually have a photo of him with Mercedes
team boss Total Wolves. You can get a difference. Yeah,
oh my god, this is not what I would exist expecting.
He almost feels like like a cartoon he does. Yeah,
the glasses are waldo, frizzy, fluffy hair that goes upright
(23:52):
to the sky. Looks pretty chill. It's not exactly who
I would envision to be wearing the Ferrari uniform. It
almost looks like you're silly, uncle who works in the
arts is coming in from the city. That's what he
looks like. He loves to work with pastels. So he's
relatively new. He replaced the previous team principle for starting
(24:15):
with the twenty nineteen season, so he hasn't he hasn't
been in that position that much. But he's also interesting
in that he has been with Ferrari for a long time,
I believe since the nineties. But so a lot of
these team principles come through sort of that like executive leadership,
executive track so to speak. They're kind of business guys.
They come into the sport through through That means he's
(24:36):
kind of a funky pick in that he actually is
an engineer first and foremost and came up through engineering
and that side of the team. And often, you know,
those guys would become, yeah, the CTO or the the
engineering director. They have different titles and things for it,
so you'd think that that's where he would end up,
and he was in fact the you know, the chief
technology officer before becoming you know, the team boss um
(24:58):
and kind of the face of a team. So yeah,
he's he's coming from a cool different side. On the
plus side, he knows everything there is no about the
engineering of the car. I guess the disadvantages that he's
not necessarily from a more kind of traditional management side
of things. He can sometimes be a little bit aloof
(25:18):
There's been criticisms of his management of the team. Obviously
the whole Sebastian vettle mess. He's gotten that sort of
flak for just not always running the tightest ship, and
I think part of that is he's just from a
different brain than He doesn't look like He goes to
executive training where these other guys look so they look
like generals, you know. He he does not look like that. Yeah.
(25:41):
So where is the team now? Really? How are they doing? Yeah?
So remember how even with Mercedes we talked about, you know,
Mercedes came into those new regulations and just blew everyone
away and they were just dominant. So, you know, coming
into two, everyone said, you know, who's going to be
the Mercedes of this era of Formula one racing. It's
great seeing a resurgence from Ferrari, the most prestigious popular
(26:03):
brand in Formula one. Josh Revel again it's great to
see them at the forefront. Again, not so great with
um their Italian engineering, sometimes remembering that it was Italian
and sort of blowing it slows Um midway through the race.
But at the same time, you know, this still in
the Hunts. So heading into the season, there was a
(26:27):
ton of hype around Ferrari. People were saying they've got
the car figured out. They have these two great drivers
face for the scoot Arena. You know, Charlotte Claire has
long been the Ferrari golden boy and this is his
time to shine. And people also do like Carlos, but
we'll get to that more in our driver episode. But
(26:49):
there was a lot of excitement, a lot of fervor. However,
we're kind of coming up at the middle of the
season here and things are just to be not looking
as promising as they once did. Claire has an engine
failure that is sharing plumes have smoke onto the track,
(27:09):
and Ferrari have a double DNF. Ferrari's reliability issues have
kind of involved everything from the car just sort of
puttering out on the side of a track all the
way up to Carlos Science's car at the Austrian Grand
Prix exploding into flames while he was still in it.
(27:30):
He was engulfed in flames and the car itself was
rolling down a hill. Luckily he is safe. Everything's fine.
He was totally fine. But hell of a site to
behold to see a Ferrari burning down to its parts
on the side of a track. That was a proper
blow up, that absolutely destroyed it. So so the second
(27:52):
problem is one we'll discuss way more in our second episode.
About the drivers, There's been a lot of questions about
Ferrari strategy with seeing some of the same problems reservice.
You know, they don't have kind of the best strategy.
They don't have the best reliability as well, and that's
the really big challenge for them because as a race team,
i mean, forget about the driver and the team principle.
I'm talking about pit stops, I'm talking about strategy. I'm
(28:15):
talking about making those calculated, cold blooded decisions in splits,
you know, a split of a second during a race.
Read Bull are just a stronger race team at the moment.
