This is going to be a weird episode because Tim and I recorded earlier today, and it was a good show. It's all about Andretti. We're like, Hey, not much is happening. Let's talk a little bit of Andretti. We dove deep, and I made a comment in the show, and you'll hear this later, about Fernando Alonso and a supposed Red Bull offer. But the reason that we're jumping in with this now is because Fernando Alonso has agreed to a multi-year partnership with Aston Martin, not just now, but also when they have their Honda engines in in 2026. And apparently, Tim, it goes beyond his career as a racing driver. So you just spoke to him. What do we know?

Yeah, it's a multi-year deal, Adam, that, like you had said, takes us into 2026, when we have that new power units regulation change coming on board.

I feel bad for Andretti, first of all, because the last time we were going to do an Andretti podcast, Lewis Hamilton decided to- Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari. That went Ferrari. Yeah, that's right. That's true. Wow, you have a good memory.

Holy smote. Yeah. Apologies to the Andretti podcast. That will see the light of day, though. Anyway, okay, I digress. No, this is great. Adam, this is really good for Aston Martin. This is really good for Fernando Alonso. I had heard inklings about this as we were headed into the Japanese Grand Prix, that he was looking for a multi-year deal with Aston Martin, and that something was close and was on the horizon. That's why whenever we talked about Fernando Alonso on the, he was always saying, Hey, yeah. You know what? He wants to be Aston Martin. There you go.

Oh, no, you're muted. Sorry, my mic muted. But yeah, I said, Don't listen too much to the rumors is what you were saying, right? Exactly. You know what's funny about it, Tim, is you were so empathic about it. You'd be like, It's BS. Don't listen to that. I was like, Wow, he's really aggressive on the Fernando stuff. So this is great. It really does give Aston Martin an identity for the next few years with a world champion, right?

Yeah, I think so. It's a good partnership. I think this is the longest... Fernando had said this to us because we literally just got done. I literally just got done talking to Fernando before I jumped onto this podcast. But this would be the longest contract that he has had with the team for his F1 career. It shows how comfortable he is within the team. It shows that he believes in the project. It shows that He thinks that they are going to be competitive, and he feels that that time is coming soon. I think it's interesting to note that I'd ask him about Honda because his relationship with Honda in the past was a rocky one, considering with how things ended with himself, Honda, McLaren, and that whole saga. He's been able to patch things up. They've been able to patch things up, I should say. He really believes in what Honda is doing now, how competitive they are now. For him, that was really important, Adam. He really wanted to make sure that the power unit and the team were going to be on the same page for 2026. And by the sounds of it, they are.

It sounds like Honda's really should probably be competitive, very competitive in 2026. Considering where they're leaving. They're leaving on being the fastest power unit in Formula One right now. When we get the regulation change, most likely a lot of that stuff will transfer over and they'll still be just as competitive, maybe even We don't know. But he was very excited about that entire project when I spoke with him about it. I thought that was really interesting when talking to him, Adam.

Well, and what do you think that actually means? What is tangible about that that people can take away? I know that there was some talk about Lewis Hamilton wanting to be a Mercedes ambassador after his contract was up with them, and ultimately, they didn't seem interested in the signing an extension that led into his retirement because apparently, it was going to be 5-10 years or a lifetime or depending upon whatever reports you read. The Ferrari thing became far more attractive to him because there's apparently some offers on the table for that for them. That is interesting.

For Fernando, yeah. He wasn't going to retire retire. He wasn't just going to see this year through and then just retire from racing altogether. He still has other interests. He still wants to race in Dakar. He still has his eyes set on endurance racing, who knows, maybe possibly IndyCar one day, maybe, who knows. But for him, he liked the Valkery project that Aston Martin's got going on, the endurance stuff that they've got on on that side now at Aston Martin, and that's something that also really much, very much intrigues him. I think for a big thing apart, a big thing about Fernando was the fact that when we met with him pre-Bergen. He was in a space where he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue with Formula One because of the size of the calendar. He had readjusted He readjusted how he trains. He readjusted how he takes care of his body. He readjusted what he ate so he could recover fast enough. And he wasn't too sure about the travel because there was just so much of it. So he wasn't sure if the passion, the desire for Formula One racing was still going to be there once he got into it.

But he had said once he had navigated the first three to four races, and I'm paraphrasing here, that was essentially the sign that said, Yes, I still want to do this. I still love it. I still am extremely passionate about Formula One. I eat, sleep, breathe it still. This traveling, which was one of the harsher legs on the calendar, he's like, I feel really good after it. Let's continue going down this road. He did have conversations with other teams, Adam.

Do you know who those teams were?

He didn't mention who they were, but I'm sure we can all assume.

Mercedes has to be in there, right?

