April 30, 2024 • 46 mins
For this week's episode, we have an incredible lineup to help us understand what it takes to race these cars every week and the speeds they reach. Michael and Toni were joined by Scott Mansel, Madeline Coleman and Romain Grosjean. We'll finally be answering the age-old question - Driver or car?
Scott Mansell, founder of driver 61, is a former racing driver and YouTuber with millions of subscribers who will help us understand all the driving skills in racing. Madeline Coleman, F1 journalist at The Athletic who has this incredible ability to ask drivers how they would describe themselves and explain in depth what it's like to be them. And finally, Romain Grosjean, ex-F1 driver and current IndyCar driver talks with us about what it’s actually like to race an F1. He also spends some time talking about that moment on November 29th 2020 when he crashed his car during the Bahrain GP and was stuck in his car on fire for 28 seconds.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speed junkie.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Have we lost the room?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We've lost the room. I've certainly done that before.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Oh god, yeah, stand up, convenience. It's a tough kid.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
It's a tough one. Okay, Tony you ready?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I am Lights out and away we go.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Ooh, I'm not sure you technically are allowed to say
that or use that sentence.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Actually, Michael, what do you mean?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's owned by someone else.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Somebody owns that sentence. You can own a sentence, yes,
what do you want?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
A story time?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yes? Story time?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Crafty or David Croft, who's the legendary Sky Sports presenter
that you often hear on TV, started to introduce that
sentence lights out and awhere we go, which has become
iconic to basically, and I wonder if you do something similar,
but it gives him two or three seconds where he
isn't thinking about what he wants to say, but instead
he's just like analyzing the situation.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So he owns the sentence.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, technically, you can trademark a catchphrase, and in this case,
Crofty hasn't actually technically trademarked his opening phrase. But there
is a well recognized gentlemen's agreement that others don't use it.
There are some lines that even this podcast will not cross.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's hot.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Ah, I'm afraid sorry, you can't use that one either.
Paris Hilton owns it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Oh my gosh, I love you that form My Heart
podcast one on one studios and Sports Illustrated Studios. This
is choosing sides.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yes one Wow.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Wow, Hey guys, can you hear me?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Perfect?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
This is Scott Mansell.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
I'm an ex professional racing driver with ten years of experience.
I've driven over thirty Formula one cars.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
But he's also the founder of an immensely popular Formula
one YouTube channel called Driver sixty one with.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
One point two million subscribers.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
My name is Malone Colman. I am a staff writer
covering Formula one at the Athletic.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Her thing, I guess you could say, is writing these
incredibly in depth and nuanced profiles of the drivers. So
she is actually someone who got to spend a lot
of time with the F one drivers and really experience
up close what it's like being a Formula one racing driver.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh interesting.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
How would you describe you know, Max forstaff and how
would you describe Pierre Ghastly? I pivot the question around
to the drivers and have them define themselves. How do
you want to be seen in this chapter of your life?
It's a big question. They pause, They really do pause,
and kind I do a double take a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Give us a little bit of an introduction.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Who are you?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Where should we know you from?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Bobria watching race cars going around. Yeah, I'm a race
car driver. I was very lucky to do Formula one
for ten years.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
This is Romane Grojean, the Phoenix, ex Formula one racing driver.
Current car driver.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Isn't Tony? Isn't he the guy who crashed, almost killed himself,
jumped out of the burning car.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yes, and he has stories to tell about that moment.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
I'm gonna tell you a funny story. My wife always
complained that I was training too much. I was doing
too much geam, I was doing too much bicycle and
I didn't need all of that to be a race
car driver. And then at that accident in Bahrain where
sixty seven g impact got stuck in a car on fire,
didn't lose consciousness, which is amazing, and was strong enough
(03:32):
to escape from being locked between you know, a barrier,
a halo headrest and into far and just because I
was strong enough and fiting off and got the energy
to jump out of it, I made it. And since
then she's like, well, you can go as much as
you want the gym. So you know, it worked out
(03:52):
pretty well. You did all of.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
That homa to be able to spend more time in
the gym. How do you get back in a calf
or something like that?
Speaker 7 (04:00):
Very very natural, very normal, of course, you know, I'm
not I'm not completely stupid. Had a bit of apprehension.
I was not sure of what would it be like.
And we go to race one and I'm there on
the grid thinking, Okay, who is it gonna go. It's
gonna be my first race start since the accident. But
(04:20):
once the engine started and we got rolling for the
formation up, all of those foots went away and it
was all about, Okay, how can I do the best
I can in that race?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Okay, so we can finally talk about speed? Is that what?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
This is?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Absolutely all right?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Because actually let's start with the basics. How fast can
an F one car go? What's the fastest that it's
ever gone?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, so as of six months ago, and I don't
actually think anything has changed surprisingly in the sport over
the last six months. The fastest recording speed was still
from valtwie Botas, and he did the fastest speed when
he was driving for Williams during the qualifying of the
twenty sixteen Mexico GP.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Particularly mech because the circuit is at altitude and the
air is thinner, so there's less drag on the wings
of the car, which is why they go so quick.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He was captured driving at three hundred and seventy two
point five kilometers per hour or two hundred and thirty
one point five miles per hour. Oh by that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Honestly, I'm a little bit disappointed right now. And I'll
have you know that a four gt American was clocked
at three hundred and ten miles per hour at the
launch and landing facility located in the Kennedy Space Center, Florida,
fastest three corps on the planet.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Half like the Wow, good show, guys.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Now, I know what you're gonna say, Well, what is
it in kilometers? I'm not going to answer that. I
don't know. This is an American show, Tony. But what
I do want an answer to is how is there
a faster car than Formula one? I thought Formula one
was the pinnacle of racing.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Well over a lap, then a Formula one car would
be significantly quicker. They might not be the fastest thing
in the world in a straight line. It's partly because
they have lots of wings and aerodynamic devices on them,
and so there's a lot of drag. Right, It's like
pushing a big, a big flat pane or a door
through the wind, and it slows it down. But what
(06:23):
you give up in straight line speed you more than
make up for in the breaking areas and through the corners.
It kind of has a superpower with downforce because the
quicker you go, the more downforce you have, Therefore the
more grip you have. Therefore you can go a bit quicker, right,
So it's kind of extrapolates up with an aerodynamic car.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, and that's what's fun about F one is all
the turns and stops and stop lights and speed bumps
and pedestrians. I think it's weird that they throw some
pedestrians in there. Sometimes that would be fun.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
It's funny to speed. We always have that question, how first, jogle,
I have no idea. I don't know. I just you know,
the only thing I know is that whenever it is
a beep in my ear, I help shift to the
next gear, and whenever I reach maximum geal top top
end of the straight line, I breaked as late as
I can to make the corner. But it doesn't really matter.
If I was doing two hundred miles an hour two
(07:15):
hundred and twenty two, it does really doesn't matter. All
matters is or late did I break to make the corner,
how much speed did I carry into the corner. But
on the street, I don't care. I don't even have
the information on my dash.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
This makes sense to me.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
We got that. Yeah, okay, you said something there that
I think new fans might find really interesting. You talked
about the beep that you get in your ear. Can
you explain what that means?
Speaker 7 (07:36):
Yeah, every time we have it's the right timing to
get to the next gear. We have a beep in
O A and we upshift and some drivers, some of
my teammates hate it because, yes, it's a lot of beep.
I mean, if you shift thirty five times at a lap,
it's thirty five times you're going to get a bip.
But at least it allows me to focus on what's
outside and not looking at the shift lights, so I
(07:56):
use it a lot. We have also won for anti stall.
We have one for perimeter in and pitimeter out, and
we use different tones or different resolutions, so don't they
don't sound the same, so you know which one is what.
But yes, that's it's quite funny that we just used that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So sure, give that souped up American muscle car and
end a straight line and eventually, eventually it will accelerate
faster than the Formula one car. But in any kind
of realistic chase, the Ford or any other car for
that matter, stands absolutely no chance whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
But oh, there's a butt.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
There's a big butts, the big butt. Everyone. Cars are
only so fast in the hands of extremely capable and
talented drivers, of whom there are obviously only a handful
in the entire world.
Speaker 7 (08:44):
Right in mind that, I think there's more people going
in the space every year, and there's Formula one drivers.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
And that is what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
You have to think that it's a pyramids. It starts
with go kat There's a lot of kids that do
go kart. Out of those kids, the top one go
to the next level of single seater, and then they
do Formula four, Formula three, Formula two, so that the
perimeter already gets quite narrow at the top, and then
you've got Formula one. There's twenty guys in the world
doing what they do, so already out of every go
(09:11):
card single guys, you have taken maybe not twenty of
the best because there are different you know, the financial
aspect ons on. But I would say you have a
good seventy seventy five percent off the top of the
world at that level. So then between the drivers is
the tiny difference that you have, so, of course than
it's the card that does the definant part.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you. How
much of this is the actual driver? How much of
this this machine? I'm starting to get the feeling that
it's really more about the car, which is putting me off.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
To be honest, you've just highlighted one of the hottest
topics in Formula one.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
Yes, I think the driver is five percent, machine is
ninety five percent. Sadly, really, yes, At at the highest
level of motorsport, the drivers are all very very talented,
so the only the difference left is the car.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
The drivers, of course do make a massive difference, but
it's very difficult to compare them across team.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's always about the car, the driver and the teammate.
