Introducing The Crew Chief

The F1 FunCast podcast is excited to have its first guest, Connor, also known as the Crew Chief. They discuss his love for Formula One and how he got into the sport. They also talk about memorable races and drivers, including Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Connor shares his favorite race weekend to attend, which is Monza, known as the temple of speed due to its high-speed track and passionate fans. Monza holds the record for the fastest lap in Formula One. Hello, welcome back to the F1 FunCast, Formula One's most interactive podcast, this side of the Mississippi or the Atlantic or the Pacific or wherever you are, we're on that side of it. So, thank you for joining me here today, this is the F1 FunCast, my name is James, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Instagram, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, F1 FunCast across all of those. Thank you, thank you for coming and checking this out today, we've got something really exciting happening, I've got my first guest here on the podcast today, we call him the Crew Chief around here because of all his intimate knowledge about Formula One and all things motorsport, so we're going to have my cousin Connor, the Crew Chief, coming on here in a little bit to talk to us about his Formula One fandom, where he comes from, his background, and a little bit of his expertise and opinion going forward. So that's something to look forward to for sure and very excited, very excited to keep growing this community, growing our listeners, I want to reach out to you, remember if you reach out to us, we're going to shout you out on the podcast, we're going to give you a chance to have your voice heard, that's very important to us here on the podcast is if you want to have your voice heard and you feel like you haven't been heard in the Formula One world, well this is the place for you, so welcome aboard, we're going to get this party started in just a minute, yeah, I'm looking forward to our first ever guest, and we're going to be talking a little bit about the sprint race format that's changing here in the future, and a little bit about, you know, the things, this is a get me over podcast as they say, we've got to get to Baku, we're under two weeks away now, about 12 days from the Grand Prix, 10 days from practice, so we're getting there, I know we're all anxious, we're all looking forward to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and seeing what car upgrades are coming along, and seeing if we can close that gap up to Red Bull, if your favorite team out there is going to close the gap, let me know, let me know what you expect in Baku and how you feel about the new sprint race weekend format, so yeah, let's just get that out of the way and give the crew chief a call here and get him on board with us, you know, let's give him a call, let's start this party up, and I guess we're in there, so yeah, Conor, welcome on here to the F1 Funcast, and just glad to have you on here, and why don't we start with, why don't you let me know what got you into Formula One in the first place, I know you're a big motor sport fan, but what is it about Formula One that got your attention? Well, I just want to start by saying that, you know, thanks for having me on here, it's cool that you're doing this podcast, and I've been listening to all the episodes and listening to the progress, and I'm glad that you're getting some great feedback, so I started getting into Formula One, let's see, I think it was like 2004, 2005 time frame, back when Michael Schumacher was at like the peak of his powers towards the end of his run of seven championships, he had two with Benetton, and then five with Ferrari, ending in 2004. So would you say he was kind of the drawing factor, his dominance, or was it just he was there and then you? I'm not really sure, to be honest, I mean, I think I started watching it with my dad, and I think we just kind of like picked it up to watch one weekend and decided to watch one of the races, and I got into it a little bit, I liked it enough, because I watched NASCAR all the time as a kid, and so I was always watching some kind of racing, and then it was around when I was in like high school, I would say, is when I really started getting deeper into it, and I started looking at the history of the sport, and all the technical stuff that goes along with it, I mean, I pored over technical update after technical update as they uploaded them onto their website, I mean, they used to have really cool drawings by, I think it was Giorgio Paola, I probably butchered that name, but he does really, really excellent technical drawings, and I was just fascinated by the creativity of the engineers and the designers, and everything that really goes into picking up just those few tenths of a second around a lap is amazing. So you were really looking at design of the car, this was before, you know, YouTube videos and stuff like that, you were looking at technical drawings and, you know, more in depth than just watching a five minute YouTube video. Yeah, I mean, there's a fair share of YouTube searches going on at that point too, as well as I was getting more and more into it, but you know, I used to sit there