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Speaker 1: I think a lot of good stuff is going to

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Speaker 1: happen on racetracks around the world this year, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of it's going to involve Kiwi's. For Marcus Armstrong,

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Speaker 1: the IndyCar Dreams goes well, basically next level. We've got

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Speaker 1: a new team and he's in all the formats as

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Speaker 1: he was last year, Oval, Road and Sweet. The first

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Speaker 1: of the season is Pete's and Petersburg March too, of course,

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Speaker 1: and Marcus Armstrong is with us. Marcus Morning, Happy.

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Speaker 2: New Year, good morning, thank you very much for having me.

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Speaker 1: Not at all. Did you get home for Christmas at all?

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Speaker 1: And if you did, did you drive anything?

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Speaker 2: I was very lucky to get back to New Zealand

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Speaker 2: for a split second. My trips are often short and sweet,

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Speaker 2: but yes I did, guess in a race car with

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Speaker 2: my old man. Actually he's a pretty good driver himself.

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Speaker 2: So we do a couple of track days out at

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Speaker 2: Hampton Downs in a Porsche Cup car when we can,

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Speaker 2: and it's a lot of fun and I actually get

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Speaker 2: reduced to engineer, so it's pretty fun.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic as a father who You're right, he is a

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Speaker 1: very good driver of him within to save of the

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Speaker 1: summer and stuff like that. He must be stoked at

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Speaker 1: your progress beyond it, I mean, he must be thrilled

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Speaker 1: at what you're doing.

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Speaker 2: Yes, he sure is. He's quite analytical. I would say

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Speaker 2: he's my biggest critic outside of my own team. So no, no,

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Speaker 2: he's fantastic. And it's great that he understands the sport

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Speaker 2: because there's so much to it. There's so many variables.

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Speaker 2: For example, you know you could do your job perfectly

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Speaker 2: as a driver, but you know you have a team

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Speaker 2: of three hundred and fifty people and if someone does

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Speaker 2: make a mistake then it impacts you on track. So

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Speaker 2: he understands that and he's very good. He's very supportive.

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Speaker 1: Not that there's anything wrong with a cap car, a

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Speaker 1: nine to eleven cup car, because they're a great car.

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Speaker 1: But when you've driven what you've driven, is it a

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Speaker 1: bit slow?

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Speaker 2: Well I don't want to say that, but yes it is.

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Speaker 2: It's to be fair, it feels like a bit of

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Speaker 2: a taxi when you come from racing high downforce cars

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Speaker 2: like like IndyCar. You know, when we have three four

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Speaker 2: tons of downforce on the car at top speed and

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Speaker 2: you go to a Porsche Cup car, which you know

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Speaker 2: might have a couple hundred kilos of downforce and a

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Speaker 2: lot less horsepower, so it's still good training. I mean,

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Speaker 2: every race car is good from a training point of view,

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Speaker 2: just because you always want to feel how the cars

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Speaker 2: moving and stay sharp. But for sure there will be

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Speaker 2: a slight adjustment period jumping back into a very high downforced,

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Speaker 2: high horse powered car.

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Speaker 1: How much better are you as a driver and in

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Speaker 1: what areas have you improved?

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Speaker 2: That's a very good question. The thing is with this sport, there's,

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Speaker 2: like I said, so many variables. I would say that

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Speaker 2: in more recent years. You know, it's not for me

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Speaker 2: to say, of course, but I feel like I work

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Speaker 2: with my team a lot better. As I said, there's

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Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty people that we work closely with,

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Speaker 2: and making sure that we communicate properly and explain our

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Speaker 2: thoughts of how we want the car to be developed

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Speaker 2: without you know, putting your ego, involving your ego too much,

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Speaker 2: because you start to you start to give poor feedback

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Speaker 2: when your ego gets involved. So being very self critical

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Speaker 2: and honest about what we can do better from a

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Speaker 2: team perspective, and just communicating properly. I think that's probably

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Speaker 2: the thing I've improved in the most recent years.

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Speaker 1: How much technically changes from season to season In terms

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Speaker 1: of the cars.

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Speaker 2: Indy car is reasonably stable. You will know Scott Dixon,

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Speaker 2: of course, who has been racing forever. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: he was my childhood hero. And the cars actually haven't

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Speaker 2: changed dramatically since, you know, since twenty ten. I think

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Speaker 2: we have the same chassis. We've had the same chassis

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Speaker 2: since twenty thirteen. But of course, you know, they always

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Speaker 2: throw curveballs. There's a couple of new tire regulations and

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Speaker 2: different center of gravity and weight distribution and things like

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Speaker 2: this that actually make a bigger impact than you'd think,

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Speaker 2: especially when everyone's in such a routine of bringing the

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Speaker 2: same set ups year after year. So the smallest regulation

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Speaker 2: changes do actually make a big difference, as they have

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Speaker 2: this year. You know, they've changed hire compounds and often

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Speaker 2: we don't know what we have until the very first race.

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Speaker 1: How much testing and how much driving are you doing

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Speaker 1: between now and March, which is pete.

