Andretti, crockpots and 12 words or less | Podcast Ep 858

Join Grace and me as we discuss Andretti’s engine issue, Lewis’s role model burden, mandated pit stops, crockpots and more.

Spreaker Player:

YouTube:

Transcript:

Todd (00:07.389)
Hello and welcome back inside the Park for May for podcast number 858. That’s right, this is Todd. No Todd, not now! AKA Negative Camber. You know why I’ve asked you here. You must convince the villagers that I’m harmless. Yeah, that’s all I need you to do. Tonight, for your kind consideration, we’re going to talk about Formula One news. What are we going to talk about? We’re going to talk about Andretti’s engine dilemma. We’re going to talk about Button and Braun movie. The FIA’s review of Hamilton and Stroll’s, you know, Qatar antics.

and the mandatory pit stop. We’re gonna cover all of that and more on this episode. Before doing that, of course, you know what I always have to do. I have to introduce my guest tonight, which of course means I gotta go all the way to the left, no, the right coast of American Nestle Nation’s capital. You know her, you love her. It’s the lovely, the redoubtable. Grace! Grace, how you doing?

Grace RD1 (00:59.286)
I’m doing pretty good. I’m sure the weather on the left coast is better, but otherwise it’s fine here on the right coast.

Todd (01:04.609)
Ah, yeah, you’re probably right. You’re probably right. Chilly here, chilly in the Midwest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man, do we got some news to cover? What about that Andretti Engine dilemma, Grace? I mean, I’m just

Grace RD1 (01:08.43)
It’s pretty cold here today. I’m pretty sure it’s really nice here. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (01:19.644)
Oh, my favorite.

Todd (01:22.041)
and just biting nails over here, you know?

Grace RD1 (01:24.618)
Nobody cares. I don’t know who still cares about this story. We’ve been talking about this for like 12 weeks now. I don’t know. To make a decision.

Todd (01:29.545)
I know, I know. You know, I thought, you know, it was funny as I was getting ready to do notes and I thought, well, the already we already covered the Andretti thing. And I was like, no, I think that came out after the last podcast. And we haven’t talked about the Andretti engine thing. Although it’s been, you know, on the it’s been in the crock pot for the last week. I mean, it’s, have you guys ever noticed when you make some a crock pot? I mean, I love a crock pot. If they’re handy, the easy to store everything in there is done. But man, when you pull food out of there,

Grace RD1 (01:39.022)
Uh-huh. It did.

No.

Todd (01:58.357)
It is like the surface of the sun hot. Oh my gosh, it is so hot, you know, it’s crazy.

Grace RD1 (02:01.846)
Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s why. So if you make hat, you know, a little life hack here for you, if you make like pasta, you know, like baked ziti or something in a crock pot, you have to take heavy duty foil and make like a little collar that goes around the back because the heating element is always in the most usually in the back of the crock pot. Like the whole thing isn’t hot. Right. And so you have to put like aluminum foil over that so that it doesn’t burn your pasta.

Todd (02:16.496)
Yeah.

Todd (02:26.302)
Yeah.

Todd (02:32.67)
Wow.

Grace RD1 (02:33.13)
If you’re ever making like fish or pasta or something that’s delicate and not just like a slab of meat. But you’re right, it is always the surface of the sun when it comes out. You’re right.

Todd (02:38.417)
Well, yeah, so there you go, folks. Here’s your Crock-Pot Top Tip of the week. Huh? How about that? I’ll guarantee you, nobody thought they’d tune into this podcast as we can get a Crock-Pot Top Tip. I love it. It’s good.

Grace RD1 (02:45.834)
I’m a big fan. Big fan.

Grace RD1 (02:54.694)
No, because somehow working remote, I have less time to make dinner and I don’t know how that actually happened. Like, cause it used, I think it’s just because it used to be like, I left. Like I had a 45 minute commute. I gotta go. Now I’m like, I’ll just answer a few more emails. The next thing I know I’m like, we’re gonna starve. So, crockpots.

Todd (03:00.347)
That’s true.

Todd (03:05.501)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I get it. You know where I was going with this analogy was that this story has been in a crock pot, you know, stewing all week. Oh, it’s hot. It’s hot. It is boiling hot, like the surface of the sun. Let’s talk about this, shall we? So most of you that troll the website, and that’s probably about all three of you,

Grace RD1 (03:19.696)
Oh, and it’s hot.

It’s boiling.

Todd (03:34.109)
Well, notice that I posted a article of this that was sourcing O2 Sport. And so they had a really nice article over there. I can’t remember who wrote it. Probably Jonathan Noble of all things. But anyway, the effervescent Jonathan Noble. And so anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we discussed Andretti being approved by the FIA to join the grid as the 11th team. And while that was one hurdle.

Grace RD1 (03:47.822)
Sure.

Todd (04:03.417)
They still have to get F1 approval, which is yet to come. Now all the headlines and everything were like, hey, they’re approved. Not why not quite. So it’s still got to go to F1. There’s a lot of folks in the in the F1 intercircles, inner circles that aren’t too keen about 11 team. Imagine that. And now there’s a couple that said they’re OK with it. Zach, of course, because he’s buddies with Michael.

Grace RD1 (04:11.33)
They’re not, right?

Grace RD1 (04:23.378)
Isn’t that all of them? Zach, Williams and Haas, because what does it make a difference to them? Right.

Todd (04:33.436)
I don’t know. I was trying to think Williams may have had some heartburn over it, I think. Yeah, I can’t remember.

Grace RD1 (04:38.216)
Yeah. Oh, I actually take that back. You’re right. Williams for sure would, because that’s direct competition to them. I’m you’re right. I take that back. So maybe just Zach. Maybe that’s the only friend I don’t know.

Todd (04:42.95)
There you go.

Yeah, right. Could be. I think maybe Alpine said they didn’t really care either. But anyway, that’s what the story is about. So it seems, as I mentioned last week, that the agreement in principle that Andretti had for a Renault slash Alpine engine supply that would see them set for engine supplies until GM slash Cadillac got their power unit up and running for 2026. Well, it seems,

Grace RD1 (04:51.17)
So.

Todd (05:15.705)
agreement has expired, at least according to them. Alpine says that, you know, this is great, it’s expired though, and you know, we need to have a decision. Expired, expired. Thanks, thanks Aunt Bonnie. I know the conversion you’re talking about. So anyway, Alpine says, you know, look, is that, huh, that horse is run.

Grace RD1 (05:26.862)
It’s expired.

Grace RD1 (05:30.879)
This fired expired. Thank you. I was Exactly

Todd (05:45.165)
If we’re going to do anything with them as a whole new negotiation, a whole new deal needs to be renegotiated along with the new terms. And that needs to be done quickly, says Alpine, if they’re to mill all the parts and engines needed for a 2024 second team engine supply program. And, you know, at first I thought, well, that’s kind of heavy handed. But, you know, it is October.

Grace RD1 (05:45.452)
Right.

Todd (06:12.613)
mid-October and that’s probably right. They probably do need to know if they’re supplying it and all of the terms and everything and money and all of that needs to be agreed to so they can start making the engines because they’re going to be supplying however many they make for their own team. They’ve got to double that, right?

Grace RD1 (06:14.154)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (06:30.794)
Yeah, yeah, because testing starts in like February or March, right? Like, I don’t know. Well, but yeah.

Todd (06:34.213)
Yeah, or next week or something. I don’t know. Yeah, February, right, right. So this has prompted many to wonder if Andretti might be getting a little stiff-armed out of the series for lack of an engine, but the FIA president Mohammed bin Salim, otherwise known here locally as Eddie everywhere, well, great, he’s weighed in on the matter. You’ll be happy to know.

Grace RD1 (06:39.776)
you know, pretty soon.

Grace RD1 (07:00.694)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just rolled my eyes. I rolled my eyes, and I realized, well, people that are just listening to this can’t see my eye roll. But great. Yeah.

Todd (07:02.569)
Hold on to your seat.

Todd (07:08.229)
No, they don’t. Yeah, you got a verbal eye roll. I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. I think you do, Grace. So here we go. Here’s what he said. He said, quote, in the beginning, Andretti will have to decide on one of two engines. It works that way with the rules. Nobody can say no to them.

Grace RD1 (07:20.565)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Todd (07:38.021)
If all the teams say no, that the FI has the power to go on and say the least two engine manufacturers being used, then we put them in a draw and we take one. It’s not a secret, and I’m sure it is either Alpine or Honda, and one of them would win because that is the rules.” End quote.

