Speaker 1: This is, is off track.
We just had to cut the first minute 17 of this episode
because Tim thinks he's funny, which
for the teenth time we've established he is not.
But welcome to Off Track with Hin Rossi.
Rossi breathing heavily into the microphone as he does.
I just love making work for Tim. Scratch your bait on it.
I can't do it on this one. Do the beers crash?
He hates that.
Speaker 2: Not in a mood. Um, oh no.
Speaker 1: To do that. Are you in a bad mood?
Speaker 2: I'm not in a bad mood. I'm just a little bit, I'm,
I I've just, I'm a little,
I'm a little indifferent about this show
today, but that's, that's fine.
Um, mostly
because I, I feel like we're gonna really struggle
to find things to talk about.
Um, but, but that's not for you guys to worry about. Well,
Speaker 3: We'll get, we'll get to Nashville next week, but we,
Speaker 1: It's more Yeah.
Before we, before we focus on not
having enough stuff to talk about.
Right. What, what is,
what model iPhone do you guys have? Ooh,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Okay.
Speaker 1: Let, don't know what it is. Let's,
let's ask this an easier way.
Does your, is your silence switch still a switch?
Or is it now a button? Switch a button. Okay.
So you've upgraded to the button,
Alex, you still have the switch?
Yes. I, I'm gonna urge you as strongly as I can
to never upgrade your iPhone for the rest of time
unless they bring back the switch.
'cause the silence button is the dumbest thing
that I think iPhone's ever done.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Speaker 1: Okay.
Like you can put your hand into your pocket
and silence your iPhone with the switch and you know,
because you know that the switch,
this direction is silent in this direction.
Sure. It's not silent. It also vibrates in a fun
way when it's silent.
Right. The button.
Speaker 2: What makes it fun? Speaker 1: It does like it does
because it's a click.
Like it's a satisfying, like sure. Right. Like it's right.
Yeah. Now the new ones just have like a button
that vibrates on both silencing and not silencing.
Speaker 2: And if you, I'll never, I'll never
Speaker 3: Change.
It vibrates a lot more on silence.
Speaker 2: It's a built-in fidget spinner for me.
Do you like that sound, Tim? Oh yeah.
Like I'll never, I'll never.
I've actually had to get a new one
because I've broken off the switch.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You're gonna hate the new funnel.
Speaker 2: Well, I won't do it. That Speaker 1: Yes. It vibrate more good to
Speaker 2: Know more.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Does it vibrate more on on silent or on on loud.
Speaker 3: It vibrates more when you go to silent. Right?
Speaker 1: Right. So why does it vi Here's the thing.
It, it's confusing you also.
Speaker 3: It's like an acknowledgement of receipt.
Little buts just letting you know, Hey,
you hit it, you got it right, you're
Speaker 1: Good. And it also,
Speaker 3: Oh, you're silent then.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's not differentiated enough.
And it's harder to remember which is, which also,
if you turn your phone off
and then turn it back on, you have to do it again.
I don't think it, like remembers what position it was in.
'cause now it, because it's not a
real position, it's just a stupid button.
And like you can click it once
and you don't hold it for enough.
And so it doesn't go. We're like,
I always knew a hundred percent
that my phone was on silent with the switch. So,
Speaker 2: So speaking of iPhone it are, are we just gonna continue,
I think we touched on this before.
Are we just gonna go for numbers forever?
Like the new one that came out Is the iPhone 17?
Are we gonna at one point be at the iPhone
136? Like is it just,
Speaker 1: Honestly, I would rather that than trying to come up
with clever names for everyone.
Okay. Because like, yeah, 30 years from now,
what are we gonna like, we can, there's only so many, like,
Speaker 3: Society's going to have collapsed long by then. . That
Speaker 2: Is true.
Speaker 3: It's not gonna be iPhones. In 30
Speaker 1: Years, a AI will have rendered us all
useless and taken over the world.
Wait, have you guys seen the, the new meta glasses
with the hand switch thing
and like the heads up display and the lens and everything?
Have you seen that? Mm-hmm .
Speaker 2: No. Speaker 1: Dude. So it's like those,
those ray band meta glasses with the cameras and stuff,
but now there was a heads up display on the lens mm-hmm .
And you wear like a whoop style wristband. Mm-hmm .
And you can do like, hand movements
to control like messages, maps.
Speaker 2: So it's augmented reality like Yes.
At your fingertips now. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I dunno if it actually works or not,
but in theory it's trippy.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I still think the greatest
technology innovation, um,
Speaker 1: Was the automobile Speaker 2: Was no, in 10 60,
when you get verification codes sent to your phone,
it automatically like copies it.
So you just have to hit paste and it goes in. That is
Speaker 1: Absolutely a game changer.
That's a great point. Yeah.
That's the greatest thing that, that like
Speaker 2: All this ai smartphones augmented reality.
Yeah, exactly. Without a doubt.
And the, the shake to unsend an email,
that's pretty cool. You could do that.
Speaker 1: That's cool. Not as cool. Yeah. Yeah. You can shake. I
Speaker 3: Didn't know you could do that
Speaker 1: Typing and then you can shake.
You have to do it within like two minutes, right?
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if you hit send
and then in 90 seconds, two minutes,
you're like, I shouldn't have done that.
If you shake it, it'll take it back.
Speaker 3: So what does that mean though? Does that mean
that they're like waiting two minutes to send my email?
Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Basically.
Speaker 3: Huh. Speaker 2: They're not like pulling it back from an
inbox if it already got to someone.
So, so they're just so, they're just like,
it goes into an email purgatory for a second
or two minutes. I dunno if I
Speaker 3: Like that when I send my email, I want it sent.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. If it's, it might save you one day if
matter to the point of two minutes being the difference,
you should not be able pick the somebody you should have a
phone call at the very laziest a text message. Good
Speaker 2: Point.
Speaker 3: What if it's like a deadline thing?
Like if, if somebody's gotta turn in a paper by midnight
and they send it at 1159, be I made
Speaker 1: It.
