WEBVTT - Alpine - A Renault By Any Other Name 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.920 Hey everyone, it's Lily and you are hearing me from 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:08.000 my far inferior home recording setup. The reason for that 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:13.280 is because Fernando Alonso conveniently decided to announce twenty four 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.479 hours before this episode was slated to drop that he 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.760 is moving to the Aston Martin Formula One team at 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.040 the start of the season. Luckily, for us and for you, 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:26.279 a lot of the information in this episode is still 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.000 super relevant. It is also very fun, if I do 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.880 say so myself. So we'll talk more about Fernando's move 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.319 when we discuss Aston Martin in a few weeks. So 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:39.959 stay tuned, roll the tape. We're good to go. Okay, 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:46.440 So Michael, yes, congratulations, we have reached the midfield. Yes 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.520 we have. We have gone from best of the rest 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.080 status to true like mid territory. And I mean that 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.160 in the way like gen z TikTok er say, like 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:02.560 mid we are deafin like right, their average in the middle. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.000 And to celebrate that, we're talking about a French team. 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.520 I and I own no alpine merch to speak of. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.040 I brought you a croissant. Yes, yes, I'll eat it. 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.560 It's close to the microphone and it's it's probably a 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.680 little hard at this point. There we go from this 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.560 wonderful bakery. Thank you, really, that's very kind of you 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:33.920 here god mm hmmm mm hmmmm. They do know how 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.360 to bake ship the French, you know, even though I 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.360 think this bakery is just an American owned bakery that 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:47.000 don't don't from my Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated studios. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:02:01.200 This is choosing sides. Yes one. Wow. So we're in 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.360 the midfield. The team we're talking about today has been 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:06.880 around the block for a while. They're very chaotic. They've 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.800 been on the grid. They've been off the grid. They 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.000 sold the team that they rebought the team. They are 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.480 also involved with a massive f one scandal. Today's team 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:24.320 is it's not Alpine. Nope, no Alpine, No Alpine. Alpine. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.320 Wait to say alpine, and it looks like it's spelled 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.680 like Alpine, but no, we are the French Alpine. We're 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:32.760 gonna make it complicated exactly, and then we're going to 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:37.800 be really obnoxious when anyone mispronounces it. So Alpine, I 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.400 will say, off the bat. Alpine is a pain in 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.160 the asked to me personally, because it took forever to 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.960 research all of the name changing and the team buying 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.519 and all of this stuff. So they get points out 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.600 of off of my personal book just for that in 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.520 the amount of research this took. But I will let 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.440 the record show I'm not saying it should affect your 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:02.040 ranking well, but it does. They make it easy to 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:06.320 say Ferrari or Mercedes. These are these brands that are 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.760 so iconic. So you are making a point that as 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.160 a new fan coming into the sport, maybe all the 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.640 new fans are going to find these teams that are 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.280 already baked with a lot of money because it's just 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:19.760 easier to be fans exactly. And also, I mean you 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.240 have to explain O l Pen formerly Reno as of 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.600 you know, until it's it's a little bit confusing exactly. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:30.200 So in it requires we're reaching like intermediate level knowledge here. 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.160 You need to have a little bit of context. Okay. 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.560 So Reno entered Formula one all the way back in 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.800 seven as a constructor, right, so they were infected team 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.560 on the Grid. They also then began supplying their engines 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.240 to other teams in three. There's about a seven year 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:53.320 period there. But then Reynault leaves F one two years later. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.440 In to make this confusing, they still supply engines to 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.800 other teams for another year. I'm already three years after this, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:06.160 they start supplying engines yet again. Then they say, we're 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.000 going to buy a team again. Isn't that great? So 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.280 they buy this iconic team called Benetta two thousand two, 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.320 in case you're keeping track of all the dates, they 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.479 rebrand it as rent two thousand five and two thousand six. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:23.120 Reno wins both the Driver's Championship and the Constructor's Championship. 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:28.520 Both times. It's with a driver named Fernando Alonso are 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.880 old foe from the McLaren episode Our Petti as bitch 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.240 from McLaren. We'll get to Fernando and kind of what 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.800 he his whole energy is. In a second, you think 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.240 that's the end of it, that they're in forever. They 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.359 are not. They sell their shares in the company, but 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.800 continue to supply engines to other teams, including Red Bull, 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.160 who uses Reno engines to win their four championships. In 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.720 the Rena team becomes a very unsuccessful team called Lotus 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.200 for a couple of years, Lotus Lotus. It was like 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.239 a whole disaster. So then finally in Reno buy shares 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.640 in the team again, they rebranded to Rento, again, again, 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:08.839 back to Rento, and then, as if this wasn't already 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.200 enough of a journey, they rebranded as Alpine, which is 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.919 borderline did and produces only one car. This is Josh 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.520 Rebel n F one YouTuber, and all of a sudden 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:24.400 their brand is plasted all over the Reno motoriciple program. 