Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Lily and you are hearing me from
Speaker 1: my far inferior home recording setup. The reason for that
Speaker 1: is because Fernando Alonso conveniently decided to announce twenty four
Speaker 1: hours before this episode was slated to drop that he
Speaker 1: is moving to the Aston Martin Formula One team at
Speaker 1: the start of the season. Luckily, for us and for you,
Speaker 1: a lot of the information in this episode is still
Speaker 1: super relevant. It is also very fun, if I do
Speaker 1: say so myself. So we'll talk more about Fernando's move
Speaker 1: when we discuss Aston Martin in a few weeks. So
Speaker 1: stay tuned, roll the tape. We're good to go. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Michael, yes, congratulations, we have reached the midfield. Yes
Speaker 1: we have. We have gone from best of the rest
Speaker 1: status to true like mid territory. And I mean that
Speaker 1: in the way like gen z TikTok er say, like
Speaker 1: mid we are deafin like right, their average in the middle.
Speaker 1: And to celebrate that, we're talking about a French team.
Speaker 1: I and I own no alpine merch to speak of.
Speaker 1: I brought you a croissant. Yes, yes, I'll eat it.
Speaker 1: It's close to the microphone and it's it's probably a
Speaker 1: little hard at this point. There we go from this
Speaker 1: wonderful bakery. Thank you, really, that's very kind of you
Speaker 1: here god mm hmmm mm hmmmm. They do know how
Speaker 1: to bake ship the French, you know, even though I
Speaker 1: think this bakery is just an American owned bakery that
Speaker 1: don't don't from my Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated studios.
Speaker 1: This is choosing sides. Yes one. Wow. So we're in
Speaker 1: the midfield. The team we're talking about today has been
Speaker 1: around the block for a while. They're very chaotic. They've
Speaker 1: been on the grid. They've been off the grid. They
Speaker 1: sold the team that they rebought the team. They are
Speaker 1: also involved with a massive f one scandal. Today's team
Speaker 1: is it's not Alpine. Nope, no Alpine, No Alpine. Alpine.
Speaker 1: Wait to say alpine, and it looks like it's spelled
Speaker 1: like Alpine, but no, we are the French Alpine. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make it complicated exactly, and then we're going to
Speaker 1: be really obnoxious when anyone mispronounces it. So Alpine, I
Speaker 1: will say, off the bat. Alpine is a pain in
Speaker 1: the asked to me personally, because it took forever to
Speaker 1: research all of the name changing and the team buying
Speaker 1: and all of this stuff. So they get points out
Speaker 1: of off of my personal book just for that in
Speaker 1: the amount of research this took. But I will let
Speaker 1: the record show I'm not saying it should affect your
Speaker 1: ranking well, but it does. They make it easy to
Speaker 1: say Ferrari or Mercedes. These are these brands that are
Speaker 1: so iconic. So you are making a point that as
Speaker 1: a new fan coming into the sport, maybe all the
Speaker 1: new fans are going to find these teams that are
Speaker 1: already baked with a lot of money because it's just
Speaker 1: easier to be fans exactly. And also, I mean you
Speaker 1: have to explain O l Pen formerly Reno as of
Speaker 1: you know, until it's it's a little bit confusing exactly.
Speaker 1: So in it requires we're reaching like intermediate level knowledge here.
Speaker 1: You need to have a little bit of context. Okay.
Speaker 1: So Reno entered Formula one all the way back in
Speaker 1: seven as a constructor, right, so they were infected team
Speaker 1: on the Grid. They also then began supplying their engines
Speaker 1: to other teams in three. There's about a seven year
Speaker 1: period there. But then Reynault leaves F one two years later.
Speaker 1: In to make this confusing, they still supply engines to
Speaker 1: other teams for another year. I'm already three years after this,
Speaker 1: they start supplying engines yet again. Then they say, we're
Speaker 1: going to buy a team again. Isn't that great? So
Speaker 1: they buy this iconic team called Benetta two thousand two,
Speaker 1: in case you're keeping track of all the dates, they
Speaker 1: rebrand it as rent two thousand five and two thousand six.
Speaker 1: Reno wins both the Driver's Championship and the Constructor's Championship.
Speaker 1: Both times. It's with a driver named Fernando Alonso are
Speaker 1: old foe from the McLaren episode Our Petti as bitch
Speaker 1: from McLaren. We'll get to Fernando and kind of what
Speaker 1: he his whole energy is. In a second, you think
Speaker 1: that's the end of it, that they're in forever. They
Speaker 1: are not. They sell their shares in the company, but
Speaker 1: continue to supply engines to other teams, including Red Bull,
Speaker 1: who uses Reno engines to win their four championships. In
Speaker 1: the Rena team becomes a very unsuccessful team called Lotus
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, Lotus Lotus. It was like
Speaker 1: a whole disaster. So then finally in Reno buy shares
Speaker 1: in the team again, they rebranded to Rento, again, again,
Speaker 1: back to Rento, and then, as if this wasn't already
Speaker 1: enough of a journey, they rebranded as Alpine, which is
Speaker 1: borderline did and produces only one car. This is Josh
Speaker 1: Rebel n F one YouTuber, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: their brand is plasted all over the Reno motoriciple program.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, that've either got plans that we don't
Speaker 1: know about. Well, this is just inherently French or some
Speaker 1: mixture of both. I've already lost. I mean, I'm my
Speaker 1: heads in circles. We're not going to do this again.
