0:00

Oh, the old Newman, Mike, the

0:04

old Newman seven,

0:08

Everyone's favorite pop hot.

0:11

We can start the race. So

0:18

Michael, Uh, you know, we had a

0:20

little bit of a bit going here. We had red

0:22

bulls and we talked red bull I wore that

0:24

very delightful, not flannel flannel

0:27

Mercedes hat. What we did today

0:29

is I actually have because I'm a fan of F one,

0:31

I have coasters with several different

0:34

drivers and like sayings from them on So

0:38

for you, I have Ferrari driver Charlotte

0:40

Claire and his quote him

0:46

stupid, I am stupid.

0:48

I am stupid.

0:50

I am stupid. I'm stupid, which

0:52

we'll get into that in a bit. But my wife make

0:54

you give this one to me or I surprised

0:58

she's here. Radio

1:06

from I Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated

1:09

Studios. This is choosing sides

1:14

one. Wow.

1:22

So to dive in today, Uh,

1:25

no team has like more history

1:28

more stuff going on than Ferrari.

1:31

They're the only team on the grid that has taken

1:33

part in every single Formula One World

1:36

Championship going back to so

1:38

of course that comes with plenty of scandals,

1:40

plenty of rivalries, plenty

1:43

of very controversial team

1:45

bosses and a whole lot more

1:49

so. Today on the podcast, we are diving

1:51

into part one of a two episode

1:53

look at Ferrari, So we'll get

1:55

into the team and their history

1:57

and they're very very, uh kind

2:00

of hot headed founder,

2:02

and then we will get into the driver's awesome.

2:05

You know, I grew up

2:08

in Michigan unaware of motorsport,

2:10

but somehow I had a Ferrari poster on

2:12

the wall. What does that say? I don't know. I

2:14

had pictures of Ferrari's on

2:16

the wall. So they are embedded

2:19

in my brain as something that's fast

2:21

and cool, and no one you knew how to Ferrari.

2:24

These other brands you're thrown around, red Bull

2:26

and Mercedes Williams. Still no idea what

2:28

the ship Williams is. They all

2:30

got different things. For me. Ferrari is

2:33

racing and is being number one, or at least

2:35

attempting to be so.

2:38

Ferrari obviously also sometimes called

2:40

the Prancing Horse. Prancing Horse sounds

2:43

like a bad cologne, it

2:45

does, it really really does. Yeah.

2:47

Uh, the Prancing Horse

2:49

team, So their their whole

2:52

distinction, and what they're very into is that they're

2:54

the only team that has been on the grid since

2:57

the first official season of Formula

2:59

One back in ineen fifty. Yes, they have been

3:01

there since the very first season. This is f one

3:03

expert. I'll just kevlowskis whom you might

3:06

remember from previous episodes, and so for all

3:08

we obviously you know the guy, the guy who's the founder of the

3:10

company. He actually wanted

3:12

it to be a race team. The only reason he built you

3:14

know, Calls, is to fund his race team,

3:16

so they've always been an integral part Formula One.

3:18

They are also the most successful

3:20

team in the sports history. The second

3:23

place team is a team called McLaren, so Ferrari's

3:25

crushing the game. Of course, keep in mind

3:27

they've been around for seventy two years. McLaren

3:29

didn't get started in the sport for their sixteen years.

3:32

Uh. Interestingly, the third place team

3:34

on that list is Mercedes, which has only

3:36

been around for twelve years, so that I'll

3:39

give you an idea of how dominant

3:41

Mercedes has been. But

3:44

but Ferrari's very into the fact that they are on

3:46

top. The Formula one team is kind

3:49

of the crown jewel of Ferrari's time

3:51

and motor sports, but they do also compete

3:54

in sports cars and endurance racing and other

3:56

stuff. But they don't have NASCAR. I

3:58

don't think they do. They would stoop

4:00

that loan. You

4:03

say, you just said, you just

4:05

said I got fans in Arkansas. Okay,

4:08

I don't know if I do. Um

4:11

so I when I was thinking

4:13

about this episode of Just Time Aout Ferrari, it

4:15

is very hard to discuss the team without

4:17

discussing Ferrari's founder, Enzo

4:20

Ferrari. Uh. He

4:22

is a former racing driver himself. He

4:25

built up Ferrari's name from scratch. She then proceeded

4:27

to kind of destroy the name by fighting with a lot of people over

4:29

many decades when we'll get to that, but

4:31

it still lives today. So obviously

4:34

despite all of his problems, of which they are tons,

4:36

both personally and professionally, he was

4:38

onto something. So we'll go down a

4:40

little bit of team history.

