Speaker 1: This is off track. Oh, we're recording.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Terrific. Speaker 2: ,
I tried to warn people. I've
Speaker 1: Just wanted Speaker 2: Be known.
Criticizing you guys.
Speaker 1: It will now be every episode, at least something will be
consumed as audibly as possible.
Hopefully off the top of every single episode.
Although I did see some, these are actually good, made,
good little cluster granola clusters.
Wow. I just bought this at the airport last night
when I couldn't get food.
Well, we'll get into that on Thursday.
Um, last one, I promise.
Also a convenient way to burn a little bit of time.
You're either muted Tim,
or for some reason I can't hear you talking.
There we go. I just heard noise. Nope. Nope.
I heard you rustle with the microphone.
Speaker 2: How about now? Speaker 1: Now I got you. Now
Speaker 2: I got you man.
We're just burning time, which is a good thing
because there's nothing to talk about in the racing world
today, especially for somebody who works for both IndyCar
and F1 tv.
Speaker 1: This is a tough day to be me .
It's a, it's a tough day for me
to have an opinion based podcast that is racing centric.
When I am currently, and my two biggest employers are F1
and Fox via IndyCar.
It's um, or IndyCar via Fox.
Speaker 2: It'd be nice if FAF or P faf could get involved somehow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Speaker 2: Let's just to really round it out,
Speaker 1: Let's just have them petition for like Petit Laman
to be held on Memorial Day weekend.
So obviously Tim, you're talking about the news
that came out about the F1 schedule.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Um, which lands
the Montreal Formula One race.
Mm-hmm . The closest race geographically to the state
of Indiana on the day of the 8,500
Speaker 2: A 2:00 PM start time.
So assuming no weather delays starting right
as the 500 is coming to a conclusion
Speaker 1: No, no.
We'll be dead in the middle of the race.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I guess that's true. I thought
Speaker 1: If it was starting at the conclusion of, if,
if they were at the conclusion of the race, that'd be fine.
Speaker 2: I meant like the what? I mean they always,
you guys always say the Indy 500 is two races survive
for 150 laps.
Race for 50 laps. Yes. Yes.
So, but I guess I, I was in my head, I was thinking
of noon start time, but that's noon broadcast start time.
1240 ish green flag.
Speaker 1: I mean we were on air at 10:00 AM but
Speaker 2: That was the pre-show though.
I'm talking about the actual broadcast window
that's listed as the Indy 500. That
Speaker 1: Is true.
That is true. That was right. Um, yeah.
So let's talk about this.
Not only have we cannibalized
what was the coolest day in motor sports?
It was Motorsport fans Christmas day. Yes.
By having Monaco Grum pri first thing in the morning,
then you watch the Indy 500 and then you'd hunker down
and buckle in for the Coca-Cola 600.
We knew that Monaco was moving.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: I don't know if I ever found out exactly why
I it's, yeah, that's a good point.
I dunno if it's because they didn't want
to be on the same day as the 500.
'cause I, I think next year it goes Monaco Indie
and then Lamar three weekends in a row.
I think that might be spoken outta turn.
Again, this is not a fact-based show. Everybody now
Speaker 2: We do very little research, Speaker 1: Very and no follow up
Speaker 2: And occasionally whatsoever you guys just don't show up.
Speaker 1: Tune in later this week for more on that .
Um, so whatever. So it's moving.
This one, this one was so surprising though
because I literally had pro one in particular, example
of a very prominent member
of the Formula One community reach out to me being like, I'm
so happy I can finally go to the Indie 500.
Where should I stay? What?
And we were, I was, you know, trying to walk him through how
to do indie and then he text me like a day.
Yeah, well, Saturday night, that's where you gotta be a day
or two later just get a text being like, scrap that.
Just saw the calendar for F1
and they did it on the same weekend.
It's absolutely bonkers. It's baffling. It makes no sense.
Let's remind everybody that Montreal F1,
um, is held on a track that's a park,
it's like the only race they have all year.
So it's not like there's a date issue if you push it a week
or something like that.
Now, if it is in fact
Lama the weekend after Indy.
So you, you, I could see F1 not wanting to push
Montreal to that weekend
because I feel like a bunch of the reserve drivers
and stuff in F1 are in fact driving at Lamont,
but also they have more than one reserve driver.
So deal with that problem rather than taking
on the biggest race in the world head to head.
