WEBVTT - Mercedes (Part 1) 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:05.640 All right, Uh Michael. Yes, when I say, when I 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:11.040 say the word Mercedes, what comes to mind? Well, probably 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.600 the first thing comes to mind is when I was 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:15.320 a kid in an arbor, Michigan, we used to go 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.040 to the University of Michigan basketball games and we would 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.759 go out to the parking lot and try to steal 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:26.920 hood ornaments off the cars. Right. Terrible, like absolutely, you know, 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.640 terrible thing to do. But what the ones you always 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.479 wanted were the Mercedes. Right. So I don't know what 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.960 that says about me, my family and my upbringing, but 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.360 maybe it says something about the brand, just for listeners 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.080 to know. I have a Mercedes hat on today. I 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.320 spent way too much money on it because all F 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.800 one merch costs in our mental leg I mean, can 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.120 somebody a F one throw Lily a couple of hats? 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.479 Why is she buying her own hat? Absolutely? And I 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:52.879 think what we're getting out of this is that if 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.360 someone from Mercedes, just like the corporation in general, is listening, 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.520 we would like hood ornaments, vintage food ornaments in our possession. 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.360 It's a conic logo that's been around for years and 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:09.120 people recognize and and believe it means driving, elegance performance. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.199 Probably all the words of their marketing team has spent 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.679 billions of dollars beating into my head for fifty years. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.759 I'm sure they're really happy to hear that. But then's 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.760 all it's all not been been for, not that a 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.600 singular person can can recall on a podcast. So today 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:25.920 on the podcast, this is part one of our two 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.520 episodes look into the Mercedes Formula One team. They have 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:31.880 been one of the most dominant teams in a recent 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.679 memory and maybe ever, and there's plenty to say about 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:40.600 what's going on with them. Now let's hit it. From 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.360 I Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios, this is Choosing 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:57.800 sides one. Wow, So Mercedes has been in F one 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.480 in the modern era since however, they have obviously been 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.560 doing car things for like a lot longer than that. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.359 So we're gonna go all the way back to the 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:16.000 nineteen thirties, Ben Mercedes was racing cars out there like 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.480 everyone else. There was actually something in the thirties in 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.760 Europe called the European Championships, which is one of the 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.840 kind of precursors to F one, and the team actually 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:32.960 won three titles during that time. Obviously, the European Championships 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.560 took a back seat to a little thing called World 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.480 War two, and uh, and then when F one finally 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.760 got up and running in the fifties, Uh, Mercedes actually 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.320 won two World Drivers titles in a row in nineteen 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.560 fifty four and nineteen fifty five. So everything's looking peach swell. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:52.760 They're doing great until uh, the year's nineteen fifty five 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.160 and there is an endurance race that's really iconic called 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.480 the twenty four Hours of Laman Mercedes is in US race, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.840 and something to keep in mind is that UM safety 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.239 and spectator protocols are not what they are like today. 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.600 So you have people in this race, these spectators who 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.440 are literally almost up against the literal race track, cheering 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.720 for their teams. They're separated by some like makeshift wooden 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.880 fences or like some hay bales. But it's really very 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.600 pretty like I know where this is going. Yeah, there's 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.880 basically a multi car pile up and crash has asked 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.880 US trikes at a hundred and twenty five Mercedes collides 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.040 and blows up one of the drivers involved with a 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:37.240 Mercedes driver. This crash sends massive pieces of debris from 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:41.880 these cars into the spectator areas. In a few ghostly seconds, 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:45.680 death wipes out whole families, leave, is killed before his lips, eyes, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.520 and some seventies spectators with him among the bodies. Frantic 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:54.200 survivors seek their friends, skulls cracking blood. The Mecedes was 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.720 made partly of magnesium man i, which blazes micaphurnace. Yeah, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.800 it's violent. Eight three spectators and dying. Another hundred eight 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.920 people are injured, and this is still one of the 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:10.320 most catastrophic disasters in motorsports history. Goes on. Keep in 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.800 mind it was very normal for like two drivers a 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:14.920 year to die in f one like in the sixties 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.200 for instance, Like like these this is just part for 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.880 the course. But yeah, the size and scope of this, 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.360 and obviously combined with like some of the photographs that 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.520 have survived, it's a pretty gnarly looking kind of blur 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.600 of black and white photos. Is the nineteen fifty five. 