July 7, 2022 • 39 mins
In this second episode of our Mercedes two-parter, Lily and Michael dive into the drivers at Mercedes. On one side of the garage is Sir Lewis Hamilton, the fashionable seven-time world champion, activist, and GOAT of Formula 1 who holds the distinction of being the sport’s first and only Black driver. On the other side is George Russell, the young gun who finally took his rightful place on the Mercedes throne after three years toiling away at Williams — only to join the team right as they hopped on the struggle bus in 2022.
Special thanks to our guests: Jennie Gow, Hazel Southwell, Aldas Kavaliauskas, and Sarah Levenson
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's do it all right. So Michael at the end
of last episode, yeah, you you made your sentiments known
that you you're You're not necessarily on the Merk train. No,
I'm not. It's such a wealthy brand. It's spews elitism.
I'm from Southeast Michigan. You drive American where I came from.
(00:24):
That's a silly thing to say when referring to Formula
one because there's not even an Americans anyways, it's not
certainly not an American car brands. I don't think right,
we'll get to that. Okay, great, but no, I'm not
I'm not ever going to root for Mercedes. What am I? No,
that's not my Now, I'm curious to meet these other teams.
If all these other teams are like even more elitist,
(00:45):
pompous Toto wolf Asque, then maybe I'll go, oh shit,
I had the wrong first impression of Mercedes. But it's
gonna be tough to get Michael Costa to root for Mercedes,
which is unfair considering I haven't even met the drivers yet.
It's a great place to start. So yes, today we're
talking about the drivers on this team, So that is
going to be Lewis Hamilton the goat and George Russell
(01:08):
the hopes to one day be the goat. And that's
that's kind of where where our story begins from iHeart
Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios. This is choosing sides one
Wow Wow, Wait, sir, Lewis Hamilton is who we're going
(01:32):
to start with. It kind of goes without saying or
it's a no brainer that Lewis Hamilton needs to come first.
He's been around the sports for logger. He's one of
the best to ever drive. I have to say, Lillie,
I'm already insulted just by you saying like he's one
of the greatest of all times. And he is the
greatest of all times. I think it's undisputed just by
(01:53):
his record, is it? Is it that clear cut? Oh yeah,
So we'll get to this. So here. Here's what's interesting.
You got a lot of people who will try and
say that Lewis is the undisputed greatest of all time,
much much like producer YOHI over here. And then you
have people who argue with those people and say that
he's overrated and this and that, And we'll get into
all of that controversy and why so just but just
(02:15):
the stats, I mean says it's not an argument, it's
just a statement of fact. We should never have told
YOHI that I wanted his voice in this podcast. All right,
So Lewis, Yeah, that's wise. I mean, it's it's incredible.
Seventh time world champion, he is the best qualifier, i e.
The fastest person we've ever seen in Formula one. Consistently.
(02:38):
I have one hundred pole positions, which is, you know,
an incredible statistic. A pole position is you don't just
show up on a Formula one race weekend and just race,
you know, drive the race. You have something called qualifying
where all of the drivers basically try to get the
fastest time over a single lap yet just them and
based on where you qualify, So how faster or slow
(03:00):
you are, that's kind of where you start on the
quote unquote grid. That's where that term comes from on
race day. So when we say pole position, that means
that Lewis was in basically first place in qualifying and
he's going to start the race in first place. That's
pole and he also obviously has even more podium finishes
in second and third place. I mean, just yeah, he
kind of blows everyone out of the water. First things first,
(03:20):
can you just say your first and last name and
the pronouns you use? Cry am, I just use Jenny Gau.
That's just me. So that was Jenny Gau. She's a
prominent F one reporter for the BBC and other media outlets,
and I will say feature on Drive to Survive as
one of their F one xpets. Okay, So, Sir Lewis Hamilton,
how would you sort of explain Lewis Hamilton to someone
(03:42):
who's kind of new, maybe only tangentially heard of him,
Like why why Lewis? And why why root for Lewis?
So let me try and explain Lewis Hamilton. Although I
feel that this is a subject that a lot of
people could talk about for a long long time because
he's a bit of a anomaly. He's a very complex character.
He is loved and hated an equal measure, which seems
(04:05):
bizarre for a man that has won seven world titles
in Formula one and has been knighted by the Queen
And as you say, is Sir Lewis Hamilton. But he
does divide opinion because he is not a purist when
it comes to Formula one. He doesn't just turn up
on a race weekend, put on his overalls, go out,
win races, and then disappear into the ether. He has
(04:28):
whole another side. So his other side is a side
that goes out and does go to red carpet events.
He likes to make music, he likes fashion. He goes
to you Balenciaga catwalk shows and fashion shows. I've just
daged myself hugely and made myself sound about eighty by
using catwalk show. But yeah, his into fashion, hiss into music,
(04:52):
his into films. He likes to go out and skydive.
You know, this is the all action man. And who's
the biggest factor in his life is that he happens
to be the only black F one driver. Lewis is
the only black driver to ever be in Formula one,
and he's the only black driver currently on the grid,
So he's the first, he's the only. So he's really
(05:13):
just off the bat, coming from a very different place
than literally every other driver. You immediately noticed that because
every time you google anything about finding the one, it's
all just white dudes. Man. Yeah, exactly, So he stands
out already to begin with, this has always been the
case in his career. So he comes from not a
rich background in yeah, in England, and he actually didn't
(05:33):
start his career off carting. One year when he was
really young, his dad bought him like a remote control
car and took Lewis to go like race it around
at some kind of informal races, you know, near their home,
and there's like, you know, images in kind of grainy
video of this, like, you know, six seven year old
whatever Lewis Hamilton beating these middle aged guys at remote
(05:55):
control car driving like he just had the instincts and
all of that. So eventually, you know, his father and him,
they really bond over this. They get him into carting.
His dad, though, is working you know, three jobs at
any given time. Somebody's set up to six, but he's
working around the clock to afford his son's carting career.
You know, there's a lot put in for this family
for him to even kart at, you know, and he's
(06:16):
not even out of elementary school yet, but he's dominating,
like so he's killing it. But on top of just
you know, already having to struggle from a money and
financial perspective, you know, there's a lot of racism that
Lewis deals with at an early age. Yeah, he's got
adults hurling you know, uh anti black slurs at him.
And he's again in elementary school in a post years.
I've had racist name has been called to me. The
(06:38):
first time it happened, I felt really upset. I told
told him Mom and dad, and I felt like I
needed to get revenge on him. But lately if anybody
had said anything to bogetic nor him and get him
back on the track, my god. He said too that
he didn't really unpack the full effect of that until
(06:59):
only a couple of years ago during kind of you know,
the George Floyd murder and kind of from that whole
moment he kind of said, Yeah, I hadn't fully digested
the absolute extent of how traumatizing and damaging and harmful
that was. We saw him going out marching holding placards
because black life matters to him. Black lives matter to him,
and he wants his voice heard, and then obviously continues
(07:21):
to present date. You know, he deals with booing, He
deals with with all that stuff that comes with both
being probably the only black driver on the grid and
also being the winningest one. You know, the winningest person
in the sports history. It's certainly always been a factor.
And last year the FIA finally stepped in and told
fans to stop racially abusing him. Reporter, he's all Southwell again,
it's been sixteen years that he's been driving in Formula one.
(07:44):
That's a really pretty like primordially slow reaction time in
terms of beginning to be aware of a problem. So
that's that's Lewis's background. But yeah, basically, Lewis impresses the
bosses at a team called McLaren and eventually makes his
(08:05):
rookie debut in the two thousand and seven season. He
ends up in second place and loses by a point.
Oh wow, that was his rookie year. Rookie season. Yeah,
wins Formula one World Driver's Championship is second year. So
this is for you. Thank you for all supporting me,
believe me. Wow, superstar, immediate superstar exactly. Can you describe
(08:29):
your emotions right now? Put them into words? I don't
think I can. Very emotional. I would say my heart's
fit into so much strain right now, because I think
it was the same for everyone. But I'm just very
proud of the team and my family as well. He
talked so softly. Let me tell you something, everybody, the
(08:49):
people that scream their success at you are not the
ones to worry about. It's the ones that are soft
spoken and deliberate with their words, those are the ones
that will fuck you up. I will say, there is
always a little bit of luck involved right place, right time.
So there have been times where great drivers have not
made it on the grid for reasons that have nothing
to do with him. Yeah, it just it worked out.