4:42

But also like Enzo Ferrari biography

4:45

because they're one of the same. When I hear

4:47

Enzo and I was watching a couple of videos about the

4:49

history of Ferrari, and Enzo's name would come up.

4:51

Is that the same guy for all

4:54

those years? So here's I

4:56

had to look this up. Enzo Ferrari was born

4:59

and died at like age ninety. So

5:01

the dude was around for forever, and

5:03

he was like actively involved for forever,

5:06

like he did not want to leave before

5:08

the combustion engine. He

5:10

was probably actually riding a prancing

5:13

horse. He was

5:15

in fact riding a prancing worse at one point. Yeah,

5:18

as legend has it, Enzo Ferrari prancing

5:20

horse rider. Oh yeah, let me also, I fred to start to

5:22

show your pictures. Yea, So here is Enzo

5:24

Ferrari. Oh yeah, the mastermind.

5:27

So we've got three different pictures here, different

5:29

decades, it feels like different decades.

5:32

Two are in black and white, ones

5:35

in color. And he uh,

5:37

I'll tell you what. He looks the least

5:40

evil of all the people I've looked at.

5:42

Uh, he might be the most which I don't

5:44

know, but um, he kind of looks

5:47

like in the color picture like he might be blind and those

5:49

are seeing eyeglasses, but I

5:51

don't look that's true. He's casually

5:53

chilling though in all this photos he looks very

5:56

Yeah, he also looks rich. I

5:58

mean they always look rich. They is look alpha

6:01

uh and yeah,

6:04

I mean I'm impressed that he

6:07

stayed in it for so long. So and so Ferrari

6:10

has a lot of like myth around

6:12

him, particularly amongst Italian

6:14

fans, but essentially so he's born in

6:17

he does not come from a racing family or a rich family.

6:20

In fact, his dad, after trying a bunch

6:22

of different stuff, has a small carpentry business,

6:25

and the old story goes that

6:28

and Zo Ferrari ends up at the eight

6:32

uh Sir Quto di Bologna.

6:34

There's an Italian driver named Felice Nazzarro

6:37

who wins this race and from there

6:39

and Zo ferraris hooked. He wants to be a racing

6:41

driver. He wants to work in automobiles. You know,

6:43

he's like eight, nine, ten years old, so like you can imagine

6:46

just when you're a kid at age, that like sticks with you, that's

6:48

a core memory. Unfortunately, life

6:50

has a different plan for him. So

6:53

yeah, right, so, uh, you

6:55

know, World War One breaks out in

6:58

nineteen fourteen, and then unfortunately in

7:00

nineteen sixteen both his father and his

7:02

older brother die from an Italian

7:04

flu outbreak. Yeah, his

7:06

dad's carpentry businesses and complete shambles.

7:09

It's just not gonna happen. So you

7:11

know, he's trying to fare it, wants to do he's he's got

7:13

kind of a weird, kind of a clean slate

7:16

yet not I mean already a lot of issues there.

7:19

But he decided to start looking for a job in the automobile

7:21

industry, and he eventually, after searching

7:23

around not getting anything, lands himself

7:26

a gig as a test driver for a kind of

7:28

random manufacturer in Italy, So he

7:30

starts off there. He eventually

7:32

becomes a racing driver for them,

7:34

and then in his early twenties, we're talking

7:36

like year nineteen twenty, he makes

7:39

the jump over to a car manufacturer

7:41

called Alpha Romeo, which

7:44

the name might sound familiar. Alphermeo is also

7:46

on the Formula one grid. We'll talk a

7:48

lot more about them in their episode. But

7:51

along and short of it is ferrari as in the team

7:53

and Alfameyo is in the team, have this special

7:55

relationship that lasts to this day. But essentially

7:58

and Zo works with them, begins to race

8:00

for them in earnest he does well

8:02

enough, so he is, you know, by the early nineteen

8:05

thirties, he's he's doing things.

8:07

Things are good. But he does have

8:09

several friends who are also drivers, and they

8:11

die because as you can imagine, yeah, like

8:13

driving in the twenties and thirties

8:16

is not the safest endeavor. Uh and

8:18

then who knows to just everyone

8:21

who lived from eight to

8:23

nineteen whatever, you know,

8:26

it's just it was just tougher. Yeah,

8:28

you know, your dad gets the flu and it dies

8:31

in your carbonry businesses toast, and it's

8:34

just everything was just harder. Man, we we

8:36

we think our life is hard now. It is in a lot

8:38

of ways, but I'm

8:40

thankful I live in two usually.