I would think so, but who knows, really. But I think at the end of the day, Adam, it was those talks weren't serious talks. I don't know if he felt that he was being treated as seriously, maybe as he should be, or maybe those teams were just looking for one-year deals, and then that was it. I've heard other things about other teams wanting to give a driver a one-year deal, and maybe they want something that's a little more longer term. But Fernando, he wanted something that was going to be a little bit more longer term and have some other benefits on the other side of it as well. And he should. I mean, he's an incredible racing driver. He deserves everything that comes to him because he's like a legend. So outside of that, the lot of... I mean, it was important for him to get this deal done early. So I think he could feel secure at the rest of the season and didn't have to answer any more questions about where are you going to be racing next et cetera, et cetera.

Well, and Tim, I think it's Aston Martin itself, the Lawrence Stroll-led group that has taken this team essentially out of receiver shift, and they're turning it into one of the premier places to race in all of racing. That gigantic brand new factory coming online. The fact that... It's interesting about this, and I think we'll talk about this a little bit later in the episode when we talk about Andredi Cadillac. But you can see a direct result of Aston Martin being good, because there was the year with Vettel and Stroll and the car wasn't competitive. And then the bump that Aston Martin sales took last year when Fernando came out flying. The Valkries themselves and some of the other luxury brands, there have been articles written about the fact that they're selling faster than they've ever seen before. And that's in a... Last year, especially in a bit of a downturn economy, It's pretty interesting. And so the marketing aspect of a brand like Aston Martin being in the sport is undeniable. And a lot of the personality with Aston Martin currently is Fernando Alonso.

The guy has been operating on another level since he came back. I would say first year back in the Formula One, being away for a few years, it was a little rocky, I mean, to start off with. But as soon as he started getting into it, I mean, he was incredible. And once he moved over to Aston Martin, last year, that team was just shot out of a cannon. I don't even think they were expecting to be as competitive as they were, but they had nailed a certain part of the regulation that really sent them flying. And now, again, a young team stumbles and falls and then make mistakes, which this team did midway through the season, but they bounced back, and they came back, and they were stronger again towards the end of the season. I think for Aston Martin as a brand, I think it's very important to have a driver like a Fernando Alonso. You look at Ferrari, right? I mean, Lewis Hamilton leaves Mercedes, goes to Ferrari. The stocks for Ferrari just go through the roof.

They made whatever money they were going to pay Lewis Hamilton, they made it in that day.

For sure. It shows you, I guess, the brand power the driver has, which is great. I mean, we never used to have that in motorsports. The driver, It never was really like...

It was just a guy. It was just...

Yeah, it was just like the teams. It was always about the teams and the teams and the team. Now we're starting to be more about the driver, the driver, the driver, and that's great. I love that. I think that's great for our sport.

Could you be biased on that one, Tim, because you are a driver?

Maybe a little bit for sure. That's a good thing.

But you have to have marketable superstars. For sure, that's the thing. Any league That's the league that markets the team crest over the superstar loses. You see that in the NHL. You have to market superstars. Yes, the Chicago Bulls of the '90s were great, but who does everybody remember? Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan. Yeah. Michael Schumacher, amazing race car driver. Happens to be at a great race brand as well with Ferrari, but nobody remembers the United Colors of Beneton. They remember Michael Schumacher.

They remember Michael Schumacher, yeah. They remember Michael Schumacher, the hard Cores, like those who have always loved Formula One, they remember Fernando Alonso at Renault. Maybe some of them don't necessarily remember what that team actually looked like or what the car was called or any of that stuff. And that's where I think, and this is a long-going topic, but it's like when we look at what F1 has done, not only for the sport and what Liberty Media has done for F1, we're focused more on drivers now. We're talking more about drivers now. And then the teams are almost secondary to that, which is, yeah, it's nice, right? I think drivers have a great story to tell, and they're the focal point of the team. So it's great. When a driver... You got breaking news or something with a driver, you're like, Oh, yeah. You get the Twitter and you start to get the thing.

Speaking of Twitter, do we have listener questions?

Oh, yeah. I think we actually do, Adam.

One thing that I think that we should probably point out, and I'm sure there'll be a question about this, is people are going, How does this affect the driver market? Reality is, I think, Tim, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think it affects it all that much. It would have affected it more had Fernando signed anywhere else other than Aston But I think him staying there gives us no more clarity on the Carlos sign situation, no more clarity on the Sergio Perez situation, Yuki Sonoda, what's going to happen in a couple of years or next year, Daniel Ricardo, Nico Hulkenberg's up, Alex Almon's up in 25. We just don't know. So this one is more like it's still foggy, I guess, right?

Yeah, I think. But it may also signal Adam that we have more driver news that will be coming sooner than what we thought. I think a lot of us thought that driver news was going to start coming when we got to August summer break. Usually, we get a lot of driver news then about switching teams and going to other places. But I think with this case, I think it signals the fact that teams are wanting to lock these drivers up as fast as possible. They know they've got something good there and that driver is really good. We got to hang on to them. They got a ton of experience. We got to sign them up for someone else takes them. With that, I think we're going to see that a lot sooner than we originally thought. We do have questions. Let's go. We got a few questions. Oh, great. All right. So from @xnexis, do you really think that Fernando had other options, or is he signing for Aston Martin because Red Bull and Mercedes just weren't interested? That's a good I think Red Bull had some interest. I think Mercedes had some interest as well.