Grace RD1 (08:04.046)
That’s the rules.

Todd (08:05.617)
You know, instead of just saying, oh, you know, hey, look, yeah, there was some discussion and the FI is engaged talking to Andretti, Alpine and the common people. And I’m sure, you know, a resolution to this will be fine. Certainly, you know, there is regulations that tie the manufacturers to a supply. And I’m sure we’ll work out the details. Not that he immediately goes right to the jugular, right? And he says, the FI has the power to go on and say at least two of you and we’ll put you in a hat and we’ll draw it out.

Grace RD1 (08:36.094)
It totally has the like, dad, I don’t care who started it. I’m finishing it vibes, right? Like all of you go to your room. I don’t care. I’m finishing it. That’s, that is the tone I see this in, right? Like I don’t care anymore. I’m just going to pick one. I’m going to pick a rabbit out of the hat, Rocky, and we’re going to see what happens.

Todd (08:41.958)
It does, it does. Yeah.

Todd (08:53.689)
Yeah, right, right. Yeah, I don’t care who’s right, who’s wrong. This is the this is the result. I’m picking one. If you too can’t figure it out on your own, then I’m gonna have to step in and pick it out. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (08:58.602)
I’m just doing it.

Grace RD1 (09:04.666)
Right. That’s right. And doors are a privilege, so don’t push it.

Todd (09:07.769)
Yeah, right, right. You know, the rules do account for an engine supply for teams and this would give them an option for the manufacturer with the fewest customer teams. And remember this all kind of cropped up because when Red Bull was having those issues with Renault and was looking to get another engine supply, everybody said no. And it was kind of crappy. Yeah, Mercedes like, ooh.

Grace RD1 (09:29.674)
We don’t like him. It’s the first.

Todd (09:33.233)
Woo, would you look at the time? Oh no, we just couldn’t possibly handle supplying them. Meanwhile, they sign up Williams and everybody else, right? McLaren. Ferrari’s like, oh no, we couldn’t possibly help them out. Meanwhile, they’re signing up Haas and Sauber and all that.

Grace RD1 (09:37.532)
I have a flight to catch.

Grace RD1 (09:42.945)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (09:50.61)
Yeah, right. It’s the it’s the meme from Forrest Gump when he’s trying to find a seat on the bus, right? The seats taken. This seat’s taken. Got to go have to sit with Jenny because we’re not giving you an engine.

Todd (09:56.033)
Yeah. Right. That’s exactly it. Despite that, there are some who aren’t convinced that the regulations guarantee an instant supply, if you can believe that. And any intent. Would have to be agreed upon.

Grace RD1 (10:12.956)
it.

Todd (10:17.321)
as of according to the regulations, June’s first, which the preceding year in which they intend to participate, which means they would have had last June to have that done for the next season, right? So that’s passed. I’m assuming they can work that out. So it’s getting a little interesting, indeed, and MBS or Eddie Everware said this, he said,

Grace RD1 (10:31.017)
Right.

Todd (10:46.937)
He was asked about the potential uncertainty over the situation. He said, quote, We will not answer in that detail. There are a lot of regulations. There are the sporting regulations and we have the concord agreement. We’re going to follow the rules, whether from the regulator or the promoter. End quote. So there you go. So the article at Autosport goes on to say that MBS believed

Grace RD1 (10:56.546)
Thanks.

Todd (11:15.773)
The push to get GM to build its own engine longer term was great news for F1. And he said this about that. He said, I’m optimistic with GM coming with the power unit. I’m very optimistic, not just optimistic. He said in the last 20 months to have two major OEMs, which is Audi and Andretti GM, and to have a power unit from Audi, and we’re on the right track or having power unit from Cadillac, that is an achievement, end quote. I’m sure some of that’s all.

sort of lost in translation and non-native language. But anyway.

Grace RD1 (11:49.262)
I mean, I mean, I mean, that is that is true. That would be if GM does come in, that is a that is a great achievement, right? That you’ve been able to bring out and GM in. So I just don’t think that’s very likely. But you got one. I mean, I mean, I feel like for as long as we’ve been doing this, it’s like, oh, Aldi’s in. Oh, just kidding. Like, I mean, so there is that. And it’s pretty impressive that at least Aldi is going to join. But I don’t I don’t see Michael.

Todd (11:56.905)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Todd (12:14.653)
Yeah, and Cadillac says they’re hooked up. 2026 is a different engine regulation, there’s no MGUH. So Cadillac is very much on board with developing the powertrain. I think it’ll be interesting. I’m cautiously optimistic about it because it’s fiercely complex, not that GM can’t make a complex racing engine, they can. It’s just…

Grace RD1 (12:23.438)
That’s right.

Todd (12:42.169)
it’s really that performance level, right? And when you’re coming in, you know, they’re not gonna do that now because the engine rules have been pretty solid for a long time. But coming in with that new engine when everybody else is coming in with a new engine, at least maybe that’s a little more of a level playing field, but there is still this learning curve over their hybrid, their MGU-K and those kinds of things, working with a standardized ECU and that kind of thing. So that’s gonna be tough for GM.

Grace RD1 (13:05.196)
Yeah.

Todd (13:11.757)
Not that they can’t do it, I think they can. I think it’ll take them time to develop that reliability out of it that the other teams have enjoyed so far. But they’re pretty convinced that that’s what they’re going to try to do for 2026. So…

Grace RD1 (13:28.654)
force. What are they going to say? We’re not going to be ready. I mean, of course, that’s what they’re going to say. And I also think we always talk about drivers like seat time is seat time. Right. You can put them in simulators. You can put them in GP two cars. You can put them in Indy cars. Seat time is seat time until you get somebody in a race in a Formula One car.

Todd (13:32.575)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (13:48.81)
You really don’t know. And so I think that applies to things other than just the drivers. Right. And so I think that’s what you’re speaking to, that there’s of course going to be a learning time, a learning curve, because seat time is seat time. And you can look at things and drawings and dyno tests or whatever you do to like do sort of a simulator like you would do for a driver with the engine. But seat time is seat time until you get it in there in earnest. You know, you won’t know. So. You know.

Todd (13:52.848)
Yeah.

Todd (14:13.549)
Yeah, yeah, that’s true. Yeah, I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Well, it suffice it to say that Andretti, if they got the nod from FOM, and some believe this whole engine thing is them trying to stiff arm them out of the sport. But if that’s, well, let’s just say that Alpine and Andretti get together in the next few weeks and they iron out a new deal. Other teams could say, well, no, the rules say June 1st, you know, they’re past June 1st, sorry.

Grace RD1 (14:29.346)
They’re gonna just…

Todd (14:43.177)
you’re out of luck. Worst case scenario could delay the whole thing for another season, but I don’t know. Be interesting to see. None of this is over yet. And it’s gonna be very interesting to see how this boils out.

Grace RD1 (14:54.711)
No.

I just feel like they’re just going to keep putting more hurdles. Like every time he’s like, OK, I got to check this box. All right, I checked it. What’s next? It’s just like a wild goose chase. And they’re just trying to like wear him down and make him break up.

Todd (15:00.53)
Yeah.

Todd (15:04.889)
Yeah. Yes.

Grace RD1 (15:11.722)
like it’s like a boyfriend and you know, it’s like a boyfriend, girlfriend kind of relationship or any sort of a partner relationship. Like I’m just trying to be such a miserable human that you break up with me. And then I can say like, oh, I didn’t break up with you. No. But I made it so terrible that you did it right. Like, so I feel like they’re just trying to like wear him down until he’s like, fine, I’m not going to do it. And then they can say, we never told Michael he couldn’t do it. We just made it so difficult that he didn’t do it.

Todd (15:37.933)
Yeah. Well, it’s like one of those things is like it’s moving goalposts, right? And either he knew that where the goalposts were and we just didn’t, we’re just finding out about it now. But if that’s not the case, it does seem like it’s like, Oh, wait a minute. Yeah. You did pass the FIA approval, but did we mention that you now have to get approved by FOM? Oh, and by the way, did you, did you, did we mention that you got to have your engine deal?

Grace RD1 (15:43.223)
Mm-hmm.

Grace RD1 (15:58.623)
Right.

Todd (16:06.293)
done by June 1st or did we did we mention that or Yeah, I don’t know Yeah, did you get the memo?