in class in high school with my headphones on watching the pole laps from each weekend throughout the season, and race highlights, and technical analysis, yeah, sorry mom, I spent more time doing that in theology than I probably should have. I was going to say, we're not editing that out, we're keeping that in there. Yeah, that was all done in my theology class, so I guess you could say motorsports and Formula One became my religion. Fair enough, that's pretty funny. So then I guess I'll ask you, what I was wondering was, like, what was that first memory that really sticks out, like a race that you watched or something that really hooked you in there, and was there a particular Grand Prix that you remember really catching you back then in that time, or was there a driver, or just what's your first memory, I guess, of like a big Grand Prix weekend? I remember, I think it was Indianapolis in 2005 when they had, I think, like six cars start the race, all the cars that were running Michelins withdrew on the formation lap. Right, I've been reading about that. They were having trouble with the sidewalls coming up onto the, like going through the bankings from the infield onto what is Indianapolis turn one, and then onto the front stretch where the sidewalls were just not able to handle the kind of pressures and forces that were, they just, they weren't designed for running on a banking like that, and all the lateral forces, and I think it was either Ralph, I think it was Ralph Schumacher that had a really, really nasty accident, I think the year before. Again, I could be getting that wrong, I'd have to look at it again, but I think there's a lot of safety concerns around it. And what I've heard about that, I guess they talked about liability, like if those teams ran on those tires, they could be held liable if someone was injured during that race. Yeah, exactly, exactly, because they were accepting that risk factor. Right, right, and we're going to do a whole episode on this one for sure, but. Oh, it's awesome. It's crazy that, yeah, I mean, I've watched the start of that race several times and just seeing six cars up there, it's like, you know, and I saw there's a bunch of people who got like their first ever career points, or their first points for their country, and it's like, well yeah, everybody gets a point when you're running six cars, but. Yeah, exactly, you know, the only lead cars are the two Ferraris, and I mean, obviously I'm kind of right away with it, but I think that the other one that really sticks out to me was the 2008 season finale in Brazil. What about that? What happened there? So there's a title fight going the entire season between Felipe Massa of Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, who is in his second year. He lost the championship the year before by one point to Kimi Raikkonen, also driving for Ferrari, and there was a lot of drama to it because it came down to the final corner of the final lap. Massa had to win the race, and I think Hamilton had to be in like fifth to win the championship, and it kind of started to rain right at the end of the race, and there were cars out there on slicks, or on the grooved slicks that they used to run, and there were cars that were out there on like the intermediate weather tires, and Massa won the race in Brazil, his home country. He's won the championship on home soil, and you know, the crowd's going crazy, and then Hamilton passes Timo Glock in the last corner going up the hill, and gets into the position that he needs to be to win the championship by one point. Wow. Wow. And just the heartbreak that Massa, you could see it on his face, and you know, there's a lot of controversy around that entire season as far as you'll have to look into Singapore in that year too. Is that the Singapore? Yeah. That's the crash gate, and it's actually, I read an article the other day, and they were talking how Bernie Ecclestone, the former chairman, he knew about it. He knew that it was intentional, and they kind of covered up the whole thing to prevent a scandal of sorts that might affect the image of Formula One. It's been a topic online this past week. I've noticed someone, whoever came in second in that season is trying to... That was Massa. Yeah, he's trying to get, right, right, like you just said, he's trying to get back... Because he's saying that what they should have done, which is, you know, what would have been the protocol to have happened, is my understanding of it, is that they could have nullified the points from that race because another major thing happened in that race where Massa had the fuel hose get stuck to his car, and that forced him to retire from the race. Isn't it interesting that Hamilton has a championship that he, given to him by technical and unusual ways, and then also in, what was it, 2020, he had one... 2021. 2021, it was kind of taken away, or at least kind of suspicious ending to that season on the last lap as well. It's kind of poetic symmetry in a way. Yeah, it is. It is. He's both been a very lucky driver, and he's been unlucky at times, but that comes when you have a career the way that Hamilton has had. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So then I guess, let me ask you this. We're going to... Who would you say your favorite driver that's not on the grid today, you know, a driver of historic past, who would you say is your number one? I feel like I know who you're going to say, but I want to hear it from you first. Okay. I mean, there's definitely a few. I think that because of the time that I first got into Formula One, I remember seeing that Rosso Corsa Ferrari going around the track with a screaming V10, and that red helmet in the cockpit of Michael Schumacher, and just... Yeah. Because he knew how to find the limits of that car, and when he was on it, he was just unbeatable. That's the impression. I really wish I had been into it back then, because it seems like it's the equivalent of watching Michael Jordan in his day, or just the best of all time doing it, you know, at the peak of the sport. And, I mean, we're kind of seeing it, or we had seen it with Hamilton's run. I mean, it was a little bit different because, you know, everybody says how Schumacher had, you know, easily the best car, but if you look back at those times, there's a lot of races where, you know, it didn't always go his way, and he wasn't always just right up the front and cruising away the victory the way that Hamilton had for eight years. He really had to fight for it. Yeah, because, I mean, Williams with Montoya back in the day, he was just ridiculous. And then the same thing when Montoya was at McLaren. And then also Raikkonen when he was at McLaren, and obviously once Fernando came along. But the early 2000s was a lot closer than it was between, I would say, 2014 and 2018 when things started to close up a little bit. It's so interesting to hear you say this because, as someone who's newer into the sport, hearing Williams and McLaren at the front of the grid is just so... Haven't heard that in a while, have we? And I mean, I'm pulling for Williams, but it just seems like they're a couple, at least a couple years away from moving up that order. The thing with Williams that gets me is that at the start of the turbo hybrid era in 2014, I mean, they were arguably the second best team for the majority of the season. I think they were up there with, like, Force India at the time, which is now Aston Martin. Used to be Racing Point. So what happened? How does a team slide back so far so fast? Is it just technology? It's tough. It's tough for a team like Williams because they are more of like a privately owned team. They're not owned by some big auto group like Mercedes or Ferrari or anybody like that. They have a different way of creating revenue, and they have a different type of budget compared to a Ferrari who has, back in the day, a $300 million budget and can just pay, pay, pay and never had an issue there. So when Williams, when it goes bad, it can go bad quickly because you can't. It's harder to recover that lost revenue or whatever. Yeah. They, I mean, they, you know, kind of like McLaren, you know, they have these glory days that you look back on back in, like, the 80s when they had just a really dominant car towards like the, I think it was like the, I want to say, I know McLaren had a really dominant car in 88 and the MP44. So I think it was like the early 90s when they really had a really quick car. That was their peak, or at least, you know, their strong, their last really strong. That was kind of what people look back on as far as their last great hurrah. When did Red Bull enter the mix then? When did they kind of show up on the scene and start becoming the force that they are now? Let me double check. Yeah, it's just curious because Red Bull seems, you know, such an outlier. You know, they're not a, they're a beverage company and they're an extreme sport company, but it's interesting. I'll double check here in a second. I also want a little bit more clarification because, you know, I think the history of these teams goes back a long way and all different kind of iterations. Right. Like Toro Rosso, which became AlphaTauri, that used to be a team called Minardi. Yes, I've heard that name. Which is where Fernando Alonso started back in 2001. That's where Alonso started with Minardi. He's pretty amazing. Oh, yeah. It's amazing. He's, you know, he's still performing the way that he is even all these years later. It kind of just goes to show how driven he is about the sport. Do you think he knew Aston Martin had a good car and that's why he jumped? Or do you think he just wanted a fresh start and he happened into a good car? Or do you think he knew they were on the verge of this big breakthrough this year? I'm not quite sure because, I mean, sometimes Alonso has a history of making questionable decisions as far as team choices and just being very unlucky. Like, so 2003 or 2004 he joins Renault. Right. I think it was 2004. Again, I could be wrong. It's a long time ago now. So 2005, 2006 he wins the championship with Renault. 