I have a feeling, and this is just a feeling, that I think Mercedes are in this spot where it's like, Okay, do we want to bring Kimi Antenelli in early, or do we want to keep him in Formula 2 for a little bit longer? And they're still evaluating what they want to do. I think for Red Bull, it's For them, if Fernando Alonso had it came over, I think Max Verstappen had to have left the team because I don't think they would have wanted to put those two together. They wouldn't, because Fernando is Fernando, man. But there were some conversations with other teams. He didn't really elaborate exactly who those were. But like I said, you can take a guess. You can guess. Yeah, let's see who some of those are. I'm just reading these on the fly. So Steven-Go ahead. Steven Clarey, is this a sign Aston Martin is heading for a Spanish pairing with Carlos Sainz? So this would mean that essentially Lance Stroll would lose his seat at Aston Martin. I don't see that happening. Just at the moment, Lance had a difficult weekend in Japan. Jetta could have been better, but outside of that, he rebounded well in Bahrain, and then he had a great race in Australia.

If you were listening to our episode on Sunday, which is our previous episode, you talk about their setups were completely different because they were trying some things, right?

Yeah, exactly. Lance had a different rear wing on the car. Cost him time there. That made things more difficult trying to get through to Q2, Q3. I love emergency pods. Me too. Love breaking news. Love it when we get some stuff to really dive into. It's always great. What do you think about the Alonso signing?

I love Fernando Alonso's social media, so that makes me happy. When he sat down and he just released a video about an hour ago about it, and I'm here to stay. Yeah, man. That's awesome. He's the best character in Formula One. He's the best character in Formula One, no doubt. It's great for Aston Martin. It's great for him. I'm really excited to see what they do for the rest of the year, because now that he's got that safety and security, I feel like it's just going to make him better.

It's really cool, man. I'm excited. Like I said, I've been watching Fernando Alonso since I was a kid.

Good time to buy some green merch, I think.

Oh, 100 %. So how do we get into the next episode?

Not easily, Tim. We're going to do a bad segue and say, Hey, here's the original episode. It starts now. And enjoy in retrospect. It's a rainy day. It reminds you of at any time F1 rolls through spa in Toronto. And Tim's fire alarm is being tested as we record this podcast. So Tim, was it your fault? Are you the reason?

No. I mean, this is the second time, Adam, that we've done a podcast in the last seven days that the fire alarm has gone off because I remember last week we had to cut it short because my fire alarm started going off because the city of Toronto wants to test it. So here we are. They're testing the entire facility, and it may go off. So listeners, viewers, I'm really sorry.

Well, you know what, Tim? It's great that we had the news that we had yesterday because it's been a pretty quiet week after Suzuki. We did our race recap, but I'm looking at the headlines and not seeing much except for- You're not seeing much salacious headlines, Adam. This is what This is what we do. I bring gossip to the show and you slap it down. This is what we do. This is what we do.

I don't know. Did you see the thing this morning? In there somewhere, we talk about race- Did you see the thing this morning about Aston Martin waiting on Fernando Alonso's offer from Red Bull?

Did you see that one?

I don't even have time.

You don't even have time. You're not even going to make. So what you're saying is Red Bull has offered Fernando Alonso a contract. Is that what you're saying?

No, it's like we discussed on Sunday, right? I think for Alonso, like for Stappen, it can't be at Red Bull. And I think for Fernando, he wants something that's a little more longer term. And Aston Martin want him. They want to keep him. So there you go.

It's a perfect fit, and he shouldn't go. No. But the big news yesterday was the official opening of the Andretti Racing Facilities. It's Silverstone. Silverstone Park, as you told me before the show here. And I think some people probably looking at that, had questions. And not because it's not great news. It is great news. Number one, though, they were denied entry to the sport.

Yeah.

Number Andretti are... Well, Mario Andretti did have a Formula One Championship, but they're known for North American racing more than European racing, especially of late, with the IndyCar connections and NASCAR and everything else that they've been involved in. So why open a facility in Silverstone?

Like Michael keeps telling me, it's all plans are go.

Okay.

Here we go. I know, right? It all comes back to when FIA, obviously, granting them approval to take part in Formula One and be on the grid. It all comes down to FOM, the commercial rights holder of Formula One. What is their deal? What does it look like? We've spoken on the show in the past, and you can go back to January and have a listen to those or watch them. A big part of it, obviously, is that anti-dilution fee and the amount of money the teams are not wanting to part with, obviously. Splitting up that pie of constructors standing on the financial side. I can understand that because the sport is in a bigger place. The sport has way more eyeballs on it than it ever has. You're selling out like Grand Prix after Grand Prix after Grand Prix, and it's healthy. And so the teams are now They're financially stable thanks to the budget cap, and they are now profitable thanks to the budget cap. And then they're making money off of the constructor's standings, which is big time money, right? You're talking about splitting up over a billion dollars between 10 teams.

