Save The World Constructors Championship

Alex and Jonno join Spanners to Save The World Constructors Championship . We also get to know them both a little better in the second part of our meet the panel segments.

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TIMESTAMPS:

🏆
Lack of interest in the Constructors Championship
00:00:00
🏎️
Focus on the Driver’s Championship
00:04:31
🏢
Challenges of building attachment to teams
00:12:34
🔢
Penalty points as a potential solution
00:17:22
📺
Importance of broadcasters highlighting team members
00:24:34
💡
Bonus points for pit stops and faster laps
00:27:47

🏎️
Ideas to make the Constructors Championship more interesting
00:28:08
🔧
Regulation to slow down pit stops for safety reasons
00:28:19
🌍
Discussion about lag and making an ‘earth sandwich’
00:28:37
🏁
Devaluing the driver’s Championship to focus on the team
00:29:35
🏁
A1GP as an example of using nationalities for teams
00:30:03
💰
Using team budgets to determine Constructor Championship position
00:32:17
🏁
Discussion about Ferrari’s spending and fan support
00:37:27
🏁
Discussion about Dutch and Italian fan support
00:38:26
🏁
Discussion about the importance of people in teams
00:39:37
🏁
Discussion about the challenges of improving the Constructors Championship
00:45:24
🏁
Discussion about the American sports approach and dislike for draws
00:49:53
🏁
Suggestion for a knockout system in the Constructors Championship
00:51:38
🎙️
Discussing the challenges of being a TV reporter
54:23
🏀
Covering various sports as a reporter
55:00
📺
The behind-the-scenes work in television news
55:53
🎮
The value of sim racing and its impact on racing knowledge
59:43
🏎️
The challenges and learning curve of karting
1:13:45
👨‍👧‍👦
Balancing work, parenting, and podcasting
1:16:53
🎧
The sense of community in F1 podcasting
1:18:51
🏎️
Discussion about Formula 1
01:19:20
👨‍👧‍👦
Challenges of being a parent and balancing Formula 1 races
01:19:29
📅
Increasing number of races and its impact on family time
01:19:33
🤝
Negotiating spousal tokens and family time
01:19:47
🚗
Carting Series and its impact on family time
01:20:23
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
Different interests and hobbies within the family
01:21:49
🎧
Lack of interest in listening to podcasts
01:22:28
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
Positive dynamics and teamwork within the family
01:23:00
📚
Importance of hobbies for happiness
01:23:59
👋
Transition to secondary school and increased independence
01:25:04
🎙️
Optional nature of the podcast and appreciation for the panel
01:25:26

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Spanners: https://twitter.com/SpannersReady

Alex: https://twitter.com/AlexVangeen

Jonno: https://twitter.com/jonnyess8 |

You are listening to M Apex podcast we live F1 welcome to M Apex podcast I’m your host Richard ready but my friends call me spanners so let’s be friends happy New Year and welcome to the second of our winter panel topic specials where people from our varied crew of varying

Talents looks and competence come and join us in the shed to say hello with their topic of choice and then we get to meet them a little bit because they are on the whole apart from Kyle fantastic people that I want you to really get to know and follow on their social medias

So today we are joined by Jonathan Simon hello jonno how’s it going spanners this podcast is going to be fun and it’s good to be back for M Apex haven’t been on for a month it’s good to have me back I like it that’s quite good with M Apex

Where you know you’re a real person with a real job you’re a a reporter for actual news in Australia and and we don’t like take too much of your time so most of the panel kind of drop in once a month or so yeah 100% And for those that

Know me I do live in cans at the moment and work here for the news and there was a cyclone and some major floods this week so it was been a pretty dramatic week to cover for news and and report on but uh that’s something we’ll touch a

Little bit later okay just so you know I understand all of those things sound very very serious but the the topic of saving the world constructor’s championship is is far more important obviously um so what what’s the topic you’re coming in hand with today because we’ve got some help in the background as

Well but it was you that came to me and said we need to focus in on the constructors y here’s the problem with this topic is initially we needed to I came to you and said how to improve the Constructor Championship you then rebutted it and said save the

Constructors now I have a problem with both of those okay in the fact that the constructors is already dead so the title of this should be revive the constructors because at the moment I don’t think many people care about the world Constructors Championship so we

Need to fix it and we need to find a way to make it more interesting or continue not caring about it never o underestimate the power of apathy so we are also joined in the shed I’m delighted by one of our most charismatic panelist it’s Alex vanine

Hello Alex hi spanners how are you Happy New Year New Year a new year new me I’ve decided I’m going to be drastic this year I’m changing everything we’re going to get rid of Matt trumpets with his tire analysis no more Bradley Philpot driver masterclass no more old journalistic Integrity from Chris

Stevens no it’s just you and me Alex hot takes unsubstantiated claims and wild conspiracies from from here on in the rest of the year I’m all in I’m I’m I’m all in with that because I I I didn’t get on many shows this year just because calendar just clash with everything I

Was doing this year um I think I’ve done more of these non-ra shows than I did race shows considering you have me as race analyst so yes um so yeah I’m looking forward to this one because I’ve got opinions on on the Constructor Championship and I agree no one cares

I’d like people to care I have to try and figure out how though okay so look towards the end of the show I’m going to get into some of the reasons why Alex has not been able to join us on a lot of these shows because his his kids his

Very cute kids are of a really awful age where they need a lot of time and attention but at the end of these winter shows we will hone in and we’ll just have a little bit of a patron pod remain indoors style chat with our panel all right so it’s an interesting question

Before you say save the world Constructor Championship or even resurrect it how much do we care about the constructor’s championship cuz I upset like actual team people got in touch with me when I said no one cares about the Constructors Championship they took that and I understand why they took

That to mean no one cares about the teams except the drivers but that that’s not what I mean what I mean is the competition for me is which team can get one car entry higher than everybody else yeah so that’s the driver’s championship and to me that’s the most important

Thing like you would you would never go right I’ve got two cars on equal points we’ve won the constructors were really happy you’d be much happier if one driver had 2/3 and you had the world Champion so let’s start with you jonno do you care about the world Constructors

Championship and that doesn’t mean do you care about teams or not no I don’t and I remember there was a fond story I remember I think it might have been 2010 or 2011 or 2012 one of those Red Bull years with Sebastian vle and Mark Weber and vle had wrapped up

The driver’s title I think weeks before Mark Weber had crossed the line and Christian horn has come on the radio and said Mark Weber we’ve won the constructors title yay and Mark we has gone great awesome see you later nobody cares not even the drivers on the team

Who won the championship and now that’s the problem and that’s been like that for over a decade now that was a decade ago now do I care about the Constructor Championship answer what you’re saying no and the reason is the way the sports been marketed to me growing up

Personally and to all of us is the driver’s Championship is the elite it’s what matters it’s what’s thought about first the Constructor championship’s always been an afterthought now we can delve into those problems a little bit later whether it’s building attachment to teams for example Ferrari’s been around historically people want Ferrari

To win a championship H has been around for seven years are you going to be attached to H winning a championship maybe not no U see this is the thing Alex the the attachments I mean when you and I are arguing about drivers or teams we have a lot more arguments between our

Fandom of drivers cuz you think George Russell’s good and um you inexplicably think Perez is good yeah so so some of our biggest arguments is who can upset the other one the most by pointing out the flaws in their driver’s performance we’ve got a great friendship it does sound toxic when you

