17 Burst results for "Nico Hulkenberg"
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"There is an argument that there's not a lot that you always nothing they can do about Aston Martin developing their way into a good position. But yeah, where do you see Alpine and McLaren making that? But having just said that, who could have predicted what Aston were going to do. So it is possible. And I think it's really interesting talking to some of the members of the team, particularly some of you guys down at Williams. They're actually inspired by seeing what Aston have done because it's like right. This is possible. It's a good story for Formula One and it's a good story for a lot of the teams. It's just ultimately, you know, it's the prize money thing, right? They're going to end up not doing as well because they haven't done good enough job. I'm going to get into that. Next, take a quick break and I'm going to dig into that a little bit more about what we should be expecting to see teams doing this year. Stick around back in a second. All right, let's talk about that. At the point, Alex just made teams being inspired by Aston Martin, revealed a car a year ago that was second slowest and by the middle of the season had a new development path and were on their way. And yet multiple times when I've asked people about Mercedes since the beginning of this year, I'm often told how Mercedes is going to dig themselves out of the Maya and people often say, well, in a cost cap era, that's really difficult. So those two things can't be true, Aston Martin did it in a cost cap era and didn't break the cost cap. So Mercedes should be able to do it. They've got a team of people that know how to win. Well, championships am I being a bit too simplistic? Only because astin made its major gain over a winter, like it did make significant gains in 2022, like I said, Phil, we're about to go after Melbourne, and I remember watching FP three with Andrew van leeuwen and Sebastian Vettel which has binned it because there was no down force and it was porpoising horrifically. And the car was just slow. They had made significant gains. They were up there a threat to the podium positions on merit in Austin and things like that. They would as well inconsistent. But then they had the new car coming behind. And that's really where they've made their game. So I take the point, I do take the point, but that is not quite the same comparison. Okay. Okay. So while the teams can do it, they can do an Aston over the next year or 18 months. It just refreshing to see this narrative of the cost cap has baked in this advantage for the big teams and the small teams will never be able to make a big step. I think that's been dispelled and I think that's really encouraging for Formula One. Let's look at I'm not giving a full rundown. Apologies listeners. A terrible podcast host. I should do that at the beginning of the podcast every week. You know Sergio Pérez won from Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, who is back on the podium. George Russell Lewis Hamilton, science and leclerc in 6th and 7th, then ocon and gastly all going two by two and Kevin Magnussen in the house. Yuki tsunoda was just outside the point. He was inside the points, but he was 11th Nico hulkenberg 12th. Zhou guang yu in 13th Nick de vries in the AlphaTauri 14th Oscar piastre got past Logan sergeant finish 15th legan sergeant 16th, which I still think a good drive though, by the way, we get into that. And Lando Norris 17th Valtteri Bottas, classified 18th. Let me talk a little bit about McLaren, the Williams and that back end of the grade with AlphaTauri teams that are not where they should be or teams that are probably quite happy with how they're doing. McLaren couldn't pass. Well, okay, so Lando Norris in a McLaren couldn't pass a Williams, even with DRS. That actually panic stations at McLaren. Well, whether it's team orders and piastre got past him, he did get past Logan sergeant. Eventually. But Kev, this is, this is a difficult Monday morning to wake up to at McLaren, isn't it? Yeah, but they were kind of expecting weren't they? We talked about this after Bahrain that they were quite pleased because they thought it was going to be even worse than it was. And they got a load of updates coming. So I think they'll be encouraged by piastres performance in qualifying. I think we now can see that he is for whatever reason to step up from Ricardo in the second car. Obviously Landau had a little mistake in qualifying, which had big consequences, so he was kind of out of it from there. I was not like carrying a problem. Why did they switch the cars around? If Lando's the number one. Can I just jump in very, very quickly? It wasn't a little mistake, Kev. You didn't beat in the car. But it was a poor mistake. It was important. A little fire, a little size mistake, but it was bad from land. I think, and I know he reads my driver ratings. He should be very lucky that he's not being rated on qualifying this season now. Okay, so I think panic stations at McLaren more so than I ever ever have done based on today's you run. I mean, by which I mean the reason why not the 80s. Early 90s. I don't think there was many panic stations during that era. But yeah, I'm still not yet. Let's get to some more normal tracks. I don't think it's going to be quite as terrible as it looks at the moment. Don't forget they both had incidents on the first lap. They weren't down the back on Lando's end yet because you hit the wall and then you had to come in and get his nose changed and pastry was just, was he unlucky? I think it was just one of those unfortunate things that at that corner is possible to get a little bit squeezed and he just did with the Alpine. So yeah, unfortunate more at the start there for McLaren than any sort of shock reason for them being back there.
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Second round and he's getting penalties already. But they seemed quicker, at least a day, does this track suit the Ferraris more than Bahrain, are they going to be hopeful for Sunday? It should do with regards to tyre wear because this is something that's been a bugbear Ferraris for a little while now and they're not so great at managing the tyres and Bahrain really exacerbates that and it really magnifies that issue, particularly just because the tarmac is so abrasive the tarmac and Jeddah isn't anywhere near like that. So with regards to tyre wear and that kind of thing, it shouldn't affect Ferrari quite so much. But they were honestly a little bit surprised to be second in qualifying. And you know, without Verstappen's issue, yeah, it would have been P three, but that's still a good effort, nonetheless, to be a tenth and a half away from Perez's ultimate time. It does take that penalty, but he thinks that a podium again is very much possible. Leclerc said, you know, it's more possible for Carlos Sainz than it is for him, but it's something that Ferrari feels that it's achievable. And it knows that it's better with regards to race pace over qualifying, which I think is another contributing factor to why they were slightly surprised. But yeah, it's not all doom and gloom at Ferrari. Bahrain was a difficult round for them with regards to reliability and with tire wear. And they've been really behind the 8 ball so far this weekend, you know, the Ferraris haven't been really factoring at the top of the time sheets. There is the suspicion that they were perhaps running their engines quite detuned because they were just losing so much time in the straight lines in practice, but in qualifying, yeah, they seem to be much, much better in much better shape. And yeah, we'll see how they get on tomorrow if they can fight for a podium. If they can find something over Alonso that maybe Alonso had over them in Bahrain, we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, let's hope that Ferrari power unit is robust, they're not de rating it or anything because it was still good. Some decent performances at times for Hass now from over the weekend as well. So we'll wait and see on that in terms of that midfield battle when we thought we were going to be talking about Aston Alpine McLaren. Things are working out a little bit different this year with Aston Martin's progress, Alpine line up with ocon in 6th and gasly in 9th. Bahrain was a weird one because we saw ghastly making progress through the field ocon collecting time penalty. So I feel like we haven't really just had a chance to see them start where they should do and then progress from there. Is that where you expected them to be? This is probably a little bit more in line with what they promised as a team, perhaps over the off season. The car has been really, really strong. And it does seem quite wayward. So I was down one, two, and then it turns 22 and 23 on Friday. You could see the red balls going through the Aston Martins going through really, really, really stable. The Alpine looked a little bit all limbs kind of all a little bit wayward. It just seemed to produce the lap time where it needed to. To see gasly and knock on, up there, it's not it's probably where it should be given the progress that it's made. Ocon did have a little bit of a moment where he very nearly lost the current qualifying. And just about managed to keep it on the road. That was an issue that he had to face and he had to deal with, but it was a very, really strong performance from our pain. They'd looked really strong all weekend. So it's not a surprise given the context of the weekend to see them up there doing quite so well. Well, Oscar piastre and Lando Norris had both a little sniff of the wall this weekend. Oscar piastre getting away with it and in his second qualifying for McLaren, starting 8th on the road. Lando Norris down in 19th I had to retire him. Can you explain what happened to Lando Norris and if we heard from piastre afterwards as well? He must be made up. Let's be honest, it was sonoris fault there. He just got a little bit too overeager with trying to take the apex into the turn 27, which is the final corner. And just clip the wall when you do that, when you clip a concrete wall with your front left tyre, you're going to break something. And you could see that sort of tire wiggle where the suspension was just broken. And there was no chance of getting him back out in time. So that ended Norris session pretty much immediately. He'd managed to get at a lap in and this was his going to be a second lap that was a bit stronger, but unfortunately he wasn't able to clock that. Bias tree was really, really strong. And it was really good to see him in his first race doing such a first season doing such a good job given the difficulties that he endured in Bahrain. He did say that he was very, very careful when it came to Jared because he has raced at the circuit before in formula two. He's won here twice back when formula two was doing three races a weekend for some unknown reason. But he hasn't raced here for over a year. So he was slowly trying to build up for it. Slowly get used to it because it's such a difficult circuit for a rookie to deal with. But he was getting more and more comfortable. The lap time just seemed to come for him. And ultimately, yeah, he did a really, really good job. McLaren still knows that it's behind and it still has a lot of work to do with regards to its concept and development, but that really difficult Bahrain. The picture doesn't seem so bad now. And realistically, Norris probably should have been in Q three as well, given his pace in practice sessions. Maybe you've got a couple of tents on pediatric as well. So you would have to expect both of them to be in on had things been a little bit normal. Norris sort of given maybe a little bit of a quarter there in Q one. Yeah, people were quick to write off McLaren bottom of the constructors after the first round, but we haven't seen them do a full event yet, so a normal weekend. So this could be it. JBL, thank you very much. It's late here, which means it's very late for you. I appreciate you coming on the podcast. Thank you for that. We look forward to. Hearing more from you. This season. That is your podcast for today. I'll finish off Nico hulkenberg in tenth, Zhou guang knew in 11th, Charles Clarke 12th as I mentioned, Kevin Magnussen and his ass in his 13th place Valtteri Bottas is 14th, followed by Max Verstappen 15th, three places behind Charles Leclerc, big action last year. They won't be doing the dance for the DRS activation line because that's been moved till after the apex boo spoiling our fun, but they will be on a similar piece of the track as they both make their way through the field. A UK Samoa 16th Alex Alban in the Williams 17th Nick de vries in the AlphaTauri 18th Lando 19th, as we mentioned in Logan sergeant 20th. That is your lineup for Sunday. Thank you for listening to the podcast. And we'll catch you tomorrow. Podcast network.