Let's say it didn't. It didn't hinder him, he didn't
(09:10):
have to. Well, it's actually funny because we'll talk about
George Russell in a second, who's had a little bit
of a different start to his Formula one career. So yeah,
Lewis ends up on a on a great historic team
that has a lot of that infrastructure, of the resources,
and not to say, we'll learn later that McLaren has
struggled in recent years. But you know, Lewis is there.
He'd a super well there and he also seems to
be someone though who has the instincts and know when
(09:31):
it's time. He's a very intuitive guy, right, He's a
little bit into like spirituality and mysticism, so he kind
of knows when it's time to make the jump, even
if no one else sees it or understands it. You know,
he makes this jump to this newer team Mercedes the
perfect time, you know, kind of. I think he got
fourth his first year when they still hadn't had the
new regulations in place yet, but then they just go
gangbusters the next year victory. Once again, Lewis Hamilton does it.
(09:57):
A five time champion. Lewis Hamilton has led every single
lap of this race. Had Pole has the fastest lap
as well. It is Lewis Hamilton every time. That's for
all the kids out there who dreamed the impossible. You
can do it too, man, I believe it you guys.
Thank you so much everyone for your support. What makes
(10:19):
Lewis Hamilton's such a good driver? The car is obviously
part of it. Anyone can look great in a great car.
But what is it about Lewis that have made him
so dominant? The number one thing is raw talent. So
my name is I'll discover luscas and I basically just
cover the world of Formula one. Talk about it. What
I like, what I dislike, living the dream as it
is perfect Lewis Hamilton and the driver he is. Okay,
(10:41):
forget about the Formula one career, Let's go back to
his carting days. He dominated in carting, He dominated in
single seaters as well. He won GP two in two
thousand and six in his very first season as rookie,
produced some amazing drives. Also, Lewis works really closely with
his engineers. He's part of every decision that they made.
He's fully involved, fully invested. That's Cyril Levinson, a motorsports
(11:02):
communications expert and F one super fan. You seen some
of the other teams, some of some of the other drivers.
They don't really care. They're saying the engineer is no best.
I'm going to let them do it they want and
I will just drive versus. Louis gives that real time
feedback to his engineers. He pulls all nighters, spending time
with his engineers to make sure that the car is right.
(11:24):
Louis has maken himself hard to be really because of
that commitment. He has a lot of other passions outside
of Formula One, but he doesn't let any of that
get in the way of his performance and his success.
He hasn't had a serious relationship in a long time
because he doesn't want that's not a priority for him.
He spends all of his time with the team at
(11:45):
the factory instead of building out his life. Honestly, I
implore you anyone who's listening, to go watch some videos
on Turkey two thousand and six, which was one of
his absolute magic drives. He made a mistake earlier on
how to spin and then worked his way through the
field to finish. I think it's second on the second
on the podium with some amazing overtakes, and you can
see the talent right there. You cannot question his dedication
(12:08):
to the sport and his pure skill that he's developed
through decades of experience. He has absolutely earned all of
the success that he's got. Wow. Yeah, I will say
what makes Lewis very different is how he approaches i
would say life off the track, but also his persona
on so most F one drivers, a lot of them,
(12:30):
are very much the types of people who show up
on race day, you know, want to race really fast,
and then they just go back to their lives. You
never really hear about them. They don't want to be
public figures. They're just singularly focused on Formula one and
don't really have you don't really hear about outside hobbies
or interest That was for a long time, what kind
of the ideal quote unquote Formula one driver was painted
as Lewis is different for many reasons. For one thing,
(12:55):
which we'll start out with, Lewis is known for his fashion.
Lewis actually enjoys the idea of celebrity. So he actually
hired a celebrity Hollywood celebrity stylist, this guy named law Roach.
Law Law Law Roach. Yeah, he Law Roach also styles
(13:18):
both Zendia and Tom Holland. It's just like a real
deal stylist. And so I got an example I have,
as I said, I have slides, so well this is
a prime example of like everyone else on the grid
versus Lewis. So what I'm gonna show you is on
the first day of a typical Formula one race weekend,
there's something on usually Thursday, is called media Day. This
(13:40):
is when the drivers come in they get to walk
the track and take a look at it. So this
isn't a formal they don't drive at all. This is
just show up, get a sense of the track, talk
to the press. Called day. So I would love for
you to describe to me what these guys in this
photo are wearing three men tracksuit pants, sport logo T shirt. Yeah,
so they got six ship. Here are just some examples
(14:01):
of outfits that Lewis Hamilton has shown up to I
love it, love it, love it, love it all Right,
So there's three photos. One on the left is a
lime green puffer suit set. Yeah, it's a set. Yeah.
The middle, which is my favorite, is monochromatic red fitted. Uh,
(14:23):
that's an Alexander McQueen suit that he's wearing to the
track on like a Randall day And I don't know
who Alexander McQueen is. But there's also a a messenger
bag that could be a purse that's the same color
as the suit. Very fitted. And then on the right
is another puffer orange. For lack of a better term,
(14:46):
it almost looks like one of those like orange jumpsuits
you see, like criminals have to wear wear, you know. Uh,
maybe I don't know if we're allowed to say what
I just said, but he's in three very interesting, elaborate
and thought through outfits. Yes, and these are all also
coming straight off the runways that seasons. These are like
(15:09):
New York Fashion Week. His silas law Roach saw these
and we're like, hey, Lewis, like this we're gonna wear.
I would bet, knowing from what you've told me that
the outfit that kind of looks like the prisoner jumpsuit,
I would bet that in a way that is meant
to be thought provoking. And oh, I'm the only person
of caller in this sport, and I'm also the best
motherfucker's put that in your little societal past pot and stir. Okay,
(15:32):
So that was good analysis because that outfit, first outfit
for the first media day of the season, he comes
out swinging with that right orange outfits. Yes, so that
I feel even more comfortable saying what I said, because
it's meant to elicit a response. Yes, you learned in
feeling more about Lewis just looking at them him. Yeah. Way,
(15:53):
I hate two of those outfits, but still you're just
getting me to think about fashion and think about him.
And the one on the middle, I think it is
just so wheat. Yeah, no, yeah, it's but it's literally
like was on the runway like two weeks prior and
then he shows up and or whatever it is, it's
like he yeah, went live on the website. Lewis Hamilton
snatches it and wears it. Yeah, he looks sharp, And
(16:13):
I'm just fully on board with a Formula one driver,
being fully like, this is an elite sport, you should
look like you at least thought about what you're gonna weary. Also,
if I was a competitor, and if I was George
Russell his teammate, I would see him wearing that and
I would want to beat his ass. So there you go.
So that's that's that's Lewis's style. Yeah, like Lewis the
(16:35):
other thing that really sets Lewis apart, And I think
even anyone who doesn't like him for whatever reason would agree.
Not only is he a driver, not only is he
happy to go out and be a bit of a
celebrity and a star, but he's also happy to be
an activist and have a voice. Hey guys, I just
happened to be on the beach and just so much waste.
(16:55):
This is just from five minutes picking I was taking
us ten or fifteen minutes to pick all this up.
And there's so much more, so much more rubbish that's
out there. I really just want to encourage people, just
please be conscious of what you're buying. I know it's
not your intention for it to end up in the oceans,
but the fact is it is, and we've got to
(17:17):
do something about it that I'm definitely gonna try my
best to clean up the beach that's hire. Formula one
needs that, yeah, because it's easy for I mean, this
is wealth beyond wealth, so it needs some of its
athletes to wake up a little bit exactly. And he
also started an organization called the Hamilton Commission, which is
(17:39):
there to increase diversity inclusion in UK motorsports, particularly amongst
not just black drivers, but black personnel. So that's going
to include engineers, mechanics, you know, just just all around
diversity inclusion in the sport. And he even kind of
meshed together his love of fashion and social activism recently.
So he in twenty twenty one started where these t
(18:00):
shirts that kind of had little words and phrases on them,
and you know, people like me were kind of looking
at them like what what is that? Like? Are these connected? Is?
