0:00

Let's do it all right. So Michael

0:02

at the end of last episode,

0:04

yeah, you you made your sentiments

0:07

known that you you're You're not

0:09

necessarily on the

0:11

Merk train. No, I'm not.

0:13

It's such a wealthy brand. It's spews

0:17

elitism. I'm

0:19

from Southeast Michigan. You drive

0:22

American where I came from.

0:24

That's a silly thing to say when referring to Formula one

0:26

because there's not even an Americans anyways,

0:28

it's not certainly not an American car brands. I don't

0:30

think right, we'll get to that. Okay, great,

0:33

but no, I'm not I'm not ever going to root

0:35

for Mercedes. What am I? No, that's not

0:37

my Now, I'm curious to meet these other teams. If

0:40

all these other teams are

0:42

like even more elitist,

0:45

pompous Toto wolf Asque,

0:48

then maybe I'll go, oh shit, I had the wrong

0:50

first impression of Mercedes. But it's

0:52

gonna be tough to get Michael Costa to root

0:55

for Mercedes, which is unfair considering

0:57

I haven't even met the drivers yet. It's a great place to start. So

0:59

yes, today we're talking about the drivers

1:01

on this team, So that is going to be

1:05

Lewis Hamilton the goat and

1:07

George Russell the hopes to one day be the

1:09

goat. And that's that's kind of where

1:11

where our story begins

1:15

from iHeart Radio and Sports Illustrated

1:17

Studios. This is choosing sides

1:23

one Wow

1:26

Wow, Wait, sir,

1:31

Lewis Hamilton is who we're going to start with. It

1:33

kind of goes without saying or it's a no brainer that

1:36

Lewis Hamilton needs to come first. He's

1:38

been around the sports for logger. He's one of the best

1:40

to ever drive. I have to say, Lillie,

1:42

I'm already insulted just

1:46

by you saying like he's one of the greatest

1:49

of all times. And he is the greatest

1:51

of all times. I think it's undisputed

1:53

just by his record, is it? Is it that clear

1:55

cut? Oh yeah, So we'll get to this. So here.

1:58

Here's what's interesting. You got a lot of people who

2:00

will try and say that Lewis is

2:02

the undisputed greatest of all time, much

2:05

much like producer YOHI over here. And then

2:07

you have people who argue with those people and

2:09

say that he's overrated and this and that, And we'll get

2:11

into all of that controversy and why

2:14

so just but just the stats, I mean says

2:16

it's not an argument, it's just a statement of fact.

2:21

We should never have told YOHI that I wanted his voice

2:23

in this podcast. All

2:26

right, So Lewis, Yeah,

2:29

that's wise. I mean, it's it's incredible. Seventh

2:31

time world champion, he is the best qualifier,

2:34

i e. The fastest person

2:36

we've ever seen in Formula one. Consistently.

2:38

I have one hundred pole positions, which

2:41

is, you know, an incredible statistic. A

2:43

pole position is you don't

2:45

just show up on a Formula one race weekend and

2:47

just race, you know, drive the race. You have

2:50

something called qualifying where all

2:52

of the drivers basically try to get

2:54

the fastest time over a single lap yet

2:56

just them and based on where you qualify,

2:59

So how faster or slow you are, that's kind

3:01

of where you start on the quote unquote grid. That's

3:03

where that term comes from on race day. So when

3:05

we say pole position, that means that Lewis

3:07

was in basically first place in qualifying

3:10

and he's going to start the race in first place. That's pole

3:13

and he also obviously has even more podium

3:15

finishes in second and third place. I mean,

3:17

just yeah, he kind of blows everyone out of the water.

3:20

First things first, can you just say your first and last

3:22

name and the pronouns you use? Cry

3:24

am, I just use Jenny Gau. That's

3:27

just me. So that was Jenny Gau. She's

3:29

a prominent F one reporter for the BBC

3:32

and other media outlets, and I will say feature

3:34

on Drive to Survive as one of their F

3:36

one xpets. Okay, So, Sir

3:38

Lewis Hamilton, how would you sort of explain

3:40

Lewis Hamilton to someone who's kind of new,

3:43

maybe only tangentially heard of

3:45

him, Like why why Lewis? And why why

3:47

root for Lewis? So let me try and explain

3:50

Lewis Hamilton. Although I feel that

3:52

this is a subject that a lot of people could

3:54

talk about for a long long time

3:56

because he's a bit of a anomaly. He's

3:59

a very complex character. He

4:02

is loved and hated an equal measure,

4:04

which seems bizarre for a man that has

4:06

won seven world titles in Formula

4:08

one and has been knighted

4:11

by the Queen And as you say, is Sir Lewis

4:13

Hamilton. But he does divide

4:15

opinion because he is not

4:17

a purist when it comes to Formula

4:19

one. He doesn't just turn up on a race weekend,

4:22

put on his overalls, go out, win

4:25

races, and then disappear into the ether.

4:27

He has whole another side. So

4:30

his other side is a side that goes out

4:32

and does go to red

4:35

carpet events. He likes to make

4:37

music, he likes fashion. He

4:39

goes to you Balenciaga catwalk

4:43

shows and fashion shows. I've

4:45

just daged myself hugely and made myself sound

4:47

about eighty by using catwalk show.

