Speaker 1: All right, Uh Michael. Yes, when I say, when I
Speaker 1: say the word Mercedes, what comes to mind? Well, probably
Speaker 1: the first thing comes to mind is when I was
Speaker 1: a kid in an arbor, Michigan, we used to go
Speaker 1: to the University of Michigan basketball games and we would
Speaker 1: go out to the parking lot and try to steal
Speaker 1: hood ornaments off the cars. Right. Terrible, like absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: terrible thing to do. But what the ones you always
Speaker 1: wanted were the Mercedes. Right. So I don't know what
Speaker 1: that says about me, my family and my upbringing, but
Speaker 1: maybe it says something about the brand, just for listeners
Speaker 1: to know. I have a Mercedes hat on today. I
Speaker 1: spent way too much money on it because all F
Speaker 1: one merch costs in our mental leg I mean, can
Speaker 1: somebody a F one throw Lily a couple of hats?
Speaker 1: Why is she buying her own hat? Absolutely? And I
Speaker 1: think what we're getting out of this is that if
Speaker 1: someone from Mercedes, just like the corporation in general, is listening,
Speaker 1: we would like hood ornaments, vintage food ornaments in our possession.
Speaker 1: It's a conic logo that's been around for years and
Speaker 1: people recognize and and believe it means driving, elegance performance.
Speaker 1: Probably all the words of their marketing team has spent
Speaker 1: billions of dollars beating into my head for fifty years.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're really happy to hear that. But then's
Speaker 1: all it's all not been been for, not that a
Speaker 1: singular person can can recall on a podcast. So today
Speaker 1: on the podcast, this is part one of our two
Speaker 1: episodes look into the Mercedes Formula One team. They have
Speaker 1: been one of the most dominant teams in a recent
Speaker 1: memory and maybe ever, and there's plenty to say about
Speaker 1: what's going on with them. Now let's hit it. From
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios, this is Choosing
Speaker 1: sides one. Wow, So Mercedes has been in F one
Speaker 1: in the modern era since however, they have obviously been
Speaker 1: doing car things for like a lot longer than that.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna go all the way back to the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, Ben Mercedes was racing cars out there like
Speaker 1: everyone else. There was actually something in the thirties in
Speaker 1: Europe called the European Championships, which is one of the
Speaker 1: kind of precursors to F one, and the team actually
Speaker 1: won three titles during that time. Obviously, the European Championships
Speaker 1: took a back seat to a little thing called World
Speaker 1: War two, and uh, and then when F one finally
Speaker 1: got up and running in the fifties, Uh, Mercedes actually
Speaker 1: won two World Drivers titles in a row in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four and nineteen fifty five. So everything's looking peach swell.
Speaker 1: They're doing great until uh, the year's nineteen fifty five
Speaker 1: and there is an endurance race that's really iconic called
Speaker 1: the twenty four Hours of Laman Mercedes is in US race,
Speaker 1: and something to keep in mind is that UM safety
Speaker 1: and spectator protocols are not what they are like today.
Speaker 1: So you have people in this race, these spectators who
Speaker 1: are literally almost up against the literal race track, cheering
Speaker 1: for their teams. They're separated by some like makeshift wooden
Speaker 1: fences or like some hay bales. But it's really very
Speaker 1: pretty like I know where this is going. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: basically a multi car pile up and crash has asked
Speaker 1: US trikes at a hundred and twenty five Mercedes collides
Speaker 1: and blows up one of the drivers involved with a
Speaker 1: Mercedes driver. This crash sends massive pieces of debris from
Speaker 1: these cars into the spectator areas. In a few ghostly seconds,
Speaker 1: death wipes out whole families, leave, is killed before his lips, eyes,
Speaker 1: and some seventies spectators with him among the bodies. Frantic
Speaker 1: survivors seek their friends, skulls cracking blood. The Mecedes was
Speaker 1: made partly of magnesium man i, which blazes micaphurnace. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's violent. Eight three spectators and dying. Another hundred eight
Speaker 1: people are injured, and this is still one of the
Speaker 1: most catastrophic disasters in motorsports history. Goes on. Keep in
Speaker 1: mind it was very normal for like two drivers a
Speaker 1: year to die in f one like in the sixties
Speaker 1: for instance, Like like these this is just part for
Speaker 1: the course. But yeah, the size and scope of this,
Speaker 1: and obviously combined with like some of the photographs that
Speaker 1: have survived, it's a pretty gnarly looking kind of blur
Speaker 1: of black and white photos. Is the nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 1: It's the first thing that shows up when you put
Speaker 1: in nineteen all right, so images there's everyone running to
Speaker 1: their cars for the start, little did they know. And
Speaker 1: here's a picture that looks like it could be a
Speaker 1: World War scene. Yeah, it's fire people screaming. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of bodies laying on the ground. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it does lead to some some big questions and
Speaker 1: answers around yeah, spectator safety, just general sports safety. For
Speaker 1: Mercedes obviously, on top of the fact that their driver
Speaker 1: died in this very tragic, very violent and very public way.