It's just like a weird thing. And he actually worked
with a poet to create a poem about like diversity inclusion,
like a quality in our world, and all of these
T shirts each had a different line of the poem,
and so we were this over like a large portion
of last season. Yet for both the montene era and
(18:22):
for the extent of his activism it has to be
cooled and his willingness to hold forming one too account. Then, Yeah,
Hamilton is simply at a different level to anyone in
the history of the sport, both on track by being
unbelievably skilled and in terms of his pushing the sport
(18:46):
itself forwards and the entirety of my disport as a consequence. Yeah,
very three dimensional persons. Yeah, the fear is that some
of it becomes a distraction from racing, that that will
be for him and his team to figure out. Yeah. So,
for instance, there was a lot of controversy a few
years ago when Lewis So Lewis did a collaboration with
(19:07):
the iconic American designer Tommy Hill figure and he they
had like a fashion show launch for this collaboration this
brand the night before a Grand Prix race, and everyone
of course was like, Lewis doesn't care about you. He
should be home sleeping and resting and whatever. And he
proceeds to go to the event it comes out, you know,
next day wins the race. Yes, yeah, I mean that's
(19:29):
that's why I was very clear to say for him
and his team to figure out, not the fans, oh yeah,
not Twitter exactly. But you know, I get caught with
this with Naomi Osaka, the tennis player who I love,
who's very, very socially active, but lots of times I'm
screaming at the TV, going, will you stop like being
so socially conscious and start just winning the tournament please? Yeah,
(19:50):
but that's not for me to decide. It started to
side exactly exactly. So yeah, that's Louis. I'd say. There's also, like,
as I said earlier, Lewis kind of like spirituality, and
in that element, there's a lot of stuff on his
Instagram about you know, take a deep breath and you know,
feel the world around you. Good morning, good morning, good morning.
I hope you're all well. I just wanted to send you,
(20:12):
guys a message of positivity. Keep shining your light, keep
staying positive, keep believing each and every single one of
you is great and unique in your own way, and
there's no limit to what you can do. So happy weekend.
He's a vegan Okay, basically what I'm getting at he is,
in fact a bona fide celebrity. He's not just a driver.
(20:34):
He likes it that way to a certain extent. It
unnerves some drivers. How calm he'll be where he's like,
you know, we all just want to be friends and
like I just want to win, and people be like, Lewis,
you nearly crashed into me, sir, Like what the delta Delta.
Lewis Hamilton is in my mind one of the top
(20:54):
sports people in the world right now for every week,
and not just one reason that he drives blimmen fast
in a car, but he also wants to be more
than that, which is pretty special and unique. He's a
class act off the track and he's one of the
most kind of one of the most talented drivers on
the track as well. So it's just, yeah, that's what
leads him to be such a such a great driver.
(21:16):
And even now, you know, he's not having a great
season because of the Mercedes are struggling, but he's going
to be back, no doubt about it. He's still there.
I'm very excited to watch him race. Oh yeah, I
got plenty of highlights where it's just like, I don't
know how Lewis figured that out, but of course Helga
said he get a little whiney during races. Yeah. Yeah,
he's always yelling about his tires being gone. And you're like, Lewis,
you just started the race, sir, he got another seventy laps, Like,
(21:38):
I doubt your tires are gone. You know, he'll complain
and then he'll have like the longest going you know,
he'll pit last, you know, and you're like, dude, your
tires are fine. It's the point where people think it's
so often are they pitting in a race? Typically one
to two times. Oh, that's it. Yeah, and the pit stops.
The best pit stops are under two seconds. What yeah
it was seconds. Yeah. Well we can watch when they're
(22:01):
they have like one guy who's on the old tire,
one guy who's gonna put on the new tire, a
separate gun guy. They all also have backups for all
these positions. You'll kind of see it like a there's
like the guy with the nut and bolt gun and
then someone behind them who's there in case something gets
gets f Yeah. They before races, you see these these
uh you know, mechanics and whatnot, like stretching, doing calisthenics,
(22:24):
like doing a full on workout before they even practice.
You know, they're pit stops. Yeah, so Red Bull they're
kind of the gold standard. Them and that team Williams
that keeps popping up, which will pop up yet again
right now because we're going to talk about Georg Russell. Yes,
quick break and we're back. So Lewis Hamilton's one side
of the Mercedes garage. On the other side we have
(22:45):
George Russell, another British driver. So George is as of
the start of the twenty twenty two season, he is
thirteen years younger than Lewis. He is twenty four years old.
Definitely a different generation of driver than than Lewis. What
he does have in common with Lewis is he was
also very successful in his junior career leading up Jeff One.
(23:05):
What I find very funny is there was an interview
with a different driver, Lando Norris, who who's around George
Russell's age. They raced together growing up, and he's talked
about how everyone wanted to be George Russell and carting
when they were kids. He had a poster of George
Russell like from from some event, like everyone wanted to
be George, so it goes all you know, this this
kind of golden boy vibe to him, goes all the
way back to like the earliest stage of his careers. Yeah,
(23:28):
it's actually be a good time to talk about how
Lewis and George are very similar. So Lewis walking back
to Lewis for a second. Lewis when he was a
kid goes to an event where he and he or
wins some carting thing. He meets as part of this
this guy Ron Dennis, who is heading up the Formula
one team McLaren that he would eventually race four. So
(23:48):
little Lewis, who is ten years old, goes up to
this adult man who's richest fuck and you know, and
it's just kind of there because he was making an appearance,
and he essentially goes, hey, I'm Lewis Hamilton. I loved
to for your Formula One team in a couple of
years and can you sign my autograph in or give
me your autograph? And Ron Dennis is so charmed by
this whole thing that he actually stays in touch with
(24:08):
Lewis and he was like, who the hell is this kid?
Like what is this? This whole idea of kind of Lewis,
you know, taking that initiative exactly. Yeah, to go do that,
thehone's to go up to this like man and just
and of course I'm sure it was kind of adorable, right,
Like a little ten year old doing this is very funny.
George Russell similarly, not as young, but in his teens.
He gets his hands on the email of one Toto
Wolf then then team principal of the Mercedes F one team,
(24:33):
and George emails him kind of like, hey, I'd love
to talk to you about just like my career, where
I'm going and whatnot. Uh. Toto shows up to this
meeting and George meets him wearing a full suit and
comes with a power point to discuss his career, and
Toto has refer said that George reminded him more of
an accountant than a race car driver. Yeah, so similar again,
(24:53):
differ very different upbringings. You're George more privileged upbringing than Lewis. Uh.
Similar just you know, temperaments which we to George in
a second, but definitely have a little bit of that
politician archetype to them. They're ready to kind of, you know,
put it all out there. Do what needs to get done,
go straight to the boss. And in George's case, that
ended up with you know, Mercedes saying, Hey, we've kind
(25:13):
of started our own drug development program. Do you want
to sign to it and kind of be one of
the first to be on this train with us. Your
power point? Yeah, pretty successful, The accountant get up worked.
It was a great yeah, a great moment. So, you know,
let me interrupt for a second. When I used to
so I coached tennis at University of Michigan. I used
to recruit young players try to come to Michigan, you know,
(25:36):
not nearly as high as a level as these these
guys are sport. But what I was always looking for
and what I was coached to look for when trying
to find young men that will be successful is a
commitment and an obsession of success in that sport. And
what's interesting to hear you talk about Lewis at ten, Yeah,
(25:58):
going up to the McLaren team principle, if you're the
older man there, you're seeing this is a ten year
old who's obsessed with trying to be successful in this sport.
And it sounds very similar to what George did with
Toto making a pre power point like that's insane. Whether
the cake can drive or not, You'll you'll find out eventually.
It's memorable. I think it's memorable, and it shows that
(26:19):
this kid is committed to wanting to be successful in
the sport. I could see how they were impressed by that.
I would be impressed by. Oh. Yeah, so that's where
George is with Mercedes. He signed to this program, uh
Toto going along the lines of ethically and morally murky things.
Toto basically manages George's career, so it's a team boss
(26:39):
who also was in charge of this guy's career. Yeah.
So basically, you George's is rearing to go in you know,
in F one. He doesn't have a seat, and at
the time, basically Mercedes is working as a partnership with
that team Williams that we have mentioned on on multiple occasions,
and actually they say, hey, you know, Williams is going
(27:02):
to have a seat. They want the strengthen this partnership
with the Mercedes. What if we sign and kind of
almost loan George to Williams for a couple of seasons. Basically, Mercedes,
he's an opportunity. They say, hey, we have this driver
we eventually want to sign and be our guy. He's
very talented, but we don't want to have to spend
the time training this like twenty twenty one year old.
(27:23):
You know, he's gonna have his make his mistakes and
crash and do this and that. Like why not have
another team take him under their wing, help him learn
the ropes and also, quite frankly, it's going to be
a character building exercise to be on one of the
worst teams reliably on the grid. You get a seat,
but you get a seat. So George Russell, oh, wonderful
human being. I don't know if that's true. This is
(27:43):
Bird Pinkerton, a massive George Russell fan. I know you
want to talk about your man, George Russell. Yes, I
fell in love with George Russell because he was like
my cursed son. He just like I can't I don't
even know how to describe the degree to which George
Russell seemed cursed. He came into the sport, he was
(28:06):
like incredible, and then you know he was put in Williams.
