This is, is off track. Hey guys. Welcome to another episode of Off Track with in Generos Rossi. Uh, it's Thursday, wherever you are. Not where we are. What day? Oh, I got the, I got the days fully wrong today. I was talking to somebody yesterday. I'm like, yeah, I can definitely do tomorrow at this time for something. No, totally wrong day. You
Know, you know what day it is, uh, James, because you just went to Twin Peaks for a certain day of the week.
Yeah. Which I only learned about once I got there.
I only learned about it once I got there my first time with Bob Peak
Too. Wednesdays? Is that like, does do, Does Twin Peaks have a thing on
Yeah. I don't wanna talk about it. So
I actually, I have a funny story about, you
Can look it up. Alright.
You can look it up.
Hazel's mom, were you just stunned when you walked in James?
I was, Flo was like, Like, I was like, how is this a thing? Like how is this a thing?
Well, now I have to look it up. So Hazel's mom is also from Indiana and they Noblesville and it was packed. Oh, it was
Packed. Sorry, Jim. I,
Dude, I've been, I've been on a Monday, not packed Wednesday. It's not packed. Slammed.
Slammed. Yeah. It's
It a lot of work. Trucks out in the parking lot there
A lot. Yeah. It's a very, yeah, there was two very distinct, very two distinct construction workers and finance guys. Oh,
Okay. I just looked it up.
I went in there, I went in there with Bob for the first time and I was like, I can't, I can't believe this is real. And then I took like a month later, our buddy Steven and our buddy Depu there. 'cause I was like, you guys have, you have to see this,
You gotta see this. And
Sure enough, Bob was
. Okay.
It's just your Wednesday thing.
I, I don't, his line to me was lot of regulars on a Wednesday. Lot of regular stuff included. I've only,
I've only ever been there once and it was with Bob
always.
It wasn't on a moving On. Well, so that, that is like halfway between where my mom's place is and where Hazel's mom's family is. So like we just arbitrarily without ever having gone there, chose that as like a meat location to do like swaps when we're back in Indiana. And so, like one time I had something going on and Lauren had something going on. So my mom went to pick up Hazel from Hazel's aunt on the other side and they're like, oh, we might as well pop in and grab lunch together in here.
So my mom, Hazel and Hazel's aunt walked into, they're like, oh, mistake. We made a mistake. We should go somewhere else.
McDonald's. McDonald's across the street. Got it. Because
We just had, I had never been, I had no idea what the establishment was. Yeah. I just saw it and thought like, ah, it's whatever. It's a restaurant roughly. Equid distance from both like, so Yeah, we don't swap there anymore.
No. So we've all learned something today. Well, Alex learned it earlier, but yeah, we've recently all learned something about that, that place. Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . Uh, yes. Food is still terrible.
But anyways, I don't think that's what people go for. Um,
It's the cold.
If you want good food, you go to Cracker Barrel. Everyone knows this.
Oh, a hundred percent. Everybody. You get either the catfish or the meatloaf. . Um,
As long as there's dumplings involved, I'm in
Chicken, dumplings, fire, God, shout down. They're side salads even good. Like,
I don't think I've ever had a bad meal at a Cracker Barrel. What
Do you eating James? I don't know how you could dude. Australian licorice
Close. It's these smart sweets. No, they're good. They're super low sugar and they're really tasty. I'm sure there's something in there that's gonna kill me, but Hmm. I was had a craving for something sweet
After you had something salty earlier.
I mean, I had tacos, so, Yeah, Yeah. I guess
Anyways, um, anyways, so 'cause , it's a lot of chewing noises right on the mic.
Oh, sorry. . Is that making your job tough, Jim? Uh, last one. Last one, I promise.
Uh, so alright, on the, on the Tuesday episode, we kind of covered, um, all of the basic things We discovered. James has a 20 year reunion high. We discovered that Tim and I are not at that point yet. Um, we confirmed the fact that I don't speak to anyone from high school, which I don't think was a surprise to anyone. Um, we talked a little bit about Abu Dhabi. Um, there's been some IndyCar stuff that's happening, but I don't wanna get there quite yet.
Let's talk about, um, the young driver test that. Oh, okay. Yeah. Um,
The post Abu Dhabi Yeah. F1 young drivers driver test. Exactly.
So there for that, this has been going on for quite some time. Um, I've taken part in it. It's a really good thing that F1 does to kind of, um, force teams to run their development drivers. Most of these guys, bar a couple who got fp one outings have been kind of sitting on the sidelines and going to 26 races, 27 races across the globe and not really doing anything aside from drinking cappuccinos and wearing a headset and, and the team sweater giving
Garage tours.
