Speaker 1: This is, is off Track me.
Here we are. This, uh, .
I'm <inaudible> excited about this one. .
Speaker 2: I can't <inaudible>. Wait. Speaker 3: Cool. This is great.
Six and a half hours to edit. This should be fine. .
It's all right. I didn't need to sleep tonight.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on Tim. Nobody cares. Uh, hello. Hello. Welcome.
Speaker 3: Tuesday's trivia night at Barney's James.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing you a favor, by keeping you here longer.
Yeah. That's the less time you can spend at Barney's.
Laura, you probably don't know Barney's in la
nor should you, but Tim Barney's
Speaker 2: Is like a store.
Is the like a big store, right?
Speaker 1: No, that's Barney's in New York.
That's a different Barney's. A more expensive
Barney's Speaker 2: .
Oh, okay. This
Speaker 1: Is a bar.
Speaker 3: This one's catching up. Uh, . Okay.
Speaker 1: Well, you've you've spent a lot of money there, guys.
We're totally we're way off topic. Hello and welcome.
I'll track with Hinch or Rossi today as we welcome a very,
very special guest, a close personal friend of mine.
She's the lead presenter for F1 TV's Formula One coverage
among many other things that we'll get into.
Laura Winter. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: James Hinchcliffe. Thank you so much for having me.
What a wonderful introduction.
Speaker 1: Uh, that's actually, I think the best one I've done.
I don't even normally go into much with our guests.
I just sort of say, and here's John. Uh,
Speaker 3: It's a low bar. It's a low bar.
Speaker 1: It is a low bar. It was a low bar. Um,
Speaker 2: I'm honored you took the time.
And also it's hilarious because we're both in the same
hotel, but just different rooms, different floors.
And I was like, oh, cool. We can do it
together and you wouldn't let me.
Speaker 1: Yeah. She was very upset when,
because I asked her to do the show
and she's like, oh my God, I'd love to do it.
It'd be great. And then we had to delay it
because of some technical issues on the
internet. Not even our fault because
Speaker 3: Amazon just shut down the world. Yeah. Which
Speaker 2: Apparently like the internet went down, didn't it? Yeah.
Speaker 1: It wasn't great. And uh,
and then yeah, I was like, yeah, so you could just, uh,
she goes, oh, so where are we gonna do it?
We you do it and do you wanna do it in your room?
We do it in the lobby. Where do you wanna do it?
I'm like, oh no, we've gotta,
we've gotta be, we gotta be separate for this.
And she was quite upset, Tim. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's, uh, I can't say I relate,
I wouldn't wanna spend more time with James
because I feel like you guys like just spent a whole weekend
together in Texas and then's very,
you usually get a little downtime
to get away from each other before the next race,
but now not at all. Right.
Speaker 1: We sat next to each other on the plane here.
We're, we are gonna finish this podcast
and go straight to dinner together.
Correct. Speaker 3: . Yeah. Yeah's.
Speaker 2: I can't get enough. James Hinchcliffe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're, this is, I
Speaker 3: Get it.
He's the delightful. She's my work wife.
Speaker 1: She's my work wife basically.
Um, but yes, so we are in Mexico.
We are just off the back of, uh, the USGP, which was a heck
of a weekend, heck of a race.
But I wanted to, I wanted
to kinda pick your brain a little bit
and get into the, uh, the history, if you will, of lo winter
because, and,
and I, I, I've, I'm sorry for the people listening
where this has been a bit repetitive,
but we've had a couple people on, um, lately talking about
with this swell and interest in motor sports,
there's been a massive interest in people wanting
to get into it f in any capacity
or all capacities I should say.
And I've heard you kind of go through this a little bit
and I think you've got a really interesting take on it.
And, and I'd love to, to kind of get into it.
So before we get into motorsports
and F1 specifically, where did your
start in broadcasting come from?
Was this always the goal?
Did we go to school for it
or did you like me retire from a sport
and they just gave you a microphone?
Speaker 2: I wasn't good enough to kind of be
a retired athlete pundit type thing. No, but
Speaker 1: You were an athlete.
Speaker 2: I was an athlete, yes. I was.
I swam competitively for 12 years
and then I rode competitively at university
and I kind of married all of that in with um, a love
of English and theater studies, darling Drama.
Oh, . Which there will be no surprise to you, I'm sure .