8:44

Well imagine being like, yeah, your gig is a test

8:46

driver. It's like, no, you could die like

8:49

like a test driver in like the late nineteen

8:51

tens, Like yeah,

8:54

so so so Enzo is

8:56

uh yeah, in early nineteen thirties,

8:59

he has several friends die in the sport,

9:01

and then he also has a son, his

9:03

first son, and he decides, and I

9:06

think there's mortal life than driving cars and almost

9:08

dying every time. So he decides he's going to retire

9:10

just his racing career at that

9:12

point. So here's Enzo

9:15

late twenties, early thirties, and he decides

9:17

to found a team called

9:19

Ferrari in nine, which

9:21

sounds like a great idea, except

9:24

the financial house of cards collapses

9:27

and the overinflated stock market plunges

9:29

into a great depression. Just

9:31

gonna say that that that year always

9:33

triggers so he yeah,

9:35

poor timing, So he has to fold the original

9:38

Ferrari team in three

9:40

and uh and essentially Ferrari

9:43

and his his uh band

9:45

of misfits, they basically

9:47

become the de facto racing team

9:49

within Alfa Romeo for the next couple

9:51

of years. There's some disagreements between

9:54

him and Alfa Romeo. Uh. He's

9:56

like, I'm gonna go do my own thing, me

9:59

Enzo for Ari, because I am angry and I am important.

10:02

I will stop here and say that. Another

10:05

fun fact around this time is also

10:07

when Ferrari comes up with its logo

10:10

is in the thirties, and the Ferrari

10:12

logo the horse, has a weird

10:14

backstory. So there

10:17

was a fighter or

10:19

an ace A fighter pilot in World War

10:21

One Italian fire fighter pilot named

10:23

Francesco Baraka, and

10:26

he used to have this little symbol of

10:28

this horse in his fighter jet when

10:30

he'd go out and whatever. And

10:33

after the war, his parents were friends

10:35

with Enzo Ferrari's family, and

10:38

they suggested he used the horse as a

10:40

logo for good luck in his very dangerous

10:42

racing endeavors. That

10:46

is a good story because also

10:48

we've drawn comparisons before of

10:51

these engines two fighter jets. I

10:53

like that. I'm buying into that story really

10:56

full circle, full circle. And you

10:59

know it's not like this is the horse that used

11:01

to plow the land. No, this is the horse that

11:03

kept me alive during World War One. When I was flying

11:06

fighter jets, it was not frolicking through a field.

11:08

It was fighter pilot

11:10

jet piloting through a field. Yet I was killing

11:12

because of this horse. And that's what you're gonna do

11:15

metaphorically racing. You

11:17

know, I'm going too far with it, but you know what I'm saying,

11:19

I appreciate the commitment. This kind

11:21

of that's not making sense like thirty seconds

11:24

ago, but it was. I'm gonna google

11:26

the Ferrari logo. I need

11:28

to be reminded. Ferrari logo,

11:32

aggressive stance

11:35

of the horse, Italian

11:38

flag up above. Even

11:40

the f in the Ferrari

11:42

logo is like, it looks like it's racing.

11:45

It's a great logo. The shield, the

11:47

crest, it elicits a feeling of

11:50

kind of excellence, yes, let's say

11:52

excellence, luxury it's got

11:54

it's got real heft to it. So

11:57

okay, so enzos here uh,

11:59

and continuing his string of excellent luck,

12:01

he says, I'm going to start my operation

12:05

as Ferrari in nineteen forty

12:07

Oh my gosh.

12:11

Ship. And as if that wasn't bad enough,

12:14

his factories actually bombed in

12:17

in Italy. Yeah.

12:21

Really terrible timing, really bad luck. Uh.

12:23

It does not seem to have a mind for for

12:25

for you know how larger socio

12:28

political events affect him.

12:31

So so yeah, so things are not looking great. It takes them

12:33

a couple of years to really rebuild, as it does

12:35

everyone. So I guess the good news is everyone else also

12:37

needs to rebuild because of this terrible multi

12:39

year event uh and perfect loss

12:42

of life. Uh. So they have time to rebuild after the war,

12:44

and finally when things get going, they're

12:46

ready to enter the first ever Formula

12:49

One World Championship in nineteen fifty.