Well then you need to know it needs to be turned in
by 1157. I don't
Speaker 3: Like that.
No one, I'm against it. One asked
Speaker 1: You. Right.
Speaker 3: Clearly. Well, let's,
Speaker 1: Let's undo that undo feature for Tim as long
as we can bring back the switch for the do it human jager.
Speaker 3: I sent you guys what, what I saw.
Apparently it was only news to me.
Everybody else had already seen it.
That they, like they're doing the live translate in
your AirPods now.
Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Again, it's way more helpful if the person you're talking
to also has AirPods in Yeah.
And is doing the same thing.
Or else it's a very one-sided conversation. I,
Speaker 2: I saw a pretty funny, I don't even know if it's a meme,
but reaction to this announcement.
And it was like, nail salons are gonna be, uh,
very different now because you're gonna be able
to hear what the
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Are saying that. I Speaker 1: Did see that. Mm-hmm . Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. . I did see that
Speaker 2: The nail techs are saying it.
Yeah. When they're speaking, speaking their language.
Speaker 1: Now on that translation note, so
what we were just in France at the Canada House
that I was telling you guys about last time.
The wonderful woman who owns a place,
she spoke decent English, much better than my French,
but like wanted to tell certain stories at a level
and into a, a detail
that she was not comfortable doing in English.
So I brought up like the Google Translate app
and it was phenomenal.
Like I would hit it, she would talk, tell a story, you know,
two, three minutes long,
it would transcribe the whole thing.
I could then relay it to the rest of the group
and it was like spot on accurate.
And then it was also really cool
because I wanted to make sure that I could go back
and sort of transcribe that conversation
or like pick out some of the points to like, make sure
that everybody that was there had some sort of record of it.
And you're gonna save the entire
transcript of the conversation.
So that's been a super helpful app.
And like even just traveling to all these weird places,
like taking a picture of a menu
and having it just instantly be translated.
Very helpful when you're in a country
whose language you don't speak.
Because like, I think I was mentioning this when I got off
the plane in Hungary in August.
It was the first time I've ever gotten off the plane in a
country where I knew literally zero words of the language.
Not a single one. And it happened again last weekend.
I don't know a single word in Azerbaijani.
Speaker 3: Do you guys think anybody's ever actually learned a
language using Duolingo?
Speaker 1: It's a great question. Assume
Speaker 3: I feel like, no.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna assume they learned enough that once they were
immersed in the place, they could start
to actually pick up enough
to become fluent. I don't think you
Speaker 3: Could.
I'm like, I do, I do my Duolingo every day.
'cause I like, I just, I have, Hazel does it and my mom
and I, she does it.
And we all just try to compete on who can do it first.
'cause then you get to nudge the others
and be like, Hey, do your Duolingo.
Like there's an option in the app that says nudge them
to like annoy them for not doing it.
So I purely do it for that reason to annoy Hazel and my mom.
But like, I've been doing it for a year
and a half now with Spanish.
And I don't know how
to say I've been doing Duolingo in Spanish. What?
Speaker 1: Do you know how to say? Speaker 3: Very little.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's not set a stone
Speaker 3: .
I, well but you know,
I don't know if I wanna actually learn the
language. I think I just like the app.
Speaker 1: So you know this about me. I'm not a soup guy. Okay.
Right. I'm not a big soup guy.
There's like one kind of soup that I like
and even then I don't love it.
I just clam
Speaker 2: Chow. Right?
Speaker 1: It is, no, it's not clam. It's not French onion.
It's chicken tortilla.
Speaker 3: Okay. We can all agree he's wrong. Definitely
Speaker 2: Wrong.
'cause that's not even like in the top five soups.
Speaker 3: No. Right. Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it's
Speaker 3: Onion soup Speaker 1: Top 10.
Speaker 3: Ah. Speaker 2: It's not top 10 soup.
Speaker 1: It's a top 10 soup. Chicken tortilla is a 10 soup.
No, it's not every, it is not even week. Every stink.
Speaker 2: It might not even be top 15. No.
Speaker 1: You can't even name 15 soups,
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 2: Sure can can Speaker 3: French onion. Definitely. No. Hold
Speaker 1: On.
Stop. No, no, don't help him. Let's hear 15 soups.
Speaker 3: But I agree with him. Okay. No
Speaker 1: One cares. Speaker 2: .
French, onion, tomato, basil, lobster bisque, clam chowder.
Chili. Uh oh.
Speaker 1: No potato. I'm not giving you chili soup.
No, I'm not giving chili soup. Why?
Because it's not a soup. It's a stew. It's
Speaker 3: More a collectional, a chili.
It's its own. It's, yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. That Speaker 1: Does a count. Uh,
Speaker 2: Lee and potato. Okay.
Speaker 1: Bean. Speaker 2: That's five. Um,
Speaker 3: Bean with six Speaker 2: Lee and potato bean.
Speaker 3: You missing some good ones?
Speaker 1: Only nine to go, bro.
Tim said nothing. Okay. I mean, no, Tim,
Speaker 3: I wanna say so many.
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, okay.
Speaker 3: You haven't even gotten to a continent yet.
There's a continent of other soups
that you're missing. Really big
Speaker 1: Soups. Speaker 3: .
Speaker 2: Okay. I mean, all right. I named six soups. Any
Speaker 3: Of the Asian soups you could, but,
Speaker 2: But like, oh, mis Speaker 3: Miso soup.
Hot and sour miso. Come on.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Um, egg drop soup.
Um, I don't like hot and sour soup. All right. I'm at eight.
I'm at eight. It's easily, I can think of many more
before I get to chicken tortilla soup.
Broccoli. So it's not a good, so
Speaker 1: Soup.
Mushroom soup. Could've thought it's a great soup
anyway. No, look, all sos
Speaker 2: Mushroom soups great. Are
Speaker 1: Not great soups.
Speaker 3: You didn't even say chicken noodle.
You didn't say, uh, cream mushroom.
Speaker 2: You, you get a chicken noodle,
Speaker 1: Which is pretty funny. .