I didn't realize it was that much.

It's a ton of money for these teams, right? And so they don't want to water that down. And I get that for sure. And so you and I have talked about the anti-dilution fee, and I think that's probably the best to start before we get deeper into the Andretti conversation of what they're doing now and full steam ahead, et cetera. But the anti-dilution fee at the moment is set at $200 million. And this was brought about during the pandemic when the team signed off on the Concord Agreement. Concord Agreement keeps everybody together in Formula One under the same roof, under the same rules, et cetera. I think Adam, when we look at other teams, and the Seattle Kraken is one that comes up quite a bit. Even Total Wolf made mention of it at the British Grand Prix last July because they were essentially the next expansion team to take part in a major North American sport and how much their anti-dilution fee was. I believe it was over 675 million. Yeah, I was going to say 75 to 50. Okay, so there you go. F1 is like, Okay, well, this is what's going on here and in other sports.

And you look at what the NFL is doing, and F1 is not putting itself on the same pedestal as the NFL. But when They take a look at the landscape and they're like, Well, we're worth way more than that. And a new team that's coming in should have to pay something similar or more. Our teams are now worth in the billions. So this only makes more sense for us to get more money. And so this Concord Agreement, well, it ends at the end of 2025, and they have to renegotiate a new one. And in that comes the conversation of an anti-dilution fund. If another team gets added to the grid, what's it going to have to pay for that anti-dilution fee? And I think this is where a lot of this comes in, where they're not really wanting Andretti to come in, and the team are a little hesitant because of that. That's what it looks like. And the FIA is not really... Or sorry, the F1 is really not talking much about Andretti anymore after what had gone down Yesterday, there are still some conversations happening between the Andretti's and F1 and FOM and stuff like that behind the scenes, which is good.

It's just part of what they had put out back, I believe it was January 31st, when the statement from F1 came out, basically denying Andretti Global from participating in Formula One. I think when... How do I want to word this? So it's understandable. It's such a complex conversation. I think when they put that out and the way it's worded, it had some strong wording in it, but part of it was like, Okay, well, it doesn't make sense for you to participate in Formula One in 2025, which was the goal, or 2026, which for me, I can understand not wanting them to participate in 2025. I don't, however, understand or agree with 2026 because you've got a full-on regulation change. You've got a full-on power unit change. So if you're going to spend money to develop a 2025 car, which is going to be totally different, totally different to the 2026 car, then I understand saving them from themselves. But what I don't understand, Adam, is why not allow them to come in in 2026, do that deal with Renault or Alpine for their engines for a few years. And Michael said the other day, Cadillac, GM, they're building an engine for 2028.

They've signed off on that. You see what I'm saying, how that part of it just doesn't make sense. And then if you take a look at Anti-dilution fee, the Concord Agreement, when all those things switch over.

I mean, Tim, what doesn't make sense to me is why doesn't Formula One, and FIA has already signed off on this, as you mentioned, Why don't the Formula One teams just put a dollar amount on it and we could be done with this? Just put a dollar amount on it.

But then again, that would break the Concord Agreement, right? That would break the signed off anti-dilution fee that's already in there. Who knows if Michael is sinking his teeth into that? That's stuff that's happening behind the scenes that nobody knows, right?

Right. But if you know it's going to expire, just say, Okay, as a part of the new deal in 2026, you guys can come in, but you're paying a billion dollars.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I think if I'm running FOM, that's something I would do. I would go down, I would talk to the teams, and I would say, Look, if we all sign up this Concord Agreement, this is what this deal is going to look like. This is what this anti-dilution fee is going to look like as well, and then propose that and see what happens. The thing is that Michael is full steam ahead on this.

Well, of course he is. And I didn't know that this was widely reported, but they are going to enter a Formula 3 and Formula 2 as well. So they're fully committed to driver development. They're fully committed to bringing a power train online by the end of the decade, which is no small feed. A lot of people think that that's just an easy, Oh, you just created an engine. This is like a spaceship. This is not an... This is in some Escalade engine. This is a big, big deal that they're putting this together. And obviously, it's an incredible marketing deal to make Cadillac what it should be, which is a luxury brand that is a worldwide brand that competes with Mercedes, competes with Audi, competes with on the lower-end Ferrari. That's what it should be, and McLaren, too. I think that what bothers me about this situation is that the Formula One teams won't just say, Here's the dollar amount for 2026. Pay this. It's going to be exorbitant, and you're in. Because it's not like we don't have room. We've seen as many as 12 teams in Formula One before. Everybody wants another team. When you see teams like, and I don't believe the reports, by the way, that Alpine are going to go up for sale.

