Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

Lots of ownership news and lots of track news and driver news. And there's a lot of news. And here's the thing we have a Grand Prix to worry about, too. It's just a lot of news. A lot of news, Tim. We're going to have to move from piece to piece to piece here as we do our little preview of the Qatar Grand Prix. And here's the deal, man. We've already got a sprint qualifying session to look at. Right now, you got two McLaren in the top three. You have Sergio Perez out in Q1. Man. Oh, baby. Jensen Button said today he was asked on TV, would Sergio be around next year? And he said, well, if he was, it wouldn't be for performance reasons. And it's becoming clear and clear that that's the thing. Is Red Bull a team that's hard up for money? That's a conversation we can have later, but I don't think they are. Long story short, that's a surprise, Tim. Just based on what you saw from the tracks, I noticed you were putting out tweets about curbsize and all that stuff today. From what you saw on the track, who's going to be successful this weekend?

[00:01:04]

Who do you like?

[00:01:06]

I'm actually pretty shocked that Ferrari is not further up after this sprint quality, Adam. After a free practice, one earlier this morning, so we're taping this on a Friday. Leclerc was leading the way, and I honestly thought that Ferrari is going to look a lot better than what they actually did. I mean, Leclerc's lap is just shocking. A 121 308, so he's about three-tenths off a pole. And then Carlos, he's about two-tenths off a pole. So I was expecting the Ferraris to be a little more competitive here. And Adam, like we've spoken about it with the Constructors' Championship, they need to be more competitive than what they are, because if McLaren leaves here with 45 extra points in their pocket, it's over. So that's the number. So if McLaren goes one, two in the sprint. If they go one, two in the race and the fastest lap, it's over. And by the looks of things here, I mean, I thought Piaastri was going to get Paul and Lando is going to be second, but George just split the two of them with Norris on Pole and Piastri P3. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that McLaren walks out of here with a one, two on Saturday morning.

[00:02:26]

Which would be pretty spectacular, I think. I'd like that. I'd like that very much. Now, currently, the top five as we record this, Lando, a one, George, two, Oscar, three, and then the Ferrari's Carlos and Charles 4, 5, Max for stopping, six, Lewis Hamilton, seven, Gasly. How about Pierre Gasly? He's having a good little back half season nobody's talking about. Nico Hulkenberg, and then Liam Lawson. That's a pretty solid little group there. Now, Tim, in the driver's section of the show, Valtry Botas Bautas commented that he would have been a good fit at Red Bull, but there was one guy there that's not a fan, and that guy is very clearly Helmut Marco. Helmut Marco is called Valtry Botas. He's only good in qualifying and all that stuff. Do you think Valtry Bautas at this stage in his career would be an upgrade on Sergio Perez?

[00:03:19]

Yes, I think he would.

[00:03:21]

So it's a crime, basically, that he's not going to be on the grid next year.

[00:03:25]

I feel that way. I think that this is probably some of the best driving that we've seen from Valtry. I think once he left Mercedes at him, he just seems to be getting better and better, where I feel like when he was with Mercedes, and yes, he was in a really good car, but I also feel at times he held himself back at moments. But there were moments where, hey, Valtry went and took what he needed to take. Yeah, I think it would be a real shame if he's not on the grid for next season because he hasn't shown any signs of declining. He has been really competitive in very uncompetitive machinery, Adam. He really has. I mean, today, qualifying that car P13, I mean, come on. His teammate is all the way down P19. Let's be honest here. Valtry has been qualifying Joe all season, and it's not to say anything bad about Joe at all, but But at the same time, it's just it shows that the level that he's driving on. Even Joe even admitted it, just how well Valtory is driven this season. So it's a driver that definitely hasn't lost any of their edge.

[00:04:46]

That would be a good option for Red Bull, if I think about it, to put him in as second driver towards Max Verstaappen for next season. But I highly doubt that's going to happen.