4:50

But yeah, his into fashion, hiss into music, his

4:52

into films. He likes to go

4:55

out and skydive. You know, this

4:57

is the all action man. And

5:00

who's the biggest factor in his life

5:02

is that he happens to be the only black

5:04

F one driver. Lewis is the only

5:06

black driver to ever be in Formula one,

5:09

and he's the only black driver currently on the grid,

5:11

So he's the first, he's the only. So he's

5:13

really just off the bat, coming from a very different

5:15

place than literally every

5:17

other driver. You immediately noticed that because

5:19

every time you google anything about finding

5:22

the one, it's all just white dudes. Man. Yeah, exactly,

5:24

So he stands out already to begin with, this has always

5:26

been the case in his career. So he comes

5:28

from not a rich background in

5:31

yeah, in England, and he actually didn't start

5:34

his career off carting. One

5:36

year when he was really young, his dad bought

5:38

him like a remote control car and

5:41

took Lewis to go like race it around at some kind

5:43

of informal races, you know, near

5:45

their home, and there's like, you know, images

5:47

in kind of grainy video of this, like, you know, six

5:50

seven year old whatever Lewis Hamilton beating

5:52

these middle aged guys at remote

5:55

control car driving like he just had

5:57

the instincts and all of that. So

5:59

eventually, you know, his father and him, they really

6:01

bond over this. They get him into carting. His

6:04

dad, though, is working you know, three jobs at any

6:06

given time. Somebody's set up to six, but he's working

6:08

around the clock to afford

6:10

his son's carting career. You know, there's a lot put

6:12

in for this family for him to even kart

6:15

at, you know, and he's not even out of elementary

6:17

school yet, but he's dominating, like so he's killing

6:19

it. But on top of just you know, already

6:22

having to struggle from a money and financial perspective,

6:24

you know, there's a lot of racism that Lewis deals

6:26

with at an early age. Yeah, he's got

6:28

adults hurling you know, uh anti

6:31

black slurs at him. And he's again in elementary

6:33

school in a post years. I've had

6:35

racist name has been called to me. The

6:38

first time it happened, I

6:40

felt really upset. I told told

6:42

him Mom and dad, and I

6:46

felt like I needed to get revenge on him. But

6:49

lately if anybody had said anything

6:52

to bogetic nor him and get

6:54

him back on the track, my god. He said

6:56

too that he didn't really unpack the full

6:58

effect of that until only a couple of years ago during

7:00

kind of you know, the George Floyd murder

7:03

and kind of from that whole moment he kind of said, Yeah,

7:05

I hadn't fully digested the absolute

7:07

extent of how traumatizing and damaging

7:09

and harmful that was. We saw him

7:12

going out marching holding placards

7:14

because black life matters to him.

7:16

Black lives matter to him,

7:19

and he wants his voice heard, and then obviously

7:21

continues to present date. You know, he deals with booing, He deals

7:23

with with all that stuff that comes with both being

7:25

probably the only black driver on the grid and also being

7:27

the winningest one. You know, the winningest person in the

7:29

sports history. It's certainly always been

7:31

a factor. And last year the

7:33

FIA finally stepped in and

7:36

told fans to stop racially abusing him.

7:38

Reporter, he's all Southwell again, it's been sixteen

7:40

years that he's been driving in Formula one.

7:44

That's a really pretty like primordially

7:49

slow reaction time in

7:52

terms of beginning to be

7:54

aware of a problem. So that's that's

7:57

Lewis's background. But yeah, basically,

7:59

Lewis impresses the bosses at

8:01

a team called McLaren and eventually

8:04

makes his rookie debut in

8:06

the two thousand and seven season. He ends

8:08

up in second place and loses by a

8:10

point. Oh wow, that was his rookie year.

8:12

Rookie season. Yeah, wins Formula

8:15

one World Driver's Championship is second year. So

8:20

this is for you. Thank you for

8:22

all supporting me, believe me. Wow,

8:26

superstar, immediate superstar exactly.

8:28

Can you describe your emotions right now? Put

8:30

them into words? I don't think

8:32

I can. Very

8:34

emotional. I would say my heart's fit into

8:37

so much strain right now, because I think it was the same

8:39

for everyone. But I'm just very proud of the

8:41

team and my family as

8:43

well. He talked so

8:45

softly. Let me tell you something, everybody,

8:49

the people that scream their success at

8:51

you are not the ones to worry about. It's

8:53

the ones that are soft spoken and

8:56

deliberate with their words, those are the ones that

8:58

will fuck you up. I will say, there is

9:00

always a little bit of luck involved right place,

9:02

right time. So there have been times where great drivers

9:04

have not made it on the grid for reasons that

9:06

have nothing to do with him. Yeah, it just it worked

9:08

out. Let's say it didn't. It didn't hinder him, he didn't have

9:11

to. Well, it's actually funny because we'll talk about George Russell

9:13

in a second, who's had a little bit of a different start

9:15

to his Formula one career. So

9:17

yeah, Lewis ends up on a on a great historic team

9:19

that has a lot of that infrastructure, of the resources, and

9:22

not to say, we'll learn later that McLaren has

9:24

struggled in recent years. But you

9:26

know, Lewis is there. He'd a super well there

9:28

and he also seems to be someone though who has the instincts

9:31

and know when it's time. He's a very intuitive guy, right,

9:33

He's a little bit into like spirituality

9:35

and mysticism, so he kind of knows when it's time to

9:37

make the jump, even if no one else sees

9:40

it or understands it. You know, he makes this jump to this

9:42

newer team Mercedes the perfect time,

9:44

you know, kind of. I think he got fourth his first year

9:46

when they still hadn't had the new regulations in

9:48

place yet, but then they just go gangbusters

9:51

the next year victory.