Say it out loud like that so uh but we never have that argument about you know Williams and McLaren and I saw of you know they’re my my teams if you like same and and this the this the whole thing so I think the biggest problem

With wanting um to care about the team’s championship and I do want to care about the team’s Championship I cared about Williams doing well I cared about McLaren doing well because they’re not manufacturers and I think the biggest problem is is you have a manufacturer come in and they’re just the big evil

You know I I like Mercedes because I like Toto wolf but I don’t really care that Mercedes is a team I don’t care so much more so maybe about Ferrari Red Bull feel like a manufacturer cold manufacturer team and that’s probably why I don’t care I’d care more about the

Garage Easter as um Enzo Ferrari used to say I’d care more about those guys because they’re the Plucky underdogs and US Brits love a Plucky Underdog oh we do we love like a Frank Bruno you know the more losses the better but AR no what I

Mean arry see this is how I know I’m old I say that to my kids and know what I mean AR and they haven’t got a clue what I’m saying and jonno hasn’t jonno in media hasn’t got a clue what we’re saying either so that means we’re nearly

Dead Alex but um if if say oh Hamilton fan you’re a Russell fan Alex if if those two drivers went right where we’re off to has we would find ourselves quickly drifting towards being you know quiet supporters of ours you know we’re much more attached jonno to to the

Drivers and I think that is you’re right is from the way F1 has marketed it so I don’t think we’re wrong necessarily I think F1 has always pushed the driver’s Championship as much more important and I was watching the NBA the other day and

I go why do I want this team to win and that’s cuz the way it’s it’s marketed a team wins the championship it’s not oh LeBron James the best player in the world at certain times the last decade won the scoring title so he’s now all of

A sudden great that’s his title no it’s about the team winning a trophy in Formula 1 the way they Market it is going Max forens onon this driver’s Championship yay he’s great and it’s like I said before it’s an afterthought of the constructors so the biggest

Problem here is we need to find a way to build attachment to teams now one thing I got to mention spanners before we go into all these ideas is I’ve got a yard stick and a rule and any idea that we come up with today especially Alex Van

Jeans is our yard sticks are no idea can be worse than what Bernie eckelson suggested I think in the late 2000s his medal idea where he said the driver’s Championship is decided on medal so if you win that’s gold second silver bronze and all that and that’s how it’s decided

That is was an awful idea lucky it never went through if we think the idea is worse than that we scrap it see out the window we can’t use it and if here’s the other thing my question to you guys is do you feel the sport is designed

Against team play yeah because like I said when you watch basketball or when you watch football when you watch any other sport out there in the world you want teams to win in Formula 1 you kind of want the team to rip each other apart you want the teammates to not get along

So that’s why you can’t care about a constructor’s championship you hear much more that your closest rival is your teammate that’s like the leading line that is ever talked about when it comes to for one and that’s the way the drivers do feel especially when they’re fighting for um a championship or

They’re fighting to keep their spot in the team because if you’re a if you’re in a position of a of a house driver you know if you’re Kevin Magnuson and you’ve got Nico hulkenberg coming in the last thing you want is for Nico to do a

Better job than you which is why Kevin is under so much um pressure at the moment because he got beat by Hulk who’d been out for two years or whatever he’d been out for and had his subs and Super Subs and stuff so it’s it’s a really difficult situation to play because

That’s the way the sport advertises it the sport needs to talk more about the teams and we talk about the Bernie eckl Bernie eckl the thing of the medals for me it’s the opposite end of the spectrum every finishing car should get a point because then it means you do accumulate

Points you don’t have to you know get like Yuki Coda who is really consistent finish 11th loads of the time but got hardly any points yeah because he because he was just a one position outside the top 10 if you give it to every finishing driver then that actually works out a

Decent amount of points and then the teams can really fight and then you can actually get invested in A Team Battle okay so I think the definitely want to get into the point system it feels like a a slight tangent uh away so before we

Get too far into the points I think you know this this this idea that the the way everything is set up discourages a real sense of team play and it only works when there’s nothing really on the line so at the moment Fred vour is making a big deal of oh well

Yeah L clerk helped Carlos Signs by holding up Norris in One race yeah cuz there’s no title on the line 100% that doesn’t happen if there’s a title on the line Daniel Ricardo and Max V stappen used to like get on really well and do loads of Social Media stuff together

Because again they were on the rise not fighting for a title Sergio Perez and Max Forin seemed to get on really well especially towards the end of the season because there was no threat so there was no immediate threat but the second Perez looked like a threat like Monaco in

Qualifying you know at that time we forget that he was actually quite competitive before he 100% on purpose caused a yellow flag to give him an advantage over Max V stappen so it kind of only works when there’s there’s nothing on the line when there’s a reputational thing on the line you

Suddenly see it changes so George Russell is a great example of that his his career is now going to be defined by how well he does against Lewis Hamilton in 2024 that’s how much there is at stake how how on Earth can you do team

Play and Mercedes as a as a team in 2023 was a disaster they took loads of points off each other they hit each other three or four times if Mercedes are the only team that can compete with Red Bull next yeah let’s say it happens I don’t think

It’s going to happen but let’s say it happens um if that’s the case and you have a competent George Russell a Lewis Hamilton up against the max for stappen and Perez does as well as he did this year Max will win again because the points that Lewis and George will just

Take off of each other there will be no give No Quarter given between them it’s you know and that’ll just be brilliant if you’re a Max V stappen fan or a Red Bull fan um but if you want to see a fight at the front you’ll just see the

Mercedes boys screwing each other over and can I add to that quickly is this reminds me of 2007 with McLaren it was a perfect situation where alono and Hamilton stole points off each other and then they lost a championship by a point they should have walked that

Championship yes inal car but um we won’t mention the illegal car but the point is back then I I remember watching F1 going this is great McLaren versus Ferrari you could go on fan forums when I was on the internet and sneaking that in and people are having internet

Arguments with each other and as you know nobody argues on the internet so that was a world first so you know in this situation I go how can we change we like I would prefer and don’t get me wrong I would prefer the sport the way

It is now where we’re with with the tension and the drama of drivers fighting for a title and not worry about the team thing but also I came up with a very wacky idea in my head and I go okay how can we keep that driver thing but

Still support a team you want this to appeal to people the other day I was sitting in a pub and somebody who never watches F1 is like I drive a Mercedes I’m gonna go for them and I’m like well why don’t we have a car for every

Manufacturer have a l team for God’s sake have like Toyota bring them back they haven’t been back for 14 years so bring bring car manufacturers that could appeal to people hey maybe bring fast food restaurants that people go to Team McDonald’s KFC who the hell knows they

Got Red Bull they tried this a long time ago by I can’t remember what the series was called but they used football teams they had they had these V12 single seaters um and they had football teams guy a guy used to race with a guy called

Craig Dolby used to race with h spur team um I remember this and but it flopped don’t one cared so I prefer to have teams named after my favorite betting platforms and and you know so I’m always betting in Australia which is why I’m supporting stake F1 team next

Next season um you mean s no ST F1 and actually you know I’m a big fan of streaming platforms as well so I’m just hoping you know there’ll be a kick F1 team at some point I’m a big fan of steak it’s j but is when a team Brands