12:51

I mean, he started Ferrari the

12:53

first one in nineteen and

12:57

then now he's starting Ferrari twenty

12:59

years later, two years later

13:02

in the second Grand Prix. It's a long time, yeah,

13:04

twenty two years of figuring out,

13:06

struggling, starting another one, getting bombed

13:09

great depression. I mean, it's just it takes time. Yeah,

13:12

it definitely was not an overnight success. And he

13:14

did not come from money, and you know, unlike

13:16

a lot of these guys, so he really had

13:18

to build from scratch. We'll get right

13:20

back into the chaos after the break. So

13:24

and so, among the many things, he

13:27

has been described as autocratic. And

13:29

he was known for very intentionally

13:32

pitting his drivers against each other, like

13:34

his own Ferrari drivers, and

13:36

and because he believed personally

13:38

that a person could not be pushed

13:40

their full potential unless they had that extra

13:43

bit of antagonism,

13:45

especially coming from within, so

13:47

that was really great. He used to encourage

13:50

drivers to pull moves

13:52

or or really go past their limits to

13:54

the point where it was actually dangerous. And as

13:57

we're saying, we're talking about the

13:59

middle of the twentie things weren't really that's

14:01

safe to begin with. And then your boss is telling

14:03

you that he expects you to basically be as unsafe

14:05

as possible without and especially

14:07

without crashing the car. Between nineteen

14:09

fifty and nineteen seventy one,

14:12

eight different Ferrari drivers died

14:14

on circuits. What Yeah, so

14:17

dead, Oh my god. And

14:20

so Ferrari's sort of defense was, well, people

14:22

are dying anyway, and also none of the official

14:24

causes of these deaths was mechanical failure.

14:27

So these guys just it's the driver's

14:29

fault, basically, was his was his point.

14:32

It must be really

14:35

fucking fun to drive one of these cars.

14:37

I mean it, it's

14:40

it must be so fun

14:42

that these drivers are

14:44

aware of this risk. It's almost

14:46

like an addict. Look,

14:49

I gotta do it. It makes me feel

14:51

so outrageous. I'm going to risk my

14:53

life for this. That is insane. Yeah,

14:56

the men home speeds, those

14:58

rules crowdy. Why in the minutes

15:00

on the Steaming comic they ride

15:02

with life as the passenger on

15:05

that tail lift. I

15:08

love tennis. No one's ever died playing

15:11

competitive tennis at this level

15:13

that I can remember. Imagine if it was like, hey, one

15:15

to two tennis players are going to die year

15:17

just from playing the sport. And it's the point where

15:19

it's just like it's literally part of the culture. It's

15:22

like, well, there's twenty of us on the starting line. You've got a

15:24

five percent chance that you're not going to make it to the end of the season.

15:26

Yeah. So grim, very very grim.

15:28

And and you can't just say it's not the car's

15:31

fault. If you're pushing these

15:33

guys to go go go, like there there

15:35

is some responsibility there. Yeah, he really

15:38

didn't particularly seem to value

15:40

human life to a certain extent, especially

15:42

once he stopped racing. And it wasn't you

15:44

know, he's personal friends who were dying for

15:47

that reason too. He really tried to not get

15:49

emotionally attached to his drivers, which

15:51

again, I mean, this is like how farmers

15:54

don't name their cattle because they know they're going

15:56

to slaughter them. Yeah,

16:00

I have no comeback. Is just very depressing.

16:02

That's a very valuable insight because

16:05

it tells you a lot about that person. That's Enzo

16:07

anyway, So that's the guy who's running in the background

16:09

here of of the team, but we'll switch gears

16:12

to the actual team. So

16:14

Ferrai has seen excellence since the very

16:16

beginning of Formula One. They had several World champions

16:19

and Constructor's championships in the fifties. Yet

16:21

another fun fact, there's only two American

16:24

Formula One drivers who have won World driver's

16:26

titles, and one of those and the only

16:28

American born one, Phil Hill, won

16:30

his World championship in nineteen sixty one

16:33

in a Ferrari cool. We have to make it

16:35

about ourselves. So now I

16:37

really like Ferrari because Phil

16:39

Hill one. We

16:41

do. Yeah, as as a country we have a connection

16:44

to this team, a very thin thin

16:46

connection from sixty

16:48

years ago. But Phil did it for

16:50

us. Uh so two more recent

16:52

fans of the sport. Though, what's considered

16:55

the real like modern golden era of

16:57

Ferrari is the brand's

16:59

Don minutes in the early two thousand's featuring

17:02

your guy, Michael

17:04

Schumacher. He

17:06

won five straight World Drivers Championship

17:09

titles between two thousand and two thousand four,

17:12

and aside from a year where he was disqualified

17:14

from competition, he actually never finished

17:17

lower than fifth in the championship standings

17:19

while at Ferrari just completely

17:21

annihilated the competition. So

17:23

it's just a real, a real highlight

17:25

of a time for Ferrari.