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:30.800 It's the first thing that shows up when you put 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:35.560 in nineteen all right, so images there's everyone running to 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:37.599 their cars for the start, little did they know. And 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.400 here's a picture that looks like it could be a 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:45.640 World War scene. Yeah, it's fire people screaming. Yeah, and 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.960 there's a whole bunch of bodies laying on the ground. Wow. Yeah, 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.359 So it does lead to some some big questions and 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.280 answers around yeah, spectator safety, just general sports safety. For 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.120 Mercedes obviously, on top of the fact that their driver 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:02.360 died in this very tragic, very violent and very public way. 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.440 It's understandably, you know, marketing and pr nightmare right to 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.560 say we are the height of luxury and class and 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.520 this and that, and now we're responsible for this terrible, 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:15.400 awful thing that happened. So Mercedes decides to nope, on 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:17.680 out of there. They're saying, we are piecing out of 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.800 motorsports entirely, not not just kind of Formula one with 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.400 like everything, we are outie for the time being. And uh. 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.159 They end up leaving for over thirty years and do 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.720 not enter any form of motor sports racing until Okay, 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:36.560 it's that dramatic change for them exactly. Yeah, skip to 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.120 they decide they are going to also start getting back 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.559 into Formula One, so they do not enter a team, 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.799 though they do not try and build a team. Instead, 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.479 they start supplying engines to certain teams that want them. 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.400 Because Mercedes engines are highly coveted. They're they're really, you know, 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.000 world renowned, and I think they also just like the 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.760 idea of getting back into that aspect of R and D. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.040 I will also mention an F one they often call 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.160 engines quote unquote power units. To hear that word, we 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.280 call it a power unit, by the way, not an engine, 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:09.640 because the power unit is so much more than an engine. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.640 So that's Formula one journalist Tony Cowen Brown. That's one 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.159 of the reasons why so few O e M s 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.200 go into Formula one. What O E M s so 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:22.800 original equipment manufacturers and against the engine is so complex 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.200 today and I won't even pretend that I can understand 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.120 all the parts involved there. But there are two types 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.120 of teams in Formula one. Every Formula one team out 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.880 of the ten teams is a constructor team, but not 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.279 all teams works team. And what I mean by that 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.400 is a constructor team, or what they call a customer team, 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.279 is a team that essentially builds their car, but they 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.800 will purchase their engine and some other parts from another 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.640 team because at a minimum, as the f I states, 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.000 which is the governing body, at a minimum, these teams 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.799 must build their own car it's what we call the chassis. 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:58.560 It's interesting to look at the grid right now, where 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.400 you have Mercedes, who is time constructor champion, who is 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.279 a works team that builds their car and their engine 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.560 and sells their units. One of their customer teams is Williams, 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.520 who is all the way at the back of the grid. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.480 So it's a nice explanation of there is more to 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.040 it than just car or driver because essentially Williams and 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.320 Mercedes are driving with the same power unit with the 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.680 same engine. Okay, interesting, yeah, Okay. To get to Mercedes, 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.200 we have to talk about two other teams that are 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.600 no longer on the grid. But this is also one 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:35.080 of the great Cinderella stories of Formula one. So this 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.360 is the story, the tale, if you will, of bron GP. 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.840 So bron GP, Yes, strap in get ready. The year 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.760 now is two thousand and eight. We are balls deep 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.480 in a global recession. Everything's going to ship. Michael's coaching 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.440 tennis at the University of Michigan. Just bought his house 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:59.320 for two dollars, which he will sell in ten years 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.560 for less money than he bought it for. Lily is 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.720 much younger um and is listening to Paramore song Misery 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.880 Business two years after it has come out. I'll repeat 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.480 because she is an emo child teen I'm a teen 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.680 like myself that I'm a teen at this point. But 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:16.840 the long and short of it is the recession. No 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.440 one's happy, no one's money if one is still racing. 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.360 I mean, yeah, you would just think at a time 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.000 like that, when the housing markets are crashing, that Formula 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.280 one seems even more gratuitous. Yes, exactly, exactly. So. Our 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.679 first main character in the story is Honda. But at 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:35.240 this point they've had a team for for a couple 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.559 of seasons in the mid to late auts and things 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.120 are not going well. They are you know, like, you know, eighth, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:42.959 ninth place, what's called P eight, P nine in the 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.720 championship out of you know, ten eleven whatever teams. They're 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.320 really not not doing so hot. And um, Honda says, 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.280 l O l j K. We are pulling out of 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.520 two thousand nine. We're sorry to say that seven people 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.160 are about to lose their jobs amid the holiday season, 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.240 and um, OOPSI daisy, you know, it's just a real 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.040 real clusterfuck. Um. And so at the last second, we're 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.600 