Grace RD1 (16:07.25)
And June. Yeah. Oh, did you get that email? I think I think but I think but I think what people underestimate is Michael and ready stick to it. Like, I feel like if anybody is going to like just keep meeting your hurdles, he’s going to do it. What else? You know what I mean? Like that guy is driven.

Todd (16:20.17)
Yeah.

Todd (16:27.117)
Yeah, he’s like a Jack Russell terrier, man. You know, he just

Grace RD1 (16:30.578)
Absolutely. And so I think you underestimate he will never break up with you, no matter how terrible of a partner you are. He’s in this relationship until you break up with him. He’s going to figure it out. So.

Todd (16:41.629)
Yeah. Doggett determination. We’ll see how it ends up, but what’s the space? More power to him. Yeah, we’ll have a lot to talk about in the off season. Won’t that be grand fun? It’s almost like talking about tires all off season. Yeah. No, thanks. Let’s see. Okay.

Grace RD1 (16:49.194)
It’ll keep us busy, busy in the off season. So yeah.

Grace RD1 (17:03.736)
Yeah.

Todd (17:06.761)
Boy breaking news, Grace. This just in. Yep. What is sure to be a box office smash is the new movie, nay, the new docu-series about Button and Braun, or is it Braun and Button? Sounds like a place in Diagon Alley, doesn’t it? Go down to Button and Braun’s and get me a, yeah.

Grace RD1 (17:17.376)
I can’t wait.

Grace RD1 (17:29.439)
But no-

What happened to Ruben’s spirit?

No Rubens Barrichello, we’re just going to pretend like he wasn’t at the team either. Right? Like, all right. Whatever that guy.

Todd (17:38.453)
I know, I know, yeah, yeah. Well, the headlines, the headlines are talking about Button and Braun. The new Braun movie was Button. He was the champion.

Grace RD1 (17:46.154)
I mean, he did stuff. It’s not like he’s like, I understand that. But poor Rubens, man. Give that guy some chum. That’s right. It’s an interesting story there, too, man. Like, ugh.

Todd (17:55.015)
Yeah. I don’t know. It’s Rubino! Who doesn’t love him some Rubino? Come on.

Yeah, it is. Rubin’s got a very interesting story. So anyway, for those of you that are stateside, November 15th, circle that on your calendar as the release date for the new movie about Braun. It’s called Braun, the Impossible Formula One Story. Make sure you mark that. It is going to be on Disney Plus in amongst all those horrible Star Wars reboot series. And

Grace RD1 (18:14.341)
Oh.

Grace RD1 (18:26.126)
Okay. All right.

Todd (18:34.166)
Sorry, but they’re terrible. They’re just terrible. They’re just bad.

Grace RD1 (18:34.234)
I watched all of them! No way! Did you watch Andor? You didn’t like Andor?

Todd (18:40.281)
Yes. It was of the ones, it was a little better, yes, I agree with that. It’s like, but just see, just wait to see what they’re putting together in that prison. It’s like, okay, all right. I kind of got that. But they were, and here’s the other thing. You know,

Grace RD1 (18:47.668)
Alright, fine.

Grace RD1 (18:56.703)
Alright, alright.

Grace RD1 (19:01.583)
That’s going to be our next, that’s going to be our off season podcast, folks.

Todd (19:04.801)
It is. I’m just going to tell you right up front. Here’s the other thing. They live in a galaxy, right? In a galaxy with all these different planets, right? And you know that the whole virtual production LED volume that they’re using to do these backdrops, green screening, and all that stuff, you know it’s easier to do desert landscapes on that damn thing because…

Grace RD1 (19:12.981)
Right?

Yeah.

Grace RD1 (19:20.265)
Yeah.

Right.

Todd (19:27.641)
Everyone lives on a frickin’ Tatooine desert-like planet. Everything is based on a desert planet, and there’s like buildings with no doors, and it’s like, you guys have starships that go faster than the speed of light, you can’t afford a damn door. You can’t, I mean, build a decent house. You guys live in huts in a desert, you know? Every single show, they’re always centered around a desert. What happened to Endor for crying out loud? Go see the Ewoks for crying out loud, you know?

Grace RD1 (19:48.436)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (19:56.898)
I mean, part of a Soka, there was trees.

Todd (19:57.373)
Those poor bastards haven’t seen anyone since the Death Star got blown up in their orbit. Poor things.

Grace RD1 (20:02.239)
Oh, that’s right. No, I know they’re fluffy, but I think that, I mean, there were some trees in Ahsoka. It wasn’t all desert.

Todd (20:09.223)
Well, I haven’t seen that one. I full disclaimer, I haven’t seen that one. I don’t know what that’s all about.

Grace RD1 (20:14.238)
I mean, I think I think overall you’re pretty right. I would just say that I think Andor doesn’t fit under the most of Star Wars is on Disney plus is crap.

Todd (20:22.885)
Yeah. And the other one, what’s the first one? Yeah. I mean, here’s a guy going around and basically gets his butt kicked everywhere he goes. I mean, it’s kind of like Wharf in Star Trek. He was their security guy always getting his butt kicked by about everybody. You know?

Grace RD1 (20:28.822)
Mandalorian. Nope, yeah.

Grace RD1 (20:41.59)
That’s a fair point. No, I mean, I can’t I can’t get through the Mandalorian because we start watching it too late at night and I fall asleep. I have seen like three episodes, so I don’t think that really. Yeah. Although people love Mandalorian, but I have not gotten through it. And. Yeah, so I don’t know.

Todd (20:48.501)
Hmm

Todd (20:53.074)
Yeah, yeah.

Todd (20:58.831)
Yeah. I don’t know. I just have something going on there. Anyway, this is going to redeem Disney Plus. This is going to make their viewer numbers surge like Drive to Survive.

Grace RD1 (21:07.629)
then

Grace RD1 (21:11.766)
That’s right. Forget Ahsoka. We’re all about Ross Braun and Jensen Button. Not Rubens Barrichello, but Jensen Button. Yeah.

Todd (21:16.125)
That’s right. Here’s why I do think it’s going to be kind of cool though. I mean, it could go off the rails. I don’t know, but I think it’s going to be kind of cool. And here’s why. So the story documents how Ross Braun saved the Honda Works team after the Japanese carmaker decided to exit the sport abruptly. Remember back in 2008, you and I were podcasting. Hello? 900 and some odd episodes. We were podcasting back then when it was a desert wasteland and nobody

Grace RD1 (21:35.052)
Right.

We were here.

Todd (21:45.535)
dare even download it on F1 Podcast.

Grace RD1 (21:48.712)
We were both in different houses at the time, but we were doing it.

Todd (21:50.701)
We were. We were doing it back then. What did I call BMW? The ultimate quitting machine, right? I was furious with them leaving. So do you have the 2008 bubble that crashed financial housing and all that and all of these car companies just pulled the plug immediately and bailed. Toyota, Honda, and BMW, right? And I was furious with them for doing so. The series is, but get this, the series is to be narrated by Master Thespian Keanu Reeves.

Grace RD1 (21:56.567)
That was right.

Grace RD1 (22:19.21)
That’s great. I do love me some Keanu Reeves. I’m in on that. I love that. Everybody does.

Todd (22:22.918)
Who doesn’t? And it’s gonna include interviews from Braun himself, right? And drivers, get this, Jensen Button and our friend Rubens Barrichello. You gotta have Rubino in there. It’s also going to, and the Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton is gonna love this. It’s also going to include interviews with Christian Horner.

Grace RD1 (22:30.163)
Yes.

Grace RD1 (22:37.202)
Ruben’s Barrichello. Very good.

Todd (22:49.225)
They were, Horner was their main rival at the time. That’s why they had Christian in there. Everybody was like, oh my gosh, Horner, I hate that guy. So yeah, you Mercedes fans will be excited.

Grace RD1 (23:00.842)
I hate that guy, but he should be in there. Those two things are, oh. Ah, it’s the same mix, but it’s the same mixing over and over again.

Todd (23:03.173)
Oh, I like Christian. He’s mixing it up. I like that. I like that.

Todd (23:10.793)
Ah, you know, it’s his thing, man. Did you watch the Beckham series?

Grace RD1 (23:16.65)
I did not. Is he in that?

Todd (23:19.573)
No, no, but his wife is in certain things, right? Yeah, yeah, he’s in there. It was interesting. Yeah, it was Christian’s wife. So also, your friend of mine, Nick Fry, will be in there. Who doesn’t love some Nick Fry, shake, hashtag, it’s, you know, the magic eight ball, remember?