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"So then there or thereabouts with Alpine potentially, but we know that, well, everything indicates in terms of track side observations and what the drives and teams team bosses are saying that McLaren have fallen back. So they're in there somewhere. And then you have Alfa romeos that are still out for a Mayo, but this is the first year where that saddle but operation will have Audi backing to take it up to the cost cap Hass has a new title sponsor and politely in Nico hulkenberg, a driver that's been hired because he won't have two 7 figure car snapping crashes so they won't have to shelve their latter half development. And that's where you have all these factors. James vows gets in a point technical director. I still don't think you're going to see Williams as being anything other than a very occasional point scorer. But if they're not as cut adrift as they were last season, then suddenly you've got that famous shot from the 2022 British Grand Prix of Hamilton getting the cut back on signs and Perez and in the back of shot you've got Norris and Alpine. The Holy Grail I suppose is you have that sort of 5, 6 car train for the midfielder, every single race. So if that is the case, then roll on because I've also conscious now I feel bad mark because I've spent a little bit of this podcast saying I always don't tune into the season because Red Bull of it already won it. So I think that the midfield storylines where you've got Fernando Alonso throwing shade at all is past employees and whatever that's where the real battleground will be and yeah it would be a case of that and then really seeing how Red Bull sort of manage their cost cap but the way the way that team is wrong bank on them to nail that as well, I suppose. Going back to your point of bed Red Bull, how are they going to approach this? I think they'll be looking to take a leaf out of the Ferrari Schumacher book and if not when the championship before they go on their summer holiday, get very close to it so that it takes the pressure off this year completely. And I mean, let's face it, it will get to the if he is that dominant early in the year, it will quickly get to the point where he doesn't even need to keep winning races to win the championship. He just needs to get that consistency. So if someone comes on strongly later in the year, if Ferrari get to the point where they can be competitive in Monza, which to me always seems to be a kind of focal point. By that point, I think Red Bull would be looking the championship in the both championships in the aisle already. It is a very long season. That's also going to be a factor. We've got a lot more to think about in terms of what may happen during what is now the longer season of Formula One. But I'm sure Adrian and the team will be wanting to manage those resources in such a way that they don't end up being caught short going into 24. They'll want to make their want to keep the momentum going. So that resource allocation. So what can we do? Where can we do it? When will it really matter? And talking to a few people earlier this week, I think, again, someone said to me, it'll be like, it'll be like Jenson buttons world championship, all the winning will be done up front. At the beginning of the year and just build up such a such a momentum that actually what mattered that much what happens later on, not to say that Red Bull will back off, but just to say that if the budget cap penalty, if that restriction on era running starts to bite, it'll bite too late in the year for them to be really bothered about it. So I think it's going to be really interesting. I'm fascinated by these financial rules and regulations because it's given a third stream to what the teams have to play with. You know, we've always had the technical rules we've all had the sporting relative. Now that these financial rules and then we've got financial financial related penalties and it is driving the efficiency with which teams spend every dollar what they do, making sure can you imagine now if you do a CFD runner a wind tunneled rung and it turns out to have been a waste of time. I mean, it'll be even more unforgivable now than it's ever been. And so I think wasted eliminating waste needs making sure that your digital tools mean that your digital twin of the car, the fidelity between what you're designing and what hits the track is spot on. And I think in that regard, a Red Bull clearly have a fantastic operation in terms of ensuring that what they do at the factory translates through to performance track side and then equally when you see where McLaren are at with their problems, they have they seem to have a fairly deep seated issue where they really aren't getting on top of the problems that have actually been occurring in recent years. And I have to say, Daniel Ricciardo must be looking at the Bahrain pre season test and thinking thank goodness or not. Thank goodness I'm not in that car. I think it is a shame to say that Williams and McLaren may well be the team's battling not to be lost again. It looks like Williams had made a step forward, but it's too much as you say to expect that with everything that's happened there over the course of the last couple of years and now with James vowles arriving in and presumably facing the early days of whatever structure he wants to put in place. It's going to be to some degree to some extent a treading of a treading of water by Williams this year. Yeah, definitely that McLaren looked absolutely awful when I popped along to the drag strip control tower in bath brain and watched turn ten in really. Never has a racing car attempted to spear in apex and ended up so far away from it. Lap after lap. Even when not going particularly quickly, it did look like a disaster in the making. So a bit of a shame. It does, it does, it does raise the question about how much more of this Lando Norris is going to want to take. And he's got a contract going through to 25, I believe. But again, talking to someone at Alfa Romeo, the fact that Andrea Seidel has gone there and knows only too well, how good Lando is. You just wonder, will there will Lando's CF's contract? Will there be a financial offer made to release some early to get them into that to get them away from? McLaren said it's really it's almost shocking to be saying this because for a while there it looked like the McLaren trajectory was becoming good again and obviously there was that one off win in Monza with Daniel, but in Orlando looked he looked pretty gutted I think as a result of the test. Two interesting things to watch with the McLaren narrative where does the blame lie for this? Because they're putting all their hopes on the new wind tunnel, but if there is a regression between now and then do fingers begin to be pointed at any of the technical team. There's obviously one strand straight away when the car came up, but he was right how visible is James key at this test. So does that have to be a full guy for it? The other thing I think is interesting of particularly when you're looking at the driver lineup is Oscar piastre, because McLaren have got rid of Daniel Ricciardo because they believe they can find someone who will close what is over an average 92nd lap a 6 tenth deficit. So they've gone for an incredibly highly rated rookie who is expected to continue the Lando Norris Lewis Hamilton trend
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Good morning, Martin. I'm doing well. It was a bit of a late night with Alpe and I won't lie to you. It was quite fun for them to hold it at print works. I used to live in East London as well, so it's quite nice to sort of be back in that part of the world. Yeah, it was cool. I really, really good event. Cinna dean sedan turned up like that, that's pretty damn cool. And it was just really nice for them to put on a good show and complete launch season, as you say. Now we know what all ten cars, ELISA liveries, they're going to be running, maybe not exactly what every single car is quite going to look like. But we're getting ready for Bahrain now. What next week? I fly there on Tuesday, so it's yeah, very, very soon. I can't wait. Now before we get going, last day for you at auto sport, you're setting up a new venture, but it's not fully baked, it's still in the oven. So you can't exactly say what that thing is that you're going to do, but I think it's fair to say we won't be strangers because you're just revealed you will be going to Bahrain. You joined also sports around the time Jess mcfadden joined as well. It was all around that kind of COVID and lockdown times. Can you remind me of the timeline? Yeah, it was February 2020, so literally just before the pandemic really struck big time in the march. And yeah, I grown up reading auto sport and aspiring one day to work for the magazine work for the company. And yeah, towards the end of 2019, we started having some conversations and things moved along and yeah, February 2020, I had got the job and started. I remember going into the office and meeting all the people and I remember through pre season testing we were getting sort of in the rhythm of me doing stories and stuff like that and one of our colleagues said, oh, I think we're maybe overblowing this COVID thing a little bit and sort of reporting about the drivers getting stuck in training camps and stuff like that. And then, yeah, my first race, which wasn't a race that I did for also sport was the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, we were there for I was there grand to live, I think 46 hours or something, 'cause I went back to New Zealand afterwards and then got one of the final flights home. So yeah, it was a funny old period that, but yeah, that was three years ago now, just over. So it's been an absolutely remarkable three years, I must say, and I'm just so enormously grateful to everyone at auto sport for everything they've done, to everyone who's read, work, tweeted, whatever, like, I'm just so, so grateful and it's been the biggest privilege of my career's work with all of you guys and to represent such an iconic brand. There is nothing like it in motor sport media. And to being part of that as being just an absolute honor, so I'm just so, so grateful to everybody. What was the beat that we had you on then? Because obviously have we got lots of people on the F one team and everyone does slightly different job. What have you been focused on for the last three years? So my primary job has been news. It's been the F one reporter role, which is all about getting the news writing the news, so I hate to think how many articles I've written for also sport in the past three years. I'm going to say it's probably into four figures. It's been a huge amount of work, but I've loved it. That was the main beat. And yeah, over that time, it's been a lot of doing podcasts with yourself, but I've been doing videos, we've been doing lots of stuff on social. I've dabbled in long form features as well, and it's kind of just been lovely to be part of an organization where you can do all of that basically. You've got the full array of basically mediums to talk to fans and to interact with them. So yeah, the main beat was news and it's been cool. It's been a fascinating period of F one to cover. Sports in better shape than ever and it's been really, really cool to be following that. Where's my book? Hold on. Hold on. I have it here. The story of Porsche attributes the legendary manufacturer, Luke has even had time in all of that