I don't believe that at all. Maybe you have some insights that I don't, Tim, but when people are like, Oh, Andretti should just buy Alpine. No, no, no, no, no. We need more teams, not 10 teams. I think The money brought in from having two American teams, and Haas has done a really bad job of identifying with American fans, if I'm being honest. The You're All Colley, Russian car for a bit, and the Rich Energy, which was a British company. They didn't do a great job of bringing in sponsors that really reflected America. I think the MoneyGram thing is a good sponsorship.

Yeah, I think it's great. Chipotle as well. Also another-100 %.

But they didn't even bring in an American driver. Maybe there weren't any ready, but there are plenty of great Indie car American drivers, they could have put in one of those slots, right?

I always pushed Joseph Newgarden back in the day. I always pushed that back, I would say 2015, 2016. I was always like, Joseph Newgarden, why don't they take a look at Joseph Newgarden? You got to get him in a seat. You got to test this guy. He's the real deal. Look, this is back when he was a lot younger. I mean, obviously, maybe a little more challenging now, but no, no, no. Sorry to cut you off, Adam.

No, I mean, I think it's just like, and I think Andredi is going to come in, and I think they're going to do it right. Are they going to be competitive right Are they going to be a top five team right away? Probably not. Nobody is. But I think when you look at, if Andredi does this right, they'll have at least one, maybe two, very likely two American drivers to start. They'll probably bring one of them over from IndyCar, and they'll bring in some If I were them, I would go with two experienced Americans the first time I'm on the track because you want to make sure that, A, you've got the American identity, B, you've got the experience. You don't want rookies in a rookie car on a rookie team. That's just, to me, it seems like a bad idea. But you've got everything available to you to make Formula One an even better and more competitive and richer sport. And this is where I get frustrated with these teams because I know that they don't like change, and it's very European to want things to be the way that they are, and this is the way we've always done things.

And I respect how American the Andretti's are by just building the facility anyway. Oh, we don't have... We don't have approval. You know what? We're just going to spend, what is it, million dollars to put a facility? Let's just do it.

We're going to build it. We're coming.

You know what they can do, Tim? They are not under any cost cap. They can go bring every engineer that they want. If they want to spend, blow their brains out spending crazy money bringing all the engineers over from the other teams and pulling them out of Formula One. They can do that right now. They can do that. They can do that for two or three years.

Yeah, they've already got a staff of over 100 folks working on their Formula One project at the moment, and they're all working out at that base at Silverstone, which is going to be basically the aerodynamics base where they're going to be developing that portion of the car, plus also mechanical side of it as well. Then everything, Adam, is going to be put together in Fishers, Indiana, the state of the art facility that Michael's building at the moment. And that's the thing with Michael, right? He wants this to be a full American team in a fully built American race car. Car, which is awesome. I think that's incredible. It's going to be extremely difficult when you start to break down, like freight and how do you get parts, places, and how do you bring upgrades, and all that stuff. That's obviously a challenge for her further in the future. But I think Adam, it's a cool initiative. The fans are on board. Fans want to see it. I do, too. It would create more story lines for us, Adam. It would give drivers a better chance of cracking into F1. They would have more seats for drivers to go if Michael were to take a driver that wasn't American and put them into their car.

There's just so many possibilities with it. I don't see... And yes, look, I understand the team's not wanting to lose that money in the constructors' standings. And the thing is, it's like...

They're not going Yeah.

At the end of the day, I don't think that would end up happening. But you have a team like Prima, who just recently signed an agreement to race an Indy car. That's a team that has competed in every level of European racing has a team in almost pretty much every single level of European racing except for Formula One. They've been on the Formula Two grid forever. They have been training drivers to get into F1 since Jacques Villeneuve. You know how long ago that was? And even they don't have a team in F1.

And they should, too.

I think they should. If they had the backing, if they had the proper infrastructure, if it's something they really wanted to do, then yes, they are qualified for it. They know what they're doing. They've been involved. They've been around the sport. They know what's happening. And so I think when we look at this, that Indie car field is growing, Adam. They're going to have probably close to 30 cars. That's huge. That's crazy. Dude, when I was in Champcar, we were lucky if we had 16 cars on the grid and that sport was just clinging to life. And now look at it.30 cars.

That's amazing.

30. For F1, to me, it only makes sense to get another team in there. And obviously, for the reasons that I listed why. But yeah, obviously, there's the business side of this, too. So we need to see what that looks like.

Now, it was speculated yesterday that part of the reason you opened the facility at Silverstone, too, is to attract great talent and keep the prices down. Because obviously, there's going to be bits and pieces that need to be done in the UK or in Europe, that when that cost cap is applied to the Andretti team, having a team facility over there will help with that. Can you tell me how? How will that benefit them?