Speaker 1: It explains a lot. It explains a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so I guess the career I've carved out is kind of a,
a combination of all of those, like my love of sport
and not just doing sport and competing,
but also watching so much sport on telly.
I just lived for like the Olympics, Wimbledon, six Nations,
rugby, world Cup football, world Cups.
I was just watching sport all the time.
And so you, I kind of, when I left university thought, well,
how can I make talking about sport my career?
That's what I wanna be doing. And I just didn't, I didn't.
And as so many people now say, there's no set path
so you don't quite know what to do.
Right. And I didn't really want
to fork out like a load more money to go
and get a master's degree in broadcasting.
Perhaps hindsight it would've been worth worth it
and I'd paid it back and whatever.
But at the time I got a job working in comms
and social media for an international sports federation.
And that took me out to a lot
of international sports events.
It took me to the Olympic games.
It got me mixing with kind of all the right people.
So while it wasn't specifically presenting,
it got me experience working in international sports
settings with production companies with international media.
And so you just get contacts from doing that
and you make connections and network and whatever else.
I also started doing like a little bit of sport presentation
just after that job.
Um, so sport presentation being kind of like the big screens
at sporting venues, right?
So you are like stadium presenter or pitch side presenter.
Uh, and that was a really good place for me to start
because you are already taught the basics of like,
here's your microphone, here are your ears,
here's your talk back, here's your cue.
You are live, but with
not much consequence if things go wrong, .
Yeah. You're exposed.
And obviously at the time being so green
and new, you feel exposed massively,
but you're nowhere near as exposed
as if you're suddenly put on F1 TV with no experience.
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of people
rather than millions of people.
Yeah. It's a slightly different stakes.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Actually. And where people can
take I actually, yeah, go ahead. Oh
Speaker 3: No, sorry.
I'm just excited. Um,
'cause the never had the opportunity to do this.
We should just talk about crew for the rest
of this interview.
You, I didn't know you rode. I rode.
We can just ignore James.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Dunno if you tell I'm
Speaker 3: Six two.
I was obviously a coxswain. Um, but now we can just,
Speaker 1: So much of this
Speaker 2: Sets me, so I was, I was a lightweight rower,
which meant I had to be under a certain weight.
Speaker 3: I was not . Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not.
I mean, I'm six months pregnant, so I am not anymore ,
but there is no way that I could ever even
get close to the way I was at.
It was kind of crazy. Um,
but I, yeah, lightweight, double lightweight pair.
Okay. And then I sat in the eight with like the big girls,
but , they'd always put me at two.
Speaker 3: I'm sure they loved when you called them that . Well,
Speaker 2: I didn't mean that.
I do you know what I mean? Like the taller, stronger,
better women at rowing than me.
And like, they just stick me at two
and I just tap it along at the
back, like hoping for the best. I
Speaker 3: Love it.
Yeah. I, we, we actually probably shouldn't,
although I know two people listening that would love this.
Jackson and my old rowing coach
Tony, listen to every episode.
So shout out to those guys. But we,
we could stop talking about rowing now.
Speaker 2: Rowing is incredible. And Jim, sorry, please.
Rowing is amazing. And honestly,
when you have those mornings where you're in your single
and absolutely mowing down the river and like it's just you
and you just see nature and wildlife
and sunrise, it is glorious. Yeah. I loved it
Speaker 1: As much as I look,
I I love learning about your sporting past Laura.
As much as I hate to give Tim any opening
to contribute more in this show, I do have to say
that exchange was good for me to hear
because I now understand how Aunt Linda feels
and Aunt Linda is what we say when we get too
inside baseball on a broadcast about motor sports.
Ah, and I'm just talking in motor sports terms
that you just know so well,
but you forget that people
who don't follow racing wouldn't know this.
Yes. I literally understood nothing outside
of the fact that you guys rode.
None of the terminology made any sense to me.
I feel like Aunt Linda. And it was a nice moment
to kind of be on the other side of it. You didn't,
Speaker 3: You didn't get Cox.
Would you like to learn about the term by swept?
Speaker 1: Uh, you wanna know Speaker 3: How to catch crabs?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Would you like to catch a
crab Speaker 3: ?
Speaker 1: Is that a, is that a common thing that happens
to buy Schweppes?
Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 3: It it is in fact. Yeah, I would
Speaker 2: Say so. Anyway,
Speaker 1: They, Speaker 2: Because they play both,
like they go both ways, right? So Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay. You, you, you sweep from either
side of the boat. Yeah,
Speaker 2: You swing, but way, Speaker 3: I'm sorry. We're
Speaker 1: We're still on the boat.
Anyway. Umt, uh, thanks Laura.
I, I, I, uh, uh, oh, I, I'm flustered. Um, um,
Speaker 2: So I started dance sports presentation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. In Yes, yes. In the stadiums.
And, and where do we go from there?
Speaker 2: And then I moved into, so I started doing work
experience as well at the same time.
So I was getting lots of like very low pay jobs
or work experience jobs.
I've moved back home at this point from the
federation. Yes. James.
Speaker 1: So, so sorry. When you were doing the, the arena stuff,
what sports were they netball?
Like were they sports? You knew anything about netball?
Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. I started off in netball
and I'd done netball at school
and you, you get to know sports, um, as well.
So yeah, I kind of was learning a lot on the job
and did a fair bit of prep leading up to it too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So did you ever have to cover a sport at that level
that you hadn't followed previously?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess like netball, you didn't,
netball didn't have the coverage
that it certainly has now and doesn't,
Speaker 1: But did you like play, didn't
Speaker 2: Have as much?
Speaker 1: Hmm? Did you ever play it?
Speaker 2: Oh, I was in the C team at school.
We once got beaten like 31
nil, , Speaker 3: .
What is netball? Is that a, is that a term I should know?
Speaker 2: Oh, okay. It's basket. It's actually one
of the most amazing sports
and I appreciate, this is a very British thing.
So most, most school girls around
who are now probably in their mid thirties
in the UK would've played hockey or netball at school.
And um, I was field
Speaker 1: Hockey.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes. Not ice. We don't have ice in the uk.
We do, but it's not like we play on the, anyway,
so netball is, um, so it's mostly,
I presume it's mostly women who play,
I guess there are probably men who can play,
but it's mostly a female sport.
And um, basically it's basketball, but you can't run
or dribble with the ball.
Uh, and there are zones that you're allowed in
and not allowed in, depending in opposition.
And you can do like a two step to throw to pass
and it's non-contact.
But my god, the contact is ridiculous. .
It's so fast, so athletic, so powerful. It's amazing.
I love it. So good. Oh
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know what Tim's gonna be
googling later tonight. Oh,
Speaker 2: And they're all Amazonian goddesses as well.
They're like six foot two. So strong, incredible women. You
Speaker 1: Did need more reason to, uh, to Google,
but, you know, um, so, so, so did you ever have to,
so, 'cause you played netball,
so at least you understood the fundamentals.
So did you ever have to cover something
or what was the first time you had to cover something
that was completely foreign to you?
Like you knew Nothing. You knew as much about that sport
as I know about rowing.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, okay. Um, Rallycross . Oh, so
Speaker 1: My, Speaker 2: Okay, so motor sport , which is kind of hilarious
because that's where I now basically live. So
Speaker 1: Was that your first motor sport was rally
Speaker 2: Cross?
So, um, I'll kind of fast forward through the story.
So I, I did, um, two years on a sports desk doing, um,
as a trainee sports journalist.
And then I went to freelance as a presenter,
but I had like three clients, not even, um, horribly paid.
And I earned 40 pounds in my first month.
So it wasn't like the blistering start to a virgining career
as a presenter as perhaps you'd expect.
Um, but I just slowly and steadily built it up from there.
I worked a lot in cycling.
Um, I worked netball, tennis, swimming, I just kind
of worked all the sports that I knew.
Well, athletics, um, football, rugby.
And it kind of like shifted from sort of streaming
and sport presentation to more tv.
Um, as, as the years went on.
And then in 2019, that's when motor sport came along
and I was asked to present four rounds
of the world rally cross championship.
And I was like, yes, absolutely. Signed the contract.
And then was like, what is Rallycross ? I had no clue.
Like I'd never worked in motor sport.
I'd never seen it as a sport that I would be involved in.
Not because I didn't like it, but I just didn't know.
Um, and so yes, rally course
was the sport motor sport is that sport.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's so this is perfect.
So I've always wondered,
'cause I, I've seen other presenters and other commentators
and people that I really admire in the TV world, bounce
around to different things.