to write a brilliant book if so if you love the story of Porsche and the history of that brand, just any kind of in the same series as Ferrari and Harley and Minnie and stuff. All these amazing brands that have wonderful kind of people going through and stories and all of these things. And so it ended up in an electric future for so many of them. So you can even go to Amazon and so in between all of that Luke's managed to publish a book, which is, of course, of course, you had time to do that. So go and check that on Amazon. If like me, you want to buy a copy. Well, obviously, we're really sad that you're not going to be doing these shows, but because we know what you're going on to it's so brilliant. So we're all really excited to see you start that. I shall not say anymore about where you're going. But it's not to go join Matt and Tommy, which is what everyone thought when Jess left to go to Skype. Oh, she's gonna go and rejoin the boys from WTF one. It's like, no, she's going to Sky Sports F one, which is where Jess is, if anyone had missed that piece of news. Anyway, you can follow Luke on his socials and I'm sure he'll announce where he's off too soon. Let's get into the topic of today's podcast. So we're going to analyze all ten cars, not so much the launches because the launch is the launch of the launches. But in terms of the cars and just have a look through what we ended up talking to talking about. So we'll start off, we're going to in chronological order, but we may not dwell on too many of them. We started off with Hass, we were all desperate to talk about Formula One again this year. So it got a lot of coverage because it was first has so they have a stronger upgrade push in 2023. Our colleague mat summerfield wrote about the detail changes that should stand out after I had a shakedown run at Silverstone. It ran for the first time. And so we got to see it. There was sort of a couple of days where lots of stuff happened all at once and they were putting on hulkenberg selfies of him at the factory and we got to see more. But apart from that, it began as a delivery launch. We got to find out more as the car went on. How do you feel about how to start to the season? Yeah, it's been it's been encouraging, I think. I think that with Haas like every year they kind of, it's a roller coaster. Every season is a bit different for them. There's always something that seems to happen, but I think it feels like they're going into this year in the stronger shape they've been for some time. They've got two very experienced drivers in Kevin Magnussen and Nico hulkenberg hulkenberg coming in to replace Mick Schumacher. He's not been in F one for four years, but he's got that experience he knows. He's always what he's doing is a very safe pair of hands. So I think together that's what hars needs. They've got a
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"And Mansell appeared and there's that famous three abreast moment where Matt goes. But also, I've been doing a bit of research on this. He's the bat marker that is kind of partly in the way. He's not really done anything wrong. He just happens to be there. When Manson goes around the outside of Paul Tracy to win the New Hampshire race in 1993, kart race, which is he's probably his best Indy car win. So just to completely random thing where max was in your hands career is just momentarily crossed, allowing knowledge to pull off a couple of great passes. I've just a random thought there. I like it. A little mention, if you want or not, for any drivers who you maybe at major long lists, but getting honorable mention, but not the top ten. Well, I will say that obviously we're excluding current drivers. So obviously someone like Lando Norris, we hope will score a Grand Prix win where not talking about people like Nico hulkenberg, he's coming back to F one, but I guess Tom price was Tom price. Yeah, because I saw Tony brides is on the list. We will get to in a minute. But I always think of Tom Tom price and brides in a sort of, because they're similar era and they both had terrible tragic deaths. But they're also both mega. And I think price should have been on this list. So I would probably put him actually tenth. I'd probably knock Stefan out. Yeah, I think the lost generation, David tremaine's an excellent book and I recommend anyone to go and read the obviously roger Williamson being the third of those three lost talents, British chance of the 70s. The reason I put bras in there and not price did win a Formula One article did win the race of champions at brown's hatch for shadow. But the reason he's not there is I don't think he really tucks Jean Pierre jare up, particularly when their teammates he's so perhaps the area maybe had the edge overall. Okay, maybe that would have changed his talent by and price that had more of a career. Whereas I think brides compares very favorably to Alan Jones who obviously went on where Jerry won it onto not to win a Grand Prix. Tune in for episode two of the series three podcasts. Whereas Jones did go on to a winner world champion actually, I think there's probably a bit underrated in history. I think you retired too soon. So that was my argument for brides getting into this. He's 8th. He did only start ten Grand Prix, his best finish was 6. So statistically quite weak, but when I read David's book it was really bright, it stood out to me as being like this guy was something really special. I think price was good. I think Williamson is probably a bit too early to say, but Bryce already he's the one that jumped out into me is yeah, this guy was mega. Everyone says that, don't they? Just worked with him or had any involvement with that. That's the feeling you get, isn't it? Yeah. All right, well, we'll get on. We've done number 8 now. And then between those two drivers, let's come slightly more up to date. And number 9th place. Tsunami's raman Grosjean, a 179 starts. So a lot more than most on this list. Best finished attack in ten podiums, one fastest lap. But he wasn't sure what to do with Grosjean. He's one of those drivers I find really irritating. In what way? Because in terms of basic ability, he was really quick. At lotus, he was quicker than Kimi Räikkönen. Once he stopped crashing, he was quicker and he was for a while. It's easy to forget, but when Vettel was going on his winning spree in 2012, especially 2013. It was really actually that Grosjean came closest to stopping him as one race at the Nurburgring is very close. He had some really good drives where he was really only beaten by a better car. And I would suggest there are probably less talented drivers who have won a Grand Prix. But Gresham's also frustrated, quite often he's kind of an enigmatic and we've talked about this before. I'm not a fan of that sort of driver. You need to deliver the goods every time. And Grosjean's a bit up and down. Even at half, you'd see him get the big result with magnitude and be the more consistent runner. Going across to IndyCar has been the same. You think an F one driver of his ability should go in there and be doing more, but he's like the ante Alonso. Lonzo knows where everyone is all the time. And you get the impression that grows on barely knows what's next to his car. I think that's he's there. I think he needs to be there on pur ability, but I don't think you can get much higher because I think he quite often was the architect of his own downfall. I was actually talking to him just the other day about his Lamborghini Lamborghini deal. And he's a really, he's a great guy to talk to. He's very interesting, very articulate and really bright. And with his experience, you just think you should be doing more. And I think he knows it for the IndyCar season just gone. He was very open. It was a disappointment disappointing year and he struggled with the Andretti set up and getting comfortable with the setup they used and he had to sort of work with his engineer to try and try and find some common ground I think. And he said it got better towards the end of the year and he's quite confident for next year. But he knows he should be winning races in IndyCar. I think that's the thing. So I think this coming season is a big one for him. And the bubble kind of burst for him because he came in to coin having come off the back of that horrendous crash, a lot of goodwill. And of course, he did really well in that first year. And then last year he had lots of collisions and troubles with other drivers that we'd sort of seen that side of him in four minute one. These kind of a bit labeled by that sort of troublemaker thing, isn't either he's not great will to wheel. Yeah, he's an interesting choice for an endurance drive, isn't he? Yes. He was very quick in the Matic four GT. Yes. I'd spoke to him when he was doing his FI GT. And I kind of wasn't sure what to expect excess one drive. It's kind of down and trying to get back in. And as you say, it was a lovely guard speak to. And he did a really good job. You've got to really have your wits about you in those cars when you're lapping traffic and potentially fighting cars of a similar performance. So yeah, but it'd be interesting. He says something that will appeal to you, Kev, though. Because he quoted Mario Andretti and doing the Indy 500 and flying back to Europe and sort of doing F one and IndyCar at the same time. He wants to do IndyCar and sports car at the same time. And because they keep the big enduros in America away from the IndyCar schedule, he says I can do both and he's really excited by that prospect. Yeah, that's great to hear a driver having that enthusiasm to do two codes at once. Yeah, absolutely. All right, we've got half touched on our next number 8 place, but Kev give us the stats on this driver and we'll have a bit more of a chat as well. So I 90 75, ten starts best finished 6th, no podiums, no polls, no fastest laps, which obviously sounds, that does not sound outstanding as we were just saying, I think he was an outstanding talent. The car he had at the embassy here operation is Graham hill obviously was stepping down from I think he saw something in prizes is the kind of impression you get compared favorably to admittedly still also quite a young Alan Jones at that time. So yeah, I think this is perhaps going slightly against my usual thing of I tend to plump for actual actual races and careers and statistics that are there as opposed to what might have been. But I think in this case there's, I don't know, there's just a feeling that he was the one of those three that could have gone on to achieve something. I like your thinking. I think I would probably put him a bit lower down for that reason that we haven't got enough evidence because no matter how good your junior career is, it only really counts when you start doing it in Formula One, doesn't it? We've seen it countless times for so many drivers. From Jan Magnussen to there's so many of them. Well, the next person on the list, even. Oh, exactly, exactly. And everyone who has said earlier, everyone who worked with brise in formula three and they all say he was special and the indications were he would have been. But 8th on this list, I would probably put a bit lower. Let's move on. A driver that did come into Formula One having one German F three and formula 3000 highly rated with big backing as well, but ultimately you say failed to deliver. Tell us about him. So this is almost the opposite, and there's lots and lots of data about this driver. So number 7 is Nick heidfeld 2000 to 2011, a 183 starts.