2007 he moves to McLaren who just signs a new rookie under the name of Lewis Hamilton. They have a titanic duel all season long just going back and forth. Alonso was playing mind games with him all season long. I can't remember which race it was, but it was in qualifying. He pulls into the pits to get new tires or something like that. And he holds Hamilton up just enough so that Hamilton doesn't have enough time to get all the way back around to start a flying lap. Wow. Wow. See, it's interesting just the intra-team drama that can happen too. So that must have been a baby-faced Hamilton too. That must have been a really... Oh, yeah. Yeah, very green. I mean, baby-faced Hamilton lost that championship by a point that season, again, in Brazil. But he could have won it had he not crashed into the gravel trap when they were coming into the pits in China. He was running on slicks... Well, he was running on intermediates that were basically slicks at that point in time. He overshot the pit entry and went into the gravel trap and got stuck. Wow. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah. That honestly basically cost him the championship right there. But to get back to Red Bull. So they started in 2005. And they were a new team or were they an iteration of an old team rebuilt? Or was that just brand new? They were a brand new team. Brand new team. Wow. So they were not really well-known. Like you said, they kind of came in more as a good drink supplier. Everybody thought that they're just an energy drink supplier. What are they doing here in Formula One? And they definitely had a few shaky seasons. 2005 to about 2009 was very shaky. They had, let's see, I remember David Coulthard was their big driver that they had signed. And he kind of laid the groundwork in a sense. It's interesting because they're also, they do everything extreme. If you see extreme racing or boat racing or skydiving and stuff like that. Oh yeah, they're everywhere. So F1's a natural fit, but it took them a while to get to where they are. Back then, again, they were just the energy drink company. They didn't have the kind of marketing that they do now. I think that their success in Formula One has really helped with that. Vettel winning four championships in a row between 2010 and 2013, that really helps. He was my pick for your favorite driver of the past. I had Sebastian Vettel written down on the scorecard. If it wasn't Schumacher, just because I like his driving style. He was just always aggressive. I think that Vettel was definitely up there as well. He's only been gone eight months now, so it's not like he's that far in the past. I know, but it feels like a year. He's been very quiet. He's not really sticking his nose into the F1 world. No, I haven't seen anything. I think I saw something about him joking about the Aston Martin this year. Yeah, I saw that. As far as him wanting to take a drive in it. It's got to be hard to sit at home and not want to jump back in. Especially considering the year before, that car that you had wasn't necessarily competitive. Then you see Alonso standing on the podium in the first race. Basically, what is your old car? Right, that's true. That's a good point. Two years ago, that car wasn't competitive at all. Yeah, that's interesting. Let me ask you this then. If you could pick one Grand Prix weekend to go to, not just for the race, but for the whole thing. The environment, the practice, the qualifying, the people, all of it. Where would you go? It's a loaded question, I know. It kind of depends on what you're looking for. For me, I'm definitely a Tifosi. I think going to Monza would be just an unreal experience. It's the Mecca of speed. It's everything that you would want as a Ferrari fan. It's everybody screaming in Italian, going nuts when the Scarlet cars are doing well. I don't know if you've looked back at Leclerc's win in 2019 at Monza. The scenes there were unbelievable. I remember watching it live and getting chills and thinking, if I'm to ever go to a Formula One race overseas, that's got to be the one. That's the one for you. The whole weekend's got to be just loaded with good vibes and energy and all that. There's so much history at Monza as far as Formula One goes. They show it every year, the old banking. There's so much history there. It really is just the temple of speed in Formula One. What about the track itself? It's built for speed. It's not one of these slow corners. It's got a lot of straights. That's why you call it the temple for speed. Is it really made for a fast race? It is. It holds the record for the fastest lap in Formula One as far as average speed goes. I believe it was Hamilton in 2020 that set that. I'd have to double-check that, but that's just right off the top of my head. It's basically their lowest downforce settings. You see them running very little wing. It's basically relying on your car's mechanical grip to get you around the corners. As little aero as possible to get you down the straights as fast as possible. That's the race to watch for sure. I'd go to any one of them. I absolutely agree. Two weeks ago now in Australia, Albert Park took a good time. Those Aussies look like they know how to throw a party. I'm not sure how I would do in terms of surviving the weekend because it looks like they go full tilt for four straight days. It looks like a good time down there. The Aussies definitely know how to throw a party. Having seen some of the videos that my buddies have sent me from the V8 Supercars weekend down at Bathurst in Australia, the V8 Supercars is a big series in Australia. Bathurst is like the crown jewel. It's their