[00:05:00]

Well, it looks like he's going to Mercedes as the reserve driver. Franco Calapinto's name keeps coming in there as a potential... At first it was a Red Bull drive, and now it's a potentially V carb ride. But Liam Lawson is really pushing. I mean, he did do 10th here. We'll see how he does this weekend, but he's just pushing for a contract at all right now. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. And Helmut Marco said that they haven't seen the consistency from Yuki Sonoda to put him in the Red Bull car. In terms of not just on track, but off track, mental consistency was what he's talking about. Whether that's fair or unfair, I don't know if that's true. Yuki does have... He runs hot, but he doesn't seem like a bad guy or a hard guy to work with. So is it a couple of more years of maturing, or is it he's probably not long for this after this contract's up? I don't know.

[00:05:54]

Yeah, it just doesn't... I mean, depending on what happens next season for I am. Adam, it could be hard for him to stick around in Formula One, and that's not because he's a bad driver. A part of why he's at V carb is because of Honda. And he's done really, really well to go up against the teammates that he's gone up against. He's performed reasonably well this season. I would say he's lacking a tiny bit of inconsistency. But that being said, he deserves a shot at that seat. And I think if they're really going to take him seriously, which I hope they do, I hope they do it during the Abu Dhabi test days that are coming up after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he's going to get a chance. He'll get a chance to drive the Red Bull racing machine. And yeah, hopefully they take him seriously and they actually really evaluate him because he deserves it.

[00:06:55]

Yeah, no question. No question. And I guess the We're still waiting on potentially what the Sergio Perez thing is. We're still waiting on if Franco Calapinto is leaving Williams or if he's staying. I look at Nico Halkenberg in the top 10, and I read a report this week that there's fears that Audi's engine might be the worst in 2026. Now, it makes sense that a works team in their first season would have the worst engine. So does Nico Halkenberg need to go back mentally and prepare himself to be finishing out of the top 10?

[00:07:32]

Yeah, he does. He's leaving a good car. He's leaving a very good car. He's going down to a really bad one for next year. And I don't see that car being any more competitive than what it is now for next season, not unless they've magically take a huge step forward. But how can you when you have so much in flux in the background going on at that team? And then same goes for Haas, where you look at Haas. It's like I see them moving further up the grid with that partnership with Toyota that they have now. The leadership of Ayo Komatsu, he's been incredible. And you look at Sauber, and it's like every upgrade they've put on that car, which hasn't been much, hasn't really done anything for them, can't really extract the performance. This is one of the team's best qualifying in anything was today, one of them. Adam, I just don't see I see that car being competitive next year. And then, yeah, same for 2026. I think Audi is going to struggle, man. I don't think that's going to be... Look, I want them to come in and be competitive right away, but it takes time.

[00:08:41]

Formula One is a long game, and it takes a lot of years before you have a very competitive package. I think since we're getting an engine regulation change and we're also getting an aerodynamic regulation change, those two things are huge. You've We got two massive changes coming for 2026. I highly doubt a new team that's coming to the grid nails a home run on both of those packages.

[00:09:12]

And speaking of the team that Nico Halkenberg is going to, it's been reported that... Well, it's been announced, the Qatari Investment Fund has bought 30 % of what is currently the Sauber Stake F1 team. And it's interesting because it's just about as much of an investment stake as the Sauber group were originally planning to hold on to. Audi was going to buy, what was it, 50 to 75 % of the team?

[00:09:39]

Yeah, 75.

[00:09:40]

And then Sauber was going to hold on to the rest.

[00:09:43]

And then-Ouptim Rousing was going to It goes on to the rest.

[00:09:46]

Right. And then they changed that and Audi bought him out completely. And now they've gone and resold this to the investment fund. And this provides... Motorsport. Com was saying it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 million cash in injected into the business. This allows them to upgrade both of their factories and hire more people. Tim, how understaffed and/or behind technologically are the Sauber facilities versus, say, a McLaren, a Ferrari, a Mercedes?