Williams was sort of struggling on in the back. He
was like paying his dues. That's very commendable. Yeah, and
did it for three years. Yeah, because he didn't lay
in bed at night dreaming of a seat on the
tenth place team Williams. He laid in bed wanting to
(28:27):
win this thing for Mercedes. Yeah. So this is twenty twenty.
Lewis Hamilton gets COVID. He's out for a race and Toto,
the person who runs Mercedes, He's looking around trying to
figure out, like who am I going to bring in?
Who could possibly replace Lewis in this car and like
(28:50):
the best car on the grid. He was looking around.
He's like, why don't I bring in George Russell. He's
done a lot of testing for Mercedes, Like he is
sort of the planned next person for Mercedes. When they
have room, we're gonna bring him in. We're gonna put
him in Lewis Hamilton's seat and we're gonna like see
what he can do. And this is, you know, for
(29:12):
this guy who's been like a back marker struggling, this
is like the chance of a lifetime. And he gets in.
He like qualifies really well. He's P two, so he's
still behind Valtori Batas, who's the other Mercedes driver. He's
qualified really well. Like the race starts he like cruises
out into the first turn and George Russell takes the
(29:36):
lad He's just zooming around like they're not even really
showing him because he's having such a good time at
the front. He's like so far ahead, George Russell has
just set the fastest lap of the rice. Everything seems
like easy sailing. And then oh no, the curse, my
(29:56):
poor son's curse. Everything goes wrong with pit stop. It's
a disaster. He loses his first place. It looks like
a real lift puncture, looks like real left puncture, a disaster, tragedy.
That's George Russell's chance of a podium absolutely gone. Now
(30:16):
it wasn't totally clear if he was going to get
another shot, or like when he would ever get another shot,
Like this was a chance for him to get his
first win, and it sort of slipped through his fingers
and it was sort of at no fault of his own.
And then I was just watching him desperately trying with
Williams to get sort of just points, just any points.
(30:41):
And so I think it was the Austrian Grand Prix
where like the entire race, or like most of the race,
he was p ten, which meant he would have gotten
a point if he had stayed in peace, a single
point if he had stayed in P ten. And then
like very near the end of the race, like Alonzo,
Fernando Alonso and his Alpine comes like sniffing up behind,
(31:04):
and I just remember like yelling at this screen, like
please please just let this boy get one point. Like
Alonso has won two world championships. He doesn't need this.
I mean, he doesn't need this point, but like he
doesn't need this point, and you know, of course he
overtook him. I think afterwards Alonzo was like, I regretted
that it was George anyone but George, because you know,
(31:29):
Williams hadn't had a point in years, and so it
just it would have been so meaningful to them not
scoring a point for years. That's terrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah depressing. Yeah,
Mercedes doesn't own Williams, No, they don't own them. They
and theirs, their buddies, yeah, their their pals. Yeah. On
the grid, you'll hear this idea of like a sister
team or like a junior team or kind of teams
(31:52):
that have like some sort of formal or informal partnership
going on. Uh and yeah, the Williams Mercedes won. There's
definitely like they're they're paling around together. This is kind
of like that TV show Survivor. Oh I know everything
there is to know about Survivor. I mean, you kind
of form an alliance, you kind of screw each other over,
but then you kind of have to befriend people again.
(32:12):
That's what Formula one is. And there's times on the
track to where drivers have gone out of their way
to fuck with other drivers because yeah, they're not in
their alliance so to speak. Right, finally, and Hungary Hungry
was this disaster of a race, like most of the
grid was either out of the race or like their
cars were impaired, and so both of the Williams cars
(32:34):
finished in the points, and that I think that was
the moment where I was like, oh, I really I
just really liked this driver because he was being interviewed
afterwards and again he had gotten like two points, like
this was not he had not won the race, he
was not on the podium, and he started crying dedications
(33:00):
for everybody in the team and just life not way.
He got teary eyed talking about what this meant for
the team and how much work they had put into it.
It says a lot because a lot of these drivers
are kind of divas, So I just enjoy people who
express respect for the place that they're in. Will be
(33:24):
interesting to see if and when he starts challenging Lewis. Yes,
I could see. I could see there being some friction there.
How do you think he's going to fare at Mercedes
with Lewis Hamilton arguably the greatest of all time in
Formula One as his other driver? Yeah? I don't know. Man,
Louis Hamilton is so good, Like Louis Hamilton is incredible.
(33:48):
He has very big footsteps to follow in. But we'll see.
We'll see if he grows into them. I believe. First
of all, what do you think about Lewis and George individually?
How are you feeling? I like both very much. I
know that contradicts what I said previously that I will
never root for Mercedes. Is there one you're favoring over
(34:10):
the other? Oh? I would pick George because well, I'm
a team player. I've always loved the guy that doesn't
always try to score the points but instead is happy
to rebound and play excellent defense. But I believe there
is definitely a sleeping giant in there that is also
(34:33):
very excited to challenge Lewis and become the best. That's
what he wants to be. That's how you become That's
how you get a seat, is to become the best.
It'll be fun to see what happens when that gets
stirred up, if it ever does. Lewis Hamilton reminds me,
from what you've told me, a little bit of Serena Williams,
total disruptor, total badass, holds all the records, if not
(34:54):
one of the best. JOHI who believes he is the best.
But also that doesn't go without a couple annoying things.
I'm certain when I learn more about Lewis and his
little like calm demeanor that seems like a little bit
of a manufactured competitive edge, some of that stuff will
piss me off a little bit. So I don't know.
That's my initial take on it. Oh, okay, so right now,
(35:15):
don't dislike Lewis, but you like George's story. Lewis sounds
like he's already the greatest ever, So I love the
idea of George, the good old British boy who hasn't
really achieved much yet. Yeah kind of. I like that
underdog vibe more. It seems like Lewis is on top
of the mountain. Yeah right, yeah he is. Yeah yeah,
So forgive me for not maybe rooting for the overdog,
(35:39):
but it might be different if I was meeting Lewis
at a different stage in his career. I am absolutely
baffled that Lewis Hamilton is the first Formula One driver
to take media Day fashion seriously. That is That's a
no brainer and a wonderful way to make a statement
(35:59):
without saying shit. Yep. Right, So that's awesome that he
does that, and the sports should be thanking him all
the way for the attention and publicity. That that all right?
So next week I'm actually very excited. So we've gone
through this sort of hyper efficient, total wolf driven House
of Mercedes. We're spending next week's two part episode focusing
(36:21):
on the other big competitor on the grid coming into
this season, and that is Red Bull. It just blows
my mind that we take Red Bull seriously. Yeah, because
I'm of the age where I remember when it came
on the scene and it was a joke. Yeah, it's
a fucking energy drink. How can they win anything? Ever,
Red Bull is the team where if you want a
(36:42):
little bit of dramatic flair, I'd also say a little
bit more masculine flair. They're the team to look at.
You know, you've got this real shit talking team principle,
a guided Christian Horner. I also say he is married
to a spice girl, but I will not tell you
which one he's married to. So that's a little bit
of trivia for you. There, you've got uber aggressive, defending
world champion in Max Verstappin, who is as much as
(37:06):
Lewis is a is a man with a diversity of
interests and beliefs and whatnot. Max, you will never meet
a more one track mind driver in your life. So
a complete juxtaposition to Lewis Hamilton's rival from last season.
And then you've got kind of the ultimate number two
driver guy in the other driver Sergio paris So otherwise
known as Checho. And it's something truckers drink when they
(37:29):
move our Amazon packages from the East Coast to the
West coast of America. You know what it is. I
don't think Red Bull is trying to market to me
as sort of yeah, like a cosmopolitan in New York City, girly,
so so I have. I'm gonna have a fun time
trying to explain red Bull to you. It's probably their
(37:49):
demography exactly. Yeah, you're a little more of their demographic
than I am. We should. I'm gonna bring a red
bull and everyone I will also bring a red Bull.