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.480 It's like, okay, that've either got plans that we don't 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.960 know about. Well, this is just inherently French or some 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.320 mixture of both. I've already lost. I mean, I'm my 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:34.960 heads in circles. We're not going to do this again. 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:36.320 I you don't have to. It's not gonna be a 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:37.920 pop quiz. But all you need to know if they 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.840 were Reno up until the beginning of one, they are 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:42.919 now Alpine. Those are the two main things you have 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.960 to know. I know it Rena to Alpine. Okay, okay, 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:51.120 So why obviously you're wondering, probably why rebrand? Is it money? No? Actually, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.839 the company claims that they want to use this spot 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:56.479 on the grid right because F one at the end 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:58.400 of the day, seen by a billion people a year. 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.880 They want to market lesser known Alpine brand within Renault. 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:04.920 The company. I mean, I don't even know. If I've 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:06.960 ever seen a Renault car, I would have known that 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:11.240 Renault was a car brand. But it's not good when 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.360 you've got to spend two minutes describing what the ship 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.960 something is. Definitely think it's a more European oriented brand. Yeah, 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.279 as usual. I don't think the French care about Americans 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.160 or think too highly as us, and that's fair. They 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.080 can do what they want exactly and we can do 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.960 what we want us. I was gonna say, you know, 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:31.360 it seems to working out for them, but I don't 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.159 know if it is, considering how many times they're in 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.000 and out of this sport and doing whatever they're doing. So, 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.880 speaking of mess so, as I have teased for quite 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:44.720 some time, they are involved in another massive scandal, another gate. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.400 We've got another gate, and this came later than the 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.720 first gate by Gates, so you know it's serious and 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.880 they have to then attack on the gate a year later. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:00.839 So we are talking today about crash Gate. Rash Gate. Yes, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.839 imagine if there was ever a controversy with a gate, 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:10.560 like a literal gate gate Gate, Okay, crash Gate. So 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.640 the year is two thousand eight. We are in the 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:18.040 midst of a giant global recession thanks to American junk 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.360 home bonds, exactly the year that the first Twilight movie 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.080 came out. Oh yeah, that's what I was going to say. Yes, exactly, 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.200 we're you Team Edward or Team Jacob. I don't know 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.120 how those people are. Okay, that's great, that's totally fine. 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.480 I was team Belieds a personality. But anyway, this is 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.840 thus eight. In September of two thousand eight, the Singapore 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.280 Grand Prix is taking place. And the big deal about 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.880 this particular Grand Prix in that particular year is it's 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.760 the first night race in the Formula One history. Yes, 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.320 there's a lot of build up to this race to 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:50.680 begin with. So at the time Reno Reno has two drivers, 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.880 Fernando Alonso and Nelson p k Jr. Unfortunately, Nelson p 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.520 k Jr. It's not a very good F one driver, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.640 but he is in F one driving Reno with this 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.480 you know, two time world champion, Fernando Alonso, he's out 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.320 for blood, he really wants the w I'll start with 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.800 what happens, then we'll go backwards into detail. So basically, 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.880 Nelson p k Jr. Crashes during the race and because 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:19.920 he crashes, his teammate Fernando Alonso inadvertently ends up having 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.200 an advantage and ends up winning the race. That's like 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.920 the long and short of it. At the time, Nelson 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:26.640 p k Jr. Said, Oh, yeah, I just I crashed. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.120 It was a simple mistake. It happens. Some people were 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.320 really skeptical and very much were raising eyebrows, but a 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.280 lot of people were also like, you know what, racing 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.240 incidents happened. Sometimes you just get a little bit of 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.200 luck in the sport that that's part of f one, right, 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.760 is the unpredictability, the fact that anything could happen, and 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.200 the idea that a driver would do something like crash 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.400 a car to advantage the team just sounded absurd, right, 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.319 That's millions of dollars, that's a driver's life on the line. 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.640 You just can't fat them something like that happening. So 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.360 we skip ahead ten months to July of two thousand nine. 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:02.680 Reno announces that they are dropping Nelson P. K Jr. 