Speaker 1: It's understandably, you know, marketing and pr nightmare right to
Speaker 1: say we are the height of luxury and class and
Speaker 1: this and that, and now we're responsible for this terrible,
Speaker 1: awful thing that happened. So Mercedes decides to nope, on
Speaker 1: out of there. They're saying, we are piecing out of
Speaker 1: motorsports entirely, not not just kind of Formula one with
Speaker 1: like everything, we are outie for the time being. And uh.
Speaker 1: They end up leaving for over thirty years and do
Speaker 1: not enter any form of motor sports racing until Okay,
Speaker 1: it's that dramatic change for them exactly. Yeah, skip to
Speaker 1: they decide they are going to also start getting back
Speaker 1: into Formula One, so they do not enter a team,
Speaker 1: though they do not try and build a team. Instead,
Speaker 1: they start supplying engines to certain teams that want them.
Speaker 1: Because Mercedes engines are highly coveted. They're they're really, you know,
Speaker 1: world renowned, and I think they also just like the
Speaker 1: idea of getting back into that aspect of R and D.
Speaker 1: I will also mention an F one they often call
Speaker 1: engines quote unquote power units. To hear that word, we
Speaker 1: call it a power unit, by the way, not an engine,
Speaker 1: because the power unit is so much more than an engine.
Speaker 1: So that's Formula one journalist Tony Cowen Brown. That's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why so few O e M s
Speaker 1: go into Formula one. What O E M s so
Speaker 1: original equipment manufacturers and against the engine is so complex
Speaker 1: today and I won't even pretend that I can understand
Speaker 1: all the parts involved there. But there are two types
Speaker 1: of teams in Formula one. Every Formula one team out
Speaker 1: of the ten teams is a constructor team, but not
Speaker 1: all teams works team. And what I mean by that
Speaker 1: is a constructor team, or what they call a customer team,
Speaker 1: is a team that essentially builds their car, but they
Speaker 1: will purchase their engine and some other parts from another
Speaker 1: team because at a minimum, as the f I states,
Speaker 1: which is the governing body, at a minimum, these teams
Speaker 1: must build their own car it's what we call the chassis.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to look at the grid right now, where
Speaker 1: you have Mercedes, who is time constructor champion, who is
Speaker 1: a works team that builds their car and their engine
Speaker 1: and sells their units. One of their customer teams is Williams,
Speaker 1: who is all the way at the back of the grid.
Speaker 1: So it's a nice explanation of there is more to
Speaker 1: it than just car or driver because essentially Williams and
Speaker 1: Mercedes are driving with the same power unit with the
Speaker 1: same engine. Okay, interesting, yeah, Okay. To get to Mercedes,
Speaker 1: we have to talk about two other teams that are
Speaker 1: no longer on the grid. But this is also one
Speaker 1: of the great Cinderella stories of Formula one. So this
Speaker 1: is the story, the tale, if you will, of bron GP.