This makes no sense. It's gonna, so
Speaker 2: I, I saw, I saw a lot of, I'm sorry I cut you off.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, please. Speaker 2: I saw a lot
of stuff on Twitter that was pointed out.
Like they're not going to really, it's not going
to be a competition in the United States.
The Indy five hundred's going to blow it out of the water.
Uh, most people expect, and I,
and I think that's probably fair.
Maybe it'll cut in a little bit,
but I don't think it'll be much.
But it will matter for people trying
to watch the 500 in Europe.
It will matter for like international fans
that wanna watch the 500
that are just not gonna have the same options or ability to
Speaker 1: Yes, certainly.
Um, but it's,
but F1 obviously doesn't care about
what IndyCar's audience is, so it will,
it will hurt European Indie car fans.
Well not, and it won't hurt their ability to watch the race,
but you just have to choose at some point.
Speaker 2: I disagree. I don't, I think F1 does care.
I mean, I, I know that, that it's
not a comparable fan base in viewing thing,
but it's, it's hard to view this
as anything other than trying to hurt IndyCar. It seems, it
Speaker 1: Seems very intentional that it seems that F1 has noticed
that IndyCar is on the rise.
It has noticed that with Fox,
our viewership is growing exponentially
and um, it does seem like a direct shot
at, at our biggest race.
Now you're right Tim. Um, the,
the ratings won't even be close.
Indy Indy will win by a mile.
But it, it might take some of the fans that watched IndyCar
that got into IndyCar off the back
of getting into F1 off the back of Drive
to Survive or whatever.
Uh, it's ignorant to think
that every race fan is just gonna defacto choose the 500
over an F1 race if they're competing head to head.
I don't think that's true. I think this does hurt IndyCar.
I think this does hurt our viewership.
Um, it hurts fans opportunity to go see both races.
Like it's, it's just silly man.
It's just silly.
Nobody wins because yeah, the ratings
for Montreal will be worse.
They'll be decidedly worse.
They'll have, they'll get a much bigger hit than ours will,
Speaker 2: Which is crazy to me
because Liberty seems to be very focused on trying
to build an American audience for F1
and they've done a lot of smart moves to do that
and they've been paying off very well
over the last few years.
So this just feels like such an unforced error.
And maybe there's a part of the equation I'm not seeing, but
Speaker 1: Look, there always is, right?
We don't know all the facts, but you're right.
You look at the US races
and their ratings for F1, they're double, they're two
and a half, sometimes three x
what the average F1 race gets when they are domestic.
And in that sort of prime Sunday afternoon time slot,
now you're not, and look, let's call a spade a spade,
nine times outta 10 and F1 race is settled in the
first five laps.
Mm-hmm . Right? So whereas Indy, you're gonna want
to stay right to the end.
I could see some people just flipping over
for the first five laps in Montreal
and then flipping back over to the 500
because race is usually pretty much done by then.
Yeah. Short of some safety car,
which certainly can happen in Montreal.
But like the fact that I was, I was looking forward
to being able to go to Montreal for
Speaker 2: Like, I'm sure yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, the only, the second time in almost 20 years,
uh, there's just so many racing fans
that would've taken that opportunity.
It's been a clash with
so many races in IndyCar over the years.
Like it was a clash with Texas for like a decade
and then it clashed with, I dunno something else.
So we've not been able to go,
I think there was one year we were able to go,
I think it was maybe 2021.
Um, and it was great
and there was a lot of IndyCar fans
that went that I know that were there.
I was there, it was awesome. But you're right,
it seems calculated, it seems intentional, which
is a compliment to IndyCar at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't a threat.
Speaker 1: I, I think, yeah, I think that's the, the only way to take
that move without clarification as to what the reasoning is,
which I haven't seen any.
Um, I also haven't done a lot of digging into it.
Again, not a big research show,
but yeah, I think it's a loss for, um,
I think it's a loss for IndyCar.
I think it's a loss for F1.
I think it's a loss for the fans of both series.
And the only positive in it is that it's, I, again, I see it
as a compliment from the IndyCar side that that F1 wants
to try to slow down the momentum of the 500.
It ain't gonna work, you know, it's not gonna work.
But, um, even if it affects the rating a tiny bit,
it's not gonna work for what the overall momentum
of, of the sport is at the moment.
So, um, it's a bummer, Tim. It's a bummer.