Speaker 1: I you don't have to. It's not gonna be a
Speaker 1: pop quiz. But all you need to know if they
Speaker 1: were Reno up until the beginning of one, they are
Speaker 1: now Alpine. Those are the two main things you have
Speaker 1: to know. I know it Rena to Alpine. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So why obviously you're wondering, probably why rebrand? Is it money? No? Actually,
Speaker 1: the company claims that they want to use this spot
Speaker 1: on the grid right because F one at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, seen by a billion people a year.
Speaker 1: They want to market lesser known Alpine brand within Renault.
Speaker 1: The company. I mean, I don't even know. If I've
Speaker 1: ever seen a Renault car, I would have known that
Speaker 1: Renault was a car brand. But it's not good when
Speaker 1: you've got to spend two minutes describing what the ship
Speaker 1: something is. Definitely think it's a more European oriented brand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as usual. I don't think the French care about Americans
Speaker 1: or think too highly as us, and that's fair. They
Speaker 1: can do what they want exactly and we can do
Speaker 1: what we want us. I was gonna say, you know,
Speaker 1: it seems to working out for them, but I don't
Speaker 1: know if it is, considering how many times they're in
Speaker 1: and out of this sport and doing whatever they're doing. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of mess so, as I have teased for quite
Speaker 1: some time, they are involved in another massive scandal, another gate.
Speaker 1: We've got another gate, and this came later than the
Speaker 1: first gate by Gates, so you know it's serious and
Speaker 1: they have to then attack on the gate a year later.
Speaker 1: So we are talking today about crash Gate. Rash Gate. Yes,
Speaker 1: imagine if there was ever a controversy with a gate,
Speaker 1: like a literal gate gate Gate, Okay, crash Gate. So
Speaker 1: the year is two thousand eight. We are in the
Speaker 1: midst of a giant global recession thanks to American junk
Speaker 1: home bonds, exactly the year that the first Twilight movie
Speaker 1: came out. Oh yeah, that's what I was going to say. Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: we're you Team Edward or Team Jacob. I don't know
Speaker 1: how those people are. Okay, that's great, that's totally fine.
Speaker 1: I was team Belieds a personality. But anyway, this is
Speaker 1: thus eight. In September of two thousand eight, the Singapore
Speaker 1: Grand Prix is taking place. And the big deal about
Speaker 1: this particular Grand Prix in that particular year is it's
Speaker 1: the first night race in the Formula One history. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of build up to this race to
Speaker 1: begin with. So at the time Reno Reno has two drivers,
Speaker 1: Fernando Alonso and Nelson p k Jr. Unfortunately, Nelson p
Speaker 1: k Jr. It's not a very good F one driver,
Speaker 1: but he is in F one driving Reno with this
Speaker 1: you know, two time world champion, Fernando Alonso, he's out
Speaker 1: for blood, he really wants the w I'll start with
Speaker 1: what happens, then we'll go backwards into detail. So basically,
Speaker 1: Nelson p k Jr. Crashes during the race and because
Speaker 1: he crashes, his teammate Fernando Alonso inadvertently ends up having
Speaker 1: an advantage and ends up winning the race. That's like
Speaker 1: the long and short of it. At the time, Nelson
Speaker 1: p k Jr. Said, Oh, yeah, I just I crashed.
Speaker 1: It was a simple mistake. It happens. Some people were
Speaker 1: really skeptical and very much were raising eyebrows, but a
Speaker 1: lot of people were also like, you know what, racing
Speaker 1: incidents happened. Sometimes you just get a little bit of
Speaker 1: luck in the sport that that's part of f one, right,
Speaker 1: is the unpredictability, the fact that anything could happen, and
Speaker 1: the idea that a driver would do something like crash
Speaker 1: a car to advantage the team just sounded absurd, right,
Speaker 1: That's millions of dollars, that's a driver's life on the line.
Speaker 1: You just can't fat them something like that happening. So
Speaker 1: we skip ahead ten months to July of two thousand nine.
Speaker 1: Reno announces that they are dropping Nelson P. K Jr.
Speaker 1: From the team for for low not good performance basically,
Speaker 1: and he's upset and understandably he does not really have
Speaker 1: any loyalty to this team at this point because they
Speaker 1: have dropped him. Yeah, and they've been pretty not great
Speaker 1: about him in the media, like he wasn't good. You know,
Speaker 1: he's a little humiliated as and again comes from a
Speaker 1: big racing family. It's just it's just kind of a sad,
Speaker 1: depressing state. So he decides it is time to let
Speaker 1: her rip and open his mouth. Now, Senior PK was
Speaker 1: recently sacked by Renno, and he's now claimed that he
Speaker 1: was asked to deliberately crash at a Singapore Grand Prix
Speaker 1: last year, which of course helped Fernando to eventually win
Speaker 1: the race. Here we go, So here's a more technical
Speaker 1: look at what happens during the two thousand eight Singapore
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso, you know Reno teammate, who's who's
Speaker 1: kind of the golden boy, the star of that team.