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"Yeah, you're not really spreading good vibes right now. We've got 40 young guys over here who desperately would literally sell their own shoes. Yeah, they will do it for free and then more. You say that, but then let me present to the court, mister speaker. Nico hulkenberg on his third go. And F one. Kimi Räikkönen literally got bored the second one. Hey, it's bored before that. And then was paid by Ferrari to not turn up the following year and then crash rally cars and drove NASCAR and then somehow came back to F one and effectively had two careers. He had two lifetimes worth of Formula One careers to keep your opponent. He's like the Keith Richards of the grade three. Yes. And Simon was Fernando Alonso as well. We thought they were all kind of done. Whereas sort of Sebastian Vettel's and Jensen buttons of the world. They're like, yeah, that's I'm happy to call time. Whereas I think, but the other product with Lando. You do a handful of these races and it changes you. It's exhausting. Just even just watching it is exhausting. I don't know how you travel and sort of immerse your life into it. And let's face it Daniel Ricciardo is a different kettle of fish altogether. And I said this at the side of the, again, this is a robs the dramas sort of redemption episode this one. We're proved to be right where I said a sabbatical maybe the best thing for him go to harsh, not so good. He even going to another team and learning their processes, maybe not the best thing either for him to go back to steady territory at Red Bull. It's okay to go back. It's perfectly fine. And for him to have a year off because if you think about it, he's done it for over a decade now, being a Formula One driver. Contrary to what ten news first will tell you his first Grand Prix was not bloody 2014. Australian Grand Prix. It was a few years before that. So he's done it for a while. It's exhausting. It's tiring. And I think a year off, even two. And that's where I'd like to be 500 years old. I mean, come on. If he wasn't backed by 2025, then the door shut. But he's going into the Audi seat, right? That's the long-term thinking. I think that could make sense is that you get a guy who's like 23, who's going to be your number one driver, who's going to be the guy. And then you go and get the wily old fox Daniel Ricciardo to come and be the guy who can help you develop your car. He's going to be stable. He's not going to be the same party boy anymore because he's in his mid 30s by then. He's got a bedtime to think
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"And I think that will serve for our, very, very well, moving forward. Now, because he isn't one of the more high profile team principles in the paddock, well, he is now. He's right at the very top table. But he wasn't always somebody that the media would go to first because of the team he was leading. But what his route into being Ferrari's team principal general manager, what is background in motor sport and how qualified is he for this job? A very qualified emote sport for 27 years, 28 years longer than 30 years, sorry, even. When he was younger, he did an engineering degree and worked as an engineer a motor sport. Then he went on to set up his own racing teams and then in the mid 2000s he set up ART Grand Prix with Nicholas Todd as the cofounder. And that has been a huge team for junior mode sports and getting so many great drivers into F one, raced in GP two, then formula two, GP three, all those sort of genius categories. Driver seeds works with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Nico hulkenberg, she'll be anchi that goes on. There's a lot of great names for being associated with ART and the work that Vasa has done. And when he came in to Formula One, so he got his first F one role heading up a team in 2016 when he joined Renault as part of their management reshuffle. And he was only there a few months and it turned out that he didn't quite fit in well with what they wanted and he there was this weird setup where Cyril a beat ball was managing director and Vassar was team principal and it didn't quite work, having two chiefs really. So he left after a few months and he said that he was very he was okay with it. He said, I knew I didn't fit in and that was okay and he said, I was quite actually looking forward to a bit of time off. And then he got a call up from Sauber, which had just undergone a change in ownership and they said that they wanted to bring him in to be the new CEO of Sauber group and the team principal. So that's something that Vasa jumped out. He said he liked where that project was going within an hour of beginning his job. He canceled their planned engine deal with Honda for 2018, said we're not doing that. It's the wrong way to go. So that shows kind of the mentality and the clear direction he has about things. And yeah, since then, he's really helped turn that team around. So he's got a lot of experience. He's very well suited to this team role. It's definitely a different beast running Ferrari than it is any other Formula One team and they're going to be a big step up from where he's been at alpha for the past few years. But I think that he's got all of the qualities we need. And one thing I really like about Fred and so many people have said, he's got a real good humor, like you could have an interview with him and he'll be happy to have a joke and have a laugh about things and make the comment off record and stuff like that. And he doesn't take his dedicated but he also doesn't take himself too seriously like all the time, which is I think a really a really good quality to have and maybe something that's been missing a bit from Ferrari. So I really hope that we don't lose that from Fred because he's a great character. I've enjoyed our chats through the years and yeah, he's now going to be in the spotlight a little bit more, but I really hope that we can continue to have access to that good guy that is Fred Vassar. I'd like your thoughts on what his experiences in his most recent role could bring to Ferrari. Now Formula One is a cost cap series. It is no longer series where Ferrari with its own test track, going back a while now actually, but with unlimited testing could just pound around their test track day and night. Those days are long gone in Formula One and what's it going to be like for him coming from a team where there wasn't unlimited money. Ferrari does have more. But what are those experiences that he's had for the past few years, going to feed into the modern Formula One teams? I think it's exactly what modern F one teams need. Is this kind of this team principle role where it's not so much about simply saying to your manufacturer or your backer? Oh, I need more money, please write me a check. It's actually about saying right, this is our limited amount of money. We know how much every team knows how much under the cost cap we have to spend. Let's make it work to the best that we can. And I think that's something that has worked well at alpha and Sauber over the years. Yeah, they've been one of the smaller operations. They've obviously come a long way from when the team was dicing in and out of is actually going to be around anymore, sort of in that sort of 2015, 2016 period. And is now in really good shape. And I think that the way that Fred oversaw that kind of with the, it was a wider business view as well. It wasn't simply just, oh, I am the team principal and I run the team, like he did have that, I think, broader scope. So I think that is something that will work very well with Ferrari, I think he brings a lot of experience in that regard, which is fantastic. But it is just the question of how different is Ferrari going to be compared to anywhere else he's been and how much can he adjust it to what he wants. And he said that with Renault, get back in 2016 when that didn't work. He said, I just didn't, I couldn't work the project sort of fit as I wanted to. And it didn't really feel right. Whereas with Sauber, he said it felt like going back to sort of my genius days in terms of what I wanted and what I got out of it. And with Ferrari, you can't really get a project so I'm going to adjust it to what I want. It's kind of how do you fit into Ferrari. But I think that, yeah, the quality he's got a fantastic, I think he's I think as a man manager as well, is a real, real, good, good person to have on that front. And I think that's going to serve Ferrari really, really well moving forward. A bit like George Russell moving from the back of the grid to the front of the grid, the car can only be better than what he was in. So at Ferrari is going to be so many more tools available to him coming up on the podcast soon. We'll talk about the bigger bombshell. McLaren. Williams will talk about as well. Stick around those are on the way. All right, we're joined by Luke Smith auto sports F one reporter today to unpick what has been a crazy couple of weeks, but particularly crazy 24 hours
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"And yeah, he had a great day. He was on cloud 9 when we spoke to him afterwards and he said that when I signed I was 90% happy because the team was, I thought it would be good, but they had not had a superb stars this season. Then when they finished the season said, I was a 100% happy because they'd made this massive improvement and he said now I'm a hundred plus percent happy. So it's going up and up. Yeah, he said that the atmosphere he could feel was so special. He said it's amazing, strive for another iconic brand, having driven for Ferrari as well. He said that he had a bit of left back pain because the seat wasn't quite fitted correctly and things like that in terms of his adjustment so his little things, but he said basically today I was about getting used to all the systems and everything but he's really, really pleased with what he found. So yeah, very happy Fernando Alonso he's I think fully on board thinking I made the right move for next year and there was an interesting comment that someone asked him about the engine reliability, which obviously was such a weak point for our pen this year and cost him so many points and he said that when he was told the mileage of the engine when he got into the car this morning he was a bit worried because he said by my standards that's like really, really high, but around without missing a beat and he said the reliability is outstanding. So yes, already little maybe little veiled digs going towards his former team. About halfway through the day, as you pointed out earlier on your Twitter, Luke Smith, F one, if Alice has won a follow you, he was the first out this morning. I think he was asked halfway through the day how it's going. I forget who it was posted that and I think his answer was, it was different. And it kind of made me think of that. That Friends seen dredging things out of the memory banks where Ross Ross hasn't. Well, tell me about it, then if you want to talk about it, was it better or worse? He goes, wow. It was just different. And I'm like, no, Fernando. Just say it's better. You've left your old team. He was then asked. Was it better? Better different. And he just smiled and didn't say anything. Funny. And let's talk a little bit about Haas actually. And their drivers today. Yeah, Nico hulkenberg, he's back in an F one car. He's finally obviously announced last Thursday. He swept him yesterday as well, and he's ready to return to F one for the first time in what three years next year. And today was important for him to get fully up to pace, obviously. He said he was dragging a little bit physically towards the end said there was sort of human degradation going on in terms of just doing the laps. He did a 110 laps, so I think that's to be expected. For any number fans out there, I'm treating all the fans of various niches today. He did a one minute 27.000 and his number is 27, so that's a brief moment of satisfaction in the media center. Let's talk, oh, and who was he driving with today? Pietro Fittipaldi. Yes, as you say, Emerson's grandson. He's been reserved, obviously, for the past couple of years, made two Grand Prix starts at the end of 2020 when Roman Grosjean had his accident, but as the rules say it's two or less starts, he is eligible as a rookie for this test. And yeah, it's unclear what he's going to be doing next year with Haas if he's going to continue with the team or not against Steiner said in Brazil, it kind of depends on what Pietro wants to do in terms of racing, how available is, but yeah, that's something to keep an eye on. AlphaTauri, just to finish off the last couple of teams, who was driving for them today. So they had Nick de vries making his debut for them, he's on loan from Mercedes still he's been Mercedes reserve driver for the past couple of years. We didn't get a chance to speak to him. He was also in unbranded overalls, but the car was fully decked up. He did more laps than anybody else there, a 151, so that's a real mammoth, stint by him in the car, but a good chance for him to kind of get scripts with where things are at. And they had Yuki Snowden on the other side of the garage here. Yeah, also did a huge number of laps a 135, so what two 8 6? That's a lot of laps in the day for Alfa towery. So yeah, very productive by them. A different running and different intensity, but almost doing a three or two and a half race distance over a day again. It's going to take its time a little bit sore. I imagine tomorrow, but he's fine. He can he can cope with that. And finally, Williams, fill us in. Yeah, Logan Sargent confirmed finally as a Formula One driver yesterday, we knew he had the super license we knew it was coming, but they made that final announcement yesterday after noon. And he said, yeah, it felt a little bit different today getting in the car knowing like I'm not this isn't an FP one and it's not like I've got to be super gentle and make sure that I don't crash it and also I get my hundred kilometers in the super license point that he can now just go for it with
