[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 20 minutes, just in case you can't remember, 20 minutes to change... Pretty much a whole front corner. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, and you know, make the car safe and reliable and Max again delivered and came home with a great result for the position we were in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so given the choice, I would take stress free, but it is worth noting that those, those tough weekends or those tough days.


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[Assistant] You sort of leave them with a real sense of pride. You know, you know that you achieved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something that should have been impossible. I, you know, I always think back to the year in China with Daniel Ricciardo and it was like, you know, during P3 we had an engine failure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we just, honestly, I've never seen so many people work so well in a group to get that car out. And we got it, we got it out the door and, you know, across the line with like a minute or something to go and qualifying for him to qualify. He ends up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even I, like, I try and stay positive, but we were in a position where I genuinely thought that there wasn't a chance we were gonna complete this in time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, it was tough, man. Honestly, like I said, it was hot. I've never seen so many people working around a car. Like everyone around the car, you were working with like, you know, your elbows tucked in because everyone was in this space trying to get something built on this car to get out the door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And your hands are slippery and I dropped a spanner and I looked at it and as it went down there, I literally, I remember just pausing for a moment and going, well that's not coming back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, and then, you know, it got to the point where I said to, I remember saying to the chief mechanic, I said to him, look, just so you know, there is a spanner in there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's nothing I can do, I can't get it out. And he said to me, well, it's in there now, we've got to get it out for qualifying, let's get the car out and hopefully we can retrieve it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and we, we ended up not retrieving it. And then I just sat there with my foot tapping and my hands shaking for the entire race, waiting for, you know, something on the car to fail because I'd dropped a spanner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's one of those, it's one of those things. It's a great story. One of my colleagues, it wasn't even my spanner, obviously, it was one of my colleagues spanner. They, they... It's good you owned up then, otherwise... Oh no, you know what, that's actually, that's actually a rule for life and I think it's, it's one of those things. No one, in a situation like that, no one's gonna...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give you a hard time for making a mistake when you're working in those sort of circumstances, mistakes happen. You know, I have not, I've made plenty in the past in my career and I'm sure that I will make more in the future. I try and ensure that it's never the same mistake. I think that's the biggest thing is to learn. But one thing you have to do is you have to take accountability. You know, there's no, there's no point in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] than everybody chasing something that doesn't exist because no one wants to.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. It would change the entire dynamic of everyone working in the garage. I think all of us accept that we're, you know, we're not perfect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we, we aim for it every single week. We will strive for perfection. I don't think there is such a thing in motorsport because it's something that moves forward so quickly. But yeah, you have to have a culture where people can just be open about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How did that come about? I guess it sort of started with, probably with Drive To Survive. Uhm, I think obviously with The Paddock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not being the most diverse work, diverse workforce, it's.


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[Assistant] You sort of, I tended to stand out anyway and drive to survive, sort of exacerbated that. And then, and then I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think at first I didn't really have that much interest in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then what happened was, as sort of followers grew, loads of people, so many people started contacting me. Firstly, just loads of young people contacting me saying, you know what, I love seeing your passion and seeing your energy on the screen, uhm, and I'm really interested in motorsport.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And asking for advice and things like that. And at that point it sort of was like a realisation that actually, you know, it's great. I love, like I spent yesterday in a school talking to young people about possible careers and uhm, I love doing that. I love talking to young people about the opportunities that are available.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the other thing was that I got so many messages from, from young black kids in, in schools and people that looked like me saying, you know what, just to see somebody working in that environment who looks like me has sort of made me realise that I could do that too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and I, representation's so important, and whilst I, you know, I never consider myself necessarily a role model, but I do think with the experience I sort of have in the industry, I have a responsibility to try and help other people that want to pursue these careers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I'm a huge advocate for how amazing these careers can been. You know, I consider myself so lucky to have travelled the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so when people contacted me and they were saying, look, you know, I just love seeing you, or my son loves seeing you, or my daughter's really, really amazed at seeing you every week, she looks out for you on the telly, it sort of just became more of like I felt like I had a responsibility.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To try and engage with people, uhm, and obviously once you start engaging with people and people realise that there's other voices out there in F1 and people that they can really relate to that are involved in the sport, then it just sort of the following grows from there and then you get more opportunities to do this stuff and it just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think when I started out racing or when I decided I wanted to have a racing career, obviously we had Lewis fresh off the back of his first world championship and that was great. It was amazing to see that, you know, people who looked like me could break into a sport that traditionally people like me hadn't got involved in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that was great, but I also understood that I wasn't gonna be a race driver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't have the talent, I think I'm too tall for it and I'm certainly not willing to put the hours in the gym to lose the kilos that I'd have to. Very honest. Which is the reality of it, but you know, once I sort of discovered that there were engineering careers to go and work in these garages and do these things, there was very few. Like, when we look at the Formula One paddock now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially in the last three, four years, it's changed dramatically and we are seeing some amazing faces, amazing people that are doing great work in the paddock and inspiring more. But when I started out, when I first embarked on it in 2009,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And certainly in junior formulas, it wasn't, you know, I don't think I worked with another person who looked like me until 2015, until I, probably until I joined Red Bull. So it wasn't like there were loads of people that I could look to for representation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thankfully I was really lucky in that I just had some great model, role models that I met once I began.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like I pursued it anyway, I didn't really let that discourage me. And thankfully when I got there, I then met some great people who inspired me to push on. You know, like I always think about one of my first chief mechanics when I was doing GP3, a guy called Paul Belringer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was brilliant. He was like, you know, my race dad. You know, he taught me all of the little things that I needed to know at the beginning of my career. All of the little things that I still sort of think about now and I carry with me when I'm working now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and that's what I say to people. I get that there's not that much representation for you now, maybe in technical roles, but you will meet some people that will inspire you. You know, you just gotta sort of give it a chance and you will, you will meet some people that inspire you. And if I can be one of them, then that's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the end of the day, uhm, Lewis, for me, that, for me, that will always be his greatest achievement. Yeah. Is, is what he does for the industry and for the sport in particular. You know, like he used his, his platform and it's so important, you know, people with platforms use them well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he, and he really did. He embraced, he embraced it and he used his platform to firstly get the conversation started. Because that was the biggest thing. When I, when I first started, there just wasn't a conversation about it. You know, I talked to my colleagues at the time and they say, Cal, you know, why, why don't black people ever...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It made people who weren't previously aware of these careers aware of them, but then also it gave the sport and the industry a starting point to sort of say


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, look, we, because the sport has always recognized that there's been a lack of diversity, you know, it's not like, it's not like it was some big secret that was only discovered in 2020. This is something the sport has always known, but I think from a lot of, from a lot of situations, businesses and areas and sectors in the sport, they didn't really know why.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a lack of diversity. So the Hamilton Commission report was really important in providing firstly data sets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that the industry could see where it was right now, because I know that in the past, loads of journalists had tried to sort of ask teams and businesses this question about, you know, what is diversity like? And I think a lot of the teams simply didn't have the data.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They didn't, they didn't know. So the report was really important in that it, it provided that base set of data to say, look, this is, this is where we're at in terms of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, compared to our population and the makeup of the population, this is where we're at as an industry. And then teams were able to say, okay, fine, now we know where we're at. And then the commission went on to make suggestions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how it can break down these barriers that are preventing it from currently being diverse. So the report and Lewis's influence, you know, it was, it was a game changer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like, I know he spent a lot of his own money to fund independent research into it and then he used his massive platform to promote it. And it's certainly, I've certainly seen a change in the conversations and sort of the way people think about it. And also just giving people an understanding that it's, it's about providing opportunities to those who currently


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More people are applying for these jobs, you know, a short term solution is exactly that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, so when we see these programs who are promoting education, you know, engineering and schools, I want to see, I want to see all these programs that are sort of going to reach out to people and say, look, these are the careers, these are the long term and these are the long term solutions to sort of changing the makeup of the paddock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But like I said, I don't think this is something you can expect to see an overnight change in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think if you, you could, you could manufacture an overnight change, but it wouldn't be a lasting one. Uhm, so I think we have to give the industry time to implement a lot of the recommendations that were made from the Hamilton Commission report, and we need to give the industry time to make these changes work for the long run.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, look, I sit here and I'm happy to do podcasts like this because it's another resource that I can send people to go and listen to, you know, and talk about the way that I got to where I am now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, just some of the basic information is what people are asking for.