[00:10:15]

They're very behind. Look, it's a nice facility. It's not very big. They don't have enough room for more personnel. They've got a pretty up to date wind tunnel. I mean, it could use a little bit more refurbishing from what I've been told. But that being said, you're bringing in a bigger operation, right Adam? I mean, you look at Mercedes and Ferrari, They've got over a thousand people who are working for them. Sauberauti doesn't even have close to that. So that needs to be addressed. You need more personnel. You need good personnel to come in and help you get your targets aligned. You also need to spend some money on your CapEx, and you're probably going to need to expand your factories as well. And this is a deal, Adam, that was put in motion probably almost like a year ago. This is something that we've known about. Well, I shouldn't say we, but this is something that some of us have known about for a while, that this has been bubbling away. I think the race did a good job at covering the genesis of the whole thing. And I think at the same time, when you look at the shares that they bought in 30 %, it's essentially Audi looked at this, I think, as a big buy where they were like, Look, we only have 75 %, and we don't have enough money to dump into infrastructure.

[00:11:53]

And that's probably going to be on us to do that because we are owning the lion's share of this thing. So why don't we just pay this guy out We'll take over 100 %, and then we'll find a silent partner or a backer to buy in and take 30 %, and then we can take that money and inject it into the team, at which point we'll be valued higher so we could ask for more money. And so essentially, I don't know, basically what? Valuating the team at 1.2 billion, probably?

[00:12:23]

About that, yeah. They're saying the deal is probably worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 million, which would square with a $1.2 billion evaluation.

[00:12:30]

So there you go. If you look at how it all played out, a smart move by Audi, I mean, to buy FinRousing, rate out, take everything 100 %, and then sell a big portion off to somebody else. So they can use the money to dump into the team because they're going to need it. I don't think the VW Group was going to invest much more into this program because once you've got the new leadership at the top of VW, I think they down at this Audi F1 deal and they're like, what have we got? What have we done, essentially? And now we need to invest in this.

[00:13:07]

But I think that's an important point, though, Tim. It's new leadership. So this current group that is running VW, which is obviously Audi's parent company, they didn't do this deal. They didn't buy this.

[00:13:20]

Not to my knowledge, no.

[00:13:22]

So when there's a managerial shift that high, that's interesting. That can create issues, But it's not like Audi is pulling out. They're committed. It's happening. But what are they going to do? And this is a great way to get some capital into the business. Mattia Banotto has got his hands full, though, man.

[00:13:39]

Well, for sure. I mean, look, it's a smart move, in my opinion, simply because even though you're looking at it as a big picture play, you're like, Do we really have enough money to compete against everybody here? We have to do a whole new engine. We have to hire more people. We bigger facilities to handle everything. I just think they look at it and just are like, we just don't have enough money. So let's find a way of getting some big amounts of cash that we can put into this thing and do it right. And I respect that. I respect that. I mean, Mateo Banoto, you're right, Adam. He's got a lawn on his plate, but I think he's the right guy for the job. He's been in Formula One his whole life, so he knows the sport inside and out. And he also knows who's going to be right for the team and who isn't. I think also having Jonathan Wheatley come in as your team principal, again, you've got a really solid infrastructure in terms of your leadership. I really like the leadership of this team. I really like what they've done by hiring a few key personnel away from Red Bull, not just Jonathan Wheatley, there have been others.

[00:14:59]

And so I like that. I think they've got strong leadership, and that's going to be really important, I think, Adam, when you're trying to build this team up from the ground. Yeah.

[00:15:11]

No kidding. No kidding. Tim, one day we're going to have to talk about, and maybe we'll do this at the end of this season or next. We're going to have to talk about the Sauber time coming to an end here at Formula One. It's a bit of a go-out-with-a-wimper situation, but this has been a name in in the sport for well over a quarter century and has brought some great names into the sport. And even though they've never won a World Championship, it's still another independent family team going away. And I think Formula One ultimately is going to be fine, right? But there was some worry that when Doralitan bought Williams, would they change the name, right? And And so there are some of those heritage names. I'm not putting Sauber on the same level as Williams, but you know what I'm saying, right? It's an interesting switch here. And we'll give that outfit some personality, where for a long, long time, they've just been For a bit there. They're like the Ferrari Feeder system. It was...

[00:16:19]

You know what, Adam? I remember from Sauber, I mean, Sauber drivers, let's say... Oh, gosh. Nick Heidfeld, one of the first drivers, F1 drivers, I ever got to interact with as a young driver myself. I can't remember what series... How old was I? I think I was 18 or 19. And I got to hang out with nick Heidfeld, and he was with Sauber. And I love the Sauber cars. They look great. They had that white and yellow nose, the blue paint design. They had Red Bull sponsorship on the car. Yeah, it was a cool looking car. I really liked it. And it was a team that I always I was rooted for only because I got that time to spend with nick Eiffel. And he was so cool. I hear what you're saying about the team. It's definitely not on the Williams level, for sure. It was a team that punched above their weight and just hung around. Yes.