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.200 From the team for for low not good performance basically, 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.679 and he's upset and understandably he does not really have 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.880 any loyalty to this team at this point because they 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.560 have dropped him. Yeah, and they've been pretty not great 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.560 about him in the media, like he wasn't good. You know, 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.480 he's a little humiliated as and again comes from a 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.000 big racing family. It's just it's just kind of a sad, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.080 depressing state. So he decides it is time to let 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.760 her rip and open his mouth. Now, Senior PK was 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.360 recently sacked by Renno, and he's now claimed that he 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.040 was asked to deliberately crash at a Singapore Grand Prix 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.000 last year, which of course helped Fernando to eventually win 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.160 the race. Here we go, So here's a more technical 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.880 look at what happens during the two thousand eight Singapore 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.400 Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso, you know Reno teammate, who's who's 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.280 kind of the golden boy, the star of that team. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.040 He actually had been doing well in practice sessions earlier. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.199 There's a lot of excitement. Qualifying happens, and for a 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.600 variety of reasons, Fernando ends up qualifying in p. Fifteen, 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:02.920 so he is nowhere near the top. Things didn't go 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.280 according to planning. The car broke down and he's somewhat 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.400 down the grid and a seen him so devastated. It's 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.720 almost impossible to win from there. You're you're just fighting 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:11.800 to get like a point or two right. Typically when 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.880 you're in something like P fifteen and Nelson p k Jr. 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.679 Is next to him at P sixteen, Yeah, Renault, it's 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.920 really not not doing well. So according to Nelson p 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.760 k Jr. This is where everything gets very sketchy. So 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.000 if you're starting in the back, you've got less to lose, right, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.200 you're not in the points. You might take a riskier 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.000 or a more a weirder, a more unconventional strategy to 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.440 try and elevate yourself in the standings, for instance, having 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.360 a lighter fuel load and pitting earlier, you know, changing 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.560 tires up sooner, you know, any number of strategies. What 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.400 they come up with is that Fernando pits incredibly early 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.600 at lap twelve. So he's the first driver to go 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:54.880 in and pit in. The hope is hey, you know, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.000 everyone's thinking, oh, he's going to get you know, newer, 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:58.960 fresher tires and maybe the ideas he's going to go 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:00.920 on and be able to kind of how to pulled himself, 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.760 you know, ahead of teams and drivers and cars that 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:05.920 are maybe slower and on top of that are on 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.600 older tires. Right, it makes sense it gets back on 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.480 and very quickly within three laps. So lap fourteen of 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.959 this race, Nelson p K Jr. Crashes at turn seventeen. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.640 You can see the cogs turning with this one. And 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.120 on top of that that is likely I would have 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.200 thought to bring out a safety car is it's off 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.839 the line. The safety car comes out to slow the 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.280 drivers down. It's a physical car that is driving. They 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:36.520 have to hold back, they're not allowed to pass. And uh, 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:38.840 on top of that, it's a difficult place to recover cover. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.079 There is not a crane nearby. This turn too quickly 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:43.800 pull the car out, so they have to get a 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.360 crane over there. They obviously have to collect debris all 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.480 these little pieces of carbon fiber and these parts are 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:50.720 all over the track. So these cars are obviously slowly 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.720 going around and around. And as we talked about, what 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.160 starts to happen with safety cars is because obviously everyone's 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.199 driving at the same speed, the cars begin to bunch up. 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:02.280 So if you were leading by, you know ten seconds, 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.320 you now have to slow down. You can't pass anyone, 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.240 but no one can pass you and then on top 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.800 of that, the regulations at the time stated that the 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.160 pit lane was closed if a safety car was out 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.520 until all of the cars were bunched up. So everyone 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.400 finally gets bunched up before anyone can pit, and obviously 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.840 Fernando Alonso now has already pitted. He's on the freshest tires, 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.040 and so based on that, basically Fernando ends up towards 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.240 the front. And because of the pit strategy and other 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.440 people having to pit at different times and the chaos 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.160 around any safety car, you know, it throws everyone's strategies 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.520 for a loop. Anybody who is chew a pit stuff, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.640 he's gonna be really sweating. They're gonna have to come 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.079 in and take a penalty. Fernando ends up winning from p. 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.200 Fifteen in this race. And obviously, now that we know that, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.640 there's always a little weird coincidences that seem to go on. Yeah, 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:52.680 you're kind of on your head. I'm shaking my head 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.320 back and forth because I'm not I'm not so sure 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.920 this was such a giant advantage, but okay, I'm still listening. Yes, 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.240 So basically though, what happened, So Nelson P. K Junior 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:09.240 is Brazilian so Brazilian media starts reporting shortly after Nelson 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.240 p K Jr. Is kind of saying, hey, something actually 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.440 happened here. You know, he's going to the f i 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.720 A and and kind of talking to them and making 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.200 some noise. Yeah, it breaks publicly within the month that 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:24.640 he is alleging that the two heads of Reno told 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.320 him to crash to give Fernando Alonso this advantage to 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.720 help his race on lap fourteen lap on lap fourteen, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.160 after Fernando had already pitted, which you know they could 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.120 easily tell me is Nelson p K Junior, Hey your 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.760 teammate pitted, you know that that sort of thing. Uh. 