We'll get all the flavors we'll have, and then when
we talk about Williams, all bring Williams exactly. All right,
YOHI anything else you want us to say? This has
(38:09):
been Choosing Sides f one, a production of Sports Illustrated
Studios and iHeartRadio. The show was hosted by Michael Costa
and Lily Herman. This episode was produced by Lily Herman
and our senior producer Yohai Mital, who also did the
sound design at the cutting room. Studios were recorded by
(38:30):
engineer Robo Leary, mastering by Cello. Iisblue. Max Miller is
the executive producer, and Branning Getchas is Head of Audio
at SI Studios. At iHeartRadio, Sean Titone is our executive producer.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(38:51):
or wherever you get your podcasts and don't forget to
rate us and tell your friends. It'll mean a lot
Let's do it all right. So Michael at the end
of last episode, yeah, you you made your sentiments known
that you you're You're not necessarily on the Merk train. No,
I'm not. It's such a wealthy brand. It's spews elitism.
I'm from Southeast Michigan. You drive American where I came from.
(00:24):
That's a silly thing to say when referring to Formula
one because there's not even an Americans anyways, it's not
certainly not an American car brands. I don't think right,
we'll get to that. Okay, great, but no, I'm not
I'm not ever going to root for Mercedes. What am I? No,
that's not my Now, I'm curious to meet these other teams.
If all these other teams are like even more elitist,
(00:45):
pompous Toto wolf Asque, then maybe I'll go, oh shit,
I had the wrong first impression of Mercedes. But it's
gonna be tough to get Michael Costa to root for Mercedes,
which is unfair considering I haven't even met the drivers yet.
It's a great place to start. So yes, today we're
talking about the drivers on this team, So that is
going to be Lewis Hamilton the goat and George Russell
(01:08):
the hopes to one day be the goat. And that's
that's kind of where where our story begins from iHeart
Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios. This is choosing sides one
Wow Wow, Wait, sir, Lewis Hamilton is who we're going
(01:32):
to start with. It kind of goes without saying or
it's a no brainer that Lewis Hamilton needs to come first.
He's been around the sports for logger. He's one of
the best to ever drive. I have to say, Lillie,
I'm already insulted just by you saying like he's one
of the greatest of all times. And he is the
greatest of all times. I think it's undisputed just by
(01:53):
his record, is it? Is it that clear cut? Oh yeah,
So we'll get to this. So here. Here's what's interesting.
You got a lot of people who will try and
say that Lewis is the undisputed greatest of all time,
much much like producer YOHI over here. And then you
have people who argue with those people and say that
he's overrated and this and that, And we'll get into
all of that controversy and why so just but just
(02:15):
the stats, I mean says it's not an argument, it's
just a statement of fact. We should never have told
YOHI that I wanted his voice in this podcast. All right,
So Lewis, Yeah, that's wise. I mean, it's it's incredible.
Seventh time world champion, he is the best qualifier, i e.
The fastest person we've ever seen in Formula one. Consistently.
(02:38):
I have one hundred pole positions, which is, you know,
an incredible statistic. A pole position is you don't just
show up on a Formula one race weekend and just race,
you know, drive the race. You have something called qualifying
where all of the drivers basically try to get the
fastest time over a single lap yet just them and
based on where you qualify, So how faster or slow
(03:00):
you are, that's kind of where you start on the
quote unquote grid. That's where that term comes from on
race day. So when we say pole position, that means
that Lewis was in basically first place in qualifying and
he's going to start the race in first place. That's
pole and he also obviously has even more podium finishes
in second and third place. I mean, just yeah, he
kind of blows everyone out of the water. First things first,
(03:20):
can you just say your first and last name and
the pronouns you use? Cry am, I just use Jenny Gau.
That's just me. So that was Jenny Gau. She's a
prominent F one reporter for the BBC and other media outlets,
and I will say feature on Drive to Survive as
one of their F one xpets. Okay, So, Sir Lewis Hamilton,
how would you sort of explain Lewis Hamilton to someone
(03:42):
who's kind of new, maybe only tangentially heard of him,
Like why why Lewis? And why why root for Lewis?
So let me try and explain Lewis Hamilton. Although I
feel that this is a subject that a lot of
people could talk about for a long long time because
he's a bit of a anomaly. He's a very complex character.
He is loved and hated an equal measure, which seems
(04:05):
bizarre for a man that has won seven world titles
in Formula one and has been knighted by the Queen
And as you say, is Sir Lewis Hamilton. But he
does divide opinion because he is not a purist when
it comes to Formula one. He doesn't just turn up
on a race weekend, put on his overalls, go out,
win races, and then disappear into the ether. He has
(04:28):
whole another side. So his other side is a side
that goes out and does go to red carpet events.
He likes to make music, he likes fashion. He goes
to you Balenciaga catwalk shows and fashion shows. I've just
daged myself hugely and made myself sound about eighty by
using catwalk show. But yeah, his into fashion, hiss into music,
(04:52):
his into films. He likes to go out and skydive.
You know, this is the all action man. And who's
the biggest factor in his life is that he happens
to be the only black F one driver. Lewis is
the only black driver to ever be in Formula one,
and he's the only black driver currently on the grid,
So he's the first, he's the only. So he's really
(05:13):
just off the bat, coming from a very different place
than literally every other driver. You immediately noticed that because
every time you google anything about finding the one, it's
all just white dudes. Man. Yeah, exactly, So he stands
out already to begin with, this has always been the
case in his career. So he comes from not a
rich background in yeah, in England, and he actually didn't
(05:33):
start his career off carting. One year when he was
really young, his dad bought him like a remote control
car and took Lewis to go like race it around
at some kind of informal races, you know, near their home,
and there's like, you know, images in kind of grainy
video of this, like, you know, six seven year old
whatever Lewis Hamilton beating these middle aged guys at remote
(05:55):
control car driving like he just had the instincts and
all of that. So eventually, you know, his father and him,
they really bond over this. They get him into carting.
His dad, though, is working you know, three jobs at
any given time. Somebody's set up to six, but he's
working around the clock to afford his son's carting career.
You know, there's a lot put in for this family
for him to even kart at, you know, and he's
(06:16):
not even out of elementary school yet, but he's dominating,
like so he's killing it. But on top of just
you know, already having to struggle from a money and
financial perspective, you know, there's a lot of racism that
Lewis deals with at an early age. Yeah, he's got
adults hurling you know, uh anti black slurs at him.
And he's again in elementary school in a post years.
I've had racist name has been called to me. The
(06:38):
first time it happened, I felt really upset. I told
told him Mom and dad, and I felt like I
needed to get revenge on him. But lately if anybody
had said anything to bogetic nor him and get him
back on the track, my god. He said too that
he didn't really unpack the full effect of that until
(06:59):
only a couple of years ago during kind of you know,
the George Floyd murder and kind of from that whole
moment he kind of said, Yeah, I hadn't fully digested
the absolute extent of how traumatizing and damaging and harmful
that was. We saw him going out marching holding placards
because black life matters to him. Black lives matter to him,
and he wants his voice heard, and then obviously continues
(07:21):
to present date. You know, he deals with booing, He
deals with with all that stuff that comes with both
being probably the only black driver on the grid and
also being the winningest one. You know, the winningest person
in the sports history. It's certainly always been a factor.
And last year the FIA finally stepped in and told
fans to stop racially abusing him. Reporter, he's all Southwell again,
it's been sixteen years that he's been driving in Formula one.
(07:44):
That's a really pretty like primordially slow reaction time in
terms of beginning to be aware of a problem. So
that's that's Lewis's background. But yeah, basically, Lewis impresses the
bosses at a team called McLaren and eventually makes his
(08:05):
rookie debut in the two thousand and seven season. He
ends up in second place and loses by a point.
Oh wow, that was his rookie year. Rookie season. Yeah,
wins Formula one World Driver's Championship is second year. So
this is for you. Thank you for all supporting me,
believe me. Wow, superstar, immediate superstar exactly. Can you describe
(08:29):
your emotions right now? Put them into words? I don't
think I can. Very emotional. I would say my heart's
fit into so much strain right now, because I think
it was the same for everyone. But I'm just very
proud of the team and my family as well. He
talked so softly. Let me tell you something, everybody, the
(08:49):
people that scream their success at you are not the
ones to worry about. It's the ones that are soft
spoken and deliberate with their words, those are the ones
that will fuck you up. I will say, there is
always a little bit of luck involved right place, right time.
So there have been times where great drivers have not
made it on the grid for reasons that have nothing
to do with him. Yeah, it just it worked out.
Let's say it didn't. It didn't hinder him, he didn't
(09:10):
have to. Well, it's actually funny because we'll talk about
George Russell in a second, who's had a little bit
of a different start to his Formula one career. So yeah,
Lewis ends up on a on a great historic team
that has a lot of that infrastructure, of the resources,
and not to say, we'll learn later that McLaren has
struggled in recent years. But you know, Lewis is there.