Alright, look, point is I don't like soup. Okay.
But I also don't like hot drinks. Right. We know this.
I don't like coffee. I don't really drink tea.
I don't like hot chocolate. So maybe that plays into it
because somebody once put it to me,
they were like, you don't like soups?
And I was like, no.
And I was like, well, like what about it?
Like a gpac? I'm like, no, that's even grosser.
That's like a cold soup.
That's like the only thing good about
soup is that it's warm.
And then he was like, well, do you like smoothies?
I said, well, yeah, I love smoothies.
And he goes, isn't that kind of a soup?
And then I got thinking, get out. Holy.
Isn't if you really think about it.
Isn't a smoothie just a cold soup in a cup?
Speaker 2: So then why is chili not a soup?
Speaker 3: I think there's an argument there.
If, if smoothies are a soup.
I think chili is, although, hold on, let me,
because chili has like more of the solid stuff.
The smoothie is like pureed to a stable consistency
where like chili is fruit.
A bunch, bunch of solids altogether. Right?
Speaker 1: Right. Yes. Speaker 2: Do you eat it with a spoon?
Speaker 3: I usually have Speaker 1: A Yeah, but ice cream is not a soup.
Speaker 2: If it's melted. It is.
Speaker 1: No. Yeah. It's actually really good when it's like cold.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good one. Just because
Speaker 2: Just because the form is different doesn't mean it's any,
Speaker 1: Okay, let's forget chili for a second.
Let's focus on smoothie. Okay.
It's like going back to the whole,
is a hotdog a sandwich debate?
Is this smoothie as soup or,
Speaker 3: Or Speaker 2: So then is a milkshake a soup? No.
Speaker 1: 'cause it would, it would have to be
Speaker 3: Ingredient.
That logic. No, it has to
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 3: Ice cream and milk. Definitely too.
Speaker 2: Well, Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 2: Plus flavors. Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's a dessert soup.
Speaker 2: Ice cream only really has two ingredients too. Ice and
Speaker 3: Cream. Ice and
cream. Speaker 2: .
Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sugar. Um, okay. You can say no. Okay.
I'm just saying, I, I'm trying
to acknowledge my own hypocrisy.
'cause I was like, I don't like soups, but I love smoothies.
Speaker 2: I mean, so if you, is anything melted than a soup?
Is anything liquid? A soup? Is butter a soup?
Li melted butter. The corn popcorn a soup. Yeah,
Speaker 3: But there's a difference, right?
Because it's not, it's, it's a, it's how you eat it.
It's a liquid that was made from the solids. I guess.
Does soup has to be cooked.
Speaker 1: So liquid butter, Speaker 3: Does a soup have to be cooked?
Is that part of the definition?
Is it the liquid that you cook's?
Speaker 1: A good question. I'm trying to think if there's examples
where you don't 'cause like even a cold
soup, like a GPAC cooked and
Speaker 3: You were worried we weren't gonna
have anything to talk about. Alex. I don't
Speaker 2: Think a gazpacho is cooked. .
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to try.
I never had it. 'cause I don't like soup.
Speaker 3: I thought a GPAC was cooked and then cooled all.
Speaker 1: That's Speaker 2: What I'm asking. Or it might just be a cold brew
or it just might be a tomato smoothie.
Speaker 1: Iced coffee or cold brew. Very
Speaker 3: Different.
No, a tomato smoothie is ketchup. So
Speaker 2: It's ketchup soup. That's,
Speaker 1: There's not even no ketchup's a condiment.
Relax. Ketchup's not a meal. Ketchup is
Speaker 3: A tomato smoothie.
Speaker 1: I sometimes have a knife to make
Speaker 3: Smoothie.
It's blended up tomatoes
with a little bit of sugar in there.
Speaker 2: Is peanut butter in a soup?
Speaker 1: No. 'cause again, that's not an entire meal.
You don't just get a bowl of peanut butter.
Like if you took a smoothie and poured it into a bowl,
Speaker 3: Ben.
But a lot of times you don't have soup
as a full meal. Hey Ben.
Speaker 1: No, it Speaker 3: Can Ben weigh in on this.
Speaker 1: Ben, I got an honest question, buddy. I love you.
You are freaking adorable.
But where did all your hair go? Oh,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Baby's hair falls out. Sometimes
Speaker 2: The the new ones have to grow in Uncle James.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. You see so much
before now he looks like a baby.
Before he looked like a little man.
Oh, he's got some, he's got a little bit
of a skull going on.
Speaker 2: He's got the old man haircut going.
Speaker 1: Oh, what's up buddy?
Speaker 3: No, you okay. So you do not, you do not cook gpac Ben.
Speaker 2: Right? I knew that. Speaker 3: I, I was telling Ben. Oh,
Speaker 1: Okay.
So that's still a soup then.
So dude, a smoothie's, a soup, a smoothie's, a soup.
If you put it into a bowl with a spoon.
Sorry Ben. I didn't realize your dad,
Speaker 3: His ear earphones in or gazpacho is a smoothie.
Speaker 1: I do. Oh, you have one in, or gazpacho is a smoothie.
That seems weirder to me.
But like if you just took a smoothie outta the blender
and poured it into a bowl and ate it with a spoon,
are you eating a soup or are you being a weirdo?
Eating a smoothie out of a bowl
with a soup. With a spoon does.
Speaker 2: Okay. No, here's where it, it all changes. Thank you. I
Speaker 1: Don't think gimme something definitive
here. 'cause I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 2: I don't, I don't think there's a savory smoothie.
A smoothie has a sweet element to it.
It could be a, a very faint sweet element
and just it's a banana or an acai berry
or a little bit of honey if, if it's all spinach
or something.
Right. It's got some element of sweet to it.
Whereas there's no sweet soups.
I mean a tomato soup is probably your closest
thing to a sweet soup.
But it's still Yeah. Not served as a sweet item.
Whereas a smoothie is sweet.
Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: And also no one is
eating no one.
If you are eating soup with a straw, you
have mental problems unless you're in a hospital.
