Alfa Romeo - A Modest Proposal (Lily's Version)

your home? No? No, it was delivery, Yeah it was. It was delivered, and I went right down, like three minutes later, was gone. Those people that steal delivery packages, I've always I've thought about having like some type of weapon delivered that would explode upon impact. I guess I guess what I just described as a mail bomb, which is not cool and I shouldn't advocate for that, but I want something bad to happen to those people. I

will say. There was a viral video of someone who created their own glitter stink bomb and put it on their stoop and say had they had a camera in there so they watched some person opening their car and just ruin their entire car. Yeah, that was good car. You know, it's like that's funny, funny, harmless, but very effective. So I hope that person learned their lesson that a glitter stink bomb could be sitting anywhere people who aren't You don't live in major cities, you know, you just

get your packages delivered on your porch. It's all good. But in New York City you've got five thousand people living in the same building. And but yeah, but there's so much trust in the suburbs that I am too changed. So to this end, today we're talking about a team that does have a history in the sport of Formula one, but also can be a little bit forgotten. So that is none other than Alfa Romeo. However, before we are you count them out, I will say they could be

turning a new leaf right now. So there's a lot to be excited about with Alfro Mayo. I personally am very stoked about their driver lineup. So there's there's a lot to get into today. Alfa Romeo, Yo, I hit me from my Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios. This is choosing sides one. Wow. W Wait, So if you thought the whole Renao Alpene history was confusing. Alfa Romeo really says, hold my beer. So but we're gonna we're gonna skim through a lot of it. Were the the

broad Strokes Espresso that's actually much better. Yeah, espresso and apper all spirits. That seems appropriate. Okay, So we talked a little bit about Alfa Mayo with our Ferrari episodes because they are intertwined. So just to recap a little bit of this. So, Alfa Romeo is an Italian car

manufacturer that's been around since nineteen ten. They're in name was originally just Alpha and it was capital all caps A l f A. The founding name was actually an acronym for butcher, this Italian annema lombarda fabric, which basically means it had a bunch of anonymous investors. And then, uh, the Romeo part comes from Nicola Romeo. He was an

engineer and entrepreneur. He acquires a majority steak in Alpha in nineteen fifteen, so only a couple of years later, and then he eventually owns the entire company by nineteen eighteen. And uh yeah, so eventually he of course tax on his name Alfromeo. That's that's where it comes from. And in term we'll get to the racing part of the team. But in terms of our guy Nicola, because of course was curious, he ended up leaving Alfa Romeo after a

series of bad investments and other issues. By night, I have zero other fun facts about him except that he has seven children, which is quite a brood. Yes, that's that Roman Catholic birth control. Yeah, working around the clock or not. Yes, So basically teams al Fromeyo. It's you know, brands Alfromeo. As we know, it's still called al Fromeo, and it really makes a name for itself in the

luxury vehicle and car market. In terms of racing, Alfa Romeo starts racing in nineteen eleven, so the year after its founding. It does have some success across a bunch of different series and disciplines, including but not limited to Formula one, rally, sports car racing, and then touring car racing.

So yeah, things are going well basically. Though more specifically, if we get to Formula one, Alpha has been in it since the pre modern era, you know, in Formula one debuts as an actual sport in nineteen fifties, so they started competing in these kind of grand grands pre in the late es other of the new Alphas that crosses the line with a brilliant young driver of Algieria, Guy Mall. This is where some of their history intersects

with Mercedes in a couple of different ways. There's long supremacy of Italian cars is at last to be challenged on the others in Berlin by rear engined auto unions, the first new racing cars of the third right, so in the nineteen forties, again around the time of World War Two, and then directly after they had mixed success in these kind of this pre F one era because Mercedes was dominating. As we discussed in the Mercedes episode, their pre F one cars and Mercedes were were great.

They want all those European Championships as they were called. Uh. However, when F one actually becomes a real formalized sport, Alfa Romeo wins out. They actually are the winners of the first ever World Championships with Giuseppe Farina, and then they win again with a guy one Manuel Fangio Banjo the rising star came through to win, and this incidentally at the age of thirty nine, when many drivers think of retire.