So in Formula one, your teammate is both your teammate
but also your biggest competitor because only the two of
you are driving the exact same car. So whereas if
you look at the eighteen other drivers on the grid,
(10:31):
you could argue, well, they've got a better car, or
they've managed to figure out the car and the regulations
this year, that's why they're faster. When it comes to
your teammate, you can't actually have that.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Debate, right But if me and you are on a team,
as our car exactly the same.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Cars are never one hundred percent of the same just
because of materials, but most of the team try to
make it that, yes, both cars are the same.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
If there's an update in like the arrow or something
on the car, and the team can't produce a new
wing in time, they'll just send one to a race
and one of the drivers will get that and they'll
generally take it in terms. But the core of the
cars are saying. Where they might go in a slightly
different direction is with the setup now, of course, on
(11:13):
a Formula one car, you can change the springs, you
can change the damping of the car, you can change
the wings, you can change the roll bars. Going into
a bit too much detail here, there's many things that
you can change on a Formula one car, and so
the drivers might head off in different directions there, and
that's down to personal preference. The setup of the car
(11:33):
is kind of a reflection of their driving style. They
have to work together in order to extract the most
out of the car. It's why sometimes you hear drivers
say I've just gone in the wrong direction with setup
because they've headed down the route that they thought was
going to be quick and actually their teammate's gone a
different way and has ended up being quicker.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
But this is so hard to know if it's the
car or the driver. So like Max could just be
a badass driver driving a good car and he's dominating.
So they're like, it's the car, it's the car, it's
the car.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
I think that's true. I think the engineers building that
car to be as fast as it can with kind
of a driver, and the best drivers are the ones
who are able to adapt to the car that's been built.
For them.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That is what is happening currently right now with Maxistapanie.
Undoubtedly that he both has the pinnacle of cars. He
has the fastest car, the greatest car. He also is
one of the greatest drivers out there on track, if
not the greatest driver out there on track, right. And
what's been interesting and really hard for his teammates is
they have to match him, right, and they've struggled.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Probably let check go through, please, let's check go back through.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And we had Daniel Cardo, Pierre Ghastly. We now have
Checko Perez, let's check go through. And they're all struggling.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Has Jugo won anything this year?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
One they do?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
They even let them win, Well, they don't let him Max.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Max.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That's the point, Max will let no one. Max is
sat in that car going I want to win everything,
and they're like, you've already got the championship, Max.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Let's check go through please, right, But I mean, if
Chugo is in first place, what won't they tell him
to back off so Max can go past them.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I mean they've tried.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I told you already last time.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You guys, don't ask that again to me.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Are we clear about that?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
You've seen it over the years. The drivers just want
to dominate their their teammates, how they show their value.
These are racing drivers, These are professional sports people. There
are one hundred percent selfish. The only way that they
will ever help each other out is perhaps in a
race when they're on completely different pitch strategies. You know,
(13:28):
one driver is going for a one stop and needs
to look after their tires. Another drivers doing two stops
and is kind of racing back through the field and
needs to overtake. These drivers, they're made to win, right,
That's all the focus. And if it looks like a
kind gesture, there's another reason for it. Yeah they're not.
They're not just they're not just being kind.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So if we put the entire grid this year in
one of those you know, Andrew Nui red bulls, what
would happen?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
What would happen? As in who would win?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (13:59):
You want me to pick it up?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Three?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh? Yes?
Speaker 8 (14:01):
Do it?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Puckus up on the edge.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Here.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
This is purely off driving, right, We driver sixty one
are completely unbiased. I look at the drivers, you know,
as if I was coaching them or working with them.
It's got nothing to do with their personalities. But I
think off the back of this year, probably the Stappen,
Leclair and Norris.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
We got to take a short break. Can you tell
me what the different skills are required to be a
good driver, to be a good fane driver.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
Well, you need the talent, you need the strengths, you
need the mental strengths as well. You need to be
a good communicator, good manager with your guys. You know,
they spend a lot of times around you. You need
to be good with the media and the market. So
it's it's quite a full job.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Actually, to me, the most important thing is having like
a higher mental capacity. There is a lot of stuff
happening when we're out on track. You put a normal
person in a road car which is slow compared to
a formal one car, and they don't have enough capacity
to drive that thing quickly understand what you're saying from
(15:24):
the passenger seat, you know, when you're sat next to them.
These drivers are driving at two hundred miles an hour,
centimeters from the wall, changing the diff settings on the
steering wheel, thinking about how they're going to overtake the
car in front of them, trying to manage the tires,
and trying to think about the general strategy, all while
also thinking about if any setup changes, any wing changes
(15:48):
need to happen in the next pit stop. So the
capacity that these drivers have is just absolutely incredible that
they can absorb all of this information and most of
them sound reason then be calm when they're on the radio.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Everything.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
I think when you look at F one, the physicality
of it, you're able to prepare for. That is something
that you can train from a very young age, and
you're able to do. When it comes to mental strength,
that looks very different in each person, and everyone's going
to adjust very differently. Some people can very easily switch
the noise off, other people not so much. But it
goes beyond just you know, the traditional social media noise.
(16:41):
When I was talking to Para, ghastly asked him to
walk me through what a race weekend looked like, and
it was the amount of scrutiny that they are under
at all times. At the minute that they leave their rooms,
all lives are on them. And it's not just fans
and social media, it's also you know, engineers, it's talking
about the cars. It's data sensors that are on the
(17:01):
cars when they're going around the track. It's all the
cameras and the videographers that are within the paddock, the
social media team, sponsors, and it's a lot of pressure
to be able to do it. Yes, it's their job.
Yes it's what they get paid to do. Yes, they
love it. But two things can be read at once.
It can be a lot to take on and something
that they absolutely adore with their entire heart and want
(17:23):
to be doing so. I think when you look at
F one, the mental component, the mental strength that you
need to be an F one driver is so important
and a critical part of a success journey within F
one because you need to be fully turned on in
every way possible.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Some drivers are incredibly good at squeezing everything out of
the car, giving that perfect lap. This quality, this precision quality,
makes them qualifying champions. But being able to qualify this
I think this is one of the problems that charl
Leclair has is you can put everything on the line,
do an incredible qualifying lap, be really good during the
qualifying sessions to keep up that consistency and perform in
(18:02):
the heat of the moment during the race as well.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Because qualifying lap don't they just take your best lap,
they take a single lap yes.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Oh, all out one shot, put.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Everything on the line, all the forgive my ignorance? Are
all the cars on the track for qualifying?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yes and no, different times, different moments. And again remember
that conversation that we had about the degradation of the
track and is it hot is it cold? It's always
better to not be the first person. If you're the
second person, you can also get a toe. This is
when your teammate comes in. So there's all of those
little components and you'll often hear the drivers get angry
of like why did you put me out on the track?
Now everyone's out here, And that goes to the strategy
(18:38):
component of this was the absolute wrong time to put
me out to do my hot lap?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Right? I see? Okay?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
And the consistency is key. Like some people we talked
about this when we talked about trusting your gut or
looking at the numbers and knowing where to hit every
single time. A driver like Esteban Ukhon is incredibly consistent
rarely makes those mistakes. Annex albums another example of you
know he's going to show up and rely driver, but
you might not always be very surprised by them because
(19:03):
they're just like, yeah, that's that's what I expected. Right
then we've got tire management and we discussed it at
lamp during our entire episode and.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Got to be a huge skill the drivers need to
be good at.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
Yeah. The way I like to think of it is, okay,
you know, I'll start the race and push the first
few laps, and then I get into my rthom and
then I try to save as much as I can
on that entire life. So whenever I need it to
make a pass to push at the end of a
stint so on, I have got it left. And you know,
sometimes you completely mess it out. I think last year
(19:36):
one stint in a race that we were doing really well,
I pushed a little bit too hard from the beginning
and at the last six seven laps of the stint
was I was just hanging in there and losing position,
and I thought, you know what, that was stupid. I
should have done it differently at the beginning of a stint,
and I work work differently. But anyway, that's you know,
you always learn. I'm normally decent at it. I like
(19:58):
it because I understand sliding effect. But yeah, I think
the best word for the one someone that doesn't know
is to remember that the tires of a life, and
they have a memory, so everything you take away at
the beginning, you know, it's like it's like on a bicycle.
You have a certain amount of matches in your in
your back pocket, and every time you attack, or you
try to attack climbing or playing with his friend, you
(20:20):
burn a match and eventually you don't have any left.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Funnily enough, Paris, because we've been talking about check out
a bit. Parents is often referred to as the tire
whisperer exactly, though it does seem this season at least
whatever he's whispering to those tires, they aren't actually paying
attention and listening.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Maybe maybe needs to yell at him.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Just shouting at one of my favorites, which is still
tied to tires somewhat, which is driving in the wet conditions?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Does this come up a lot? Though?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Let me put a pin in that for because you
know what I'm going to say. We've got an episode.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Oh yeah, well I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
We're going to have a whole episode dedicated to none
other than the weather. Yeah, one more reaction time.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yes, I was gonna say this, This needs to be.
Speaker 7 (21:14):
There reaction time you can improve. Some people are more
natural than others, but you can improve while working at it.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You see them as they're training for the races. They're
playing with these tennis balls and they're hitting these lights
all over.
Speaker 7 (21:26):
Yeah, exactly obvious one is the start, you know, that's
so how fast react to the lights, But also in
any circumstances, I think the one we don't see is
the one inside the cow and there's anything happening in front,
and how quick you can react, how quickly can react
to debris flying, or quick can react to a car
spinning in front of you, how quick you can react
(21:47):
to reaction of the drive in front of you trying
to pass him.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Per official timing is a formula one. The fastest driver
to get off the mark is again Valcherie bot Us.
At the twenty nineteen Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, he
recorded a reaction time of just noter point not four
seconds off the line.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Which is zero point zero second. I was going to say,
and just translating your British.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Is getting off the line really the big indicator of that.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
You will hear some drivers go just I wasn't fast enough,
especially if you're on the front light, especially if you're
in the front two rows. The first person that gets
out of there and gets that driving line is fat.
You have you definitely have, Yeah, definitely have a d up.