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Speaker 2: I'll be honest, it kind of sucks this offseason because

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Speaker 2: we haven't done any testing, and in fact it's you know,

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Speaker 2: we all want to be on track, of course, but

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Speaker 2: the regulation state that we can only do one official

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Speaker 2: day of testing before the season starts. So you know,

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Speaker 2: when I was back in New Zealand, the SB Classic

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Speaker 2: was on and all those tennis players are playing tennis

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Speaker 2: for five hours a day and all of that, and

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Speaker 2: you know, we can't do that. So it's one of

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Speaker 2: those unique sports where you can't actually practice your own sport,

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Speaker 2: which makes preparation and teamwork so much more important because

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Speaker 2: you kind of have to hit the ground running, you know,

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Speaker 2: you can't ease your way into the.

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Speaker 1: Season, right, Marcus, three hundred and fifty people, what do

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Speaker 1: they all do?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Well, there's a lot of people that there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of engineers for a start, I mean we have

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Speaker 2: simulation engineers and DASA engineers and all the rest of them.

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Speaker 2: And obviously we have the mechanics. There's a lot of

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Speaker 2: mechanics involved and research and development guys. Yeah. I mean

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Speaker 2: also you know, not to mention the media and everyone

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Speaker 2: who looks after the sponsors and so there's it's just

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Speaker 2: a big, a big organization, so important it will be

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Speaker 2: on the same page.

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Speaker 1: In a general sense in sport. Globally, at the moment,

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Speaker 1: sports seems to be on a real tear. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, you look at the NFL that's growing, You

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Speaker 1: look at motorsport, it's growing. Do you feel that in

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Speaker 1: America and Indie Car, Is Indy Car as strong as

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Speaker 1: it's ever been?

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Speaker 2: I think so, and I think it's getting stronger. Frankly,

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Speaker 2: you know, this season we have Fox Sports taking over,

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Speaker 2: so it's going to be you know, every single race

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Speaker 2: will be broadcasted on network TV, and you know, NBC

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Speaker 2: did a great job as well. But you know, Formula

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Speaker 2: One has obviously exploded in the States because of the

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Speaker 2: Netflix show, and that has also transferred over to IndyCar.

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Speaker 2: And frankly, IndyCar has the best racing product in the world,

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Speaker 2: Like there's just no doubt about it. And I think

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Speaker 2: people are starting to recognize that, especially especially people ever sees.

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Speaker 2: I think that in America people have always recognized the

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Speaker 2: quality of IndyCar racing, but certainly in New Zealand and

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Speaker 2: in Europe as well, people are truly recognizing the quality

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Speaker 2: of this racing product.

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Speaker 1: I tell you what, I talked to Scott mcgochlin when

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Speaker 1: he was we did the Indie thing and the qualifying

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Speaker 1: at Indy and those on board cameras when you're going

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Speaker 1: around as in the brickyard, when you're going around that place.

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Speaker 1: In qualifying the speeds, you guys go, it's faster than

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Speaker 1: the brain. I mean obviously not literally faster than the

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Speaker 1: brain can calculate, otherwise you kill yourself. But it must

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Speaker 1: be so close to.

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Speaker 2: That, oh, definitely. And it's difficult to explain really, But

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Speaker 2: luckily last year was my first time, so I sort

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Speaker 2: of have a fresh memory when it comes to sort

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Speaker 2: of my first impression, which was first firstly, you need

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Speaker 2: to keep your eyes two hundred meters further ahead than

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Speaker 2: what you're used to because if you sort of look

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Speaker 2: where you normally look, you're already past that point, so

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Speaker 2: your eyes almost don't move fast enough for the car speed.

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Speaker 2: And you know, two hundred forty mile an hour or

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Speaker 2: two thirty three average, you know, that's it's pretty extraordinary speeds.

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Speaker 2: But as well that, you know, no one really talks

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Speaker 2: about the g load where you can't you can't actually

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Speaker 2: breathe when you're under full g load in the corner,

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Speaker 2: so you kind of need to be prepared to just

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Speaker 2: hold your breath in those high g load compression areas

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Speaker 2: and remember to keep your eyes up because it's it's

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Speaker 2: a wild ride.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing. Maya Shank is your new team. There was

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Speaker 1: a mister Meyer and a mister Shank. How did that

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Speaker 1: come about?

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Speaker 2: Yes, new team this year. However, in theory it's still

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Speaker 2: under the Chip Inc. Racing banner with the technical Alliance.

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Speaker 2: So I'm very lucky to keep my engineering core, so

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Speaker 2: my lead engineers and my data engineers I managed to

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Speaker 2: I've managed to keep with me. So we're going to

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Speaker 2: have some form of continuous here, which is important in

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Speaker 2: a championship. That's that's compartive and fundamentally, we're going to

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Speaker 2: keep the same car setup philosophy, which helps me to

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Speaker 2: as I said at the ground running. So I'm I'm

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Speaker 2: pretty lucky. I feel optimistic about the season, and I've

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Speaker 2: got to say that we're light years ahead of where

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Speaker 2: we were last year just from it from a technical

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Speaker 2: point of view. So I'm looking forward to it.

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Speaker 1: As you should be. Mate. Listen, go well, always good,

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Speaker 1: always great pleasure to catch up with you, and hopefully

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Speaker 1: we'll talk during the season as well. But we'll watch

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Speaker 1: on with a great deal of interest.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having me.

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Speaker 1: No worries mate Marcus Armstrong out of I think some

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Speaker 1: what do we say? It was Indianapolis at the moment

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Speaker 1: ahead of the first race in the early part of

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Speaker 1: March at Saint Petersburg in Florida. For more from the

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Speaker 1: Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be

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Speaker 1: from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.