Speaker 1: So bron GP, Yes, strap in get ready. The year
Speaker 1: now is two thousand and eight. We are balls deep
Speaker 1: in a global recession. Everything's going to ship. Michael's coaching
Speaker 1: tennis at the University of Michigan. Just bought his house
Speaker 1: for two dollars, which he will sell in ten years
Speaker 1: for less money than he bought it for. Lily is
Speaker 1: much younger um and is listening to Paramore song Misery
Speaker 1: Business two years after it has come out. I'll repeat
Speaker 1: because she is an emo child teen I'm a teen
Speaker 1: like myself that I'm a teen at this point. But
Speaker 1: the long and short of it is the recession. No
Speaker 1: one's happy, no one's money if one is still racing.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you would just think at a time
Speaker 1: like that, when the housing markets are crashing, that Formula
Speaker 1: one seems even more gratuitous. Yes, exactly, exactly. So. Our
Speaker 1: first main character in the story is Honda. But at
Speaker 1: this point they've had a team for for a couple
Speaker 1: of seasons in the mid to late auts and things
Speaker 1: are not going well. They are you know, like, you know, eighth,
Speaker 1: ninth place, what's called P eight, P nine in the
Speaker 1: championship out of you know, ten eleven whatever teams. They're
Speaker 1: really not not doing so hot. And um, Honda says,
Speaker 1: l O l j K. We are pulling out of
Speaker 1: two thousand nine. We're sorry to say that seven people
Speaker 1: are about to lose their jobs amid the holiday season,
Speaker 1: and um, OOPSI daisy, you know, it's just a real
Speaker 1: real clusterfuck. Um. And so at the last second, we're
Speaker 1: like the pretty much almost literal eleventh hour, this guy
Speaker 1: named Ross Braun, he is the team principal of the
Speaker 1: Haunted Team. He and the CEO, they say, hey, would
Speaker 1: you be willing to let us buy you out keep
Speaker 1: the team? You know, keep, let everyone keep their jobs
Speaker 1: and you know, we'll kind of handle financing for next
Speaker 1: season for the most part, but we just want to
Speaker 1: make sure we save the team. Don't let this all
Speaker 1: kind of go to waste over this little thing again
Speaker 1: called a global economic crisis. So Honda ends up saying yes,
Speaker 1: and Ross Broun, technically on the documents buys a Formula
Speaker 1: one team for one pound. Yeah. Great, They kind of
Speaker 1: just they have to do some type of business transaction
Speaker 1: and they do that. They pund a one pound buy
Speaker 1: out of this of this team. And as if things
Speaker 1: were not already weird enough. Uh, we talked on our
Speaker 1: intro episode about how F one comes out with new
Speaker 1: regulations every couple of years to increase competitiveness and and
Speaker 1: help with safety and all that. New regular lations were
Speaker 1: starting with the beginning of the two thousand nine season.
Speaker 1: So this team now has a new kind of ownership. Uh,
Speaker 1: they have new regulations, they have less money to start
Speaker 1: out with, and they did or under normal circumstances. Most
Speaker 1: even the quote unquote poorer teams on the grid have
Speaker 1: you know, mit five million for the most part. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you're a driver on this team, you're like this sucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: You're like, what the And by the way, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: certain growing up we had a Honda lawnmower. Just think
Speaker 1: about that. I don't think we had a Mercedes Lawmore.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Mercedes would make a lawnmore, it
Speaker 1: would be incredibly expensive, but it probably very sleek and
Speaker 1: very trendy. Yeah, you know it is. It is interesting
Speaker 1: to think of Honda in this premier racing league when
Speaker 1: really they probably made the nuts and bolts of their business.
Speaker 1: Is like the Honda Civic, maybe the Accord, maybe my lawnmower.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I'll explain the why this happened
Speaker 1: a second. But to get to the season, the first
Speaker 1: race comes around. The two drivers we have are these guys.
Speaker 1: There's Jensen Button, who's sort of this I don't want
Speaker 1: to say, almost playboy but kind of party boy British
Speaker 1: guy Button and Uh and his teammate Rubens Barrichello, who
Speaker 1: is most known for being the longtime teammate of Michael Schumacher,
Speaker 1: legendary if one driver at Ferrari, and they are one
Speaker 1: of the longest and most successful partnerships in F one history.
Speaker 1: So so you've got Rubens, You've got Jensen. They are
Speaker 1: kind of they were already signed to the team when
Speaker 1: they were with Honda's. They're just kind of yoloing this
Speaker 1: whole thing, like like they're in it for like the
Speaker 1: ride to they have no idea what's gonna happen when
Speaker 1: no one knows who's gonna happen. There's not high hopes
Speaker 1: for bron g P when they start, you know, the
Speaker 1: qualifying session and um buns on that first to finish.
Speaker 1: They end up going one two in the first race
Speaker 1: of the season. What that's amazing, sensational, sensation fantastic, And
Speaker 1: then Jensen Button ends up winning six of the first
Speaker 1: seven races. Oh you have thank you, thank you, So
Speaker 1: Jensen Button in bron GYP wins the Ribber's Championship, braun
Speaker 1: g P walks await the Constructor's title. Fantastic. They are
Speaker 1: on top of the world, and so of course thing
Speaker 1: you're probably wondering what the hell happened, Like how did
Speaker 1: they pull that off? Were they cheating? No, but they
Speaker 1: were doing the classic F one thing of barely not cheating,
Speaker 1: um and cheating. That should be the name of someone's memoir.