Grace RD1 (23:20.666)
Oh, I didn’t know what that had to do. Well, yeah, right. The Spice Girls, right? With Victoria. Yeah. I didn’t know what the connection was there. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (23:36.806)
I do love some Nick fry. Shake, shake, shake.

Magic 8 Ball. Yeah, because that’s.

Todd (23:44.593)
We used to say that the Honda team was being ran by the Magic 8 ball. So they didn’t know what they’re doing. Shake, shake, looks outcome likely. That’s what they were, we do that. So if you hear us say shake, that’s what we mean. And Nick Fry was the guy that we were convinced he owned the Magic 8 ball.

Grace RD1 (23:48.684)
Yes.

Grace RD1 (23:52.55)
Yeah, that’s right. That’s how they made all their decisions. Because that’s the only.

Grace RD1 (24:01.934)
Because that’s the only way their decisions made any sense, right? Like, because otherwise you’re just like, why did you do that? Oh, you’re using a magic eight ball to make decisions? Oh, now I understand. Fine.

Todd (24:07.282)
Oh, right.

Right, right. Well the good news for all of you, it is a four-part series that focuses on how a desperate Honda was trying to unload its work team and eventually pulled the plug with Braun saving the entire team for a symbolic pound. One pound at the last minute. One pound. I look like

Grace RD1 (24:17.216)
Alright.

Todd (24:40.441)
It was secured. They secured a engine deal from Mercedes, went on to win the championship with the trick double diffuser concept that left everyone flat footed. Right. It was an amazing story. You and I lived through it. We podcasted through it. And then Braun was sold to Mercedes, which now is the team that you see now with Total Wolf and Lewis Hamilton. That Mercedes, that was Braun and they went on to win eight championships. It’s an amazing story.

Grace RD1 (24:45.506)
Right?

Grace RD1 (24:56.118)
We did.

Grace RD1 (25:08.514)
That’s right.

Todd (25:09.981)
Right? So very unlikely outcome in championship from the most unlikely team. It is a very cool story and I’m sure it’ll be done well. Yeah, should be done well.

Grace RD1 (25:19.186)
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I look forward. I look forward to how. If it’s how truthful it is versus how drive to survive it is. Right.

Todd (25:29.925)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, this will probably be a little more on point. Don’t you think? Yeah, I think so too. Yeah. And then when you’re done watching that, then you can hop over and watch Star Wars characters haplessly stuck on desert planets. So you can do that over there. So there you go. All in one stop. You get your desert planet, you know, stuck on desert planet thing, and then you get the Bron F1, right? So it’s good for that. All right, let’s talk about… Oh!

Grace RD1 (25:34.895)
I think so too. I think so.

Grace RD1 (25:46.323)
Yes, and…

Grace RD1 (25:55.222)
Yeah.

Todd (25:58.829)
So we had a little, we had some things happen in Katara Grace, and before I jump into this story, what, yeah, so Lance not having a good time, not happy, yeah.

Grace RD1 (26:06.467)
We did, yes.

Grace RD1 (26:14.89)
He was not at all when he they asked him a question. What they ask him like, you know, because they always do the post race things. Yeah. And but there was one. Oh, I guess it was like after the sprint race or after qualifier. I don’t know what the sprint race and two qualifiers. And there’s like they there’s like 12 Ted notebooks and they talked to him like 16 times. I can’t remember which interview I watched, but one of them, they’re like, they give him the like, how was your race today? And he was kind of like, I drove around the track.

Todd (26:21.798)
Yeah, he said it was shit.

Grace RD1 (26:42.59)
Like it was he’s not even playing the game anymore. He’s not even like trying to do the like George Russell. Well, it was nice today. And the guys back at the factory. Nothing. He’s just like, it sucked. I hate this. I drove on the track. I’m going home. Yeah, it’s not great. Yeah.

Todd (26:42.714)
Yeah, not happy.

Todd (26:47.612)
Yeah.

Todd (26:51.867)
No.

Todd (26:56.945)
Yeah, very unhappy. Not good. I feel bad for him. So he had that with the shove in the physio. And then you had the other incident that came out of that. So you had Lewis slamming the door on George, sandwiching George. Lewis spins out. It’s a safety car. So the safety car comes out on track. It’s making, it’s collected the grid. It’s making. And so there’s a shot of Lewis just getting across the road as the safety car goes right behind him with George Russell in the lead there.

Grace RD1 (27:22.975)
Yeah.

Todd (27:26.773)
It was kind of like, it was a cool picture. I mean, it was a cool shot, you know, for the Photogs and stuff, you know, as a newsworthy kind of dramatic picture, right? And that was cool, but unfortunately, yeah, you can’t do that. You can’t walk across a hot track like that, as he did. He walked across that hot track while it was still cars on there. For his actions, Lewis was summoned to the stewards and given his first reprimand of the season and fined.

Grace RD1 (27:30.719)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (27:50.166)
Right.

Todd (27:56.501)
50,000 euros of which 25,000 was suspended for the remainder of the season pending no further breach of a similar nature which I’m sure he won’t have so it’ll cost him 25 large. But a week on from the incident and the FIA are now revisiting this issue and wants to look closer at the matter, right?

So that headline starts a whole thing, you know, on social media, but, oh my gosh, they’re picking on Louis, I hate Louis, a bunch of, you know, evil people and blah, blah. It’s, it’s, I don’t think it’s that, folks. I think what they want to revisit is the actual incident itself and the issues that it may or may not cause or the clarifications it may need. Here’s what the FIA said. The FIA quote,

Grace RD1 (28:19.627)
Right?

Todd (28:47.933)
The FIA is revisiting the incident which Lewis Hamilton crossed a live track during Qatar Grand Prix. The FIA notes that Lewis was apologetic during the subsequent stewards’ hearing into the incident and acknowledged that the crossing was a serious safety breach. However, in view of his role model status, the FIA is concerned about the impression his actions may create on younger drivers.” End quote. Okay. Now, you can’t deny that the guy doesn’t have his foot on the throat.

Grace RD1 (29:11.83)
What?

Todd (29:17.125)
of social media and has a lot of influence, because he touts his platform all the time. He does have a lot of influence, all right? I get that. My hunch is what they’re wanting to do is, I suspect nothing’s gonna happen to Lewis, but perhaps what they’re gonna do is take a longer look at it, the timing, the issues, speeds, all that kind of stuff.

Grace RD1 (29:22.866)
Yeah.

Todd (29:45.017)
in order to argue or solicit a tightening of the penalties for that kind of thing. And I think there was an incident in Italy maybe with a driver walking across a hot track in karting and got hit and his legs were messed up. And so they wanna try to tighten that up, I would imagine, and make it a little more severe so it doesn’t happen again, it would be my hunch. So they wanna look at that.

Grace RD1 (29:53.291)
Right.

Todd (30:15.47)
Um, good. Does that make sense? What I’m saying? What do you think? Am I off on that?

Grace RD1 (30:16.609)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (30:21.187)
No, I mean, I guess what I hate the whole like you’re a role model, like somebody looks up to everybody, right? Like, I don’t know what you there’s somebody out there that’s like, I want to be just like Lance Stroll as much as we. Right. As much as we mock, you know, somebody like Lance Stroll or Logan. I don’t know that I’m not Logan Sartre, but I’ll just stick with Lance Stroll. But there is somebody out there that’s like, oh, I look up to Lance Stroll, right? Or

Todd (30:36.449)
I want to be like Logan Sargent.

Grace RD1 (30:49.498)
I look up to, you know, Esteban O’Connor, whatever. Right. And just because Lewis is a very popular driver, it can’t just be, oh, Lewis, because it’s you, you get a fine. But if it was Lance Stroll, oh, maybe not. And that’s how it sounds. Right. Like, no, you shouldn’t be crossing a hot track. Lewis said, yep, that was very stupid of me. I’m very sorry.

Todd (31:07.375)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (31:14.334)
And they could say, hey, crossing a hot track causes this penalty or in the future, it causes this penalty. But I just hate the whole like for the children perspective of it. Like somebody is looking up to you because what hot track am I running across or some other like young carding four year old or whatever is going to be like, well, Lewis can run across the track. So I’m going to run across the track. I just I think that’s such a it’s weak sauce. Either penalize them or don’t. It’s a weird it’s weird reasoning.

Todd (31:23.856)
Yeah.