Speaker 1: He actually had been doing well in practice sessions earlier.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of excitement. Qualifying happens, and for a
Speaker 1: variety of reasons, Fernando ends up qualifying in p. Fifteen,
Speaker 1: so he is nowhere near the top. Things didn't go
Speaker 1: according to planning. The car broke down and he's somewhat
Speaker 1: down the grid and a seen him so devastated. It's
Speaker 1: almost impossible to win from there. You're you're just fighting
Speaker 1: to get like a point or two right. Typically when
Speaker 1: you're in something like P fifteen and Nelson p k Jr.
Speaker 1: Is next to him at P sixteen, Yeah, Renault, it's
Speaker 1: really not not doing well. So according to Nelson p
Speaker 1: k Jr. This is where everything gets very sketchy. So
Speaker 1: if you're starting in the back, you've got less to lose, right,
Speaker 1: you're not in the points. You might take a riskier
Speaker 1: or a more a weirder, a more unconventional strategy to
Speaker 1: try and elevate yourself in the standings, for instance, having
Speaker 1: a lighter fuel load and pitting earlier, you know, changing
Speaker 1: tires up sooner, you know, any number of strategies. What
Speaker 1: they come up with is that Fernando pits incredibly early
Speaker 1: at lap twelve. So he's the first driver to go
Speaker 1: in and pit in. The hope is hey, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone's thinking, oh, he's going to get you know, newer,
Speaker 1: fresher tires and maybe the ideas he's going to go
Speaker 1: on and be able to kind of how to pulled himself,
Speaker 1: you know, ahead of teams and drivers and cars that
Speaker 1: are maybe slower and on top of that are on
Speaker 1: older tires. Right, it makes sense it gets back on
Speaker 1: and very quickly within three laps. So lap fourteen of
Speaker 1: this race, Nelson p K Jr. Crashes at turn seventeen.
Speaker 1: You can see the cogs turning with this one. And
Speaker 1: on top of that that is likely I would have
Speaker 1: thought to bring out a safety car is it's off
Speaker 1: the line. The safety car comes out to slow the
Speaker 1: drivers down. It's a physical car that is driving. They
Speaker 1: have to hold back, they're not allowed to pass. And uh,
Speaker 1: on top of that, it's a difficult place to recover cover.
Speaker 1: There is not a crane nearby. This turn too quickly
Speaker 1: pull the car out, so they have to get a
Speaker 1: crane over there. They obviously have to collect debris all
Speaker 1: these little pieces of carbon fiber and these parts are
Speaker 1: all over the track. So these cars are obviously slowly
Speaker 1: going around and around. And as we talked about, what
Speaker 1: starts to happen with safety cars is because obviously everyone's
Speaker 1: driving at the same speed, the cars begin to bunch up.
Speaker 1: So if you were leading by, you know ten seconds,
Speaker 1: you now have to slow down. You can't pass anyone,
Speaker 1: but no one can pass you and then on top
Speaker 1: of that, the regulations at the time stated that the
Speaker 1: pit lane was closed if a safety car was out
Speaker 1: until all of the cars were bunched up. So everyone
Speaker 1: finally gets bunched up before anyone can pit, and obviously
Speaker 1: Fernando Alonso now has already pitted. He's on the freshest tires,
Speaker 1: and so based on that, basically Fernando ends up towards
Speaker 1: the front. And because of the pit strategy and other
Speaker 1: people having to pit at different times and the chaos
Speaker 1: around any safety car, you know, it throws everyone's strategies
Speaker 1: for a loop. Anybody who is chew a pit stuff,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be really sweating. They're gonna have to come
Speaker 1: in and take a penalty. Fernando ends up winning from p.
Speaker 1: Fifteen in this race. And obviously, now that we know that,
Speaker 1: there's always a little weird coincidences that seem to go on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're kind of on your head. I'm shaking my head
Speaker 1: back and forth because I'm not I'm not so sure
Speaker 1: this was such a giant advantage, but okay, I'm still listening. Yes,
Speaker 1: So basically though, what happened, So Nelson P. K Junior
Speaker 1: is Brazilian so Brazilian media starts reporting shortly after Nelson
Speaker 1: p K Jr. Is kind of saying, hey, something actually
Speaker 1: happened here. You know, he's going to the f i
Speaker 1: A and and kind of talking to them and making
Speaker 1: some noise. Yeah, it breaks publicly within the month that
Speaker 1: he is alleging that the two heads of Reno told
Speaker 1: him to crash to give Fernando Alonso this advantage to
Speaker 1: help his race on lap fourteen lap on lap fourteen,
Speaker 1: after Fernando had already pitted, which you know they could
Speaker 1: easily tell me is Nelson p K Junior, Hey your
Speaker 1: teammate pitted, you know that that sort of thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: So shortly thereafter we're still in the same like two
Speaker 1: month period after Nelson p K Junior comes forward with
Speaker 1: the allegations, So we're not just like eight months after
Speaker 1: the incident exactly. We're almost a year after the incident.
Speaker 1: So now we're actually a year later, September two nine.
Speaker 1: At this point, the f i A, the governing Bartie body,
Speaker 1: charges Reno with interfering in a two thousand eight Singapore
Speaker 1: gram pri and conspiring with p K to deliberately crash
Speaker 1: his car and put Alonso at an advantage under the
Speaker 1: safety car rules. The two guys who are heading up
Speaker 1: reddo at the time. This is the most like villain
Speaker 1: in a Godfather movie name Flavio Briatore. He's the executive
Speaker 1: director of the team. And then you have executive director
Speaker 1: of engineering Pat Simmons. Less climactic. So you've got Flavio
Speaker 1: and Pat are said to have told Nelson to do
Speaker 1: this according to Nelson Pique. And of course, meanwhile Fernando
Speaker 1: claimsy had no idea that any of this was going on.