17:28

In two thousand seven, uh

17:31

is the time they win their last drivers

17:33

title. This was a decade and a half ago

17:36

and it was with legendary Kimmy Reichinen. Well

17:38

they called him the Iceman. But there's a

17:40

bit of a show of emotion going on in that cop

17:42

fit now he's still there. Their last current

17:46

uh you know, championship winner

17:48

at half seven by my calculation,

17:51

and we win the championship by one point,

17:54

and then we spend the next decade and a half,

17:57

you know, they don't win it. Well. The jenny

18:00

of Ferrari from

18:02

post Schumacher era has sort of been

18:04

one of hope and disappointments

18:08

constantly over and over again.

18:10

This is Josh Rebel and one YouTuber.

18:12

It has been a rocky roads. They bought in

18:14

Frontnando Alonso, who was generally

18:17

regarded as the most naturally

18:19

gifted driver on that grid at the time in

18:21

twos and ten, and

18:24

it almost paid off for the

18:27

five years they had him,

18:29

and then it didn't work. And then they bought in the

18:32

four time world champions Sebastian Fettle,

18:35

and that almost worked as well. But then

18:38

you had scenarios where Ferrari

18:40

would just throw it away. So

18:46

we have this real low point for the team

18:48

comes in where

18:52

this is kind of funny to talk about. So I know we've discussed

18:54

that F one is very secretive. So

18:57

essentially Ferrari

18:59

does something to their car and they start off

19:01

the season going very fast and things look very

19:03

great. And essentially

19:06

all the other teams or some other teams say, we

19:08

don't know what they're doing. It must be illegal. And

19:10

the reason I'm talking in such vague terms is because

19:13

the governing body, the f i A, takes Ferrari

19:15

aside behind the scenes and

19:17

kind of says, well, you can't do that anymore.

19:20

The problem is they don't tell us the public what

19:22

that is anymore, and they say,

19:24

yeah, and Ferrari, you can stay in it, and like you

19:26

all are good to keep competing. You just got

19:28

to tell us if another team is doing the same thing,

19:31

but we don't know what the thing is. That's

19:33

like you know when

19:36

the parents says, can I talk to any other room

19:38

please? And then you know it's like, we'll

19:40

keep this secret, but you can't. Yeah, exactly. How

19:42

interesting? So much drama.

19:44

There's so much like soap opera. No, oh, absolutely,

19:47

it's like, yeah, it's a literal back room

19:49

deal, right like we still do this day years later. I have

19:51

no idea what happened, what the actual thing

19:53

was. There's all these conspiracy videos. You

19:56

found a very good loophole, and we don't

19:59

even though it is lead all, we don't want you to do it. Or whatever.

20:01

Literally what happened? And what doesn't help is that a lot

20:03

of especially at the time, a lot of the

20:06

f i A leadership and other people within the f

20:08

i A used to work for Ferrari or work

20:10

with the F one team in particular, So

20:12

it's just looking very sketched from

20:14

every single angle. It's just not looking good.

20:17

And did they slow down them? They end up in

20:19

sixth in the Constructor's Championship. It's

20:21

one of their worst finishes ever as a team.

20:23

Wow, difficult

20:26

to find words at a moment. I'm that's

20:29

so. It is just bleak city at

20:32

Ferrari. What can expect this

20:34

weekend? Oh yeah, they have a very intense fan base

20:36

called the Fosy. That's kind of their

20:38

fandom name. Well, I'm not gonna die. It's not going to

20:40

be an easy weekend foss So the FOCI is

20:42

upset. Everyone's upset. The team is not in a good

20:44

place. And as if this isn't bad

20:47

enough, this is all going on during the season,

20:49

right as the season is starting. You'll

20:51

recall that when we talked about Red bull their dominant

20:54

driver who won all those world championships, Red

20:56

Bulls guy Sebastian vettle uh. Sebastian

20:58

Mettle at this point is driving for Ferrari and in

21:00

a surprise move, they announced basically

21:03

as the season is starting that they are not going

21:05

to resign Sebastian Battle

21:07

at the end of the season. Lame

21:09

duck. Yeah, there's a Drive to Survive episode

21:11

that is centered on this whole controversy.