Like I've done exactly two, well, three different series,
two of which I've raced in in the past,
and the other one I've followed since I was a kid. So like,
Speaker 2: And you did dancing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
I guess I did have to learn that one, but I didn't have to.
Yeah, it's, that's okay. That's interesting.
But I've never on the TV side had to really work anything.
I had kind of zero knowledge of.
So how did you go about preparing yourself to go on air
and lead a show about a sport
about which you knew very little?
Speaker 2: Uh, lots of YouTube. So I watched lots of past races.
I, I love you, you know, this hinch about me.
I love prep and notes and like diving into a topic.
So I was a complete nerd and researched and researched.
So I watched a lot of it.
I watched the format of
how the shows I was gonna be in would run.
Um, I watched the general like sporting format of
how a weekend would go.
Uh, I saw and in
and researched the athletes, the drivers
who are gonna be racing.
But you are right. There's, there's only
so much you can actually prepare before.
There are some things you just don't know,
like terminology, you don't know.
The amount of times I called drivers riders
'cause I was so used to working in cycling crazy.
But I was very lucky that I had, um, Andrew Coley,
who's the commentator on Rallycross.
He kind of took me under his wing, showed me the paddock,
taught me everything, like, took me right back to basics.
No ego, no agenda. Just helped me so much.
And that was so useful
and such a gracious, generous, you know, friend to have
to do that because he didn't have to like,
he didn't owe me anything, you know,
but he wanted the show to be as a success
and he wanted me to, to be able to be successful as well.
So, um, yeah, that was, so I remember the first, the first
broadcast I was using words like Blue Groove and Green Track
and Evolution
and all these concepts that like, I now understand
and I'm so used to using and understand the impact of them.
But at the time I was just like, if I just, I'll,
that sounds right, I'll say that right.
And then I'll kind of understand it afterwards.
Yeah. Fake it until
Speaker 1: You make it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, yeah, to an extent.
But I, I always, I'm always somebody who I would hate
to go into a sport and not do it justice
and not give it the, the respect, the recognition
and the drivers, the recognition they deserve.
So I'd hate to go in and just kind of mess about
and do it in a half ass way.
So yeah, I was really keen on
understanding everything I possibly could.
Um, and then part of the job was just interviewing drivers,
and I say just interviewing drivers,
but that for me is having a conversation with a human being.
You know, and this, sometimes the best interviews are down
to the simplest questions.
What happened? Why did it happen?
How are you gonna be better next time?
Or what did you learn, you know, those kind of high, how,
why, what, where questions are are sometimes the, the basics
and the template to work from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I've, I've seen your, your
preparation skills, and approach, you know, firsthand.
So I, yeah, I believe that, you know, you put a lot
of work into doing that first one.
Um, and then from there, I mean I, I I,
I kinda look back now
and Formula One, uh, rally cross, uh,
F1 Academy Extremey, um,
what's the, what's the, the boat one, sorry?
E one. E one. So
Speaker 2: Yeah, ive only a couple of those I needed
done like a couple of those.
They needed, they needed a percentage to fill in
and I, I was available kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But now several different types
of motorsports including, you know Yeah.
The pinnacle of the sports. Yeah. In Formula One.
How did, how did that opportunity come about? So
Speaker 2: It came from Rally Cross.
And this I think is something that, the kind
of advice I'd always give is you never know who's
looking, who's watching.
You never know what job, what one moment,
one opportunity can lead to.
And so the director on the rally cross was a chap called
Steve Flow, who is one of our camera operators on F1.
So he's worked with Formula One management for years.
And he said to me, oh, F1 are actually looking for,
for new presenters and,
and kind of like widening the pool, would you be interested?
And I'm like, yeah.
Like at this point I'm loving motor sport.
I feel really at home in a paddock.
I feel like weirdly, like I should always have been there.
Strange. 'cause I didn't have any right to be,
but I just felt like it was my place.
Yeah. And so I said yes, jumped at the chance, crack on.
Yeah. And then I had a, I had
what I thought was gonna be a bit of a meeting slash kind
of audition slash interview.
Um, and it was like a phone call
and it was, can you do Belgium in 2019?
And I was like, yes. And that was it.
And then suddenly I'm on my way to spa one
of the greatest racetracks in the world.