Speaker 1: He cannot fathom the team ever doing something like that
Speaker 1: to him, gasp. So this is all going on, there's
Speaker 1: like the Renault team starts threatening legal action against Nelson
Speaker 1: p K Jr. And myself. We put a criminal plans
Speaker 1: to in the High Court of Paris for black mail. Again,
Speaker 1: everything is still building, building building, and they finally have
Speaker 1: this hearing. At this hearing, an anonymous and mysterious Rehno
Speaker 1: employee who's no and his witness X we still know
Speaker 1: who they are comes forward and says they were at
Speaker 1: the alleged pre race meeting where this plan was concocted.
Speaker 1: Shortly after like this hearing and this witness and whatever.
Speaker 1: Reynauld says they're not going to contest the charges from
Speaker 1: the f i A and Bria, Tory and Simmons they
Speaker 1: leave the team very quickly. So Renaud claims, look, we're
Speaker 1: already cleaning house, We're already trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: And basically what they get handed down is not a
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollar fine or anything close to it.
Speaker 1: F one's governing buddy f i A gave rey No
Speaker 1: only a two year suspended ban, which means between now
Speaker 1: and if Reynauld misbehaves again, it will be taken out
Speaker 1: of the race. Entiality they can raise for those two years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they're like, don't do anything sketchy again during that time.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, a minor slap on the wrist. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, they banned Flavio indefinitely
Speaker 1: and Pat our Darling. Pat was banned for five years
Speaker 1: from f i A sanction events Why the difference? And yes,
Speaker 1: so Pat, at a certain point when all of this
Speaker 1: ship was going on, he eventually confesses to knowing the
Speaker 1: plan and they did it, and you know whatever, he
Speaker 1: saves his own ass. So they say, well, Patt at
Speaker 1: Lease came forward again with this whole like honesty thing
Speaker 1: or like he was honest with us eventually kind of
Speaker 1: uh And to this day, Labio Briatore does not you know,
Speaker 1: he's still he's still proclaiming his innocence at the time,
Speaker 1: and to this day, that initial de facto lifetime ban
Speaker 1: for uh briotry is considered the harshest in all of
Speaker 1: motorsports history. And eventually they reduced the bands and and
Speaker 1: all of this stuff, so eventually they're just it's kind
Speaker 1: of said, hey, you guys can't work for a you know,
Speaker 1: an f I a sponsored event or at an event
Speaker 1: to like eleven, it's like really significantly reduced. So basically,
Speaker 1: to to summarize this whole thing, the leaders of the
Speaker 1: team asked, they're not as good driver to crash and
Speaker 1: sacrifice his race to help the other one win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which puts that driver risk right on top of that
Speaker 1: he could have died, right, I mean, you can't just
Speaker 1: like correct, you gotta make it look like a real crash. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he can't just kind of go two miles an hour
Speaker 1: and kind of barely touched the wall. He if you
Speaker 1: look at photos, he's straight up crash side barrier. It
Speaker 1: looks bad. Yeah, I mean that's just really dangerous. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think it means anything. I think we now
Speaker 1: go on. We have problems from time to time. As
Speaker 1: long as we solve them and deal with them properly,
Speaker 1: that's fine. And I will say there was very different opinions.
Speaker 1: So you had a former F one world champion and
Speaker 1: team owner named Jackie Stewart said that that there's something
Speaker 1: fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula one.
Speaker 1: You know, the sport has never been in such a
Speaker 1: mood of self destruction. Millions of fans are amazed, if
Speaker 1: not disgusted, at a sport that goes from crisis to
Speaker 1: crisis with everyone blaming everyone else. And keep in mind
Speaker 1: this was also only you know, one to two years
Speaker 1: after this whole spygate thing, right. And then on the
Speaker 1: other hand, you had another former driver named Eddie Irvine
Speaker 1: who basically said the whole situation was overblown. He's like,
Speaker 1: it's probably slightly on the wrong side of the cheating thing,
Speaker 1: but in past days, every team has done whatever they
Speaker 1: could to win. Cheat been the les, break the rules,
Speaker 1: sabotage opponents. This is just the f a going on
Speaker 1: a crusade, and the truth is somewhere in between both
Speaker 1: of those. So just to quickly summarize where Alpines at. Now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've been generally midfield for a while, some years better
Speaker 1: than others. They finished P five, so smack dab in
Speaker 1: the middle of the championship, and generally there are some
Speaker 1: weeks where they're car seem like they're going to be great,
Speaker 1: and then they kind of fail. They're a little bit
Speaker 1: all over the map. However, the drivers give us a
Speaker 1: lot more insight as to what's going on in the
Speaker 1: team than me just explaining this very convoluted team. So
Speaker 1: we'll get into them right after an ad break. All right,
Speaker 1: So we are back and we're talking about Alpines. Two drivers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who I want to know would two drivers are? Because
Speaker 1: you've called a mid a lot of times and as
Speaker 1: a driver, you don't want to be described as mid
Speaker 1: and much like Lando didn't like me describing him as
Speaker 1: slow and steady. But who are these Alpine drivers? Well,
Speaker 1: we've got to talk about the man of the hour.