like the pretty much almost literal eleventh hour, this guy 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.199 named Ross Braun, he is the team principal of the 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.880 Haunted Team. He and the CEO, they say, hey, would 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:15.840 you be willing to let us buy you out keep 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.000 the team? You know, keep, let everyone keep their jobs 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:20.559 and you know, we'll kind of handle financing for next 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.120 season for the most part, but we just want to 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:23.840 make sure we save the team. Don't let this all 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.400 kind of go to waste over this little thing again 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.560 called a global economic crisis. So Honda ends up saying yes, 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.320 and Ross Broun, technically on the documents buys a Formula 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.120 one team for one pound. Yeah. Great, They kind of 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.520 just they have to do some type of business transaction 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.720 and they do that. They pund a one pound buy 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.640 out of this of this team. And as if things 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.360 were not already weird enough. Uh, we talked on our 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.600 intro episode about how F one comes out with new 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.640 regulations every couple of years to increase competitiveness and and 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.560 help with safety and all that. New regular lations were 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.440 starting with the beginning of the two thousand nine season. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.720 So this team now has a new kind of ownership. Uh, 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.880 they have new regulations, they have less money to start 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.960 out with, and they did or under normal circumstances. Most 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.360 even the quote unquote poorer teams on the grid have 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.560 you know, mit five million for the most part. Uh, 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.559 if you're a driver on this team, you're like this sucks. Yeah, 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.640 You're like, what the And by the way, I'm pretty 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:32.880 certain growing up we had a Honda lawnmower. Just think 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.600 about that. I don't think we had a Mercedes Lawmore. 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.719 I don't know if Mercedes would make a lawnmore, it 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.080 would be incredibly expensive, but it probably very sleek and 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.840 very trendy. Yeah, you know it is. It is interesting 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:48.360 to think of Honda in this premier racing league when 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.400 really they probably made the nuts and bolts of their business. 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.840 Is like the Honda Civic, maybe the Accord, maybe my lawnmower. 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:05.720 I don't know. Yeah, I'll explain the why this happened 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.280 a second. But to get to the season, the first 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.280 race comes around. The two drivers we have are these guys. 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.520 There's Jensen Button, who's sort of this I don't want 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:15.920 to say, almost playboy but kind of party boy British 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:21.679 guy Button and Uh and his teammate Rubens Barrichello, who 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.640 is most known for being the longtime teammate of Michael Schumacher, 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.120 legendary if one driver at Ferrari, and they are one 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.320 of the longest and most successful partnerships in F one history. 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.960 So so you've got Rubens, You've got Jensen. They are 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.560 kind of they were already signed to the team when 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.760 they were with Honda's. They're just kind of yoloing this 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.880 whole thing, like like they're in it for like the 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:43.800 ride to they have no idea what's gonna happen when 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:45.760 no one knows who's gonna happen. There's not high hopes 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:47.760 for bron g P when they start, you know, the 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:56.040 qualifying session and um buns on that first to finish. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.840 They end up going one two in the first race 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:07.640 of the season. What that's amazing, sensational, sensation fantastic, And 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.520 then Jensen Button ends up winning six of the first 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:22.880 seven races. Oh you have thank you, thank you, So 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:29.600 Jensen Button in bron GYP wins the Ribber's Championship, braun 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:38.080 g P walks await the Constructor's title. Fantastic. They are 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:42.120 on top of the world, and so of course thing 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.440 you're probably wondering what the hell happened, Like how did 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.880 they pull that off? Were they cheating? No, but they 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.880 were doing the classic F one thing of barely not cheating, 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.480 um and cheating. That should be the name of someone's memoir. 0:12:57.600 --> 0:12:59.360 It's definitely like the subtitle of F one. It's like 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.280 Formula one colin barely not cheating. So essentially, the very 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.560 smart people at the Honda Brawn GP whatever you want 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.880 to call it factory are reading through these new regulations 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:14.400 and basically within the engine there's something called a diffuser, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.400 and that we can go into forever about what it does. 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:18.600 It would just take forever. But essentially what they do 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.440 is they're supposed to make the diffuser smaller, and what 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:23.839 they end up doing is almost splitting it into and 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.680 creating what's called now a double diffuser. So they find 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.080 this loophole, this very specific loophole, and exploit it to 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:34.440 do something funky to this diffuser. So when they innovate 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:39.360 their car, obviously there's great effort put into keeping that 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.360 a secret from the other teams. Yes, it's such an 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.800 interesting dance between we want you to innovate, but don't 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.680 be so good that we'll then have to write exactly 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.439 interesting history. Where are they now? A good question. We'll 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.720 get into more of the team history after this break. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.120 So we find get to the part of the story 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.480 where Mercedes comes back into the picture. Here, like two 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.400 thousand's it's around the same time Mercedes is looking at 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.400 potentially entering Formula one. For any any kind of organization 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.360 that wants to enter something like Formula one, you have 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.880 a couple of options. So one, you could spend untold 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.440 amounts of money and resources building a team from scratch, right, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.520 developing a car from scratch, building a factory and all 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.480 of that infrastructure from scratch, which is just Yeah, I 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.040 think even the most egotistical of billionaires are not that 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.120 egotistical to where they're too much work too like even 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.640 just like you know, get the central hub where training 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:37.840 is too much work exactly like buy a ship team 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.640 and try to exactly So Mercedes goes the route that 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.680 a lot of you know, up upstarted teams. Do they 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.680 buy an existing team? Which team do they buy? Bron 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.520 GP coming out of this very exciting season. Yeah, Well, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:52.960 first of all, I have to say this is a 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.360 great day for us obviously to start a new season 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.120 with Mersey to Spence Grand Prix team with an own 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.480 Formula one team? Is something really special for us? This 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:08.360 must have been enormous when Mercedes got back in to motorsport. 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.120 Is this their debut into Formula one since the crash? Yes, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:14.520 this was huge news. Here's why it's even bigger. Okay, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.920 Formula one fans around the world, Michael are very excited. 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.480 There you are. You can see the Mercedes Ben's logo 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.160 behind you. You're returning to Formula one. Tell us what 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:26.600 your emotions are like Mercedes Lands. Seven time world champion. 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:31.920 Michael Schumacher actually joined the team. Fantastic excitement after I 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.640 got the call from from Ross in November providing a 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.040 silver arrow and I'm going to be able to sit 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.720 inside and and throw it around. I mean, that's really 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.200 great stuff. So Michael Schumacher had famously retired from F one, 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.479 made a big deal out of the retirement, and basically 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.440 in the ensuing years, Michael Schumacher is basically still at races, 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.880 like in the paddock and everyone's like, Michael, you've got 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.400 to do something like he just misses it. He feels 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.240 it really wasn't his time or that he was kind 0:15:57.240 --> 0:15:59.160 of not forced out, but people were like, you should 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.200 be ready to leave you've won seven of these things. 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.920 The singular focus that it takes to be at that level, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.080 which I don't know about, like none of us know about. 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.560 But then when you just leave, you don't know how 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.680 to do anything else exactly. Don't even know how to 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.200 sit and have breakfast with your wife. Man, all you 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.840 know how to do is just think about the race, 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.200 think about the engine, think about the team. Whatever it is. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.200 They can't handle it. Yeah. So, so we're at the 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.120 new era Michael Schumacher. You know, his teammate is a 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.560 young guy named Nico Rossberg, whose dad Kick Rossberg one 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.560 with in Formula one decades prior. SOO got this fun, 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:42.600 little very blond lineup going on at the new Mercedes, 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:44.640 and yeah, sure enough, the first couple of years a 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.160 little rocky, they do, you know, like like Michael Schumacher 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:49.960 has his worst I think three seasons ever and f 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.680 one right he ends up, you know, uh P eight, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.600 P nine, I think P. Thirteen and Michael Jordan playing 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.840 for the Wizards similarly, yeah a little bit. Yeah, and 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.120 have Nico Rosberg driving for them, Michael Schumacher driving for them. Okay, 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:08.480 big names in motorsport, but actually they weren't particularly successful. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:10.920 So that was Jenny Gal She's a prominent of one 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.840 reporter for the BBC and other media outlets, and she 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.480 was featured as a commentator in Drive to Survive. So 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.080 year on year they were still looking for that winning 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.320 formula and they were starting to accrue some of the 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.800 top personnel. They already had a lot on their books, 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.760 but then they started to poach others. So for example, 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:35.399 James Allison, one of the most successful technical directors in 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.080 Formula one, was poached from Ferrari and came across to Mercedes. 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.720 They just started to put in place the best team 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.600 possible with Nicki Louder, their former F one driver and champion, 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.280 but passed away a couple of years ago. Toto Wolf 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.160 came on board. Who you know that between the two 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:57.800 of them ran Mercedes. So we're coming into which is 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:04.720 when all the rules changed and the engines became hybrid engine. Yes, 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.520 they're all driving prius Is at this point, I would 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:13.280 love to see Lewis Hamilton's drive around in a Prius. 