9:55

Once again, Lewis Hamilton does it.

9:57

A five time champion. Lewis

10:00

Hamilton has led every single

10:02

lap of this race. Had Pole has

10:04

the fastest lap as well. It

10:06

is Lewis Hamilton every

10:09

time. That's for all the kids out there who

10:12

dreamed the impossible. You

10:14

can do it too, man, I believe it you

10:16

guys. Thank you so much everyone for your support.

10:19

What makes Lewis Hamilton's such

10:21

a good driver? The car is obviously part

10:23

of it. Anyone can look great in a great car.

10:25

But what is it about Lewis that have made

10:27

him so dominant? The number one thing is raw

10:29

talent. So my name is I'll

10:31

discover luscas and I basically just cover the

10:33

world of Formula one. Talk about it. What I like, what

10:35

I dislike, living the dream as it is

10:38

perfect Lewis Hamilton and the driver

10:40

he is. Okay, forget about the Formula one career, Let's go

10:42

back to his carting days. He dominated in

10:44

carting, He dominated in single seaters as well.

10:47

He won GP two in two thousand and six

10:49

in his very first season as rookie, produced

10:51

some amazing drives. Also, Lewis

10:54

works really closely with his engineers. He's

10:56

part of every decision that they made. He's

10:58

fully involved, fully invested. That's

11:01

Cyril Levinson, a motorsports communications

11:03

expert and F one super

11:05

fan. You seen some of the other teams, some of some

11:07

of the other drivers. They don't really care. They're saying

11:10

the engineer is no best. I'm going to

11:12

let them do it they want and I will

11:14

just drive versus. Louis

11:17

gives that real time feedback to his engineers.

11:19

He pulls all nighters, spending time with his

11:21

engineers to make sure that the car is right. Louis

11:24

has maken himself hard to be really

11:27

because of that commitment. He has a lot of

11:29

other passions outside of Formula One, but

11:31

he doesn't let any of that

11:34

get in the way of his performance

11:36

and his success. He hasn't had a serious

11:38

relationship in a long time because he doesn't

11:41

want that's not a priority for him. He spends

11:43

all of his time with the team

11:45

at the factory instead of building

11:48

out his life. Honestly, I

11:50

implore you anyone who's listening, to go

11:53

watch some videos on Turkey two thousand and six,

11:55

which was one of his absolute magic drives.

11:57

He made a mistake earlier on how to spin and

12:00

then worked his way through the field to finish. I think it's

12:02

second on the second on the podium with some amazing

12:04

overtakes, and you can see the talent right there. You

12:07

cannot question his dedication to the

12:09

sport and his pure skill

12:11

that he's developed through decades

12:13

of experience. He has absolutely

12:16

earned all of the success that he's got.

12:18

Wow. Yeah, I will say what makes Lewis

12:21

very different is how he approaches

12:24

i would say life off the track, but also his

12:26

persona on so most

12:29

F one drivers, a lot of them, are very much

12:31

the types of people who show up on

12:33

race day, you know, want to race really fast, and then they

12:35

just go back to their lives. You never really hear about them.

12:38

They don't want to be public figures. They're just singularly

12:40

focused on Formula one and don't really have

12:43

you don't really hear about outside hobbies or interest That

12:45

was for a long time, what kind

12:47

of the ideal quote unquote Formula

12:49

one driver was painted as Lewis

12:52

is different for many reasons. For one

12:54

thing, which we'll start out with, Lewis

12:57

is known for his fashion. Lewis

13:00

actually enjoys the idea of celebrity.

13:08

So he actually hired a celebrity

13:11

Hollywood celebrity stylist, this guy named law

13:13

Roach. Law Law Law

13:15

Roach. Yeah, he Law Roach

13:17

also styles both Zendia and Tom

13:19

Holland. It's just like a real deal stylist.

13:23

And so I got an example I have, as

13:26

I said, I have slides, so well

13:28

this is a prime example of like everyone else

13:30

on the grid versus Lewis. So what

13:32

I'm gonna show you is on the first

13:34

day of a typical Formula one race

13:36

weekend, there's something on usually Thursday,

13:39

is called media Day. This is when the drivers come in

13:41

they get to walk the track and take a look at it.

13:43

So this isn't a formal they don't drive at all.

13:46

This is just show up, get a sense of the track,

13:48

talk to the press. Called day. So I would

13:50

love for you to describe to me what these

13:52

guys in this photo are wearing three

13:54

men tracksuit pants, sport

13:58

logo T shirt. Yeah, so they got six ship. Here

14:00

are just some examples of outfits that Lewis Hamilton

14:02

has shown up to I love it, love

14:05

it, love it, love it all Right, So there's three

14:07

photos. One on the left is a lime

14:09

green puffer

14:12

suit set. Yeah, it's a set.