Todd (31:37.926)
Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. I you know, that’s a that’s a difficult albatross to hang around Lewis’s neck. Seriously. I mean, he can’t help it that he’s got a lot of followers and he’s influential. But I yeah, I I’m totally on board with you on that. I think that’s a weak issue. Just if you think that the regulation needs to be tightened and somebody says, well, you know,

Grace RD1 (31:58.978)
That’s fine.

Todd (31:59.941)
What now we can just look at penalties from a week ago. We yes we can because we did that with Max remember he stopped in the pit lane and he got a reprimand and everybody was just apoplectic that he didn’t get a penalty. The following race the stewards got back together and said, yeah, we kind of missed that one. We probably should have gave him a penalty and going forward we will. Right. So yes, they do re relook or take another look at situation. That’s not an unprecedented folks. It happened like two weeks ago. You guys act like it never happens.

Grace RD1 (32:16.929)
Right.

Grace RD1 (32:25.278)
I think no. I well, I know, but I also blame clickbait headlines for that, right? Because they it if it’s not like some sort of egregious thing, why would I read it? Right. So then they make it sound like, oh, the gnashing of the teeth. Lewis. Oh, you know, right. Like it’s this whole thing. And so. So.

Todd (32:32.529)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Todd (32:38.59)
Yeah.

Todd (32:44.305)
Oh, and I’ve got I’ve got a great notion headline to be a good example that

Grace RD1 (32:50.43)
And to me, I think that’s the downside is that what you lose is the logic behind it or the like calm reasoning behind it or whatever we’re trying to provide here, which is yes, that happens. And yes, they go back and look at things and.

Yes, Lewis, that was not great. And he acknowledged that it wasn’t great. And, you know, for the children is weak sauce and we can move on. Right. And let’s put something, codify something in the rules, because inevitably there’s something that isn’t codified in the rules that should be codified in the rules. And unfortunately, it’s not until it’s a safety incident that it then gets codified in the rules. You know.

Todd (33:14.744)
Right, right.

Todd (33:26.597)
Yeah. The other thing they’re doing is they’re taking another look at the Lance Stroll incident that happened between him and his physio and they said, we can confirm that this is a quote, we can confirm the FIA compliance officers received an apology from Lance Stroll regarding his actions during the 2023 FIA Formula One. Katarika, I’m pretty, that’s a mouthful. The compliance officers noted this apology and issued a written warning reminding Lance of his responsibilities, the competitor bound by the FIA code of ethics.

and the other FIA ethical and conduct guidelines set forth by the supporting regulations, the FIA maintains a zero tolerance stance against misconduct and condemns any actions that may lead to physical harassment.” Now, my feeling on this is, I have a lot of deference for Lance. I think he’s going through a pretty tough time. I think everybody just needs to leave him the hell alone. Yeah, he’s going through pretty tough times and he doesn’t need more headlines creating even more difficult times for Lance.

Grace RD1 (34:13.382)
Oh, yeah, he’s going through it. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (34:24.088)
Well…

Todd (34:24.357)
Lance, if you’re out there listening, I know you are, I got a lot of deference for you, I think you’re going through a tough time. We all have our dragons that we’re fighting, and a lot of times nobody sees those dragons, and I appreciate you’re going through tough time, so I’m not gonna pile on. But having said that, this incident, I think was viewed under the regulations that was outlined. Do you remember when Max shoved Esteban when they were weighing in after the race in 2018?

Grace RD1 (34:49.723)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Todd (34:52.317)
That’s, I think, what created this sporting regulation that Lance now has fallen afoul of. So there you go.

Grace RD1 (35:00.506)
Yeah, and I think too there is a I mean, yes, I have some sympathy for Lance because he is going through it. But also you can’t push people, right? Like.

Todd (35:09.647)
No, no.

Grace RD1 (35:10.406)
I don’t you know, it’s sort of and I’m not saying that that’s what you’re encouraging here. I’m just saying that there’s always that talk you have with like small children, which is like, I know you’re frustrated, but what you can’t do is walk over and punch your sibling because you’re fat, you know, right? Like, are you can’t just like throw all your toys across the rim, break everything like that is not the way you deal with that emotion. So I get it. He’s he’s his dad is basically, you know, like claiming Alonzo is his new son. It’s got to be hard. And

Todd (35:14.427)
No, no, no.

Todd (35:21.489)
Hit somebody. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Todd (35:27.885)
Right. Right, right.

Grace RD1 (35:38.782)
Yeah, this is not how you saw the seasoning going. And it was pretty promising. And I think that’s the other thing, too, is that everything that Aston Martin’s experiencing, we never blame Alonzo, right? Alonzo is a superior driver. We’re all like, look at what he did at McLaren, right? Like, if he can get that car to an eight, you know, P8, it’s really it really deserves to be P14 or something, right? Like, there’s so much about Alonzo’s.

Todd (35:42.526)
Yeah.

Todd (35:51.118)
Right.

Grace RD1 (36:04.37)
natural talents, you know, and life experience. The guy’s like forty one and he’s driven more kinds of cars and worked with different people and more kinds of teams. It just comes with that experience. And then you have Lance and nobody says, oh, well, it’s not Lance. It’s the car. You know, nobody gives him that same space that we give Alonzo. And even though he may not deserve it because he’s not Alonzo.

Todd (36:15.459)
Yeah.

Todd (36:23.589)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (36:30.57)
But that’s got to hurt. And it’s got to hurt that his whole life he’s heard, like, you’re just here because dad paid for this. Or, you know, I mean, like, you know, that’s got to be hard on the psyche.

Todd (36:35.993)
Yeah, it’s a tough situation. I mean, you know, it’s so easy for me to sit in an armchair and get critical of it. I guarantee you, if I jump in a car with Lance, he’s gonna drive circles around me. I mean, it’s not that he can’t drive, he can.

Grace RD1 (36:45.771)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (36:51.946)
And there’s. Yeah, and there’s people everywhere. I mean, I think there’s something I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never quite been in a situation. I don’t think that’s quite that frustrating, but certainly there’s times where it’s like, I’m just going to have to like walk around the block. I’m going to walk, get a coffee like because I am not in a good head space right now. But that’s much harder to do when you’re in that such a public space. Right. And that there isn’t really.

Todd (37:15.693)
Yeah it is. And on TV.

Grace RD1 (37:18.118)
You know, you don’t really. Yeah, you don’t have a stew room somewhere to like just step aside necessarily and scream and then come back like the rest of us do. Right. You can’t like go cry in the bathroom and then go back to your cubicle. So. Yeah, yeah. That’s what they call it on a on Top Chef when they’re waiting for the judges to, you know, render the decision because they bring everybody out and they’re like, you’re the bottom three, you’re the top three. And then they send them to the stew room.

Todd (37:22.613)
Yeah, right.

Todd (37:29.753)
I need a stew room. I like that. I need that. That would be good.

Todd (37:38.563)
Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah.

Grace RD1 (37:44.614)
And so, which is also what I call the cool down room in Formula One, like, oh, look at them hanging out in the stew room, right? So it becomes pretty good, yeah.

Todd (37:48.065)
Yeah, right. It’s perfect. So the other story I want to talk about is this whole concept of mandatory pit stops. Now you may read, do all of you remember the Qatar Grand Prix tire debacle? Yeah, yes, no? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, short memories around here these days. I don’t know. I’m on a 24-hour social media cycle. If it didn’t happen 24 hours, I forgot about it.

Grace RD1 (37:57.173)
Ugh.

Grace RD1 (38:02.518)
Yeah, from like a week ago. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, I watched it.

Todd (38:15.833)
So you remember how it prompted all the teams to engage in basically a three stopper with lap limits on tires set at 18 laps? Remember all that fun we done had just a week ago? Well, while I thought it was a debacle, there are some out there in the social media worlds who thought the idea was great and it was exciting and they loved it and that going forward they felt that F1 should mandate.

Grace RD1 (38:21.249)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (38:25.095)
Mm. It was not fun.

Todd (38:43.081)
pit stops to quote spice up the show, right? Now.

Grace RD1 (38:47.703)
No.

Todd (38:50.489)
I’ve been reading these comments on like, okay, this is the same sentiment that begat these HD tires to begin with, and which it was them that was deemed not to be fit for purpose for Qatar’s curbing, which put us in this whole situation to begin with. So the sentiment that you think, oh my gosh, that three pit stop 18 lap limit is fun, we should do that for every race. It’s that kernel.