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.480 It's a little different. No, they're not. Basically, without getting 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.560 to two technical A big part of the regulations in 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.280 this turbo hybrid era come from the fact that Formula 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.800 one had started receiving a ton of criticism for not 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:31.920 being particularly environmentally sustainable. So huge part of this and 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:36.560 creating engines that run on both fuel as well electricity 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.959 is signaling to everyone that F one takes this seriously interestingly. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.520 Over the course of the last decade. You know, these 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:46.800 cars are some of the most efficient when it comes 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:51.440 to energy and power and fuel usage, and a lot 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.040 of that technology then is now what we see in 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.760 cars on the road as well. So just to give 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.399 you a little bit of comparison here, first, here's what 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:11.720 a twin thirteen Formula one engine sounded like. Okay, so 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.960 let's listen. Then when this turbo hybrid era started, here's 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:22.400 what a twenty fourteen engine sounds like. Wow, that's very different. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.920 And I would assume, if anything, the cars as equally, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.160 if not faster, exactly. Yeah, So it's the whole idea is, yeah, 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.760 you're not losing performance, you're just making it more efficient 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.159 and environmentally friendly. It is odd that every time they 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.040 change regulation it ultimately changes everything. I mean, even changing 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:43.200 the point after a touchdown back to the thirty yard line. 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.920 Whenever that took like thirty years of football for them 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.760 to go. Maybe it's just it's so much change is 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.320 so difficult to make, and it seems like Formula one 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.080 does it often. Maybe what would happen if football did 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.199 change the rules every year? Right? And I think that 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.600 would be interesting. Yeah, I would personally just love to 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.520 see the other chaos. Take the helmets off. You want 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.080 to solve concussions. No more helmets because they're not going 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.800 to use their helmets as weapons anyways, normal pads just like, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.720 go back to the old school leather helmets and uh yeah, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.280 no forward passing. You know, why not make it a 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.200 two hundred yard field. See what happens? Multiple footballs exactly 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.120 completely deflated, no no no air in them to speak up, 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.120 just like this weird pigskin thing, which just kind of yeah, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:30.680 there you go. Something else to note. A big announcement 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:35.879 is made and Mercedes is bringing in a new driver 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:41.879 and it is a young man named Lewis Hamilton's. Everyone 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.199 thought he was crazy to go across the Mercedes at 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.440 the time because they weren't a championship contender of a team. 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.680 People thought he was nuts for leaving McLaren, a historic 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.000 team that had been around for decades to go to 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.880 this weird new shop at Mercedes that had been sprung 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.560 out of this weird brawn GP sitch. So see us. 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.800 Everyone was sort of confused, surprised, already saying you, yeah, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.320 he just left up his career. I won't go too 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.159 much into Lewis's background because he is the star, or 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.639 one of the two stars of our next episode all 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.960 about the Mercedes drivers. So Mercedes started winning championships in 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:24.080 Ladies and Gentlemen, two Formula One World champion and from 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.760 that point on it won every championship. Every year, Mercedes 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.439 are the champions again. Of course, with that result, the 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.200 teams won the Constructors Championship for third consecutive year. Who 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:37.480 would have ever thought a few years ago that we 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.400 would be able to hold the celebration with a fifth 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:48.680 consecutive double championship title, getting their lewishadron seven times, seven times, 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:54.720 eight consecutive Constructors World Championships until well, let's see what 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.720 happens this year. Yeah. So that's that's Mercedes overall to 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:04.920 present day. So they were excellent, had an enormous crash, 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.879 stayed out of the sport for thirty years, came back 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:16.080 in through an odd acquirement of basically Honda's team at 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:19.320 a third of the price, made some changes, brought in 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.080 Lewis Hamilton's and has dominated exactly. Yeah, it's a very 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.840 successful manufacturer. It provides some of the engines for the 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.320 other teams as well. Um and it attracts some of 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:36.240 the biggest players in Formula One when it comes to drivers, sponsorship, marketing, 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:40.160 all of the deals that go around because of its success. 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:43.359 It so current present day. So we have these new 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.360 legs two, and very early on it became pretty apparent 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:54.480 that Mercedes car was not looking as hot going into 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:58.919 They have an issue that is called porpoising, and the 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.919 issue is basically that aerodynamically, if they're going very fast, 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.399 especially in a straight line, the cars bounce up and 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.879 down very quickly because it's just not aerodynamically sound bouncing 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:17.440 up and down. I know this, let's listening, still bouncing 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.280 a lot. You hear the skipping of the floor. I 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:26.960 mean that that doesn't doesn't control. Did they think about 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:29.400 putting bags of kitty litter in the trunk or something, 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:31.960 because that's what you do in Michigan when it's icy up. Yeah, 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.840 I'm sure that cross the vines yes, that was very scientific. 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:38.639