Exactly. So it's good for them to actually get behind the wheel of the car and have an opportunity to, to show what they're capable of. Um, but so this, this, this happened again. There was a moment in time where it looked like they were actually gonna do a kind of pseudo race. And we talked about that a little bit. Yeah. That didn't, that didn't end up happening this year. It looks like it'll come back or not come back, but it'll, it will be a thing in 2026.
Um, but yeah, let's just kind of run through that. So Patto I think for our listeners would be the, the main guy that you would know, um, from the young driver's side that took part. Um, he obviously was driving in the McLaren did a very good job. It would seem, um, you know, obviously testing times don't really matter from over there, but one of the big issues that he had had, his first rookie test in Abu Dhabi was kind of just general fitness.
You know, he had never at this point driven an F1 car before, um, and didn't know what to expect per se. Uh, now fast forward two years and he did like 117 laps or something.
He did, he did two grand pri distances.
Right? So fitness was not an issue. So he resolved, um, that problem and, and adjusted his training program accordingly. So I think the team was, um, really pleased with that. We saw Yuki Sonoda, and this one is kind of one I wanna talk about. He was driving the Red Bull and it, it all seems like it's kind of a done deal that Liam Lawson is gonna get the seat, um, to replace Sergio. So why do you think Yuki was in that cart? James being the F1 insider that we have on the show?
So Honda had been, Honda had been pushing it for a long time. Okay. And I think Red Bull was getting a little bit of heat. This is all just my opinion. Pure speculation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Red Bull was getting a bit of heat in the media and in the paddock, whatever for like, Hey, why are we not looking at Yuki here? Because he obviously performed favorably verse, uh, Daniel, he performed favorably verse Lawson, who you could argue, yeah, it's his first couple races and blah, blah, blah.
But it's not like Lawson jumped in the car and just buried him. Like, I don't think he had qualified Yuki once this year. That's some good races. Got points in Austin and I think one of the round. Um, but it's not like he just just trounced him. Right. Uh, Yuki's been a lot more consistent this year. He scored majority of the points for the team, all those things. He,
He, he beat him in qualifying like eight zero I think.
Yeah. Like I said, he didn't do it. Oh, sorry. Didn't beat him once. Yeah. So, um, that is, I think, so I think a Honda had been hey saying like, Hey guys, what, what gives, let's give him a test. Um, everyone in the paddocks is kinda like, man, this lost. Some kid came and made a big splash last year when he filled in for Dan when he broke his wrist or whatever. But like, he's been good, but not like blowing people away.
Good. But everybody was only talking about Lawson going in that car realistically. And so I think this test was to placate Honda a little bit and to show the paddock that they at least gave him a shot to prove that he could do something. My concern is that it didn't matter. It was already a done deal that Lawson was going in. So this was all just a little bit of a show. And I don't like, again, you can't read into times very much, but at the same time, like his times weren't awesome.
So teams can sabotage that stuff. Like if, if, if to like calm down public perception, you don't want him going quick, that is a very easy thing to orchestrate from the team side. So, I don't know. I, I'm not saying that's what happened. Yuki got out, said he liked the car, very different but like suited his style whatever, said all the right things as everybody does after they do a test on both the driver's side and the team side. We've made these jokes before. So I don't know.
I, I think, I think that's largely what it was about. Um, but I honestly, my gut feeling is that the loss of deal's already done so. Got it.
Okay. Um, so that makes sense. I think other notables were obviously Carlos signs was in his new equipment. Um,
Yeah, a lot of guys in their new equipment, like Esteban was in the ha and
I was Stu Carlos was in just an all white suit.
Uh, so he still has some Ferrari commitments and so they just don't want any photos of him in anything but Ferrari partners
Branded. Yeah. Understood. Okay, there you go. Um, holgenburg was in the Saber. Mm-hmm . Um,
Was Kimmy Antonelli in the Mercedes. So I,
I want to talk about Kimmy. So Kimmy was in the Mercedes. Um, he, he skipped out on the, on the last round of the championship in Abu Dhabi. And it's 'cause he was like sick. He did? Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, I didn't even know that. He was ill, which is like, like fine. Like, I mean, I'd have to be very ill to not race. Um, but he did the young driver test. So I'm wondering if he was like, uh, I already have made it. I'm already gonna be in a Mercedes F1 car next year. Like, I don't want to do anything else that could potentially damage my stock value.
I I bet it was more, he's not running for the championship and so there was no like need to force your way through it and he wanted to make sure he was better by the young driver test. I could see
That being lost. That's a, that's a logical reason I like my theory better.
you just love a good conspiracy theory. I do. I
. Um, okay, fine. Uh, so can
You, what else you got?
Uh, oh, we had an American representation. Jack Crawford. We drove the old as acid Martin, which was a little bit of a surprise to me. Um, great.