Itself like salber is branding itself that that makes it really hard to to support a team doesn’t it like that that is just basically feels like ripping the soul out of any semblance of of getting behind them so yeah when was the last time salba were actually salba oo okay

Well 24 when perz it wasir white and black yeah it was relatively recently that wasn’t oh you’re saying no I swear it would have been 20 well what were they in 2015 2016 around then it would have been so at least like six seven years ago middle-aged men Googling things long

Time would you like to listen to us typing and Googling things listeners thanks for that Alex thanks for that question we can’t answer spontaneously in an improv and informative style but we’re not live you can just pause it I’m not going to you know I can’t be

Bothered to pretend we knew it the entire time well the the one thing I was going to add was if we have the F1 quiz at the end of the year is that a question we were supposed to know no no question about it if Catman had that

Question in I would get it wrong can I go back too no no no quickly I have to divert now and tell people we are having a a Christmas quiz or a pre-season quiz I’m just trying to find out who’s actually on the panel it’s going to be

Brad and Kyle because they’re just annoying with quizzes like they know all the things don’t they so it will be Chris cman Turner who you heard on the episode and it will be Brad philpart jwes sagers who’s very knowledgeable and Kyle power uh who just seems to anything

He knows he retains and he remembers and then the fourth person on that quiz is going to be me so I’m just going to get humiliated because I can’t recall things but we are working on a system where we’re going to do it live and you will

Have a an app on your phone so you can play along in real time and that will generate a winner from people listening on the live stream so that’ll be should be fun all right sorry Jon no I like it I’ll tune into that more than I would

For a Constructor Championship sort of battle like we did for the last race of this F1 season so back to Van Jean’s idea about the points I agree about changing the point system and here’s the reason why my my next idea to try and improve and add some spice to the

Constructor Championship is why don’t we have penalty points now we had penalty points I I you know for the last es and and and that kind of stuff but I mean actual for the you know for the constructor’s point system here so for example a driver changes an engine or a

Power unit 10 B 10 Place grid penalty but along with that give them a fivepoint penalty in the constructors so that’s an option there as well now you that won’t work with the current point system we have because I think the bottom six teams will all end on zero

Points so be in negative so what you need to do is increase the weighting of the points like the winner gets 250 points instead of 25 for for example and you get points all the way down to to P20 so I thought that’s an idea to where

You know what that would add some spice to the constructors now all of a sudden a team goes oh let’s give somebody a 10 Place grid penalty damn Ferrari’s now third in the constructors not second and they could lose $30 million I think that’s interesting that yeah I think

That could add to it but also you would you would still have to care in the first place about the constructors and I think at the moment like we don’t care so if we’ got into the final race and like they really really tried hard on

The broadcast to Big up the battle for like not even first place like they were biging up the battle for second place in the constructors who’s going to clinch it and like universally like if you looked on social media people like guys why are you pushing so hard it would

Because all they had to push they had to push something he television they have to but LS and and Charlotte clerk head sort of did they they F CL was like gutted and trying to let Perez past him oh yeah I remember that uh no so it wasn’t Hamilton that cared it was

Russell that cared checked out had emotionally checked out Russ that’s that’s why you confused me but even if that was for first place in the constructors I still think that would have been also of of passing interest so at the moment you know we’re we’re saying well we don’t

Care about like a a brand that’s com in so no one’s going to care about stake F1 um the big manufacturers you’re right there’s there’s a R lessness to to that and I think somehow Renault managed to sorry that’s Alex’s add in the background you can hear so the so like

Renault Ferrari huge names when I was was growing up so in my head they feel like quote unquote real F1 teams when Mercedes comes in as a huge brand that felt like the most corporate entity that had entered F1 in a long time they spent

A huge amount of money they had a huge amount of staff like I think people do forget that pre-c cost cap the Mercedes dominance was helped by having like double you know probably more than double the staff of of most teams so as much as I like Toto wolf and the drivers

At Mercedes it’s very difficult to really attach and say well I’m a Mercedes F1 fan and also like I know ctchester United aren’t going anywhere because that that that ground you know it would be a hassle to get rid of the ground now and there’s a whole like there’s restaurants around it

But Mercedes could at a a drop of a board meeting could just just leave F1 and go I think that makes it hard you know where are the teams the teams from when I was growing up they’re all sort of gone now you know so where’s where’s

BMW where’s Toyota I can’t go I’m a lifelong Toyota fan oh man I’ve got a Jaguar F1 tattoo on my chest and now they’ve gone yeah you had the same thing with the likes of you know the it was always the Plucky teams the lies of the

World you know um you know even when those three new teams came in it was it was an exciting battle to see which one of those three would win out of those three because it felt like a separate Championship so it makes such a difference when there is a personality

To the team and yeah you know i’ I would say I like Mercedes but I’m not a Mercedes fan I’m a McLaren fan you know and it’s hurt for the last however many blooming years it’s been that been exactly 10 years been fumbling and that and and and that has really hurt and

I’ve Lov the Resurgence of them this year okay it’s great they’ve got two drivers that I like as well which really really helps but I always like to see Williams do well I’m glad Williams have an Alex albon who can actually do something in that car even if it is only

A practice session okay so here here’s something key then I’m thinking back to when I was a kid growing up I would be a supporter of a driver because they raced for Williams now I’m I’m surprising myself here because I don’t think there’s any team now where I would go

Even Williams I wouldn’t be like oh I am now a sergeant fan because he’s driving for Williams but you know in the Before Time like definitely you know the fact that kard appeared on the scene and um and was a a driver for Williams that that was a big deal that immediately

Made me want to kind of to wish him well but I kind of I don’t feel like that’s that exists anymore especially in the sort of franchise world where the names just get you know swapped over like we could end up with McDonald’s F1 team salba at some point could you imagine

How ugly that car would be yellow um but the difference is as well is they’re not they’re not none of the teams are attached to a a town or a place which is why football works you know most people who live in where I am north of London

That kind of thing you know are Tottenham Arsenal Chelsea fans but when you say that um you don’t support a team because you support a player when I was a kid I used to play left wing and I was a Ryan gigs fan and I really like Ryan

Gigs cuz Ryan can’t can’t really say that these days but I was a Ryan gigs fan and he played for United and I supported United for the entire time that I watched football um I always got asked the question what if Ryan gigs left luckily I didn’t have to answer

That question um but by the time he retired I was I was an adult and didn’t care about football anymore okay so I think I think not being attached to a town or a place really has an effect on who you support can I add to that quickly which

Is the way the sports designed like I said is is for a driver you know for the driver to do well and think of it like tennis like when you watch Tennis you watch singles tennis you know oh Serena Williams won or you know Andy Murray or

Novak jovic you don’t go who won the doubles who who you know nobody nobody’s fussed about that kind of stuff so here’s what I think about this right you’re not going to have bus F1 racing where like you have a person in a driver

Seat and and a bus for full of 20 people wearing their seat belts racing waving themselves and egging each other on like it’s team sport like that’s just not going to happen I think the way the sports design like we said is for the circumstances to be against the

Constructor’s championship I think can we I think it’s dead can we just confirm that can we confirm that it’s dead it’s not being revived and can we just come up with make ways to make it more interesting right now rather than to save it because I don’t think this is

Going to be safe oh yeah so we can’t make people care about the constructors when fundamentally the sport isn’t built around that but I just want to emphasize that that doesn’t mean we don’t care about you know the the teams I do very much care about the people in the F1