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"Was from the United States and he's the moral Victor as well as the points fiction I can tell you this much wrong because the winner is rob James 5 minute highlights. Truly the winner. That's the prize winner. That's your prize. Wow. Your prize is a little bit of oxygen as history there, I guess, because that is a rare artifact. There you go. I can only second use from Australia, Michael T shade brigade. Missed out by only, I can't do this math. It's more than a hundred points. It's only going to tell you more than a hundred points, 150 points, maybe. Third, from the United States, Yuki cookie. It consistent. Football. Fourth was team M oligarch, Mikhail from west is from Denmark. I'm sorry, Denmark. Team ML God from Denmark. 5th was no man's liquor Lando Norris. No man's legal under Norris. I must appreciate the reference. I appreciate it. 6 is bronnie team one, we should change your name. 7th, check yourself, check ourselves before you wreck yourself. I've enjoyed that one this year. I've enjoyed that. Strong performer, original Rubens Barre checo. It must be a rival room as bear check it was 8th, 9th, Ricard don't call it a comeback, feels like it's fitting you'd be in the top ten for the final, after the final race, and tenth was Yuki's party math. In the overall standings are of I was a pitiful 427th out of 534. So I avoided the bottom 100. Sorry. How bad did you go? I was thanks for 127, four 127. 427. Are you talking about? Are you 207? No, so in the box of neutrals. The Derby, the boxer neutral savvy. With a grand total of 3208 points. 395th. Wow. Dusted Martin are encoded. Whedon's. Absolutely smashed it. What's your prize? What sound effect are you getting? Cows are only good for 18. Very good. I like these. I like these a lot. They were the top ten of the original ten year we read the top ten. Of formula mcginley for 2022, what an incredible ride this has been for everyone who's entered. 534 of you, all 534 of you. Some names we could not read. I'll tell you on the mcginley league who won with mcginley in their names. It's no one can change it after the fact now because we won't be consulting this again. I can't tell you who won because I'm not reading that name without 29, and they're from Ireland reasonably enough. Second, though, was mcginley's whole lot of hubcap. So there you go. And as I, day into the words liquor has in liqueur, the top beverage was 5th was no man's liquor Lando Norris. Followed by the knights and literally a planet between in a 124. I'd like to think it was the original liquor Lando Norris. I feel like I feel like Bill M was hijacking. But it was good to see that a liquor Lando Norris got up there at the end of the third is the forbidden one. And then McKinley's land of liqueur, and then the Emerson fitter Aldi, liqueur, then I think ramesses in last place with a pathetic 780 points of lick of land are oddly nowhere. Oh, is that a fit for that one? No, that's fine. I'm committing lick a land I hardly knew a land. I think that's all right. But some of the other ones were a bit too much, even for box and neutrals. But thanks for trying. Thanks for playing, everyone. Thanks for playing. And let's just check in quickly with the Discord channel as well. We said we'd do this last week, which we got. Oh, I don't know. Let me check the Haas ones because these ones also get me in trouble too. So the top one is hasta la vista, mazepin. Very well trained and the has made it, which I enjoyed. That's a great entry for Haas 2024 championships, in fact. Under has to make it. That's very good. I like that. And then, oh, I hang on the 230 some good ones here. The 221st passing around. That's good. Two 36, they're has to be a better way. Two 30 ice X has berated. You know what? Can I very good? Some of the 2024 titled slogans win Hass wins 24 championship obviously as they will. Some of them were very good in the names of the teams. I like has to play in 2024. I think that's very good. Does the F one didn't mind that one? Half of the field. And that couldn't go both ways. This was noted. It could be class of the field or ask of the field, depending on how they go. Or making history or hostile in the making. They're all very moto GP and I like them for that reason. Mastery. Well, it's better than mine, which was just going to be more Gunther Steiner one of his Gunther is good. That's also a very good though. And a big shout out to Politico's carolinian unusual for our rectifying or clarifying what going here means. You can go and check that out on the Discord channel. If you want to join the Discord channel, go to box neutral dot com all the links today. Let's wrap up the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the week in Formula One news for the final time this year. There will be one more episode of box neutrals by the way, or at least one more, and we'll be two more. Could be more than two, more than one, less than three, probably, or could be three, I don't know. In the next couple of weeks, we're doing now on Christmas, but the release schedule will be unusual, unusual, as we might sandbox and use with. We've talked a little bit about Nico hulkenberg already. We talked about him last week, the fact he's coming back. What are we going to talk about though? Because we know the time was that they only told Mick Schumacher the day before pretty much Abu Dhabi. But as much as it's going to Steiner said, they didn't make the decision until late, and I think he was being truthful with that. He did say as far back as Japan, he'd sort of decided he wanted hulkenberg, but strongly along the sea views actually Kane stopped answering his phone calls and things like that. Yes. And he kept calling, which is why I decided he had the hunger. But that does kind of mean he's strung along Mick Schumacher as well. And I just feel like I'm not against Nicaragua. And he'll be probably a solid performer, but I feel a bit bad for old might make a boy. Because surely Mick was equally fastidious ascending, you know, messages and calling. Yes. It's like, oh, what's the go? What are we doing? Are we on? We good? Yeah. And so, yeah, I said I was, I was mildly stunned that, yeah, that mix not on the grid next year and that. I think it is 30 year. He's senior year of the former law of the hospital. It has diversity. The university of Jean Haas. Yeah, I think he actually would have been even better because I think he had a wobbly start this year because I think it was the first time he's driven an actual F one car properly in a racing environment. And yeah, he picked it up really well. And yeah, he's up there in the sort of just of, I can't believe he's not on the grid kind of things. Even as even as Dan ricotta, because I'll be just like, yeah, I think we missed out on that. We're a bit robbed of that, but that's the way it goes. A lot of drivers have done that before, and he went from the last slide, so yeah, be interesting, well, I reserve driver heat for him either for Mercedes. I think he's gonna go to Mercedes. Depends on the ricotta. Yes. Double no effect. Yes, well, how would Marco saw that out for everyone obviously? So that's good news, I guess, for me, in a weed way, he was probably
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"In the junior categories and you never know, like he did take time to warm up to those categories as well, but realistically it doesn't look like that. Certainly not of any way you absolute top tier. He's clearly got more potential. I'm going to say, just the fact that he's improved through this year, demonstrates that there is potential to be untapped. And I've said many times that I kind of almost treat this as his first season because last year's car was so bad and the whole situation and hassle was so poor that you almost are willing to collaborate. The fact that you stop shooting for a driver whose potential we know and we know he wasn't able to absolutely realize Nico hulkenberg is potential in Formula One because he never drove for a car that was ever a regular podium get on. So, you know, I get that. But he has not raced anything full-time for two or three years, since he left Formula One. I don't understand the thinking of it. Yeah, I just don't get it, you know, safe pair of hands sure. But look, maybe look, hulkenberg did do pretty well in all these cameo appearances, including start of the year we had qualified Lance stroll, which is incredible. Wow, then again, Lance drop, maybe it's not incredible. But okay, I understand he's probably gonna turn up and do a ride. But we know he's ceiling. And he's feeling probably roughly where Magnuson is. Yeah. You know, maybe he's a small sleek performer, but he's also older and is in his retirement. Let's be honest, maxson's still a young guy and still is sort of still much more active, certainly. I just don't get that tradeoff, and I understand, okay, maybe it's purely reputation because of the start of Schumacher's year, he crashed a lot, but like you said, he's, I mean, okay, how about that crash in Japan, but he's otherwise I ended out, I did a like a numbers analysis of he's form against Magnus. And second half of the year, he's been very close to Magnussen's pace in qualifying it's been close to a dead, hey, I'm not sure the last two races I didn't for the U.S. Grand Prix I think. But it's been very close, enough that had you forgotten about those crap very costly crashes at the start of the year. You'd be very easy, I would have thought to renew his deal. You'd be forgiven for those early crashes. If it was the opposite case. He probably already been renewed. Yeah. I'd be willing to say. And then be riding off cars under contract. Yeah. Well, actually, if it was the other way around, if he started the seasons from Lee and then ended up crashing like he did at the start of the year, then you could probably justify his departure a bit more because it's sort of your only as good as he last race. But I always feel there's always a level of, I guess, I don't know, there's a buffer forgiveness with that kind of stuff. The stuff that happened way back then, you just kind of thought, well, that was so long ago right now. It doesn't really matter anymore because you can actually say a longer term trend in his performance. And now I hate to bring up the parallels with the Victorian state election again on a podcast that is more than you think America and the U.S. and to us who are sent Netherlands than Melbourne. I decided I podcast, but you don't want to recycling opposition leaders again. Let's just give it a second. Let's give it a second chance. Because it ended so badly last time. We're going to try again because it's all we know. Except this time we're going to call him Nick hulkenberg. And hope that changes the mindset of everybody everywhere and he's clearly the future Hass world champion his Nick hulkenberg. Blue suit. Glasses. Glasses on. Glasses do a lot. They seem to try and, well, they didn't work for Christian Horner. When you make his big apology, but they did the strategy of the diet. Yeah, well, if Max Verstappen starts wearing a pair of glasses that everyday, you can tell the payoff campaign trying to drum up support. Can I say this going back to that Christian Horner apology? Who's ready to gossip? For some reason. I don't know if it's just because I'm delirious because the dumb times all these races have been on. But the idea of those glasses having no lenses in them was extremely funny to me. Yeah, they clearly went, oh, we need some, we need the apology glasses. Yeah, yes. Now he needs to be able to say. So please go to. Go to a server and just get the fake glasses and pop them on. Just punch them out. Yeah, to be clear that there's no accusation to them right glasses. I think that really was. But it's just very funny to think that he had nothing in the frames. I don't know why. But it's just a point. But yes, it does seem like Nicaraguans are going to be announcement this week this time. So I wouldn't say which day, presumably because he doesn't know yet, but surely Nick hulkenberg doesn't bring any money into the tape. This is a salary drive. So if we're talking about I've got the money gram sponsor, whatever that is. Not a cryptocurrency I hope, because that would be unfortunate. Don't tell me that's a hulkenberg. No, I don't think it or not. I don't think it is. I think it's its own thing. So if you're purely going on, you have, you have two applications, either side, you're purely going on talent and future prospects alone. I don't understand the hype for hulkenberg. Yes, I understand if you're going, you'd be forgiven for going for a Daniel Ricciardo. Understand. Nico hulkenberg, it's almost, I don't want to say lock for like because that's implying that hulkenberg is on the same trajectory as Mick. I'm actually genuinely stunned this is a code and I'm genuinely stand equally that I'm because I never really I always understood that Mick was never going to live up obviously to the same hype. And let's be honest. That's unfair to live up to the same hype. But he's actually proven to be a very capable Grand Prix driver. And let's be honest, the grid's mostly made up of duty men anyway. So he's deserving of a place, I would think. I think as well, and we'll move on after this, I guess, but to go back to a point the idea that gunder Steiner might be a good driver coach. I actually wonder whether that's probably not the case. And I don't mean that as a slight against Quinta Steiner, but I think it's quite quite a good team principle. And man manager people clear to get around him very nice guy. And I think that does count. You know, you're going to have to be like angry man to run a Formula One team anymore. I think that's out the window, but I'm not convinced and maybe it's not just about him, but just the way that team is set up that it is a good environment for a young driver. Like if we think let's compare it, for example, to AlphaTauri, just as an example. Like that team, first of all, has security, because it's a Red Bull team. Has largely its own facilities, has the security of knowing what it gets from the Red Bull like technical partnership. Very stable base has a place where all the car is made as well. It's a good example, moved to fight to find. And it's all worked really well since the great base. We know that team setup is a bit weird, like it's sort of a rice team that buys a car that they occasionally get technical problems that can't sort out because of the unique way that whole things worked. Partly based in the UK, partly based in Italy, partly based in America. I'm just not convinced that that is the best environment to get the best out of a young driver who I was troubled, but had a bit of a rough debut, had the Schumacher thing hanging over him needed a good foundation.