Like the facility itself, having that? Yeah. That's a great question. When I look at all of it, I think a big part of it is just trying to recruit really good personnel from Formula One, keep folks close to home, make sure that they're close to their home base as well. And there's a ton of talent over there, Adam. There is a ton. There's so much. I think For Michael, that's the right move. You need to recruit the best talent. You need to get everybody under one roof, make sure that they're comfortable, make sure that everyone's happy to go to work, to go back home, be close to their families, all that great stuff. I mean, that's the way I would set it up. That's the way it looks like it's being handled and done. I knew Michael was building something because he told us that they were building. I just didn't know how soon it was that this thing was going to be open. I knew he had people working on a car. I knew he had thrown something in the wind tunnel, but I didn't know just how close this thing was to actually being opened up.

And then once I saw it, I was like, Oh, boy.

Here we go. And he's done it. I guess if you're in the sport and you're well connected, you've probably seen this happening, but it does feel like it happened overnight. It does. And Tim, I want to ask, too, for the long term and dready success, one of the things that it's speculated holds Alpine back is two facilities. They've got one facility, I believe it's an Endstone, right? Yeah. And then the other one- France. Where is the other one?

The engine portion of the Renault Alpine project is handled in France. And then the car building concepts, design, implementation, that's all done in Endstone. That factory actually is a little bit too small. They are actually looking for something a little bit bigger in the past, that's what they were trying to do. I think with this day and age in F1, it's really hard to have things separated. There goes my fire alarm. Apologies, everyone. But it's really hard to have things separated. You have to have everything under one roof. I think that's extremely important that you do because it helps speed everything up. Your program, it helps speed up getting the car developed and put together and get to a track. When you have things located in different parts of the world, something similar to Haas, I think that situation is a little bit too fragmented. You have three working bases in different parts of the world. You got one in Italy, you got one in the UK, you got one in the States. It's a little too much. You don't have the proper infrastructure under one roof. That That's what's so important, having everything under one roof.

How will Andretti figure that out?

Yeah, that's the thing.

They're a major manufacturer. They're no joke, right? They've won world championships. How will Andretti get over that?

Yeah, I think that's going to be so tough. I mean, it's like I said a few minutes ago, it's hard. How do you take things that are being built over in the UK, different time zone, and then obviously transfer that data over to the US, another time zone, and then have things start to be worked out. How do you get the parts to the car in a quick fashion? I mean, if you take a look at what F1, some of the teams do now, when they have a big upgrade, that doesn't really come to the car or get unleashed until they get to the European leg. They don't normally send huge upgrades to different parts of the world. I think McLaren may have something for Miami. Aston Martin had something very big go to Japan. But if you look at Ferrari, they didn't really have anything, and they probably won't really have anything until they get to the European, maybe Imala. Maybe then they may unleash something. And that's the thing, right? You're saving on freight at that moment. You're allowing there to be more time to work out the kinks with the car or else your design.

I think that's why that's just so important to make sure everything is under one roof. That's one of the things with this Andretti project when I take a look at it, I think that's going to be really tough for them to achieve out of it. I think that's extreme. I think you need to either have everything built in the UK or you have everything done in the States, and then you bring those upgrades when you get to the North American leg of the Formula One calendar.

Yeah. Tim, I feel the same way. I look And again, you're the expert. I'm just the guy watching, but it does feel like that is going to be a hurdle. And yes, okay, video conferencing is great. We're doing that essentially here, recording this show. For sure. We're also not putting together the equivalent of a rocket ship. It does help to be in the same room on certain things. And you need the ability to just walk down to somebody's office and bounce an idea off them.

Yeah, that's a great point. If you take a look at what Aston Martin has done with their new facility, a lot of that has to do with what you just said. It's a very open concept. And for them, their idea is that the more open the concept, the more you are to engage with your coworker on ideas for the car or ideas with your program. I'm a big proponent of that. I think it's smart, and yet you make a great point. How is somebody who's working over in the UK going to be able to go down to John Smith's desk and start bouncing ideas off them? I mean, they're not. So that, I think, is also a bit of an issue.

Yeah, it's going to be a fascinating few years in Formula One for that reason. What do you think, Adam?

What do you think about the whole project?

Well, to me, first off, I love Americans. My mom's an American, so I'm half American, and I love especially American business. I find in Canada and I find in Europe, it's like, do we want to make money or do we want to have a committee about it and whatever. Americans are like, Oh, can we make money? Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Let's go. Yeah, I'm the same way. I really respect boldness. I really do. And that is the American way. That's how they've built the country. That is the culture of the country. And the reason that Europeans and Americans have friction is because America just barges in and goes, We're doing this now, too. And it could be geopolitical, it could be sports, It could be anything you're talking about. That is how Americans act. And so I love that they're going to do this. I love that they're going to be in Formula 3. I love that they're going to be in Formula 2 because I think having the name brand, Andretti, is... I mean, even passive fans have heard the name Andretti. It doesn't matter if... My wife, who was not a huge Formula One fan before Drive to Survive, knew about the Andretti's anyway.