14:14

Yeah. The middle, which is

14:16

my favorite, is monochromatic

14:19

red fitted. Uh,

14:23

that's an Alexander McQueen suit

14:25

that he's wearing to the track on like a Randall day And

14:27

I don't know who Alexander McQueen is. But there's also

14:29

a a

14:32

messenger bag that could be a

14:34

purse that's the same color as

14:36

the suit. Very fitted. And then on

14:38

the right is another

14:41

puffer orange. For

14:45

lack of a better term, it almost looks like one

14:47

of those like orange jumpsuits you

14:50

see, like criminals

14:52

have to wear wear, you know. Uh,

14:54

maybe I don't know if we're allowed to say what I just said,

14:56

but he's in three very

14:59

interesting, elaborate and thought

15:03

through outfits. Yes, and these are all

15:05

also coming straight off the runways

15:07

that seasons. These are like New York

15:09

Fashion Week. His silas law Roach saw

15:11

these and we're like, hey, Lewis, like this we're gonna wear. I

15:13

would bet, knowing from what you've told me that the

15:15

outfit that kind of looks like the prisoner jumpsuit,

15:18

I would bet that in a way that is meant

15:21

to be thought provoking. And oh,

15:23

I'm the only person of caller in this sport,

15:26

and I'm also the best motherfucker's put

15:28

that in your little societal past

15:31

pot and stir. Okay, So that was good analysis

15:33

because that outfit, first outfit

15:36

for the first media day of the season, he

15:38

comes out swinging with that right orange

15:40

outfits. Yes, so that I feel even

15:42

more comfortable saying what I said, because

15:45

it's meant to elicit a response.

15:48

Yes, you learned in feeling more about Lewis just

15:50

looking at them him. Yeah. Way,

15:53

I hate two of those outfits, but

15:55

still you're just getting me to think

15:57

about fashion and think about him. And the one

15:59

on the middle, I think it is just so wheat. Yeah,

16:02

no, yeah, it's but it's literally like was

16:04

on the runway like two weeks prior and then he shows

16:06

up and or whatever it is, it's like he yeah,

16:08

went live on the website. Lewis Hamilton snatches

16:11

it and wears it. Yeah, he looks sharp, And I'm

16:13

just fully on board with a

16:15

Formula one driver, being fully

16:18

like, this is an elite sport, you should

16:20

look like you at least thought about

16:22

what you're gonna weary. Also, if I was a competitor,

16:24

and if I was George Russell his teammate, I would

16:27

see him wearing that and I

16:29

would want to beat his ass. So

16:31

there you go. So that's that's that's

16:33

Lewis's style. Yeah, like Lewis the other thing

16:35

that really sets Lewis apart, And I think even anyone

16:38

who doesn't like him for whatever

16:40

reason would agree. Not only is he

16:42

a driver, not only is he happy to

16:44

go out and be a bit of a celebrity and a star,

16:47

but he's also happy to be an activist

16:49

and have a voice. Hey guys, I

16:51

just happened to be on the beach and

16:54

just so much waste. This is just from

16:56

five minutes picking I was taking

16:58

us ten or fifteen minutes to pick all this up. And

17:01

there's so much more, so

17:03

much more rubbish

17:06

that's out there. I really just want to encourage

17:08

people, just please be conscious of what

17:10

you're buying. I know it's

17:12

not your intention for it to end up in the oceans,

17:14

but the fact is it is, and

17:17

we've got to do something about it that

17:19

I'm definitely gonna try my best

17:21

to clean up the beach that's hire. Formula one

17:23

needs that, yeah, because it's

17:26

easy for I

17:28

mean, this is wealth beyond wealth,

17:30

so it needs some of its

17:32

athletes to wake up a little bit exactly.

17:35

And he also started an organization

17:37

called the Hamilton Commission, which is

17:39

there to increase diversity inclusion in

17:41

UK motorsports, particularly amongst

17:44

not just black drivers, but black personnel.

17:47

So that's going to include engineers, mechanics,

17:49

you know, just just all around diversity inclusion in the sport.

17:52

And he even kind of meshed

17:55

together his love of fashion and social

17:57

activism recently. So he in twenty

17:59

twenty one started where these t shirts that kind of had

18:01

little words and phrases on them, and you know,

18:03

people like me were kind of looking at them like what what is

18:05

that? Like? Are these connected? Is? It's just like a weird thing. And

18:07

he actually worked with a poet to

18:09

create a poem about like diversity

18:12

inclusion, like a quality in our world, and

18:15

all of these T shirts each had a different line of

18:17

the poem, and so we were this over like a

18:19

large portion of last season. Yet for both

18:21

the montene era and for the extent

18:24

of his activism it has

18:26

to be cooled and his willingness

18:29

to hold forming one too account. Then,

18:32

Yeah, Hamilton is simply

18:34

at a different level to anyone

18:38

in the history of the sport, both on track

18:40

by being unbelievably skilled

18:42

and in terms of his pushing

18:45

the sport itself forwards

18:48

and the entirety of my disport as a consequence.

18:50

Yeah, very three dimensional persons. Yeah,

18:52

the fear is that some

18:55

of it becomes a distraction from

18:57

racing, that that will be for him

18:59

and his team to figure out. Yeah. So, for

19:01

instance, there was a lot of controversy a few years

19:03

ago when Lewis So Lewis did

19:06

a collaboration with the iconic American

19:08

designer Tommy Hill figure and

19:10

he they had like a fashion show launch

19:13

for this collaboration this brand the

19:16

night before a Grand Prix race, and

19:18

everyone of course was like, Lewis doesn't care about

19:20

you. He should be home sleeping and resting and whatever.