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"He doesn't have the same high per se Oscar pierce who does in terms of so a year or two or three Williams isn't the worst thing in the world for him. So I don't think he's going to be sing out on much. So at least he's in the system and then you know he can grow and develop and he could be like the Daniel Ricciardo sort of effect where he was good in the junior formulae but F one. It was the category that clicked for him really at least when he was a Red Bull drive. So it could be, yeah, it could be the right place for our time for old Jack, so that would be someone who really, you know, in terms of it's always nice to have two Aussies on the grid. Would be nice to have three. Let's not get gravy, though, because yeah, that could be, that could be 2024. Well, let's just start with two for now. I mean, we're at the moment, we really only got one. It's one in one out. It's like a clock. Like a really awful club. So we don't know what's going to happen. But it would be interesting for Jack because Williams is still keen on Logan sergeant. If you can't race next year, they want him to race the following year, assuming he has a good F two season, maybe even wins the thing. Yeah. So then that would maybe mean Jack's there on a one year deal. The question mark then is over who Alpine actually gets, it's a weakened situation. I don't know if you sort of feel the same way, but on the one hand it feels like they actually isn't that much talent out there to feel safe. You got a couple of two guys. Yeah. You've got your other random character like Nick to raise a sort of inserted himself here and that's pretty good. But then like we're still talking about Nico hulkenberg, who don't get me wrong, had a great career, but had a great career. It's happened. It's finished, but we're still talking about drivers like that. Even Antonio giovinazzi, who I liked and think he actually deserved a bit of a longer opportunity, but you know, it's not like he was making such a great case that he absolutely should be back on the Formula One grid either. So on the one hand, you sort of got a weak field, but on the other hand, if you did have someone like Jack do and rock up at Williams, there's every chance you might only get one year and then not find another seat because there are enough like average drivers making a good enough case for themselves that there aren't enough seats. True, but then if Jack uses that opportunity to go, well, this is how good I'm bloody am. You'd be mad not to keep me or to or to poach me. So he's got to be in the system. It's just like, it's like an IFL coach. I think James heard there's more. I think he's even on the Alpine wish list of potential candidates to fill that state. And if you're talking about there's not enough depth in the junior formula, which I disagree with. I'm actually very surprised that lame Lawson is not in the mix. For AlphaTauri, graduation, for example. So that surprises me a little bit. But yeah, I think there's enough talent on the grid to be filled by your F two types. And look, I'm not going to discredit IndyCar, right? I think that you could easily get all other drivers of higher stock on board. Yeah, I just found a bizarre is more eligible for super license points that Colton heard but he's not even in anyone's right up. And I think he's progression into IndyCar has been far more impressive, but nevertheless, yeah. It's an interesting, interesting time. It is interesting, isn't it? And it does make you wonder the Nick devries thing. Now he's another driver we should talk about here because he's on everyone's list all of a sudden he's on Williams lists. He's on Alpine's list. He's now apparently the favorite to go to alpha tauri replaced Pierre gasly. But he's kind of broken the business model a little bit because he's not come immediately up through F two. Obviously he's an F two champion a couple of years ago, but he's gone by formula E and he's a driver that realistically was written off. Before this year there was no chance he's getting to Formula One he had a shot at Williams and at Alfa Romeo for this season and Williams went for Alex Albon and Alfa Romeo and for Joe grand you in both of them worked out obviously. So that's no knock on that decision making. But all of a sudden is injected himself into the conversation for good reason because he had a great race in Italy. A great race on debut sudden race on debut. But it does make you wonder, every time we hear someone say, oh, like the F two greeted schnitzel very impressive, it's very weak greed, all these kinds of things. How seriously can we take it? Because as you sort of said earlier, sometimes drivers do click in formula and you can't take a punt on a driver happening to get all of a sudden much better and if one. But it does make you wonder whether actually we're bypassing too many drivers because sort of the vibe of the greed in F two. He's not so good. Reading, yeah, reading too many articles. I don't say we don't respect you, but in your posture, but I don't. Yeah, just yeah, you can't be riding off drivers in the press. And yeah, it's very strange that people get sucked into this vortex of if they've got good headlines around them, therefore they're going to be stand at driver because it's not always been the case. Not always been the case, but yeah, I think many seasons before it was written off too many drivers. Drivers of hung around for too long as well. So there's talent if you look hard enough and just ignore the hype and look at the raw facts and the raw data. This is why maybe this is why I'm anti anti hero because I just don't, if I look at the data, if I don't believe the headlines, if I don't say Lee diffie screaming about how good Colton herder is and every IndyCar driver just having Carlton's back. Very admirable. But if I'm looking at the data, I don't see it. I just don't bloody say it and I'm not going to get sucked in for it either. I'm not going for the popular route. Now is the time for the king to take his rightful place thrown in the Hall of Fame. Sit on his king of Thrones. I'm KB. That's my time. Books of neutrals. This break is brought to you by liquor land. And we've got a special promo code for loyal listeners of box of neutrals when you
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"It's been a big week for the driver market and we've already talked a little bit about Nick de vries, but this is he's like the main player. He's actually the biggest player now after you're my Colton Colton and possibly Pierre gasly. It's all still up in the air, but suddenly Nick did raise his number one for Williams, like they won him because obviously he scored points for them. He's proven he can do what he's doing. That's bad news for Nicolas Latifi. But now he's also on Alpine's radar and all of a sudden from no contract he could be going to two. Yes, Alpine is basically the clarin, because why not they may as well have a cracking of just anyone who anyone who likes them. I wonder who will fill the position first. Alpine, their second driver alongside S one O corn, all the football club with the same year coach. Which one will be first, mailbox and neutrals dot com. That is that is one hell of a running race in contingent because I tell you what it's every week and I know it's kind of been done to death this whole PS3 thing. We've kind of moved on a little bit. On the way for the papaya team and we're all dealing with that, but when they keep sort of bringing up the loyalty factor in this then the other very interesting because there's many examples in history of time is not recording drivers the same level of loyalty or respect that they would sort of expect back but anyway. Lawrence Rossi wasn't crossed those deals back in the day, so I don't regret him for that. But what's my point? I don't know. 9906 103. There is another name on the radar now as well though and his name is Jack doolin, the F two driver, Australian. Of course, you know I'm sad of Mick tort doing very well. That's how he's doing. He's a winner in F two now. He's come along very strong actually this season. Second half of the season in particular, he's doing very well. And suddenly, because Alpine might not give peer gasly because alpha towering might not get Colton herder. He's in the frame. Now there is a test this week in Budapest, the hungaroring everyone loves the hungaroring, which did so. Jack do a Nick devries and Colton Herta are all going to be testing as far as I understand it. The Alpine car. Now Colton had is not in the frame for L pain, but apparently they're doing it to assist AlphaTauri in their case to make sure he can race for them so that they can get gasly, so it's a weird, this weird like three way three pointed love triangle situation. But they are statistically and also Jack duan is still in the frame promotion either at L pain or maybe because they don't want to promote him just yet, lone him to Williams, but that'd be weird because then what about Logan sergeant? So it's a real mess. Yeah, thanks a lot Al pain for causing these sort of absolute mess of a driver market, but it's absolutely scintillating. I love it to be because it's very fascinating because it's good for the old roster drama stuff. Who was it that said that then Ricardo should take a sabbatical in 2023. Well, that's right. It was me. Awesome. Oh, mate. I'm not making this up. I said this. I said this. I have to go back and check the time. I'm sure the box of neutrals are too Discord. We'll prove me right. And I reckon that'll be one of my old time greats. I think it might be. Because if all the states are kind of fall and they're a bit apart from L pain, like I really am really strong on Daniel Ricciardo should just be. I'm very big on it, for obvious reasons. As much as Pierre gasly would, I guess, go there and beg would fit, but yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I feel like if Daniel's like, well, do I go back with my Talbot between my legs? Is that how pain? Do I spend a year off play basketball in LA with the snowboarder friend of his I forget his name? And then maybe replace Lewis Hamilton in 2024. At Mercedes, then that is exactly the thing to do. It's exactly the right move to make because you have a year off, reach out to the batteries have a spell, but be guarantee the safe. At the end of it all, which is, which is a win win situation. So I think this is a likely scenario now. It's everyone's everyone would have thought the Alpine thing would have been worked out by now. But clearly, it would have happened a lot quicker, I think. If the Ricardo appetite was there. So yeah, very, very curious situation. On that front and then yeah, just where does it place everybody? So it'll be an interesting driver market because I think there'll be some names that you don't expect to be on there. And if Carlton heard her is on there. I'll tell you what. There'll be a full inquest. Oh, yes. After the end of inquest, obviously. That's priority one. But yes, you're right. It is an interesting one as well. It feels like a weird driver market too because there are clearly enough drivers for seats, and there's enough vague interest, but no one wants to commute. And Williams has made its decision now because it's been wondering for the last month or two whether to replace Latifi or not in for a while. I'm pretty sure they intended to keep him, because they wanted to give Logan cited another year and there's no point starting another driver, but they clearly changed their mind in the last one. Day or two. But now that he's got this offer from L paid, obviously he'd prefer to go to Alpine because of more competitive car. Just no one wants to settle down anywhere and even harsh. Gunter Steiner has talked about the fact that Mick Schumacher is still in the frame, but recently the host caused just been no good and he hasn't been able to show what he can do and it seems like he's still going to be replaced. He might be replaced by Nico hulkenberg, remember him and even Alpine sinking about Nico hulkenberg. This should be enough drivers without having to go back to hulkenberg, although he was good enough. But it's just very wacky. That's very funny that I'll put there, it goes one way for Alpine. Yes, we sat unicorn, but you're welcome to come back. Yeah. Hulkenberg is an interesting one because I'm kind of love Nicole. I feel like he's been done. If we're in an era where we want to get unique div raise where you want to get Colton herders of the world. Then we really going back into the Nico hulkenberg well. Exactly. Exactly. I don't know. I think we could do better about anyway. I quite like Nico. It's like a warm pair of slippers. Well worn. Yeah, but I would prefer a fresher face. In that state, more further rejuvenation of. The other sport. Yes, I prefer a new pair of snippets in other words. Finally, this week, after months and months, years, decades of teasing, Porsche has finally said they won't be joining Formula One with Red Bull at least. Yes. Finally, with Red Bull, they might still be joining Formula One, except the only thing is they don't know how they'll possibly be able to do it because there's no obvious way for them to do it, but isn't Red Bull because let's not forget Porsche's not joining like I used to build its own engines or start its own tape while adding on starting its own team. It's just buying Salva or will. It was essentially just going to buy 50% of everything Red Bull's already done. And then just keep doing it, which would have been successful, I guess, except for the fact that they wanted too much, say, and Red Bull said, I don't want to give you any say, well, particularly Christian Horner, I think. Apparently apparently, did you manage it was big on the deal, but I couldn't get it over the line with the rest of the team. But it means now, well, you know, there's no other team doing the same thing that Red Bull's doing, building its own engine and also being very successful.