Teams especially the ones that DM me juicy information but we we rate that success by who can Elevate their their Champion their driver highest up the table and can I just say in 2021 the controversial Abu daab race Mercedes w the constructors and they were distraught at the end of the race

Because who cares about the constructors it was all about Max foren versus Lewis Hamilton so again if the teams don’t even care about them them themselves I’m not saying they don’t I’m just saying in that situation normally if this was a team a sport designed for the teams they

Would be sitting there going oh bad luck leis pat on the back but yeah let’s go party we won the constructors instead it wasn’t so you’ve got that side marketed too and it’s just the way it is say there was some footage of Toto wolf in a nightclub later that day so they

Definitely they definitely way Alex but you party for different reasons sometimes don’t you um I think also part of it is the broadcasters could do more the broadcasters could do more to shine a light on the people in the teams what they do who they are you

Know we hear nothing really about the amazing work they do in things like pit stops you know those those how many people are in how many people are in a pit crew 20 now 21 people in a pit crew something like that we know nothing

About who any of them are and if we knew who any of them were then then maybe people might care a bit more so it’s not a case of you know this resuscitation more more of anything else of just try and make people care by putting people

In front of them they might care about it’s why people care about H because of drive to survive and G to Steiner okay but wait a minute yeah I was going to say like do you want to put that pressure on like Derek on the front Jack that there’s like trading cards and

Trump cards and you’re like you think they’re not under pressure well no they are but you think they’re not in a pressure CER environment it would be even more obviously they’ve got to want to do it but if there was kids at home who were like okay um Derek front

Jackers uh lifting skills 97 and they’re like ah he’s the worst front Jack man in the whole game do we I don’t know if we’re ready to put those guys under that spot like remember has were on the verge of a good result early one season with

Roman groan and there was the guy Australia yeah the guy messed up the got the wheel nut stuck and he lost both cars well did it happen on both cars did it I was probably not not his fault then but they were inconsolable and there was pictures of groan hugging him and

Everything and you go I I don’t know if those guys get paid enough or you’d have to increase their pay if you wanted to zoom in and have people like on the internet going I can’t believe Derek turnips and messed up the fuel hose again like he’s the worst get him out of

The sport I bet there’s a few of them who wouldn’t mind being shot in front of the camera if we’ got three narcissists in this chat there’s bound to be at least several hundred of them in the pit Lane you you’d get pay you get pay pit people

Who like like you’d get like a stroll version of stroll like a billionaire who’s like buys his way into the team to be on the front right hand thing influence get influencers no don’t do that jonno sorry bonus points for for pit stops we have bonus points for

Faster laps bonus points for pit stops who says no for the Constructors Championship bonus points for pit stops so did you just give one did you give one point one point yeah for for the fastest pit stop yes it’s a bit arbitrary and what you but then it it

Creates competition around that too but see it’s not Alex one idea here that’s going to make the constructors more interesting it’s a collection of adding these together now you don’t want it to become a circus but you want it to become more interesting they are actively discouraging fast pit stops

Though they put a whole regulation in a couple of seasons ago to slow pit stops down because they don’t want them going super fast because it’s dangerous okay and Alex I do I know that sounds bar humbug an old man of me but it is what

It is beg your pardon people who think we’re talking over each other we’re experiencing a bit of lag because uh jonno is on the other side of the world but what it does mean is that later on after the show we’re both going to put a

Bit of bread on the ground outside our houses and we can make an earth sandwich jonno we should do that I’ve heard that one before we’re I’ve heard that one it’s the most fun and we’re going to take selfies and we’re going to be

Smiling while we do it um so I want to take issue with Alex saying that it’s arbitrary to give a point for the pit stop your point is well made that they this idea is out of the window because they they don’t want people going for

The fastest possible pit stop at at all costs but all the points here are arbitrary a point for the fastest lap that was argued with quite a lot uh points for the Sprint race didn’t that come in like a little bit later I don’t think there was um it was setting the

Grid wasn’t it initially and then the points for the Sprint rat came in afterwards so all of these things are completely arbitrary I wonder really if the only way to make people care about the team championship would be to devalue the driver’s Championship so if you had something along the lines of

Okay there’s 30 races a year but each driver can only race 20 races and it’s all about you know the team so you’ve got to rotate your drivers if people were rotating the drivers and the drivers were a bit more light bulby you know like I treat you guys on this show

That would be the only way wouldn’t it to De you’d have to devalue the driver’s champion ship wasn’t that kind of what a1gp was so we have a1gp which was all about using nationalities each team was a different was a different country and they had they varied their drivers

Around but again it lasted a season and a half before it went bust because no one cared and this is the real shame because I I want people to care about the constructors I try very hard to care about the constructors and I think it’s

A I think it’s a good thing to try and shine a light on the Constructor Championship but it it’s it’s about people which is why I said the pit lanane people and and the people in the in the paddock and and the people around the team because people associate

Themselves with people and want to get behind and want a person to win rather than a team to win and they put themselves behind a team because people are in the team that make sense I don’t think we can reject jonno out of hand though that your vain efforts so maybe

That’s what we should go to now what are your vein efforts to make the Constructor Championship more interesting imagine if you did have that fast this Pit Stop like you get people stopping for the soft tires now to get that extra point you can imagine them everyone going right um there there’s 20

Second gaps all up and down the field and then the last couple of laps is just people going no one more Pit Stop we can get this well well then then you introduce a rule where it’s locked in you know with like 20 laps to go or or

Something like that you know so to to affect that I’m sure we’ll come up with ways to to introduce this sort of adequately and so it’s not abused but the same way you can do another idea came up with why doesn’t the team that’s leading the constructors going into the

Round have choice of pit Lane position and now they can put their car whenever they want have I got that wrong is that already introduced as a rule am I thinking of a completely different motor racing series at the moment so the Champions get the preferential

Pit stop so they get the first box and consider and that’s considered the preferential box because you don’t get any obstruction going in and normally exactly Alex and normally every round like it’s either it’s either the first or the last depending on the track you’re at now I think we’ve just hit our

First yard stick moment which is that idea is dumb about like the team that’s leading the constructors picks a pit Lane position so first yard stick moment that’s idea that that’s scrap completely another idea which I had which is very wacky was do you get every team’s budget that they

Spent for the last season and then do a little cost multiplier like figure out some sort of formula where it’s many million you spent per point then puts your Constructor Championship position you know in that order so for example if you spent $3 trillion and you scored 100

Points but another team scored 99 points with 100 million they win the Constructor Championship because they spent less to get there you know what I mean and that when did you give them the championship about 18 months afterwards when they figured it all out get you get the speediest accountant the first

Person to get their work done wins the title or something like that I mean to Fair on the cost cap side of things with it surely there is technology in place where at the end of every month the teams put in their expenses and it goes into a database and it’s all monitored

Surely there must be a way to do all this quicker with all the modern technology you know all the stuff spanners have been putting out lately using AI there must be something that the teams to make this quicker not I haven’t been using AI I’ve just re I’ve

Just learned how to do uh graphics and and stuff so force India were long considered the best pound-for-pound construct and you know so that’s what they did they did a whole piece with points how how much did you spend per point and they did really well on that but in the

In the olden days like nobody cared that Ferrari was spending more money it was almost it was almost part of the sport that there was a a a cudos to that there was like you know it was it’s like having the biggest yacht like yeah we