Speaker 3: So there are sweet soups, dessert soups and Asian
and Scandinavian cultures. There's
Speaker 2: Not Speaker 3: Cares. Warm or chill
Speaker 2: Care?
No. No one cares about a population dessert.
A tiny little town that has a traditional thing
that they make a fricking, I mean Asia
Speaker 1: Has population Speaker 2: Soup.
But no, I'm saying it's like some small demographic
of people do this weird thing.
Speaker 3: Vietnam. Come Speaker 2: On .
Speaker 1: It's Speaker 3: Not just a small thing. Alright.
Speaker 1: Alright. Let's Speaker 3: Just say's
Vietnamese have a dessert soup.
The Filipinos have a dessert. Soups.
Scandinavians have a dessert's
Speaker 1: Too far fact check.
Tim, a staple of this show is we do not fact check.
So you're going too far. Oh
Speaker 3: No, we don't fact check racing. We fact check dumb
Speaker 1: Stuff.
I'm just gonna say, I'm just gonna say I was, I was
very caught off guard by the question
and I appreciate there's some hypocrisy on my side.
We can all establish. I think we can all agree
soups are not smoothies.
Smoothies are not soups. But it's a little bit weird
that I like one and not the other.
'cause I, it's not like I don't like savory stuff.
It's not like I've just got a sweet tooth
to use your kind of,
Speaker 2: Okay.
I think, I think I know,
I think I know what your problem is. I'm
Speaker 3: Only one use for this.
Speaker 2: You don't like hot liquid?
Speaker 1: I don't, but I don't like gazpacho either.
Speaker 2: No, I know. But you don't like gazpacho
because really no one likes gpac.
GPAC is not good. That's not true.
That's the reason that you don't like soups. Yeah. Um, yeah.
No that's, I'm saying you don't like hot liquid.
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't, it's not my gym unless hot.
I do like a hot Todd. We kind of touched on that.
I kind of said that that was Oh, if
that was part of the, because I don't drink coffee.
I don't drink tea. I don't drink hot chocolate.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, my bad. I wasn't listening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's right.
You, you, you were picking up
Ben actually I think when we started this.
Speaker 2: Okay. Um, well anyways, we have 20 minutes left guys.
Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, we got a lot to talk about.
But first off James, what have you been doing travel wise?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so my background's changed again guys.
Uh, this podcast was supposed
to be recorded from my hotel room in Baku,
but an electric change in travel plans meant
that rather than leaving Baku at 9:30 PM on Monday,
I left at 2:20 AM Monday
reason being the original flight would've got me to Italy
where I am currently at noon on Tuesday on a red eye
with two layovers going through Doha
and Frankfurt, which seemed like an ill-advised move
where this one was just one layover and was half the length
and got me in a full day sooner.
Still overnight, but full day sooner was important
because later this week I have to drive a Formula One car
and I figured the earlier I could have my overnight flight
the better so that I can rest
and be prepared to go drive that thing.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we kind of alluded
to this when you were getting your seat fit and you
and I happened to be in London at the same time,
but I don't think we've actually like talked about it much.
So what are doing? Why are doing
Speaker 1: That?
So yeah, it kinda,
I mean it's been out like they announced it I guess at some
point on F1 tv, but it came out again this weekend
because I guess it's coming up
and all of a sudden everybody paid attention.
So yeah guys, I'm getting to do a a half day
test in a 1-year-old, 2-year-old ha F1 car.
Uh, which is insane.
Which is incredible and which is awesome.
And it's all being done as part of a feature for F1 tv.
So, you know, I've obviously never embraced an F1.
I've never had the chance to test an F1 car.
Unlike my esteemed colleague here, Mr.
Rossi and just being someone that does a lot
of work in F1 now I've been like trying to find a way
to angle my way into a car for three
and a half years now mm-hmm .
And it was always a long shot.
It was never something I ever thought I would actually get.
I thought maybe at some point someone would offer me the
chance to test like some vintage F1 car.
I could still say I drove an F1 car or whatever, whatever.
This opportunity came up through a very good friend
of mine named Stuart Morrison, who works for ha
I've known Stu for a long time.
And he saw an opportunity through a day
that they're doing at this track in Italy called ma,
which is a bike track primarily.
But F1 did race there like once or twice in over COVID
and hold some strings.
And I talked to the guys at F1 tv, he talked
to the guys at Haas and we managed
to put together a half day run
for me in this thing, which is insane.
Like it's exciting for all the reasons that are obvious,
like getting to drive an F1 car.
It's not like five laps on demo tires. It's like a half day.
There's a run plan, it's like a program.
We're gonna do a bunch of different stuff,
which I'm really excited about.
But dude, I was thinking about it a little bit
and I've got a feeling that like this has a chance,
this has a potential to be the fastest era
of formula one in history
because the amount of downforce they generate now is insane.
Mm-hmm . The mm-hmm combustion engine.
Hybrid engine combo is like a thousand words.
It's a ton of power. And the
2026 regs are very different.
Faster straight line, way slower in the corners.
Probably gonna be slower over overlap in 2030 when they go
back to V eight, the cars are gonna be smaller,
probably less arrow and, and probably not as much downforce.
So there's a, there's a chance that this is like,
at least the highest downforce,
the hiring highest quartering speeds kind of F1 car
that there will ever be.
And getting to, to test one of these
in like a relatively current spec
is a pretty cool proposition.
Speaker 2: I, yeah, but here's, here's what, um,
here's what's so cool about F1 cars
and what you're gonna realize the moment you
leave the garage for the first time.
And I want you to think about me telling you this
because when you do it,
you're gonna be like, oh, I get it now.
It doesn't matter if it's the current spec
two years old, this generation,
last generation, the future generation.
I think you're right. Like you're definitely driving
probably what will be the quickest.
But even driving the absolute heaps of <inaudible>
that I was fortunate enough to race , it still was,
it still was the greatest piece
of machinery I've ever driven.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's just it,
and so like I'm just happy for you that you get to, you get
to tick that box because Yeah, you can,
you can thi you can hear about it
and you, you are very intellectual obviously,
and you've been around racing for a very long time,
so you understand like what the capabilities are,
but until you actually sit in the thing for the first time
and you actually go do a day,
it's, it's just cool.