I'll tell you fun fact for you. We haven't done
one of those in a while. You know those five
lights that go out at the start of the rays
(22:33):
to indicate the race is starting. I never knew this,
but it's it's a manual button that's pressed. Oh I
thought it was automatic till not that long ago. But
there's an actual human that presses go the lights are on,
and then go the lights get.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Off, And when the lights are off, it's race time.
Where we go?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
It's m M and awhere we go.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Okay, with all these skills, I noticed you didn't mention
sir Lewis Hamilton or Max for stepping at all.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Michael Carsta is paying attention.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I was paying attention, You were paying attention.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I think this is because both of them have all
of the above.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
The kind of best skill and the best driving style
to have is the one way you can adapt to
any of the cars. Now, don't forget that the cars
are changing race by race. They're actually changing within the session, right,
the circuit is changing. The balance between the front and
the rear of the car is changing as well, even
(23:29):
over a single qualifying lap. So when people talk about
the balance changing, they may turn into one corner and
the car might have understeerd, so the front isn't turning
as much as you actually want it to. And then
towards the end of the lap, the rear might be
sliding and giving way before the front. And so the
driver themselves can change their style, how they use the brakes,
(23:52):
how they turn the car, how they come off the brakes,
how they accelerate to manipulate this balance. So they're doing
it within a lap, they're doing it corner by corner,
they're doing it when the tires change, they're doing it
when the wind direction changes. But to a broader extent,
a driving style will change as a car develops over
the season and even year by year, and generation of
(24:15):
rule changes to generation of rule changes. Right, and so
when you look at the really good drivers, the Schumachers,
the Hamilton's of the Stappens, they're able to keep this
going over you know, different eras of Formula one, and
so they're the guys who can adapt they're the ones
who can change their style to extract the very most
from the car.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Where does experience play into all this? You talked about
reaction time being best with young drivers, but a lot
of this other stuff I would think experience would be
a huge benefit.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
So where experience comes into this, it's kind of not
toning things down, but it's knowing when to not push
at one hundred percent, having the capacity to think about
a wider strategy, kind of picking your battles. When you're
a young driver, you just want to push a hundred
percent all of the time, and you know that's good
in most cases, but sometimes you just have to sit back.
(25:07):
Sometimes you don't need to go for that dive bomb move.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
Obviously, your body needs a little bit more time to
recover the more advanced you go in your age compared
to when you were a youngster, So that's the difference.
You just need to, you know, plan your travel a
little bit better, plan you sleep a little bit better,
make sure that you are more careful with your nutrition.
But racing is very particular in a way that we
(25:31):
train very little in our environment. Imagine football player, soccer player,
tennis player, whatever, and you're tell him that the only
place you can practice is at the matches, at the game,
and in between you can do you can go to
the gym, you can work and your reflexes, you can
do your cardiovascular or your bicycle or running, but you
(25:52):
cannot do your game. And I think that's what that's
what's very different in racing, you know. I think this
year in Indica, we're very lucky. We have five days
of testing, which is a lot. I think that's why
we can see in racing that drivers that are a
bit older or more experience. Did I say because I've
bothered them, we can still compete at the highest level
(26:13):
because we may have lost a little bit of that
craziness that you have at the beginning, but we have
the experience that the youngster don't have, just because we've
been spending more time driving cars.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
When you look at the great drivers, right, Schumecker came in,
he did the same thing. He was really quick, but
he made a few mistakes. Hamilton came in, he was
very aggressive, he made quite a few mistakes and then
he toned things down. This happens them the same Leclair
was doing that but has continued. Unfortunately, he makes quite
makes quite a few mistakes. So whether or not that
(26:43):
will stop, whether that's because of the Ferrari or not,
we don't know. But you generally see the experience coming
with the great drivers at least, and it makes them
more consistent, and it makes them have better decision making skills.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I noticed maybe all of this as a former athlete,
not at this level obvious, but there's no list of confidence.
But probably if you have consistency, tire management, you know
how to drive in wet conditions and reaction time, you
have good confidence. But I would think a confident driver
(27:18):
is goes without saying otherwise, Boom goes the dynamite.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Boom goes the dynamite. And this is where I love.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Another trademark term boom goes the mast show it's not, but.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
It's your right for the beginning. This is why I
like that we did the episode previously on social and
gossip and drama, because all the drivers will say this,
this is a mental game, and I don't think all
the drama and the gossip is actually helping the drivers.
I actually think it's hindering. And I think this is
what's happening with someone like Perez right now. Jecko, there
(27:48):
is so much noise around him, not being the right teammate,
not being good for his car, Daniel Ricardo coming for
his seat like that has to mess with you.
Speaker 7 (27:57):
Yes, it's great to be standing in a podium. It's
awesome to be leaving those moments where the high super high,
but there also a lot of moment where the lowers
are not that much seen and who alone you are
in those moments? You know, when you win, everyone is
with you. When you don't win, you end up being
very much on your own.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
What's something that surprised you with some of these drivers.
What's something that's maybe like a misconception that we have
of these drivers or you know, we have this idea
that you have to be a fierce competitor and leave,
you know, leave nothing unturned and you know, do your
talking on the track, and it's it's a very sort
of stereotypical male like vision that we have of what
(28:38):
it takes to be a Formula One driver. I'm just
is that true or is there anything that's maybe surprised
you as talking with these drivers over the last couple
of years.
Speaker 6 (28:46):
I think that's it's the building to switch off if
you just waited, like a few more minutes after a
session before talking to them. There can be a difference
as you come down from that adrenaline high and the
best way possible. They are some of the fiercest competitors
I've met, but also several of the drivers are probably
the kindness people ever, very much kind of teddy bears.
(29:08):
They care a lot, not just about their job, but
also the people around them. When they feel comfortable, you
can kind of tell, like Lando constantly, I rarely see
him with like two feet on the ground. He's constantly
got like a knee up sitting in some kind of
like very much young twenty something positioned in a chair.
It's like a little detailed Most people would not notice,
(29:28):
but it kind of shows the comfort level that he
has with whoever's around him. But I think, if I
had to pick the biggest misconception, I think people don't
take into account that these drivers come from very different cultures.
Max Verstappen, for example, I think he's like the most
misunderstood driver in the entire paddock. It comes from a
Belgian Dutch family. Bluntness is part of the culture that
(29:52):
he grew up in, and so I appreciate that he's
like blunt and authentic and one hundred percent himself. He
is such an old soul. I feel like between hearing
how he talks about different things in general, like I've
talked to him before about social media and stuff, and
hearing how he's his approach to it, which is that
he doesn't post, tweet nothing, I think it's interesting. But
(30:14):
how he approaches the sport I think is also kind
of similar in like an older mind. He's just very
much in sync with the card that he's in and
his level of knowledge is just more than I've seen
from some other drivers. But each driver's very very different.
I think the Maxim Steven this year is probably the
most authentic version of Max, and we've been able to
(30:36):
see he's always one hundred percent himself with how blunt
he is and things like that, but he seemed more
at ease, more.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Open, less with a ship on his shoulder exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
It's funny. I feel like every season I'm going through
a bit of a journey myself. I have to admit
I'm coming from a very negative place towards Max Versteppan,
and I feel like this this season, I'm slowly being
warmed up to max for stepping, and I still don't
know how you feel about that. It's going to be okay, No,
(31:09):
I need to be open to change, you know, exactly,
open my heart to change. Change.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Damn it that you feel it too. If we're going
to devote a whole episode to speed, I hate to
be this guy. But pit stops stopping the words stop.
You don't hear this ever in racing. It's the word stop,
but they have to take at least one pit that's
required requiet. Okay, yeah, it's also cool in racing race fastest,
(31:42):
first place. You so rarely hear the word stop. Who
stops the fastest?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Right now? It's red Bull, Red Bull, and you have
it on top of their garage fastest pit stop. You
know how. There's the there's the driver Championship, and then
there's the Constructor Chammpionship. There's also the pit stop Championship,
and it's not an official championship, but you will hear
the Red Bull pit stop team actually be livid when
(32:08):
they lose it, and that has happened.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's like who can rest the fastest? I don't think
they're resting during these I know, but the word stop
is like stopping the car has stopped.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You do have a thing for four letter words, don't you.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
It's kind of funny that there's a fastest competition for stopping.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, stand by for Michael kosh to congratulating himself.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
I'm crushing it.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
You are crushing it, Tony. I'm not sure that Costa's
ego needs any more inflating.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
To be honest, what's the fastest pit stop error? Do
you know that?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I'm glad you asked. In twenty nineteen at the Brazilian GP,
the Red Bull needed just one point eight two seconds
to change four tires of the Maxims step in RB fifteen.
Red Bull is fascinating. They keep beating their own records
and they take it very serious.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
There's only so much time left. Eventually it's gonna be zero.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
But that again, we keep talking about that. It's the
incredible thing with these athletes. They keep pushing those numbers
to you know, we never I don't think anyone in
Formula one fifteen years ago for we're going to beat
sub two seconds, and here we are. But there's a bat.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Oh, there's always a butt.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
There's always a bat. Another team has actually beaten this
record just this year.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Threat.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Do you want to have a guest.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Who not Ferrari? Ferrari? Yeah, Ferrari's like they're putting the
toast in the toaster and we're waiting for it. I
don't know Mercedes.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You said Mercedes. I would have actually said Mercedes as well.
It's actually McLaren. McLaren pit Crew on Lando Norris's car
and it occurred during the Katar GP of twenty twenty
three and recorded it at one point eight seconds. So
you can best bet that Red Bull right now have
something else that they're gunning for. Hell yeah, which is
give us back our recorded pit stop. We want to
beat them this.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
It's just occurred to me. It brought up a question
in your guys conversation. Do you think, I mean, obviously
the records keep being broken in sports? Yeah, do you
think at some point we will plateau?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
So my daughter loves high jump, okay, for whatever reason.