21:14

Basically, there was starting to be Yeah,

21:16

just this idea of you know, Sebs aware this this younger

21:19

guys, the golden boy of the team. He doesn't

21:21

feel like he's getting kind of equal treatment

21:23

and opportunities. It's just a bad situation.

21:25

All of those little tricks of

21:28

Enzo or you know, pitting people

21:30

against each other, that all can

21:33

be overlooked when you're winning, exactly,

21:36

winning is this thread that kind of holds

21:38

it all together. But as soon as you're at sixth

21:40

place for the first time in your seventy year history,

21:43

it just unravels. So, yeah,

21:46

was a real low point for them, and and it's also in the midst of the pandemic,

21:48

right, so the race season is already weird, it's already

21:50

truncated, you know, and on

21:52

top of that, now they've got, yeah, a team

21:54

member who already knows he's not being resigned. They've

21:57

got another they've got a car that just doesn't work. They've

21:59

got the d deal with the f i A to keep

22:01

that all the secret. Yeah, and then they've just

22:04

plummeted through the standings. They've

22:06

got teams beating them who they can't believe

22:08

or just casually passing passing

22:10

them on the track. So that's there, that's their their dark

22:13

day. Ferrari, especially in Italy,

22:15

is not a race team. It's a religion. Elder kavskis

22:18

again. I mean, people follow it unbelievably.

22:21

Everywhere. There's more Ferrari fans then there

22:23

is of any other race team. And that's kind

22:25

of the emotion that it evokes, you know, in people when they see

22:27

the red car. When you think of a race car, you think

22:29

of a red car, you think of a Ferrari, and it

22:32

you know, that romantic kind of that romanticism

22:34

just gets to everyone's heads. And the problem with

22:36

that is that sometimes it kind of builds expectations.

22:38

Sometimes it kind of gets to people a little bit too much,

22:41

and it puts pressure on the race team.

22:43

It puts a hell of a lot of pressure because when

22:45

Ferrari are winning. Everything was amazing. You know, the

22:47

world is a better place when they're losing. It's

22:50

a drama, it's you know, a catastrophe, it's controversy

22:52

in Italy and it's that pressure that makes

22:54

it harder for them than any other team.

22:56

So before we get to

22:59

health, we're alreadys doing now. So

23:01

a couple of years after that low point,

23:04

we need to talk about the team boss.

23:06

We're gonna talk about that after this break.

23:12

We need to talk about the team boss.

23:15

So it's Mattia Benado, Mattia

23:17

Matia. It seems

23:19

to go every number of ways. I've even listened to clips

23:21

of him saying his name and he'll change it slightly,

23:24

which is not helpful for our purposes. Um,

23:27

but I'll just show you a picture.

23:30

Um, here is him, and I actually have a photo

23:32

of him with Mercedes team boss Total Wolves. You can

23:34

get a difference. Yeah,

23:37

oh my god, this is not

23:39

what I would exist expecting. He

23:41

almost feels like like a

23:43

cartoon he does. Yeah, the

23:46

glasses are waldo, frizzy,

23:49

fluffy hair that goes

23:51

upright to the sky. Looks

23:53

pretty chill. It's not exactly who I would

23:55

envision to be wearing the Ferrari uniform.

23:58

It almost looks like you're silly,

24:00

uncle who works in the arts is

24:02

coming in from the city. That's

24:05

what he looks like. He loves to work with pastels.

24:10

So he's relatively new. He replaced

24:13

the previous team principle for starting

24:15

with the twenty nineteen season, so he hasn't

24:17

he hasn't been in that position that much. But he's

24:20

also interesting in that he has been with

24:22

Ferrari for a long time, I believe since the nineties.

24:25

But so a lot of these team principles come through

24:27

sort of that like executive leadership,

24:29

executive track so to speak. They're

24:32

kind of business guys. They come into the sport

24:34

through through That means he's

24:36

kind of a funky pick in that he actually

24:38

is an engineer first and foremost and came

24:41

up through engineering and that side

24:43

of the team. And often, you know,

24:45

those guys would become, yeah, the CTO or the

24:47

the engineering director. They have different titles

24:49

and things for it, so you'd think that that's where he would

24:51

end up, and he was in fact the you know, the chief technology

24:54

officer before becoming you know, the team

24:56

boss um and kind of the face

24:59

of a team. So

25:01

yeah, he's he's coming from a cool different side.

25:03

On the plus side, he knows everything there is no about the

25:05

engineering of the car. I guess the disadvantages

25:08

that he's not necessarily

25:11

from a more kind of traditional

25:14

management side of things.