You, you just can't help but have a smile on your face
because it's like everything that you've been chasing
as a professional race car driver, it finally happens.
You and you finally can come in
and you're like, they're like, how's the balance?
And you're like, good. It's good.
What do you need
Speaker 1: More talent, tires Speaker 2: Just, yeah.
Just, I need to be better.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You tell me what, what do I need?
What do I need to do
Speaker 2: Better?
Yeah. Yeah. It's really, really cool.
So I'm fun for you man. That's awesome. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's like, and
Speaker 2: Fingers crossed the weather's good.
Speaker 1: The region at the moment is not the greatest forecast,
but I think it's one of those things
where like it's gonna rain at some point in the day.
I just hope it's the afternoon and not the morning
or I hope it's like overnight
and my four hours of running is relatively fine.
Um, 'cause the other thing is mm-hmm.
It's at ma jello, which is hilarious.
'cause all the guys that I was talking to about this,
they're like, oh man, when we raced there in 20
or 21, they're like, my neck's never been so sore.
And these guys are like career F1 drivers.
And it's like, why is this the first place?
Like I've not driven an open wheel car in anger since 2021.
I've been doing what I can in the gym,
but as you know, there's nothing you can do in the gym
that makes your neck ready for even an Indy car.
Speaker 2: But honestly, honestly, honestly, burl,
I wouldn't worry about it because it,
you could be at fricking Mazda
and your neck would be screwed.
So it doesn't matter. So like
Speaker 1: It'd be less screwed at Monza than it will
be a evangel, but
Speaker 2: Sure wouldn't. Nope.
Speaker 1: Well, it's still the breaking
Speaker 2: Right?
Disagree. I disagree. Yeah.
There's nothing that you can do that will get you ready
for it because it Yeah.
Just is gonna kick your ass.
Speaker 1: So I'm just gonna pat it out.
But I've, that's working really hard
Speaker 2: On the coolness of it.
Speaker 1: Right. I've been working really hard on like the
longitudinal element of my neck training
because you can't stop your head from like looking down.
I can put pads on the side
so laterally you can have some help,
but like if you just hit the brake
and don't do that, oh, I'm 100% doing that.
Absolutely. I'm not, I'm not,
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not too proud to be like, no,
I don't need a pad, I need a pad.
I'm gonna, I need a pet bro. I'm gonna pad it, dude.
Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
I'll be patting 1000% so disappointed.
Oh, that's devastating. You're the only one.
Everyone else is like, dude, totally pat up.
Like, don't even try . Oh, come on.
Either way, it's gonna be great.
It's gonna be a fun feature on F1 tv, so
sign up for that if you don't already.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, so that's why we're in Elite. And then, yeah,
Speaker 2: So last question I have on that,
like obviously two years ago
these cards are pretty advanced.
Like how has your homework and preparation
and such been going into this
Speaker 1: Whole, so I got given situation a, um, pamphlet,
a notebook, a document as you would imagine. Was it, um,
Speaker 2: Is it as cool by chance as what I had um,
with Penske and Acura?
No, with the DPI car? No, with like a
Speaker 1: Bummer.
It's, there's not an iPad with like tests
and uh, animated steering wheel.
No, no. Yeah, it's actually, it's actually
surprisingly straightforward for how complex the cars are
because they've Yeah.
Automated so much of it. Right.
And I'm obviously not gonna be like tuning the thing
to the nth degree of its life.
I know the basics. I know. Should I,
Speaker 2: You should definitely, you should definitely dick around
with the diff Yeah, because it's cool.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna mess around with that. That's just the fact
that you can do that on the flip of,
of a rotary is incredible. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Um, balance
Speaker 2: And then you'll you'll to chase
and break balance stuff For sure. Balance.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that stuff I'm excited to just try and,
and then like the other thing is like understanding the,
the recharge and deployment.
'cause obviously it's quite a bit different than,
than the IndyCar system.
You know, you can, you can burn it all over a lap to
maximize a single lap.
You can do it so that it burns, it's, it regens exactly
as much as it burns and you kind
of keep the battery at a certain state.
So if you ever need like it for over.
So just kinda learning a little bit more about
how those systems work.
'cause even after the race and backhoe, you know, talking
to some of the guys in the post ratio,
they were talking about energy management
and how like, oh yeah, this guy got by me
'cause I I didn't have enough
energy at this point or whatever.
Like it's a pretty big part of,
of F1 racing right now is drivers being smart
with their energy management.
So yeah, just, just learning about that side
and that's the whole point of this, right? Like you mean
Speaker 2: Every, everything that IndyCar hybrid
should have been Correct.
Speaker 1: So a huge part of this is so
that I have a better understanding of
what the drivers are going through as a quote unquote driver
analyst in F1.
The more I can understand about what the drivers are going
through and what they're dealing with and,
and you know, what tools they have, uh, at their disposal,
the better I can do my job.
So that was, uh, a big part of the push.
And F1 TV bought it suckers and Haass bought it suckers
and, uh, no, I'm kidding.
It's gonna be great. I'm, I'm really, really excited.
Really, really excited. I just hope the weather holds out
so everybody do an anti rainin dance for Friday.
That would be greatly appreciated.
And, uh, deal, watch this space for more updates.
Um, but can't wait man.
Speaking of F1 while we're there, uh,
the race is on the weekend, did you watch
and you think, Ben, did you watch,
were you watching with daddy?
Speaker 2: I, um, I watched, uh,
the last 14 laps, which is all I needed to see.
Speaker 1: Did you watch qualifying?
'cause the race was actually quite dull
because qualifying was insane. I
Speaker 2: Fast forwarded through
qualifying, so I saw the key moments. Yes. Well,
Speaker 1: Yeah.
So you, you fast forward the hour of filling that we had
to do because of the six red flags, correct? Yes,
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: I think it's important.