Speaker 1: For the first driver we got, Fernando, he is back
Speaker 1: to read the guy who snitched on his own team.
Speaker 1: Stitch on his own team, different team, I will say,
Speaker 1: and then claim to have no knowledge of the other
Speaker 1: major scandal he was involved in. Uh yeah, at Reno.
Speaker 1: To keep in mind too, he did win his two
Speaker 1: world titles with Reno back in the mid two thousand's.
Speaker 1: He is his start and F one was all the
Speaker 1: way back in two thousand one. See sorry, we talked
Speaker 1: about Fernando Worlds. So Fernando has been around for a while.
Speaker 1: He has taken breaks from the sports. So he left.
Speaker 1: For instance, he went back to McLaren in the late
Speaker 1: tens before Lando came in, and he was having such
Speaker 1: a miserable time that he left and tried to do
Speaker 1: some other endurance racing and IndyCar. At one point he's
Speaker 1: he's tried other stuff in between his many stints in
Speaker 1: Formula one. You see the oldest driver on the grid.
Speaker 1: He is currently the oldest driver by yeah, at least
Speaker 1: at least three or four years. So picture him listening
Speaker 1: to like AM radio while he drives, you know, because
Speaker 1: he's old, and he puts his hands up on the
Speaker 1: thing and it goes real slow, puts his golf clubs
Speaker 1: in the trunk. Okay, stop, if anyone is the most
Speaker 1: contentious driver on the grid. He's definitely in the running
Speaker 1: for it because he's been around for forever. He's got
Speaker 1: people who love him who are die hard Fernando Alonso fans,
Speaker 1: he has got people who despise him the exactly like,
Speaker 1: why are you still here? All of that stuff. It's
Speaker 1: impressive the longevity his career. D Yeah, So okay, I
Speaker 1: have some photos of Fernando alright, Fernando Alonzo. So this
Speaker 1: guy looks a little shady. He also looks very intense
Speaker 1: because that bottom right foot of him, like yelling, is
Speaker 1: from when he won one of his world championships. So
Speaker 1: he it's like you can just see the emotion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in that in that pose, it's just like arms up
Speaker 1: like a lion roar. Basically, yeah, is this a win
Speaker 1: at all costs? Guy? He has a win at all
Speaker 1: cost guy? So okay, So I feel like we're saying
Speaker 1: we're kind of like Fernando. It's the vibe. It's possible.
Speaker 1: Why is he still around? I mean, is he is
Speaker 1: there something I'm missing here? First of all, you know
Speaker 1: that the one reason or one of the big reasons
Speaker 1: a lot of teams keep older drivers around is They
Speaker 1: come with a lot of experience. They know how to
Speaker 1: talk about cars, they know how to really explain how
Speaker 1: they're feeling in a car, what's not working, and also
Speaker 1: obviously has built up the you know, the intuition. You know,
Speaker 1: he knows, he's seen every scenario at this point, he
Speaker 1: knows what to do. I get out of this place
Speaker 1: is good. We're looking at the plan A plus aid
Speaker 1: Plan A plus. Fernando is a great all around driver.
Speaker 1: He's obviously very very aggressive, but what he is known for,
Speaker 1: he's probably the best defender on the grid. Drivers live
Speaker 1: in fear of having to be told by their teams
Speaker 1: to pass Fernando Alonso iconically. In one there is a race,
Speaker 1: the Hungarian Grand Prix, and there was a massive rain
Speaker 1: storm and literally the start so we don't even get
Speaker 1: through the first turn of the race. The cars end
Speaker 1: up taking each other out like bowling pins after a
Speaker 1: Ferrari and the Santa macarn it's literally whoever ends up
Speaker 1: bypassing this situation kind of ends up in the front.
Speaker 1: So you've got a wacky, wacky, wacky series of drivers.
Speaker 1: So you have actually Fernando Alonzo's teammate, who will talk
Speaker 1: about in a second, Espano con ends up in the
Speaker 1: first place position, spans in the lead. Fernando's a little
Speaker 1: bit back behind him. He's in like P. Three. But
Speaker 1: coming up behind Fernando is Lewis Hamilton's and the Mercedes
Speaker 1: is just booking it. So they basically they're like, Fernando,
Speaker 1: we need you to hold off Louis Hamilton's, who's in
Speaker 1: a far superior car for as long as you possibly can,
Speaker 1: so that st Bond can win the damn race. Somehow
Speaker 1: is keeping Hamilton? This is incredible. You can just see
Speaker 1: and hear and feel the frustration for Louis Hamilton's, you know,
Speaker 1: former teammate. These two people do not like each other. Yes,
Speaker 1: Louis Hamilton's on the radio is just exasperated you saved
Speaker 1: over me. Man, Come on, come on man, Like that
Speaker 1: had to be illegal. They're like, no, Fernando is just
Speaker 1: out defending like your offense. What a brilliant defensive drive
Speaker 1: he's doing today, isn't it amazing? So you can block? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the rules around making sure you aren't like for doing
Speaker 1: all on Michael Schumacher, like just smashing into someone. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like like Fernando's doing everything by the book, He's just
Speaker 1: that good and every turn you just see Louis goes.