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[Assistant] I wanna, I wanna every pole position, I wanna every fastest lap, I wanna win every race. That's, that has to be the mentality.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we're seeing at the rate that obviously like teams like McLaren have improved this season. I think that the moment you take your foot off the gas, somebody's going to snatch a win from you. You know, the moment that you, you drop the ball or you, you just let something slide or you, you spend one minute just being a little bit, a little bit too relaxed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the house of cards starts to fall down. So yea, like it's, it's one of those things, the mentality can't change. Just because, you know, just because both championships are done, the mentality's gotta be exactly the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Austin, Mexico, pretty good, pretty good locations, right? Yeaah, I love it. I like it, obviously. Austin's a bit of a, I guess it's a paddock favourite, everyone likes it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a party city, you know. Everybody, everybody enjoys theirself in, in Austin, Mexico. I love the atmosphere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, certainly at the track in that stadium section, the atmosphere is like something else, you've got some like amazing race fans, they love racing, so it's always good to go to. And Vegas. And Vegas, I've not done Las Vegas, I've never been to Las Vegas, some of my colleagues have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it could be a wild weekend. We'll see how it goes.


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[Assistant] I'm glad that that's not my problem. I have to keep myself under control. I'm capable of doing that. I'm just gonna worry about me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, bonus summer Q&A. That's what we're going to go with. So basically we're recording this on the same day that we recorded the end of term half season reports podcast. Hence I'm still in the same outfit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when you're watching this, I'll be somewhere in the Mediterranean and Matt will be camping in Cornwall.


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[Assistant] I am, uh, AlphaTowery minus one. Right. Okay, Barrain 2006 was my first race. Yeah.


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[Assistant] And Toro Rosso made their debut then as well. And I've had one race off since then when my eldest son was born.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought it was Mary Walker stood in for me and Daniel who was three days old was in my arms as we watched the race.


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[Assistant] When I said, when my English teacher, uhm, said, what do you want to do with your career? And I said, I want to be a sports commentator. He laughed at me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which was nice and served as very good motivation to be fair. I wanted to commentate on sport. I spent my years as a kid kicking a football around the garden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, uh, and I'd be a Formula One driver and I'd be doing the commentary. Whenever I could kick a ball, throw a ball, ride the bike, I would pretend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was the commentator. It seemed to be the job that I wanted to do. But how you go about that? There is no career progression. There's no career plan. And I was a theatre publicity officer for many years until my friend


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My mate Darren got a job as the sports editor of the local newspaper and that set me on my road into sports journalism. He wanted a guy to write about Stevenage Borough, who were a non-league team at the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said I'd do it. Uhm, I didn't realize I was doing it for nothing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he gave me a byline, which was handy, and I just worked my way up from there and eventually found myself, uh, uh, working full time for BBC Local Radio, and then moved to BBC Five Live, and then, uh, then at Hungry in 2011.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The decision was announced that the BBC had asked Sky to come on board and share the rights for Formula One.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I thought I'd better, I'd better drop sky a little, uh, little line to make sure they know who I am. And luckily I got chosen and, and here I am to this day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certainly for television, you are constantly having shots cutting from one particular part of the story to the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which doesn't necessarily happen in, in darts or football or cricket and et cetera, and certainly not in boxing. Uhm, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other challenge of Formula One, and the biggest challenge, yeaah, I went for radio.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where, say we see, the audience, the listener can't see what you can see, to television where people can see what's going on. So it's a different style of commentary. You're trying to tell the story of the bits people can't see. Uhm, whilst, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keeping an eye on the changes and the gaps, but also trying to develop the strategy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Steer a conversation rather than having an opinion on driving.


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[Assistant] You know, press the buttons so that Martin, you know, can, can deliver that, that perfect analysis line, which he does, you know, race after race after race. But it's, Formula One's a sport where, where most of the important bits you never see. You can't see. You can't see the driver's feet most of the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is it. Although the other day I did declare after the race, you can hear the disappointment in Lewis Hamilton's face. So I was getting some sort of signal there from Lewis Hamilton that no one else could spot, obviously.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you're just, you're trying to, you're trying to give that overall picture and you're trying to tell as best you can the story of 20 individual


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different moving parts in terms of the drivers in one particular race. It's not just two teams or two boxers or two darts players.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's 20 drivers, 10 teams and everything else that goes with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is the best advice I ever had. Just keep it simple.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, 2006 Bahrain, uh, Fernando Alonso won. Yeah. And, uh, were you there? Yeah, yeah. You were, yeah. It was the opening race of the season. And, um, I remember almost being on my knees at one stage thinking, how on earth am I ever going to make a career out of this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'd spent, so I'd got the job, uh, the previous, uh, December, December the 23rd, 2005. I get called into the manager's office. Yes, we've seen, we've heard your audition. We think you're great. Um, you're going to be our Formula One commentator. Brilliant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I phoned my mate Baggy up and, uh, I said, right, Bags, you're the big F1 fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said, well, you are too. I said, I know, but you're, you're a real fan. Can you help me out? I need to learn a little bit about F1. He said, well, how much? I said, well enough to be a commentator, mate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of, I didn't know as much as I needed to know, uh, in those early years. So you, you spend two or three years listening to people without, you know, walking around the paddock, forming relationships, building trust, listening to what people are saying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And after about three years, people then start to ask your opinion, occasionally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then after about five years, people go, hey Crofty, how are you? And then you feel, you know, very much a part of it. And it's, it's a very difficult sport when you first come in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not saying we're not friendly, we are, in the F1 paddock, I'm not saying we're not welcoming, of course we are, but it's quite uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're overawed a little bit. Every time I take someone into the paddock now, and I'm sure you found this the first time you went into the paddock, you just think blimey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How on earth did this all get here? Yeaah. And then you try to think, well Ken is going somewhere else next week, and god, how does this all fit together?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, learn how the pit wall gets put together or whatever. Make a feature, a half hour documentary feature about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And learn from the guys in the garage. So in the sessions, I was Frank Montani's front right tyre man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For, for the session, which, those tire blankets, they make it look so easy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, getting them off, getting them back on again. Getting them back on is really hard because the tyres are so sticky because they're so hot when they come in. And if you miss, you don't align it up properly, then your thing's at an angle and you can't shift it around because it's stuck. I was hopeless at it, I really was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I remember, I remember that weekend, it was when, when Pablo Montoya announced he was retiring from the sport, and I got a phone call from the, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the editor, uh, the, the, the sports desk editor at Five Life. Come on, I need you to come on and do a voice piece. Montoya's retiring and I can't, I can't do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're our Formula One man, we need you. I said yeaah, I'm on a truck at the moment. What are you doing? That's why I'm cleaning it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait, but we need you to do this. I said yeah, I've got to finish cleaning the truck first. Like the lads would not allow me to take any time off. And, uh, you know, they've been ever so nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give me an hour and I'll come on. So I finished cleaning the truck before I went on to the voice piece. Cause yeaah, I owed it to the people that were helping me. So many people have helped me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've made so many great friends, um, you know, by being in F1 and by being on the road and spending time with people. And it's, it absolutely changed my life. And it allowed me as well, I think more importantly, to absolutely fall in love with the sport of Formula One.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which I enjoyed as a fan and I watched as a kid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I, I wasn't, I wasn't a passionate, you know, petrolhead. I hate the term petrolhead, but you know, I wasn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not that I didn't like it, I just, I preferred football, I preferred dance, preferred cricket, you know? But it's, it's just allowed me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To have the greatest job in the world, you know, with the most amazing people and to learn some incredible things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In some places that I'd never have gone to either. You know, and also to have the privilege of being invited into people's homes every other week or every week as it seems to be at the moment. And tell them the story of their sport that they love too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and it's been fabulous. Honestly, 18 years now I've been involved in F1. It has flown by. I still think I'm 25.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said to Martin, okay, so normally in a Grand Prix, we'd lose a lap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, from, uh, from, uh, from the start, if we've got a formation app, does that happen in sprint races as well? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. It must do because of the fuel. Yeah. Cause you can't overfill it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the fuel in the cars. And we, and we do work things out on the hoof occasionally. The sporting regs, as much as we try and read them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To our best ability all the time to keep up to date with, there's still bits in there that you kind of forget. It's a very complex sport.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the F1 junior, uh, one of the F1 juniors who came to Hungary and did so well over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. And he's, uh, we were on a Sunday night walking back to the bus. Yes. We traveled by bus. Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, yeaah, you sit on the back row, I don't, I'm not part of the naughty boys. Uhm, so Brave was saying that, when did you start? I said, on Monday. Tomorrow. He went, really? I said, yeaah, next races is next weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I've got to be all prepped and ready to get myself to Belgium in time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, to start really from the Thursday onwards, so uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In that case, I got back from Hungary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I finally crawled through about half midnight when I got into the house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give it time to dry and all that and started my notes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I started compiling the handwritten notes that I do with a double side of A4.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got the two drivers and some team stats in every box and stats for tyres and stuff as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then I do a track map with minimum cornering speeds and gears so that if someone has an accident, you can, you can tell people roughly what speed the car was going at without even knowing from the telemetry because we don't always get that. And then there's various stats about the race itself and things that are of interest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I might not use them all over the course of a weekend, but you don't know what you're going to need to use. So it's, it's get that preparation done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have a stat guy as well, a couple of stat guys that help me with that. But what I find is, if you put a piece of paper in front of me and I read it, I'll remember some of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if I write stuff out by hand in my own way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To help me remember in a kind of a shorthand way, I'll remember all of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that when something happens in a race that's exciting and in the moment you want to add.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something to it to help tell the story. I know where I can find something. So by handwriting things out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And honestly, if there's any kids out there, any juniors out there that are thinking, why do I bother with handwriting at school? Trust me, the more you write stuff out, the more you remember it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We took, we took the Eurostar, so we had a little bit of a train, uh, train journey day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Normally we'd fly, to be honest, but we decided that Belgium was nice and nearby, so we'd go green, and uhm, and just do something a little bit more environmentally friendly, which I think, you know, we're obliged to do, and we should be doing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we got to spar on the Wednesday night. I finished off my notes Wednesday night because I hadn't quite got time to get it all done. Thursday is press conference day as you know at the track. We have a big production meeting that we're all there where we share ideas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talk about the features, talk about the likely news stories for the week. And we do one of those every morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And after the production meeting, I'll go about my business in the paddock, talking to people, getting stories, finding drivers, engineers, team principals. When you've been in the sport for a while, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's talk to James Vowles, the Williams team principal about this on Sunday night. Actually, I've known James for many, many years now.