He'd a super well there and he also seems to
be someone though who has the instincts and know when
(09:31):
it's time. He's a very intuitive guy, right, He's a
little bit into like spirituality and mysticism, so he kind
of knows when it's time to make the jump, even
if no one else sees it or understands it. You know,
he makes this jump to this newer team Mercedes the
perfect time, you know, kind of. I think he got
fourth his first year when they still hadn't had the
new regulations in place yet, but then they just go
gangbusters the next year victory. Once again, Lewis Hamilton does it.
(09:57):
A five time champion. Lewis Hamilton has led every single
lap of this race. Had Pole has the fastest lap
as well. It is Lewis Hamilton every time. That's for
all the kids out there who dreamed the impossible. You
can do it too, man, I believe it you guys.
Thank you so much everyone for your support. What makes
(10:19):
Lewis Hamilton's such a good driver? The car is obviously
part of it. Anyone can look great in a great car.
But what is it about Lewis that have made him
so dominant? The number one thing is raw talent. So
my name is I'll discover luscas and I basically just
cover the world of Formula one. Talk about it. What
I like, what I dislike, living the dream as it
is perfect Lewis Hamilton and the driver he is. Okay,
(10:41):
forget about the Formula one career, Let's go back to
his carting days. He dominated in carting, He dominated in
single seaters as well. He won GP two in two
thousand and six in his very first season as rookie,
produced some amazing drives. Also, Lewis works really closely with
his engineers. He's part of every decision that they made.
He's fully involved, fully invested. That's Cyril Levinson, a motorsports
(11:02):
communications expert and F one super fan. You seen some
of the other teams, some of some of the other drivers.
They don't really care. They're saying the engineer is no best.
I'm going to let them do it they want and
I will just drive versus. Louis gives that real time
feedback to his engineers. He pulls all nighters, spending time
with his engineers to make sure that the car is right.
(11:24):
Louis has maken himself hard to be really because of
that commitment. He has a lot of other passions outside
of Formula One, but he doesn't let any of that
get in the way of his performance and his success.
He hasn't had a serious relationship in a long time
because he doesn't want that's not a priority for him.
He spends all of his time with the team at
(11:45):
the factory instead of building out his life. Honestly, I
implore you anyone who's listening, to go watch some videos
on Turkey two thousand and six, which was one of
his absolute magic drives. He made a mistake earlier on
how to spin and then worked his way through the
field to finish. I think it's second on the second
on the podium with some amazing overtakes, and you can
see the talent right there. You cannot question his dedication
(12:08):
to the sport and his pure skill that he's developed
through decades of experience. He has absolutely earned all of
the success that he's got. Wow. Yeah, I will say
what makes Lewis very different is how he approaches i
would say life off the track, but also his persona
on so most F one drivers, a lot of them,
(12:30):
are very much the types of people who show up
on race day, you know, want to race really fast,
and then they just go back to their lives. You
never really hear about them. They don't want to be
public figures. They're just singularly focused on Formula one and
don't really have you don't really hear about outside hobbies
or interest That was for a long time, what kind
of the ideal quote unquote Formula one driver was painted
as Lewis is different for many reasons. For one thing,
(12:55):
which we'll start out with, Lewis is known for his fashion.
Lewis actually enjoys the idea of celebrity. So he actually
hired a celebrity Hollywood celebrity stylist, this guy named law Roach.
Law Law Law Roach. Yeah, he Law Roach also styles
(13:18):
both Zendia and Tom Holland. It's just like a real
deal stylist. And so I got an example I have,
as I said, I have slides, so well this is
a prime example of like everyone else on the grid
versus Lewis. So what I'm gonna show you is on
the first day of a typical Formula one race weekend,
there's something on usually Thursday, is called media Day. This
(13:40):
is when the drivers come in they get to walk
the track and take a look at it. So this
isn't a formal they don't drive at all. This is
just show up, get a sense of the track, talk
to the press. Called day. So I would love for
you to describe to me what these guys in this
photo are wearing three men tracksuit pants, sport logo T shirt. Yeah,
so they got six ship. Here are just some examples
(14:01):
of outfits that Lewis Hamilton has shown up to I
love it, love it, love it, love it all Right,
So there's three photos. One on the left is a
lime green puffer suit set. Yeah, it's a set. Yeah.
The middle, which is my favorite, is monochromatic red fitted. Uh,
(14:23):
that's an Alexander McQueen suit that he's wearing to the
track on like a Randall day And I don't know
who Alexander McQueen is. But there's also a a messenger
bag that could be a purse that's the same color
as the suit. Very fitted. And then on the right
is another puffer orange. For lack of a better term,
(14:46):
it almost looks like one of those like orange jumpsuits
you see, like criminals have to wear wear, you know. Uh,
maybe I don't know if we're allowed to say what
I just said, but he's in three very interesting, elaborate
and thought through outfits. Yes, and these are all also
coming straight off the runways that seasons. These are like
(15:09):
New York Fashion Week. His silas law Roach saw these
and we're like, hey, Lewis, like this we're gonna wear.
I would bet, knowing from what you've told me that
the outfit that kind of looks like the prisoner jumpsuit,
I would bet that in a way that is meant
to be thought provoking. And oh, I'm the only person
of caller in this sport, and I'm also the best
motherfucker's put that in your little societal past pot and stir. Okay,
(15:32):
So that was good analysis because that outfit, first outfit
for the first media day of the season, he comes
out swinging with that right orange outfits. Yes, so that
I feel even more comfortable saying what I said, because
it's meant to elicit a response. Yes, you learned in
feeling more about Lewis just looking at them him. Yeah. Way,
(15:53):
I hate two of those outfits, but still you're just
getting me to think about fashion and think about him.
And the one on the middle, I think it is
just so wheat. Yeah, no, yeah, it's but it's literally
like was on the runway like two weeks prior and
then he shows up and or whatever it is, it's
like he yeah, went live on the website. Lewis Hamilton
snatches it and wears it. Yeah, he looks sharp, And
(16:13):
I'm just fully on board with a Formula one driver,
being fully like, this is an elite sport, you should
look like you at least thought about what you're gonna weary. Also,
if I was a competitor, and if I was George
Russell his teammate, I would see him wearing that and
I would want to beat his ass. So there you go.
So that's that's that's Lewis's style. Yeah, like Lewis the
(16:35):
other thing that really sets Lewis apart, And I think
even anyone who doesn't like him for whatever reason would agree.
Not only is he a driver, not only is he
happy to go out and be a bit of a
celebrity and a star, but he's also happy to be
an activist and have a voice. Hey guys, I just
happened to be on the beach and just so much waste.
(16:55):
This is just from five minutes picking I was taking
us ten or fifteen minutes to pick all this up.
And there's so much more, so much more rubbish that's
out there. I really just want to encourage people, just
please be conscious of what you're buying. I know it's
not your intention for it to end up in the oceans,
but the fact is it is, and we've got to
(17:17):
do something about it that I'm definitely gonna try my
best to clean up the beach that's hire. Formula one
needs that, yeah, because it's easy for I mean, this
is wealth beyond wealth, so it needs some of its
athletes to wake up a little bit exactly. And he
also started an organization called the Hamilton Commission, which is
(17:39):
there to increase diversity inclusion in UK motorsports, particularly amongst
not just black drivers, but black personnel. So that's going
to include engineers, mechanics, you know, just just all around
diversity inclusion in the sport. And he even kind of
meshed together his love of fashion and social activism recently.
So he in twenty twenty one started where these t
(18:00):
shirts that kind of had little words and phrases on them,
and you know, people like me were kind of looking
at them like what what is that? Like? Are these connected? Is?