Who is like in the sport of legendary guy. Up until Michael Schumacher in the early two thousand's, Fangio was the winningest championship driver, so for almost half a century held that title. No man has given more to the essentially a twentieth century out of motor racing than has the incomparable je Manuel Fangio, five times champion driver of the World. Oh La Fangio. He was Argentinian. Okay, sorry, he actually exits the sport of f one after getting

kidnapped by revolutionaries in Cuba. Kidnapped at Pistol Point by Cuban rebels, obviously seeking to embarrass President Fatista's government by making sure the star attraction is not on the starting line on the big rate. They don't torture him or anything. They just keep him there, like give him a sandwich and basically how they handed back and he's like, I don't really want to do any of this stuff anymore. So, I mean this is just a time where crazier shit

happened exactly. Yeah, So that's Alpha Mayo. They they win in nineteen one and then they say peace out this one. Yeah. They end on that high note, and they leave for a very long time. So again we're going to skip over some of this because it's super confusing. But basically, from ninety two until the mid nineteen eighties, Alfa ro Mayo is sporadically involved as an engine supplier and a constructor suppliers. But basically, yeah, none of these teams are

particularly successful or interesting. So again that's why we're kind of breezing through like thirty five years of history here. Let's get ahead. The year is now so much more recent. Alpha begins partnering again with Ferrari as a sponsor. Their logo starts to appear on Ferrari cars. A couple of years later eighteen now they become the title sponsor of a team called Souber, which has been around for a very long time, and Souber is seen again has a

special relationship with Ferrari. For instance, Charlotte Claire at for he got to start his first year was at Souber. A lot of drivers in the sort of Ferrari pipeline get their start at Suber. Yes, Souber copy, I think Alfa Romeo. You know the history they have in the sport um it's incredible, so that was taught to like Calderone. You might remember her all the way back during our first episode, but she was actually an Alfare Mayo test driver at one point. Their biggest strength lies in in

the people they have hired. So a lot of the guys that I that I work with are still in the team. They have a great team of engineering people at the factory, very passionate about what they do, and hopefully we'll see them like we have seen at the start of this season, that they can fight for really good positions. This is where things do get very, very confusing.

So Alpha returns the sport. They end up taking over the name of the Solber team, but the team is still operated by Souber, so every all the leader, everyone remains at Salber. It's just a new name. So today you see Alpha Romeyo now Orleans a sponsor, so it's Alpha Romeo Orleans but then operated by Suber. Yeah, confusing, but Alpha Mayo basically comes back to the grid in

historically have not always been the strongest. You know, they they're back of the pack when they enter in twenty nineteen, so that's kind of where where Alpha sits is back maybe maybe back of the midfield or back of the

entire pack. So yeah, so I guess overall, Alphro Mayo Historic team kicks off the F one err and style, leaves for a while, kind of returns randomly, and then disappears again and is under all sorts of different names, and then finally decides for the time being that they are in fact going to do this F one thing. And so twenty nineteen to present, that's where we're at. Sounds like they never should have left. Yeah, you know

what you can do exactly? It could have been Ferrari. Well, I don't know if i'd want to work under ends because he sounds like kind of a nightmare. Yeah, I'm gonna google their car. Can of look at their car? That is a almost like a cherry red Yeah, I mean, all these cars are sweet looking, but that thing is badass. Big upgrades for So here's what's working out in their

favor so far. We're getting to the drivers in a second, but in terms of the car, it appears that with under the new regulations so far as as of this recording, the team is comfortably midfield for the first time in a very long time, which is very, very exciting. Yeah, and you can just tell the team seems more excited and more energized than they have. But I think in that in large part has to do with the driver line up. Yeah, yeah, I would think you want to

help move us on to drive. No, I don't. Actually, I'd like to stop. I'd like to stop there. I'm so excited. This is my underrated king. Well who's driving their cars? We'll get into the drivers, but right after we take a break. Okay, I am going to be making this is a whole personal pitch from me. I am welcoming you with open arms. I love this. Okay, in our kind of number one seat here we have got uh Finnish Instagram boyfriend. And as I said, King,

Valtorie Bodice excellent name. Yes you have a dog Walter. Valterie is the finished version of the name Walter. You already have a bit of a connection to Valtorie Bodice. And it should be noted for our millions of listeners that Walter is on the lab of YOHI right now I think is he is? He's such a little slut I left. Okay, So Valtorie, I like this guy? Yea valty body. Why do you like him, okay, So let's do a little bit of Valterie's history here. So Valtorie

comes from humble beginnings. He is not a millionaire's kid, a billionaire's kid or anything. So his dad owns a small cleaning company and his mother is a funeral director. Here that Nicholas Latifi. He wishes he could be valtere Bodice, which his funeral director mom and cleaning company dad. Another fun fact about Valterie he actually served in the Finnish Army for a short time because it's mandatory for adult men, so he obtained the rank of Lance corporal. Great, yeah,