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[Assistant] And he's of the view that the more open he is with the broadcasters and the journalists.


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[Assistant] And the more open he is with our viewers on Sky, he was our pit wall.


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[Assistant] He can't tell me everything, of course. Some things he tells me that he'll trust me on that I won't repeat.


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[Assistant] The more I understand, the easier it is to tell the story. And it's not for my purpose, it's for our viewers on Sky and around the world. So yeaah, so people like James you'll have a chat with.


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[Assistant] Because it was a sprint weekend in Belgium, uh, I'm on duty for FP1.


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[Assistant] And then, uh, sprint qualifying later on in the day.


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[Assistant] And then you've got, uh, sorry, normal qualifier later in the day, then you've got sprint shootout, sprint on Saturday, Grand Prix on Sunday. And, and you're basically, you're, you're, you're biding your time, you're spending your time in between our production office and the paddock.


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[Assistant] You don't want to outstay your welcome in team hospitality units, even though some of them are great.


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[Assistant] Uhm, in fact all of them are great, some of them are better than others and some do an amazing bacon sandwich that is actually quite nice to get a hold of. Because they weren't doing decent bacon sandwiches in our hotel. But, uhm, but you're just learning all the time and making sure that when the microphone goes on you're ready to speak and ready to tell the tale.


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[Assistant] You, I think, have you been in the commentary box? Yeah, yeah, I've been in a few times, yeah. So you're, I don't write anything down in terms of a prepared speech at the start.


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[Assistant] I used to know an old Methodist minister, the Reverend Alan Washbrook was his name and, you know, I've no idea where he is now. I asked once, uhm, did you ever, did you write down your sermons? And he said, no, I go up into the pulpit and I offer a prayer up to the Lord and then I, you know, he guides me with my sermon.


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[Assistant] Now I'm not saying I pray before the start, but I do find keeping an open mind and not having anything in my, in my head as to this is exactly what I'm going to say.


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[Assistant] Helps you, A, because we have no control over the pictures that, that I'm commentating to. They're taken from a world feed. So I'm reacting to something I don't know that's coming up. And B, I'm in that moment.


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[Assistant] With everybody else. So when I say I'm excited, trust me, I'm excited. I'm in that moment. You know, and, and, and...


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[Assistant] You just have to have confidence in your own ability that you'll get through that. And that's, that's part of the challenge. It's like, you know, for, for an hour and a half, two hours or an hours, uh, practice session, we're going to walk a tightrope without a safety net.


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[Assistant] And let's see what happens. But that's the thrill, isn't it? Absolutely. So when lights, when it's lights out and away we go.


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[Assistant] The adrenaline for the drivers is obvious because they're going racing. Same adrenaline for Martin and myself. Because we have no idea what's going to happen.


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[Assistant] Oh, with the first race, it was like, I have no idea what's gonna happen.


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[Assistant] I still get nervous now. And I pace around, I can't stop moving. But I had all that nerves, all that adrenaline and no experience to fall back on as to what was going to happen. And I honestly...


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[Assistant] Got half way through that first year and I'm thinking I'm doing a dreadful job of this and I had a meeting.


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[Assistant] Uh, with our producer at Five Live who said, no, no, we think you're doing a really good job. Keep at it. This is, this is good stuff. And yeah, here we are today still talking about it.


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[Assistant] They condemned the boxes in Monza, which is interesting because I was sat in one of those boxes.


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[Assistant] 2008 when Sebastian Vettel won for Toro Rosso.


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[Assistant] Uhm, before the end of the session, because the rain was coming in through a hole in the roof. Right. And it was running and forming in a puddle where all our electric gear was, and I'm like, well, we're on air, we're live on air, we're going to go live literally in a minute. So we had to get out. Uhm, the Monza boxes are not great. Uhm,


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[Assistant] Yeah, very much so. I like a view of the pit lane and I like a view where you can see into the garages and you, China is the best one because you've got a view of the pit lane and most of the track as well.


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[Assistant] Apart from the hairpin that's kind of behind you. That's a sensational one. I'm not going to name the really bad ones. But what I would say, there's always a story. When we first went to India.


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[Assistant] Uh, for the first Indian Grand Prix and we found that the, uh, the commentary boxes were in a, in a, in a building in the middle of the paddock with no windows.


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[Assistant] We all went to see Bernie Eccleston and said, Bernie, we need to change the commentary boxes for next year, we can't have this.


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[Assistant] The world feed's gone off three times already. When it goes off, we have nothing to talk about.


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[Assistant] I think Anton and I put a map of Mount Everest, uh, sorry, not a map, a picture of Mount Everest on the wall and then a picture of a shark the next day. We just found these pictures just so we could actually look at something while we were commentating by the TVs. So we said, Bernie, we need, we need rooms with windows. We need a view. He said, well, any view. Yeah, we need a view of the track. Yeah, but any view.


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[Assistant] I said no, no, a view of the track, the pit lane preferably, but any view will do. I said no, not really.


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[Assistant] We just need a view where we can see what's going on on the track. And we came back the next year and we did have a view.


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[Assistant] Uh, cause they'd found rooms with windows still in the middle of the track overlooking the toilet block. That was the view that he gave us. So I would say India was the worst in terms of views. There are several others, but they will remain nameless cause it's not fair. But I would say China, Bahrain.


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[Assistant] Abu Dhabi, uh, sensational commentary boxes there. Japan. Oh, Suzuka.


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[Assistant] It's a fabulous location. You can see for miles around, but the sun sets quite early. It's the land of the rising sun, but it sets quite early and on a sunny day.


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[Assistant] You got to put the sunglasses on cause the, the sunlight streaming through the window.


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[Assistant] That's a brilliant line I wish I'd have used. Oh yeah, I should have said that. No. Cause you, you, you, you are.


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[Assistant] Beat yourself up a bit if you think you're making mistakes or you've not said the right thing. What's done is done.


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[Assistant] So I do listen back, but not religiously to everything I've done.


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[Assistant] So Belgian Grand Prix weekend, two hours, three hours, four.


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[Assistant] I was probably about six and a half hours that I was on air.


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[Assistant] He didn't, he gave me a look as if to say like I understand, but for heaven's sake hurry up.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so working with Codemasters and Frontier Games, they're absolutely brilliant in that they have an idea of what they want us to say.


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[Assistant] And, and sometimes you have to deliver the line that they want, but a lot of the time.