Did spend lots of money to win because we’re fabulous and have lots of money and I think really Mercedes ruined that if Mercedes had come in dominated and say they’d won those first three seasons but then Ferrari came back at them and 117 118 129 I don’t think the cost cap comes in

It’s only because Mercedes came in with that financial advantage and absolutely slapped the field around for like seven years that’s what’s prompted the cost cap I don’t think without that I don’t think that cost cap comes in the cost cap had been been trying to come in for

A long time it’s why we got the bottom three they we million what going our team and then it never came and they just fell down the order um so I think that was kind of happening anyway uh but it probably didn’t help but when you say people didn’t care that Ferrari was

Spending money people who supported Ferrari didn’t care that Ferrari was spending if you were a a Nigel Manel fan or a Damon Hill fan and a Williams fan you’re like how are we supposed to compete when we don’t have that kind of money there was a point as well I think

In it was 2010 Germany does everybody remember when the uh Felipe had to let Alonso through at hackenheim and there was that full controversy with Team orders and then they find Ferrari 100,000 I think Euro or dollars and I was like don’t they spend like 400

Million a year like what is that that’s like literally buying a cheeseburger from your and then they banned team orders yeah they even went to a point of banning communication between the drivers which is even oh my God that was so fun it’s worth Googling and going

Back and see if you can find it they banned the the pit the pits talking to the drivers and giving them any help or instructions at all and they there’s this brilliant clip of Lewis Hamilton and Nico rosberg just couldn’t figure out which was it back couldn’t figure

Out which engine mode to be in so rosberg just diverted back to the last one and he was able to just get back to it Hamilton was completely lost on his maps and there’s there’s a clip of him going jat just tell me what to do and

They go no we can’t tell you fine I’m just going to start pressing any button and they’re like Louis please please don’t do that no you get mixed up quickly the the 2010 Ferrari thing was they unbanned team orders after that because they said this is ridiculous that you can’t tell

Somebody to let somebody through but what you guys are talking about was a few years later where yes it was ridiculous where all the drivers were going oh you know what setting do I change and I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about and blah blah blah

So it became a huge dilemma see that’s the stuff I enjoy you know team rules and drama in F1 and how can we create that within teams one thing I want to talk about is crowd support when you watch the Italian Grand Prix and you see the toosi rally around Ferrari when you

Watch the Dutch Grand Prix and watch everybody rally around Max fappen I I can assure you if Max fappen was not in Formula 1 and there was a Dutch solely Dutch F1 team out there they would rally around that team this way the toosi do so that’s what you know that’s what I

Think Spiker Dutch yeah I don’t remember hordes of there was no Dutch Grand Prix though yeah like we can’t test that there’s no Swiss Grand Prix to see if there’d be a huge stake F1 turnout are the Australians going to go mad for stake F1 now that they’ve got an

Australian team but yeah no I yeah I think I’m on Alex’s side there I I don’t think the orange Army turns out for a a Dutch team that drives in Orange the d The Dutch fans have turned out because they’re they’re a Dutch guy doing very well

The um it seems to be the case they they do get behind a glory in that sense um I’ve got Dutch family and that’s what they do they’ve all jumped on board with F1 in the last few years and none of them cared about F1 when I first when I

When when when we were younger so uh it’s it’s there’s a lot of Glory hunting in there as well with a lot of people but the only one and again it proves my point from before is you mentioned about the toosi because it’s location based they are they are Italy’s team good

Point so we support Italy we support Ferrari they love every single Ferrari driver that has ever been and ever will be because they drive for Ferrari and how do a lot of Italian people grow up and even Australian Italians I know they grown up to be told hey this is your

Team they’re Italian support them and they go crazy for them and that’s how they’re raised so how can we raise this next Generation to support teams like surely there’s some you know Germans out there or some austrians that go I’m going to support Red Bull or Mercedes

The way they do even though Ferrari fans who are so behind Ferrari I think the I’ll take a poll but I think the vast majority of Ferrari fans would still take the Ferrari dri winning the championship over the constructus championship like they they wanted Schumaker up there he’s the hero they

Were all behind Alonzo you know they didn’t they weren’t sitting there complaining week in week out like why aren’t Massa and riken and you know getting a a fair Shake of the stick when at inter Lagos they they cracked open fipe massa’s gearbox just to clear the

Path for Fernando Alonzo to get another couple of grid spots they deliberately gave Massa a 5-second penalty Ferrari fans weren’t in uproar about that because they know it’s all about that one driver they called it genius yeah there you go okay so we set out with the intention of saving the world

Constructors champion ship and I I did wonder whether I was the one that was being negative my panel here seemed to kind of agree with me I I would just I think prefer to for the emotional energy that we put into the driers championship just kind of be

Transferred and shared to the teams so just know that if I am saying I would prefer the driver’s Championship you know in my heart that when I’m cheering for say Lewis Hamilton I’m appreciating the efforts of all the teams every front Jack person all the mechanics I

Understand that is a huge huge Team game it’s just that the measure of that overall success for me is getting a driver highest in the driver’s table but jonno quickfire we know it’s a hopeless task but give us some ideas how to save the world Constructors and me and Alex will

Tell you why they’re stupid I yeah I think all the good ideas have already been pitched so this is is not going to look good to end the Pod but I’m thinking what do we add like minutes and seconds to the constructor’s uh Championship as well do we measure it that way

Explain I just thrw it out there so for example I don’t know somebody wins a race and then you finish 10 seconds behind your teammate finishes 15 seconds behind the leader so that’s a combined 25 seconds oh and you measure it based on that I actually I don’t think I mind

That because if we’re already not caring about the the constructors so for the drivers it’s just straight points but for the for the teams yeah it would get complicated with dnfs but in theory you kind of go yeah a Sten won by 10 seconds but Perez was 20 seconds behind so it’s

Like a net minus 10 seconds but then with the dnf you just go all right grab the fastest lap of the race and just added 30 seconds to it okay and then that’s your dnf sort of default yep that idea is terrible next that that broke the birie yard stick already yeah

Definitely can’t ever see that getting confused ever now not really an idea to maybe improve the the constructors but more so would you be opposed to like a luxury tax so for example if a team is let’s say in the top 10% of uh within the budget cap and there’s another team

That spends 50% or below the budget cap for example those Rich teams have to pay a little bit of a small percentage of tax to the bottom teams to help them grow and become better in the sport and create more even even kill and even field because that will help support

More teams come into the sport you could get an 11th 12th 13th team by doing that financially sustainable it it’s what should have happened in 2010 when those three four teams are introduced the problem is I think they’re all hitting the budget cap now so I don’t think I don’t think anyone is

Really especially significantly under the budget cap H might be but I know Williams whole point of dton was Williams can hit the budget cap um obviously Alpha to aren’t going to have that issue see this would have been a great idea when there wasn’t a budget

Cap Y and then you might not have needed a budget cap you know what I mean because with what happens with a budget cap now is you’re limiting growth amongst everyone in the sport because no one can spend as much as they want and now you’re you’re sort of condensing

Things whereas why don’t you just have a luxury tax where you start paying the bottom teams a little bit more they grow everyone else grows because they get to spend and now the whole sport pushes itself forward with spending I don’t know maybe that’s a bad idea but I just