When I take her to play tennis, she just hangs
in the corner and kicks leaves. But her grandpa put
high jump on when he was visiting, and she's like
transfixed by it. No, it's when the Olympics when you
jump over the bar they.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Never can no attempt a new world record of two
or nine.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So she loves high jumps. She's like, you know, just
can't stop watching high jump. So as a parent, being
a parent, you get you dive into these topics you
never thought you even or gave a shit about the
world record for high jump has been stuck it since
like nineteen eighty seven. Yeah, so there, it is a
wonderful new world record. We will reach a plateau, you know,
(34:50):
at some point someone will break, but you keep thinking
humans will go high or faster.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
In a way, it's disconcerting if high jumping is any
kind of harbinger or you know, a sign of where
we're heading is humanity.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
I before you even said anything, I knew what you
were going to say, and I tend to agree with
you on this, like have we maxed out humanity? And
if so, it's going to end soon, but hopefully not
before we've reason two of choosing sides.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Season three, you mean, oh shit, yeah you know what,
or just you're you're not even sure if we're going
to finish this very season.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
I'm just hoping we could finish this Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah, maybe that's better, more and more realistic achievable goal.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Let it faite the black. I'm going to watch the
fastest pit stop right now while you guys talk.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
There's something there that I think, when it comes to technology,
you can push the boundaries a little bit faster and
a little bit further than what you can do if
it's just human.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Right, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
You should have been done now with your pit stop.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Well, I watched the fifteen second ad first Lando Norris.
Here it is this slap box, this slap about boom
but bengales them a high five. Well, lump of coke
and off he goes.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Gods, it's insane, right, you better have time to blink.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
That is so cool. That's really fun to watch. I
advise anybody to watch that and say, is this how
efficient I am at work? Because that's not how I work.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Get into the job, get out cool cool. Let's talk
about the people who do the stopping.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Before we dive into that. We got to take a
short break as promised. We are back.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Let's talk about the people who do the stopping the fastest,
the fastest stopping, and I think you might enjoy this.
The mechanics on the driver's team. So there's you know,
there's there's there's two drivers, two different teams. Each team
has different mechanics for each driver. They actually duplicate as
the pit stop crew. So the rison you can't if
you wanted to Michael tomorrow, you cauldn't actually apply to
(36:50):
just be part of the pit stop crew. You would
actually have to do a full time job as a
mechanic battle.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Here's me tearing up my your applications.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
So no one is actually just a pit stop crew me.
But that's not an actual job in of itself. Rather,
they are doing this as an additional job and they
apply for it. It's a lot of the mechanics, but
not just the mechanics. It can be people in the
gearbox tech support team or the garage support team that
can apply to be part of the fastest team that
(37:17):
does the pit.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Stops, the team that slows down the fastest.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
That's the third time you made that joke.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
You know what the incredible thing is the pit lane
speed limit is a fairly recent rule change, Like they
never used to have speed limits. You'd see the drivers
come in as fast as they could and then leave
as fast as they could.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
You know, in.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
Senna's period and around that time, flutter all the way
through an accident in the pit lane now as a
Ferrari mechanic that's on the ground.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
I'm guessing because I didn't say it happened, but it's
clear that a wheel came off the Minardi.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
There's a danger of.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Cars coming in at high speed.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
A good pit stop also requires the driver to be
sharp and hit that mark to absolute decision.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Right, I'm gonna click this link.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Let's check out this performance by Launce Stroll.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
The front jackman gets knocked over and immediately his reservist
is like, my turn, I'm going in. Yeah. It's like finally, dad,
did you see I've been waiting this whole time.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
In some ways, that reservist is waiting for the driver
to knock the other guy over. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, sorry about thats a really cold well.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
This is not an example of a great pit but
it's an example of the driver needs to hit their mark.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
He needs to hit the mark.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
And it makes me laugh that we picked lancetroll fucking
up to show me because it fit fits perfectly.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Stand by for a heartwarming display of empathy.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I don't really care that this guy got knocked over
shouldn't have been standing there.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Literally, it's his job to stand there.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
The other thing that I thought was really interesting, and
even though I've been watching the sport since ninety ninety one,
I only discovered this I think it was last year
that even though there are two teams mechanics engineers that
work on the two cars, it's one team that does
the pit stop for both teams. Okay, so there isn't
a dedicated pit stop crew for Let's sake, Red Bull
for Checko, and a dedicated pit stop crew for Max.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I was wondering, like, they don't ever pit at the
same time, you can't write.
Speaker 6 (39:11):
Double stack, so box box box box boxbox box box.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
They will do back to back, which are so impressive
to this absolutely spots off proper perfection just when one.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Works out the other one back again.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
It's like a production and the choreography of that is sensational.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
It does look like a very well choreographed dance when
they pull off those double stack it is just so impressive.
I personally think it's one of the coolest things.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
A double stack double stack.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Those selected to be on the pit crew practice per
season and mid season thousands and thousands of times, and
they do it daily. The teams also film and analyze
the pit stops to find where they can improve, and
you will often see the race engineers walking around the
pit stops and when they do it what look slightly
do it for the fans for the show, they're actually
doing it for them and you will constantly see them
(40:05):
analyzing this. Some pick crew practice meditation and mindful nurse.
Speaker 8 (40:09):
Jack raise dire off dire On Jack, Raise dire off
dire On Jack, raise dire lof dire On.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
This is a very cool part of racing.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
It's weird that it's like it's this moment in time
where the racing kind of stops, Yeah, to be able
to go and raise bigger and better the moment that
exercise is done.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And you know what my least favorite part of life is,
but I've gotten older, I've had to adjust my thinking
on it.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
What stand by for another fascinating life observation.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Maintenance, Yeah, the daily maintenance of stuff. You gotta change tires,
sometimes you got to clean the windshield off, and if
everything is going well, maybe that's the time to think
about when you're going to do that.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
And you do before it's too late.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
For it's too late, because those pit stops where it's
too late you're changing a wing or whatever those are,
those are gonn take forever. Do any of these little
tidbits ever make it in? I wonder the good ones?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
And you actually bring out you actually bring up a
really good point, which is not not only does everyone
have a job to do, but the drive also has
to hit that exact mark. And you will hear them
say if I stop a little bit too forward, a
little bit too left, the people actually have to move
out of their position to hit the wheelgun and then
in the exactly and that you lose half a second,
(41:33):
a mini second here and there, and so that I've
always found really impressive of how the drivers get to
hit that mark to perfection.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Is there a break? Is it a foot break?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
It is a foot break, And actually most human beings
cannot push that foot break.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Because you just got to hit it so hard.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
You've got to hit it so hard. It's a phenomenal
if you're ever bought. There's a phenomenal video on YouTube
that is I think the title is can a normal
person drive a Formula One car? And this guide trains
for months and months with Formula one to figure out
and keep saying we can't let you out until you
hit the brake to one hundred percent and he can't then,
and he's like, I'm doing it, like you're about twenty
percent of the brake. We're gonna need you to get
(42:07):
to that.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
What a soft man? Come on, bro, hit it.
Speaker 5 (42:12):
When you put a normal person in a Formal one car,
they don't work the engine hard enough. You have to
get your ears and your senses adjusted to how high
a Formula one car revs. And so most people just,
you know, just trundle through the gears only using half
of the rpm. The problem is when you do that,
(42:33):
all of the hydraulic systems in the car run off
the engine, and so if the engine isn't turning over
quickly enough, the hydraulic systems fail and the car actually
turns itself off. And so that's another thing. You're constantly
telling the drivers to change down, change down the gears,
use the engine a little bit more.
Speaker 7 (42:50):
I think there's one thing that's the hardest and most
annoying and frustrating the parties that people will never know
what it is to drive a Formula one car at
full speed just because it's you know, you can go
and play basketball and you can try to shoot a
three points basket and see you often you miss it,
(43:10):
especially myself. But and then you see Michael Jordan or
Lebron James and they do it, and it's just like
boom boom all the time. In you can go and
play golf and you can hit your driver and so
you do two hundred and twenty yards and then the
pros they do three hundred and they shoot, you know,
minus ten and you are plus thirty five eighteen hollers
and Formula one car you cannot jump in. You can
(43:32):
you cannot compare yourself as much as I would love to,
It's it's not possible. And I think that's that's one
of the hardest part in our spots for people to understand.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Final four. It's Michael, We're at the end. Are you
a speed junkie? Are you feeling it?
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah? I am. I Speed is Speed is everything to
the sport. Without speed, there is no f one. Speed
makes the steaks high, speed makes money come in. Speed
makes us watch it, Speed makes the pit stop more interesting.
Speed is everything. Speed Give me speed. I have a
need for speed. There's a freight trademark I should do
(44:11):
because there's so much speed. The driver's skill is so
important because if they don't get it right, bad stuff
can happen.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
And it's not just speed for one lap. They have
to do fifty plus seventy laps and they have to
keep that speed up.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, the speed is everything. I mean really, honestly, I
hate to whisper this into the microphone, but we could
eliminate all the other episodes and just talk about speed.
But can we No, we can't because we got ads
to sell. Sult in.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
This has been Choosing Sides f one, a production of
Sports Illustrated Studios, iHeart Podcast and one oh one Studio Podcast.
The show is hosted by Michael Costa and Tony Cowan Brown.
This episode was edited, scored, and sound designed by senior
producer Jojai May Paddle. Scott Stone is the executive producer
(45:15):
and head of audio, and Daniel Wexman is Director of
podcast Development and production Manager at one on one Studios.