It’s that kernel of evil that prompted us to do HD tires to begin with, because it was in Canada when somebody didn’t have the right tires and they were artificially wearing way too fast, and so they had to make multiple pit stops and it was super exciting. Somebody said, bing, light bulb moment, we should make high degradation tires so they don’t last the whole race. Wouldn’t that be fun? And that’s why we are where we are, because those high degradation tires

Grace RD1 (39:25.675)
Yes.

Todd (39:49.737)
that weren’t fit for purpose at Qatar that got us into this. So you see how this starts. It all starts back in Canada. It’s a very bad idea. And I’m glad that Red Bull’s Christian Horner has weighed in and explains it correctly on why this is a bad idea. He said this, quote, I think you’ve got to give the freedom and that creates the creativity. Mandated pit stops? Question mark. It will have effects on the end of qualifying.

how many laps you do in qualifying to save tires for the race. So that to me, it doesn’t make sense. If you want to run your fastest car, and whether it’s in one stop, a two stop or a three stop, that’s where we need to be at, end quote. And I agree with them 100%. It’s a very bad idea and one that I hope F1 doesn’t resort to in an effort to make casual F1 fans more excited about the sport, because it’s a very bad idea.

What do you think, Grace?

Grace RD1 (40:47.558)
I think I think it’s a terrible idea, first of all. But I think what it actually points out is to me, if somebody said that to me, if you were like, hey, Grace, I think this is a good idea. I would say you don’t understand. I wouldn’t say it this way because now I sound like a real jerk. But I think you don’t understand how strategy works and why strategy makes it interesting. Right. Like, so to me, this is actually on.

formula one doesn’t explain why this is if you don’t see why this is a bad idea. I see that as a failing a formula one to explain why you always have some window of pit stops, right? And but you want that to be a window of five laps, ten laps, something like that. That’s what makes it interesting. You want to know if somebody’s going to dive in or not, or if the first if the leader goes in, who’s going to follow him like?

Todd (41:31.302)
Right.

Grace RD1 (41:39.186)
If you manage to if you make it mandatory that everybody can only run X number of laps on a tire, you’ve eliminated that creativity, as Christian Horner put it. So to me, I think it is a misunderstanding of how strategy is what makes this sport interesting. But again, I spoke on our last podcast about football, right? Like you can watch football just to watch quarter and watch touchdowns, right? Like that’s clearly a thing and that’s clearly fine. But you’re only going to get a surface level out of football.

Todd (41:48.338)
Yeah, right.

Todd (42:04.466)
Yeah, yeah.

Grace RD1 (42:08.438)
Formula one is the same thing, right? If you’re not watching for strategy. And when is somebody going to pit, when they’re not going to pit, then you’re never going to really get everything out of Formula one. So it’s fine if you’re just watching for touch, if you’re just watching to see who makes it to the podium or who has the big crash or whatever, that’s fine. But you’re never going to get the depth out of it because who when they make pit stops and undercutting people and all of that is what makes it interesting.

Todd (42:08.622)
Right.

Todd (42:29.474)
Right.

Grace RD1 (42:36.598)
That’s what makes it a chest match and not checkers. Right. And so I think that is a failing on, I don’t know, somebody’s part, our part, Formula One’s part to really explain to people why this was a bad idea and why we’re like, yo, this is not great. Because I can see how on the surface this sounds like an interesting idea. But really, you want the team, you want the Bernies on the team to be able to like, you know, that’s you want the strategist to do it. Although maybe for

Todd (42:39.804)
Right.

Todd (42:49.137)
Yeah, right.

Yo!

Todd (43:04.498)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (43:05.61)
Maybe Ferrari would have more success if we mandated when the pit stops were and remove strategy from it. So maybe it was just a bunch of Ferrari fan. There was maybe it was just all a Fred Vassar and his burner accounts. Just like this is a great idea. We should keep doing this strategy. Boo. Who needs strategy? No. Right. But that’s what makes it interesting. And I think that with.

Todd (43:10.869)
Wouldn’t that be great? Right. Yay, yeah, could have been.

Todd (43:20.503)
Yeah, yeah.

Todd (43:25.281)
Yeah, who needs Diana? We don’t need any of that.

Grace RD1 (43:33.79)
A single tire manufacturer, though you’ve already taken enough of the creativity out of it. Don’t completely suck the creativity out of the pit stop by mandating when they have to when they have to pit.

Todd (43:37.601)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah, agreed. All right, let’s, uh, let’s do some Alvin’s cats. Shall we? Let me try that again. Here, should I try it again?

Grace RD1 (43:50.145)
Yeah.

Sure.

Todd (43:56.281)
Yes, it’s that time for albums cats. Oh, I still have that. There’s no stopping him, Grace, you know. So, OK, hit me. You have any albums counts this week?

Grace RD1 (44:01.33)
Lewis Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton.

Grace RD1 (44:11.167)
There isn’t.

Grace RD1 (44:16.146)
I do, of course. So first of all, if the race puts, you know, they put up that lovely little shorts or whatever, some lovely little information that you can watch on the YouTubes. And they did one talking about Michael Andretti, friend of the show, Michael Andretti and his nightmare time at McLaren. Right. It’s actually called The Wild Theory is around Michael, Michael Andretti’s McLaren nightmare. So.

Todd (44:39.647)
Huh.

Grace RD1 (44:44.382)
Many people are like, I don’t know why Grace hates Michael and Dredi. Well, reason number one, watch that video. It’ll become very clear. Right. But so what I really want to. Yeah, if that wasn’t apparent, right, I don’t have my somewhere behind me. Is it my big flag? Right. Like anyway, so right. But it was funny, though, is I totally lost my train of thought, but it’s back. Don’t worry. So. Yeah.

Todd (44:52.233)
Keep in mind, Grace is a McLaren fan, just FYI, yeah.

Todd (45:12.392)
Yeah, so that was one of the reasons that you have an issue.

Grace RD1 (45:14.802)
Yeah. So right there are others, but we’ll just stick with that one. So what the best part of the video is they talk about how like so Michael and ready his teammate is Senna. Right. And so, of course, as you can imagine, not so great for Michael and ready. And he has all these DLNFs and it just is abysmal. And especially when your teammate is, you know, Aaron and Senna. Not great. And so, first of all, I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard because they were like

And then Ron Dennis said that he gave Michael Andretti a motivational speech. What kind of a motivational speech does Ron Dennis give to somebody? I was like, did Ron Dennis say that with a straight face? I was like, that’s like Bill Belichick giving you a motivational speech. What what is what is that? I would never. I mean, James Vowles. Yes, I would go to him for motivational speech. But Ron Dennis giving it. I’m like.

Todd (45:51.232)
I’d love to have heard that. I would love to have heard that.

Todd (46:09.497)
Ron, you would think that motivates me, like he would have given you a once over with a lint roller. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (46:14.302)
Yeah, I just was like, I went on for like a way. Flip always thinks this is funny that like the video itself is like seven minutes long, but my rant is easily like 15 minutes, right? Like my rant is much longer than the piece ever was that we’re watching. So first of all, I was just like Ron Dennis giving a motivational speech is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard of in this video. And then they talk about how, you know, because they had Mika Hockadon as their as the reserve driver. And what were they going to do and was Senna going to leave? And then they cut to a quote. And Ron Dennis is like,

Todd (46:22.706)
Yeah, all right, right.

All right.

Grace RD1 (46:43.998)
Yes. And I told Michael and Dredi, I need you out of the car by France. That is Ron Dennis. And that’s a motivational speech from Ron Dennis. I need you out of the car by France. All right. So. But but I think it gets into a lot of why people are suss about Michael and Dredi or don’t care, especially if you don’t watch Indycar or you’re just like, you know, you’re whatever. And you’re just like, I don’t know why everybody’s all up on my.

Todd (46:49.066)
That’s Ron. Yeah. That there’s a motivational speech. I agree with you. Yes.

Grace RD1 (47:10.882)
on Michael Andretti. Watch this video. I think it gives you a nice insight to why people are like, really that guy? Because he really I mean, it was in 93, but really didn’t leave a great taste in anybody’s mouth. So, yeah, well, or in general. But anyway, so there was that. So watch it. I recommend it. And just take a moment to think about what a Ron Dennis motivational speech must look like, because that sounds glorious.

Todd (47:23.193)
Yeah, it’s a McLaren fin, yes.