I I didn't like how many memes
and stuff afterwards we're talking about.
Like, like I saw this one, this one tweet of course
that summed it up in the most dramatic way, which was
after watching that, I never want to hear anybody say,
these are the 20 best drivers in the world ever again.
And it's like, okay, first of all,
we all acknowledge there's a lot of very good drivers
that aren't in Formula one, but you're insinuation is
that these guys aren't that good.
And that's why there were so many accidents.
It's like, dude, trying to understand
what driving a car like that around a track like that
with 30 mile an hour gusts of wind is like, it's
so infuriating hearing people try
to Monday morning quarterback that stuff.
I mean it was hard like you were standing in Penland,
you could feel the gust.
Like imagine going into turn one at Baku 340 kilometers an
hour and then right
before you hit the brakes there's just a 30,
30 mile an hour tailwind gust.
Nobody's making that corner.
Speaker 2: Nope. No, no, no.
It's the, I watched the onboards, I never got to race there,
but I watched the onboards, um,
from these guys and it's just like, I don't even understand,
I don't understand how they make it
through a third of the corners.
Yeah. Like it is so tight, but it's so quick
and committed at the same time. Um,
Speaker 1: That castle section isn't the same.
Speaker 2: The fact, oh it's an, it's ridiculous man.
So once again,
like the internet's full of a bunch of idiots.
Uh, but I don't, I I wouldn't even,
I wouldn't have even thought that as like a,
that wouldn't even be something that came to mind is like,
oh, I can't believe these guys suck so much.
There were so many red flags.
Like the first thing that would come to my mind
and I'm pretty judgmental , the first thing that come
to my mind is like, it's hard.
And like when you have sprinkles of rain as well,
like people forget that you're on like slick tires
and they don't do well with any sort of moisture whatsoever
and you're driving a race car at 160 miles an hour,
three inches from a wall, it's pretty easy
to have a little mistake and to uh, put in the tires.
I will say it is surprising to see And
and this is just a affirmation of how difficult it is
because how often do you see Oscar ptri make a mistake?
Right? How often do you see Char make a mistake,
especially at Baku, like that's kind
of his backyard in terms of
what the success more consecutive run
that he's been on lately.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And qualifying, he had like a 15 mile an hour
tailwind, which is not nothing.
So that contributed to that the race.
He just made a mistake on the start
and then kind of just made a misjudgment it I think on the
actual lap where he went out.
Um, but those things compound a little bit.
The McLaren did not have the pa like
the race was supposed to be.
It was expected to be a lot sportier
with all those cars outta position,
but it was just so hard to race because there was no day.
So everybody could just cruise around, hit a lap time,
go faster as a fuel burned off and,
and there was no real opportunity for people to pass.
What's crazy to me is you can have a two kilometer long
straight with a DRS zone and still it's impossible to pass.
So like the DRS zone, there's clearly not
Speaker 2: Big enough.
Let's, let's fast, let's fast forward, let's fast forward
or I don't know, let's fast forward
to that part of the race.
Well, okay, no, let's do a quick summary of qualifying.
So Max curb stomped everyone.
Um, yeah, a lot of quick cars
that were in contention were not in contention
'cause they had three corners on them.
Um, it was also very disrupted session with all
of the reds as we said.
But Max, um, as he does capitalize when everyone else can't,
Carlos signs starting on the front row with him.
Incredible. Uh, Liam Lawson starting third right.
Was a huge result for him, especially in a time
where he's under serious pressure
to continue having a career in Formula One.
And I would say those were the high.
Oh, the other thing that was very surprising
and disappointing for me in, in some ways, so,
so Ptri crashed in Q3, he had put a lap time on the board.
Um, so he was only gonna be ninth, is
that correct? Did he start ninth? Yes.
Speaker 1: Because because, uh, LA Clara already crashed before
Speaker 2: That.
Yeah. And, and I, and I was expecting, all right,
this ISO's shot, you know, he's,
he's miles back in the championship at this point.
His teammates out in qualifying his biggest threat,
like he needs to start at least on the front row.
Like, okay, he might not be Max,
but he's got the, the tools to, to start on the front row
and he only qualified seventh.
So already there, you know, Oscar was breathing,
breathing a sigh of relief that
Lando hadn't capitalized more on Saturday when,
when he was a bystander watching at that point.
Speaker 1: Yes. It's a, it's an interesting point.
I mean, part of me and I, I kind
of made this argument in the post show
that I don't think the McLaren was
that good in those conditions, right?
What McLaren's been so good at this year is managing tires.
And that comes into play when there's de
and it's hot and there's no dig.
And it was cool. So I don't think they
had the massive advantage.
He did make a mistake on his qualifying lap.
So like, yes, he did not maximize Q3.
Yeah, I don't think he was gonna,
even if he hadn't brushed the wall,
he wasn't gonna be Max's pace,
he wasn't gonna be Carlos's pace,
but I don't think the McLaren was actually
as strong in those conditions.
Speaker 2: He led, he led P three though,
bro, which was that morning.
Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know that I agree with that.
Speaker 1: He did, Devin got a lot cooler in, uh, in qualifying.
Okay. Um, but yes, no, he did not maximize. Okay.
He did not maximize. That is true. That is true.
So then we go to the race and everyone's expecting all the
cars outta position, both McLaren, both Ferraris
to make headway
and the other cars conversely outta position the science
and the Lawsons of the world
to maybe fall back a little bit.
Not exactly how it happened.
Max again stormed everybody
and made it look easy as Max does.
George Russell, your favorite
actually drove a really good race, sick all
weekend, did a great job.
I hate to say it, I don't wanna
upset you, but you did a good job.
But how about Carlos signs?
Speaker 2: Listen, credit work credits due, credit work credits do.
Um, Carlos signs, man, I'm, I'm happy for him.
You know, it was, uh, it was one of those weird situations,
um, very willpower
and Penske esque in the sense that, well,
I guess the one difference is Carlos was replaced
by Louis Hamilton and Will was replaced by David Lucas.