Wait, I think he split it with Kovich, right? I think that was one of those cars where they did like one driver in the morning, one in the afternoon. I, I think Ferri did the same thing. Arthur LeClaire got back in at some point and shared it with, uh, Farco, I wanna say who's on their sports car program. Who else? I think Luke Browning maybe drove the Williams as a rookie.
Lot of names I've never heard of.
Yeah. Bunch of, bunch of upend potentially comers. I guess Balto BTO would've qualified as a rookie for Sauber, even though he signed as a race driver for next year. Yeah. Yep. Haas was going through a development, a Toyota development driver that's kind of part of that Toyota Gazo partnership with them is, um, they're gonna use, use Haas as a way to sort of help develop some of the young Toyota drivers i's really interesting. 'cause that old partnership seems kind of weird, right?
The Toyota and Haas like mashup, what I gather was back in Japan where there are a, a bunch of good racing drivers. There's a couple really good racing series, a GT series, an open wheel series that produce a lot of good drivers. And, but there's a big Toyota Honda like rivalry obviously. And all of the best drivers were getting lured to Honda because they have a Formula One tie in. Obviously every young driver's aspiration is to drive in Formula one Toyota.
Ever since their program stopped in whatever the mid two thousands, whatever it was, um, they've not been able to kind of compete with that offer, right? They had no F1 connection. And so now they sort of have that and they have a route to, to offer drivers a chance to do fp ones and young driver tests and sim work and maybe eventually a race seat. So that's kind of part of that. And they had one of their drivers doing, doing that program. Uh, yeah. And that was that. So that was
That. So good for, good for those guys. Good prop patto for Yeah. Um, training his, his young neck, uh, to, to be up to the, the requirements. Um, and that's the end of F1. You know, F1 has been going on for what seems like forever. Um, it is now finally over. And here's the thing, it'll still start before IndyCar does. Uh, but on that note, it
Don't, that's true. Well, the testing does, but I think the first race is actually the week after St. Pete. But close enough, we've been, we've been done for like two and a half months or whatever. It's,
Let's talk about IndyCar stuff. So a couple things have, um, come out. Old, old matey boy, Devlin d Francesco is back in the series. Um, with Ray Hall. I think that it was pretty for a
Three year deal, right? Or multi-year
Deal is what they said. I mean, that's what they all are. That multi-year irrelevant. Irrelevant. Yeah. Um, he's back. He's back. I think that that was kind of to be expected that he would be back. I don't necessarily think that Ray Hall was ever the, the, the obvious landing spot for him through most of the year, especially with conversations that I was having with him. But, um, regardless things shift fast in this sport. So, uh, good for him.
Um, the big thing I wanna talk about, James, is did you see this article about, um, the new car design and everyone getting, uh, a look at it? And have you seen it yet? Or at least the, the rendering
Of it? No, I, I know it was, it was sent to the group and I meant to read it. And I'll be totally honest, I haven't, so I'm gonna look it up right now. Well,
While you, while you look it up, um, essentially what it is, is, so, uh, we, we are getting a new car in 2027, which is, um, fantastic, uh, for a lot of reasons. You know, it's been, it's been talked about, it's been joked about and it's finally happening. Um, they're, we're getting a new car and, and that's no small feat.
Um, and where we're at right now is kind of the, the phase of, of seeing renderings and kind of giving everyone's impression on, you know, the overall look of it and areas that it's gonna be significantly better and areas where, um, you know, it's gonna use modern day technology to improve, uh, race ability and safety and the overall weight of the car and all these sort of things.
But one of the, the, the comments that came out of these initial meetings, if you will, was a majority of the team owners felt as though the, the car wasn't really a big evolution. Now I've seen the car, um, and in a lot of respects I have to agree with them, you know, it, it certainly looks more modern from the standpoint of, um, it's it's got a lot more, it, it looks slimmer, it looks longer. The arrow screen is clearly integrated.
You know, there's some nice aerodynamic side pods and styling elements to it a little bit like you would see on an F1 car and this sort of thing. But it's not, there's no wow factor. And, and I, and I guess what I want to get your opinion on James, is does that matter? Like, it's gonna be better across all metrics that I talked about from a safety standpoint, from a weight standpoint, from a integration. Well, you can't talk about the hybrid system weight standpoint.
I'm talking about the car itself is gonna be lighter. Okay. Um, the, the integration of the cooling into the cockpit, the cockpit's gonna be bigger to accommodate bigger drivers and all these sort of things that are all things that are super necessary. Um, but if the car that is decided on to be the, the car that we're doing, and when you see it, you're not like, holy <inaudible>, that looks like a concept car that would be in a video game in 2030.
Or sorry, 2040. Like, do you think that matters?
Here's the thi this is a tough one. This is a really tough one. 'cause I I, I see both sides of this argument, um, but I kind of default to no. Um, I agree. Um, because when the GTP cars came out in IMSA two years ago, three years ago, whatever it was now, um, there was, you know, all these new, there was the first hybrid prototypes in imsa, all the manufacturers behind it. There was a lot of hype around these new cars coming out.