Grace RD1 (47:37.502)
I wonder if he’s on Cameo. I wonder if I could pay Ron Dennis some money to give me a motivational speech via Cameo. That would be, it’s a great idea actually. I’m sure Ron could use a couple hundred. It would be, that would be great. I would totally do that.

Todd (47:43.622)
That would be good.

It is.

Yeah, you know, what’s 10-15 quid? You know, it’s good.

Grace RD1 (47:54.194)
Yeah, nothing. It would be great. All right. So then I also wanted to mention because near what a podcast go by, especially this part of the season where I don’t mention MotoGP, because what are you people doing with your lives? So between the sprint race and the race race, we, you know, Martin was the championship leader and then he wasn’t the championship leader. But when does that happen in Formula One? Never. So.

Todd (48:04.374)
Mmm. That’s right.

Grace RD1 (48:20.738)
Go watch some MotoGP. But I really wanted to bring up yet another, the race does a podcast, a MotoGP podcast. And they did send in your questions about Mark Marquez and with his move to Grissini. And it’s also another very interesting thing. If you’re like.

Todd (48:34.825)
Does anybody have anything for Mark Marcus?

Grace RD1 (48:39.046)
Yeah, so if you’re if you’re new and you’re or need a refresher because there were things in there is like, Oh, right. I forgot about that. It’s a great like primer on Mark Marquez and why he’s the jam and why everybody talks about him. So very good. But anyway, one of the questions offered up was by our own Karun Chan Hook. So apparently he’s also a MotoGP fan, which I did not know. And he is. He sure is. So.

Todd (48:58.754)
Well, I bet he- Karun’s a fan of everything. He’s a fan of life, that Karun!

Grace RD1 (49:04.446)
I was just like, Oh, look, an excuse to actually bring up MotoGP in a way that is related to Formula One. And I didn’t even have to work Jack doing in there. So the final thing I really wanted to bring up was so I’m there’s the whole Bernie Eccleston, you know, civil court case. Right. So but I don’t really want to rehash that. But what really stuck out to me more was that he’s going to pay eight hundred and three million dollars in his settlements.

Todd (49:09.501)
There you go.

Todd (49:13.679)
Nice.

Todd (49:21.947)
Ah, yeah.

Grace RD1 (49:33.898)
That is enough to fund Michael Andretti’s entry into Formula One and like a year in the sport. What kind, what kind of dough does this man just have lying around that Bernie Ecclestone could bring Michael Andretti into the sport and just be like, and we’re racing now. We’ll call it Ecclestone Andretti and we’ll just get an engine and it’ll be fine. Bernie, why don’t you do that?

Todd (49:40.593)
It is.

Todd (49:50.45)
Yeah.

Todd (49:55.465)
I wonder if his wife and daughters are gonna like, wait, you’re 90 some odd years, you had to pay how much again? And what does that leave us? What? Yeah.

Grace RD1 (50:02.931)
Yeah, really.

Nothing, nothing, nothing. I just it was just like, you know how you measure things in like Starbucks so that you can understand like how expensive something is. I like the idea of like how much Bernie Eccleston had to give over in his settlement by how many entries he could have paid for into Formula One. You could you could have probably got two entries in for that much money. You know, so. That was that’s a that’s a lot of money, Bernie. So all right.

Todd (50:24.265)
Two. Yeah. That’s, uh, it is. It’s a lot of money. All right, time for some no shit headlines. First headline is, quote, Louis Hamilton could force Red Bull to sack driver after Mercedes stars 12 word comment. What? What kind of click bait headline is that?

Grace RD1 (50:47.495)
The Sackdriver.

This is like an anagram or something. Wait.

Todd (50:52.485)
I know. It’s like, what? Oh, that’s just that’s a shit headline. I’m sorry, folks. I didn’t even click on it. I wouldn’t even grace it with a click. If you’ve got to bait me so bad as to say with one 12 word comment, I cured skin tags using this one 12 year 12 word comment. My toe fungus went away using this one 12 word comment.

Grace RD1 (50:58.754)
So what were the 12 words? Oh.

Grace RD1 (51:17.955)
Hmm.

Grace RD1 (51:22.194)
Okay, so now I think this is what people need to put in the comments. What 12 word if you already know you make like wrong answers only. What 12 word comment did Lewis have that forced Red Bull to sack a driver? What what could it be? Yeah. 12 words.

Todd (51:29.834)
Yeah

Right. Yes. And the comments just pop it down there. Grace is right. You tell us what 12 word comment could force Red Bull to sack a driver.

Grace RD1 (51:44.07)
Yeah, like Sergio Perez is the greatest driver in the world. That’s not 12 hours, but, you know, come up with something and that’ll be fun and it’ll be better than whatever they actually said he said.

Todd (51:51.993)
Yeah. So here’s the next one, not to leave Lewis Hamilton out, so this is the next one, quote, Lewis Hamilton snubbed as Carlos Sines named more intelligent than Mercedes Man. Let me read that again. Lewis Hamilton snubbed as Carlos Sines named more intelligent than Mercedes

Todd (52:22.209)
It had absolutely zero to do with Lewis Hamilton. Nothing to do with Lewis Hamilton. He was asked who he thought the more cunning, smartest driver on the grid was, and he said, boy, he thought either Alonso or Sines. He thought both of them are pretty tough, right? That’s what he said. That’s all he said. It had nothing to do with Lewis. It’s just, it was just Yuki’s personal assessment.

Grace RD1 (52:27.874)
Right.

Grace RD1 (52:38.166)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s fair.

Todd (52:47.429)
of some of the drivers these race against on the grid. It could have easily have been said, this headline said, Max Verstappen snubbed as Carlos Sainz named more intelligent than Red Bull Man. It could have easily said that, but it didn’t. We had to go after Lewis and drum up outrage. That’s so pathetic. You know, be better. Kid of grief.

Grace RD1 (52:59.03)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (53:07.594)
Although I think the way. Yeah, be more creative. I think the way it’s phrased, though, it makes me think like Mercedes-Benz is a person, like the Michelin Man. Like Lewis Ham. Yeah, yeah, Lewis Hamilton snubbed his car. The science name more intelligent than Bibidium. Yeah, right. The Michelin Man.

Todd (53:18.289)
Like, Babendim, yeah.

Todd (53:24.077)
Yeah, yeah. Lewis Hamilton is Mercedes-Burbendum.

Grace RD1 (53:29.022)
Yeah, I just think it’s that’s great. I mean, I don’t know. That’s random.

Todd (53:30.517)
I like it.

Todd (53:37.297)
So the next headline is, oh, apologies for my dog. I wasn’t planning on that. I do, I wasn’t planning on that being the soundtrack to this podcast, but apparently it is, sorry. Let’s see, this next one’s fun. Racing legend Nigel Manchel rakes in eye-watering some, flogging memorabilia from his glittering F1 career. Now, some of my British friends are gonna have to help me with that, because it was in a British rag, right?

Grace RD1 (53:41.01)
I know you have some very unhappy puppies out there.

Grace RD1 (53:47.875)
Hmm.

Grace RD1 (54:01.642)
Alright.

Grace RD1 (54:06.164)
Yeah.

Todd (54:06.821)
Now I don’t know if flogging over here would have a negative connotation saying that you’re running around flogging memorabilia. It would have a negative connotation. Well, physically, yes, the actual literal translation. But even from a sales, you know, it’s sort of a snake oil salesman or opportunistic run around flogging. It’s, you know, it’s not, it’s a pejorative.

Grace RD1 (54:11.573)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (54:14.978)
Beating the crap out of it. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (54:22.708)
Yeah.

Grace RD1 (54:27.454)
No, that OK, this is a more it’s a more interesting story to think of Nigel Mantle selling his stuff off as a snake oil salesman, like he peeled off the stickers or like repainted stuff, you know, and it’s like terrible handwriting, you know, like it’s not his memorabilia that he’s selling off like that’s much more fun.

Todd (54:36.694)
Yeah. Right.

Todd (54:45.389)
Right. And he’s got like, uh, Heinz Helfrinsen acting like a shill in the crowd. He’s like, I’m sorry, sir. How much was that Nigel Mansell, uh, Bellaclava? Six thousand. I’ll take two of them, sir. That’s a bargain.

Grace RD1 (54:49.727)
Yeah

Grace RD1 (54:53.39)
Excuse me? Oh, I don’t, yeah.