Speaker 1: It's definitely like the subtitle of F one. It's like
Speaker 1: Formula one colin barely not cheating. So essentially, the very
Speaker 1: smart people at the Honda Brawn GP whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it factory are reading through these new regulations
Speaker 1: and basically within the engine there's something called a diffuser,
Speaker 1: and that we can go into forever about what it does.
Speaker 1: It would just take forever. But essentially what they do
Speaker 1: is they're supposed to make the diffuser smaller, and what
Speaker 1: they end up doing is almost splitting it into and
Speaker 1: creating what's called now a double diffuser. So they find
Speaker 1: this loophole, this very specific loophole, and exploit it to
Speaker 1: do something funky to this diffuser. So when they innovate
Speaker 1: their car, obviously there's great effort put into keeping that
Speaker 1: a secret from the other teams. Yes, it's such an
Speaker 1: interesting dance between we want you to innovate, but don't
Speaker 1: be so good that we'll then have to write exactly
Speaker 1: interesting history. Where are they now? A good question. We'll
Speaker 1: get into more of the team history after this break.
Speaker 1: So we find get to the part of the story
Speaker 1: where Mercedes comes back into the picture. Here, like two
Speaker 1: thousand's it's around the same time Mercedes is looking at
Speaker 1: potentially entering Formula one. For any any kind of organization
Speaker 1: that wants to enter something like Formula one, you have
Speaker 1: a couple of options. So one, you could spend untold
Speaker 1: amounts of money and resources building a team from scratch, right,
Speaker 1: developing a car from scratch, building a factory and all
Speaker 1: of that infrastructure from scratch, which is just Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think even the most egotistical of billionaires are not that
Speaker 1: egotistical to where they're too much work too like even
Speaker 1: just like you know, get the central hub where training
Speaker 1: is too much work exactly like buy a ship team
Speaker 1: and try to exactly So Mercedes goes the route that
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, up upstarted teams. Do they
Speaker 1: buy an existing team? Which team do they buy? Bron
Speaker 1: GP coming out of this very exciting season. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I have to say this is a
Speaker 1: great day for us obviously to start a new season
Speaker 1: with Mersey to Spence Grand Prix team with an own
Speaker 1: Formula one team? Is something really special for us? This
Speaker 1: must have been enormous when Mercedes got back in to motorsport.
Speaker 1: Is this their debut into Formula one since the crash? Yes,
Speaker 1: this was huge news. Here's why it's even bigger. Okay,
Speaker 1: Formula one fans around the world, Michael are very excited.
Speaker 1: There you are. You can see the Mercedes Ben's logo
Speaker 1: behind you. You're returning to Formula one. Tell us what
Speaker 1: your emotions are like Mercedes Lands. Seven time world champion.
Speaker 1: Michael Schumacher actually joined the team. Fantastic excitement after I
Speaker 1: got the call from from Ross in November providing a
Speaker 1: silver arrow and I'm going to be able to sit
Speaker 1: inside and and throw it around. I mean, that's really
Speaker 1: great stuff. So Michael Schumacher had famously retired from F one,
Speaker 1: made a big deal out of the retirement, and basically
Speaker 1: in the ensuing years, Michael Schumacher is basically still at races,
Speaker 1: like in the paddock and everyone's like, Michael, you've got
Speaker 1: to do something like he just misses it. He feels
Speaker 1: it really wasn't his time or that he was kind
Speaker 1: of not forced out, but people were like, you should
Speaker 1: be ready to leave you've won seven of these things.
Speaker 1: The singular focus that it takes to be at that level,
Speaker 1: which I don't know about, like none of us know about.
Speaker 1: But then when you just leave, you don't know how
Speaker 1: to do anything else exactly. Don't even know how to
Speaker 1: sit and have breakfast with your wife. Man, all you
Speaker 1: know how to do is just think about the race,
Speaker 1: think about the engine, think about the team. Whatever it is.
Speaker 1: They can't handle it. Yeah. So, so we're at the
Speaker 1: new era Michael Schumacher. You know, his teammate is a
Speaker 1: young guy named Nico Rossberg, whose dad Kick Rossberg one
Speaker 1: with in Formula one decades prior. SOO got this fun,
Speaker 1: little very blond lineup going on at the new Mercedes,
Speaker 1: and yeah, sure enough, the first couple of years a
Speaker 1: little rocky, they do, you know, like like Michael Schumacher
Speaker 1: has his worst I think three seasons ever and f
Speaker 1: one right he ends up, you know, uh P eight,
Speaker 1: P nine, I think P. Thirteen and Michael Jordan playing
Speaker 1: for the Wizards similarly, yeah a little bit. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: have Nico Rosberg driving for them, Michael Schumacher driving for them. Okay,
Speaker 1: big names in motorsport, but actually they weren't particularly successful.