19:22

And he proceeds to go to the event

19:25

it comes out, you know, next day wins

19:27

the race. Yes, yeah, I mean that's that's

19:29

why I was very clear to say

19:32

for him and his team to figure out, not

19:34

the fans, oh yeah, not Twitter exactly.

19:36

But you know, I get caught with this with Naomi

19:38

Osaka, the tennis player who I love, who's very,

19:41

very socially active, but lots

19:43

of times I'm screaming at the TV, going, will

19:45

you stop like being so socially conscious

19:48

and start just winning the tournament please? Yeah,

19:50

but that's not for me to decide. It started to

19:52

side exactly exactly. So yeah, that's Louis. I'd

19:54

say. There's also, like, as I said earlier,

19:56

Lewis kind of like spirituality,

19:59

and in that element, there's a lot of stuff on

20:01

his Instagram about you know, take a

20:03

deep breath and you know, feel

20:06

the world around you. Good morning, good morning,

20:08

good morning. I hope you're all well.

20:10

I just wanted to send you, guys

20:13

a message of positivity. Keep shining

20:15

your light, keep staying positive, keep

20:17

believing each and every single one of you

20:20

is great and unique in your own way, and

20:22

there's no limit to what you can do. So

20:26

happy weekend. He's

20:28

a vegan Okay, basically

20:30

what I'm getting at he is, in fact a bona fide celebrity.

20:33

He's not just a driver. He likes it that

20:35

way to a certain extent. It unnerves

20:37

some drivers. How calm he'll be where he's

20:39

like, you know, we all just want to be friends and like I just want

20:41

to win, and people be like, Lewis, you nearly crashed

20:43

into me, sir, Like what the delta

20:47

Delta.

20:50

Lewis Hamilton is in

20:53

my mind one of the top sports

20:55

people in the world right

20:57

now for every week, and

21:00

not just one reason that he drives blimmen

21:02

fast in a car, but he also

21:04

wants to be more than that, which is pretty

21:06

special and unique. He's a class act off

21:08

the track and he's one of the most kind of one

21:10

of the most talented drivers on the track as well.

21:12

So it's just, yeah, that's what leads

21:15

him to be such a such a great driver. And even now,

21:17

you know, he's not having a great season because of the Mercedes

21:19

are struggling, but he's going to be back, no

21:21

doubt about it. He's still there. I'm very excited

21:23

to watch him race. Oh yeah, I got plenty of highlights

21:26

where it's just like, I don't know how Lewis

21:28

figured that out, but of course Helga said he get a little

21:30

whiney during races. Yeah. Yeah,

21:32

he's always yelling about his tires being gone. And you're

21:35

like, Lewis, you just started the race, sir, he got

21:37

another seventy laps, Like, I doubt your tires

21:39

are gone. You know, he'll complain and then he'll

21:41

have like the longest going you know, he'll

21:43

pit last, you know, and you're like, dude, your tires are

21:45

fine. It's the point where people think it's so often are

21:47

they pitting in a race? Typically

21:50

one to two times. Oh, that's it. Yeah,

21:52

and the pit stops. The best pit stops

21:55

are under two seconds. What yeah

21:57

it was seconds. Yeah. Well we can watch

22:00

when they're they have like

22:02

one guy who's on the old tire, one

22:04

guy who's gonna put on the new tire, a separate gun

22:06

guy. They all also have backups

22:08

for all these positions. You'll kind of see it

22:10

like a there's like the guy with the nut

22:13

and bolt gun and then someone behind them who's

22:15

there in case something gets gets f Yeah.

22:18

They before races, you see these these

22:20

uh you know, mechanics and whatnot, like stretching,

22:22

doing calisthenics, like doing a full

22:24

on workout before they even practice.

22:27

You know, they're pit stops. Yeah, so Red

22:29

Bull they're kind of the gold standard. Them and that team

22:31

Williams that keeps popping up, which will pop up

22:33

yet again right now because we're going to talk about Georg

22:36

Russell. Yes, quick break and we're

22:38

back. So

22:41

Lewis Hamilton's one side of the Mercedes garage.

22:43

On the other side we have George Russell,

22:46

another British driver. So

22:48

George is as of the start of the twenty

22:50

twenty two season, he is thirteen years younger than Lewis.

22:53

He is twenty four years old. Definitely a different

22:55

generation of driver than than

22:58

Lewis. What he does have in

23:00

common with Lewis is he was also very

23:02

successful in his junior career leading

23:04

up Jeff One. What I find very

23:06

funny is there was an interview with a different

23:08

driver, Lando Norris, who who's around

23:10

George Russell's age. They raced together growing up,

23:13

and he's talked about how everyone wanted to be George

23:15

Russell and carting when they were kids. He had a poster

23:17

of George Russell like from from

23:19

some event, like everyone wanted to be George,

23:22

so it goes all you know, this this kind of golden boy

23:24

vibe to him, goes all the way back to like the

23:26

earliest stage of his careers. Yeah, it's actually

23:28

be a good time to talk about how Lewis and George are very

23:30

similar. So Lewis walking back to

23:33

Lewis for a second. Lewis when

23:35

he was a kid goes to an event

23:38

where he and he or wins some carting

23:40

thing. He meets as part

23:42

of this this guy Ron Dennis, who

23:44

is heading up the Formula one team McLaren

23:46

that he would eventually race four. So little

23:48

Lewis, who is ten years old, goes up

23:51

to this adult man who's richest fuck

23:53

and you know, and it's just kind of there because he was

23:55

making an appearance, and he essentially

23:57

goes, hey, I'm Lewis Hamilton. I loved

23:59

to for your Formula One team in a couple of years

24:02

and can you sign my autograph in or give me your autograph?