version of Monaco essentially. It's the race that everybody wants to win. There's always tales of the amount of beer that gets consumed for the race weekend and all the parties that go on. I think it would be quite the entertaining weekend to say the least to have a race weekend in Australia. If you can get there. We talked about it a little bit before we recorded, but they're going to be doing a new sprint qualifying and sprint race format in Baku, which is essentially isolating the sprint race and the Grand Prix where they qualify for the Grand Prix on Friday. Then the sprint race has no bearing on your grid position for the Grand Prix. It's like its own freestanding thing. Why do you think they're doing that? Why make these changes? Is it just experimenting with something new, or is there a reason for it, do you think? I think it's just to try something new, maybe shake up the order a little bit more. I don't know what that's really going to do for the top two slots. I think those are definitely going to be Red Bulls. I think it's just to kind of shake it up. I think they did the same thing with the qualifying format that we have now. Back, I can't remember, I think it was early 2010 sometime. They only ran it in Albert Park at Melbourne. They just did it one race. You mean the Q3, Q1, Q2, Q3 format? That's been in place since 2006. But they were trying to do, I can't remember exactly what the format was because they only used it once. It was the same format, but there's just a couple extra little tweaks to it. Obviously, it wasn't very successful because it only lasted one weekend. That's one thing I give them credit for, though, is changing it up and trying things. People don't like change. People don't like seeing things differently. But if you hit on something that works, then you keep with it. But you can always just scrub it if it doesn't work and people don't like it. I absolutely agree. The changing going on. What do you see happening in Baku? Is it another Red Bull 1-2? I mean, I guess not another Red Bull 1-2. I don't think they've gone 1-2 yet, but you think it's another runaway for Max at the front of the grid? So Red Bull has gone, they did, I think they've got back-to-back 1-2s except for in Melbourne. Oh, to start, yeah, you're right. I think they went back-to-back to start the season 1-2. I forgot Perez won in Jeddah. Yep. Yeah. Is Baku, I mean, Mercedes had a pretty nice weekend in Melbourne, but do you think that's more of a track? I mean, they did well there last year as well, and I think we all remember how the rest of their season went. Bouncing right along. They had a decent performance in Albert Park last year as well. I think that they tend to do well on a track that's a little bit smoother and doesn't destroy and chew the tires as much. I think that their design lends well to a track like Baku, but I can't see anybody put Red Bull taking this weekend by storm. No, it's a race for silver and bronze, isn't it? As much as I hate to say it, I think it might be. I mean, I'd like to see Aston give them a good run for their money. So let's talk about that then. Let's talk about the three cars or the three teams looking for second place then. I mean, you're a Ferrari guy, and they've had their ups and downs, and Aston Martin looks good, and Mercedes is kind of in between there. But what do you see out of those three teams in terms of the rest of the way? I mean, we can't really see that far down the road, but Ferrari seems to be a little bit flying under the radar at this point. And what do you see out of those three? Who do you see pulling? So Aston seems to have the second-best car concept, and I think that what we're going to see is a lot more convergence towards that rebel design. It seems like it has more room to elevate it, and it has a higher ceiling. What Ferrari is having happen right now, it seems to be almost like a identity crisis. And they're kind of puzzled in a way because their design, it was great last year. It worked. They were very fast last year. They were very competitive against the rebel up until, you know, the midway point where everything just went south. But, I mean, they had a very competitive car last year, so there was no reason for them to think that they should change their design. They should just optimize it a little bit more and iron out those wrinkles and work on, like they said during the off-season, we're working on the power plant, going to make it more reliable so we can run that higher power, and we should be fine. Right, right. But we're seeing kind of the same issues, and it's puzzling. It really is, and it feels like Aston Martin found that happy ground between Ferrari and Mercedes with the consistency but the power. They seem to really be, you know, everything Mercedes doesn't have going for them and everything Ferrari doesn't have, they've ironed out. It just seems like they found that middle ground between those two, and it's interesting to see that going on. I think the interesting thing with Mercedes is going to be if they change their concept at all. I think that there's a definite chance that they do. It sounds like they're going to show up with some new side pods pretty soon. I think that's what they were saying, either Baku or Imola, I