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[Assistant] They're like, if you want to say it in another way, say it in another way. Whatever feels natural to you. We've tried to write the line as if it were you, but if you think you wouldn't say that and you say something else, you go ahead and do it. And that's, that's, that's brilliant when they have that trust in you.


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[Assistant] Working with them now Frontier for two years, co-master, I think 10 years I've been working with co-masters as well. You, you, you develop a trust and an understanding and you develop a knack for doing it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and, and there's about six variants, yeah. Matt takes over the lead of the championship. Uhm, you know, uh, Matt is the new championship leader.


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[Assistant] There's about six or seven lines, but imagine doing that for every name.


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[Assistant] Wow, really? Yeah. And then we did nicknames.


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[Assistant] And then I pulled rank a little bit. I said, can we have Crofty? Can we have Crofty Junior?


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[Assistant] One day I did something like two and a half thousand lines in a session, which was, which was fairly good going, but it was the last, we made it the last day.


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[Assistant] Uhm, we could have done it the next day, but I'm like, I can do this. We can get this done, guys. But as long...


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[Assistant] You've got to do the same emphasis, same in, in, in summation on each word.


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[Assistant] And as long as they're happy with that, you know, I'll just keep on going and going. Normally they're like a four hour.


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[Assistant] We're a four hour recording. Must be exhausted at the end of that. It is quite tiring. I never thought talking was that tiring, to be honest, but it is. We tend to kind of do it in December, January, February time. Um, so. Whole new batch each year. It's a whole new batch pretty much each year. Um, Codemasters, um, was it this year? Last year.


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[Assistant] I forget, forget which game it was. I think it was this, I think it was this year when they said, right, we're going to do a load of old lines, historical lines, because you did these 10 years ago and obviously your voice has changed in 10 years. So to keep it sounding realistic,


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[Assistant] We're going to go back and revisit a whole other line. Contrasting your voice 10 years ago to now and you're playing the game. Obviously I do that by watching, you know, on the F1 channel, you know, some of the classic Grand Prix from back in 2012 and 2013. Oh, did I sound like that in those days? You know?


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[Assistant] There've been some incredible, uh, tussles and battles and I remember the ones that stand out, uh, 2011 Canada.


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[Assistant] When Jensen Button won and took the lead from Seb on the last lap, 2008 Silverstone when Lewis was just incredible in the wet that day.


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[Assistant] He was, he was just on a different planet to everybody else. Uhm.


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[Assistant] Lewis and Jensen winning their first, uh, titles.


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[Assistant] I remember Hungary just after, you know, a few days after the funeral of, of Yulby Anki.


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[Assistant] When I think every single driver went out and produced a race that Joule would have been proud.


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[Assistant] Not just to witness, but would love to have taken part in it. There was something about that weekend when everyone just went out and raced for Jules and that was, that was just, just phenomenal to witness.


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[Assistant] When Jean had his accident in, in Suzuka, that, that day I'll never forget. When Romain Grosjean had his crash.


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[Assistant] In Bahrain, you know, moments like that where all the fun that we have and all the love that we have for the sport is just put on hold in one instant because you know something really serious has happened.


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[Assistant] You go into a completely different mode of broadcasting. But I think of all the races I've covered, I could go on for forever about the great races.


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[Assistant] If anything ever comes close to the last lap of Abu Dhabi 2021.


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[Assistant] I will be not only stunned, but impressed that a sport can, can do that to be honest, because he, he was.


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[Assistant] An incredible championship battle that, that...


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[Assistant] It was a battle for the ages, it really was. And...


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[Assistant] I think you might, but I was in the office one day, about eight races out and I went, this is going down to the wire. I said, they're going to have the same amount of points when we, uh, when we get to Abu Dhabi. I could just see it. This is just one of those seasons. And so it transpired. Did we think it was going to go down to the last lap? No.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and certainly for most of the race, it didn't look like it was going to boil up into anything, but that's the beauty of live sport. Things change around.


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[Assistant] Uhm, in an instance and you've got to try and put into perspective that last lap with everything that's led up to it and, and a slight bit of controversy as well, say slight, quite a bit of big, big bit of controversy.


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[Assistant] And, and then call someone as the world champion. And, and I managed to find the right words, you know, as, as Max crossed the line. And, uhm.


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[Assistant] Then it all kicked off at the paddock, didn't it? Afterwards, it was, uh, that, that was, that was an amazing sporting moment and to,


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[Assistant] To be there at the center of it and to be, you know, the lead voice alongside, you know,


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[Assistant] The man who's brought Formula One incidents to the homes of people for a lot longer than me and, and, and we'll be carrying on doing so for many, many years to come. And for Martin and I just to both be there in that moment and to have the privilege of describing that action.


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[Assistant] That's, that's what any kid kicking a football around pretending to be Martin Tyler ever.


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[Assistant] I said, really? I said, was my commentary that bad? He went, no, no, cause it was so exciting. I was shouting at the telly and roaring, you know, Lewis and Max on. I said, good, that's my job to get you to do that.


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[Assistant] I don't just admire Murray Walker as a commentator, and without Murray we wouldn't be doing what we're doing today, quite frankly, as commentators.


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[Assistant] Great personality and knowledge and enthusiasm to the sport. But I admire Murray as a human being. He was one of the nicest.


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[Assistant] Most warm, loving, welcoming human beings I've ever had the pleasure to spend any time with. He was, he was a guy, I first, uhm, the night before Sky announced the lineup for 2012, and we could tell people we got the job. I actually phoned Murray up.


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[Assistant] Got something to tell you. Oh, what's that gruff thing? I said, got the job at Sky. Oh, it's brilliant! Fantastic!


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[Assistant] Uhm, and, and he was so, he was so supportive, uh, to us and, you know, we used to, we used to chat, uh, not as often as we should have done, but we used to chat quite a bit and, and even, you know, after he'd, well after he'd retired, he wanted to know all the gossip that was going on.


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[Assistant] He was, he was just a brilliant commentator because he, he had a knack of finding the right words. You know, Martin Tyler, I've mentioned a couple of times, I was a big fan of, you know, when I was a kid and, you know, as a bigger kid and as a 50 year old kid now, you know, um, John Motson and Barry Davis for, you know, with the BBC guys.


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[Assistant] Used to be, used to be a massive dilemma on, on FA Cup final day, when I was a youngster. Do I, do I listen to Motty or Barry, whoever, whoever the babies, or do I listen to Brian Moore?


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[Assistant] You know, there's another fantastic commentator as well. Once upon a time, they had the cup final on different channels.


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[Assistant] My mate Paul, uhm, who lived just down the road, he had the right idea, he had two TVs on the go. Really? All the way on Cut Final Grandstand, it was fantastic.


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[Assistant] Sid Waddell was another one who I hugely admired. I never got to work with Sid, but I got to know him because I was commentating for darts on the BBC and he was obviously doing the BBC darts on Sky. Sid was just the greatest.


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[Assistant] Proper wind up merchant, you know, but just loved his dance. And if you love dance too, that was fine, you know.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we chat from time to time. I saw him at his last broadcast.


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[Assistant] At the 02 for, for premier league finals night, where I took Martin. Martin and I had done about six races together. I said, come on, let's go have a night out. He said, where are we going? I said, the Darts. I have a picture of Martin with a giant foam hand.


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[Assistant] At the end. Oh, that's brilliant. Looking a little bit out of place. Uhm, and wondering what the hell am I doing here, but he loved it. He really did. And I saw Sid that night and he passed away quite soon afterwards, but love Sid, he was, he was just, some of the lines, they, they matched the sport.


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[Assistant] You know, and great commentators just find a way to, to be.


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[Assistant] Part of the sport without being the story, if that makes sense. To find the right words to match the audience, to match the sport.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Harry Carpenter, uh, was another one from, from way back, Ian Dark as a boxing commentator, John Rawling as well, you know, used to, uh,


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[Assistant] Worked with both of those guys and, uh, and loved, loved their boxing commentary.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Steve Cram I think brings great experience.


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[Assistant] And knowledge and success and passion to his, his athletics, uh, commentary. Um, I listened probably more to Steve doing the curling than I do the, uh, I'm, I'm so into curling. Yeah. I find it. This is from the Olympics. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, if they ever put the winter Olympics on at the same time as the formula one, I'd be,


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[Assistant] The life of a commentator is rewarding and is excellent, but it is not easy.