24:04

And Ron Dennis is so charmed by

24:06

this whole thing that he actually stays in touch

24:08

with Lewis and he was like, who the hell is this kid? Like

24:10

what is this? This whole idea of kind of Lewis,

24:12

you know, taking that initiative exactly.

24:15

Yeah, to go do that, thehone's to go up to this

24:17

like man and just and of course I'm sure it was kind

24:19

of adorable, right, Like a little ten year old doing this is very

24:21

funny. George Russell similarly, not as

24:24

young, but in his teens. He gets

24:26

his hands on the email of one Toto

24:28

Wolf then then team

24:30

principal of the Mercedes F one team,

24:33

and George emails him kind of like, hey,

24:35

I'd love to talk to you about just like my career, where

24:37

I'm going and whatnot. Uh. Toto

24:39

shows up to this meeting and George

24:41

meets him wearing a full suit and comes with a

24:43

power point to discuss his

24:46

career, and Toto has refer said

24:48

that George reminded him more of an accountant

24:50

than a race car driver. Yeah, so

24:52

similar again, differ very different upbringings.

24:54

You're George more privileged upbringing than Lewis. Uh.

24:57

Similar just you know, temperaments

24:59

which we to George in a second, but definitely

25:02

have a little bit of that politician archetype

25:04

to them. They're ready to kind of, you know, put

25:06

it all out there. Do what needs to get done, go straight to

25:08

the boss. And in George's case,

25:10

that ended up with you know, Mercedes

25:12

saying, Hey, we've kind of started our own drug

25:14

development program. Do you want to sign to it and kind of be

25:16

one of the first to be on this train with us.

25:19

Your power point? Yeah, pretty successful,

25:21

The accountant get up worked. It was

25:23

a great yeah, a great moment. So,

25:26

you know, let me interrupt for a second. When I used

25:28

to so I coached tennis

25:31

at University of Michigan. I used to recruit young

25:33

players try to come to Michigan, you

25:36

know, not nearly as high as a level as these

25:38

these guys are sport. But what

25:41

I was always looking for and what I was coached

25:43

to look for when trying to find

25:46

young men that will be successful

25:49

is a commitment and an

25:51

obsession of success

25:53

in that sport. And what's interesting to hear

25:56

you talk about Lewis at ten, Yeah,

25:58

going up to the McLaren

26:00

team principle, if you're the older

26:03

man there, you're seeing this is a ten year old who's

26:05

obsessed with trying to be successful in

26:07

this sport. And it sounds very similar

26:09

to what George did with Toto making

26:11

a pre power point like that's insane.

26:13

Whether the cake can drive or not, You'll you'll find

26:15

out eventually. It's memorable. I think it's memorable,

26:18

and it shows that this kid is committed

26:20

to wanting to be successful in the sport. I

26:22

could see how they were impressed by that. I would

26:24

be impressed by. Oh. Yeah, so that's where

26:26

George is with Mercedes.

26:28

He signed to this program, uh Toto

26:32

going along the lines of ethically and morally

26:34

murky things. Toto basically manages

26:36

George's career, so it's

26:38

a team boss who also was in charge of this guy's

26:40

career. Yeah. So

26:43

basically, you George's is rearing to go in

26:45

you know, in F one. He doesn't have a seat, and

26:48

at the time, basically

26:51

Mercedes is working as a partnership

26:54

with that team Williams that we have mentioned

26:56

on on multiple occasions, and

27:00

actually they say, hey, you know, Williams

27:02

is going to have a seat. They want the strengthen

27:04

this partnership with the Mercedes. What

27:07

if we sign and kind of almost loan George

27:10

to Williams for a couple of seasons. Basically,

27:12

Mercedes, he's an opportunity. They say, hey, we have

27:14

this driver we eventually want to sign and be our guy.

27:16

He's very talented, but we don't want

27:19

to have to spend the time training this like

27:21

twenty twenty one year old.

27:23

You know, he's gonna have his make his mistakes and crash

27:25

and do this and that. Like why not have another

27:28

team take him under their wing, help

27:31

him learn the ropes and also, quite frankly, it's going to be

27:33

a character building exercise to be on one

27:35

of the worst teams reliably on the grid. You get

27:37

a seat, but you get a seat. So George

27:40

Russell, oh, wonderful human being.

27:42

I don't know if that's true. This is Bird Pinkerton,

27:44

a massive George Russell fan. I know you want

27:46

to talk about your man, George Russell. Yes,

27:49

I fell in love with George Russell

27:52

because he was like my

27:54

cursed son. He just

27:57

like I can't I don't even know how to

27:59

describe the degree to which

28:01

George Russell seemed cursed.

28:04

He came into the sport, he was like incredible,

28:08

and then you know he was put in Williams.