I love to see it. So yeah, Valtorie doesn't get his start through a racing family. In fact, his whole career is due to a chance encounter when he was six years old where he's at the grocery store with his grandfather, happens to see a flyer for just a local carting event that's happening, and decides to go. So that's already great. And what also intersects with this time we're talking about the nineties, with Valtories now in his

early thirties. In the nineties, there is an iconic finish racing driver named Mika Hackenan he won two back to back titles in the late nineties, joyfully out of the car. There's so there's a lot of fervor around Mica. He's also very finished and being kind of earnest a little riot times. It looked very easy, was it? Oh yeah, it was so easy, and you can't believe it. No, I wasn't so Valtorie between going to this local carding event and Mika, you know, hackened In being in the

news all the time, you know, he's he's hooked on this. Yeah. So he eventually is able to make his way to the carding scene and and gets into competitive carding throughout the early and mid two thousand's, eventually makes his way to open will racing, to these junior formula categories where he picks up a ton of victories. The young Finn really is being touted the next Kimmie Ryk and then he's certainly got the same line in dry humor. He's

looking unstoppable. Everything's going great for Valterie, and in he gets a gig as a test driver for Williams, which we just talked about. To see Valtery connecting with the team you like. Uh, and this is when he's still kind of serving in in junior you know, racing in junior formulas. Finally, the year he gets a spot on Williams team. However, it was a rough year. Both both cars didn't do well, you know, it just it was

a rough one. However, things improved in he ends up finishing in the driver's Championship standings and P four and P five. Yeah, so William's car was working, Val was doing well exactly exactly. Things are looking good, you know, he gets he gets the teams, blessing, etcetera. And then

things really start to look good. A couple of years later, the end of the season, Mercedes has Lewis Hamilton's and Nico Rossberg to former besties who are now arch rivals, and Nico Rossberg, after a very toxic, just terribly divisive season, ends up winning his first and only world championship and

beats out Louis at the last second. And so, as if that wasn't dramatic enough, five days after winning this world title, I want to take the opportunity to announce that I've decided to end my FUMLA one career um in this moment here on Monday. That's what I was going to say. I thought that was coming. Yeah, and he had two more years left on his contract. Piste

Lewis off too well. Mercedes wasn't expecting it, you know. Again, similar to this whole, uh, this whole Daniel Ricardo suddenly leaving a vacuum at Red Bull, Nico's sudden retirement announcement is you know, shock retirement basically leaves another big void for Mercedes. We need to just come up with a decision, look at the drivers that are out there, and then hopefully quickly decided they now have an open seat that

they weren't necessarily expecting to fill. For a bit, they're kind of like, who could we fill in this seat? Who won't We don't want to repeat of this Nico Lewis drama. It's not good for team morale, it's not good for the constructor. You know. They don't want to put a second Niko in there and make this whole thing bad. So I guess who's been doing well during his time and f one, I want to present a new member of the family, So give him a big

round of applause. As certain Valterie Walter Bodice. I' kidding. His liddle name is not. His name was on Walter. Walter spots are so coveted and it's such high stakes that when one person leaves, it just sends waves. It's such an enormous earthquake of action that then has to follow to get everything back in place exactly. And especially in this case, it was a surprise, right, it's already it's already a bit a bit chaotic, so everyone is trying to figure out this Val guy who's been on

the grid for a little bit. And basically Valtree ends up spending five seasons at Mercedes and they were a little tough, so he has his highs and his lows. Yeah, he wins a bunch of races. He's really fast in qualifying, so he gets a lot of poll positions. He finishes on the podium a ton during his five Mercedes years. He ends up i think in finishing P. Three in the standings twice and P two twice, so behind Lewis Lewis, and then this past year it was between Lewis and Max,

so he was third behind the two of them. There are a couple of issues, though they are always existing, so one obviously Louis Hamilton's Sir Lewis Hamilton's is his teammate. Uh, Lewis is the goat, that's the guy who you're being

compared to constant. It kind of sucks if you're paid two and you still feel like the guy in this in the garage next to you is beating you exactly and the Lewis is in the midst of this string of victories, right, and on top of that it's already kind of an issue, is that the team chose bias towards Louis at two point two. Do not fight with Louis.