And instantly there was a massive uptick in fan engagement, attendance, viewership, sponsorship, all these things, right? The cars looked the same, they looked like a DPI, they didn't like, they almost look identical. Yes. Uh, you look at what Formula One cars have become, you know, like the 21 to 22 arrow kit, or sorry, complete spec redesign. Uh, is the car different? Yes. Is it outrageously different to the 21 cars? No.
Are more people watching F1? Yes. So I, I really don't think the car design has like what? And, and then, and then the flip side to it is look at a Formula E car, right? Those things look like something out of a, those things look like, like the hot wheels that you got when you were, you know, sixth of like the car, the future For sure. Yeah. And nobody cares about ee. Yeah. And so like, no fans care about fe so I, I really don't think that matters.
I think if they're loud and fast, that makes a difference. Um, I, I think that an evolution of the current design, again, I haven't seen the renderings, but an evolution of the current design is fine from an aesthetic standpoint. What matters is how they sound, how they race, and who the fuck is driving them. And I, I don't want to go in this braint again, but it's so hard not to all that, all that matters is the drivers, guys, that's all that matters.
People are tuning in to watch their favorite driver race, the racing's already good. We don't need to mess with that too much. Um, so no, I think, I think I, I don't think we need something that, you know, in this article they talk about, you know, that Adrian Newey designed Red Bull X one from the, from the Grand Tomo game. Would that get a few people more to tune in maybe because it does look kind of funky. Do I think that has any staying power in terms of growing the fan base?
No. Is it gonna move it in a meaningful number? No, I don't, I don't think so. Um, again, the most futuristic looking car on the planet is from one of the least followed series globally. So I dunno,
I, uh, I love that. And I couldn't agree more. I was honestly a little disappointed when I saw the article because the, the car that was shown to us, IE it's still rendering, right? You're never, there isn't a hard product yet. It looks, it looks cool, like you would be blown away or maybe not. You would be, maybe it makes perfect sense that having an indie car, which already is pretty cool with an arrow screen that is actually fully integrated.
Because when you look at an indie car from the side profile right now with an arrow screen that's just a bolt on, it looks pretty sick. It's just the front view that looks terrible. Correct. right? So, so bad. So you can imagine that like if you take that, you integrate it and then you, you update it with quite a bit of styling design and also aerodynamic improvements that you have seen on some F1 cars that you have seen on some F two cars, you're gonna get a pretty decent looking product.
And that's what we have. And it's like, I I, I would hate that there would be so much pressure from people that this has to be some radical design in order for this series to survive. That we give up some of the race ability because it's got some cool looking fenders and <inaudible> like, I don't know, like that would just, it'd be a bummer. So I I, if anyone's listening my 2 cents, and this is what I've told everyone is like, your product's good. Like we need to improve speedway package.
We know that the front wing on the current spec car is weak. You're starting from scratch. You should be able to fix the front wing. Like, let's not, let's not reinvent the wheel here. We're already doing a pretty good job from this standpoint. Let's make it lighter, let's make it faster, safer. And you've got a pretty good recipe already.
Like reinventing the wheel is exactly what F1 is doing in their 26 regs. And it's a huge risk. There's a, there's a big chance that that backfires phenomenally in that the drivers don't like driving 'em the racing's not as good, excuse me. But, and they could look, I mean, they look kind of whatever, they the same, they look the same. Um, so, but I, I think the, the, the function over form is, is very much how you have to approach this.
And actually what's interesting, and, and this is something that is almost a deeper rooted issue, and this is probably gonna get me in trouble from some people over at 16 in Georgetown.
But as, as collaborative as Indy Carr is, as much as there has been, you know, a lot of communication and you know, conversation back and forth around certain things, I just, I've seen the trend of too many decisions being made, or at least concepts being presented to the, to the, to the group in totality without that sort of feedback from teams and drivers and engineers. And then it all gets picked apart after the fact.
I feel like we could save a lot of time by having like early ideas shared with the group before they're flushed out too much. Because there's been a lot of times where ideas get presented to the group and everyone immediately just picks holes in it. And we're like, how much time did you guys spend on this idea? Because in 30 seconds it's kind of been ripped apart. And I think what's super valuable is when it comes to the car, you have however many teams there are in IndyCar now, like a hundred
and they're full of two. Yeah.
But only 27 guaranteed
Too many, too many teams. Uh, like, well actually we'll get to that after. Um, and, and they're all full of very smart people and they're looking at it from a, from a current competitive standpoint, which again, IndyCar's got some very smart people working there, but none of them have been working for teams for a bunch of years now. And so you're, your thinking changes. I think we should work a little more collaboratively with the teams on what to design this car.