Speaker 1: So that was Jenny Gal She's a prominent of one
Speaker 1: reporter for the BBC and other media outlets, and she
Speaker 1: was featured as a commentator in Drive to Survive. So
Speaker 1: year on year they were still looking for that winning
Speaker 1: formula and they were starting to accrue some of the
Speaker 1: top personnel. They already had a lot on their books,
Speaker 1: but then they started to poach others. So for example,
Speaker 1: James Allison, one of the most successful technical directors in
Speaker 1: Formula one, was poached from Ferrari and came across to Mercedes.
Speaker 1: They just started to put in place the best team
Speaker 1: possible with Nicki Louder, their former F one driver and champion,
Speaker 1: but passed away a couple of years ago. Toto Wolf
Speaker 1: came on board. Who you know that between the two
Speaker 1: of them ran Mercedes. So we're coming into which is
Speaker 1: when all the rules changed and the engines became hybrid engine. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're all driving prius Is at this point, I would
Speaker 1: love to see Lewis Hamilton's drive around in a Prius.
Speaker 1: It's a little different. No, they're not. Basically, without getting
Speaker 1: to two technical A big part of the regulations in
Speaker 1: this turbo hybrid era come from the fact that Formula
Speaker 1: one had started receiving a ton of criticism for not
Speaker 1: being particularly environmentally sustainable. So huge part of this and
Speaker 1: creating engines that run on both fuel as well electricity
Speaker 1: is signaling to everyone that F one takes this seriously interestingly.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the last decade. You know, these
Speaker 1: cars are some of the most efficient when it comes
Speaker 1: to energy and power and fuel usage, and a lot
Speaker 1: of that technology then is now what we see in
Speaker 1: cars on the road as well. So just to give
Speaker 1: you a little bit of comparison here, first, here's what
Speaker 1: a twin thirteen Formula one engine sounded like. Okay, so
Speaker 1: let's listen. Then when this turbo hybrid era started, here's
Speaker 1: what a twenty fourteen engine sounds like. Wow, that's very different.
Speaker 1: And I would assume, if anything, the cars as equally,
Speaker 1: if not faster, exactly. Yeah, So it's the whole idea is, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not losing performance, you're just making it more efficient
Speaker 1: and environmentally friendly. It is odd that every time they
Speaker 1: change regulation it ultimately changes everything. I mean, even changing
Speaker 1: the point after a touchdown back to the thirty yard line.
Speaker 1: Whenever that took like thirty years of football for them
Speaker 1: to go. Maybe it's just it's so much change is
Speaker 1: so difficult to make, and it seems like Formula one
Speaker 1: does it often. Maybe what would happen if football did
Speaker 1: change the rules every year? Right? And I think that
Speaker 1: would be interesting. Yeah, I would personally just love to
Speaker 1: see the other chaos. Take the helmets off. You want
Speaker 1: to solve concussions. No more helmets because they're not going
Speaker 1: to use their helmets as weapons anyways, normal pads just like,
Speaker 1: go back to the old school leather helmets and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: no forward passing. You know, why not make it a
Speaker 1: two hundred yard field. See what happens? Multiple footballs exactly
Speaker 1: completely deflated, no no no air in them to speak up,
Speaker 1: just like this weird pigskin thing, which just kind of yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go. Something else to note. A big announcement
Speaker 1: is made and Mercedes is bringing in a new driver
Speaker 1: and it is a young man named Lewis Hamilton's. Everyone
Speaker 1: thought he was crazy to go across the Mercedes at
Speaker 1: the time because they weren't a championship contender of a team.
Speaker 1: People thought he was nuts for leaving McLaren, a historic
Speaker 1: team that had been around for decades to go to
Speaker 1: this weird new shop at Mercedes that had been sprung
Speaker 1: out of this weird brawn GP sitch. So see us.