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[Assistant] Because you're, you're one word away from being the wrong word a lot of the time. But yeaah, they're just some of the people, uhm, that I absolutely love. Peter O'Sullivan is a horse racing commentator.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Peter Bromley who did it for BBC Radio 5 Live. Occasionally I pinch his line.


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[Assistant] Uh, from 81 when Shergar won the derbies. Shergar wins the derby and you'll need a telescope to see the rest. And I might've used that.


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[Assistant] Without looking at each other, cause we've got a lot to look at when you're going to stop talking, you know, when you need to start and you listen to the nuances in his voice and.


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[Assistant] It is, it is a hopefully seamless non-crossing over of voices from start to finish. Uhm, first met Martin, obviously my first season. Didn't really talk to him a huge amount until Brazil. We actually found ourselves sat next to each other over lunch.


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[Assistant] And, uh, I said, I've got a question for you. He said, what's that? I said,


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[Assistant] But with radio, if there's nothing going on, we just say what we see. And, you know, talk about the weather and the pigeons or whatever. But TV, obviously people can see what's going on. I said, do you ever struggle for things to say? The TV commentary went, nah, there's always something to say, Crofty. Always something to say. Which has stuck with me.


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[Assistant] Throughout my career that it might seem at times that there is nothing to say. I don't know.


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[Assistant] I was in Formula One and hanging around them while we talked from time to time.


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[Assistant] I was actually with him, I was actually with Martin the night that the BBC, uhm, Sky Deal, uhm, was signed.


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[Assistant] Cause he left, he left very, very sharp. It sure. I think he got a call to say, yeah, this deal has just been done. And then we kind of talked quite a bit as that autumn went on and, um,


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[Assistant] Remember we had a conversation, a conversation on the bridge in Korea. If you remember the old Mokpo track.


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[Assistant] He was going one way, I was going the other and we just happened to stop in the middle of the bridge and we're like...


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[Assistant] Have you been in conversations with Sky at all? And he's like, yeah, have you been in conversations with Sky? Yeah, I think they might want us to be together. Oh, what do you think about that? I think it's a great idea. And so do I. Right, brilliant.


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[Assistant] And, and that's where we kind of first got the feeling that we'd be working together. We did one rehearsal here at Sky. Really? Yeah. Kind of impossible to rehearse, but I guess you just have to get used to each other's company, right? We did the previous year's, um, Australian Grand Prix and, uh, and our producer and number two, our head of F1, his number two came in.


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[Assistant] Let's save it for the real thing. But I've thoroughly enjoyed and loved working alongside Martin and getting to know him. He is an amazing broadcaster.


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[Assistant] Uhm, has a huge amount of knowledge in the sport. When he speaks, people listen, because he doesn't use his words lightly, and knows his responsibility.


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[Assistant] And, and, and, and acts accordingly. And I think, I think he's a great ambassador for the sport of Formula One.


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[Assistant] It is a world away from anything you'll ever drive. And it is. I had three laps.


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[Assistant] And I've managed to, I've managed to spin in the Renault 2.0 twice.


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[Assistant] Earlier that day I managed to go a little bit too fast in the Clio while we were learning the track as well. Uhm, but I managed to get three laps in that were just pure unadulterated joy.


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[Assistant] And realize that actually you now feel part of the car rather than just squashed into the cockpit.


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[Assistant] And you get out of first gear, which is already pretty quick.


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[Assistant] And then you get into second gear and think, oh my, um, and Sky wanted me to do a commentary while I was driving. I think all I could say for the first, that was all my, cause it was just taking my breath away, literally. And, um.


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[Assistant] It just, it's the sensation, not just of speed, but speed through the corners and stopping speed as well. You've got to trust this thing to do its job and it does. And you know, you kind of, you want to thrust forward, but your belts hold you tight when you put the brakes on and change the direction. It's a phenomenal experience.


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[Assistant] Best five minutes of my life on four wheels ever.


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[Assistant] And will never, ever be repeated, I'm sure.


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[Assistant] You know, where your front wheels are and you know, this was before the days of the halo.


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[Assistant] That we have now. There was no other cars on the track as well. I mean, how, how some of these drivers place their cars with such precision and skill, can, and do it lap after lap.


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[Assistant] We should never take for granted the talent you need to be an F1 driver. I got back in and one of the mechanics went, nice one Crofty, got some grips with that then. I went, yea, brilliant with it. And he went, did you change the diff for any particular reason? I went, did I change the diff? Yes, you did. Halfway round.


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[Assistant] It did make you go a little bit faster, but we didn't ask you to do that. Honestly, I had no idea.


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[Assistant] Getting crossed up. I had tears when it finished. I was so emotional. But what car would I drive? On what track would I drive? I think, I think I'd like to


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[Assistant] I think I'd like to drive the MP44 around Suzuka.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, I'd love to drive that car around Suzuka.


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[Assistant] And then I'd like to jump in the current Red Bull and drive that around Suzuka.


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[Assistant] And just see what the difference is between the two record breaking


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[Assistant] Well, I'd first and foremost I'd have to get, uhm, I'd have to stop the FIA being the rules makers. And that's the trouble the commercial rights holder has, is that they don't make the rules.


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[Assistant] They can have an influence because they have a standing on the F1 commission, but they don't make the rules the FIA do. Uhm, and I think, I think the time has come I think in F1 to...


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[Assistant] To actually bring the two parties a lot more closely aligned and, and, and they are a lot more closely aligned and, and, and these regulation changes I think have been driven by, by, by, by F1 rather than the FIA. Uhm, but I think


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[Assistant] We need, we need to think about the show and the spectacle.


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[Assistant] And marketing sometimes needs to be a bit more important than engineering, but we need to also keep that balance in engineering as well. And I think we're getting there with a sprint, but I would personally, I think we're at the limit for the amount of races.


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[Assistant] I don't think we need any more racism, and sometimes less is more than that one.


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[Assistant] We'll do 24 next year and then we'll revisit it again and maybe 24 might be a bit too much. Because to actually ask people to invest so much time in the sport for 24 races as fans is asking a huge amount. But I understand why it's happening. Uhm, I think, I think,


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[Assistant] The sprint concept is, is, is good. I like it. Uhm, but I don't like it being part of the world championship. I like...


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[Assistant] Have you, you could go into sprint qualifying and then.


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[Assistant] The sprints with maybe a 20 minute warm up in the morning. That's you Friday.


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[Assistant] Yes. For the rest of the weekend. Yeah. Cause you then have your practice session on the Saturday morning, Saturday qualifying race on Sunday.


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[Assistant] So you're keeping the two very separate for different world championships. And if the teams, if all the drivers don't want to run in the sprint world championships, fine. There's enough reserve drivers that do. Maybe that's a good way of getting the reserve drivers involved in that. So commercially that's kind of what I'd look at.


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[Assistant] I think a simplification of the rules, because they get a bit too complicated, uhm, and we need to find a way to simplify it. And...


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[Assistant] Just put, you know, put the show first occasionally. Ban blue flags, because I don't, if you're good enough to be leading a race.


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[Assistant] Yeah, you're good enough to pass another driver, not leading the race because they're last, without them having to jump out the way. Might make things a lot more interesting as well.


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[Assistant] Without any investment in the sport, without any engineering challenges whatsoever. That is, that's a master stroke, a stroke of a flag, waver flag, you could actually just get rid, you could get rid of something that I just think is unnecessary. Other motorsport categories don't have blue flags.


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[Assistant] We have a tradition and a heritage in Formula One that you don't want to, you don't want to upset too much and you want to keep because there are.


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[Assistant] A fair amount of fans who don't like the sprints at all. But maybe if you had the sprints at the start and then the rest of the weekend is the Grand Prix weekend, that might overcome that a little bit. And then try not to tinker too much because by and large we've got a really good spectacle.


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[Assistant] Just to change, just to change the, uh. I'm a proper metalhead. Yeah, yeah. I absolutely adored my time at Download this year. Uhm, it was so nice to actually go back to a heavy metal festival I hadn't been for ages.


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[Assistant] It is the golden ticket, but I met up with my chums from Skindred, who are a top band, and the new album is out now, and it's sensational, it really is, it's absolutely brilliant. Unstoppable, they could have written that track about Max Verstappen, quite frankly. Caught up with the Parkway Drive boys as well, who were just fantastic, and I just


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[Assistant] You know, you, you know how when you first came into the paddock and I was the same and you see these F1 drivers, you think, oh my lord, there's my heroes. You know, there's Alan Prost. And, and it's great, but that's my job, right?