[00:17:19]

And there are those teams, right? You just think about it. There are the teams that were always there. I think the Sauber Patronas deal is the thing that sticks out in my mind, just because I remember that was the name of the team, right? That's right. That's where I go. I think about the old team. Anyway, long story short. So that team will disappear and become Audi, and we all know that. A team will be at it. We officially have confirmation that the General Motors, under the Cadillac branding we assume is coming in. Mario Andretti will be the head of it, the your head, I think, more than anything. Michael Andretti, not involved so much. And I wonder, Tim, how much of that has to do with the fact that maybe Michael Andretti antagonized the wrong people.

[00:18:12]

Yeah, I don't think Michael is going to be anywhere near this thing, man.

[00:18:16]

Wow. So that's nuts, right? That's crazy.

[00:18:20]

That's what I think, anyways. At this moment, that's what I understand. As for Mario's role, again, he's on the board in some capacity, but I don't know. It's not going to have his name on the car. I don't even think that. I think TWG is just going to rebrand Andreddi Global to something else. Yeah. You know what, Adam? What's the deal there? He may have stepped on some wrong toes and all that stuff, right? If you're reading between the lines, that's what it looks like. And big thing for F1 was getting OEM participation. That's what they needed. On a big level. And we talked about this already, months ago, about having GM and come into Formula One and the level that they needed to be on. And I guess the buy-in that they needed to have. I think Dan Taures has been a really big... I think Dan Taures has been a really big part in all this. I think if it wasn't for him, this deal probably doesn't keep moving forward. It probably doesn't get done either. And I think also GM wanting to come into Formula One is also really important. But coming into Formula One their own way, right?

[00:19:48]

They still want to build a car that's mostly made in America. And you've got your little factory that they're working in now at Silverstone, and they've been testing parts for a 2026 car. They've been hiring pretty aggressively. They were hiring aggressively just before the announcement was made. So if people were to go on the LinkedIn, you could see that they had posted a bunch of stuff days and weeks before this announcement was even made. And Adam, I wanted to get your opinion on this whole thing because the way we had done it was you and I did the podcast, and then immediately, as you and I got done, I got the news. Of course. I was like, Dude, we got to hold off on the podcast. I got to break some news here in the next... Whatever it was. It was like an hour and a half later that I was allowed to go ahead and do my thing. And so then, yeah, I jumped on and did that thing solo. So I never really got your two sense on the entire thing and what you think. Obviously, it's great for Formula One, and I really like that there's an 11th theme.

[00:20:58]

And I like the fact that we're We're going to have a new team for two more drivers, young drivers, too, which I'm really excited about.

[00:21:06]

Well, yeah, I agree. Esteban Ocon, I think, said the same thing because he came in with Aero? Or is it Minnow?

[00:21:15]

No, it was Manor. I think it was Manor. It was Manor. Came in with Manor, Motorsports.

[00:21:20]

Yeah. And they were the 11th team. Were they not?

[00:21:24]

Yes. It was them and... Oh, gosh. Who else was it? Because the two of them folded. I can't remember. I have to go Katter them.

[00:21:33]

Oh, yeah. Oh, my God.

[00:21:35]

I can't remember which year those two both went under, but yeah.

[00:21:39]

Yeah, I remember that. Oh, my God, Tim.

[00:21:41]

I'm not looking at it now.

[00:21:43]

Here's what I think. What I think is I am interested to see how this affects Cadillac's car line, the road cars. Because if you look at Mercedes in 2010, 2011, whenever they bought Bronjee P, they were the old man car. You saw they were somewhat mentioned, but Cadillac Escalades at that point were a huge deal. They were the young man's SUV, and Mercedes had moved away from being a luxury car and more just an old, slow, expensive car. And what happened with, obviously, Rossberg, Schumacher, and then Rossberg, Hamilton, and then Hamilton Botas is over the course of that decade, you saw Mercedes come with these really exciting lines, exciting colors. You can get a Mercedes in lime green. They've got these outrageous looks to them, and they're beautifully done, and there is a much younger flavor to it. I would say, even if their target demographic hasn't totally changed, people in their 50s and 60s with no kids and had a good career and made some money and whatever, when you buy a Mercedes, it doesn't make you feel old. It makes you feel younger than you are. And that changed over that Mercedes branding period.