And I remember it was, um,
a mid-season driver switch as well.
So Pierre Gia being taken out of Red Bull,
Alex Alban being put in.
It was, yeah. There was so much going on.
And then it was ultimately
and tragically a very, very sad weekend
because we lost, um, Antoine Hubbert as well.
So I kind of saw firsthand the, the best
and the absolute worst e motor sport all in one.
Speaker 1: You had to deal with that your very first weekend?
Speaker 2: That was my first race. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh my God. Speaker 2: I know I was in the pit lane
during the F two race as well, reporting.
So I, my first time in a pit lane, um, it was, yeah,
but it felt very young.
It felt very, for me, I felt like I was
massively intruding on grief.
'cause it, I just stepped into the paddock and didn't Right.
Didn't know, you know, I didn't know the people.
I didn't know Antoine, very sadly.
Um, so yeah, I yeah, that
Speaker 1: Is heavy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is heavy because Speaker 1: It was a tough
Speaker 2: First Speaker 1: You really, you really prepare for that, right?
I mean, there's no, you can't practice that kind of thing.
You can rehearse an opening, you can, you know,
practice talking through a countdown
and trying to hit the post, but there's, you know, dealing
Speaker 2: With, yeah, you can learn terminology, but yeah.
Nothing prepares you for, for a death. That's brutal.
So yeah, I was, I so yeah.
Stays with that, stays with you, that one for sure.
Speaker 1: I, you, you, you
parlay that, you obviously do a good job
because 2019 in Belgium was not your last Formula one race.
Speaker 2: It was not Speaker 1: And, uh, spoiler on that.
And now you fast forward to 2025
and you are the face of F1 tv.
You are the lead presenter, it's your show.
And this is during a time
where the sport is absolutely blowing up globally.
It's in, in especially, you know, uh,
sharp trajectory upwards in North America.
And now you walk around cities
and get recognized as that the Laura win,
the Laura Winter from F1 tv.
Could you have predicted,
or would you ever have thought in Belgium in 2019
that this is where, you know, things could have gone?
Speaker 2: No, never. I am, I'm so genuinely humbled
and grateful for it.
It's, it's, it blows me away every time. Um, it's crazy.
It's, it's, and it's so funny
'cause I live a really normal, simple life at home
where like, I don't really, I met, people may know of me in,
because I live in a, in a town where people know
that I live in that town, but, and kind of what I do.
But I live a very lovely, like, simple life
where I get coffee and walk the dog and go to the gym
and, you know, and then you come to a racetrack
and it's this entirely different environment.
So you kind of have to, it's almost like two different
versions of yourself in a way.
But I never, I could never,
ever have imagined it in a million years all I wanted to do.
And genuinely, all I still want
to do is do a better job than the weekend before.
So I just wanna continue to get better and better
and better at my job to create better shows,
to enhance the coverage, to work with a team,
to tell the stories.
I just want, that's my goal for always is just to
be a better presenter.
And I think I've got the personality of somebody who,
you know, sometimes it's a blessing, sometimes it's a curse.
Nothing's quite ever good enough.
But that kind of is the drive that keeps you going.
I think if I didn't have that,
you perhaps wouldn't hit the standards
that I want to hit, you know?
Speaker 1: Yeah. And again, it's, it's that athlete mentality and it,
and it kinda, it kind of leads me to this next question,
which I'm fairly certain I know the answer to,
but some big news this week on the Formula One side
and the television side in terms
of Apple getting the rights in the United States
for Formula One.
Yeah. And I know there's still some details to come out,
but essentially, you know,
you're gonna be presenting now in front
of a potentially much bigger audience
with a name like Apple behind it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Do you, do you like this?
I mean, that adds pressure, that adds stress,
that adds eyeballs, it adds, you know,
importance to the whole thing.
Is that, is that a kind of pressure
that you relish and thrive under?
Yeah. Or are you a little bit like,
I'm sick bit the fingernails a bit about you ? No, no.
Speaker 2: I'm a bit sick. I love Speaker 1: It. I
think it's a, I think it's a competitor.
I think you've naturally love that. Yeah.
So this was good news for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. It, there's always those moments
where you're like, this is a really big show.
Like the US Prera show, for example.
You know, there are gonna be
so many people watching that one.
There are certain races in the year which,
you know, have more viewers.