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[Assistant] And, and I can't stand there and queue up for autographs and, and you know, take selfies, et cetera.


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[Assistant] But I can go to download night and hang around with rock stars and treat them like rock stars because they are rock stars. And I just, I find, I find music a great, um, a release. I find music.


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[Assistant] I need music to work to when I'm doing all my prep notes. I always have music on. You have it, you've got a bit of metal going on. Yeah. And I've always been a heavy metal fan. It's one of the nicest things, one of the nicest things recently.


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[Assistant] Uhm, is I've got to know a guy called Misha Mansour really well, who is the man who founded a bank called Periphery. Now you'd love Periphery.


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[Assistant] They're like, they're progressive metal. So you know all the shouty stuff I listen to. It's like that, but prog rock kind of weak in.


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[Assistant] And I happen to think that Loon is one of the greatest songs I've ever heard. It's an amazing track. But Misha is a massive F1 fan.


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[Assistant] And he's the, he's, he's the guy that gets up at 5 a.m. in California to watch F1. And I'm the guy, you know, that listens to his music at 5 a.m. back in the UK when I've got an early start. And through a friend of a friend, we kind of, we've, we've started communicating and got to know each other. Um, he was playing, I, I, I,


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[Assistant] I can't believe the planning here. He played Manchester on the Sunday of the Belgian Grand Prix. Uhm, so couldn't get over to Belgium to see the race and I also couldn't get to see his gig but they're touring again next year which is fantastic so I'll go and see him in London. But it's been lovely to actually just


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[Assistant] To speak to someone whose music I listen to, who is music I find absolutely inspirational, and he keeps telling me he can't believe he's talking to the voice of Formula One, which is a bit stupid because I don't think of myself like that.


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[Assistant] No, I do. I, I, I love music. Music has always been a massive part of my life and I can't go anywhere without listening to it. So on the way back from this, I'll probably stick, I'll probably stick a bit of Primordial Radio on and heaven only knows. They'll, they'll put on for me. I was going to wear my Skindra t-shirt.


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[Assistant] I have waited 10 minutes, right, on both occasions for a couple of selfies that, and I don't do too many selfies, I occasionally do, just...


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[Assistant] Great old chat about music. Uhm, but the two guys I have...


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[Assistant] Waited and waited and waited and eventually got a selfie with were Vince Neil, the lead singer of Motley Crue, who was in Austin and last year, uh, so two years ago, Lars Ulrich, uh, the drummer for Metallica.


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[Assistant] They played Donnie's in 87, I think that was the first time I saw Metallica. Still going strong. Yeaah. It was in Ride the Lightning time, which is still their best album.


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[Assistant] In the morning, I have no idea what is going to happen for the rest of that day.


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[Assistant] The utmost to make sure that I'm completely on top of anything that could go on. You're never totally sure that that's going to be the case. And...


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[Assistant] You live a life that's full of surprises and you open yourself up to these surprises and you walk on that tight rope without the safety net and you get to the other side most of the time with a big smile on your face. And that's what I love about my job the most that the travel.


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[Assistant] I think the travel is great. I love traveling the world. I'm not going to complain about that. About that.


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[Assistant] The people I work with are just, we have a great crew.


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[Assistant] Our riggers, our sound guys, who trudge their way, you know, round circuits in all sorts of weather.


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[Assistant] Always with a smile on their face, you know, and, and often giving you great lines to say on air as well. You know, we just have a brilliant team of people working frantically.


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[Assistant] You know, to, to deliver the best possible output we ever possibly could, could deliver and to be a part of that is an honour. To be invited into people's homes is a privilege and to be able to say lights out and away we go.


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[Assistant] And then carry on talking and see what happens. That's a joy.


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[Assistant] We were celebrating a good race and then we got on the nine o'clock flight, um, and, uh, yeah, myself, Danica and, uh, one of our producers, Tommy, were heading towards the airport and then, yeah, got back late yesterday. So, all right, ship shape. Ship shape.


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[Assistant] No, cause we're sort of, we just live like vampires as you know, so eh, we're, we're, we're up all night and stay on UK time, but you don't have that luxury, do you? And in Japan, you just don't have it.


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[Assistant] I was thinking about that. Do you remember Henry Hope Frost? Uhm, really good guy. It was uhm, good with a couple of weeks ago and he was known for having a fever. Uhm, and it was on Saturday and it was night and that one's been.


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[Assistant] That's it. I mean, it was for any motorsport fan and for a Formula One fan, uhm, it was just, it was good to see, wasn't it? It was refreshing to see that.


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[Assistant] The Red Bull, despite their amazing domination so far, and it has been amazing, you've got to doff your cap to what is one of the best cars possibly in the history of Formula One, in fact definitely in the history of Formula One.


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[Assistant] 15 in a row, Max obviously with the record for consecutive wins. And then it was just an amalgamation of many things which I'm sure will come onto which cost them in qualifying and the race. They had too much to do after qualifying on Saturday and it just brought


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[Assistant] A number of teams into it and that, that end that we had, the last 17 laps, it was out, it was outstanding. It was the best race of the year. I don't think anybody could deny that.


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[Assistant] And everyone was on the edge of their seats after that late virtual safety car and Mercedes kind of taking the chance to go for those two sets of new mediums which they'd held back exactly for a situation like that.


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[Assistant] And actually you could say, couldn't you, that the symbiosis extended to his, to his teammate, Charles, because he was prepared to act as his rear gunner, particularly as he got ahead on the softs at the start and you got two Ferraris at the front. When he got ahead of G Russell, they were able to, they were able to kind of,


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[Assistant] After the race, I was quite surprised that Charles said, look, we did the job we needed to do tonight. It didn't work out for me, but it worked out for the team. And Carlos deserves it after the way he's been driving. I think in a Ferrari, uh, in his Ferrari overalls, this is probably


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[Assistant] As good a run as he's had since the summer break, he's just totally on it. And it feels to me like he's added.


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[Assistant] Saturday, single-lap qualifying pace to Tears Armory, which was his weakness. I think it's something like 8-7 now to Charl on a Saturday, but.


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[Assistant] He's no pushover, that is, as we were talking about after the race with everybody, it's not a 1-2 driveline up there, it's two world-class drivers and they're working together and driving the team forward and


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[Assistant] Ferrari executed very well and I think that would have been one of the biggest question marks. Yes, a lot was down to the driver, but overall as a team they had a good weekend I think.


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[Assistant] Yeah, absolutely. I don't, I don't think you can, there's no doubt about iverdrive. Well, there's, there's, there were small doubts about iverdrive. I've always said this to hand and I, and I, he knows what I feel with, with Charlotte. I always think he kind of,


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[Assistant] He's guilty of making a few too many mistakes, uh, and I think he's, he's ironing that out. He's still probably the quicker of the two drivers. In fact, definitely the quicker of the two drivers over one lap. But when it comes to the race itself, Carlos Sides.


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[Assistant] Is, as I always say, he's from racing royalty, you know, his dad, very cerebral driver. He's the same that they, they think their way through things and.


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[Assistant] Going back to what you were saying about wise and the intelligence that Carlos possesses, I'd say he's one of the most intelligent drivers and he uses it every single Sunday.


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[Assistant] Right? He might not have had the podiums this year, but he's always there or thereabouts. He's always been fourth or fifth. He always maximizes what that car can do. So if he's given a race winning car, if he's given a car that can challenge Red Bull over the course of a season, I think there's a very strong case to say that, you know, that pairing is stronger than the Red Bull lineup.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I'd say that that is on a par potentially, perhaps not quite as good as the Mercedes pair, which I'd still say is number one, but I don't know if Anne agrees, but as you said, two world-class drivers, give them the car, they'll turn it into wins.


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[Assistant] I think, I think that's, that's where it all started, wasn't it? He saw a son of Godzilla, baby Godzilla, it was haunting for him and it all went backwards from there. At least that's one explanation you could say. But, the bassline set up wasn't right, was it? From the start, so they were playing catch up.


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[Assistant] You know, he didn't seem to have any confidence in the first sector. He was bottoming out under breaking, which was, going back to what?


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[Assistant] What Amit was saying is all about braking, it's all about traction out the slow corners. They had neither of those. And I think with regards to the car itself, we know that as an aero platform, it tends to work.


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[Assistant] On most circuits now, medium speed corners, high speed corners.