It's just something that you learn, especially in North America. And I think having the money that Andretti Cadillac will bring to racing is a really good thing as well. I look at the sport and it's funny. Formula One is a little bit like baseball in the sense that There will be people who don't watch baseball, and they'll tell you, baseball is super boring because there's a lot of waiting, a lot of this, a lot of that. And to some extent in the past, they've been right. They fixed a little bit of it with the pitch clock and that thing. Formula One has done those things, too. Well, there was no passing for a while. Well, they fixed that with DRS. There was no cost cap, which meant some teams had $600 million budgets, other teams had $50 million budgets. That's been fixed. And the field is coming closer and closer and closer together. And I'm looking at this and I'm going, yes, Formula One saw an enormous growth right around 2018 to 2021. Just an enormous pop, and nobody was expecting it. Tim, I think that Formula One is going to see another big pop.

I think it's going to crest for a while during the Max for Stop era until 2026. And when they can develop a story like we had in 2021 with Lewis versus Max, It's so crazy because if you look at Ferrari so close, if McLaren can bring a few upgrades in the next few races, McLaren will be like that with Ferrari. But until you get that top team being knocked off a peg, it's very difficult because he just can't sell it to pass fans. Oh, same team wins every time, then I don't care. And to say that these races are boring, is disingenuous, it means you didn't watch, it means you're not paying attention. So I think that injections of money, I'm pro-billionaire on this one, bring more billionaires into the sport, make them competitive, make them spend their money, and put this sport where it belongs. It is the most exclusive racing circuit in the world. It doesn't mean that it's always the best racing. I've seen incredible NASCAR races. I've seen incredible Indie car races. I've seen amazing Le Mans 24-hour races. But I got to tell you, there's something magical about Formula One, and to me, it's criminal how much North America has missed out on it because it hasn't been included.

We see boring NBA games. We see boring NHL game. I got news for you. That NHL game you did last week, the live stream? Oh, my God. That was one of the... I turned it off after five minutes.

Because I was so boring. I was so bad.

No, not you. I turned the game off. Why am I watching it? It was so bad. So, yeah.

Yeah. There's an entire era of hockey, Tim, that's called the Dead Puck era, where players were getting a point a game, and that was going to win you a scoring title, whereas now the scoring title winner is going to be 130 or 140 points. You know what I mean? Connor McDavid is going to have 100 assists this year. And Nikita Kucharow might do the same thing. Might have two guys, and then another guy scoring 70 goals if Matthews gets it. So what we need in Formula One is a regulation shift. I think the one thing they got to look at, Tim, is making these cars smaller again. I think they're too big and they're too heavy. The whole thing about Formula One is they're supposed to rocket chips, right? And I understand the hybrid concept, and I understand how much that did for hybrid engines worldwide. I'm concerned about the 2026 regulations. They don't sound great at this point. We got to get back to that, and we got to get back to Formula One being what it is, which is the most competitive sport in the world. And I know I'm rambling here. It's good.

Let it out, Adam. Let it out.

2026, man, that's where I think the next rises. Does that make Yeah, for sure.

I agree with you. I think there's a couple of things there that you touched on. I think when you look at having a brand like Cadillac or GM coming into a racing sport, I think that's a big deal. Obviously, they've signed up for 2028, and it is a project that they are currently working on for a power unit for Formula One for I think having a brand like a GM coming into your sport, like Formula One, that's really huge. That's big. It's very big. You look at some of the other engine manufacturers that are starting to get involved in Formula One now, too. You're going to have Audi, part of the Volkswagen Group, coming in in 2026. Then you also have everyone else that's currently on board. That's really big for your sport. Now, you can't let Let the engine part of it dictate your regulation, the direction you want the sport to go in. That's actually happening at the moment with the regulation for 2026. If some of you saw the report that Jonathan Noble did. I reposted it on my Twitter. You can go and check it out. But they're talking a lot about active arrow for 2026 and how is that going to be implemented, how are they going to be able to use it.

At first, they were talking about just the rear being active arrow, but further testing reveals that it actually is a bit of a huge issue having active arrow in the rear. So they're talking about having active arrow at the front and at the back of the car. Now, I don't know if this is a great direction to take the sport in. I don't know if I... I don't agree with... I don't necessarily agree with that. Why not? Tell me. I don't really agree with the DRS either.

Okay.

You have to remember, when I was racing, I'm going to go back to when I was old, you really had to outwork somebody. You had to outthink It was a game of chess. You were really trying to outthink the driver in front of you. And at this moment, you still have that. There are still instances where you do have that, but then you also sometimes have an easy DRS pass and you're just like, Oh, my God. What was that? Sometimes when I see a DRS pass on a really long straight away, I just cringe a little bit. No one's working for that. Yeah.