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.920 So shortly thereafter we're still in the same like two 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.880 month period after Nelson p K Junior comes forward with 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.040 the allegations, So we're not just like eight months after 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.320 the incident exactly. We're almost a year after the incident. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.320 So now we're actually a year later, September two nine. 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.360 At this point, the f i A, the governing Bartie body, 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.040 charges Reno with interfering in a two thousand eight Singapore 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.720 gram pri and conspiring with p K to deliberately crash 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:08.480 his car and put Alonso at an advantage under the 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.360 safety car rules. The two guys who are heading up 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.560 reddo at the time. This is the most like villain 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:20.360 in a Godfather movie name Flavio Briatore. He's the executive 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:22.600 director of the team. And then you have executive director 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.640 of engineering Pat Simmons. Less climactic. So you've got Flavio 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.160 and Pat are said to have told Nelson to do 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.040 this according to Nelson Pique. And of course, meanwhile Fernando 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.920 claimsy had no idea that any of this was going on. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.920 He cannot fathom the team ever doing something like that 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.840 to him, gasp. So this is all going on, there's 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.600 like the Renault team starts threatening legal action against Nelson 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.040 p K Jr. And myself. We put a criminal plans 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:52.280 to in the High Court of Paris for black mail. Again, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:54.920 everything is still building, building building, and they finally have 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.600 this hearing. At this hearing, an anonymous and mysterious Rehno 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.400 employee who's no and his witness X we still know 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.840 who they are comes forward and says they were at 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.880 the alleged pre race meeting where this plan was concocted. 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.600 Shortly after like this hearing and this witness and whatever. 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.840 Reynauld says they're not going to contest the charges from 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.680 the f i A and Bria, Tory and Simmons they 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.320 leave the team very quickly. So Renaud claims, look, we're 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.400 already cleaning house, We're already trying to do the right thing. 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.600 And basically what they get handed down is not a 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:26.840 one hundred million dollar fine or anything close to it. 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:29.280 F one's governing buddy f i A gave rey No 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.560 only a two year suspended ban, which means between now 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:36.320 and if Reynauld misbehaves again, it will be taken out 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.320 of the race. Entiality they can raise for those two years. Yeah, 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.560 but they're like, don't do anything sketchy again during that time. 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.440 It's like, yeah, a minor slap on the wrist. Uh. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:51.480 And then on top of that, they banned Flavio indefinitely 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.520 and Pat our Darling. Pat was banned for five years 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:59.040 from f i A sanction events Why the difference? And yes, 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:01.720 so Pat, at a certain point when all of this 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.160 ship was going on, he eventually confesses to knowing the 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.360 plan and they did it, and you know whatever, he 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.320 saves his own ass. So they say, well, Patt at 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.760 Lease came forward again with this whole like honesty thing 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.240 or like he was honest with us eventually kind of 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.080 uh And to this day, Labio Briatore does not you know, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.480 he's still he's still proclaiming his innocence at the time, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.920 and to this day, that initial de facto lifetime ban 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.960 for uh briotry is considered the harshest in all of 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.960 motorsports history. And eventually they reduced the bands and and 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:35.320 all of this stuff, so eventually they're just it's kind 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.400 of said, hey, you guys can't work for a you know, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.520 an f I a sponsored event or at an event 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.760 to like eleven, it's like really significantly reduced. So basically, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.040 to to summarize this whole thing, the leaders of the 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.720 team asked, they're not as good driver to crash and 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.840 sacrifice his race to help the other one win. Yeah, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.400 which puts that driver risk right on top of that 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.000 he could have died, right, I mean, you can't just 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.200 like correct, you gotta make it look like a real crash. Yeah, 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:02.800 he can't just kind of go two miles an hour 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:04.879 and kind of barely touched the wall. He if you 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.439 look at photos, he's straight up crash side barrier. It 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.840 looks bad. Yeah, I mean that's just really dangerous. Yeah yeah, yeah, 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:12.600 I don't think it means anything. I think we now 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:14.879 go on. We have problems from time to time. As 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:16.760 long as we solve them and deal with them properly, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.960 that's fine. And I will say there was very different opinions. 