They're just kind of going to Delara and they're just going to their internal people and being like, this is what we need to do. And then as soon as things come out, teams are immediately like, well, what about this? Did you think about that? How are we addressing this? And,
And I, and I agree with you on 95% of what you're saying, um, but I, I think in terms of this car, um, redesign, new car, whatever, we are very fortunate in the depth of the Penske leadership and the people that are heading this project up are people that he is sourced from OEMs in car design. Right? So these are people that like, have a background in,
In, in road car design. Yeah. Cool. Cool story. Who That's, that's great. I I think that that sort of input should be good, but to ignore the input from race engineers is silly to not have them. There's, there's a great quote in this article from Zach Brown about how with these new 2026 regs for F1, the FIA has worked very collaboratively with the teams on getting everything right.
I think the same kind of thing, relationship and and partnership should be, you know, uh, what we're, what we're aiming to do here with the new IndyCar.
Yes. I don't know if there's enough depth in our engineering departments to actually make that a reality, but I guess I see what you're saying.
But they can at least bring up some points to consider that then the people with more.
But I, I think, I think think they do, I think that's what the team manager meetings are for. You know, there's a list of complaints about from a, from a team manager budgetary standpoint, but also the engineers are giving input into like the obvious things that are an issue. IE the front wing being <inaudible>. Right? Right. So I I I do think those things are being taken into consideration, which is why the card doesn't look that much different. Right,
Fair enough.
Ultimately. So as
Long, what I'm happy about is that we're two years away from this car coming out and these conversations, we
Are happening now. Yeah. Yes. Great point. Yep. So we will see, um, who knows, it could be on <inaudible> Wooden wheels by the time it gets here, , uh, we don't really know.
So on that previous point of 27 cars, um, even though we're gonna have, what, 29 at race? No, wait, are we, what? How does it work that I
More than I know, I think
Have, I've already confused about this charter
System. We have 27 cars, but only 20. No, 25 are chartered. There's 27 cars. But if 28 shows up, then there's a shootout.
Right. And we haven't figured out how that yet. And there's only 22 liter circle,
Correct?
Right. It's Are you confused? The old 2, 5 7 rule? Of course. Why
Are Yeah, Oh wait, no, it's not, It's prime up. Wait, no it's not.
No, no, it's not. No. Hmm. Uh, but, but I read , I read an article recently, k kind of tied into the new car information coming outta or whatever that Tryer Reinbold racing is looking at 27 now as maybe an opportunity to try to join the grid full time again. Uh, which they did for a long time. And they've kind of just been an Indy 500 only program for a while. Um, one quick question, where are they gonna go? Like where does the, where do those cars fit in the grand scheme?
Unless they're buying charters from someone else? We can't do, we can't have 30 cars showing up to races, trying to qualify 27 of them. That's insanity. Why?
Because that's, that's exactly their plan,
But yes. Right. But that's a terrible plan. ,
Why can't we, James?
Well, Alex, let me tell you the litany of reasons why this is a terrible idea. Mm-hmm. But that's
Exactly what they're doing.
At least five of the tracks can't hold 30 cars in pit lane. So how do you practice in order to try to get good enough to qualify for these
Spots Got it. That sounds fun. Um, for all the teams spending all the money to go to the races that then just don't get to drive, that seems like a waste of their time and money. Motor sports sucks. We can make it better with rules That makes sense. But they, these are the rules. They know the risks they're taking by going to the racetrack without a guaranteed entry, and they have to earn their way in. Like they know this,
Right? So we're already complaining about too many cars on track and practice and qualifying. So let's just, let's throw a couple more in the mix.
Well, but that doesn't matter.
No, you're right. Nobody actually cares about that. You're right. Sorry, what was I thinking? Anyway? Uh, yeah, so there's that. Um, so look, not all the indie car news of light has been driver related. Uh, it was announced that Mike Cannon engineer extraordinaire is moving to Prema, which is a pretty good get for that group.
Um, you know, listen, Cannon's had a tremendous run of late, uh, engineered Dixon to his 2020 championship, uh, with GSI for a few years, then moved to Foyt, made them genuine contenders at the Speedway, got farci into a top 10 in the championship, uh, with the Pensky Association was at. Yeah, okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, someone's, someone's there turning the knobs and, and making the crawl For
Sure. For sure. Um, he, listen, he's, he's one of those guys, you know, there's, there's what probably six engineers that you'd name off the top of your head in IndyCar that you think are like elite guys. Yeah. And he, he's one of them. Um, and it, it's very clear that premise is serious man.
Like what they're doing with the building, with what they're doing, um, with, there's some other people that wouldn't be as high, uh, name recognition as him per se, uh, from a engineering hiring standpoint, but they're bringing in a lot of people. You know, they're, they're full throttle in terms of trying to make this thing a success. And, and they're not just here to fill the grid or potentially not fill the grid depending on if another car shows up or not.