There's certain shows where, you know,
that certain people could be
watching and there's more pressure.
I am quite sick and I love it.
Like, I love putting myself under that kind of pressure.
Um, obviously in the moment you are like, okay, oh,
this feels uncomfortable.
And there probably was a time where I would, where I would,
I remember when I was swimming, when I was a kid, I used
to get so nervous that I'd be like,
I'd rather be anywhere else I'd wanna do it.
But I would have these moments where I'm like,
I'd rather be anywhere else in the world right now than
standing on this block about to swim.
And that wasn't very, obviously that didn't lead
to a very good performance because your head's not in it.
But now with presenting, I'm at this point
where I'm like the biggest pre,
the bigger, the bigger the pressure.
I love it. Yeah. I reli I relish it. I thrive under it.
Um, I always kinda like have to be put under that pressure
to bring out some of my best or better work.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I, I kind of, I feel the same way in the sense
that there's something about live television as well that
is, is such a rush.
Like there's a high there
that I don't think you would get in something Yeah.
That was scripted. Or you had time to reshoot.
Do you, have you done much?
I mean, scripted is the wrong thing, you know,
you're not a you're not an actor necessarily, but like No,
Speaker 2: Like the prerecorded stuff, like pre-records.
Yeah. And, you know, or shows
that are highlight shows, for example.
So you're kind of like pre-recording links,
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: No, you don't get any, you don't get the adrenaline rush.
Yes. And I guess, but hinge for you, it must be interesting
'cause you've come from like the biggest adrenaline rush in
the, in the world, which is racing cars into,
into live broadcasting.
And I'm guessing there's probably quite a few crossovers
and parallels that you can draw
and the feelings maybe probably not quite so similar,
but the feelings may be similar in sense of that, like,
that nervous energy, the adrenaline when, not when,
like when I come off the grid
and we've like, nailed the show, done a great rap, I'm like,
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like, it, you're
Speaker 2: Amped.
I'm so amped. And if it's like a big show,
I can be like shaking with adrenaline.
Like I love it so much. It's like a drug.
It is a com, you know, and it's the kind of feeling of like
never quite nailing it.
There's always something I'm like,
that could have been, that could been better.
I liked that, but I could have done done it this way.
That keeps you kind of coming back from more. Yeah.
But also that feeling of the adrenaline and the achievement
and a show coming together or,
or a moment where perhaps something's kind of like,
could be going really wrong,
but you kind of bring it back from
the save it from the brink.
Oh, that's, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If people Speaker 2: Addictive
Speaker 1: Feeling, if people could, if people could see some
of the chaos that happens offscreen behind the, you know,
during shows like Yeah.
Running orders, completely changing, guests canceling,
like having to pivot and improv in the moment there,
and then, and when you nail that it does, it feels so good.
Yeah. It is like a drug, right?
It's, there's a lot of parallels.
You're right between this, you know, the stakes are high,
but in a different way
because whereas, you know,
obviously there's a safety implication if you get something
wrong when you're driving, you know that there's millions
of people watching you do this thing
and you don't have a chance to redo it, you know, the,
the red light goes on
and you have your block of time
until the red light goes off.
Yeah. And there's, you can't redo any of it.
And it's, uh, it's cool.
I, I love, I love working with you in those scenarios
because I think we've got a similar energy in that sense.
Yeah. I think we both obviously thrive on it in the same
way, and even when it's manic we can, you know,
buckle down when we need to and uh, yeah.
And it's a lot of fun. Yeah, for
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaking of this being like a drug, um,
this is actually an intervention.
Uh, yeah, yeah. We, we care about you a lot, you know, ,
it's, it's you, you're getting too into racing.
Yes. Speaker 1: , we're gonna, we're gonna ask you
to sit the next one out.
Oh, Speaker 3: . Okay.
Speaker 2: I'm, well, I'm not doing Brazil, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that's actually by design.
Laura, we, uh, told you that that was, uh, your decision,
but , um, and guys,
Speaker 2: You're lucky I'm gonna be missing a few next year,
obviously when I welcome baby. So
Speaker 1: Yes.
And congrats on that, which
Speaker 2: Will be a whole other drug of , some sort.
I don't know what kind of drug experience that'll be,
but that will be obviously an
Speaker 3: Exhausting one, its Speaker 2: Own
thing. Speaker 1: .