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:21.960 So you had a former F one world champion and 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.040 team owner named Jackie Stewart said that that there's something 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.320 fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula one. 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:31.720 You know, the sport has never been in such a 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.480 mood of self destruction. Millions of fans are amazed, if 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.159 not disgusted, at a sport that goes from crisis to 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.280 crisis with everyone blaming everyone else. And keep in mind 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:43.600 this was also only you know, one to two years 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.320 after this whole spygate thing, right. And then on the 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.120 other hand, you had another former driver named Eddie Irvine 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.239 who basically said the whole situation was overblown. He's like, 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.800 it's probably slightly on the wrong side of the cheating thing, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.199 but in past days, every team has done whatever they 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.920 could to win. Cheat been the les, break the rules, 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.320 sabotage opponents. This is just the f a going on 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.120 a crusade, and the truth is somewhere in between both 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:22.720 of those. So just to quickly summarize where Alpines at. Now, Yeah, 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.280 they've been generally midfield for a while, some years better 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.720 than others. They finished P five, so smack dab in 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:33.679 the middle of the championship, and generally there are some 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.440 weeks where they're car seem like they're going to be great, 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:40.320 and then they kind of fail. They're a little bit 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.159 all over the map. However, the drivers give us a 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.119 lot more insight as to what's going on in the 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.560 team than me just explaining this very convoluted team. So 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:54.439 we'll get into them right after an ad break. All right, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.960 So we are back and we're talking about Alpines. Two drivers. Yeah, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.280 who I want to know would two drivers are? Because 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.960 you've called a mid a lot of times and as 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.240 a driver, you don't want to be described as mid 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.600 and much like Lando didn't like me describing him as 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.920 slow and steady. But who are these Alpine drivers? Well, 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.000 we've got to talk about the man of the hour. 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:25.359 For the first driver we got, Fernando, he is back 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.320 to read the guy who snitched on his own team. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.920 Stitch on his own team, different team, I will say, 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.440 and then claim to have no knowledge of the other 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:37.760 major scandal he was involved in. Uh yeah, at Reno. 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.080 To keep in mind too, he did win his two 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.760 world titles with Reno back in the mid two thousand's. 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:47.639 He is his start and F one was all the 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:52.960 way back in two thousand one. See sorry, we talked 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:57.440 about Fernando Worlds. So Fernando has been around for a while. 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.680 He has taken breaks from the sports. So he left. 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.119 For instance, he went back to McLaren in the late 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.560 tens before Lando came in, and he was having such 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.639 a miserable time that he left and tried to do 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.960 some other endurance racing and IndyCar. At one point he's 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:16.040 he's tried other stuff in between his many stints in 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.040 Formula one. You see the oldest driver on the grid. 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.240 He is currently the oldest driver by yeah, at least 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.000 at least three or four years. So picture him listening 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.200 to like AM radio while he drives, you know, because 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:29.879 he's old, and he puts his hands up on the 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.480 thing and it goes real slow, puts his golf clubs 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.840 in the trunk. Okay, stop, if anyone is the most 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.800 contentious driver on the grid. He's definitely in the running 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.400 for it because he's been around for forever. He's got 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.800 people who love him who are die hard Fernando Alonso fans, 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.159 he has got people who despise him the exactly like, 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.840 why are you still here? All of that stuff. It's 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.440 impressive the longevity his career. D Yeah, So okay, I 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:04.119 have some photos of Fernando alright, Fernando Alonzo. So this 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.040 guy looks a little shady. He also looks very intense 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.000 because that bottom right foot of him, like yelling, is 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.080 from when he won one of his world championships. So 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.879 he it's like you can just see the emotion. Yeah, 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.520 in that in that pose, it's just like arms up 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.840 like a lion roar. Basically, yeah, is this a win 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.000 at all costs? Guy? He has a win at all 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.120 cost guy? So okay, So I feel like we're saying 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.560 we're kind of like Fernando. It's the vibe. It's possible. 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.440 Why is he still around? I mean, is he is 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.040 there something I'm missing here? First of all, you know 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:39.880 that the one reason or one of the big reasons 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:41.840 a lot of teams keep older drivers around is They 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:43.359 come with a lot of experience. They know how to 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.639 talk about cars, they know how to really explain how 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:53.720 they're feeling in a car, what's not working, and also 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.760 obviously has built up the you know, the intuition. You know, 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.199 he knows, he's seen every scenario at this point, he 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.080