Um, but still someone who is doing a very good job
for the team that they're driving for is well liked
amongst the team, is competitive with his
superstar teammate in in Char.
Char loves him. Carlos is doing, they're doing nothing wrong
and, and really elevating the team when he can
and has the opportunity and challenging for race wins
and backing up char and, and all this sort of thing.
And he gets, he gets replaced, um, by somebody, uh,
who ultimately once, as we've seen this year, once
that somebody is in the car wasn't, isn't doing as good
of a, of a job as Carlos had done.
And I think especially for Carlos having
to take such a far step down, um, in the team
that he ended up for and Williams this year.
Now Williams is obviously exceptionally better than they
have been over the past three years,
but still you're going from Ferrari to Williams.
You're not, not going from Ferrari to Mercedes
or Ferrari to McLaren or whatever, right?
And so for him to have to come to terms with that
and realize that he's gonna be a part
of a rebuilding process
and a rebuilding program, which has a lot of upside to it
and has a huge amount of benefits to it,
and clearly he's with a team that supports him massively
and, and loves that he's a part of it.
So it's a good environment for him to be in.
But still as a racing driver, you know, James, that's a,
that's a tough pill to swallow, especially as I kind
of mentioned, when the guy that replaced you isn't really
doing a better job than you were.
So for him to go out, for him to execute and qualifying
and be outta position
and still come away with a podium, still have hardware,
you could hear it in his voice after the race.
He said, you guys, he said back to his team, he said,
you don't even understand what this means to me.
This is the best moment in my career.
And that just goes to show you this is a
multi-time race winner, right?
This goes to show you how challenging it's been
and how much that was needed.
And that was really, really cool to see.
Speaker 1: I completely agree. I mean, it was, it was amazing to see,
it was amazing to see his faith in Williams be repaid.
It was amazing to see James Vals
and Williams faith in him be repaid crazy to think
that he got a podium before Hamilton did for Ferrari.
Um, he's got a podium.
Alban does not have a podium for Williams.
So in so many ways I I completely understand why
that was such a special moment for him.
And yeah, you could see in his face, you know,
you could hear it in his voice.
He saw in the, the crew in park
for me just like losing their mind
before the car even got there.
You know, his manager, who's also his cousin was sitting
there just like screaming to himself like, you know,
like he was, he just kept, kept just like looking down
and be like, yeah, he just couldn't
believe that it had happened.
Um, it's probably a massive like, you know,
podium bonus in that too, but whatever.
But no, it, it was great man. It was great.
And like, what I really like about it though,
in all honesty is neither, neither Carlos
nor Vals are sitting there being like,
oh yeah, Williams is back.
We're gonna be on the podium
every race of the rest of the year.
They completely understand the situation.
They are patting themselves on the back
for executing brilliantly when those opportunities present
themselves, which is what you always have
to do in this sport,
especially in F1 when you're a midfield team
and they're like, yeah, the next
couple races might be challenging.
We got one or two tracks left,
we think we can be strong at maybe fifth, sixth place.
But like, this was, this was huge for everybody.
And uh, and it was awesome.
So Max was great, George was great, he was great.
Lewis actually had kind
of a good race compared to everybody else.
Like he actually moved up a couple spots,
but no one else really did.
And that was, that was sort of a coup. And then, and then
Speaker 2: I mean the only other thing we gotta touch on is, um, is
so Oscar goes out
and again, golden opportunity for, for Lando to capitalize
and he was outta position for sure.
Uh, I mean you might say that their car wasn't super suited
to the tracking conditions, which might be fair,
but still, I mean, Anna McLaren in seventh,
he was outta position and he had a really bad stop on his
last stop, which I think ultimately cost him two spots.
You know, I think he should have beat Lawson and Sonoda
and maybe even had a run at Antonelli who was in fourth
and McLaren just let him down in pit lane again.
So I mean that's, that could have been a big swing for,
for Orlando and, and for whatever reason it wasn't again,
and it is just shaping up to be one of those situations
where it's, it might not be his year.
I mean there's still quite a few races left,
but I mean it's just, it seems
to be compounding a little bit at this point, especially
when you think about Oscar had a big old goose egg
and Orlando can't, can't close the gap that much. It's,
Speaker 1: That's one of those things, right?
Where on the race where Lando has the DNF
and Zandor, the McLaren Stout, their one two,
so Oscar wins the race on a race where both were struggling,
both struggled with qualifying, both started out a position.
Oscar has his problem,
but it's not like it's a track
where they had that massive advantage.
Orlando could just like bag the wind and,
and close up 25 points.
So now the gap is 25 points, which is exactly the number
of points that Oscar got over Orlando
when his car failed him.
Oscar's issue this weekend was a DNF,
but it was not a mechanical failure.
This was a driver mistake.
So now is when people can start doing the like, you know,
woulda, coulda, shoulda math in their heads again.
Still a lot ofra. I mean Oscar might still beat him
by 50 points and so it's moot,
but like if they stay tight, sure there's a lot of people
that are playing that game, but that's racing, right?
Its something you do about that. I, yeah, I,
the, the team let him down.
There's no doubt about it.
He led the team down in Canada and gave away points there.
So that's, that's part
of racing being a team sport at the end of the day.
Right. Good point. Good point.
Liam Laws got his best finish. Yep. Doing a good job.
Uh, Kimmy Antonelli off the back
of being told he was underwhelming in Manza Elk qualifies
George Russell and finishes force.
Not bad. Uh, we'll see if he can continue that sort of form
and yeah, I guess we'll cover national next week.
Oh wait, you mentioned them.
We should touch on Lil Dave signing with Penske.
Not that it's a shock, everybody kinda saw it coming,
but it's now official and yeah man, time
to step up into the, into the big leagues.
That's, uh, that's a crazy kind of moment for him.
Speaker 2: Listen, we, we've, we've shared our thoughts
and opinions on it because it, it is not a surprise
to anyone, was a very poorly kept secret even,
I don't even know if it was tried to be a secret to be fair
with how many people knew about it.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold, we should hold all
future opinions and comments until, um, this time next year.