It's just like a weird thing. And he actually worked
with a poet to create a poem about like diversity inclusion,
like a quality in our world, and all of these
T shirts each had a different line of the poem,
and so we were this over like a large portion
of last season. Yet for both the montene era and
(18:22):
for the extent of his activism it has to be
cooled and his willingness to hold forming one too account. Then, Yeah,
Hamilton is simply at a different level to anyone in
the history of the sport, both on track by being
unbelievably skilled and in terms of his pushing the sport
(18:46):
itself forwards and the entirety of my disport as a consequence. Yeah,
very three dimensional persons. Yeah, the fear is that some
of it becomes a distraction from racing, that that will
be for him and his team to figure out. Yeah. So,
for instance, there was a lot of controversy a few
years ago when Lewis So Lewis did a collaboration with
(19:07):
the iconic American designer Tommy Hill figure and he they
had like a fashion show launch for this collaboration this
brand the night before a Grand Prix race, and everyone
of course was like, Lewis doesn't care about you. He
should be home sleeping and resting and whatever. And he
proceeds to go to the event it comes out, you know,
next day wins the race. Yes, yeah, I mean that's
(19:29):
that's why I was very clear to say for him
and his team to figure out, not the fans, oh yeah,
not Twitter exactly. But you know, I get caught with
this with Naomi Osaka, the tennis player who I love,
who's very, very socially active, but lots of times I'm
screaming at the TV, going, will you stop like being
so socially conscious and start just winning the tournament please? Yeah,
(19:50):
but that's not for me to decide. It started to
side exactly exactly. So yeah, that's Louis. I'd say. There's also, like,
as I said earlier, Lewis kind of like spirituality, and
in that element, there's a lot of stuff on his
Instagram about you know, take a deep breath and you know,
feel the world around you. Good morning, good morning, good morning.
I hope you're all well. I just wanted to send you,
(20:12):
guys a message of positivity. Keep shining your light, keep
staying positive, keep believing each and every single one of
you is great and unique in your own way, and
there's no limit to what you can do. So happy weekend.
He's a vegan Okay, basically what I'm getting at he is,
in fact a bona fide celebrity. He's not just a driver.
(20:34):
He likes it that way to a certain extent. It
unnerves some drivers. How calm he'll be where he's like,
you know, we all just want to be friends and
like I just want to win, and people be like, Lewis,
you nearly crashed into me, sir, Like what the delta Delta.
Lewis Hamilton is in my mind one of the top
(20:54):
sports people in the world right now for every week,
and not just one reason that he drives blimmen fast
in a car, but he also wants to be more
than that, which is pretty special and unique. He's a
class act off the track and he's one of the
most kind of one of the most talented drivers on
the track as well. So it's just, yeah, that's what
leads him to be such a such a great driver.
(21:16):
And even now, you know, he's not having a great
season because of the Mercedes are struggling, but he's going
to be back, no doubt about it. He's still there.
I'm very excited to watch him race. Oh yeah, I
got plenty of highlights where it's just like, I don't
know how Lewis figured that out, but of course Helga
said he get a little whiney during races. Yeah. Yeah,
he's always yelling about his tires being gone. And you're like, Lewis,
you just started the race, sir, he got another seventy laps, Like,
(21:38):
I doubt your tires are gone. You know, he'll complain
and then he'll have like the longest going you know,
he'll pit last, you know, and you're like, dude, your
tires are fine. It's the point where people think it's
so often are they pitting in a race? Typically one
to two times. Oh, that's it. Yeah, and the pit stops.
The best pit stops are under two seconds. What yeah
it was seconds. Yeah. Well we can watch when they're
(22:01):
they have like one guy who's on the old tire,
one guy who's gonna put on the new tire, a
separate gun guy. They all also have backups for all
these positions. You'll kind of see it like a there's
like the guy with the nut and bolt gun and
then someone behind them who's there in case something gets
gets f Yeah. They before races, you see these these
uh you know, mechanics and whatnot, like stretching, doing calisthenics,
(22:24):
like doing a full on workout before they even practice.
You know, they're pit stops. Yeah, so Red Bull they're
kind of the gold standard. Them and that team Williams
that keeps popping up, which will pop up yet again
right now because we're going to talk about Georg Russell. Yes,
quick break and we're back. So Lewis Hamilton's one side
of the Mercedes garage. On the other side we have
(22:45):
George Russell, another British driver. So George is as of
the start of the twenty twenty two season, he is
thirteen years younger than Lewis. He is twenty four years old.
Definitely a different generation of driver than than Lewis. What
he does have in common with Lewis is he was
also very successful in his junior career leading up Jeff One.
(23:05):
What I find very funny is there was an interview
with a different driver, Lando Norris, who who's around George
Russell's age. They raced together growing up, and he's talked
about how everyone wanted to be George Russell and carting
when they were kids. He had a poster of George
Russell like from from some event, like everyone wanted to
be George, so it goes all you know, this this
kind of golden boy vibe to him, goes all the
way back to like the earliest stage of his careers. Yeah,
(23:28):
it's actually be a good time to talk about how
Lewis and George are very similar. So Lewis walking back
to Lewis for a second. Lewis when he was a
kid goes to an event where he and he or
wins some carting thing. He meets as part of this
this guy Ron Dennis, who is heading up the Formula
one team McLaren that he would eventually race four. So
(23:48):
little Lewis, who is ten years old, goes up to
this adult man who's richest fuck and you know, and
it's just kind of there because he was making an appearance,
and he essentially goes, hey, I'm Lewis Hamilton. I loved
to for your Formula One team in a couple of
years and can you sign my autograph in or give
me your autograph? And Ron Dennis is so charmed by
this whole thing that he actually stays in touch with
(24:08):
Lewis and he was like, who the hell is this kid?
Like what is this? This whole idea of kind of Lewis,
you know, taking that initiative exactly. Yeah, to go do that,
thehone's to go up to this like man and just
and of course I'm sure it was kind of adorable, right,
Like a little ten year old doing this is very funny.
George Russell similarly, not as young, but in his teens.
He gets his hands on the email of one Toto
Wolf then then team principal of the Mercedes F one team,
(24:33):
and George emails him kind of like, hey, I'd love
to talk to you about just like my career, where
I'm going and whatnot. Uh. Toto shows up to this
meeting and George meets him wearing a full suit and
comes with a power point to discuss his career, and
Toto has refer said that George reminded him more of
an accountant than a race car driver. Yeah, so similar again,
(24:53):
differ very different upbringings. You're George more privileged upbringing than Lewis. Uh.
Similar just you know, temperaments which we to George in
a second, but definitely have a little bit of that
politician archetype to them. They're ready to kind of, you know,
put it all out there. Do what needs to get done,
go straight to the boss. And in George's case, that
ended up with you know, Mercedes saying, Hey, we've kind
(25:13):
of started our own drug development program. Do you want
to sign to it and kind of be one of
the first to be on this train with us. Your
power point? Yeah, pretty successful, The accountant get up worked.
It was a great yeah, a great moment. So, you know,
let me interrupt for a second. When I used to
so I coached tennis at University of Michigan. I used
to recruit young players try to come to Michigan, you know,
(25:36):
not nearly as high as a level as these these
guys are sport. But what I was always looking for
and what I was coached to look for when trying
to find young men that will be successful is a
commitment and an obsession of success in that sport. And
what's interesting to hear you talk about Lewis at ten, Yeah,
(25:58):
going up to the McLaren team principle, if you're the
older man there, you're seeing this is a ten year
old who's obsessed with trying to be successful in this sport.
And it sounds very similar to what George did with
Toto making a pre power point like that's insane. Whether
the cake can drive or not, You'll you'll find out eventually.
It's memorable. I think it's memorable, and it shows that
(26:19):
this kid is committed to wanting to be successful in
the sport. I could see how they were impressed by that.
I would be impressed by. Oh. Yeah, so that's where
George is with Mercedes. He signed to this program, uh
Toto going along the lines of ethically and morally murky things.
Toto basically manages George's career, so it's a team boss
(26:39):
who also was in charge of this guy's career. Yeah.
So basically, you George's is rearing to go in you know,
in F one. He doesn't have a seat, and at
the time, basically Mercedes is working as a partnership with
that team Williams that we have mentioned on on multiple occasions,
and actually they say, hey, you know, Williams is going
(27:02):
to have a seat. They want the strengthen this partnership
with the Mercedes. What if we sign and kind of
almost loan George to Williams for a couple of seasons. Basically, Mercedes,
he's an opportunity. They say, hey, we have this driver
we eventually want to sign and be our guy. He's
very talented, but we don't want to have to spend
the time training this like twenty twenty one year old.
(27:23):
You know, he's gonna have his make his mistakes and
crash and do this and that. Like why not have
another team take him under their wing, help him learn
the ropes and also, quite frankly, it's going to be
a character building exercise to be on one of the
worst teams reliably on the grid. You get a seat,
but you get a seat. So George Russell, oh, wonderful
human being. I don't know if that's true. This is
(27:43):
Bird Pinkerton, a massive George Russell fan. I know you
want to talk about your man, George Russell. Yes, I
fell in love with George Russell because he was like
my cursed son. He just like I can't I don't
even know how to describe the degree to which George
Russell seemed cursed. He came into the sport, he was
(28:06):
like incredible, and then you know he was put in Williams.