There's several occasions of this where they give those team orders to have Valtrie, you know, move aside, to let Louis through, to do something in a race or a qualifying session to make things better for Louis. Yeah, Patrians, James, please about the fastest laugh attempt for the end of lap. Sometimes it happens at the detriment of Valtori's own race or own strategy to difficult day for you, difficuld day for us. Let's discuss it afterwards. That sucks. Yeah, just

a quick interjection here. Um. Valtrie himself made some unusually candidate remarks on this whole situation on One's official podcast, Beyond the Grid. It was like, I don't know what's the description, like biting my own teeth together and really didn't feel natural and not right because I'm the racer, but I did it for the team, so it's just not fun. And it's it's again of the course of five years, so it's not like this happened one or

two races. This is half a decade. And then, as if all of that wasn't enough, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolf Daddy Toto. We have not talked about him at length in a little bit, but Daddy Toto refuses to give Valtrie a contract longer than year to year, so he's on five one year contracts while Lewis, yeah, Lewis is getting signed. Everyone's inn sent a multi year you know. So he feels like, and he's talked about this in interviews.

He was actually very brutally honest after it right after he left Mercedes that you have pressure contractually for nine years for your formal one career year by year, it starts to eat you from inside, you know. Yeah, it doesn't. It makes you not feels confident. It makes you like the team is not really backing you. But that's really stupid of Daddy Toto because this guy isn't some okay driver, he's P two, P three. Give him a multi year deal and pay him a lot and Louis, that's really

done with them. According to Valtorie, Toto's rationale is that the year two year lights of fire under Valterie. Yeah, but you can only ignite so many fires. It's just very exacting feeling because we're talking about Alpha Romeo that that's what happened. Yeah, there's always little frustrations. Interestingly, director Survive has made him and Louis seem a little more

adversarial at times. And yeah, again, as like with everyone else, they've had their moments, but generally a lot of Valtorie's biggest resentments have been more with Mercedes leadership than with Louis Hamilton's and him and Louis actually have a really sweet relationship. They are both, like I said, now in their thirties, so they were older and when he came on the team is a little bit older in his career,

a little more developed. Louis was a little bit more mature, than he was, you know, back when he was winning his first title with McLaren in the late two thousand's, so generally taking them on a personal level, they do get along. After Louis lost his bid at the eighth world title last year, he only came out of hiding for two events. It was to get knighted by Prince Charles and the second was Valtorie's Parwell party. So it's

obvious that he holds him in high regard. He he really when he left too, had really nice things to say. You know, if Lewis didn't want to do things, he just won't do things. That's pretty wonderful because they definitely we're in a position to be in the trenches together and they could. You know, it's very likely you don't like those people, so that's cool. The two of them are also up there in terms of being one of the most successful partner's driver partnerships in F one history.

So of course, you know it's Vale's fifth season. There's already a little bit of something in the air where people feel like he's he's maybe on his way out. Everyone knows George Russell are Apparent has been at Williams for three years. How much longer can you keep this poor kid? Who have you annointed the golden boy at a shitty team. And on top of that, Valtterie is really not having a great season. It's fine, it's just not his best. He crashes, he has some other slip ups.

Is just not it's just not looking good long term. And at this point he's in his early thirties. He wants some more stability and security. He doesn't want to be fighting year to year for that Mercedes contract. Yeah, he's gotten the winds, he's gotten the pole positions, he's ended up on the podium in the standings like he doesn't. He's achieved all of that, so he's kind of looking for what does he want next? So he announces in late one that he is going to be moving to

Alpha Romeo. He's had to play second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton in all of those years, so he will go and be the main man at Alpha Romeo, which everyone's kind of like, okay, you know, they finished p nine in one out of ten teams. Everyone's king, well, that's good for him. You know, he's still in the grid, but he's really stoked because he gets a multi year deal.