It's important to note though, that, as we've discussed, this
is not new territory for Ferrari. This seems to be
the story of the Ferrari as of late, of things
kind of breaking down as the season goes on. So
(28:37):
they're not out of it quite yet. It's just that
it's going to be a longer road than expected. It's
not all over. The season is still very long. There
is still plenty of points on the table. But yeah,
they're learning why it's so difficult to win a championship
for Ferrari. Alright, so I have now brought you up
to date on over seventy years of Ferrari history. What
(28:58):
are your thoughts? You know, Um, I like Ferrari. I
don't have any reason yet to dislike them. Um. I
think history is important. They're easy to root for, the
brand is easy, the colors are great. The I don't
know enough about Enzo to dislike him, but I like
(29:19):
kind of the I like that he created a team
around his name, you know, I like Mattea. I like
that he's different. I like that it's a different vibe.
I get Mercedes Team Principal and Red Bulls Team Principle
kind of mixed up in my head. They kind of
(29:40):
seem like the same kind of vibe. Plus it also
helps them tremendously and this is a testament to their history.
It helps that I had their posters up on my wall.
You know, there's a little bit of bias there for sure,
but that's yeah, for sure, there is. Um. I do
love the color. So here we go, this all of
this research you've done, Lily, and I'm gonna go I
like their colors, like the horse looks cool. Now, I
(30:05):
don't know the drivers. I don't know anything about the
drivers other than this coaster you gave me, which is
Leclair saying, I am stupid. I'm stupid. You have told
me in the previous podcast that there isn't necessarily a
number one and number two, so they are competing against
each other, and I I'm curious to learn more about them.
The drivers are very evenly matched. They're very evenly matched
(30:26):
on paper, though they both have very different backgrounds, very
different kind of standing within the team, and so while
they aren't a number one number two pairing on paper,
there's definitely some of those vibes going on in the
garage that make it incredibly interesting and and to even
at even more depth, these two publicly get along very well,
(30:47):
but are really at a point, especially if the team
is going to be fighting for wins and and potential
championship titles. There could be some some sparks flying. I
feel like the Ferrari drivers could stand around the garage
sipping an espresso talking about efficiency of the engine. Whereas
Mercedes I feel in Red Bull. I feel like everybody's
(31:10):
screaming at each other and there's like wrenches flying against
the wall. I have no I mean, this is just
I have no idea. If that's true, that's fine. I'm
just imagining Toto for Mercedes, like throwing a wrench and
at leaving a dent in the wall, and then I
keep it there as like a reminder do your job
or else this will be your head. Yeah. They have
like a whole like little plaque next to it. Yeah.
Yeah for me, I don't think it has the same.
(31:30):
They're a little more sophisticated. I guess that's they're they're aesthetic.
One time I was performing at Gotham Comedy Club and
a guy just kept a British guy just kept interrupting,
kept it drumping. Anyways, the security comes throws him out.
He takes a swing. I want a security guard. These
guys are all like served in Afghanistan. They like wanted
someone to swing at him. They threw his head into
(31:53):
the wall and there was a nice size hole in
the wall. Anyways, they kept it there for years because
they wanted to remind people if you yell at the
comedian some guy's head. Just to just a side note,
i mean, who says comedy isn't like formula one? Our
life is on the line here. I'm sure he felt
very threatened by this random for sure. Yeah, but it
(32:13):
got taken care of. Take care of field fashion alright.
So I'm excited to learn about these drivers. Yeah, I'm
excited to talk about them endlessly. There's also gonna be
many a thirst trap. His eyes are like green blue gray.
They just like look like an ocean. Like you just
want to, like swan dive into his eyes. Perfect eyebrows,
(32:39):
perfect cheekbones, The bone structure is unmatched. He's more beautiful
than the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Oh man,
this is I'm getting sun good. I needed some thirst
traps alright. This has been Choosing Sides F one production
(33:00):
of Sports Illustrated Studios and I Heart Radio. The show
was hosted by Michael Costa and Lily Herb. This episode
was produced by Lily Herman and our senior producer Yhai
Mi Tao, who also did the sound design at the
Cutting Room Studios. We are recorded by engineer Robot Leary,
the second mastering by Cello WEISBLU Max Miller is the
(33:24):
executive producer and Brennan get Us his head of Audio
at s I Studios. At I Heart Radio, Sean Titon
is our executive producer. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, where wherever
you get your podcasts, don't forget to subscribe to us
and leave a review. And if you want more F
(33:47):
one goodness, follow us on Instagram at Choosing Sides of
What
Host
Michael Kosta
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