Go home. Yeah. Yeah. Um, the other, the other big news, and it'll be interesting to see if and where he ends up, is Gavin Ward, um, you know, out at McLaren. Um, I think that was, uh, certainly a surprise to most people. Um, you know, he, his talents, I can speak first Handly about from an engineering standpoint and what he's capable of doing. Um, you know, obviously his history at, at Red Bull, um, his history, very short Penske though successful at Penske with Joseph.
Um, you know, he was never in a race engineering role at McLaren. Um, but, you know, his, his results and success kind of proceed all of that. Um, and that's not something he's forgotten. So he'd be a good get for, I assume someone, assuming he wants to stay in IndyCar. Um, and on that note, that means, uh, I think, don't take my word for this, but I think Tony Canon is in charge of a race team, which is, I mean, kind of awesome when you think about it.
Like, if, if I have to look at my career post driver, like let's be honest, I'm not gonna be a commentator. Um, maybe James is neither , but too soon. How, how, how cool would that be to like, not just be like, Dario's role at GSI I think is awesome, right?
Kind of being the, the special, oh, well, he's not a special advisor, but like the, the driver liaison, whatever you want to call him, um, kind of reports directly to Chip and Mike Hole and, and really, you know, helps the drivers in everything that they do. So that's cool. But like to be a team principal after being in like a management position for a year and a half, like that's, that's kind of a dream come true.
Dude. I text him when this all went down, I was just like, man, did you literally go from driving the car to running the team in like two years? ?
Yeah. The answer How? It's awesome. It is, it is completely un also like terrifying. Unintended. Yeah, a hundred percent. But He did not mean for this to happen. It's got, it's got like imagine he did imagine this is all orchestrated by him, and he is actually just like the Frank Underwood of, uh, of Motorsports Maybe like went in there and Yeah.
And just started like laying all the groundwork to get people fired and stuff. But that team is like basically the case study for people moving up insanely quickly because, you know, you had the rapid ascension of Taylor, Kyle, then you had Gavin who got hired for one job and then because of Taylor's departure was all of a sudden running the team. Sure. Which was unexpected. Now he's unexpectedly gone. And TK went from driver coach. I, I don't know, like this. I know. Its like, no,
No, but no, he was kind of like driver. Well,
He went from driver, like did anything else? He went from,
He went from driver to like to running it. No, he went from driver. He went, this is literally it. He went driver garage tour guy, Driver engineer, like relationship guru, then engineer management, relationship guru, then like driver scout for like the six car, then driver emotional support, human coupled with driver scout. And then he became like deputy team manager, then deputy team principal. Now, I don't know that he has a title, but like the guy
New title is just big dog, Dk, big dog, , little man, big dog. It's funny
Though, because he, I remember when he told me, like this year was when he like got elevated into more of like a, like a real job, like where he was expected to go to the office, right. And like have a desk and like do nine to five things that people with jobs do. And he was like, man, I don't think I'm cut out for this. Like,
Like Right. Right. And now all of a sudden, like he, I mean he, his ass better be there at 7:00 AM before everyone else shows up. So I
Don't, I don't know if we should call him the head of the operation, but he's definitely the nose
Of the operation. Yeah, that was, that was wing sauce, man.
I thought that was great.
I love the guy. Uh, he's become one of my closest friends in the paddock, so I'm pumped for him. Yeah. And like, what an amazing opportunity.
So look, when you, when you think about it leaders of, of groups like that, it's, it is really all about people, right? Like obviously Tony has a great understanding of motorsports, right? So fine box check there. He has spent the last two years kind of learning the ins and outs of sort of the, the administrative side of a race team, let's call it. Um, but to your point, right?
Like he started as the liaison between drivers and engineers and then the sort of liaison between engineers and management. And now he's got his nice bit of experience at all three levels. Yeah. And and that's what, that's what being a leader of a group like that is, it's knowing how to put the right people in the right place and uh, and, and, you know, keep everybody on task and keep everybody, and must be
Honest, like his, his ability to establish and develop relationships with people is no secret. Like he's, he's a crowd favorite for a reason. Like his partners that he's had from the beginning of his career through various teams and iterations of teams and, and varying schedules. Like he wasn't even a full-time driver yet. He still had some of the same sponsors that he is been with for decades. And like, that's just a, a testament to exactly what you're saying.
Like, he knows how to, uh, he knows build, he knows NOSE. Oh,
That one's fine. Mine better,
Way better. Mine was funny, funny here with that. Yours was lazy. He knows how to
Build the relationships and um, and keep people interested in and involved. So, um, I can't wait to beat his ass next year, but I'm still, uh, Hey, do you think he like, gives himself a job in
The car?