And what's interesting is I listened obviously as a fan of his too many interviews, and he was very much like, trust me, they're going to do cool things in two Like he was very adamant about this in a way that Valtorie is a very earnest finish man. He does really hype things, So I was I was really intrigued that he was so excited about the move. Obviously he knows he's gonna be the number one driver. So we're

at VAL's first season where the season's obviously still going on. However, immediately off the bat with the first race, Valtrie makes it to Q three, the you know, the final stage of qualifying. He starts earning points off the bat and and as of right now, Alpha is kind of switching between P five, P six and the standings so Humongous jumped for them pretty much entirely based on Valtteries standings in these races. So he's just been been killing it

on the grid thus far. Obviously seems a lot more comfortable, a little more secure because he knows he's not fighting for a contract at the end of the season. He signed a multi year deal, multi year so aside from all of this racing with Valve. Okay, here's what I really like about Valtorie, and I will say, I don't know if it's that maybe Louis a little bit of Louis's whole vibe rubbed off on him over the years. But he has a lot going on off the track.

So first and foremost, his girlfriend is an Australian Olympic cyclists named Tiffany Cromwell. Yes, but they are like a duo, like they are the O t P. I ship them. There are two couples. I will be devastated if they ever break up and one true pair, One true pair. Okay, did you know that? What do you think? Yes? The answers yes, they say this in his rob I actually did not know. I mean, I love Lily's generation just throws these acronyms around as if we're supposed to have

any shitty idea what that means? Okay, t one true pair, Yes, but they're doing an endgame. Is their end game. So tiff and Vale are very fun because because of Tiffany. Oh no, I love Tiffin Vale, so I call them mom and Dad in my newsletter. Um, so Tiffin Vale, like when he's not racing. They travel around like cycling everywhere together and if he's not having a race weekend,

he will go to her I cling races. Yeah, And similarly she'll come to the paddock if she's not racing a lot of times to anyone who's kind of connected to the teams of the drivers during not races can like use the tracks. So she'll cycle on these official F one tracks if no one's practicing or just you know whatever, they're allowed to do that, so it would be sweeter if people were practicing for the bike out there. It's very squid game. So he'll he turns into a

total Instagram boyfriend. He takes photos on the side of the road of her and all of her friends. He sets up a tripod and like a full full professional camera setup. He has the water and the granola bar. As soon as she finishes and she collapses into his arm like it's very is this is o t P ship? Yeah, there's something very cool about a egomaniac Formula one driver offering support and very and very gladly being a supportive

figure and not the attention. Yeah's attraction. Aside from that, though, other things he's done he is a known coffee connoisseur. Oh, I love him all ready, Finish love their coffee, they do. He also judges coffee competitions on the side. You know, I want to taste one of his expressions because I'm I'm addicted to coffee as he is so um alf Ro Mayo test driver Tatiana Calderon Again, besides the coffee, I think, you know, Pottery is somebody that has so

much experience with with a top team. He knows what it feels and what it takes to win a Formula One race to be on full position, and that's what any team would like to have um as as a as a racing driver. Somebody with the experience, with the knowledge, with the speed and the maturity that he brings to the team. I think it's it's a great addition. Velter has got some stuff going on in the grid's he's making moves this year, and then he also seems to

have a rich personal life outside of the sport. Plenty of hobbies, a lot to like here, a lot to like you, a lot to like here. And also one of the things you said that I love, as you said, he's not like a hype guy. He's not like over promoting. If anything, he he under promises an over delve. I love it, and I also love and I can hear

Yohi's microphone getting ready to get this in. I also love that he's placing P two, P three behind this you know, mega star, and yet the mega star still has mad respect for him, you know what I mean. It's like, I'm excited for him to be in this number one car position at a team, even though we haven't talked about the second driver yet, but but we will. Jo, Hi,

just hit me with it. No, I'm just wondering if you could maybe maybe talk a little bit about there there have been a lot of really really good finished drivers. If you were going to give me a piece of paper and say, write down fifty countries that have historically been good at racing, I don't think I would ever have even written down Finland. I would have written Usta Rica before I would have written Finland. Yeah, it's a little bit random, but they do have a history of

success in the sport. So you've got Yamka hacking in back in the nineties, you've got Kimmi reikin In was known as the Iceman which is pretty funny. Kiki Rossberg, his son Nico was the guy who won the Mark World Championship against Lewis and retired. They're all very earnest, they're a little bit self serious, have a very dry sense of humor typically, and it seems to work for them in terms of high speed race card. Right, yeah, thank you for indulging me. Quick break and we're back. Okay.