At iHeart Podcasts, Sean Titne is our executive producer and
a special thank you to Michelle Newman, David Glasser, and
David Hootkin from one O one Studios. For more shows
(45:35):
from iHeart Podcasts, go visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts, and whatever you do,
don't forget to rate us and tell your friends. It
really does mean a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Next week, on Choosing Sides F one, we are going
to talk about the tech nerd. If F one is
the merger of Man and Machine, and we just spent
most of this episode talking about Man. Well, next week
we're going to shift our full attention to the machine.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Nerds. Yeah, suck at nerds.
Speed junkie.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Have we lost the room?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We've lost the room. I've certainly done that before.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Oh god, yeah, stand up, convenience. It's a tough kid.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
It's a tough one. Okay, Tony you ready?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I am Lights out and away we go.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Ooh, I'm not sure you technically are allowed to say
that or use that sentence.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Actually, Michael, what do you mean?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's owned by someone else.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Somebody owns that sentence. You can own a sentence, yes,
what do you want?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
A story time?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yes? Story time?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Crafty or David Croft, who's the legendary Sky Sports presenter
that you often hear on TV, started to introduce that
sentence lights out and awhere we go, which has become
iconic to basically, and I wonder if you do something similar,
but it gives him two or three seconds where he
isn't thinking about what he wants to say, but instead
he's just like analyzing the situation.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So he owns the sentence.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, technically, you can trademark a catchphrase, and in this case,
Crofty hasn't actually technically trademarked his opening phrase. But there
is a well recognized gentlemen's agreement that others don't use it.
There are some lines that even this podcast will not cross.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's hot.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Ah, I'm afraid sorry, you can't use that one either.
Paris Hilton owns it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Oh my gosh, I love you that form My Heart
podcast one on one studios and Sports Illustrated Studios. This
is choosing sides.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yes one Wow.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Wow, Hey guys, can you hear me?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Perfect?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
This is Scott Mansell.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
I'm an ex professional racing driver with ten years of experience.
I've driven over thirty Formula one cars.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
But he's also the founder of an immensely popular Formula
one YouTube channel called Driver sixty one with.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
One point two million subscribers.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
My name is Malone Colman. I am a staff writer
covering Formula one at the Athletic.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Her thing, I guess you could say, is writing these
incredibly in depth and nuanced profiles of the drivers. So
she is actually someone who got to spend a lot
of time with the F one drivers and really experience
up close what it's like being a Formula one racing driver.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh interesting.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
How would you describe you know, Max forstaff and how
would you describe Pierre Ghastly? I pivot the question around
to the drivers and have them define themselves. How do
you want to be seen in this chapter of your life?
It's a big question. They pause, They really do pause,
and kind I do a double take a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Give us a little bit of an introduction.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Who are you?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Where should we know you from?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Bobria watching race cars going around. Yeah, I'm a race
car driver. I was very lucky to do Formula one
for ten years.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
This is Romane Grojean, the Phoenix, ex Formula one racing driver.
Current car driver.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Isn't Tony? Isn't he the guy who crashed, almost killed himself,
jumped out of the burning car.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yes, and he has stories to tell about that moment.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
I'm gonna tell you a funny story. My wife always
complained that I was training too much. I was doing
too much geam, I was doing too much bicycle and
I didn't need all of that to be a race
car driver. And then at that accident in Bahrain where
sixty seven g impact got stuck in a car on fire,
didn't lose consciousness, which is amazing, and was strong enough
(03:32):
to escape from being locked between you know, a barrier,
a halo headrest and into far and just because I
was strong enough and fiting off and got the energy
to jump out of it, I made it. And since
then she's like, well, you can go as much as
you want the gym. So you know, it worked out
(03:52):
pretty well. You did all of.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
That homa to be able to spend more time in
the gym. How do you get back in a calf
or something like that?
Speaker 7 (04:00):
Very very natural, very normal, of course, you know, I'm
not I'm not completely stupid. Had a bit of apprehension.
I was not sure of what would it be like.
And we go to race one and I'm there on
the grid thinking, Okay, who is it gonna go. It's
gonna be my first race start since the accident. But
(04:20):
once the engine started and we got rolling for the
formation up, all of those foots went away and it
was all about, Okay, how can I do the best
I can in that race?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Okay, so we can finally talk about speed? Is that what?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
This is?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Absolutely all right?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Because actually let's start with the basics. How fast can
an F one car go? What's the fastest that it's
ever gone?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, so as of six months ago, and I don't
actually think anything has changed surprisingly in the sport over
the last six months. The fastest recording speed was still
from valtwie Botas, and he did the fastest speed when
he was driving for Williams during the qualifying of the
twenty sixteen Mexico GP.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Particularly mech because the circuit is at altitude and the
air is thinner, so there's less drag on the wings
of the car, which is why they go so quick.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He was captured driving at three hundred and seventy two
point five kilometers per hour or two hundred and thirty
one point five miles per hour. Oh by that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Honestly, I'm a little bit disappointed right now. And I'll
have you know that a four gt American was clocked
at three hundred and ten miles per hour at the
launch and landing facility located in the Kennedy Space Center, Florida,
fastest three corps on the planet.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Half like the Wow, good show, guys.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Now, I know what you're gonna say, Well, what is
it in kilometers? I'm not going to answer that. I
don't know. This is an American show, Tony. But what
I do want an answer to is how is there
a faster car than Formula one? I thought Formula one
was the pinnacle of racing.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Well over a lap, then a Formula one car would
be significantly quicker. They might not be the fastest thing
in the world in a straight line. It's partly because
they have lots of wings and aerodynamic devices on them,
and so there's a lot of drag. Right, It's like
pushing a big, a big flat pane or a door
through the wind, and it slows it down. But what
(06:23):
you give up in straight line speed you more than
make up for in the breaking areas and through the corners.
It kind of has a superpower with downforce because the
quicker you go, the more downforce you have, Therefore the
more grip you have. Therefore you can go a bit quicker, right,
So it's kind of extrapolates up with an aerodynamic car.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, and that's what's fun about F one is all
the turns and stops and stop lights and speed bumps
and pedestrians. I think it's weird that they throw some
pedestrians in there. Sometimes that would be fun.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
It's funny to speed. We always have that question, how first, jogle,
I have no idea. I don't know. I just you know,
the only thing I know is that whenever it is
a beep in my ear, I help shift to the
next gear, and whenever I reach maximum geal top top
end of the straight line, I breaked as late as
I can to make the corner. But it doesn't really matter.
If I was doing two hundred miles an hour two
(07:15):
hundred and twenty two, it does really doesn't matter. All
matters is or late did I break to make the corner,
how much speed did I carry into the corner. But
on the street, I don't care. I don't even have
the information on my dash.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
This makes sense to me.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
We got that. Yeah, okay, you said something there that
I think new fans might find really interesting. You talked
about the beep that you get in your ear. Can
you explain what that means?
Speaker 7 (07:36):
Yeah, every time we have it's the right timing to
get to the next gear. We have a beep in
O A and we upshift and some drivers, some of
my teammates hate it because, yes, it's a lot of beep.
I mean, if you shift thirty five times at a lap,
it's thirty five times you're going to get a bip.
But at least it allows me to focus on what's
outside and not looking at the shift lights, so I
(07:56):
use it a lot. We have also won for anti stall.
We have one for perimeter in and pitimeter out, and
we use different tones or different resolutions, so don't they
don't sound the same, so you know which one is what.
But yes, that's it's quite funny that we just used that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So sure, give that souped up American muscle car and
end a straight line and eventually, eventually it will accelerate
faster than the Formula one car. But in any kind
of realistic chase, the Ford or any other car for
that matter, stands absolutely no chance whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
But oh, there's a butt.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
There's a big butts, the big butt. Everyone. Cars are
only so fast in the hands of extremely capable and
talented drivers, of whom there are obviously only a handful
in the entire world.
Speaker 7 (08:44):
Right in mind that, I think there's more people going
in the space every year, and there's Formula one drivers.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
And that is what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
You have to think that it's a pyramids. It starts
with go kat There's a lot of kids that do
go kart. Out of those kids, the top one go
to the next level of single seater, and then they
do Formula four, Formula three, Formula two, so that the
perimeter already gets quite narrow at the top, and then
you've got Formula one. There's twenty guys in the world
doing what they do, so already out of every go
(09:11):
card single guys, you have taken maybe not twenty of
the best because there are different you know, the financial
aspect ons on. But I would say you have a
good seventy seventy five percent off the top of the
world at that level. So then between the drivers is
the tiny difference that you have, so, of course than
it's the card that does the definant part.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you. How
much of this is the actual driver? How much of
this this machine? I'm starting to get the feeling that
it's really more about the car, which is putting me off.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
To be honest, you've just highlighted one of the hottest
topics in Formula one.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
Yes, I think the driver is five percent, machine is
ninety five percent. Sadly, really, yes, At at the highest
level of motorsport, the drivers are all very very talented,
so the only the difference left is the car.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
The drivers, of course do make a massive difference, but
it's very difficult to compare them across team.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's always about the car, the driver and the teammate.
So in Formula one, your teammate is both your teammate
but also your biggest competitor because only the two of
you are driving the exact same car. So whereas if
you look at the eighteen other drivers on the grid,
(10:31):
you could argue, well, they've got a better car, or
they've managed to figure out the car and the regulations
this year, that's why they're faster. When it comes to
your teammate, you can't actually have that.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Debate, right But if me and you are on a team,
as our car exactly the same.