But I think an interesting nugget that has come out
of this whole situation, and James, you being who you are
with, you know, understanding the ins
and outs of the, the various sides
of this sport at this point, um,
and always having a voice for the drivers and,
and you've been very vocal about contracts and,
and how they need to be honored and,
and all this sort of thing in the past,
usually on the team side, two drivers in terms
of compensation and,
and letting them see out the, the term of, of
what their contract was signed for.
What, what, where do you stand on this situation where
Penske is holding will to the term of his contract
and not releasing him early
and not allowing him to get to work with Andretti
until his term is over? Well, you,
Speaker 1: You phrased that in a very specific way, Alex,
which makes me think that your opinion is contracts
or contracts, you signed it, you know, it,
and tough <inaudible>, which fundamentally that is a,
that is a philosophy.
I do sort of, I do subscribe to that sort
of, I do subscribe to that.
I think that if two parties are in agreement,
there's opportunities
and situations where it is appropriate
for concessions to be made.
Where this one for me gets a little bit, a little bit tricky
is by Penske not allowing, so, so powers contract goes
until December 31st, right?
And there is a test at Indy on October somethings,
and Andretti has requested Will's services.
Penske has flat denied them. This is not like a Oh is he?
Like it was, the request was made,
the request was denied at that point.
I would, Ima so have you ev let me ask, let me ask you this,
have you ever signed a contract that was termed
through the end of the race season rather
than the end of the calendar year?
Speaker 2: I've done both. Speaker 1: Okay.
Would you say that rightly
or wrongly, it's more often done through the calendar year?
Yes. Right. So it's kind of industry standard
that that's how they do it.
Speaker 2: So I've on, yes.
I've only had one that was through the race here. Right?
The rest were all through calendar year. Yes.
Speaker 1: Right. So it's it's much more
typical that that's the case.
It's sort of understood that once the race season's over,
if you're not going back to the team,
your job there is kind of done.
Now if there's a situation
where there was some previous sponsor commitments
that you still had to, uh, fulfill, fine.
I totally get that. That's totally fair.
In a situation where there's no sponsor commitments
to fulfill and nobody is ho I imagine Lucas's contract
with Foyt was through the calendar year.
Let's ignore for a second the fact that Penske was paying
for that deal and just, you know, ,
it seems to me that it in no way hurts
Penske to release. Well
Speaker 2: Sure it does.
Speaker 1: No, sure it does. It benefits another team.
Why does not, that doesn't hurt his team.
It's a there's a difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're competitors. Yeah.
So anything that benefits a competitor but like hurts you.
Correct? Correct.
Speaker 1: Okay. Alex, real talk
by getting one day in the car at Indy in October
at the track that you get 48 hours of practice in come April
and May is one day in October gonna set will up for
so much success at the Indie 500 that you
as a competing team owner would be like,
yeah, I'm worried about that. James.
Speaker 2: James, you mean the one track where
finite details matter, the one track
that you spend the most amount of time preparing for
on the track off the track in the wind tunnel.
Okay. You're getting a guy who has just recently been
with the team that in all honesty should have locked out the
front row the past two years,
but for various reasons that we all know did not
and had a massive influx
of information from a certain engineer
that improved their speed dramatically overnight, seemingly,
okay, you bring that person to the October test
to allow them to start running through certain things
to give you an offseason project and areas to focus on.
I think there's a benefit to that.
Now that being said, he's just a driver
and him getting in car, and
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, if we're talking
Speaker 2: Engineers XY different Speaker 1: Different conversation.
Speaker 2: Here's my point is this is further reinforcing the fact
that will told them no because I, I believe you, if the way,
the way they handled this situation and, and,
and everything, and not saying they handled it wrongly,
but just in terms of the, the, again, the, the human element
of willpower and what he's done for that organization
and the fact that he was still doing a good job
and all of this stuff and,
and to be strung along as we, as we, as we've talked about.
And if then they said, all right, we're done,
thank you, but no thank you.
I could see them having the, the sympathy of being like,
all right, go, go get to work and go do your new thing.
Right? It now convinces me that they were like, we need you
to stay, please stay.
And he was like, no, get Ed.
And now they're like, oh, okay,
well you're not driving your car until January one then.
I mean, that's just an assumption. Yeah.
That's just, uh, I'm theorizing, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you can argue tip for tap.
That's why he's won a million championships in 1,000,005
hundreds and that's the kind of mindset that you need.
Speaker 2: I I think it's fine. I don't think it's, I saw
Speaker 3: Something on Twitter saying
that he should still just show up to Penske headquarters,
grab coffee and just like
chat with people in the break room. ,
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. I am, I, um,
do I think it's gonna negatively affect Will's preparation
for Indy next year or Andretti's preparation for next year?
I don't. Is it a big deal? No, it's not.
But that's why it seems unnecessary to hold him back, right?
If it was kind of industry standard to hold him back
or to like not let people do that
and they didn't let him do it
and it's like, yeah, okay, fine, whatever.
But like, you know, ed Carpenter let Reus go
and Reus was allowed to do the December
or the October test with Coin
and that led him get a new job.
It's kind of this much more common
to let it happen, but you're right.
Maybe it was a function of Will telling them no
and them wanting to just make a point.
Speaker 2: We'll never know. Or maybe we'll,
since we're a breaking news podcast now,
Speaker 1: Yeah, news is fun.
Hopefully we have some next week, um, to talk about
after we recap Nashville.
This has been off track with Hinch
and Rossi Off Track is part
of the Sirius XM Sports Podcast network.
If you enjoyed this episode
and want to hear more, please give a five star
rating and leave a review.
Subscribe today, wherever you stream your podcasts.
We are at Ask Off Track on Twitter and Instagram.
And if you wanna follow us on Twitter, we're at Hinch Town
and at Alexander Rossi.
If you wanna follow them though,
we have no idea why you would.
He's at the Tim Durham on Twitter.
Find us on YouTube and subscribe to our channel
for exclusive video content.
Off Track is produced by Tim Durham, and by that we mean f.