I love this guy. But there's two people that race for Alpha Romeo. So who's the other guy? The other guy? Okay? So he is a Chinese drivers, Yes, the first Chinese driver in the history of F one. And so the reason I say that is because he in his lower formulas they used to call him guan Yu Joe, but upon entering Formula one, he's like, hey, I want you to pronounce my name the way you know, the Chinese tradition surname first. So it's Joe guan You, now Joe

guan You. Okay. So Gwanyu is the lone rookie on this gridge and for certain the only Chinese driver ever ever. Yes, so we'll get into him more. But Formula one, like NBA Tennis Olympics, they're all realizing this market exists and we need to be in it. Yes, he actually moved to the UK from China all the way back in so he would have been yeadolyst like preteen years old because of the fact that there wasn't a lot of really great competitive racing in China. He wanted more opportunity,

He wanted to learn from the best. He had the money to do that, so he he moved halfway across the world for that chance. There's a lot to say about Joe in terms of his career. I mean, he has had some successes and all of that. I would say, we don't know too much about his personal background. This I think makes sense and in line with the Chinese tradition, So we don't know too much. We do know he has money. He has a very extensive designer shoe collection,

sneaker collection. He has a sneaker head. So if he's dropping like five different pairs of Valenciaga sneakers, you have to assume that there is money somewhere in that pipeline. But yeah, he also has a little bit, just a tiny bit of the Nicholas Latifi Allah Williams thing going on. Yeah, he has he for instance, stayed a little bit longer in some formulas, So he was in Formula to, for instance, for three years, whereas as we've established most drivers on

any given series usually only one to two years. So has has enough money wherever it's coming from to have some longevity where a lot of drivers do not. Can I play a bad cop for a second. Yes? Did they just make sure he had a eat because he's Chinese and this is an enormous market. The Formula one is never even tapped into ever A complicated question, we'll get into it. So yeah. So here's where things get very sticky or murky. Is that the rumor is no

one has said this out loud. We don't know if it's exactly the Chinese government, if it's you know, Chinese, other Chinese sponsors they offer up alph Mayo, They're like, hey, if you get put this guy on you in this seat, there's thirty million pounds waiting for you or more. Is this not the horse head in the bed of Godfather? Yeah? So why can't if you just win Formula two, why don't you just automatically get a seat, Like, why don't they just make that the fucking rule that suggestion I

love that. It's episode fourteen and YOHI now just says I love what Michael said. Um, actually it's okay. Rob turns, Rob turns, Mike off. Joe has some backing. And it's hard about this is there's been theories on who is behind this and what exactly was promised. We don't We

still don't really know, I will say. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the discussion about the money behind Joe has been plagued by a lot of racism and xenophobia, and it's interesting that's like, hmm, you don't have anything to say about like the white European guys who had a very similar set up in the past, but suddenly, you know, Joe Guani is a different, whole, different beast to share to those. So so that's been very tricky, is that. Yeah, Like,

no one quite knows where it's coming from. Some people like, yeah, it's definitely the government. Some people like, oh, it's it's some sort of industry in cahoots with the government. A long story short, It's one of those situations where some people are like, yes, Joe is absolutely a pay driver, and other people like, well, he's like a weird like because we don't really know what exactly it is. But

he has miracles standed up on this seat. We know he has money, we know he's connected to some people of money. Basically just a lot of question marks and yeah, that's what's led to unfortunately, has some suspicions, some attacks and whatnot. Yeah. So in terms of his driving, he did on his first race, so his Formula one debut, he did score point, he got ten. Yeah, he has struggled since then. He got to P. Eleven's in a row the poor guy, which is the first position where

you don't get any points. He's had some spins and crash and this and that, which again he's a rookie. This is all kind of expected. I will say what he has going for him. One he's incredibly friendly and two he treats the team well. So after he got this point, I know he's not a fun a fun villain, but he after he got his first point in his debut,

he went around bowing to everyone. And he's always been also a good sport about the fact that Valterie Is is the number one guy and is doing really well overall. And they also seem to have a really I mean they're ten years of parting age, right, so, but they have a very cordial, nice, friendly, positive relationship. It's very early days in there in their relationship because the other both new to the team. But at least joke on you for all that's going on with the money or whatever.