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[Assistant] The slow speed corners combined I think with the bumpy nature of the track and the fact that there were such big kerbs meant that they had to adjust the ride height and in adjusting the ride height it kind of threw the setup off a little bit. They tried some tweaks between the third practice session


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[Assistant] It was just a combination of things, there's been talk about whether the TD's on the flexi front wings and the underside of the car.


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[Assistant] I played anything, uh, into this, but I'm not sure that's the case. Maybe that's a red herring, but we'll find out, won't we, in Suzuka. So uhm, Christian was playing it down. The team was saying, look, it's absolutely nothing to do with that. It is just, we've got an unbalanced car. We can't get the setup right. And I think,


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[Assistant] It got slightly better in the race. They got unlucky, didn't they? They were holding out for... The safety car came too early for them, really, because they both started on the sets of hards. And then they pitted and then, what was it, three laps later the virtual safety car came out. So...


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[Assistant] Timing wise, they got a little bit unlucky in the race. They knew what they were trying to do. But ultimately, it all stems from the fact that they didn't get Quanny right. And that's back to back years now where it's not paid off for Max Verstappen and he was saying, look, it's totally unacceptable. This car, you cannot drive it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and it looked like it was just like skating across the track at times, so I, I thought for...


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[Assistant] For then, it was a horrible weekend, but for everybody watching from the neutrals perspective.


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[Assistant] It kind of, it was, it just was a breath of fresh air for, for the competition. We needed that weekend. We needed to see that there was a chink in the armour.


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[Assistant] And obviously Red Bull being Red Bull will go away and work on that and clearly improve the car for next year. So it kind of, you know, it's a double-edged sword we got on, you know, thriving we got on this, this year in Singapore, but.


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[Assistant] They'll get it right. That car has got very, very few weaknesses.


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[Assistant] It's not like you're responsible for a squad of 24 players, like you might be in a Premier League football team. You're responsible for a squad and a team of up to a thousand, maybe more than a thousand people in the case of some of the bigger teams.


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[Assistant] I think as a team principal you have to wear a number of hats. I think Christian is actually pretty good at it.


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[Assistant] You know, there's a reason that he's the longest serving team principal. There's a reason that he's like the second youngest team principal. I think he's second only to Colin Chapman, isn't it? There's a reason that he got that, that earling. He is driven. He is focused. He is an absolute competitor. And.


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[Assistant] I think over the last few years, they've been used to a lot of criticism coming towards them, for the right and the wrong reasons, but whatever the reasons are,


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[Assistant] He had to do that at the beginning of the weekend because Dr. Marko's comments were unacceptable.


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[Assistant] Uhm, he did, when we interviewed him, I asked him about, you know, why there wasn't a statement released by the team. And he said that is because he's an employee of the wider Red Bull group.


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[Assistant] Uhm, when you look on the company's house website, he is one of only two active directors of Red Bull Racing. So you could say there was an element of spin there. Dr Marco apologized, Sergio Perez accepted it.


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[Assistant] Um, was that enough? What would it have cost them? I think the team to put out a statement saying it's just not good enough, but.


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[Assistant] Number two, he had a struggling car and two very frustrated drivers all weekend.


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[Assistant] But I think there's an acceptance that they're just so far ahead, right? The, the championships, both of the championships are theirs, it's not a question of, of, uh, if but when.


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[Assistant] So I think they've got that leeway that he's able to take it on the chin and say, okay, we'll learn from this, we'll move on. Uh, I think he does it very well. Uh, you know, I, uh, I think...


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[Assistant] That team occasionally, I would say, is a very unforgiving environment.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I'm just looking at what Liam Lawson's going on going through at the moment, but certainly, you know, there is absolutely no room for error and that it's a highly, highly pressurized team and environment that perhaps differs to some of the other ones. Uhm, I'm thinking of, you know,


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[Assistant] Some of the bigger teams, it's definitely a different way to go racing. It's their own way. Red Bull's way. So I think he handled it as best he could. Horrible weekend.


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[Assistant] Came out, faced the music like they all did. I think they just were like, right, okay. Bad weekend, move on, we'll be good for Suzuko.


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[Assistant] Was he, was he thrown though? I mean, the question, because Lando hit the wall as well. Lando hit turn 10, he glanced it, and I wonder if he's kind of like, you're hypnotised, aren't you? You're following him so closely, he's trying absolutely everything he can.


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[Assistant] To, you know, to, to get on his tail and make the miracle move.


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[Assistant] But he's so close, he just, he misjudged it by a fraction of an inch and hit it slightly harder than Lando's kiss and that's, that's kind of what...


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[Assistant] What did it for him? But I mean, he looked, yeaah, he really called it pathetic, didn't he? Once all the dust had settled, once he'd got through the emotion of it all, which must have been absolutely coursing through his veins for about an hour, I think by the time he'd got


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[Assistant] Press conference after qualifying he said, you know, we're the only ones realistically that could physically do a one or a two stop depending on the safety car coming out because they had that extra set of mediums and it worked out almost perfectly that they were able to get those and strap on the new mediums and just throw caution to the wind and attack, attack, attack.


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[Assistant] But once he didn't get the pass on Lando done early, I think it was game over for him. And then he was, you know, he was gambling a little bit and therefore made the mistake right at the end. So, um, yeah, a shame for George, but you know, he'll bounce back. He's going to win a load more grand prize in his career.


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[Assistant] Well, first of all, we're all glad he's alright because that was, that was a big one. I think Martin in his column on Monday morning said, you know, you wouldn't have survived that in his time, perhaps in the, you know, eighties, nineties, whatever, before all of the safety changes.


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[Assistant] Became standard. That would have been a very, very nasty shunt. It still was a nasty shunt. And I think...


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[Assistant] The combination of that and a hugely expensive and extensive rebuild of the car meant that they just thought, right, let's take the decision, pause, get him right, get him back for Suzuka so that we can,


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[Assistant] You know, so that we can get there and just wash our hands of this weekend, because it didn't work out for Fernando Alonso either. He had that little piss got me talking about the gambling, you know, 25 seconds. He was stuck there. He got five second penalty for crossing the pit line, pit lane entry line. So all in all, that was a horror weekend.


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[Assistant] You're benchmarking yourself against, to me, one of the top three drivers on the grid and, you know, quite possibly on a par with Lewis and Max because Fernando Alonso is that good. So you're always having...


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[Assistant] To compare yourself to that, and that is hard because he's not at that standard.


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[Assistant] He very much is not Fernando Alonso. It's very unlikely that Lance Stroll will become Fernando Alonso in the future. So where's his head at after that? He was able to be reasonably competitive against Sebastian Vettel towards the end of Sebastian Vettel's career.


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[Assistant] He has been blown away this year. He's been unfortunate. He had obviously the pre-season accident, uhm, which he...


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[Assistant] You know, came back strongly from but he's not on that level.


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[Assistant] And if he was closer, they would be challenging for second and they wouldn't be now trying to hold their own for fourth. So they've got an issue. Um, and I'm fascinated with his father owning and seem to see how, how it pans out because I wonder if it's, you know, if it's a case of.


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[Assistant] You know, is his heart in it? Is his head in it? Uhm, I hope for his sake it is. And that he, you know, bounces back in Suzuka. But only time will tell on that one. It's uhm, it's one of the great kind of quandaries at the moment, I think in Formula One, what goes on there.


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[Assistant] When he stopped by, I had to talk to him afterwards because of his start.


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[Assistant] I think he was like, it achieved that. It, you know, it got into the points. Uh, they've had four drivers there and only Yuki scored points alongside him and only one point more than him. So,


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[Assistant] He can't, I'm with Ant, can't have done any more, I think what they might do.


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[Assistant] Is if they are going to announce Yuuki for another year and the likelihood is that they trust Daniel Ocado to come back and give him the spot that they kind of held out to give him, then what do you do with him? So if you look with Alex Albong, you know, maybe they'll send him out on a.


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[Assistant] You know, a piece of elastic somewhere else that they can come back and we were talking about it and Karuna and I were chatting about it.


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[Assistant] You know, I think one of the likely places for him to end up is Williams. I think he's the kind of guy that's made such an impression that.


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[Assistant] You know, as my wife comes through the door, there we go. Oh gosh, interrupting the podcast. There you are, just going through our morning coffee.


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[Assistant] Um, anyway, let me, let me continue with my train of thought. Hold on. What are we talking about? Oh yeah, Liam Norton. So yeah, he, yeah, I just think that Williams would be a good fit for him. Imagine that as a combination. Alex Albond.