Thought it throw it out there well in the in the in the before time it was we had the opposite of that so the prize money is structured so that the the better you do the more money you’ve got and in theory that would have been the

More money you’ve got to spend going forward for the next title where that where that kind of broke down was it wouldn’t have mattered if Mercedes had a season where they finished fifth CU they’re not relying on that prize money to then go forward and develop their car

They’ve got diimler in the in the background there there’s no fair prize money distribution spanners because Ferrari got all the money every year for the last 20 25 years y they they notoriously took more money from Formula 1 in the eight years that Mercedes were dominant than Mercedes

Did yeah so in in theory I mean I’m a hippie like you but what you’re suggesting is F1 communism whereas you know the the top teams not only have a bigger budget but they they have the power to to veto anything like that so Red Bull have got billions you know

Behind them for them it’s you know a choice of how much money to spend and it’s all down to the enthusiasm of your your benefactor if you like and that’s where Renault fell down wasn’t it so Renault could have come in you know with all the power of the richest Moto

Manufacturer in the world but their their commitment didn’t match that of Mercedes and there’s a there’s a bigger complex issue with this is obviously the sport for decades has tried to reduce spending to keep teams sustainable and so because it was blowing out of proportion at one stage but the reason

I’m bringing this up is and I know might not tie in directly to improving the constructors but why regulate all teams to a budget cap when like I said the teams that have the money they should be charged for spending that much and that should discourage them from spending

Much because if they spend too much then the portion of that big spend has to then go to the other teams they’re competing with and then what that does is it it grows the bottom teams and then you get this cycle where everyone’s spending everyone’s sustainable everyone’s got money and it all works

Out for the best and I assume you’re talking about things that are outside the budget cap now as well just like yeah Mercedes if you want to have that luxury motor home just know that every extra pound you spend you’ve got to distribute 50p to cars who are out

Eating out of a cardboard box and that will discourage spending I can tell you because now you spend 400 million that now is 4 that’s what like 265 million then taxed if you do the math the floor in this is how does that make me care about the world Constructors

Championship also you’ll have very clever accountants I mean Red Bull were able to attribute the majority of their overspend the other year to to making chicken wings so you know ta Shadow to feel or a tax re I Shadow to think what the teams will come up with did uh did

They ever get that tax ree baate back by the way Red Bull did that ever come through did that check come through to the post funny enough it hasn’t been reported it’s not been reported oh that’s interesting okay okay cool but I don’t think that in any way will make me

Care about the constructors I think it’s a fair effort well here you go but um the the I think the closest you’ve come to persuading me it can be saved is to having a completely different point system for the constructors uh than uh the driver’s Championship so all the

Individual ideas I think there are completely unworkable like an extra point for a pit stop your aggregate time system which would my goodness that would be a massive headache but if there was something if there was some magic bullet that made the constructor’s its own kind of Championship rather than

This this Shadow points so I think one to explore Alex is your points all the way down the table for the constructors um especially at the bottom because you just you just see like you know 10 cars all scoring equal amounts of zero points is is objectively uninteresting so it

Means nothing no one cares because nothing changes race to race but if all of a sudden um has have two cars finish and Williams don’t it’s a big difference that’s a big jump for those teams in that fight in that Constructor Championship and that fight for the

Extra money where people will care more about it but at the moment knowing if you’re outside the top 10 no one cares so you could still have okay for a driver finishing p12 is is not so exciting but you won’t get along to going oh I think there’s something wrong

With the suspension I need to park it and go home and see my girlfriend you would have the team going no there’s still team points on the on the table here Fernando yeah no I like that and actually yeah you’re right you could actually keep the current points

For the driver is exactly the same um because that’s fine but if the constructor’s points changes that’s even different but I don’t mind putting that point system on the drivers as well because then you would have other drivers fighting the way through and if you have someone fighting for the title

And they have a bad race and they finish 11th or 12th it’s not a complete bust so the reason I said don’t do it on the drivers do it on the constructors is there is there will be resistance to this idea and there’s always you know

60y olds stupid old people who are going oh but uh a championship point is so special you can’t just give it away down the field yeah it used to only get them up to P6 like that would be stupid now no one would revert back to the top six

Only getting points so there isn’t something special and magical about a point it’s this is just how we grade their finishing positions but there will be more opposition to the driver’s points going all the way down no one will care if we mess with the constructors I remember 2002 Australia

When manard and Mark Weber finished fifth and got two points that was like as many points as that team scored in in what 20 years or or something you know I’m being sarcastic but it was to them was like wow this is scarce you know these

Resources so I don’t know it’s uh I think what I don’t like as well is like what Nascar do with that whole playoff system and I I think the problem with Motorsport as well is when when these I go to American Sports league and I go right there’s a playoff system for these

To determine who’s the best team okay and in this playoff system you go okay these teams play in a series of five or seven games they end up you know Premier League the league title is determined by who’s leading the standings you know at the end of the

Season and blah blah blah in Motorsport you can be 1 million points up in NASCAR and then for some reason when it comes to the final race your engine dials and you’re what now you’re no longer the best driver and you don’t win the championship like that doesn’t make any

Sense so I think these sort of what what I also think rebuts some of our ideas is we can’t turn Motorsport into a circle even though it is kind of ironically a little bit of a rolling circus but we just can’t come up with ideas that um

Just just sort of as as Alex said earlier in the podcast and alluded to can’t be arbitrary needs to be earned but let’s not go down the American route of sports I think there’s something well of course it is an American sport now but something fundamental that the

Americans do differently to Anglo Euro australasian Sports is like they cannot stand a draw and this is something controver I’ve had to really get my head around um especially with the DTs fans that have come in love them and with the stuff I’ve done on the ringer speaking

To broadly like newer American fans they they abhor a draw so American Sports you can’t tie so that whole safety car thing in Abu Dhabi you know I was speaking to people in North America and I was like well just you know just finish under the safety car that’s completely normal he’d

Won the race there was a late safety car just finish under the safety car and like nearly all Americans I spoke to like no you can’t no you can’t do that there’s got to be a showdown in American Sports and like all their seasons in baseball isn’t it it’s pretty

Meaningless all the way through the season then they have the series of playoff games where you can yeah you know then you can’t predict the winner so I don’t think they could even have just like a Premier League season you know where you just accumulate your

Points so they they just hate that kind of stuff so if F1 was to go down that road where they go okay you’ve been fighting all season but now it’s this last series of five races is all that matters you kind of go oh that that now

You have to pick now for the final race of the Season you have to pick your car out of a hat yeah yeah exactly exactly and and Max gets H and Lewis gets Williams and Perez wins the reason I brought this up was what like you wouldn’t do this for the

Constructors right like you certainly wouldn’t do it for the drivers you’d leave the drivers as is I think the format at the moment kind of works unless there’s a the only reason and the only time the driver Championship doesn’t work is when there’s a dominant car it’s ruined apart from that the

Driver’s championship format currently works it’s like the Premier League system but the Constructor Championship do you then all of a sudden go five races to go let’s do a knockout system let’s go with oh okay um top team who’s first then verse the 10th team and whoever scores more points in that race

Then advances and faces the next team in The Knockout round that could work I’d like to say this was a good effort to save the world Constructor Championship but I think we have have to be honest and say we’ve it’s a fair effort but we have completely failed so let’s meet the

Panel I don’t you know I I don’t want you to feel bad about that John I think you came in with Fair prep and this is what I really like I like when people turn up on M Apex youve you’ve done research you’ve got a a structure and