Grace RD1 (54:59.042)
Yes, right. That was exactly I like this story. I mean, because you’re right, clearly flogging must have some different term, you know, must have some different meaning. But but I like it much better as a pejorative. I think it’s a much better story that way, especially for Nigel Mansell.

Todd (55:07.229)
I assume it does because it’s a pejorative over here, yeah.

Todd (55:13.037)
Yeah. And if it means the same, if it means the same over in the UK, and again, British listeners let me know, but if it means the same thing over there, and with its negative connotations, it’s pretty harsh. I mean, Nigel Mansell is the champion and he should be able to go and sell his memorabilia. Of course he should, right? That’s crazy. Let’s see. Finally, F1 Colt Hero looks unrecognizable.

Grace RD1 (55:25.106)
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Todd (55:38.373)
with bushy gray beard after amazing transformation since racing heyday.

Grace RD1 (55:46.306)
Damon Hill? I don’t know who he’s like.

Todd (55:48.086)
Now, I saw the picture. To be fair, I didn’t know who it was in the picture. I had to go look. It was Heinz-Herald Frenzen. And I thought, okay, wait a minute, F1 cult hero. I guess I’ve missed the entire cult thing about Heinz-Herald Frenzen. Maybe it’s a big cult thing in Germany that I’m not hip to. Well, that’s what I’m asking. I didn’t know there was a cult following, he was a cult hero for somebody.

Grace RD1 (55:53.14)
Okay.

Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen it. I mean.

Grace RD1 (56:08.251)
Is- is there one?

Todd (56:15.601)
Maybe in Germany? I don’t know if I’m missing it. I’m not taking it anyway from Heinz. He’s a good guy, but I just, yeah, that was news to me.

Grace RD1 (56:23.166)
Yeah, I don’t think HHF is anybody’s cult hero.

Todd (56:25.157)
No, F1 cult hero Teofobby looks unrecognizable. Is that Teofobby was a cult hero? Really? Okay.

Grace RD1 (56:32.234)
Yeah, I don’t. I was. Yeah, I thought it was going to be like, yeah, Sebastian Vettel. I don’t know who that I would have never come up with. This would be great for your, you know, mid season or your off season trivia. You know, like I would have never come up with Hyde Herald Frenzen. That’s not.

Todd (56:37.692)
Yeah.

Todd (56:44.677)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I wouldn’t either. I wouldn’t either. Not who have I’ve picked. All right, let’s do some mail.

Grace RD1 (56:53.286)
Speak. I was going to say, speaking of tired debacles, hide Harold Frentzen. Yes.

Todd (56:57.393)
Yeah. You got mail. Let’s do some mail, shall we? Sean asked this, he says, Todd Grace, what do you know about the Lawrence selling the team to Aramco? I heard a rumor. I heard a rumor. You were thinking that, weren’t you? Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, Sean, I’ve read those two. I’ve read the rumors. It was a rumor going around. And my answer to that is who knows? It could have legs to it, but sometimes when

Grace RD1 (57:01.163)
Let’s do it.

Grace RD1 (57:09.234)
Okay.

Grace RD1 (57:13.799)
I was.

Todd (57:26.345)
they’re selling shares or a percent of ownership, it sometimes gets misconstrued as that they’re selling the whole thing. With that hasn’t been the case, I know sometimes in McLaren when they were increasing, decreasing ownership with the Middle East investment and stuff, they’re like, oh my gosh, Ron’s selling out. And he wasn’t, he was selling a portion, not even controlling interest. So would it surprise me? No, do.

Do I think there could be some reshuffling with Honda coming on board as an engine supplier or Aramco’s interest in some ownership or more ownership? Possibly? I don’t know, hard to tell. I would say the thing that tells me it’s not true is that Lawrence is a pretty shrewd business guy. And he’s bitten off a lot with Aston Martin, but he’s also been very… If everything…

Grace RD1 (57:55.96)
Mm-hmm.

Grace RD1 (58:11.85)
Yes.

Todd (58:18.873)
I’ve ever, all the interviews I’ve seen about Lawrence, about whether it was Aston Martin proper or Aston Martin F1 team, he has been incredibly bullish about them. And it would be this bullish position that he takes about his investment, long-term goals, building the HQ, what he wants to do with the road car division, just recently announcing he’s going into the hypercar with the Valkyrie and Le Mans.

the Formula One program, advancing that, the hiring of all the people that he’s just really bullish about what he’s doing with this team. And that would tell me that doesn’t sound like a guy who’s trying to sell it to me.

Grace RD1 (59:00.018)
No, I mean, I think that’s the thing, too. I think he’s put in a lot of effort for something that he’s just going to flip. That doesn’t seem like the case here.

Todd (59:07.697)
Yeah, he doesn’t sound like a house flipper to me. Yeah.

Grace RD1 (59:09.894)
Right. And I agree. I’m sure he’s probably getting selling some share. That would make total sense. It’s expensive. It’s an expensive sport. And so that makes sense. But I don’t I agree. I don’t think he’s like, I spent my entire last five years putting this team together and I built entirely new facilities and I have these other, you know, car programs going on. And and I’m just going to flip it to a Ramco and have a nice day. I don’t I don’t see that doesn’t seem to fit.

Todd (59:15.085)
Maybe. Yeah. Right.

Todd (59:22.472)
Right.

Todd (59:26.961)
Right.

Todd (59:36.305)
Yeah, I don’t either. Yeah, I agree. Anyway. All right. Well, that does it for this podcast, What We Think About the News We Just Talked About. And let us know what you think about the news we just talked about. You can do that over at theparkformay.com. Just do it to Coram Civility. Huge thank you to our Patreon supporters out there. I posted a couple things for you. I did a interview.

Grace RD1 (59:45.1)
We did.

Todd (01:00:04.729)
I was the interviewer-ee in a podcast about Vegas, a guy named Jeff Does Vegas, a really nice guy. And he does this podcast about Vegas and he wanted to talk about the Vegas GP and I was on that and I had a really good time. It was a great interview. He’s a great guy. If you’re interested in listening to that, just Google Jeff Does Vegas and you’ll see his website, the link. He’s on all the Spotify and all that stuff too.

Grace RD1 (01:00:07.022)
Mm-hmm.

Grace RD1 (01:00:32.235)
Yeah.

Todd (01:00:32.573)
And you can see pictures of it on my Twitter account and that kind of thing But anyway, I also put it on our Facebook page and Facebook fan group And you can find it there. But anyway, really good guy. I had a great time that just went up today And I had a great time talking about Vegas and if you want to get my thoughts on that you can also I posted something to our patreon Supporters, I switched over to a new system to record podcasts

This is the first episode we’re doing it. So if anything’s weird audios weird or anything like that, let me know But one thing it does allow for is to have an audience that can sit in live with us while we’re recording and I was thinking about doing that for our patreon supporters And so I put that on our patreon page and I just said, you know, I’m thinking about doing that Let me know if you’re interested as a patreon supporter of doing that because I could send out invites

Grace RD1 (01:01:17.442)
That’ll be fun.

Todd (01:01:28.377)
and you guys could all join those of you in the right time zone or that are awake. Whatever. And you can do it via a app. They have a mobile app or you can log in and you could be in the audience and you could listen along and send us messages in the chat. So we could do even like a prolonged Q&A if you’d like to. So anyway, let me know what you guys think about that.

Grace RD1 (01:01:32.522)
Or you want to get up at two in the morning, whatever, whatever time zone you’re in.

Todd (01:01:52.621)
If you like this podcast, go to iTunes and all your favorite podcast players and give us some love over there. Give us some decent reviews. We’d appreciate that as always. And until next week, when I’ll be back with the young and effervescent Paul Charsley, the sporting manager Aston Martin Heart of Racing team, I’ll be back with him to review the United States Grand Prix. So that’s gonna be super exciting. It’ll be what, a week or two weeks?

Grace RD1 (01:02:08.908)
Yes.

Grace RD1 (01:02:16.411)
Mm-hmm.

Todd (01:02:21.661)
I can’t remember now, Grace. I’m gonna have to look that up before Grace is back on.

Grace RD1 (01:02:25.162)
know when the I only know the MotoGP calendar I have no idea what the Formula 1 calendar is. There you go. Okay.

Todd (01:02:30.501)
Yeah, so it’s back to back, so it’ll be two weeks for Grace. So until that time next week, this is Todd, AKA Negative Camer, saying so long, Grace.

Grace RD1 (01:02:42.146)
See you in two weeks.

Todd (01:02:43.621)
That’s it, man. Game over, man. Game over!