[00:23:14]

I would say the same thing with Aston Martin, and I would say that that started with Newey at Red Bull when Aston Martin were Red Bull sponsors, right? I think it was after Infinity left, if I'm not mistaken. I can't remember, but there was some deal with Aston Martin. Sorry, do you remember? Yeah.

[00:23:32]

So Infinity was with Red Bull, and then Aston Martin came on the car, I want to say on the Red Bull car around 2016, 2017. Right. And then just so Katerim folded in 2014. And Marusha, which I was thinking of Manner. I don't know where the hell I got that from. So We're definitely going to be... The compliment section is definitely going to be firing on all cylinders for this one. Marusha, they lasted after the 2015 shoot. They had Manner Marusha. Sorry, they did turn into Manner Marusha. Officially changed their name, Manor Racing, after 2015.

[00:24:17]

So there you go. Hey, I saw Marusha Race. I was there in person. I can vouch for the fact that they showed up to the-They were at the back, but I saw them. They sure were at the back. They were very at the back. I think AirBnB was their sponsor or something back then. It was just AirBnB. But anyway, with Adrian Newey getting his hands on the Valkyrie project and creating that for Aston Martin, and then Aston Martin now moving into having their own team, they've changed their product line. Aston Martin was this... It's a lot of what Jaguar, the way people view Jaguar now, which is old, not really reliable. And And by the way, if you buy a 20-year-old Aston Martin, you can't fix them. You can't. But 20 years from now, these ones are going to be classics, right? That's the difference. They've really upped it back. And we could talk about the Jaguar rebrand at some point, too, Tim. But I do want to say that I think it'll be interesting to see if GM, as big in corporate as it gets, is able to turn the Cadillac Oceanliner around and start creating some exciting cars that are...

[00:25:37]

I mean, Cadillac always likes to be boxy, angular. They don't have to be swoopy. Like, Lewis Hamilton made a really good point the other day. He's like, A lot of Uber cars these days look the same. And he's right. If you were to put some of the McLaren's next to some of the Lotus's next to some of the Ferraris, assuming they weren't red, and take all the branding off them and show a in person, they might not totally be able to pick. I mean, you could probably pick the Ferraris out. The McLaren's and the Lotus's and some of the other cars are looking somewhat similar in certain ways. And I think Cadillac has an opportunity here to do something out of this world. And I would imagine, Tim, that by 2026, they're going to have some announcement of at least a concept car that you go, Okay, here's the new future.

[00:26:24]

Yeah. We're going back quite a few years, but I got to help with the launch of the CTSV. Okay. And so that was Cadillac's attempt at bringing in a younger demographic for their car. And got to go to the facilities. And they have crazy facilities, by the way. Gm has a small city where they actually have cars that drive themselves around it because they're testing products and everything. They all have the camouflage paint on the cars. So if you have a telescopes lens and you're off in the woods trying to take pictures of these things, you can't because they have all this camouflage paint on it. Anyways, got to drive the CTSVs around there because we were taking them to the racetrack the next week. And so that car, man, manual transmission, it was a ridiculous amount of horsepower, and it was a badass car. It was so much fun. Dude, that was so much fun. I wanted to buy one.

[00:27:33]

So bad. You enjoyed it that much.

[00:27:36]

Yeah, it was a great car. It was a really great car. A lot of fun. A lot of fun. But that's, I think, what you say when You try to get back to a younger demographic with your sales. You need to start doing more things like that. But then the marketing also has to shift as well. Yes. And that's really important. Formula One has such a young demographic and a growing young demographic, then you want to tap into that, right? And if you got your product, product on site, product on the car, whatever, then, yeah, that's going to help you. I mean, look at the Mercedes model. That 2014, when Mercedes just started dominating everything in Formula One, if you go back and you research the sales of their cars compared to how the Formula One team was doing, they aged themselves themselves down. They got younger. The brand itself got younger. So when you're bringing in that younger audience, you're going to try and keep them in a Mercedes product for the rest of their life. You want to keep them in the brand. And it's the same thing with what Aston Martin tries to do as well.