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Cars are never one hundred percent of the same just
because of materials, but most of the team try to
make it that, yes, both cars are the same.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
If there's an update in like the arrow or something
on the car, and the team can't produce a new
wing in time, they'll just send one to a race
and one of the drivers will get that and they'll
generally take it in terms. But the core of the
cars are saying. Where they might go in a slightly
different direction is with the setup now, of course, on
(11:13):
a Formula one car, you can change the springs, you
can change the damping of the car, you can change
the wings, you can change the roll bars. Going into
a bit too much detail here, there's many things that
you can change on a Formula one car, and so
the drivers might head off in different directions there, and
that's down to personal preference. The setup of the car
(11:33):
is kind of a reflection of their driving style. They
have to work together in order to extract the most
out of the car. It's why sometimes you hear drivers
say I've just gone in the wrong direction with setup
because they've headed down the route that they thought was
going to be quick and actually their teammate's gone a
different way and has ended up being quicker.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
But this is so hard to know if it's the
car or the driver. So like Max could just be
a badass driver driving a good car and he's dominating.
So they're like, it's the car, it's the car, it's
the car.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
I think that's true. I think the engineers building that
car to be as fast as it can with kind
of a driver, and the best drivers are the ones
who are able to adapt to the car that's been built.
For them.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That is what is happening currently right now with Maxistapanie.
Undoubtedly that he both has the pinnacle of cars. He
has the fastest car, the greatest car. He also is
one of the greatest drivers out there on track, if
not the greatest driver out there on track, right. And
what's been interesting and really hard for his teammates is
they have to match him, right, and they've struggled.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Probably let check go through, please, let's check go back through.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And we had Daniel Cardo, Pierre Ghastly. We now have
Checko Perez, let's check go through. And they're all struggling.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Has Jugo won anything this year?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
One they do?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
They even let them win, Well, they don't let him Max.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Max.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That's the point, Max will let no one. Max is
sat in that car going I want to win everything,
and they're like, you've already got the championship, Max.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Let's check go through please, right, But I mean, if
Chugo is in first place, what won't they tell him
to back off so Max can go past them.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I mean they've tried.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I told you already last time.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
You guys, don't ask that again to me.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Are we clear about that?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
You've seen it over the years. The drivers just want
to dominate their their teammates, how they show their value.
These are racing drivers, These are professional sports people. There
are one hundred percent selfish. The only way that they
will ever help each other out is perhaps in a
race when they're on completely different pitch strategies. You know,
(13:28):
one driver is going for a one stop and needs
to look after their tires. Another drivers doing two stops
and is kind of racing back through the field and
needs to overtake. These drivers, they're made to win, right,
That's all the focus. And if it looks like a
kind gesture, there's another reason for it. Yeah they're not.
They're not just they're not just being kind.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So if we put the entire grid this year in
one of those you know, Andrew Nui red bulls, what
would happen?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
What would happen? As in who would win?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (13:59):
You want me to pick it up?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Three?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh? Yes?
Speaker 8 (14:01):
Do it?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Puckus up on the edge.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Here.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
This is purely off driving, right, We driver sixty one
are completely unbiased. I look at the drivers, you know,
as if I was coaching them or working with them.
It's got nothing to do with their personalities. But I
think off the back of this year, probably the Stappen,
Leclair and Norris.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
We got to take a short break. Can you tell
me what the different skills are required to be a
good driver, to be a good fane driver.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
Well, you need the talent, you need the strengths, you
need the mental strengths as well. You need to be
a good communicator, good manager with your guys. You know,
they spend a lot of times around you. You need
to be good with the media and the market. So
it's it's quite a full job.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Actually, to me, the most important thing is having like
a higher mental capacity. There is a lot of stuff
happening when we're out on track. You put a normal
person in a road car which is slow compared to
a formal one car, and they don't have enough capacity
to drive that thing quickly understand what you're saying from
(15:24):
the passenger seat, you know, when you're sat next to them.
These drivers are driving at two hundred miles an hour,
centimeters from the wall, changing the diff settings on the
steering wheel, thinking about how they're going to overtake the
car in front of them, trying to manage the tires,
and trying to think about the general strategy, all while
also thinking about if any setup changes, any wing changes
(15:48):
need to happen in the next pit stop. So the
capacity that these drivers have is just absolutely incredible that
they can absorb all of this information and most of
them sound reason then be calm when they're on the radio.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Everything.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
I think when you look at F one, the physicality
of it, you're able to prepare for. That is something
that you can train from a very young age, and
you're able to do. When it comes to mental strength,
that looks very different in each person, and everyone's going
to adjust very differently. Some people can very easily switch
the noise off, other people not so much. But it
goes beyond just you know, the traditional social media noise.
(16:41):
When I was talking to Para, ghastly asked him to
walk me through what a race weekend looked like, and
it was the amount of scrutiny that they are under
at all times. At the minute that they leave their rooms,
all lives are on them. And it's not just fans
and social media, it's also you know, engineers, it's talking
about the cars. It's data sensors that are on the
(17:01):
cars when they're going around the track. It's all the
cameras and the videographers that are within the paddock, the
social media team, sponsors, and it's a lot of pressure
to be able to do it. Yes, it's their job.
Yes it's what they get paid to do. Yes, they
love it. But two things can be read at once.
It can be a lot to take on and something
that they absolutely adore with their entire heart and want
(17:23):
to be doing so. I think when you look at
F one, the mental component, the mental strength that you
need to be an F one driver is so important
and a critical part of a success journey within F
one because you need to be fully turned on in
every way possible.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Some drivers are incredibly good at squeezing everything out of
the car, giving that perfect lap. This quality, this precision quality,
makes them qualifying champions. But being able to qualify this
I think this is one of the problems that charl
Leclair has is you can put everything on the line,
do an incredible qualifying lap, be really good during the
qualifying sessions to keep up that consistency and perform in
(18:02):
the heat of the moment during the race as well.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Because qualifying lap don't they just take your best lap,
they take a single lap yes.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Oh, all out one shot, put.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Everything on the line, all the forgive my ignorance? Are
all the cars on the track for qualifying?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yes and no, different times, different moments. And again remember
that conversation that we had about the degradation of the
track and is it hot is it cold? It's always
better to not be the first person. If you're the
second person, you can also get a toe. This is
when your teammate comes in. So there's all of those
little components and you'll often hear the drivers get angry
of like why did you put me out on the track?
Now everyone's out here, And that goes to the strategy
(18:38):
component of this was the absolute wrong time to put
me out to do my hot lap?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Right? I see? Okay?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
And the consistency is key. Like some people we talked
about this when we talked about trusting your gut or
looking at the numbers and knowing where to hit every
single time. A driver like Esteban Ukhon is incredibly consistent
rarely makes those mistakes. Annex albums another example of you
know he's going to show up and rely driver, but
you might not always be very surprised by them because
(19:03):
they're just like, yeah, that's that's what I expected. Right
then we've got tire management and we discussed it at
lamp during our entire episode and.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Got to be a huge skill the drivers need to
be good at.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
Yeah. The way I like to think of it is, okay,
you know, I'll start the race and push the first
few laps, and then I get into my rthom and
then I try to save as much as I can
on that entire life. So whenever I need it to
make a pass to push at the end of a
stint so on, I have got it left. And you know,
sometimes you completely mess it out. I think last year
(19:36):
one stint in a race that we were doing really well,
I pushed a little bit too hard from the beginning
and at the last six seven laps of the stint
was I was just hanging in there and losing position,
and I thought, you know what, that was stupid. I
should have done it differently at the beginning of a stint,
and I work work differently. But anyway, that's you know,
you always learn. I'm normally decent at it. I like
(19:58):
it because I understand sliding effect. But yeah, I think
the best word for the one someone that doesn't know
is to remember that the tires of a life, and
they have a memory, so everything you take away at
the beginning, you know, it's like it's like on a bicycle.
You have a certain amount of matches in your in
your back pocket, and every time you attack, or you
try to attack climbing or playing with his friend, you
(20:20):
burn a match and eventually you don't have any left.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Funnily enough, Paris, because we've been talking about check out
a bit. Parents is often referred to as the tire
whisperer exactly, though it does seem this season at least
whatever he's whispering to those tires, they aren't actually paying
attention and listening.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Maybe maybe needs to yell at him.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Just shouting at one of my favorites, which is still
tied to tires somewhat, which is driving in the wet conditions?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Does this come up a lot? Though?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Let me put a pin in that for because you
know what I'm going to say. We've got an episode.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Oh yeah, well I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
We're going to have a whole episode dedicated to none
other than the weather. Yeah, one more reaction time.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yes, I was gonna say this, This needs to be.
Speaker 7 (21:14):
There reaction time you can improve. Some people are more
natural than others, but you can improve while working at it.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You see them as they're training for the races. They're
playing with these tennis balls and they're hitting these lights
all over.
Speaker 7 (21:26):
Yeah, exactly obvious one is the start, you know, that's
so how fast react to the lights, But also in
any circumstances, I think the one we don't see is
the one inside the cow and there's anything happening in front,
and how quick you can react, how quickly can react
to debris flying, or quick can react to a car
spinning in front of you, how quick you can react
(21:47):
to reaction of the drive in front of you trying
to pass him.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Per official timing is a formula one. The fastest driver
to get off the mark is again Valcherie bot Us.
At the twenty nineteen Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, he
recorded a reaction time of just noter point not four
seconds off the line.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Which is zero point zero second. I was going to say,
and just translating your British.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Is getting off the line really the big indicator of that.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
You will hear some drivers go just I wasn't fast enough,
especially if you're on the front light, especially if you're
in the front two rows. The first person that gets
out of there and gets that driving line is fat.
You have you definitely have, Yeah, definitely have a d up.
I'll tell you fun fact for you. We haven't done
one of those in a while. You know those five
lights that go out at the start of the rays
(22:33):
to indicate the race is starting. I never knew this,
but it's it's a manual button that's pressed. Oh I
thought it was automatic till not that long ago. But
there's an actual human that presses go the lights are on,
and then go the lights get.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Off, And when the lights are off, it's race time.