Williams was sort of struggling on in the back. He
was like paying his dues. That's very commendable. Yeah, and
did it for three years. Yeah, because he didn't lay
in bed at night dreaming of a seat on the
tenth place team Williams. He laid in bed wanting to
(28:27):
win this thing for Mercedes. Yeah. So this is twenty twenty.
Lewis Hamilton gets COVID. He's out for a race and Toto,
the person who runs Mercedes, He's looking around trying to
figure out, like who am I going to bring in?
Who could possibly replace Lewis in this car and like
(28:50):
the best car on the grid. He was looking around.
He's like, why don't I bring in George Russell. He's
done a lot of testing for Mercedes, Like he is
sort of the planned next person for Mercedes. When they
have room, we're gonna bring him in. We're gonna put
him in Lewis Hamilton's seat and we're gonna like see
what he can do. And this is, you know, for
(29:12):
this guy who's been like a back marker struggling, this
is like the chance of a lifetime. And he gets in.
He like qualifies really well. He's P two, so he's
still behind Valtori Batas, who's the other Mercedes driver. He's
qualified really well. Like the race starts he like cruises
out into the first turn and George Russell takes the
(29:36):
lad He's just zooming around like they're not even really
showing him because he's having such a good time at
the front. He's like so far ahead, George Russell has
just set the fastest lap of the rice. Everything seems
like easy sailing. And then oh no, the curse, my
(29:56):
poor son's curse. Everything goes wrong with pit stop. It's
a disaster. He loses his first place. It looks like
a real lift puncture, looks like real left puncture, a disaster, tragedy.
That's George Russell's chance of a podium absolutely gone. Now
(30:16):
it wasn't totally clear if he was going to get
another shot, or like when he would ever get another shot,
Like this was a chance for him to get his
first win, and it sort of slipped through his fingers
and it was sort of at no fault of his own.
And then I was just watching him desperately trying with
Williams to get sort of just points, just any points.
(30:41):
And so I think it was the Austrian Grand Prix
where like the entire race, or like most of the race,
he was p ten, which meant he would have gotten
a point if he had stayed in peace, a single
point if he had stayed in P ten. And then
like very near the end of the race, like Alonzo,
Fernando Alonso and his Alpine comes like sniffing up behind,
(31:04):
and I just remember like yelling at this screen, like
please please just let this boy get one point. Like
Alonso has won two world championships. He doesn't need this.
I mean, he doesn't need this point, but like he
doesn't need this point, and you know, of course he
overtook him. I think afterwards Alonzo was like, I regretted
that it was George anyone but George, because you know,
(31:29):
Williams hadn't had a point in years, and so it
just it would have been so meaningful to them not
scoring a point for years. That's terrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah depressing. Yeah,
Mercedes doesn't own Williams, No, they don't own them. They
and theirs, their buddies, yeah, their their pals. Yeah. On
the grid, you'll hear this idea of like a sister
team or like a junior team or kind of teams
(31:52):
that have like some sort of formal or informal partnership
going on. Uh and yeah, the Williams Mercedes won. There's
definitely like they're they're paling around together. This is kind
of like that TV show Survivor. Oh I know everything
there is to know about Survivor. I mean, you kind
of form an alliance, you kind of screw each other over,
but then you kind of have to befriend people again.
(32:12):
That's what Formula one is. And there's times on the
track to where drivers have gone out of their way
to fuck with other drivers because yeah, they're not in
their alliance so to speak. Right, finally, and Hungary Hungry
was this disaster of a race, like most of the
grid was either out of the race or like their
cars were impaired, and so both of the Williams cars
(32:34):
finished in the points, and that I think that was
the moment where I was like, oh, I really I
just really liked this driver because he was being interviewed
afterwards and again he had gotten like two points, like
this was not he had not won the race, he
was not on the podium, and he started crying dedications
(33:00):
for everybody in the team and just life not way.
He got teary eyed talking about what this meant for
the team and how much work they had put into it.
It says a lot because a lot of these drivers
are kind of divas, So I just enjoy people who
express respect for the place that they're in. Will be
(33:24):
interesting to see if and when he starts challenging Lewis. Yes,
I could see. I could see there being some friction there.
How do you think he's going to fare at Mercedes
with Lewis Hamilton arguably the greatest of all time in
Formula One as his other driver? Yeah? I don't know. Man,
Louis Hamilton is so good, Like Louis Hamilton is incredible.
(33:48):
He has very big footsteps to follow in. But we'll see.
We'll see if he grows into them. I believe. First
of all, what do you think about Lewis and George individually?
How are you feeling? I like both very much. I
know that contradicts what I said previously that I will
never root for Mercedes. Is there one you're favoring over
(34:10):
the other? Oh? I would pick George because well, I'm
a team player. I've always loved the guy that doesn't
always try to score the points but instead is happy
to rebound and play excellent defense. But I believe there
is definitely a sleeping giant in there that is also
(34:33):
very excited to challenge Lewis and become the best. That's
what he wants to be. That's how you become That's
how you get a seat, is to become the best.
It'll be fun to see what happens when that gets
stirred up, if it ever does. Lewis Hamilton reminds me,
from what you've told me, a little bit of Serena Williams,
total disruptor, total badass, holds all the records, if not
(34:54):
one of the best. JOHI who believes he is the best.
But also that doesn't go without a couple annoying things.
I'm certain when I learn more about Lewis and his
little like calm demeanor that seems like a little bit
of a manufactured competitive edge, some of that stuff will
piss me off a little bit. So I don't know.
That's my initial take on it. Oh, okay, so right now,
(35:15):
don't dislike Lewis, but you like George's story. Lewis sounds
like he's already the greatest ever, So I love the
idea of George, the good old British boy who hasn't
really achieved much yet. Yeah kind of. I like that
underdog vibe more. It seems like Lewis is on top
of the mountain. Yeah right, yeah he is. Yeah yeah,
So forgive me for not maybe rooting for the overdog,
(35:39):
but it might be different if I was meeting Lewis
at a different stage in his career. I am absolutely
baffled that Lewis Hamilton is the first Formula One driver
to take media Day fashion seriously. That is That's a
no brainer and a wonderful way to make a statement
(35:59):
without saying shit. Yep. Right, So that's awesome that he
does that, and the sports should be thanking him all
the way for the attention and publicity. That that all right?
So next week I'm actually very excited. So we've gone
through this sort of hyper efficient, total wolf driven House
of Mercedes. We're spending next week's two part episode focusing
(36:21):
on the other big competitor on the grid coming into
this season, and that is Red Bull. It just blows
my mind that we take Red Bull seriously. Yeah, because
I'm of the age where I remember when it came
on the scene and it was a joke. Yeah, it's
a fucking energy drink. How can they win anything? Ever,
Red Bull is the team where if you want a
(36:42):
little bit of dramatic flair, I'd also say a little
bit more masculine flair. They're the team to look at.
You know, you've got this real shit talking team principle,
a guided Christian Horner. I also say he is married
to a spice girl, but I will not tell you
which one he's married to. So that's a little bit
of trivia for you. There, you've got uber aggressive, defending
world champion in Max Verstappin, who is as much as
(37:06):
Lewis is a is a man with a diversity of
interests and beliefs and whatnot. Max, you will never meet
a more one track mind driver in your life. So
a complete juxtaposition to Lewis Hamilton's rival from last season.
And then you've got kind of the ultimate number two
driver guy in the other driver Sergio paris So otherwise
known as Checho. And it's something truckers drink when they
(37:29):
move our Amazon packages from the East Coast to the
West coast of America. You know what it is. I
don't think Red Bull is trying to market to me
as sort of yeah, like a cosmopolitan in New York City, girly,
so so I have. I'm gonna have a fun time
trying to explain red Bull to you. It's probably their
(37:49):
demography exactly. Yeah, you're a little more of their demographic
than I am. We should. I'm gonna bring a red
bull and everyone I will also bring a red Bull.
We'll get all the flavors we'll have, and then when
we talk about Williams, all bring Williams exactly. All right,
YOHI anything else you want us to say? This has
(38:09):
been Choosing Sides f one, a production of Sports Illustrated
Studios and iHeartRadio. The show was hosted by Michael Costa
and Lily Herman. This episode was produced by Lily Herman
and our senior producer Yohai Mital, who also did the
sound design at the cutting room. Studios were recorded by
(38:30):
engineer Robo Leary, mastering by Cello. Iisblue. Max Miller is
the executive producer, and Branning Getchas is Head of Audio
at SI Studios. At iHeartRadio, Sean Titone is our executive producer.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(38:51):
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