25:16

He can sometimes be a little bit aloof

25:18

There's been criticisms of his management of

25:20

the team. Obviously the whole Sebastian

25:23

vettle mess. He's gotten that sort of

25:25

flak for just not always running

25:27

the tightest ship, and I think part of that is

25:29

he's just from a different brain than He doesn't

25:31

look like He goes to executive

25:34

training where these other guys look so

25:36

they look like generals, you

25:38

know. He he does not look like that. Yeah.

25:41

So where is the team now? Really? How are they

25:43

doing? Yeah? So remember how even with Mercedes

25:46

we talked about, you know, Mercedes came into those new regulations

25:49

and just blew everyone away and they were

25:51

just dominant. So, you know, coming into two,

25:54

everyone said, you know, who's going to be the Mercedes

25:56

of this era of Formula one racing.

25:59

It's great seeing a resurgence from

26:01

Ferrari, the most prestigious popular

26:03

brand in Formula one. Josh

26:06

Revel again it's great to see them

26:08

at the forefront. Again, not

26:10

so great with um their Italian

26:13

engineering, sometimes remembering that it was Italian

26:15

and sort of blowing it slows

26:18

Um midway through the race. But at

26:21

the same time, you know, this still

26:23

in the Hunts. So heading into the season,

26:26

there was a ton of hype around Ferrari. People

26:29

were saying they've got the car figured out.

26:31

They have these two great drivers

26:34

face for the scoot Arena. You

26:38

know, Charlotte Claire has long been the

26:40

Ferrari golden boy and this is his time

26:43

to shine. And people also

26:45

do like Carlos, but we'll get to that more in

26:47

our driver episode. But there was

26:49

a lot of excitement, a lot of fervor.

26:52

However, we're

26:54

kind of coming up at the middle of

26:56

the season here and

26:58

things are just to be not looking as

27:01

promising as they once did. Claire

27:03

has an engine failure that is

27:06

sharing plumes have smoke

27:08

onto the track, and Ferrari

27:11

have a double DNF. Ferrari's

27:13

reliability issues have kind of

27:15

involved everything from the car

27:17

just sort of puttering out on the side

27:20

of a track all the way up to

27:22

Carlos Science's car at

27:25

the Austrian Grand Prix exploding

27:27

into flames while he was still in it.

27:30

He was engulfed in flames and the

27:32

car itself was rolling down a hill.

27:34

Luckily he is safe. Everything's fine. He was totally

27:37

fine. But hell of a site to behold

27:40

to see a Ferrari

27:43

burning down to its parts

27:45

on the side of a track. That was a proper

27:48

blow up, that absolutely

27:50

destroyed it. So so the second problem

27:52

is one we'll discuss way more in our second episode.

27:55

About the drivers, There's been a lot of questions

27:57

about Ferrari strategy with seeing

27:59

some of the same problems reservice. You know, they

28:02

don't have kind of the best strategy. They don't

28:04

have the best reliability as well,

28:06

and that's the really big challenge for them because

28:08

as a race team, i mean, forget about the driver and

28:11

the team principle. I'm talking about pit stops,

28:13

I'm talking about strategy. I'm talking about

28:15

making those calculated, cold blooded

28:17

decisions in splits, you know, a

28:20

split of a second during a race. Read

28:22

Bull are just a stronger race team at the moment.

28:24

It's important to note though, that, as we've

28:26

discussed, this is not new territory

28:29

for Ferrari. This seems to be the story

28:31

of the Ferrari as of late, of

28:34

things kind of breaking down as the season

28:36

goes on. So they're not out of it quite

28:38

yet. It's just that it's going to

28:40

be a longer road than expected.

28:43

It's not all over. The season is still very long.

28:45

There is still plenty of points on the table. But yeah,

28:48

they're learning why it's so difficult to win

28:50

a championship for Ferrari. Alright, so

28:52

I have now brought you up to date on

28:55

over seventy years of Ferrari history.

28:58

What are your thoughts? You know, Um,

29:02

I like Ferrari. I don't have any

29:04

reason yet to dislike them.

29:06

Um. I think history is important.

29:09

They're easy to root for, the brand

29:11

is easy, the colors are great. The

29:15

I don't know enough about Enzo to dislike

29:18

him, but I like kind of the

29:20

I like that he created a team

29:22

around his name, you know, I

29:25

like Mattea.

29:30

I like that he's different. I

29:32

like that it's a different vibe. I get

29:35

Mercedes Team Principal and Red Bulls

29:37

Team Principle kind of mixed up in my head. They

29:40

kind of seem like the same kind of vibe.