[00:28:50]

You want to try and get that younger demographic to come over to your brand and try it out, see what it's like, see if you like it. I mean, all that stuff, it makes a huge difference in having these cars in Formula One and competing and winning and all that stuff. It all bleeds one into the other, right, Adam? It's just the way it is.

[00:29:09]

Well, if it works out well, it does. Yeah. If you're Jaguar in the early 2000s, it does not. But it could have. The idea was there.

[00:29:21]

Actually, you know what, Adam? It's funny because I was really young when Jaguar racing was in Formula One. I love I love the look of it. It had like... Sometimes they would do this livery scheme where they actually had the freaking Jaguar painted into the car itself. I was always like, You know what? I want to drive a Jaguar. I was like, I don't know, 12, 13 years old. You're speaking to me at that age. So when I get older, I'm still like, if they were still in Formula One, maybe I start dabbling in buying a Jaguar because I was a huge fan. Also, though, When I was a kid, Adam, Aston Martin was one of my favorite cars, a DB7. I wanted to live in that car as a kid.

[00:30:07]

They're so cool.

[00:30:08]

But it's like, they're in Formula One now. Now I'm just like, oh, gosh, Aston Martin. And it really does work.

[00:30:15]

If you do it the right way, it really does work. Aston Martin seemed like an explosion of sales. And we're moving from topic to topic quickly because there's a lot to hit on. But the F1 drivers expect some changes from a productive, quote, productive meeting with the FIA on race guidelines. Now, my understanding, Tim, is that this does not include swear words. But what did they talk about and what do they want to change?

[00:30:41]

Okay, so a big part of this, Adam, has to do with the race between Verstappen and Norris at the US Grand Prix. Remember when they were going through... Oh, God, I got my turns all mixed up. Not only turn one, but turn, I want to 12, maybe. Do you remember when the two of them went off? And then basically Norris came back on, had the position. The team's like, You're good. You were ahead at the apex. You're good to go. Take the spot. And then whatever. And then he gets dinged with a five-second time penalty, Max moves back up. So a lot of this has to do with that, where it's like, would Max have defended so aggressively if there had been gravel on the outside? And you and I talked about this the next day on our show, and the answer was no.

[00:31:34]

Of course not.

[00:31:35]

And every driver, fan, all of us, we all know that he wouldn't have, right? Since the racetracks, the circuits themselves, don't have any of that fake gravel laid down, then drivers will take advantage of that. And so essentially, they all met up in Mexico. I was there for that, and that It was a long meeting. And Carlos Sainz told me that they were going to have some rules put in place for Qatar, and they were going to experiment and see what happens. Essentially, Adam, if a driver is attacking you on the inside, you're coming down the inside for a pass, if you know you're going to go off the track, you can't make the pass. You just don't do it. But if you If you go off, you're done. If you go off, you're finished. Passing around the outside, still same as always, whatever. Essentially, what the drivers want to do is if you go back to your karting days and if you pull off a nice pass down the inside, the driver who's now on your outside, you can push them to close that door, push them off, almost, right? It's going to be up to that driver to now back out of it because you've lost a corner, right?

[00:32:58]

And if you want to get tangled up, that's your own fault, right?

[00:33:01]

Yeah.

[00:33:02]

Yeah. Right. And so essentially leaving it that way. We'll see how strictly things get policed. We do have a new Race Director as well. Adam is only doing his second race now. So, yeah, we'll see how things go. But it does sound like the drivers are being heard. They're listening to the drivers. I heard from a couple of them following Media Day, and they all said the same thing. They were happy that the FIA was at least listening to them and trying to work together with them on a solution. Right. Which in the past, they wouldn't have had them.