think was when they were expecting to have new side pods. And I'm interested to see those. I'm going to dive right into those and get some close-up shots and see what I can see from an all-black Mercedes, which doesn't lend well to seeing details on a car. It's very tough. It's very smart of them to make their car all black again because it kind of does mask some of those little details. It seems like a lot of the teams this year have a lot more black in the design, and I was reading that's just to get – it's actually not black paint. It's just to not have paint. It's bare carbon. Yeah, to get those grams. I mean, every gram of weight matters, right? Yeah. Honestly, it's kind of amazing to see the kind of weight reduction that they're trying to do. And as far as, like, what they're willing to do to get down to that weight, I mean, we see the Alfa Romeo, which nobody really talks about much, but, you know, they're running almost all carbon. And if you look at the Mercedes, it's bare carbon, except for one strip of black paint. Yeah. Yeah, Haas is pretty dark this year, too. And, you know, I'd like to get into those lower grid teams at some point and talk about, you know, the bottom tier to see who's going to make the jump next year, who next year's Aston Martin might be. The midfield is honestly sometimes much more interesting than what's happening at the tip of the spear. Definitely, definitely, because that's where the gains are being made, really, and that's where the changes can happen. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. And it's fun, too, because those guys are really driving for their seats and they're really driving for their future where, you know, the guys at the top of the grid kind of are a little bit more secure. Yeah, exactly. So let me see here. What else do I have in my notes for the crew chiefs to talk about today? So we still have, like, 11 days till Baku. It seems like forever. It's been the longest, you know, week. It's been one week and it's still, like, it's terrible. You know, we still have the summer break later this year. I mean, the summer break is a month, and that's equally painful. And that's right at, what, the end of July or the end of August maybe? Yeah, I think it's towards August. I mean, thankfully we have a back-to-back coming up. I think it's Baku and… Oh, I should know this. I just did a whole thing on the schedule. Yeah, I mean, and it just, it would be nice to have more back-to-backs on the schedule because it's just, it's tough to get through. I mean, being a football fan, you're used to having one week off, but three weeks is ridiculous. Well, I'm just glad that they don't do it the way that IndyCar does to start the season. I mean, IndyCar, you know, they're getting popularity, but they have their first race in St. Petersburg, and then they wait a month for their next race. Really? It's like, yeah, awesome, we get the season going, and then, all right, we've got to wait a month. So why do the drivers, I've heard this from Formula 1 drivers, that they are scared of IndyCar, or not scared, but like it's an intimidating, dangerous place to drive compared to Formula 1. Is that true? It's more… It's, so I look at a lot of, I follow Roman Grosjean a lot in IndyCar because he's a Formula 1 guy. He was for a while. It was interesting to see his crossover into IndyCar because you've got kind of like a real, like, differences between the IndyCar and Formula 1 car as far as the driver's perspective. Yeah. And he said that after my first day of testing, I was just, I was beat because there's no power steering in an IndyCar. No power steering. You have much less aero. There's not as much downforce. You don't have as much power, but you also don't have as much grip. And they're driving on street courses that are very bumpy, so that wheel is going all over the place. I mean, if you look at some of the onboards from St. Petersburg, I mean, it's amazing how they keep control of those cars. And then, as far as the ovals go, I mean, they're going in excess of 200 miles an hour a lot of the time. If you look at Indy 500 qualifying last year, I think the top speed that the Polestator had was almost 240 miles an hour. That's crazy. And, you know, in my mind, I would think if you go from F1 to IndyCar, you just go over and dominate, but that's really not the case. It's really a totally different game. Yeah. They're similar in some respects as both being open-wheel cars, open-wheel Formulas. They look similar in some ways as far as, you know, they have front wing, they have rear wing, and all that stuff. But just the way that they drive is completely different. And there's always going to be that comparison between IndyCar and Formula 1, but I think it's honestly pretty cool to see Grosjean's comparison between the two. He's a direct comparison, right? Yeah. Does anyone ever go from IndyCar to Formula 1, or is it kind of a step the other way? You go after you're done in Formula 1, you take a step to IndyCar, kind of. You know what I mean? Like it's not a step down, but you wouldn't go the other way because there's such a wait list to try to get an F1 seat, and these teams already have invested so much in those young guys that IndyCar. It seems to me like IndyCar