You’ve gone right I’m going to put it to these people and then we’ve kind of just been mean and gone no it’s got it was an impossible mission jonno but you tried it was oh you were definitely to fail defitely to fail no I was the circumstances were against us cuz the

Market determines what people care about and nobody cares about the constructor’s championship as I was riding it I had Stockholm syndrome and was like I don’t think I like what I’m writing here but I’m like we got to roll with it we’re going live soon so I even tried putting

It into an AI model suggest things to save the Constructor Championship but there was nothing um so even even the our future robot overlords don’t know how um but I want to get chatting to the two of you very much in different stages of your of your life so me and Alex are

In the and this is why Alex hasn’t been on a lot of shows this year we’re in that stage I’m just getting out of it because I’ve got my son my kids are teenagers now so they they’re somewhat more independent I can lock myself in this shed and they will eat food it

Won’t be good food and they will get to bed eventually with their eyes Square from Xbox and VR but Alex is still very much in that they need you to live that’s how useless your kids are um but that will change that it passes it goes before you even

Think about it but let’s start with jonno because jonno you’re like in the in the most flourishing fresh part of life you’re 27 years old yes 27 is it flourishing a good of life you’re now you’re at the flower point of your your life where you’re attracting bees and pollinators me and

Alex are wilted on the vine it it’s Peak you’re Peak unfortunately it’s downhill from now on you got you got you got you have two more good you have two more good years and then you hit 30 and then it’s all gone your joints will never be better you’ll never feel stronger you’ll

Never have more energy I remember when people were telling me when I was like 17 18 finishing high school going make the most of University years and I did and now I look back at it and go wow that was a great time I could just go

And study and then go and party and then come home and then just chill and then go to work and it now it’s like all you do is work it’s all you do 24/7 you’re just working all the time but you are you though because you know the advice I

Pass on to my kids is find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life now you have really gone and pursued one of the hardest areas of life and professionalism to get into you want to be a professional outloud talker and at the moment what’s your job at the

Moment you’re you’re working in news and you’re a reporter and you’re a good reporter oh well thank you spanners I you know I’ll take that humbly um yeah I’m working up in cans I work for seven new here which is I think uh I think we’re ranked number one for sort of

Viewers for news in Australia which is great and it’s an awesome opportunity basically I cover Sports up here the brilliant part about it is uh we’ve got a national team here we’ve got the NBL which is like basketball it’s one of the top basketball leagues in the world I

Cover the K’s taipans there’s NRL content there’s AFL there’s all these different random Sports hey I cover soccer up here I know you guys call it football but that’s popular around here as well it’s great to sort of um delve into so many different sports and things

And look to write TV stories every day of the week is is something I I never thought I’d be doing I’m in this industry for doing what you do right now spanners is I I want to podcast I want to commentate I want to be a professional talker so it’s you know

Again you you take s side steps and Pathways and you don’t end up where you think you’re going to end up but it’s been fun so far and it’s uh it’s a stressful job at times it’s fun at times but it’s been great what people don’t always realize about the reporters and I

Only realized one once I was working in in radio is you’re not like getting a script from someone and reading the thing out like it’s up to you to compile you know research that story and then present your findings if you like back to this TV camera and I I don’t people

Only see the swan on the top of the lake and not the legs yeah know there’s a lot of work like we’ll you know we’ll get up at what 8:00 in the morning we start our day we talk about yeah which is you know for isn’t that sunrise over in the UK during

Winter times I think yeah but I’ve been aw for an hour and a half an hour and 45 minutes before that at least there’s not always sun8 8:30 in the UK I I I I maybe said that wrong sorry like normally you get to work you know early in the

Morning and then what you do is you already know your story for the day unless Something’s Happened overnight like look if the Prime Minister gets shot overnight yeah you got to cover that and you got to make sure you get to work and be like all right that’s top

Story right you can’t be going with what you planned but uh in in you know the rare case that that happens I don’t think it’s ever happened in Australia thankfully um you you do come in with a plan and you’re chasing people up you’re chasing facts you’re chasing interviews

You’re trying to get people on camera and that’s the thing we do is we do television news whereas people who are writers and there’s a lot of journalists and writers out there they can just do an interview over the phone and they have to write a big yarn but we need to

Go and meet and get them on camera and so that becomes a challenge and then goes out live at the end of the day and it’s it’s a minute 20 sometimes and I go I just worked like literally seven hours to do two one minute 20 news pieces I’m

Like wow that was a lot of work so was nothing I I I think from from getting to know you over the last couple of years to me you feel like much more like a presenter like I could see you as a radio presenter TV presenter um and it’s

And it’s nice cuz it’s like the useful idiot role the real work in those kind of news desks TV shows uh radio Studios is is the role that you’re doing at the moment now so I remember for example I got I got parachuted in on the day that

Britain left the European Union and and I’m not that guy you have no opinion I have no strong opinions one way or the other they’re like yeah yeah you know you can’t like be Pro one side or another side I’m like oh thankfully I’m really neutral on US

National for no reason to Panda to bubble but I didn’t say any of that on air but everything from the dumb presenter role was handed to me by people like you so the news person the equivalent of the jonno not only did all the research but handed me the question

Questions to ask her so I’m there going oh um Hannah is there any chance that this could somehow improve our financial situation and then she pretended that that was equally well maybe maybe not and that’s something when we you know I also cover the Supercar Z series

With them I’ve been doing that for a few years now and when we jump on on television and we sort of go out and present and commentate and do all this stuff it’s like but nobody sees all the people behind the scenes who are flicking the buttons and making sure

You’re ready and and all this kind of stuff it kind of the way I put it spanners is presenting whether it’s radio or television or whatnot it’s kind of like Formula 1 yes driver and and you need to sell the product and you need to be the max for stappen or Louis Hamilton

That’s going to win the race and you can make the difference like that but there’s like 400 other people who are building the car and doing all the work behind the scenes that don’t get any credit for it that’s actually it’s not a bad analogy at all because I did I did

Feel like that I felt that when I got drafted in on like what happened to be a news day and you go I I’m essentially ballasted here it’s it’s it’s much more likely that someone else is going to make a mistake and that will be critical

Than whether I say a word wrong or lose the ability to read for 30 seconds um but I but I think Jonna you’re getting a uh a real good insight into the industry you know doing that in fact do you know what I could see you hosting is like

Match of the day or like a late night talk show that’s what I can see you doing I I think spers do you agree agree that Talent is very important work ethics very important of course how much do you think relationships matter because that’s big in this industry oh

Yeah having like a famous dad would be great wouldn’t it I think the problem is you you do there’s so much nepotism in the industry and from what I’ve seen you go the people who are are have opportunities and contacts get more and more chances so I think we had this Alex

You know if you look at like just work hard spanners just work hard just just work hard why don’t you just work hard and use your contacts but if you look up Formula 1 drivers or or race drivers uh I think Brad told the story I don’t know

If this is public oh no oh let’s risk it oh like he took a loan out he took a loan out to get a single seater race seat to get kind of one shot but he was racing against people who’d been there all season who had the resources to keep

Failing and it’s the same you know with my wife and her struggles in in music it’s a lot of the time it’s having the resources and contacts to keep failing and trying again whereas People Like Us kind of get you know we get our one little shot if you’re lucky but that’s I