Speaker 1: But then Fernando will like block him just enough legally
Speaker 1: to keep him from passing. Almost ended up in contacts,
Speaker 1: and essentially Fernando Alonso in a not as fast whatsoever
Speaker 1: Alpine holds off Lewis's Mercedes for ten laps, which enables
Speaker 1: Estebond to win this race. So something to keep in
Speaker 1: mind too is that defending actually can harm your own race.
Speaker 1: So for instance, if you just let someone like Louis through,
Speaker 1: you save your tires, they're not going to get worn
Speaker 1: down as quickly saving fuel, you know, You're just you're
Speaker 1: just being in more of a conservation effort, which is
Speaker 1: why you do see often if you know a car
Speaker 1: sees a much faster car coming up on them, they'll
Speaker 1: just let them pass. I mean, they won't completely lie
Speaker 1: down and play dead, but they're like, what's the point
Speaker 1: of me fighting this faster car. So it really was
Speaker 1: I don't want to say selfless, but it was very
Speaker 1: helpful of Alonso to say, you know what, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: fight this guy. I'm gonna really go after this defense.
Speaker 1: I want to funk with Louis. You know, I want
Speaker 1: to help my teammate. Whatever was going through his mind,
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be understated that it was in fact, you know,
Speaker 1: to the detriment somewhat to to Fernando's race. He was
Speaker 1: sacrificing his race, either for the betterment of his team
Speaker 1: or to funk with his old teammate or both. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a man of multip my therapist tells me all
Speaker 1: the time. Both things could be true. Yeah, definitely a
Speaker 1: guy who you want on your team for sure when
Speaker 1: you need a defender or someone to kind of be
Speaker 1: on your side, Like he's the guy you want to
Speaker 1: to to just go after it. Not bad for an
Speaker 1: old guy, Fernande, Yes, still, but yeah, I will say
Speaker 1: there are people who are like ready for him to
Speaker 1: get out of there. Like I said, he's turning forty
Speaker 1: one this summer. I mean that is a remarkable feat.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about Lando at McLaren, who's twenty two.
Speaker 1: This guy's forty one. I mean that is just so
Speaker 1: much experience. Yeah, so it's obviously very good at f one.
Speaker 1: He just might not be great at some of the
Speaker 1: uh you know, finer points of off track etiquette. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there is something to be said, for someone that is
Speaker 1: still at world class level at that age, that's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: Yeah uh yeah. I mean the other big argument against him,
Speaker 1: I would say, is that, you know, every time you
Speaker 1: have a driver like that who's there for a long
Speaker 1: time and maybe maybe overstaying their welcome, they keep other
Speaker 1: younger drivers in talent out. They've got some junior drivers.
Speaker 1: We're hearing from Josh Revel again, do you have one
Speaker 1: everything in the junior Fumula ranks who are looking at
Speaker 1: the no vacancies and thinking, okay, great, when are we
Speaker 1: getting into Formula one? Oh? And not? Why not? Because
Speaker 1: we signed a mercurial French driver and an aging Spaniards
Speaker 1: and we think, yep, that's what we need for our
Speaker 1: Drava lineup in Formula two. So as you know, the
Speaker 1: junior category right below Formula one. The driver who won
Speaker 1: that Oscar Piastre. He he is just like a baby
Speaker 1: faced cherub. He is like adorable, you know, he's like
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty. There's a lot of hype around Oscar Oscars
Speaker 1: in Alpines Young Driver's development program, and they basically have
Speaker 1: no where to promote him because they're keeping someone like Fernando,
Speaker 1: who's much older and definitely at the end of his career.
Speaker 1: We don't need no junior formula. My stray will be
Speaker 1: fine with what we've got right now, which is why
Speaker 1: we're exactly bang average and Formula one. So besides Fernando,
Speaker 1: who's in the other car that is, in fact Esteban,
Speaker 1: oh Cod the other the other guy. I feel like
Speaker 1: I've talked about Fernando in several episodes and now it's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and Esteban's there. So Estebon is more of
Speaker 1: an enigma on the grid than the average driver. He's
Speaker 1: interesting and that it's very well known that he does
Speaker 1: not come from money, and the big story that's told
Speaker 1: about him is that his dad's actually mechanic and when
Speaker 1: he was growing up, they saw that he had affinity
Speaker 1: for carding, so they actually sold their family home lived
Speaker 1: out of an RV so they could drive around to
Speaker 1: carting competitions with him, and his dad did all the
Speaker 1: work on Esteban's cart, Yeah, to save money and because
Speaker 1: he obviously knew what to do. So it really was
Speaker 1: this family affair. They're very close and very tighten it.
Speaker 1: So I guess if you have like slight eat the
Speaker 1: rich vibe in a sport that everyone's rich. Uh, he
Speaker 1: could potentially be one of your guys, um, but yeah, so,
Speaker 1: Esteban definitely is known for being a little bit scrappier,
Speaker 1: being a little bit elbows out than than the average
Speaker 1: driver because he wants it so badly and obviously a
Speaker 1: lot of sacrifices were made to get him to this point.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't get I think, much grittier than like,
Speaker 1: we literally sold our home to fund your career. Dad's
Speaker 1: the mechanic. Yeah, that's a mechanic. He definitely has had
Speaker 1: a much more chaotic career in terms of it very talented,
Speaker 1: has won things in the junior categories and whatnot, but
Speaker 1: definitely bounced around in the sense that he's never really
Speaker 1: been a team's number one driver, even at Alpine. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a weird dynamic with the Fernando right because
Speaker 1: Estebon is seen as like the future of the team
Speaker 1: and also Alpinea French company loves having a French driver
Speaker 1: and Esteban that's a that's a huge boon for any team.