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[Assistant] I think that would be a good option. I wonder if it is an option or whether they just hold him back as a reserve driver for next year and then slip him in when they have the opportunity. But right now I think he's the kind of guy that is a breath of fresh air.


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[Assistant] And we need more of that next generation because he, he seems like he's to the man of born I reckon, I really do.


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[Assistant] Feels like the right step, doesn't it? For both the drive and for the Williams team. And, and Vals, he said that, didn't he? When he came into, into, uh, after Monza, he just said, look, I've said to Logan, it's in your hands. You've got the next few races to, to, to prove whether you can pick up the points. And, um, at the moment, he's not.


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[Assistant] You see the opportunity to get somebody like Liam Lawson, you go, right, okay. That, for the team.


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[Assistant] You know, that's a really potentially very good line up and, and one that they've not had for a few years. And with Alex pulling them in the right direction, if they've got a second driver that can help him do that, then all of a sudden these


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[Assistant] Uh, green shoots of recovery at Williams are, are growing into smaller plants and, you know, taking hold and, and that's exactly what he's wanted to do, James. And, uh, it feels like at last Williams are a team moving in the right direction. So I wonder if that will motivate them for, for his, um, his, his signature, if they can get it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, 180R and all that kind of stuff. It's just, it is an amazing track and it's a chassis track. So I'm with Anne, right? It's, it's, it's effectively.


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[Assistant] It's going to be Red Bull, again, unless, unless something


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[Assistant] Stratospheric happens is gonna be Red Bull, but I just fancy, I think McCarran and the team, they're just doing this with the upgrades this year. They, they are, they've sorted out one of their Achilles heels, which was the low speed corners, it seems on, on Lando's car. That update worked really well for them.


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[Assistant] It's a, it's a, becoming a good car at most circuits now. And I think if you had to pick one team that have developed best over the year, it's obviously McLaren. And, and you can see that in the results and how they've got better. So yeah, uhm, yeah, bring it on. Can't wait.


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[Assistant] I'll probably be in from my sofa and not from the tiny hotel rooms that I had Scott get into with the device. Scott you always said.


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[Assistant] As Crofty always says, you just pour some hot water on the rice pillows and it fluffs them up and makes them more comfortable. So remember that tip, yeaah.


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[Assistant] Explain who, is it a person or is it a place? Who? Yokaichi or sushi? Sushi's a food map, and uh, Yokaichi is the place we stay in, but we're just outside Yokaichi.


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[Assistant] It's an extraordinary place Japan, I urge you to go if you've never been before.


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[Assistant] Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to this week's episode and joining me for this one is the voice of Formula One.


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[Assistant] David Croft and alongside him, well, a man who has 94 Grand Prix starts, seven wins, including Monaco and a couple of Indy 500 titles to his name as well. It's Juan Pablo Montoya. Hello to you both. How we doing? Yeah, we'll give a little round of applause there. Hello.


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[Assistant] What a weekend, uh, Juan Pablo to get you in obviously because we've, we've got Monaco, which we've had, but also the Indy 500 as well. But I know you were in Monaco. Uh, how was it? How did you enjoy your weekend?


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[Assistant] Right on cue, I guess. We're, we're going to get into, uh, into Max's amazing qualifying lap, because it was absolutely sensational. And I want to get into talk about Sebastian, your son as well, and what it's like being a racing dad. Uh, Crofty, how was your weekend? Is it, is Monaco one of those where you need a, a few days to recover afterwards?


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[Assistant] Well, I think whoever did the weather for the whole, for the whole of Sunday didn't quite get it right, did they? 20% chance of rain. Crofty, you were saying your, your, what, your, your guy on the boat said there was very little chance or something like that?


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[Assistant] What I, what I think it does perfectly and what it tees up our conversation about on this podcast is, is actually, and what you were saying, Juan Pablo, was with regards to Alonso and Aston Martin, the fact that


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[Assistant] They are now contending for wins on a weekly basis and that decision of going for broke as you put it is actually indicative of the fact that they're gutsy, they're going to go for these opportunities because that's how they're going to get into


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[Assistant] Red Bull, uh, into Red Bull and Verstappen. And, and I think what I just want to go through some of the quotes that Alonso said after the race, um, because he very much believes that Aston Martin are in with a chance.


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[Assistant] Perhaps this year, but definitely next year of taking the fight to Red Bull.


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[Assistant] So he said, you know, back in 2010, they didn't have the best car, but they...


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[Assistant] He said in 2012, they still didn't have the best car, but they were fighting for the championship until the last lap in Brazil.


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[Assistant] He said, this is motorsport, anything can happen. I'll be fighting for the championship with all second places until the end of the year or fighting for the championship next year. So Juan Pablo, when you hear those words from Fernando Alonso,


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[Assistant] Does that get you excited? Does that make you believe that Aston Martin really are here and here to stay?


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[Assistant] Juan Pablo, is it, is that true? It's all about the people. Those are, that's how you succeed in Formula One is by getting good people at the right time at the peak of their powers and putting them in one team together like Lawrence Stroll has done.


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[Assistant] Absolutely. Juan Pablo, did you hear, it was in Baku, wasn't it, when, uhm, sort of midway through the lap, Fernando was giving some information that would have helped Lance. Is that a Fernando, that's a new Fernando, isn't it, that I don't think a lot of people recognise, but one that we're all loving, right?


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[Assistant] Well, and Pablo, you're, so not only is obviously Sebastian racing an F3, but you also race together in the European Le Mans series as well. So how does that change your dynamic? Obviously that's you watching him, but how does it feel when you race with him?


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[Assistant] I was going to ask the question as well about other racing dads, uh, and looking particularly at Josef Verstappen as well, because he seems to be this seat. I mean, definitely he's been a key part of that.


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[Assistant] I can imagine. I just, uh, I wanna, I wanna come back onto a little bit the Aston Martin story and just regards to Fernando Alonso and his impact in the team. So, he, uh, well he's 41 years old and that makes him the oldest driver to finish on the podium in Monaco since Jack Brab, since Jack Brabham in 1970.


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[Assistant] At the age of 41, Crofty, is this the best Fernando that you've seen?


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[Assistant] Juan Pablo, you made your debut, didn't you, with Fernando Alonso in 2001?


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[Assistant] Can you, can you remember what sort of driver he was?


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[Assistant] If you think back to 2001 when you were both making your debut, can you still believe he's going at 41?


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[Assistant] So it's a decade since Fernando Alonso last won a Formula One race in Spain in 2013. Are we going to Spain? Where are we going this week?


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[Assistant] Improve in lap time, because is it fair to say we didn't see that improvement in Monaco?


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[Assistant] And since we've got you on Juan Pablo, we've got to talk about the Indy 500 this weekend because


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[Assistant] Joseph Newgarden ended his 11 year wait, you know, frustration, so much frustration. He finally won the Indy 500 and he did it on the final lap, passing Marcus Ericsson, uh, after a third red flag. I mean, you, you raced in it last year.


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[Assistant] And you won it twice. What did you make of that final sprint finish? Because it was epic, wasn't it?


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[Assistant] Crofty, I think you would have been mid-air at this point while this was going on, but I was making my dinner.


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[Assistant] Juan Pablo, what is it about, um, what is it about ovals that's, I mean, cause to watch them as a viewer at home, they just are just so exciting to watch. How is it to race ovals? Cause I almost feel like you guys who do it are sort of built a bit differently to, certainly to me, I don't know about you, Crofty.


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[Assistant] We'll make it happen. You heard it here first. Uh, that's the, it feels like a lovely way to end it. Um, Juan Pablo, thank you so much for your time. Really, really appreciate it. Crofty, thank you as well. Uh, are you both off to Spain next week? Uh, yeah, my kid's raising. I know you are, Crofty. Yeah, perfect. Well.


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[Assistant] Hello and welcome to the Sky Sports F1 podcast with me, Matt Baker. I hope you're doing okay. Today we've got a really special episode because I'm joined by Jessica Hawkins, stunt driver, racing driver and Aston Martin ambassador. How you doing, Jess?


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[Assistant] I'm very well, I'm very well. We're speaking to you today. It's a pretty special day, isn't it? Because today you have tested a Formula One car.


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[Assistant] Best day of your life. Uhm, I guess the first question is, how was it? Was it pretty good?


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[Assistant] Tell me, take me inside the cockpit. How does it feel to drive it? For those of us who will never get to do that, I'm going to definitely put myself in that category. Tell us how it actually feels to drive a Formula One car.