So the, the one thing
that was said about why this might be the case is
to keep Miami and Montreal back to back
for I guess quote unquote sustainability reasons
or something, which makes sense.
If they were back to back weeks, they're back to back races,
but there's like two weeks between them.
Mm-hmm. So everybody's gonna leave North America
and then they're gonna come back to North America. I,
Speaker 2: It's also weird to me because you're at a point now
where McLaren has an F1
and IndyCar team by this point, Andretti will have,
or Cadillac will have, you know, Andrea have Cadillac and F1
and, and, and, and IndyCar team Prema will have what?
F two in, in IndyCar.
Like there's enough overlap now Myers on the board of
of Liberty has Meyer Shank racing.
Like it just, it's odd.
It just like, I understood when Monaco was on the same day
because they had that date for however many years.
Not nearly as many as the Indy 500 as
that Memorial Day weekend.
I, I got that right.
There was history there,
but I I, it's just, it didn't make sense.
Okay. You, you, there's so much overlap now.
Why would you move Monaco only
to put something else on that date?
Speaker 1: It makes no sense. It makes
Speaker 2: No sense.
I mean, I know we're not ever gonna go back to the days
of F1 drivers coming over
and doing the 500, um, as much fun as I think that would be,
but I don't know, was there anything else on
the calendar that surprised you?
Speaker 1: Again, I, I just, I'm looking at it
and just, I'm getting increasingly more annoyed
because if the whole point is to have Miami
and Canada on the same stretch, right?
Mm-hmm . You can move Canada a week sooner
and if anything it makes more sense from a sustainability
point and not maybe people would actually
stay in North America. It just, you know, it's just,
Speaker 2: And still you're still kind of messing with IndyCar then
'cause you're hitting qualifying
where you will actually probably pull some of the viewers.
Yeah, that's, that's true. Like that's if you're trying
to choose between an F1 race
and indie qualifying, I'm,
I'll take qualifying 10 days outta 10. But I was,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say if you're, if you're trying to choose
between that you've never watched any 500 qualifying
because that's arguably more exciting and stressful
and cool than a race than any other race
and actually the most tense weekend of the entire year.
But yes, look, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna ask F1
to like build their calendar
around our one hallmark event here,
but at the same time, yeah,
put it on qualifying weekend finite.
At least that's somewhat defendable.
You know, I can tell you
what day the 85 hundred's gonna be on in 2047.
Mm-hmm . That's, that's how this works.
You have a gap to put a race not on the biggest race
of the year in the world.
Yeah. And you chose not to do it.
So again, if, if their argument is to be back to back
with Miami wrong, you did it wrong.
That's not, that's not good enough.
If there's another reason, cool.
Again, there's always more to do with this story,
but I don't like that they're not sharing what that is
unless it is just a middle fingered IndyCar,
which would be unfortunate.
And you know, I think it's,
I think it's gonna hurt them more than it's gonna hurt us.
So vie um,
Speaker 2: You mean it's gonna hurt us more than it's gonna hurt us
since you're split allegiance
Speaker 1: Stop it.
Um, obviously F one's got a new track coming on the
calendar in Madrid.
So the second race in Spain, um,
which is in September, which should be pretty cool.
I always like seeing new venues come on.
Uh, Z v's back on a rotational basis, which is good.
I like that event. And
otherwise what's, there's two triple headers next year
and they both, they're the last six races of the year,
which was the case two years ago
or last year, sorry, not this year.
Um, which is a bummer
because I usually work all those in triple headers.
We top this year of them broken up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember after your first triple header you'd be
like, oh that was, that was a thing that was, yeah, ,
which is a real thing, which is crazy to me.
It kind of speaks to uh,
what like Buxton's point about like he can commute from
England and this is still less difficult than
Speaker 1: Considerably less travel.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaking of which we gotta have,
we gotta have the Fox booth back on.
I think that'd be fun. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do that.
We're definitely gonna make that happen.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's, it's hard 'cause it just sucks.
Like it's, you know, everything in Motorsport has seemed
to be going really well for IndyCar
and F1, like obviously F one's had this massive
jump from drive to survive,
but IndyCar with the Fox, the momentum
and just like, uh, you know what, what, what are we doing?
What happened to rising tide lifts all ships.
Speaker 1: I'm trying really hard to not just be like the grumpy old
guy in this and, and only look at the negatives.
But the problem is, is I just,
I I don't see the other side of it, right?
Like what I positive to do see positive. Yeah.