Where we go?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
It's m M and awhere we go.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Okay, with all these skills, I noticed you didn't mention
sir Lewis Hamilton or Max for stepping at all.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Michael Carsta is paying attention.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I was paying attention, You were paying attention.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I think this is because both of them have all
of the above.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
The kind of best skill and the best driving style
to have is the one way you can adapt to
any of the cars. Now, don't forget that the cars
are changing race by race. They're actually changing within the session, right,
the circuit is changing. The balance between the front and
the rear of the car is changing as well, even
(23:29):
over a single qualifying lap. So when people talk about
the balance changing, they may turn into one corner and
the car might have understeerd, so the front isn't turning
as much as you actually want it to. And then
towards the end of the lap, the rear might be
sliding and giving way before the front. And so the
driver themselves can change their style, how they use the brakes,
(23:52):
how they turn the car, how they come off the brakes,
how they accelerate to manipulate this balance. So they're doing
it within a lap, they're doing it corner by corner,
they're doing it when the tires change, they're doing it
when the wind direction changes. But to a broader extent,
a driving style will change as a car develops over
the season and even year by year, and generation of
(24:15):
rule changes to generation of rule changes. Right, and so
when you look at the really good drivers, the Schumachers,
the Hamilton's of the Stappens, they're able to keep this
going over you know, different eras of Formula one, and
so they're the guys who can adapt they're the ones
who can change their style to extract the very most
from the car.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Where does experience play into all this? You talked about
reaction time being best with young drivers, but a lot
of this other stuff I would think experience would be
a huge benefit.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
So where experience comes into this, it's kind of not
toning things down, but it's knowing when to not push
at one hundred percent, having the capacity to think about
a wider strategy, kind of picking your battles. When you're
a young driver, you just want to push a hundred
percent all of the time, and you know that's good
in most cases, but sometimes you just have to sit back.
(25:07):
Sometimes you don't need to go for that dive bomb move.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
Obviously, your body needs a little bit more time to
recover the more advanced you go in your age compared
to when you were a youngster, So that's the difference.
You just need to, you know, plan your travel a
little bit better, plan you sleep a little bit better,
make sure that you are more careful with your nutrition.
But racing is very particular in a way that we
(25:31):
train very little in our environment. Imagine football player, soccer player,
tennis player, whatever, and you're tell him that the only
place you can practice is at the matches, at the game,
and in between you can do you can go to
the gym, you can work and your reflexes, you can
do your cardiovascular or your bicycle or running, but you
(25:52):
cannot do your game. And I think that's what that's
what's very different in racing, you know. I think this
year in Indica, we're very lucky. We have five days
of testing, which is a lot. I think that's why
we can see in racing that drivers that are a
bit older or more experience. Did I say because I've
bothered them, we can still compete at the highest level
(26:13):
because we may have lost a little bit of that
craziness that you have at the beginning, but we have
the experience that the youngster don't have, just because we've
been spending more time driving cars.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
When you look at the great drivers, right, Schumecker came in,
he did the same thing. He was really quick, but
he made a few mistakes. Hamilton came in, he was
very aggressive, he made quite a few mistakes and then
he toned things down. This happens them the same Leclair
was doing that but has continued. Unfortunately, he makes quite
makes quite a few mistakes. So whether or not that
(26:43):
will stop, whether that's because of the Ferrari or not,
we don't know. But you generally see the experience coming
with the great drivers at least, and it makes them
more consistent, and it makes them have better decision making skills.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I noticed maybe all of this as a former athlete,
not at this level obvious, but there's no list of confidence.
But probably if you have consistency, tire management, you know
how to drive in wet conditions and reaction time, you
have good confidence. But I would think a confident driver
(27:18):
is goes without saying otherwise, Boom goes the dynamite.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Boom goes the dynamite. And this is where I love.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Another trademark term boom goes the mast show it's not, but.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
It's your right for the beginning. This is why I
like that we did the episode previously on social and
gossip and drama, because all the drivers will say this,
this is a mental game, and I don't think all
the drama and the gossip is actually helping the drivers.
I actually think it's hindering. And I think this is
what's happening with someone like Perez right now. Jecko, there
(27:48):
is so much noise around him, not being the right teammate,
not being good for his car, Daniel Ricardo coming for
his seat like that has to mess with you.
Speaker 7 (27:57):
Yes, it's great to be standing in a podium. It's
awesome to be leaving those moments where the high super high,
but there also a lot of moment where the lowers
are not that much seen and who alone you are
in those moments? You know, when you win, everyone is
with you. When you don't win, you end up being
very much on your own.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
What's something that surprised you with some of these drivers.
What's something that's maybe like a misconception that we have
of these drivers or you know, we have this idea
that you have to be a fierce competitor and leave,
you know, leave nothing unturned and you know, do your
talking on the track, and it's it's a very sort
of stereotypical male like vision that we have of what
(28:38):
it takes to be a Formula One driver. I'm just
is that true or is there anything that's maybe surprised
you as talking with these drivers over the last couple
of years.
Speaker 6 (28:46):
I think that's it's the building to switch off if
you just waited, like a few more minutes after a
session before talking to them. There can be a difference
as you come down from that adrenaline high and the
best way possible. They are some of the fiercest competitors
I've met, but also several of the drivers are probably
the kindness people ever, very much kind of teddy bears.
(29:08):
They care a lot, not just about their job, but
also the people around them. When they feel comfortable, you
can kind of tell, like Lando constantly, I rarely see
him with like two feet on the ground. He's constantly
got like a knee up sitting in some kind of
like very much young twenty something positioned in a chair.
It's like a little detailed Most people would not notice,
(29:28):
but it kind of shows the comfort level that he
has with whoever's around him. But I think, if I
had to pick the biggest misconception, I think people don't
take into account that these drivers come from very different cultures.
Max Verstappen, for example, I think he's like the most
misunderstood driver in the entire paddock. It comes from a
Belgian Dutch family. Bluntness is part of the culture that
(29:52):
he grew up in, and so I appreciate that he's
like blunt and authentic and one hundred percent himself. He
is such an old soul. I feel like between hearing
how he talks about different things in general, like I've
talked to him before about social media and stuff, and
hearing how he's his approach to it, which is that
he doesn't post, tweet nothing, I think it's interesting. But
(30:14):
how he approaches the sport I think is also kind
of similar in like an older mind. He's just very
much in sync with the card that he's in and
his level of knowledge is just more than I've seen
from some other drivers. But each driver's very very different.
I think the Maxim Steven this year is probably the
most authentic version of Max, and we've been able to
(30:36):
see he's always one hundred percent himself with how blunt
he is and things like that, but he seemed more
at ease, more.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Open, less with a ship on his shoulder exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
It's funny. I feel like every season I'm going through
a bit of a journey myself. I have to admit
I'm coming from a very negative place towards Max Versteppan,
and I feel like this this season, I'm slowly being
warmed up to max for stepping, and I still don't
know how you feel about that. It's going to be okay, No,
(31:09):
I need to be open to change, you know, exactly,
open my heart to change. Change.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Damn it that you feel it too. If we're going
to devote a whole episode to speed, I hate to
be this guy. But pit stops stopping the words stop.
You don't hear this ever in racing. It's the word stop,
but they have to take at least one pit that's
required requiet. Okay, yeah, it's also cool in racing race fastest,
(31:42):
first place. You so rarely hear the word stop. Who
stops the fastest?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Right now? It's red Bull, Red Bull, and you have
it on top of their garage fastest pit stop. You
know how. There's the there's the driver Championship, and then
there's the Constructor Chammpionship. There's also the pit stop Championship,
and it's not an official championship, but you will hear
the Red Bull pit stop team actually be livid when
(32:08):
they lose it, and that has happened.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's like who can rest the fastest? I don't think
they're resting during these I know, but the word stop
is like stopping the car has stopped.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You do have a thing for four letter words, don't you.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
It's kind of funny that there's a fastest competition for stopping.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, stand by for Michael kosh to congratulating himself.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
I'm crushing it.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
You are crushing it, Tony. I'm not sure that Costa's
ego needs any more inflating.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
To be honest, what's the fastest pit stop error? Do
you know that?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I'm glad you asked. In twenty nineteen at the Brazilian GP,
the Red Bull needed just one point eight two seconds
to change four tires of the Maxims step in RB fifteen.
Red Bull is fascinating. They keep beating their own records
and they take it very serious.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
There's only so much time left. Eventually it's gonna be zero.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
But that again, we keep talking about that. It's the
incredible thing with these athletes. They keep pushing those numbers
to you know, we never I don't think anyone in
Formula one fifteen years ago for we're going to beat
sub two seconds, and here we are. But there's a bat.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Oh, there's always a butt.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
There's always a bat. Another team has actually beaten this
record just this year.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Threat.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Do you want to have a guest.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Who not Ferrari? Ferrari? Yeah, Ferrari's like they're putting the
toast in the toaster and we're waiting for it. I
don't know Mercedes.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You said Mercedes. I would have actually said Mercedes as well.
It's actually McLaren. McLaren pit Crew on Lando Norris's car
and it occurred during the Katar GP of twenty twenty
three and recorded it at one point eight seconds. So
you can best bet that Red Bull right now have
something else that they're gunning for. Hell yeah, which is
give us back our recorded pit stop. We want to
beat them this.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
It's just occurred to me. It brought up a question
in your guys conversation. Do you think, I mean, obviously
the records keep being broken in sports? Yeah, do you
think at some point we will plateau?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
So my daughter loves high jump, okay, for whatever reason.