Speaker 1: But Fernando Alonso is Fernando Alonso. So even if you
Speaker 1: are kind of considered the future and the the big
Speaker 1: talent going forward. It's hard to you know, not feel
Speaker 1: overshadowed by such an icon and legend of the sport.
Speaker 1: He is Fernando Alonso for a reason. Another interesting thing
Speaker 1: to note is Estebon is managed by Total Wolf at Mercedes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as we know, it's it's a very fun ethical minefield
Speaker 1: over in F one. So I have to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe there is more to Estebon than what we're seeing.
Speaker 1: We gotta do a quick break and then we'll be back.
Speaker 1: So I guess when it comes to Alpine in terms
Speaker 1: of pitching the team, I mean, it's kind of a
Speaker 1: weird one. What is the grand plans? I'm not entirely
Speaker 1: sure because they say, you know, we're looking to win
Speaker 1: in Formula one, Josh Revel again, Okay, when in Formula
Speaker 1: one with your current package, good luck. You've got about
Speaker 1: nine other teams that have the exact same freaking goal.
Speaker 1: What stands them out amongst the others kind of hopes
Speaker 1: and dreams and arguably living into that and in six
Speaker 1: they are a bit of an enigma for sure. As
Speaker 1: of the middle of the two season, things have been
Speaker 1: a little rocky at times for Alpine, but they are
Speaker 1: still in the hunt for best of the rest status.
Speaker 1: They're very comfortably at the top of the midfield, and
Speaker 1: both their drivers, Fernando and Esteban, have had relatively good seasons. Um.
Speaker 1: Fernando unfortunately has had some bad luck with you know,
Speaker 1: an engine not starting here or there. Esteban has quietly
Speaker 1: done pretty darn well all things considered. So again I
Speaker 1: feel I feel bad saying it, but Alpine is doing
Speaker 1: very mid But I actually kind of mean that in
Speaker 1: a good way. They're under the radar. They're a little
Speaker 1: bit quiet, but we could see some really interesting stuff
Speaker 1: in the back half of two if they keep at
Speaker 1: it and other teams kind of fall off. I wish
Speaker 1: I had a more like exciting pitch for you for Alpine,
Speaker 1: but there are some people who really love Alpine. I
Speaker 1: like their colors. I like their name. It sounds like eeek,
Speaker 1: you know, top of the mountain h And I liked
Speaker 1: that this guy is forty one years old, you know,
Speaker 1: fun the young guys, they'll get their shot, but he's
Speaker 1: holding on. He's a grizzly old veteran grinding it out.
Speaker 1: And uh, I certainly liked that he played such a
Speaker 1: good defense against Louis Hamilton. That's that's that's a fun story.
Speaker 1: But no, they're not jumping off the page. For me,
Speaker 1: French hurts. It hurts being French, but that's not even
Speaker 1: their fault. It's hard to really devote your energy to
Speaker 1: it thinking in two years they're gonna be making engines.
Speaker 1: In three years quit and then to five years come back,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I would love another, not another I would
Speaker 1: say crash Gate. I would love another scandal involving LPN.
Speaker 1: They need something to put them back on the map
Speaker 1: because it's been a while since crash Gate. It's been
Speaker 1: a decade and a half. We need something new. And
Speaker 1: then when we come to the driver's here, Yeah Fernando,
Speaker 1: I mean and YOHI actually said this, but I think
Speaker 1: it's true. Is that Fernando, despite being in the sport
Speaker 1: for two decades, basically he still drives like a rookies
Speaker 1: who's got something to prove, right, Like he drives lights out,
Speaker 1: like every race could be his last. I mean at
Speaker 1: this point he is getting older, so the end could
Speaker 1: come is going to come sooner rather than later for him.
Speaker 1: That's a tremendous quality in a competitor because he's got money,
Speaker 1: so he doesn't necessarily need to do this, but he
Speaker 1: obviously every race he's going to try to win. That's unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I mean great defender, just a fun guy to watch.
Speaker 1: So if you're someone who likes you know, I want
Speaker 1: to a I want to follow great racers, right like Fernando, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, he doesn't have the chance always, but if
Speaker 1: he gets it, he will put on the show. Like
Speaker 1: you will not be disappointed watching him fly around and
Speaker 1: hold people back and and generally go lights out the
Speaker 1: entire time. I will say Esteban is great in the
Speaker 1: sense that there's I think I think there's just a
Speaker 1: lot there that we haven't quite seen yet. He is
Speaker 1: in his mid twenties and I think that these next
Speaker 1: couple of years could be really defining for him. So
Speaker 1: if you are someone who likes a little bit of
Speaker 1: an enigma who definitely also has a lot of fighting them, right, Like,
Speaker 1: he comes from a back ground where his family and
Speaker 1: him had to really work for it. He knew the
Speaker 1: pressure he was undertook perform so that it wasn't all
Speaker 1: for not for his parents and his family. You know,
Speaker 1: he is a guy who can, like I said, put
Speaker 1: some elbows out, which isn't always everyone's favorite, but there
Speaker 1: is a fire there and it's just a matter of
Speaker 1: when it comes out and when it really dominates. And
Speaker 1: his dad working on the car when he was a kid.