Speaker 1: Everyone was sort of confused, surprised, already saying you, yeah,
Speaker 1: he just left up his career. I won't go too
Speaker 1: much into Lewis's background because he is the star, or
Speaker 1: one of the two stars of our next episode all
Speaker 1: about the Mercedes drivers. So Mercedes started winning championships in
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen, two Formula One World champion and from
Speaker 1: that point on it won every championship. Every year, Mercedes
Speaker 1: are the champions again. Of course, with that result, the
Speaker 1: teams won the Constructors Championship for third consecutive year. Who
Speaker 1: would have ever thought a few years ago that we
Speaker 1: would be able to hold the celebration with a fifth
Speaker 1: consecutive double championship title, getting their lewishadron seven times, seven times,
Speaker 1: eight consecutive Constructors World Championships until well, let's see what
Speaker 1: happens this year. Yeah. So that's that's Mercedes overall to
Speaker 1: present day. So they were excellent, had an enormous crash,
Speaker 1: stayed out of the sport for thirty years, came back
Speaker 1: in through an odd acquirement of basically Honda's team at
Speaker 1: a third of the price, made some changes, brought in
Speaker 1: Lewis Hamilton's and has dominated exactly. Yeah, it's a very
Speaker 1: successful manufacturer. It provides some of the engines for the
Speaker 1: other teams as well. Um and it attracts some of
Speaker 1: the biggest players in Formula One when it comes to drivers, sponsorship, marketing,
Speaker 1: all of the deals that go around because of its success.
Speaker 1: It so current present day. So we have these new
Speaker 1: legs two, and very early on it became pretty apparent
Speaker 1: that Mercedes car was not looking as hot going into
Speaker 1: They have an issue that is called porpoising, and the
Speaker 1: issue is basically that aerodynamically, if they're going very fast,
Speaker 1: especially in a straight line, the cars bounce up and
Speaker 1: down very quickly because it's just not aerodynamically sound bouncing
Speaker 1: up and down. I know this, let's listening, still bouncing
Speaker 1: a lot. You hear the skipping of the floor. I
Speaker 1: mean that that doesn't doesn't control. Did they think about
Speaker 1: putting bags of kitty litter in the trunk or something,
Speaker 1: because that's what you do in Michigan when it's icy up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that cross the vines yes, that was very scientific.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so so Mercedes is at a weird point
Speaker 1: where they're not doing horrifically badly. They're just not the
Speaker 1: dominant force. You know, there was a season where they,
Speaker 1: you know, one of their two drivers one nineteen of
Speaker 1: the races in a season kind of things. You go
Speaker 1: from that too, You're it's like a little bouncy house
Speaker 1: down a track, you know, it feels like a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a fall. But this is also what's
Speaker 1: interesting about sport. I mean, Mercedes was out for a
Speaker 1: two years. They didn't have to worry about this ship.
Speaker 1: Once you enter, you now have to win, you know.
Speaker 1: And so they won for a while, but you can't
Speaker 1: keep winning all the times. They pay the other teams
Speaker 1: too to be competitive. So yeah, yeah, well, Johan I
Speaker 1: were trying to think of a tagline for Mercedes. The
Speaker 1: one that he came up with, which I think is
Speaker 1: the best working one for now, is um, they're like
Speaker 1: the team you you love to hate, right because they're
Speaker 1: they're winning all the time. Is this the New York Yankees?
Speaker 1: The Formula One? Yeah, you know in yeah and this
Speaker 1: turbo hybrid era. That is what Mercedes is. Their team
Speaker 1: is so disciplined, so dominant. Obviously they probably get a
Speaker 1: little cocky because they're used to just winning everything. They
Speaker 1: have the best driver or one of the you know,
Speaker 1: best drives of all time, that's Lewis Hamiltons Lewis Hamilton's. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so they're kind of been a weird spot where
Speaker 1: they have. They're a little uncomfortable. They have not been
Speaker 1: around here in quite some time, and it's been pretty
Speaker 1: apparent in interviews that they're two drivers are just yeah,
Speaker 1: a little a little bit annoyed that know they're they're
Speaker 1: they're struggling so much. Well, there is Peyton for you today.
Speaker 1: Do you feel you maximized everything you could in the
Speaker 1: cow given all the conditions today? I mean, personally, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm maximized everything. I don't know if we
Speaker 1: did as a team. Who's in charge of Mercedes? I mean,
Speaker 1: who's making these calls they do? Please tell me that
Speaker 1: the person has a name that sounds like a villain
Speaker 1: and Disney. You are in luck. Oh my god. The
Speaker 1: person is a man named Toto Wolf. Of course, his
Speaker 1: names are outrageous, otherwise known as Daddy Toto. I promised
Speaker 1: Daddy issues to too is Yeah, truly an icon of
Speaker 1: the sport. I'm gonna google, I'm gonna show you. I
Speaker 1: brought pictures. Ready, this is Daddy Toto. Wolf's gonna describe
Speaker 1: Toto for everyone. This is a handsome man. This is
Speaker 1: a handsome man. Full head of hair. By the way,
Speaker 1: everyone in Formula one has a full head of hair
Speaker 1: thanks to a lot of a lot of cosmetic procedures.