He himself seems to be okay. He's in an odd position and where it feels like he could go either way as the paid driver or no, I'm really really good and you know I have some backing, but I guess time will tell on that. Yeah. Unfortunately, it is too early to really form an opinion of his racing. But I'm intrigued. I would say that's the word. I'm intrigued. And from a marketing standpoint, the potential is enormous and it's probably a big part plus thirty million pounds of

why Alpha Romeo took a chance on him exactly. He has to speak English, right, Yes, he does speak English, um, and I mean he lived in in the UK for a decade before this. The other thing that a lot of people, myself included like is that he is a little bit of a fashionista. He has talked about looking up to Lewis in terms of his fashion. As I said, he's a massive designer, shoe collection sneaker head. Yeah, total, totally into that and can speak pretty intelligently about his collections.

Let me show you some photos of Oh shit, is you holding a purse? It's a bag. But like that's uh, that's a bold move. It is. But good for him for for having the confidence to rock that he's trying stuff out here. Have to get a bad personel only if it's a triangle. Okay, I guess I gotta get one. So we have now met nine out of our ten teams. Where is Where is Alpha coming in for you? Now? I don't love the paid driver situation. That really hurts. I'm sure that was a big decision they had to

make because they needed the money whatever. But Valtrie is awesome. Alpha Romeo brand name awesome, the car. That car is beautiful. The cherry red I love. So I'm gonna say for me, Alpha Tori is somewhere in here. Williams, I still like a lot, and Alfa Romeo I like a lot. You've got some real different picks up and down. I know, I know, And it's basically here's how it's working for me. A brand name. I recognize and feel something about plus at least one driver who has guts and grit and

is maybe a little understated. I think I've just come up with my own formula. You're just psycho analyzed yourself. How does that say about me? And so where where? Yeah? Where do Valterie and Joe sort of come into play? He doesn't come into play. Sorry, it sounds like I'm being a jerk. But proof show me, Joe that you're an amazing driver. Will We'll find out. Valtrie is great. I love it. I think it's awesome that he's paid

his dues. I love the Lewis Hamilton's thing that he you know, was with him and beat him sometimes and they still have some. I love the finished thing. Coffee. Come on, I have I text all you guys every day? Who needs a coffee? And everyone ignores me? You know who wouldn't ignore you if you texted him, Valterie. He would talk to you about coffee. He would Yeah, exactly right, exactly right. I should have brought Valterorie's favorite coffee with

me today. Unfortunately it was very specific and long, and you should have brought your alpha Romeo sweatshirt. But it got stolen. Sorry guys. Before we sign off, I just need to give you guys a quick update. Okay, so we have produced introduction and now he thinks he freaking runs this whole thing. Producer goo hi, take it away. So do you guys remember Silly Season. Well, at the very tail end of Silly Season, Alpha Romeo announced that

it is ending its partnership with Souber. So that's gonna happen at the end of the three season So in about a year and a half for real, are you joking? Yeah? I know, I know, and it This could mean it's pulling out of the sport entirely, or perhaps it's just switching partners. We really don't know yet, but yeah, that's um. That's that. Next time, we have our final team. This team is the only American owned team on the Grid. Here we go. They are an episode of the Office personified.

If you said we need to make a mockumentary series based on a Formula one team, I would say, just film the Hoss Garage. Don't even need to hire actors or make scripts. Just film Hoss. Is it a German brand? It is not. It is in fact American named after an American named Gene Hass. We will have more white collar crime. We will have some of the funniest and weirdest sketchy sponsors. We have some real villains. We have Michael Schumacher's son finally entering the picture. And we also

have another really fun comeback story. It is your favorite guy, the suck my Ball's Mate man himself, Kevin Magnusson Balls Mate. That something so funny about that because Mate is basically like friends. That's like, hey, hey, my friend Paul. So they truly have everything at HOSS, and I think that they finished last last year they did not a single point was earned. So we're gonna have a lot of fun. I can't wait. I can't wait to hear about it.

Thank you, Lilly. This has been Choosing Sides f one, a production of Sports Illustrated Studios and I Heart Radio. The show was hosted by Michael Costa and Lily Harp. This episode was produced by Lily Harman and our senior producer Hi Tal, who also did the sound design at the cutting room studios. We are recorded by engineer Robot Larry the second mastering by Cello Wisblue. Max Miller is the executive producer and Brennan get Just His Heat of Audio at s I Udios. At I Heart Radio, Sean

Titown is our executive producer. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts where wherever you get your podcasts, don't forget to subscribe to us and leave a review. And if you want more F one goodness, follow us on Instagram at Choosing Sides F one