Yes. Thank
Speaker 3: You. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So, we'll, well, I know we we're running
outta time, so we'll, we'll wrap it up.
But I think you, you know, you brought it it up
and I think, uh, I think a lot of people are wondering,
they're curious, you know, you've obviously announced your
pregnancy and, uh, would love to know kind of
what the plan is with, as far as you know,
or what the goal is.
I don't know how much you're allowed to share in terms of,
Speaker 3: Well, you named the baby James, you know,
Speaker 1: The baby's middle name is gonna be James.
We've already established that .
Speaker 3: We Speaker 2: Ha we haven't, we we discussed it earlier
and I told you it wasn't,
but that's okay. Uh, maybe it's Tim
Speaker 1: Working.
It's a working name. It's a working middle name.
Speaker 3: Working on it. We're working on it. All right.
Can I throw Tim in the ring? No, you, yeah,
Speaker 2: Tim's.
Well, I'll put Tim in there. I'll put, I'll put Tim in.
I'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Uh, we do have our,
we have a name that we had decided on,
but we're trying another name
for size, um, yes. Just to say
Speaker 1: Yes, I like this.
I like this idea. You're telling me about this concept
and just sort of like referring
Speaker 2: To the baby, just it sounds I'm name Yeah, yeah.
Screaming up, you know, up the stairs. The,
Speaker 1: The important thing you also have to remember is you gotta
go through all the potential like,
like bad nicknames that Yes.
Awful kids could give it. Right, exactly.
So you gotta really put your mind into a dark place
and think of, yes, what could I call this kid?
Speaker 2: How many Speaker 3: Can be you also to own?
You realize how many people you really don't like. Yes,
Speaker 1: I know one of those.
I don't, I know an Alex, I'm not doing that. Yeah. I, I
Speaker 2: Actually knew a really horrible Tim.
I'm not gonna go into Tim, you know,
Speaker 3: That's, it was so do me, so do I.
Speaker 2: Uh, but no, the plan, uh, I wish I knew .
I think, um, no, look, obviously, um, you,
you kind of have to plan.
There's a, there's an element of planning,
but also knowing that that plan could change
and not, I don't know what I don't know, right?
This is my first baby. We have no idea
how hard it's gonna be, how wonderful it's gonna be,
how magical it's gonna be.
I dunno how that may change how I feel about certain things.
I do know right now that I have every intention
of coming back to work.
Um, oh, a lamp just turned on in the room.
Sorry, that was really, it's like a ghost was in here.
Um, I have every intention of coming back to work, um, kind
of looking at within kind of three months
after baby arrives.
Um, there may be moms out there listening,
going, she's got no
idea Speaker 1: .
Speaker 2: Um, but that's, that's the vague plan.
But obviously, um, not in my nature too.
I do love a plan and I love being in complete
control of my own plans.
Um, very open to it changing and,
and realizing that, you know,
that's the other things may happen
and they're out of my control and,
and kind of going with the flow with that,
Speaker 1: It's, it's kinda like live tv.
It's just live human, uh, live human. Yeah.
Once that light turns on, it's on
and things are gonna change
and you just gotta, you know, exactly.
Improvises in the moment and off you go.
Well, that's very cool. Exactly. It's, thank you.
It's very exciting. Uh, it's, it is inspiring.
I mean, I, I, I sit there
and I don't obviously see a fraction of it,
but the number of people that I see coming up to you
and, uh, and telling you how much of an inspiration you are
to them, um, it's, it's, it's awesome.
It's very cool to see, I mean, you have a,
a very important role that has a lot of impact on a lot
of people, and I think you carry that well
and there's a, there's a responsibility there,
and I think you handle it super well.
Um, and it's, uh, a real pleasure to,
to kinda have you on the show and,
and get you sharing some of that story with us.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I owe you dinner after that. Crikey, .
Speaker 1: Thanks . I think I owe you dinner for having drawn out,
having you on this podcast over the last like 28
hours, but, uh,
Speaker 2: No, no, it's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much, guys for having me.
Um, and yeah, I really appreciate it, James.
It's wonderful to work with you on F1 tv.
Speaker 1: Likewise, thank you for everything you've done
to teach me over the years.
It's been a blast. And, uh,
look forward to doing it this weekend.
This has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.
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