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"And he kind of tried to make a joke about it and it actually was more depressing that he tried to make a joke about it. I just. It hurts me. Robert hurts me to say our boy our Aussie pride boy Daniel Ricciardo is so upset like so flat. It's incredible because he can't get a trick at the minute. He's the bank of credit that he was riding hard on. That he was like a gambler who had one sort of good win. At Monza, he was just like, I'm gonna go all in all chips in, I'm gonna reinvest it and he's walked away with he now has an extension cord. Because. Yeah, the literally the whole it'll be a fascinating tale one day when Daniel's career hopefully has a more pleasant ending to it on his terms as opposed to this farcical saga that's currently occurring, but because the remarkable thing is is that he judged on sort of last good results and his last good result is a very long time. Arguably bonzo was, you know, if you really break it down, it was a little bit of a flash in the pan and Lando Norris could have easily passed him, but nonetheless he was, he was there any capitalized on it and so it shows yeah he's capable of it and it's very nice to say all the Instagram reels and tiktoks of Daniel Ricciardo of old where he was actually smiling and laughing and winning things and actually yeah, really aggressive right at the moment. It's kind of like, well, what's the point? At the minute because I haven't McLaren have shown no sort of loyalty to me. I'm leaving. They're not exactly in a hurry to fix my issues with this car. Now that we're just going to ride the season out pissing around with I think list of tape probably. And that's what everyone's going to remember. To be honest. So he kind of needs a new environment and another chance to really show where where he's at because quite frankly, if someone like the whole series, I love Nico hulkenberg, don't get me wrong, but if he's on the grid over, Daniel Ricciardo. It's just, yeah, that's not right. But what's everyone else doing on the grid? Not to discredit a half either, but it's just not. Yeah, I don't know. He needs to be yeah, it's Alpine or nothing, as far as I'm concerned. Alfa Romeo, I could accept. But the car never finishes races. It's not going to even be off for a Mario next year would be bloody Audi Ferrari or something. Oh, Porsche. That's the story itself. But anyway, so it's just it's not good. And as much as that's his personality to put on a bright face and smile and paint clogs on the McLaren YouTube or Lando Norris is giving you nothing. You're a feel for him. You got to feel for him. And there's that video I've been waiting. It was overheard. I don't know if you saw it but the video of him he was talking about saying, you know, techie, you're often coming back at 2024, absolutely not. So it sounds like he doesn't want to he doesn't want to take the rob James advice. So a good thing, I'm not his manager. Maybe right now. But I still think it's the best thing for him if he does that. He's the will buxton theory. There's the rob James theory. There's many theories going around. What's the will buxton theory? I don't know these theories. It's a bit of a hybrid between the rob James theory. And the will buxton theory, it's the rob James component of the tachira out and go to a good team. The idea was he texted sabbatical in 2024 as a reserve driver for Mercedes. When the reason one elect to return to earth to walk away with 7 or 8 world titles and call it a day and then therefore they have a very capable driver on their on their books in order to do it because yeah, are they very George Russell in that state? Maybe it's going to be a Lando Vic Daniel two all over again, but it's not a vibe. I don't buy it. Can you imagine that means next year Daniel is going to be rocking up to racetracks and just standing next to toto wolf in their communications director watching races. That just doesn't seem right to me. I don't know. I'm not sure if you always would rather him at a harsh or even Williams. Yes, not even any rumors about you are going to Williams. It's remarkable. I think it's going to set up a new email address and small cops Daniel. Let's go ahead and list the safety. That kind of stage I feel at the minute. It feels like that could be what's happening. That old Logan sergeant, I've been thinking about this during obviously this weekend. And it feels at the start of the weekend it felt a lot like he was going to have a sabbatical. It just feels like we saw that clipboard. I think that clip is sort of alluded to, I think that's not nearly as conclusive as I think some people are making it out. The one where he's talking to suit your periods. But it's because he can't go to Alpine, which seemed like a good fit that apparently Alpine potentially has some reservations there or the management does like the upper management and then you're looking at smaller teams. It feels like maybe he's heading towards sabbatical. He's also said in the last week, he's personally not really thinking about it at the moment he's letting his management sort of do it. And but I've also been thinking, I'm thinking about a lot today, in fact, that has kind of makes a lot of sense to me. You can't go to Alpine. Do it for one year. I mean, house would love it because I get a great marketing benefit out of it. You'll probably get a little he's not going to get heaps of it. He's not going to get heaps of money anywhere at this point. Let's be honest. If you're getting a little bit of money out of him because the stump up some cash volume, I think he'd be a good teammate with Kevin Magnussen as well. I think that would work. And the harsh car next to you might be better, like at this year at times it's been very good. It's been nearly at the top of the midfield. Next year it might improve again. It's only one year. Keep yourself open for the driver market but potentially capitalize on it being a decent team. I still think that's better than taking a year. I just think taking a year out is not because the driver market is not even that open the following year. As you touched on the big one is the Mercedes. They have two seats up for grabs, but neither of them are going to go unless lose Hamilton retires. Ferrari doesn't Red Bull doesn't. The only ones available at Alpine and you're like, well, if you're not going to get them now, you may not get it thin unless you've really restored your reputation in a big way. So I don't know, I'm kind of hopeful that maybe he'll end up asking now all of a sudden if it's not out there. But I feel like our pain, they need to sort of put the whole, I guess not disloyalty. It was a case of, well, my contract's up. I want to go to that time. And explore my options there. It's not like he did the wrong thing. If anything, he did the right. He ended up with podiums and really delivered until the very end of that relationship. So surely you should put that to one side and let's be honest. This is the same Alpine that is dealing with the loosest units of all Fernando Alonso. And they're accepting what he's been doing. Knowing full well what he's capable of. So at least find someone that's going to be loyal and kind of appreciative of coming back to saying this time around in
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Daniel Ricciardo. Finishing too often at all the points. Where has he been ranked by 17th? And again, not recency bias. But I rewatched his hungry qualifying lap. He does not trouble an apex for the first half of a lot. He's just really, you can see what's wrong in terms of on track, it's not like he's obviously he's slow, he's got that deficit, but you can see what's wrong, it's not being gotten on top of and that's what's frustrating. And you know why McLaren would have signed in when they did as I mentioned on a previous podcast is his style was in the ascendancy. Although you could have questioned that decision, that moved McLaren seemed so right at the right time. And that's a whole other podcast of what's gone wrong there. But in terms of the season so far, how are you feeling about Daniel Ricciardo? Yeah, it's not been open great. It's been a bit of it feels like history repeating itself. And we know last year how he struggled and he took that summer to go away and he was very open at the end of the season about how we needed that someone just like blow it off and just say, look, I don't need to think about Formula One for a month and just really reset. Came back for the second half season and was that much stronger. And yeah, he came back into the new campaign. We thought, right, are we going to see more of that, Daniel, who never left, who won at Monza. And we've not has gone back to what we saw in the early part of last year, and it's been similar similar kind of struggles, but he, I asked him, do you need that summer again just to not think about F one for a few weeks. He was like, no, I don't feel as desperate for it. I feel sort of quite content about things. And again, we've talked about his future on the podcast before this. But it just seems like it's just not clicking. And for all of the, oh, it's going to come good and we know where things are going wrong and we can find it. It's taken a long, long time to get any kind of progress and see him at Lando's level, because right now he just simply isn't. I think 17th is about right. I mean, again, when you talk about driver ratings, when we do it every race, you've got to see how did one had to OneDrive compared to their teammate. And there's nowhere near Norris. And even when he is near him, he's generally behind him or nor is that a problem. That's the reason why Ricardo is ahead. So it's just really disappointing. It harms ultimately, it will harm his F one legacy, his reputation, things like that. And this is the point because he's very popular driver. He's very nice guy. But yeah, as Matt said, it's the corner entry in the braking. It's the problems that were plaguing him last year, even though the ground effect car is totally different. There's Norris and Ricardo said there are certain elements of what the McLaren does. Even though his struggles with it, he's not, I don't think he finds it particularly easy car to drive, but he can do it much better than Ricardo. This is absolutely damning with faint praise. But if you look at the order, there's only a couple of drivers ahead of Ricardo that I've had like a huge shunt. Ricardo has spared himself that he hasn't fought himself off into the wall, but it's not a long list of positives to take promises. In Monaco, at least it was in practice didn't customer a race result. And he'll know that he'll look at the traces against his teammate, and he'll know. And he's under no illusions about where he is slow. Formula One drivers have the most supreme confidence in their own ability. In their own head, they're all the best drivers on the grid. But at some point, you're going to be thinking a dose of reality is going to hit him, isn't it? And big, I'd like twice. We put him as our number one driver in the world. Two years, we've done that for Ricardo. So 17th on this list is sad. Yeah, a bit heartbreaking, isn't it? Okay, and our final teammate we haven't talked about yet on my list. He is 14th, but I would add is because we have to put Nico hulkenberg in the writings. And he is 7. So minus a place he's 13th, but that's still not really a great result. So their final kind of teammate that we haven't talked about yet before we finish off the last couple of teams is Sergio Pérez. And again, he's got his future for the first time ever in Formula One, really laid out in front of him. He's doing the right role, but let's talk about his season a little bit at Red Bull. What do you think? I think it's up to a point. It was exactly what Red Bull needed. And that's why he got the contract. And I genuinely think he totally gave the game away on the way into the podium. And he says, I signed too early. And the person he confirms that we've just his eyes is when Christian hall had a very quickly looks at the camera light. Did they hear that? Yeah, it's brilliant, it's brilliant. So yeah, up to a point, exactly what Red Bull needed. As I explained