29:42

Plus it also helps them tremendously and this

29:44

is a testament to their history. It

29:47

helps that I had their posters up on my wall. You

29:49

know, there's a little bit of bias there for sure,

29:51

but that's yeah, for sure, there is. Um.

29:54

I do love the color. So

29:57

here we go, this all of this research

29:59

you've done, Lily, and I'm gonna go I like their colors,

30:02

like the horse looks cool. Now,

30:05

I don't know the drivers. I don't know anything

30:07

about the drivers other than this coaster you

30:09

gave me, which is Leclair saying, I am stupid.

30:12

I'm stupid. You have told me in the previous

30:14

podcast that there isn't necessarily

30:16

a number one and number two, so

30:19

they are competing against each other, and I

30:21

I'm curious to learn more about them. The drivers

30:23

are very evenly matched. They're

30:25

very evenly matched on paper, though

30:28

they both have very different backgrounds, very

30:31

different kind of standing

30:33

within the team, and so while they aren't

30:35

a number one number two pairing on paper, there's

30:38

definitely some of those vibes going on in the garage

30:41

that make it incredibly interesting and

30:43

and to even at even more depth, these two publicly

30:45

get along very well, but are

30:47

really at a point, especially if the team

30:49

is going to be fighting for wins and and potential

30:52

championship titles. There could be

30:54

some some sparks flying. I

30:56

feel like the Ferrari drivers

30:58

could stand around the garage sipping

31:00

an espresso talking about efficiency

31:04

of the engine. Whereas

31:06

Mercedes I feel in Red Bull.

31:09

I feel like everybody's screaming at each other and there's

31:11

like wrenches flying against the wall. I

31:14

have no I mean, this is just I have no idea. If that's true,

31:16

that's fine. I'm just imagining Toto

31:18

for Mercedes, like throwing a wrench and at leaving a dent in

31:20

the wall, and then I keep it there

31:22

as like a reminder do your job or else this will

31:24

be your head. Yeah. They have like a whole

31:27

like little plaque next to it. Yeah. Yeah

31:29

for me, I don't think it has the same. They're a little

31:31

more sophisticated. I guess that's they're they're

31:34

aesthetic. One time I was performing

31:36

at Gotham Comedy Club and a

31:38

guy just kept a British guy just kept interrupting,

31:41

kept it drumping. Anyways, the

31:43

security comes throws him out. He

31:45

takes a swing. I want a security guard. These

31:47

guys are all like served in Afghanistan. They

31:50

like wanted someone to swing at him. They threw

31:52

his head into the wall and there was a nice size

31:54

hole in the wall. Anyways, they kept it there for

31:56

years because they wanted to remind people if you yell

31:59

at the comedian some guy's head. Just

32:01

to just a side note, i

32:03

mean, who says comedy isn't like formula

32:05

one? Our life is on the line here. I'm

32:09

sure he felt very threatened by this random

32:12

for sure. Yeah, but it got taken care

32:14

of. Take care of field fashion alright.

32:18

So I'm excited to learn about these drivers. Yeah,

32:21

I'm excited to talk about them endlessly. There's

32:23

also gonna be many a thirst trap. His

32:26

eyes are like green blue

32:30

gray. They just like look like an ocean.

32:33

Like you just want to, like swan dive into

32:35

his eyes. Perfect

32:39

eyebrows, perfect cheekbones, The

32:42

bone structure is unmatched.

32:45

He's more beautiful than the most beautiful

32:47

woman I've ever seen. Oh man, this is

32:49

I'm getting sun good.

32:52

I needed some thirst traps alright.

32:56

This has been Choosing Sides F

32:58

one production of Sports

33:01

Illustrated Studios and I Heart Radio.

33:04

The show was hosted by Michael Costa and Lily

33:06

Herb. This episode was produced

33:08

by Lily Herman and our senior producer

33:11

Yhai Mi Tao, who also did

33:13

the sound design at

33:15

the Cutting Room Studios. We are recorded

33:17

by engineer Robot Leary, the second

33:20

mastering by Cello WEISBLU Max

33:23

Miller is the executive producer

33:25

and Brennan get Us his head of Audio

33:28

at s I Studios. At

33:30

I Heart Radio, Sean Titon is

33:33

our executive producer. For more

33:35

podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I

33:37

Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

33:39

where wherever you get your podcasts, don't

33:42

forget to subscribe to us and leave a review.

33:45

And if you want more F one

33:47

goodness, follow us on Instagram

33:50

at Choosing Sides of What