[00:33:41]

No, they would have just been like, Yeah, good luck. That's positive, Tim. It also sounds like it'll just be better racing. One of the things that's annoying as a fan is when you do see something like that, the banter back and forth, it would just... And to me, gravel and that thing, if they would put more of it on, it's more high stakes, right? You're going to have to pull out quicker. I don't know. I like it better. I'm with them on that.

[00:34:09]

Well, I mean, as a driver, you're not going to make it. You're going to get struck into the gravel. You're going to ruin your race. You may not only will you lose one position, you could lose many. It's just not... It doesn't work. So that's why it's like a lot of these circuits, and I've talked to the drivers about this. They want there to be gravel. They want some deterrent. I spoke with... In Mexico, I would say I spoke with at least six drivers about that, and they all said the same thing. They all want natural deterrent. And I think that it's hard for circuits to do it, but I do think that the FIA needs to enforce it. Granted, you can't do it on all the corners, but the ones that are going to, where the drivers are really going to push the limit, push the envelope, you need to have it there. You do. I mean, Austria is a perfect example of how it all works.

[00:35:17]

Don't even get me started. I might be biased, but that felt like a McLaren lost opportunity because of that, right? Now, Tim, if they ever went back to the French Grand Prix, how much gravel would they have to card in for the Paul-They're never going back to the Paul Ricard. To the Paul Ricard circuit.

[00:35:41]

Please don't go back to the Paul Ricard circuit. Can you imagine the amount of gravel they'd have to put down on that thing? No, I can't do it, Adam. I can't. I just can't do... Look, Paul Ricard is great for testing. It's not a good racetrack. Go to Magnicourt.

[00:36:00]

Tim, what if we did Paul Ricard? No, we don't want the Turkish Grand Prix back. We want Paul Ricard. Anyway, I'm with you.

[00:36:14]

And that has nothing to do with being in France or any of that stuff. Look, there needs to be a French Grand Prix. You got two French drivers. You got to be in France. But just not It's so great, though, Tim.

[00:36:33]

Come on. What's the problem? What could possibly be the problem, Tim? So I guess with that, we're looking forward to Sprint Weekend. These are the last two races of the year. We still have a race for the World Championship. I'm interested to see, believe it or not, how good Max Verstaupen is because he doesn't have to care that much anymore. And yet he's still the best driver in the world, and I wonder if he just goes, I'm going to try to win just because... What the hell?

[00:37:03]

He was out drinking till 9:00 in the morning on the Monday.

[00:37:07]

And he deserves that. He's probably still hung over, though. He deserves to. Good for him. Yeah. What the hell, man? It's hard to be an F1 driver, and it's hard to be good. Good for him. Well, Tim, listen, we're going to catch up again on Monday. I'm really excited about this weekend, and obviously we're winding up the season, but it's going to It's going to be a fun race this weekend, and I hope you get some sleep because you never do on race weekend. No, I don't.

[00:37:35]

That's okay. We're going to Abu Dhabi, Adam, on Tuesday, though.

[00:37:39]

Then you're definitely not getting sleep.

[00:37:41]

I think it's a 12-hour flight straight there, buddy.

[00:37:44]

Yeah, I have been to Abu Dhabi. We went through London, but I have been there. And yeah, the whole waking up at noon and going, Oh, it's the beginning of the day because the time is so off, right? You're going to have the best time, though. I'm so jealous. I would love to go back to Abu Dhabi.

[00:38:02]

It's like a quick trip, but you're there for F1, and then I'm coming right back. I think I leave Monday at 2:00 in the morning.

[00:38:11]

Oh, wow. Well, Tim, it's going to be a good time. A great way to end. Great way to end.

[00:38:18]

I got literally we're going to come back. I'm going to sit in this chair on that Monday.

[00:38:23]

You're going to be dead to rights. You're going to be exhausted. I can't wait. I'm going to be like, Tim, I have mathematical equations I need you solve. Can you solve for X here, please? But yeah, I'm looking forward to it, man. So we'll enjoy this weekend. We got a sprint race tomorrow. We got a Grand Prix on Sunday, second last one of the year. You got to savor these moments because we're not going to get them again until March, April. And it really does feel like a long time in between, even though it's really short. So anyway, Tim, enjoy and have a great weekend, man.

[00:38:54]

Thanks, buddy.