drivers are a little bit more mature, experienced veteran drivers. Is that true? Yeah. I mean, they've been doing it for a long time. I mean, Dixon's been in the game forever. I mean, it doesn't ever seem like he's going to retire. But, I mean, I think the closest we saw to somebody coming from IndyCar into Formula 1, I would say Colton Hurta. When Andretti was making their bid to become a Formula 1 team, he was slated as possibly being that seat. And then we have guys that went from Formula 1 to IndyCar. We had Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean. Those are just three. I know there's more, but those are just the three that I can think of right now. It's really interesting because you look at the cars and you think they're similar, but there's so much difference that it's hard to make any comparison. I know this is a Formula 1 podcast, but I urge you to go and look at IndyCar and the way that those cars drive. I mean, they're beasts. No, that's what I want. It's an animal to drive. That's good stuff. I need that kind of homework for this because it just adds another layer of my knowledge to motorsport in general because I'm a rookie to this or maybe a sophomore at this point, but I need that kind of extra layer. And the more knowledge you have in anything, the more you'll be able to understand it. I think IndyCar has a race coming up in Long Beach, I think, this upcoming weekend or the weekend after. Oh, really? Up the road in Long Beach? Yeah, Long Beach. Formula 1 actually used to race there in the 70s, 80s, I think. Wow. Long Beach Grand Prix. Where else has Formula 1 had Grand Prix's in the U.S.? I know they've done Austin, Miami, Indy, Vegas, but are there any other? Well, they had Vegas back in the 80s. I think it was in the Caesars parking lot. I think that was a one-off. They had Watkins Glen in the 70s. I love Watkins Glen. I've had the pleasure of driving on that track, and it's honestly one of my favorite tracks to drive. What did you drive? I drove my own car. Oh, cool. Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, they have a charity event at the start of every year. Do they let you rip it, or are you under a safety car the whole time? You're under a safety car, but you're still going 80-something miles an hour on the straights, and then everybody backs it up before a corner, and they just send it on the way through. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, it's a good time. That's one thing I'd love to do is just get out and get to somebody's tracks and rip it around, but I'd probably have to repair my car first before I can do that. Yeah, I think this is a good spot, Connor, to wrap it up for the first time here, just a little introduction and get your feet wet with us and get your feet wet. Yeah, I'm glad I could dip my toes in. No, I appreciate it, and I appreciate it. You know, you're a big reason why I'm doing this, because you've helped me. You send me the YouTube videos, you send me the articles and stuff like that, and you really piqued my interest in this, so I really appreciate that, and I'm glad that you're willing to come on here whenever you can and talk about this stuff. Of course, I'm always happy to talk. Yeah, and we'll have more direct topics in the future about certain Grand Prixs, and we'll really dive in there and get into them, so I really appreciate it. Yeah, I think this could easily become a more regular occurrence. Whenever you can, whenever you can, I'd absolutely be up for it. So I guess with that, I think I'm supposed to go eat some dinner now. I smell tacos being made. I've got to get some sleep. I've got to go to work in six hours. Yeah, well, don't let me keep you from that. I mean, you're listening to Formula One during theology class. I can't imagine that, you know, I don't want to keep you from your job, too. So there we have it, our first interview on FunCast with the crew chief, Connor. We got a little abruptly cut off at the end there. That was my fault with some editing and not doing a proper goodbye. I don't know how to say goodbye. But, again, if you'd like to come on here and talk Formula One with us, let me know. We'd love to have you on there. I'm hoping to have the crew chief back on as often as possible. He's really helped drop some knowledge on me, and hopefully some of you out there listening learned a little bit. And, once again, this is the F1FunCast at Gmail, Instagram, Twitter. And looking forward to hearing from you out there with your thoughts and ideas and questions, comments about the podcast so far and going forward. If you have any topics for discussion or any ideas for us to take up here on the podcast, I'd love to hear them, and I'd love to hear from you. We still have a long way to go to Azerbaijan, so keep those emails and comments coming. And thank you so much for listening. I'd like to thank my cousin, Connor, the crew chief, once again, for coming on here. It was all my pleasure and really happy to have gained some of his insight and his knowledge today and look forward to more of that in the future. And I'm looking forward to talking to you all about the Baku Grand Prix and the 2023 season. And for now, until we talk to you next time, I am out of here. Transcription by CastingWords