The Autosport Podcast
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Towards the end he did get there with Renault. He struggled. So Nico Rosberg, I think you're right about most world champions, the real greats. Yeah, the hamiltons that Verstappen's the process Schwartz because they are exactly what you're describing. I think to get there, of course, there are a few world champions on the list, which is probably a different podcast that I would say aren't particularly adaptable. They took their moment. Nico Rosberg being the most recent one I would suggest and I don't think that Ricardo has any worse to driver than Nico Rosberg. I do however think that you'll probably write that he's getting towards the end of his career, which was part of the reason why I would take a punt again to Aston Martin because always going to do it stay at McLaren is get thumped again by noise next year. And then these market value will be absolutely nothing. Whereas if you go to Aston Martin for next year, I say Luke's point about it's not a good fit necessarily. But then who's a better driver that they could go for? I mean, it may be that Luke's got some insight that they've already got. Somebody really amazing lined up, but he makes it he could make that jump now when he still got a bit of life left in him surface something to build Aston because he's not going to happen at McLaren. So who do we think? Who do we think is going to get that Aston seat then? If not, if not Ricardo. I'm really not sure. I sorry, I back Alonso moved to. That's what I think that's the interesting bit of this market. If you take piastre out of all of this, Alonso has now got brilliant leverage to go to Alpine and say, right, I want X, Y, and Z, because you need me basically. Now, okay, if he said, well, my go to Aston and we know they were talks with Aston when he made his comeback for 21 with Alpine. Alpine might say, well actually that's okay because we've got we've got piastre, we go for pediatric on lineup. So it's not the same kind of battle that I think it would have been. But I think that, yeah, if I were asked in, I would be going after Alonso because I think again, he brings that kind of like, he brings that sparkle. He brings that, that sort of like world championship name, but we know all the baggage that does come with Alonso as well. Oh yeah, if I was asked to not be going after Alonso before Alonso, I wouldn't be going to ask him. So we'll see. But I think that's going to be that's going to be the key. Yeah, I think the next few weeks going to be decisive, but I palmy just wonders whether it might I just wonder if it might actually become a seat that someone ends up with because they've kind of got no other options. Even something like Nico hulkenberg, he could be racing in this if you wanted to, but then he was like no, no, no, no, no. Let me make my point. He's saying that Nicole combo could be racing this year if he wanted to. But he's not because he's like, I want to spend time with my family and stuff like that. His priorities have shifted. So even he might be like, actually, if they really want me, do I really want to I don't know. So it might become one of these seats where it's kind of whoever the slips through the gaps in the market a little bit. And they end up with it, but yeah, it's going to be central to silly season now. It feels like it could go to hulkenberg. But I would be so pissed if hulkenberg gets that seat. Why? Just because I don't know. I'm not a massive fan of comebacks because hulkenberg fell out of favor for a reason, right? He just, he was a bit mid. Like, he put in Samoa Kay performances, but he was never going to reach an absolute limit. And yeah, okay, he might be a steady pair of hands, but he's also not raced for three years. And okay, again, I know everyone's going to say, when he did come back, he was technically competitive. All things considered, but I just don't I'm just not I'm not on that. He doesn't excite you. I can see I can see that's why, but it's a matter of who the options are. We can come up with a list and say, if you may, hulkenberg shouldn't have fallen out of F one anyway, but that's separate thing given that some people who have been on the grid until quite recently. But yeah, he probably wouldn't be my number one choice, but it wouldn't offend me if he was defined his way his way back. I wouldn't be offended. That's not enough with greatest respect to the reason Schumacher. None of them are like set the world on fire options. I feel like I don't know de vries would be an interesting one for me. The reason you more than hulkenberg. Slightly, is that what does that say about me? I'm not sure. You
The Dork Forest
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on The Dork Forest
"To work. And I'm like, no, but I have a terrible cold. I also don't want to go to work. It doesn't have to be COVID. Oh man. I just went to Scottsdale for a thing, wasn't even comedy related. And flying to Phoenix, that's a different planet as well. And so yeah, I was a weird look. I'm like, it's just, we've been wearing these. What are we doing? Just like mid 2020 or early 2020, I went to Vegas. And they had a mask mandate in the trap, the tropicana, which is where I was performing. And so everybody was wearing masks. And I would get on stage and I'd be like, so you guys got a sick of the masks and they'd be like, yeah, and I said, but you really want to sit in front of a slot machine for 8 hours, so you're willing to do it. And they're like, yeah. Sure. Yes. And you're like, yeah, I love the power of your convictions. Anyway. Yeah. Wearing maga hats and just out of their goddamn minds. So insane. Budget idiots. So yes, so here we are, real close. We're real close to the end of it. So what does everyone race in every one of the 26 races? Yes. Theoretically, yes, that's the goal is that they're there if they have a cold or something. Oh, yeah. Well, another fun story is COVID, obviously not the funnest story. But COVID happened. The fun story because of COVID, a couple drivers have gotten COVID in the last two years. And there's one driver who, for some reason, is the substitute. And so he used to race his name's Nico hulkenberg. Hulkenberg, they call him the hulk, and he is awesome. And he is what makes him awesome. I think he's Belgian or German. I think German. It makes me think German. I think German and you looks pretty German, so I'm going to go with German. But he's a very lovable character, very nice, just a great face of Formula One, but he lost his seat to a different driver, a couple of years ago, but he's one of those guys. He's still young and still has the ability to just hop in a car and fill in. So he's become this de facto substitute for a couple teams where he used to race for. When someone got COVID, they would literally call him two days before the race or three days before the race and say, hey, can you fly to whatever country they're in? He hops on a plane, flies there. They have seen some helmets form already, and then he just races. And he wears a pink thing. He is 34, 35 years old. Oh, he is. That's older than I thought. Born in 87. And he is German. And you're correct. Okay. Yeah. It's funny now to say Nico hulkenberg and be like, I don't know what that is..
Box of Neutrals
"nico hulkenberg" Discussed on Box of Neutrals
"Wonderfully close to the end of this very long season. And of course, that means finding out who the champions are going to be because that means what everyone does want to know. That is still almost a quarter of the year still to go. So it's a still up to crabs. A quarter of the years ago in about a month, that's not right. Mathematically, that should be possible. It actually doesn't make sense. And more mathematics isn't great. So it gets to show the jurors and just the level of sustenance. Do withstand this arduous season. That hasn't even really been covered interrupted. Either this year, which actually, to be honest, I'm surprised that IndyCar band Nico hulkenberg hasn't had more of a run. This is because I think I did say at the start of the year that expect to say a lot of stuff will vendor on. Making surprising lineups. But it hasn't really happened. This year, I guess, you know, the system works. Yes. Have we had any substitutions? Yes, or I can. He had it. Is there any driver? Wherever it was, Netherlands. That's pretty good. That's pretty cool. Considering lost to you, it seemed like every driver was getting it because they were flying back and forth home when they weren't meant to be. Yes. And holiday. And the middle aged. But this year, I mean, even a month ago, had you told me we were going to Brazil. I would have laughed at you. In fact, we laughed about it often on this program. And yet here we are on the precipice. I'll give him credit. I will give them credit on that one because that was a rice. I was absolutely not on from bit Bose that it was never going to take place. And yet here we are, we're actually very close to actually attending that race. I don't know how the he copying president belly. Let's just maybe let's just check in on how belcaro or his name is.