Speaker 1: Classic German picture of him standing in front of a
Speaker 1: snow capped mountain. And you know, I'm noticing with a
Speaker 1: Formula one everyone looks and exudes wealth. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of layers, there's nice watches. He's a billionaire, so I
Speaker 1: hope he's wealth yes, you know, And I hate to
Speaker 1: draw this comparison, but he looks like me. I'm just kidding, No,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a This is a handsome looking dude.
Speaker 1: He exudes confidence and wealth. He's six ft five. He's
Speaker 1: very imposing in the world of Formula one. Being six
Speaker 1: ft five, you might as well be a giant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he works out. You can tell he works out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that's that's who they have. I work out,
Speaker 1: so I can tell that he works out. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Yes, so that that is Total Wolf
Speaker 1: to the Austrian team principle of the Mercedes of one team.
Speaker 1: He is very large, very imposing. Total is kind of
Speaker 1: known for yet being this kind of hyper efficient businessman. Um.
Speaker 1: He's also very big on if if your ego is
Speaker 1: getting in the way of the team, he will call
Speaker 1: you out on it and has no problem being like,
Speaker 1: you're sucked up. You need to get over it, Like
Speaker 1: go go in a corner and figure it out and
Speaker 1: come back when you're ready to be a team player.
Speaker 1: Like he's not messing around. Total, we'll put you in
Speaker 1: check exactly. Yeah, I mean, funk, it's already hard enough
Speaker 1: trying to drive these things that you got this guy
Speaker 1: in your head. Yeah, he's a pretty intense guy. But
Speaker 1: he also yeah, likes to keep things close to the vest,
Speaker 1: and he's very calculated as to when he kind of
Speaker 1: lets those go rip, right, it's a it's a choice exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like you never feel like he's being impulsive. So that's
Speaker 1: that's Uh, that's Total Wolf. Alright, Total Nice to meet you, buddy.
Speaker 1: He he looms large in uh and he's also I
Speaker 1: think an easy person to love to hate too, because
Speaker 1: he is imposing, not a guy where you you would
Speaker 1: kind of casually like, ah, that's someone I'm going to
Speaker 1: small talk with you. He's also there's nothing about him
Speaker 1: that says underdog. You know, he is the punching up.
Speaker 1: It's Mercedes, it's wealth, it's the look, and uh, I
Speaker 1: think I think I've got a grasp on that. Excellent.
Speaker 1: We gotta do a quick break and then we'll be back.
Speaker 1: So I guess overall, if I had to sum up,
Speaker 1: you know, the hitch for Mercedes, you're sort of like, well,
Speaker 1: how do you pitch a team to anyone to to
Speaker 1: root for? You know, why why am I buying this
Speaker 1: fifty dollar hat for for a team that that is
Speaker 1: dominated for close to a decade, right? Um, I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good arguments. One, you know, they
Speaker 1: aren't invincible, so we're seeing a little bit of their
Speaker 1: their vulnerable side. So if you you're someone who maybe
Speaker 1: wants a little bit of an underdog flavor without having
Speaker 1: to commit to like a true underdog at the back
Speaker 1: of the grid, you know, Mercedes has that they do
Speaker 1: have this wacky history with Brown g p uh Yokai.
Speaker 1: What would what would you add to why Mercedes well,
Speaker 1: I think if you want to make a safe bet,
Speaker 1: Mercedes is like, you know, it's a safe bet. They
Speaker 1: have the history, they have the drivers, They're definitely financed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well financed. They they have the best engineers. You know,
Speaker 1: some some people like to win. Like if you if
Speaker 1: you like your team to win, are we going to
Speaker 1: use you popping in like on the audio? I like
Speaker 1: that first of all, thank you know, it gives another
Speaker 1: It gives another layer. I always like in the producer's policy.