28:10

Williams was sort of struggling on in the back.

28:12

He was like paying his dues. That's

28:14

very commendable. Yeah, and did it for three

28:16

years. Yeah, because he didn't

28:19

lay in bed at night dreaming of

28:22

a seat on the

28:24

tenth place team Williams. He

28:26

laid in bed wanting to win this thing for Mercedes.

28:29

Yeah. So this is twenty

28:32

twenty. Lewis

28:34

Hamilton gets COVID. He's

28:37

out for a race and

28:39

Toto, the person who runs Mercedes,

28:42

He's looking around trying to figure

28:44

out, like who am I going to bring in? Who could

28:47

possibly replace Lewis

28:49

in this car and like the best car on the

28:51

grid. He was looking around. He's like, why

28:54

don't I bring in George Russell.

28:56

He's done a lot of testing for Mercedes,

28:58

Like he is sort of the

29:00

planned next person for Mercedes.

29:03

When they have room, we're gonna bring

29:05

him in. We're gonna put him in Lewis Hamilton's

29:07

seat and we're gonna like see what he

29:09

can do. And this is,

29:12

you know, for this guy who's been like a back

29:14

marker struggling,

29:17

this is like the chance of a lifetime.

29:19

And he gets in. He like qualifies

29:22

really well. He's P two, so he's still

29:24

behind Valtori Batas, who's the other Mercedes

29:27

driver. He's qualified really well.

29:29

Like the race starts he like cruises

29:32

out into the first turn and

29:34

George Russell takes the lad He's

29:37

just zooming around like

29:40

they're not even really showing him because

29:42

he's having such a good time at the front.

29:44

He's like so far ahead, George

29:46

Russell has just set the fastest lap of the rice.

29:49

Everything seems like easy sailing.

29:52

And then oh no, the

29:54

curse, my

29:56

poor son's curse. Everything

29:59

goes wrong with pit stop. It's

30:01

a disaster. He loses

30:04

his first place. It looks like a real lift puncture,

30:06

looks like real left puncture, a disaster,

30:11

tragedy. That's George Russell's

30:13

chance of a podium absolutely gone.

30:15

Now it wasn't totally clear

30:17

if he was going to get another shot, or like when

30:19

he would ever get another shot, Like this was a

30:21

chance for him to get his first win, and it sort of

30:24

slipped through his fingers

30:26

and it was sort of at no fault

30:29

of his own. And then

30:31

I was just watching him desperately

30:35

trying with Williams to get sort

30:37

of just points, just any points.

30:41

And so I think it was the Austrian

30:43

Grand Prix where like the

30:46

entire race, or like most of the

30:48

race, he was p ten, which meant

30:50

he would have gotten a point if he had stayed

30:52

in peace, a single point if he had stayed

30:54

in P ten. And then like

30:57

very near the end of the race, like Alonzo,

31:00

Fernando Alonso and his Alpine comes

31:02

like sniffing up behind, and

31:05

I just remember like yelling

31:07

at this screen, like please please

31:09

just let this boy get one

31:11

point. Like Alonso has won two world championships.

31:14

He doesn't need this. I mean, he doesn't need this point,

31:16

but like he doesn't need this point, and

31:19

you know, of course he overtook him.

31:22

I think afterwards Alonzo was like, I

31:24

regretted that it was George

31:27

anyone but George, because

31:29

you know, Williams hadn't had a point in years,

31:31

and so it just it would have been so meaningful to

31:33

them not scoring a point for years.

31:35

That's terrible. Yeah, yeah,

31:37

yeah depressing. Yeah, Mercedes doesn't

31:40

own Williams, No, they don't own them. They

31:44

and theirs, their buddies, yeah, their their pals.

31:46

Yeah. On the grid, you'll hear this idea of like a sister

31:48

team or like a junior

31:51

team or kind of teams that have like some

31:53

sort of formal or informal partnership

31:55

going on. Uh and yeah, the Williams

31:57

Mercedes won. There's definitely like they're

32:00

they're paling around together. This

32:02

is kind of like that TV show Survivor. Oh

32:04

I know everything there is to know about Survivor. I

32:06

mean, you kind of form an alliance, you kind of

32:09

screw each other over, but then you kind of have

32:11

to befriend people again. That's what Formula

32:13

one is. And there's

32:15

times on the track to where drivers have gone out

32:17

of their way to fuck with other drivers because yeah, they're not

32:19

in their alliance so to speak. Right, finally,

32:22

and Hungary Hungry was this disaster

32:25

of a race, like most of the grid

32:27

was either out of the race

32:30

or like their cars were impaired, and so

32:32

both of the Williams cars finished

32:34

in the points, and that I think

32:37

that was the moment where I was like,

32:39

oh, I really I just really

32:41

liked this driver because he

32:44

was being interviewed afterwards and

32:46

again he had

32:48

gotten like two points, like

32:50

this was not he had not won

32:52

the race, he was not on the podium,

32:55

and he started crying dedications

33:00

for everybody in the team and just life

33:04

not way. He

33:06

got teary eyed talking

33:08

about what this meant for the team and

33:10

how much work they had put into it.