What I try to do in these situations,
like I have my emotional response, right,
which is usually whatever and then I try to like sit back
and be like, okay, let's look at this from the other side.
Why, why did, how did, could we have got here thinking
with the shoe on the other foot?
And I just don't, I don't see it,
I don't see why this makes sense for, for anybody,
but uh, it is what it is. Um,
Speaker 2: Obviously I I'll be going to Montreal next year.
Speaker 1: Thank God . I did tired.
It's actually alright look, I'm gonna admit it.
You found it, you found the bond there. I pushed, yeah.
I pushed for it to be this weekend just so
that way we could force Tim to go somewhere else.
You know, for editorial purposes
we need you to go get some stories.
Alex is gonna be busy. I'm gonna be busy on the 500 stuff.
We need you to cover the F1 stuff
'cause we're not gonna be able to watch it.
Speaker 2: Okay. I, let me know if we're not allowed
to talk about this, but this just popped up in my head now.
I'm curious, I know that with Toronto there are issues with
some members of teams not being allowed in Canada
because Speaker 1: . Yeah.
Speaker 2: Are we allowed to talk about
Speaker 1: That?
Yeah, it's, yeah it's fine
Speaker 2: Because you know, Canada's pretty strict.
Uh, if you have anything on your record, particularly DUIs
and things like that, um, does F1 have a similar issue?
Speaker 1: That is a great question, man. That is a great question.
because they go to some places where
considerably more strict than Canada.
Yeah, so that's a very good question.
I'm not sure, I'll have to, lemme do some
digging , lemme do some digging on that.
Or do they just have like some kind
of diplomatic community thing
because it's F1 and they can just, that
Speaker 2: One they can Speaker 1: Wave the wand
and everyone just goes in, in isolation in a little pocket.
Speaker 2: I feel like if there was a wand that could be waived
for Canadian immigration, John Green would've figured it out
and we know that he hasn't .
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. I feel like we still need
to make a call to somebody in Canada about that .
Um, you are, you are the
Speaker 2: Guy I would call you are the call I would make.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When I said we that was like the race car driver. We
Speaker 2: Got it. Got it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We just we're bad at saying I
so we just always default to we.
Um, no, I've definitely heard of a story where a member
of the F1 paddock was not allowed to go
to a certain country.
Um, it was
for a much more dramatic offense than a DUI love it and
Speaker 2: Gonna have to tell me about this offline.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I super am not gonna say this, say this on,
on the air, but like for, for the more sort
of casual misdemeanors
and mild felonies,
is there anywhere that Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know because the thing about F1 two though,
remember is like a lot
of the positions on teams have multiple people
and they rotate through, right?
It's like your core group of staff.
Like, I mean obviously the driver race engineer strategist,
like the key engineering people.
Um, but I feel like even on the mechanic side,
there's probably a few people that rotate that can,
and you might do like 20 of the 24 races,
but you have a couple off or something like that.
So there might be some strategery around who goes
to which races and,
and who skips certain ones for issues like that.
I don't know. Um, yeah,
Speaker 2: Well let us know what you think online, you know,
tweet us, uh, Instagram us don't DM us.
I'm so bad at reading those. James can attest.
I have like 200 unread texts.
I'm not gonna check the, it gets me so
Speaker 1: Upset, man. It gets me so
Speaker 2: Upset.
Um, but you know, tweet us, that kind of thing
Speaker 1: And uh, just make sure you tune into the Indy 500 next
year, Memorial Day weekend on Fox.
When is it's Memorial Day weekend?
Speaker 2: Is that new? Speaker 1: No, no.
It's actually something that's fairly well established, Tim.
And it's gonna continue being then until the dawn of time
Speaker 2: end of time. But yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: Sorry to the dusk of time. It's
Speaker 2: Gonna go all the way back Speaker 1: .
Let me, yes, we're gonna go a full cycle.
We go through time and then through the dark ages
and then back to the start of time again
and we'll still be running 8,500 on Memorial Day.
Speaker 2: It's the Futurama style of of time passage.
If you're familiar with that episode,
Speaker 1: Nobody is familiar with that episode.
Speaker 2: That wasn't for you. That's where like the two people
who are gonna be like, holy Futurama reference.
Speaker 1: I like how you just swore on an
episode where we said, I noticed it.
No swearing for your own editing. I noticed
it . Good luck with that
one. Speaker 2: .
Speaker 1: This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.
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