When I take her to play tennis, she just hangs
in the corner and kicks leaves. But her grandpa put
high jump on when he was visiting, and she's like
transfixed by it. No, it's when the Olympics when you
jump over the bar they.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Never can no attempt a new world record of two
or nine.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So she loves high jumps. She's like, you know, just
can't stop watching high jump. So as a parent, being
a parent, you get you dive into these topics you
never thought you even or gave a shit about the
world record for high jump has been stuck it since
like nineteen eighty seven. Yeah, so there, it is a
wonderful new world record. We will reach a plateau, you know,
(34:50):
at some point someone will break, but you keep thinking
humans will go high or faster.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
In a way, it's disconcerting if high jumping is any
kind of harbinger or you know, a sign of where
we're heading is humanity.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
I before you even said anything, I knew what you
were going to say, and I tend to agree with
you on this, like have we maxed out humanity? And
if so, it's going to end soon, but hopefully not
before we've reason two of choosing sides.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Season three, you mean, oh shit, yeah you know what,
or just you're you're not even sure if we're going
to finish this very season.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
I'm just hoping we could finish this Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah, maybe that's better, more and more realistic achievable goal.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Let it faite the black. I'm going to watch the
fastest pit stop right now while you guys talk.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
There's something there that I think, when it comes to technology,
you can push the boundaries a little bit faster and
a little bit further than what you can do if
it's just human.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Right, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
You should have been done now with your pit stop.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Well, I watched the fifteen second ad first Lando Norris.
Here it is this slap box, this slap about boom
but bengales them a high five. Well, lump of coke
and off he goes.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Gods, it's insane, right, you better have time to blink.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
That is so cool. That's really fun to watch. I
advise anybody to watch that and say, is this how
efficient I am at work? Because that's not how I work.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Get into the job, get out cool cool. Let's talk
about the people who do the stopping.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Before we dive into that. We got to take a
short break as promised. We are back.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Let's talk about the people who do the stopping the fastest,
the fastest stopping, and I think you might enjoy this.
The mechanics on the driver's team. So there's you know,
there's there's there's two drivers, two different teams. Each team
has different mechanics for each driver. They actually duplicate as
the pit stop crew. So the rison you can't if
you wanted to Michael tomorrow, you cauldn't actually apply to
(36:50):
just be part of the pit stop crew. You would
actually have to do a full time job as a
mechanic battle.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Here's me tearing up my your applications.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
So no one is actually just a pit stop crew me.
But that's not an actual job in of itself. Rather,
they are doing this as an additional job and they
apply for it. It's a lot of the mechanics, but
not just the mechanics. It can be people in the
gearbox tech support team or the garage support team that
can apply to be part of the fastest team that
(37:17):
does the pit.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Stops, the team that slows down the fastest.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
That's the third time you made that joke.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
You know what the incredible thing is the pit lane
speed limit is a fairly recent rule change, Like they
never used to have speed limits. You'd see the drivers
come in as fast as they could and then leave
as fast as they could.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
You know, in.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
Senna's period and around that time, flutter all the way
through an accident in the pit lane now as a
Ferrari mechanic that's on the ground.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
I'm guessing because I didn't say it happened, but it's
clear that a wheel came off the Minardi.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
There's a danger of.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Cars coming in at high speed.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
A good pit stop also requires the driver to be
sharp and hit that mark to absolute decision.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Right, I'm gonna click this link.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Let's check out this performance by Launce Stroll.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
The front jackman gets knocked over and immediately his reservist
is like, my turn, I'm going in. Yeah. It's like finally, dad,
did you see I've been waiting this whole time.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
In some ways, that reservist is waiting for the driver
to knock the other guy over. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, sorry about thats a really cold well.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
This is not an example of a great pit but
it's an example of the driver needs to hit their mark.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
He needs to hit the mark.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
And it makes me laugh that we picked lancetroll fucking
up to show me because it fit fits perfectly.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Stand by for a heartwarming display of empathy.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I don't really care that this guy got knocked over
shouldn't have been standing there.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Literally, it's his job to stand there.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
The other thing that I thought was really interesting, and
even though I've been watching the sport since ninety ninety one,
I only discovered this I think it was last year
that even though there are two teams mechanics engineers that
work on the two cars, it's one team that does
the pit stop for both teams. Okay, so there isn't
a dedicated pit stop crew for Let's sake, Red Bull
for Checko, and a dedicated pit stop crew for Max.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I was wondering, like, they don't ever pit at the
same time, you can't write.
Speaker 6 (39:11):
Double stack, so box box box box boxbox box box.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
They will do back to back, which are so impressive
to this absolutely spots off proper perfection just when one.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Works out the other one back again.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
It's like a production and the choreography of that is sensational.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
It does look like a very well choreographed dance when
they pull off those double stack it is just so impressive.
I personally think it's one of the coolest things.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
A double stack double stack.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Those selected to be on the pit crew practice per
season and mid season thousands and thousands of times, and
they do it daily. The teams also film and analyze
the pit stops to find where they can improve, and
you will often see the race engineers walking around the
pit stops and when they do it what look slightly
do it for the fans for the show, they're actually
doing it for them and you will constantly see them
(40:05):
analyzing this. Some pick crew practice meditation and mindful nurse.
Speaker 8 (40:09):
Jack raise dire off dire On Jack, Raise dire off
dire On Jack, raise dire lof dire On.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
This is a very cool part of racing.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
It's weird that it's like it's this moment in time
where the racing kind of stops, Yeah, to be able
to go and raise bigger and better the moment that
exercise is done.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And you know what my least favorite part of life is,
but I've gotten older, I've had to adjust my thinking
on it.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
What stand by for another fascinating life observation.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Maintenance, Yeah, the daily maintenance of stuff. You gotta change tires,
sometimes you got to clean the windshield off, and if
everything is going well, maybe that's the time to think
about when you're going to do that.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
And you do before it's too late.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
For it's too late, because those pit stops where it's
too late you're changing a wing or whatever those are,
those are gonn take forever. Do any of these little
tidbits ever make it in? I wonder the good ones?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
And you actually bring out you actually bring up a
really good point, which is not not only does everyone
have a job to do, but the drive also has
to hit that exact mark. And you will hear them
say if I stop a little bit too forward, a
little bit too left, the people actually have to move
out of their position to hit the wheelgun and then
in the exactly and that you lose half a second,
(41:33):
a mini second here and there, and so that I've
always found really impressive of how the drivers get to
hit that mark to perfection.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Is there a break? Is it a foot break?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
It is a foot break, And actually most human beings
cannot push that foot break.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Because you just got to hit it so hard.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
You've got to hit it so hard. It's a phenomenal
if you're ever bought. There's a phenomenal video on YouTube
that is I think the title is can a normal
person drive a Formula One car? And this guide trains
for months and months with Formula one to figure out
and keep saying we can't let you out until you
hit the brake to one hundred percent and he can't then,
and he's like, I'm doing it, like you're about twenty
percent of the brake. We're gonna need you to get
(42:07):
to that.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
What a soft man? Come on, bro, hit it.
Speaker 5 (42:12):
When you put a normal person in a Formal one car,
they don't work the engine hard enough. You have to
get your ears and your senses adjusted to how high
a Formula one car revs. And so most people just,
you know, just trundle through the gears only using half
of the rpm. The problem is when you do that,
(42:33):
all of the hydraulic systems in the car run off
the engine, and so if the engine isn't turning over
quickly enough, the hydraulic systems fail and the car actually
turns itself off. And so that's another thing. You're constantly
telling the drivers to change down, change down the gears,
use the engine a little bit more.
Speaker 7 (42:50):
I think there's one thing that's the hardest and most
annoying and frustrating the parties that people will never know
what it is to drive a Formula one car at
full speed just because it's you know, you can go
and play basketball and you can try to shoot a
three points basket and see you often you miss it,
(43:10):
especially myself. But and then you see Michael Jordan or
Lebron James and they do it, and it's just like
boom boom all the time. In you can go and
play golf and you can hit your driver and so
you do two hundred and twenty yards and then the
pros they do three hundred and they shoot, you know,
minus ten and you are plus thirty five eighteen hollers
and Formula one car you cannot jump in. You can
(43:32):
you cannot compare yourself as much as I would love to,
It's it's not possible. And I think that's that's one
of the hardest part in our spots for people to understand.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Final four. It's Michael, We're at the end. Are you
a speed junkie? Are you feeling it?
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah? I am. I Speed is Speed is everything to
the sport. Without speed, there is no f one. Speed
makes the steaks high, speed makes money come in. Speed
makes us watch it, Speed makes the pit stop more interesting.
Speed is everything. Speed Give me speed. I have a
need for speed. There's a freight trademark I should do
(44:11):
because there's so much speed. The driver's skill is so
important because if they don't get it right, bad stuff
can happen.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
And it's not just speed for one lap. They have
to do fifty plus seventy laps and they have to
keep that speed up.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, the speed is everything. I mean really, honestly, I
hate to whisper this into the microphone, but we could
eliminate all the other episodes and just talk about speed.
But can we No, we can't because we got ads
to sell. Sult in.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
This has been Choosing Sides f one, a production of
Sports Illustrated Studios, iHeart Podcast and one oh one Studio Podcast.
The show is hosted by Michael Costa and Tony Cowan Brown.
This episode was edited, scored, and sound designed by senior
producer Jojai May Paddle. Scott Stone is the executive producer
(45:15):
and head of audio, and Daniel Wexman is Director of
podcast Development and production Manager at one on one Studios.
At iHeart Podcasts, Sean Titne is our executive producer and
a special thank you to Michelle Newman, David Glasser, and
David Hootkin from one O one Studios. For more shows
(45:35):
from iHeart Podcasts, go visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts, and whatever you do,
don't forget to rate us and tell your friends. It
really does mean a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Next week, on Choosing Sides F one, we are going
to talk about the tech nerd. If F one is
the merger of Man and Machine, and we just spent
most of this episode talking about Man. Well, next week
we're going to shift our full attention to the machine.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Nerds. Yeah, suck at nerds.
Host
Michael Kosta
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