33:13

It says a lot because a lot of these drivers are

33:15

kind of divas, So I

33:17

just enjoy people who express

33:20

respect for

33:22

the place that they're in. Will be interesting to see

33:25

if and when he starts challenging Lewis. Yes,

33:27

I could see. I could see there being some friction

33:30

there. How do you think he's going to fare at

33:32

Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton

33:35

arguably the greatest of all time

33:37

in Formula One as his other

33:39

driver? Yeah? I don't know. Man, Louis

33:42

Hamilton is so good, Like

33:45

Louis Hamilton is incredible. He

33:48

has very big footsteps

33:50

to follow in. But we'll see. We'll see

33:53

if he grows into them. I believe. First

33:56

of all, what do you think about Lewis and George individually?

33:59

How are you feeling? I like both

34:01

very much. I

34:03

know that contradicts what I said

34:05

previously that I will never

34:07

root for Mercedes. Is there one you're favoring

34:10

over the other? Oh?

34:14

I would pick George

34:17

because well, I'm a team

34:19

player. I've always loved the

34:21

guy that doesn't always try

34:23

to score the points but instead is happy to rebound

34:25

and play excellent defense. But I

34:28

believe there is definitely

34:30

a sleeping giant in there that

34:33

is also very excited to challenge Lewis

34:35

and become the best. That's what he wants to be. That's how you become

34:37

That's how you get a seat, is to become the best. It'll

34:40

be fun to see what happens when that gets

34:43

stirred up, if it ever does. Lewis

34:45

Hamilton reminds me, from what you've

34:47

told me, a little bit of Serena Williams, total

34:50

disruptor, total badass, holds

34:53

all the records, if not one of the best.

34:55

JOHI who believes he is the best. But

34:58

also that doesn't go without a couple

35:00

annoying things. I'm certain

35:03

when I learn more about Lewis and his little like

35:05

calm demeanor that seems like a little bit of a manufactured

35:08

competitive edge, some of that stuff will piss

35:10

me off a little bit. So I don't know. That's my

35:12

initial take on it. Oh, okay, so

35:14

right now, don't dislike Lewis, but you

35:17

like George's story. Lewis sounds

35:19

like he's already the greatest ever, So

35:21

I love the idea of George, the good

35:23

old British boy who hasn't really achieved

35:26

much yet. Yeah kind of. I

35:28

like that underdog vibe more. It

35:31

seems like Lewis is on top of the mountain. Yeah

35:33

right, yeah he is. Yeah yeah, So forgive

35:36

me for not maybe rooting for the overdog,

35:39

but it might be different if I was

35:41

meeting Lewis at a different stage in his career. I

35:43

am absolutely baffled that

35:46

Lewis Hamilton is the first Formula One

35:48

driver to take media Day

35:50

fashion seriously. That is That's

35:53

a no brainer and a

35:56

wonderful way to make

35:58

a statement without saying shit. Yep.

36:01

Right, So that's awesome that he does

36:03

that, and the sports should be thanking

36:05

him all the way for the attention

36:07

and publicity. That that all

36:09

right? So next week I'm actually

36:11

very excited. So we've gone through this sort of hyper

36:14

efficient, total wolf driven House

36:16

of Mercedes. We're spending next

36:18

week's two part episode focusing

36:21

on the other big competitor on the grid

36:24

coming into this season, and that is Red

36:26

Bull. It just blows my mind

36:29

that we take Red Bull seriously. Yeah,

36:31

because I'm of the age where I remember when

36:33

it came on the scene and it was a joke. Yeah,

36:36

it's a fucking energy drink. How

36:38

can they win anything? Ever, Red

36:40

Bull is the team where if you want a little

36:42

bit of dramatic flair, I'd also say

36:44

a little bit more masculine flair. They're

36:47

the team to look at. You know, you've got this

36:49

real shit talking team principle, a guided

36:51

Christian Horner. I also say he is

36:54

married to a spice girl, but I will not tell you which one

36:56

he's married to. So that's a little bit of trivia

36:58

for you. There, you've got uber

37:01

aggressive, defending world champion in

37:03

Max Verstappin, who is

37:05

as much as Lewis is a is a

37:07

man with a diversity of interests

37:10

and beliefs and whatnot. Max,

37:12

you will never meet a more one track mind

37:14

driver in your life. So a complete juxtaposition

37:17

to Lewis Hamilton's rival from last season. And

37:19

then you've got kind of the ultimate number two

37:22

driver guy in the other driver Sergio

37:24

paris So otherwise known as Checho.

37:26

And it's something truckers drink when they

37:29

move our Amazon packages from

37:31

the East Coast to the West coast of America. You know what

37:33

it is. I don't think Red Bull is

37:35

trying to market to me as

37:38

sort of yeah, like a cosmopolitan

37:41

in New York City, girly, so

37:43

so I have. I'm gonna have a fun time trying

37:46

to explain red Bull to

37:48

you. It's probably their demography exactly.

37:50

Yeah, you're a little more of their demographic than I am. We should.

37:52

I'm gonna bring a red bull and everyone

37:54

I will also bring a red Bull. We'll

37:57

get all the flavors we'll have, and then when we talk

37:59

about Williams, all bring Williams

38:01

exactly. All

38:05

right, YOHI anything else you want us

38:07

to say? This has

38:09

been Choosing Sides f one,

38:12

a production of Sports Illustrated

38:14

Studios and iHeartRadio. The

38:16

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38:19

This episode was produced by Lily Herman

38:21

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38:24

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