I'm gonna hire myself, I drive myself. Yeah. ,
I don't know. Well, no, because they're running, they're running Larson again in the 500, right? Is that a, is that a done deal?
Yeah, that is. Okay, so next year, Or if like somebody gets fired or breaks something, maybe he's just designated himself the reserve driver , because now he controls how much you pay the reserve driver. So, so hundred percent. All of a sudden it's worthwhile. . That's a smart move guy. This guy's a genius. That's his guy's an evil genius. This was his plan. Like he never planned on retiring. This was his way to get back into his car. He just has to be to of the team for
Antonio Underwood. I, I'm calling him Underwood from now on. That is, he has gone so good a total house of cards on that program. Um, um,
So then yes, there's only three seats left. There's, uh, there's the one Juncos car and the two coin cars, which will be announced in June, I imagine, of 25 .
Oh, that's, that's Rich. That is Rich. Uh, yeah, I imagine, I imagine that one, uh, will be a late, late announcement. Uh, and very good chance that it's multiple guys sharing the car guys, girls drivers sharing the car, um,
Oh, you mentioned dryer, so they announced their 500 lineup. So that's, um, yes, hunter Ray and Jack Harvey. Right. Um, which means our boy Connor's, uh, I mean he's, he's p committed, right. You know, he, yeah. I talked to him and, and he understandably, um, you know, had to give up or not give up per se, but Dryer couldn't wait anymore to kind of get their 500 programs set.
Um, and you know, Connor feels that he has a very good opportunity and I believe he has a very good opportunity to, to get one of the leads, remaining seats. But in doing that, he had to, you know, kind of say thanks, but no thanks to Dryer, which means that if, God forbid something did go wrong in this sort of situation, as often does in motor sports, like he's given up his guaranteed, if you will, 500 ride. Yeah. So that's a
Yeah, it's an all or nothing. It's all or nothing deal now, right? For
Sure. Yeah.
He's, he's there or he is not. So,
I mean, we've talked about this before about like the moment that a lot of successful people have of the like betting on yourself kind of mentality of the like Yeah, I think the, the problem is a lot of unsuccessful people also have that moment . It's just, we don't hear about it, but I, I respect it. If you're gonna be a race car driver, you gotta, you gotta bet on yourself.
Fewer people write books about the times when they bet on themselves and it didn't work out. Yeah,
Yeah. No, they call those manifestos.
No. Look man, Connor's a hustler. Connor, Connor works his ass off to even put himself in these conversations on track and off. He does a great job. And, uh, another fan favorite. It would be, uh, it would be an uproar, uh, I think on the, on the community if, if he's not there. But we'll see, we'll see how it plays out. You know, it's a, it's a business as well as a sport, so it all has to make sense for the teams and for the drivers and for whoever.
So we'll see. Um, pivoting off of that, Alex, did you see that Bernie Ecclestone mm-hmm . The former czar of Formula One. Mm-hmm . The diminutive 90, like 4-year-old British mm-hmm . Billionaire. Mm-hmm . Has decided to sell his race car collection. You see this?
Do you wanna, do you wanna know what I thought when I saw that?
Tell me. . Um, yeah, brother, I know I've, I've made jokes about you maybe having a problem, but the fact that that's where your mind went immediately when this guy, that's, well, it's a little concerning that, uh, you're looking for other people to also be in your No, in your same wheelhouse day.
My point is, like, my point is like this, you, you, you teed it out perfectly. 94-year-old billionaire. Yeah. Why is he selling his car collection
In the article about him selling these cars, which by the way, reported to be worth over a half billion dollars. He was like, yeah, you know, realizing I'm not gonna be around forever. I started thinking about maybe just off offloading some of this stuff. He's 94, he's been mugged several times. Robbed at gunpoint. Dude, that's my point.
That's maybe you won't be around forever. This is my point. He's liquidating, like, so he doesn't have that much cash
Or he or he is really wants to buy something.
Okay. Like what, what costs half a billion dollars a country?
Well, I'd be, that'd just be a down payment. Yeah, probably. I mean, he's got everything else. Like why not go out with your own, buy your own island to die on? But I just found it so funny. He's like, I was starting to realize be around forever. No,
He's liquidated man. Yeah,
Yeah. He, he doubled down on Ferrari winning the constructors championship
Called Max. That's why Max shipped it in during one .
Yeah. Also somewhat F1, well, not somewhat. Also F1 related and Ferrari related. Um, did you guys hear the story about how Michael Schumacher's former bodyguard? Did you hear about this?
No. Got fired in April. Okay. And I guess he stole like thousands of photos and, and videos of Michael, like in his current state, like from the last, you know, 10 years or whatever. And obviously everybody knows, like, he's not been seen in public since his accident. Uh, allegedly he went to his daughter's wedding, but there's obviously no photos of that. Uh, they've done a great job of keeping everything private as the family has wanted.