Speaker 1: That's cool and it's a good story. And I know
Speaker 1: he he mentioned it in that one video I watched,
Speaker 1: but he was he was like, I used to sleep
Speaker 1: by the track in the van. Now I'm in this
Speaker 1: like really nice trailer. And he was like really appreciative
Speaker 1: of that, and that was cool to hear him say that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's got perspective. He was raising against kids who would
Speaker 1: would roll up with these multimillion dollar cars and what
Speaker 1: you know, he's just out there with his mom and
Speaker 1: dad for sure. Yeah, I will say he's someone who
Speaker 1: often is seen as either an underrated driver or at
Speaker 1: the very least overlooked. He's kind of forgotten about. He's
Speaker 1: in this midfield team. He's had a couple of moments
Speaker 1: of real brilliance and f one, but there's not to
Speaker 1: be said for being a little bit more low key
Speaker 1: and on top of that, total wolf is man him.
Speaker 1: So if if Toto and the Mercedes Jugger not see
Speaker 1: something in you that can't be forgotten or sort of
Speaker 1: written off. And some people are late bloomers in every sport.
Speaker 1: We see this. Even as teams, we see this, as coaches,
Speaker 1: we see this. Some people take some time to get
Speaker 1: the confidence. And maybe that's what's happening. Oh definitely. So
Speaker 1: I definitely have never counted Estebon out. Who knows what's
Speaker 1: going to happen with him. So, Michael, we are officially
Speaker 1: halfway through the F one grid. Who are you feeling
Speaker 1: the most right now? I've embarrassed that I put so
Speaker 1: much emphasis on colors and brand names, but I really
Speaker 1: love learning about the component of what's made each driver,
Speaker 1: you know, as a controversy, the dad working on the car,
Speaker 1: the dad that pushed him to be the bet a
Speaker 1: lot of dad, Like I said, dad issues. It's hard
Speaker 1: for me to connect with Alp Mercedes. I feel the
Speaker 1: same way Red Bull. That guy Christian pisces me off.
Speaker 1: Uh McLaren, I can see what people are talking about
Speaker 1: with McLaren um, but I'm still coming back to this
Speaker 1: Ferrari on the poster of my bedroom, and I like
Speaker 1: the vibe A little bit of them, and I could
Speaker 1: be off, but that's still where I'm at. And who
Speaker 1: else did I miss? So I'm not going to make
Speaker 1: you rank all the drivers, but which which? Which? Like
Speaker 1: two to three drivers thus far are you excited about?
Speaker 1: I'm liking what just listening to you talk about, I'm
Speaker 1: liking how always in contention Alpha Great White Shark, Lewis
Speaker 1: Hamilton's seems to just always be. I mean it seems
Speaker 1: like every race we talked about your like, and then
Speaker 1: Lewis was about to win, You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I like that. That's just like pure dominance is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: How do you achieve that? But you know from from
Speaker 1: asking me this question, I always like these underdog guys.
Speaker 1: I always like the people that are assumed to be
Speaker 1: number two. I hate the number two things. These are
Speaker 1: all world class drivers, but it's like kids. You you
Speaker 1: really do as a parent, need to love one of
Speaker 1: them more so I didn't, did I answer your question? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Kind of. I still like George Russell. I know that's
Speaker 1: what you're really getting at. No, we like George, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I like Charles Sure, I like him. I like him,
Speaker 1: um Lando Daniel as Demano, Fernando I could I can
Speaker 1: leave him on the in the paddock, so to speak.
Speaker 1: It pains me slightly because I, as we know, I
Speaker 1: like Lando, I have I have an interesting soft spot
Speaker 1: for for an estebond character. But I I see where
Speaker 1: your your your minded head are going. I think what
Speaker 1: maybe you're finding with me is I am I'm in
Speaker 1: on the sport. I love the competition of it. I'm
Speaker 1: loving this whole new world I didn't know about. But
Speaker 1: it's gonna take me some time to really figure out
Speaker 1: whom I'm in love with. Does that make sense? Well,
Speaker 1: as you know, we're only halfway through, so we've got
Speaker 1: a lot of teams to discuss, a lot of drivers,
Speaker 1: a lot more chaos. We've got some real dark horses
Speaker 1: and wild cards in the mix, especially as we get
Speaker 1: further down the grid. You've gotta be a little bit
Speaker 1: scrappy to be on some teams that are perpetually towards
Speaker 1: the bottom of the midfield or even at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the standings there. So there's lots more to to
Speaker 1: see and to hear about. I'm gonna like the people
Speaker 1: that are the grittiest down there. Yeah, So next week
Speaker 1: we finally get to talk about the Red Bull sister
Speaker 1: Team Alpha Towery, which I'm sure you're wondering, what the
Speaker 1: heck does a sister team, junior team whatever even do?
Speaker 1: So settled be next week? Are we all good? Okay? Um? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think it is a rapid This has been Choosing
Speaker 1: Sides F one, a production of Sports Illustrated Studios and
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Speaker 1: and Lily Harp. This episode was produced by Lily Herman
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