Speaker 1: I'd also say too that if if any team is
Speaker 1: going to struggle but like figure their ship out, I'd
Speaker 1: bet on Mercedes, you know. Whereas there other teams where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, their their car is not good this year,
Speaker 1: like oh we're fucked for the entire year, like best
Speaker 1: of luck to you, Whereas like Mercedes, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: you had some people a couple of races in two already,
Speaker 1: you know, ruling them out, and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of races this there's almost two dozen
Speaker 1: races this season. I think they'll figure it out. There's
Speaker 1: a good chance that Mercedes going to figure out whatever
Speaker 1: the issue is and at least not be embarrassing for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. You know what I'm finding
Speaker 1: interesting about this is so much of sport, it's kind
Speaker 1: of determined who you're supposed to cheer for based on
Speaker 1: where you're from. Yeah, what's interesting about Formula one. It's
Speaker 1: such a mix of nationalities. You're essentially picking either the brand,
Speaker 1: like I love this brand so much, I want to
Speaker 1: cheer for Mercedes or Williams and not Williams. But essentially
Speaker 1: you're picking the personality of the either the principal or
Speaker 1: the to dry Iver's. It lends itself to some heartache
Speaker 1: because you know the drivers are gonna leave eventually, You're
Speaker 1: gonna go everywhere. So it's it's interesting that, like, I
Speaker 1: get to pick a team, but that's also what everybody
Speaker 1: gets to do, because it's not like, oh, shoot, I'm
Speaker 1: from Detroit, I have to be a Lions fan, you know,
Speaker 1: I get to actually decide what team I want to
Speaker 1: I think I just described the whole podcast just now
Speaker 1: hitting me in the head of what this is. Congratulations Welcome.
Speaker 1: Episode two only took two full episodes to get part of.
Speaker 1: Unless Unless, I'll just say, unless you're Italian, okay, and
Speaker 1: I don't know that is there. There's a clear Italian
Speaker 1: team Ferrari. So I'll say this, I understand the the
Speaker 1: compulsion of maybe finding a Mercedes team to support and love. Ah,
Speaker 1: I want something a little not as h for sure.
Speaker 1: I want something a little more underdog. I don't need
Speaker 1: my team principle to have a seven camera professional photo
Speaker 1: shoot in front of a snow mountain. I want there
Speaker 1: would be a little more grit. If that's so. And
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about Louis Hamilton's or the other drivers.
Speaker 1: You have to have grit to be successful. But uh,
Speaker 1: my initial take on Mercedes is a hate herbal team.
Speaker 1: I don't need that elegant brand logo in my life. Personally.
Speaker 1: You need you need to to have a little more
Speaker 1: dirt on his face. He's too uh. I just it
Speaker 1: feels a little too constructed. I think I might be right,
Speaker 1: I might be wrong. I don't know. And for for
Speaker 1: any listener disagreeing with me, keep in mind, this is
Speaker 1: the very first team principle I've ever met, so I
Speaker 1: don't I can't really compare him to anyone else. You
Speaker 1: didn't even know that was the word. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's the that that's kind of a story and history
Speaker 1: of Mercedes. Uh, that's that's where we're coming from, and
Speaker 1: we're using that information to set the scene for the
Speaker 1: next episode. We're going to drive to drive. We're going
Speaker 1: to dive into the two current drivers on this team.
Speaker 1: You've got Lewis Hamilton's seven time world champion, considered a goat,
Speaker 1: if not v goat of Formula one, greatest of all time.
Speaker 1: And then you have his new teammate as of this season,
Speaker 1: George Russell, who is out here trying to prove himself
Speaker 1: after a few funky, weird years on a not so
Speaker 1: great team in the sport. So that will be the
Speaker 1: next episode. I think we should be driving into each episode.
Speaker 1: We're not diving. Really missed opportunity on my part. Wow,
Speaker 1: I you know, we should all just pack it up
Speaker 1: and go home. I've completely missed the boat on that one.
Speaker 1: Damn it. It was a good mistake. This has been
Speaker 1: Choosing Sides F one, a production of Sports Illustrated Studios
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. Tune in later this week to
Speaker 1: learn all about the Mercedes d Ivers. The show was
Speaker 1: hosted by Michael Costa and Lily Herman. This episode was
Speaker 1: produced by Lily Herman and our senior producer you Hi Mittal,
Speaker 1: who also did the sound design at the cutting room.
Speaker 1: Studios were recorded by engineer Robot Leary, mastering by Cello
Speaker 1: Weisblue Max Miller is the executive producer and Brannan Getchus
Speaker 1: his head of audio at s I Studios. At I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Shaan Titone is our executive producer. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't
Speaker 1: forget to rate us and tell your friends. It'll mean
Speaker 1: a lot