Well, okay. I saw I got a clip this morning. It's an old Botas, Lewis Hamilton clip where Valtree was like... It was a fan question, and he said, The fan wants to know what's the angriest you've seen, Toto. And they were talking about Barcelona when Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton crashed into each other because Rossberg cut him off, right? He was pissed that day. Of course he was. If you look at that clip, Lewis won. Lewis was going to pass Rossberg. He got him on the exit.

Well, Nico had the wrong setting on the steering wheel.

Is that what happened?

That's what happened. He had the car in the wrong setting to start the race. Oh, no. So that's how Lewis was able to get such an advantage. And then obviously, the two of them collided.

Oh, my God. That's crazy. Okay, so this is even another wrinkle. But I see what you mean about that because that was not a DRS pass. That was just a-Oh, two guys racing. Two guys racing. I do like the DRS because I love how Alonso towed Biestri along in Suzuki. It was like, You know what? I'm going to use DRS in defense. That's fun, right? It's a different thing. But I see what you're saying. And Tim, the thing I love about where we're at right now, and again, I know we're off track, but who cares? It's a podcast.

I like seeing- The compliment section, Adam, is going to be really nice.

Well, do you see... Okay, so when you were racing, and what happened in 2009 to you?

2009.

2008, 2009.

Yeah, well, I mean, hit, and that was the end of my career. Right.

And what happened... Well, and the reason for that is all the manufacturers pulled out of the sport and all the sponsors did, too.

I mean, that was sponsorship in the manufacturers leaving the sport were pretty huge.

It wasn't good. Bmw, Toyota, Honda, all gone.

Yeah. And then if you look at... I can't remember exactly what we did when we were in Champcar, but I think Cosworth was making the engine. It was badged by Ford, but Ford wasn't making the engine. It was actually Cosworth who was making the engine, and Ford was just badging it, if I remember correctly, it was a long time ago. But it was tough, Adam. It was really hard. And that's why I say, when you get auto manufacturer involvement in the sport, it's great up to a point. And they want to be competitive. You all have to work together.

They want to be competitive.

For sure.

That wasn't that long ago. I know 15 years to some people feels like a long time ago, but it feels like the blink of an eye to me. And Tim, the fact that a company like General Motors can turn its gigantic Titanic company around to this idea, that is a spectacular thing for this sport. It's amazing.

Yeah, it's huge. It's really big for folks who are new to F1 or new to racing. It is a really big It's a big deal that an auto manufacturer, an OEM, whatever you want to call it, like General Motors, wants to get involved with your sport. It is really big. Same with Audi. If you look at Honda, same thing, Ferrari, same thing. Renault, same thing. It goes down the line, Mercedes, et cetera. So it is a very big deal. You just can't let whatever the regulation with the engine is, dictate what you're going to do and how to build the race car for the racing. I don't know how good of an idea that is.

Well, we'll see how it goes.

We'll see what happens, right? 2026 is a long way to go, and we still don't know what the regulations are going to be. Those things haven't been stamped in fine print. We have no idea at this moment. We know what the engine regulation is going to be, but we don't know what the car regulation is going to be at the moment.

Yeah. So I think long story short, this is all a really good thing. I hope that one day we can get an Andretti global ambassador on so we can talk to them about it directly. That'd be awesome. Yeah. I'm sure you know some people.

I'll see what I can dig up. I'll see what I can dig up.

Yeah, if you know anybody. But Tim, what do you got planned for this week? I obviously know that the Indy 500 tests were canceled today because of rain. What are you going to do? What's going on?

Non-f1? Man, we got improv. We got an improv going on. You do I don't do improv. My partner does improv. She's great at it. So going to go support her. But we got a show that we're going to watch. And then Saturday, just taking it easy. Just going to take it easy. Probably go to the movies on Sunday, Sunday evening. See, catch a film, see what's out.

What are you going to watch? What are you going to go for?

I don't know, man. I like it. What was it? It was Monkey Man. Looks cool.

It does. Yeah, it does.

So I'm interested what that's all about. So we'll see. But yeah, man, just try to take it easy and ready for the next week. Because once you get into those Grand Prix weekends or whatever, it goes up to another level, right?

Well, yeah. When we talked on Sunday, you looked like you'd gone to war. It was just like, the The funny thing about you, Tim, is you're always so high energy, and then you're like, Okay, so I'm ready to record whenever you are.

I'm like,. I was ready to go to bed. I was ready to go to sleep, man. I was ready to go to sleep.

Yeah. Well, you did a great show, man. Thank for the insight today. I'm excited about the future of this sport. I'm excited about this end ready stuff. I think it's hard not to root for a company that goes for it like they do.

Yeah, 100 %, Adam.

You know what? They run their company like you want to run a race car. You got to go for it. And so, Tim, enjoy the weekend. Sorry, break a leg to your partner on her show. You do not say best of luck to a to a thespian. And we'll see you Monday.

Yeah. Thanks again, bud. Really appreciate it.