And this guy gets fired and, uh, is was trying to blackmail the family for like, I think like 15 million euro or something like that, like some obscene amount of money, or he was gonna release these photos. Luckily he's an idiot and they just like tracked the VPN blocker that they were using and arrested him and his accomplices before they could do anything. But like, how brutal is that man?
Like this, this family has trusted you with their safety and security and this is how you reply to being let go. Like, it's just grow. I'm so glad. I hope he goes to jail for a long time just for being a jerk. No, it's terrible. I mean, it's um, when you're, when you're in that position, right? You're, you become a member of the family. Like that's essentially no longer. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Michael's family's bodyguard.
That is Michael's brother or the kids' uncle or whatever you wanna call him, right? Like that. He, he is an intrinsic part of your day to day. So yeah, it's really sad. That sucks if that family hasn't gone through enough.
Exactly. Right. And like, and just think of the feeling of betrayal that you must have when a member of, essentially a member of your family just turns on you like that. Like, it's terrible. Just, just rotten man. Um, yep. Real quick before we go, because this is a travel podcast, seems only appropriate, I'm sure we've talked about this before, but having been on a bunch of planes lately, I've just gotta bring it up again. And, and Becky saw it yesterday when she was flying home.
I, I genuinely feel like the carousel at an airport is a great litmus test for people's
. You're saying like baggage claim.
Baggage claim. Yeah. Okay. If you are stood up against the metal, if you are just right up against it, you probably shouldn't be allowed to drive or vote or own a gun or, or have kids. It's, it's, it's a very simple system. If everybody stands six feet back, then everybody can see the bags and you can go unobstructed to grab yours. When it's there as it is, an overwhelming amount of people go right up against it.
And so when your bag comes, you're trying to fight between people and by the time you've elbowed your way in your bag's now already three people down, so you gotta reposition and then you get ahead of it, you'll elbow your way in, you get ahead of it. And then as you're trying to lift it up, you pro end up taking out, you know, aunt Susan next to you who's also just standing right up against the thing. And you know, uncle Bob's not helping because he's crowding on the other side.
It's like, guys, this is a very simple equation. Just chill out. Stand back when you see your bag, approach the belt. W what are we doing here? Why, why does this have to be so difficult? That
All makes sense. I have to be honest with you, man. I don't think I've checked a bag in three plus years,
Dude. I don't even, that's, I see the reason this hasn't come up recently is because I, for this trip, three weeks on the road, multiple climates, I had to check a bag. Fair. Yeah. And it was the worst. It's the worst. The amount of time you waste. And then just losing faith in, in society and humanity when you stand. I mean
I feel, I feel like, I feel like air travel in general, airports are a litmus test for people. Like security shouldn't be as hard as it is. True. Like, showing a boarding path shouldn't be as hard as it is.
Security's not even the one that bothers me the most. It's the boarding, it's boarding that people, it's like, you know, your group
Six, but, but also, but also
Get away from the gate. Here's be there,
Here's the other one where it's like, how, how is what is occurring right now? And some of it is the staff's fault, but a lot of it is the customer's fault as well. Why does it take so long for people to rent a car? Like the amount of questions that, that people are asking, it's like, bro, yeah. Like this can't be your first time doing this.
I've never understood that. Do we never understood that? Yeah. I doubt, I I would love to know what, 'cause there's clearly something in the system. Like if you're a software engineer and you're listening, here's a recommendation for a business idea. Look into what every rental car company on earth uses and just design something like even remotely less <inaudible> because clearly all the ones they have are terrible and there's gotta be a better way for this.
Yeah. Like it is because of one of those lines that I figured out to join the whatever membership. Just be able to walk straight to your car.
A hundred percent. 'cause it's,
Yeah, it makes no sense.
But like the amount of keystrokes that are happening for Unreal. What should be typing in ROSS? I enter, oh, here it is. Oh, your car. 40, 35. Yeah. See ya. Oh, let me just look at the card. Make sure it's the same one on file. Oh, you're good to go, sir. Have a good one. It should be a five second transaction.
I've, I've already put all my stuff into the website when I made the booking. A hundred percent. So you check, you check my license so
You need to verify my id. Right. You need to verify the credit cards on file. Like checking into a hotel that doesn't take 15 minutes.
Correct. It should be as fast as that. Yeah.
Agreed. Retweet
Somebody. Get on that. Make a lot of money and enjoy your life. We're not looking for anything. We're offering that one for free. Yeah. We just want you to have a good time and make the travel experience better for everybody.
And go buy one of Bernie's cars.
There's a couple in there I wouldn't mind having. He's got a nice collection.
Better sell a lot of patches.
. Yeah buddy. Yeah, buddy. 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 Offtrack 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. Offtrack is produced by Tim Durham and by that we mean them.