Think Nigel Manel did that as well at one stage or am I getting mixed up with drivers somebody took a loan out or mortgage in their house race Nikki L he was he was wealthy he was very he came but his dad cut him off he wanted to go

Racing his dad said no and he he he left his left oh that’s rich kid stories I’m sorry no that’s Rich Kid fiction they all like to create this fiction no offense for the very wealthy people listening but they all create this hard luck story sorry if you’re listening it

Was actually harder um the amount of times I’ve heard this um it’s actually hard having an uncle in the industry who who can introduce me to everyone it just puts so much pressure on yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I’ll take the pressure you give me the contacts that’s we’ll swap

No problem here’s something about TV that people don’t know is I actually find the broadcast or the podcast or or whatnot to like three people the hardest ones and the ones that are on big television and tens of thousands if not 100 thousand people are watching is the

Easiest I think the challenge with those ones with with viewers is the biggest challenge is perfection you need to be perfect and there’s some other factors as well involved but the challenges of I’ve done some broadcasts where the budget’s been nothing and the quality you’re doing them online you’re not

Doing them in person there’s all these factors that that are just for you to fail and I find those ones the toughest there’s not much information out there so you’re doing more information hunting but then you go on these big television broadcast and things are handed to you

Like you said people are doing work there’s more budget involved and I kind of go oh this is like having a great this is the analogy it’s like having a great car you have a race winning car and you go and win a race but I feel like those lowbudget broadcasts are like

How can I win in a Williams you know for example yeah well you know a lot of the podcast world is uh is transmitting to you know a dozens dozens of people so I tend to not tell people how many people are I never mentioned the audience

Figures because I think I’ve made that mistake once before um billions well it was a couple of shows ago I just looked at the stats and I said said to everyone on the panel I don’t know if you were on this one Alex where I went I’ve just looked at the stats and

95,000 devices have downloaded a missed Apex uh in the last month and the people on the panel went like their eyes like they you know went aast the color drained from their cheeks and I go oh I shouldn’t have said that I shouldn’t have mentioned it everyone I talk to in

The real world when I mention I’m on a podcast I have to mention the numbers because if if if if I say I’m I’m doing a podcast and it’s to a couple of hundred people they don’t care but when you say that it’s quite big numbers like

The 90,000 or you put out the figures at the end of the year it’s like 2 million yeah people go oh wow okay oh it’s a podcast podcast yeah and that’s about the same that will end up just over 2 million downloads overall over the the

Course of the year so I but jonno to be honest I like I just have a mode and it’s always one person talking into the the mic and that’s always I what I can control so it’s interesting to to hear you sort of have a have a difference if

You like um I think the main difference is how much do you have to sort yourself so if you’re in a in a studio and literally all you have to do is put your filer up I’m much happier then for M Apex I’m doing audio monitoring video switching all the managing all you

Idiots and Tech Alex close your window uh Alex pick the pen up Alex no no don’t don’t headbutt the mic again haven’t headbutted a mic in a really long time okay I dropped a metal thing on the table before that’s the worst I’ve done

For a while we had a podcast once f as I think we both hid our mind I think minutes of each we we make errors every now and then you know we crash into a wall and then have to make a pit stop change the front Wing Point is um I I do

Admire one thing about radio presenters is I uh I remember when I was doing University and they chucked me on on radio and I’m like this is like what what am I doing here I’m like it’s like having a steering wheel all right the F1 analogies are going to continue for the

Rest of this podcast we’re locked in imagine having steering wheel with all these buttons and you’re going through a Rouge and you’re trying to talk and you adjust that’s crazy whereas on TV somebody’s doing the levels for you you sit there and you do your job and it’s I

Think that’s the beauty of TV it becomes easier the problem is TV you kind of sometimes uh maybe maybe it’s controversial saying this you sometimes just got to be born with you know not not ahead for radio you know that quote but um I I can’t tell you for how many

Years a big challenge being in Australia is if you’re trying to make it especially in a sport like Formula 1 is I remember doing a lot of I did Sim racing comment for seven years you know I haven’t done it for for a couple years now well I’ve done superc cars but that

You know we won’t talk about that basically fulltime Sim racing commentary for 7 years and doing 3:00 a.m. broadcasts to 6:00 a.m. and then having to go to work or something like that and doing that on a regular basis weekly sometimes twice a week and I remember

Doing it in in my first couple years when I’m at Uni I’m like this is not too bad then when you try to couple it with work and more commitments as you get older and you you’re waking up going everywhere with black eyes and it’s I’m

Not the only one to do it there’s many people out there but that’s the tough struggle I think one thing about Australia is as big as our country is in the land our population’s not that big and there isn’t a market for many things in sports and a lot of those limited

Jobs go out to former athletes or former drivers and and that kind of stuff so it limits the trained presenter I feel like to take on those presenter roles yeah well for me to break in and do anything to get even at the minor level I had I

Have had to work my full-time job be a parent and then work another full-time job working on my skills developing podcast working makes better wow makes hasn’t worked has it hasn’t really worked hasn’t Advanced me much but hey that’s like who was the guy who presented uh now now this might

Challenge you guys the um he passed away recently the the one who presented the not the price is right it was a game show in the uh U I’ve lost the name anyway he he didn’t Peak till he was in his 50s he didn’t get his first big role

I’m sometimes you just don’t know I’m not planning to live that long but Alex vane has lived a long long time and and from the Glamorous world of of TV and Reporting we go into the into the world of everyone’s house has to be warmed up

Alex and you are I will say you are you’re a sales executive basically and and you’re a very good one you are one Charming turnip and you are amongst the panel jonno you might have noticed that everyone else except Alex has some kind of communication so TV reporter with

Brad it was his coaching and his communication uh Chris was a journalist in Formula E and his PR communication Matt is a a performer and he was a blogger uh Jules used to be an F1 journalist as well so Christian is a radio DJ everyone on M Apex is there

Because I rate them as communicators I have no idea what Alex does i i Alex has none of those things um I don’t remember how Alex got on the show and and here’s yeah but here’s an interesting thing I’ve spoken to lots of people who are

Friends with you no one can remember how they became friends with you you just appeared yeah cuz I’m a robot I’m just a construct I just I’m just implanted no so I mean I’ve been in sales since I was a kid so it the only job weever done I

Didn’t go to UNI and all that kind of stuff because I knew I wanted to do sales so I didn’t need to go to UNI and do a business degree um I attempted uh a business course um at college and they would actively teaching and stuff they

Go this isn’t going to be in the exam and isn’t used today I’m like why am I wasting my time so I went and got a job um but yeah no so it it’s it’s always been interesting the the story of me joining M Apex was because I had just

Become a dad and I was looking for something to listen to that is Dad related and I found dad Hub which was which was um a passion project I think for span and that where they were just two dads who wanted to talk about something without their wives won’t

Listen to about being parents and being dad slight very slight tangent on that was that me and my wife were doing a podcast but we just kept falling out over it so like a lot of the episode just wouldn’t finish they just cut off suddenly because she’d get all pissed

Off and she’d be like oh what what you shut up idiot and then she’d walk off so then like it was me and Tony actually as well we just went well being a dad’s horrible as well so we yeah but anyway yeah so yeah I’m glad you found us that

Way that’s I’d forgotten that yeah so that’s how I that’s how I found the show because then you go talk to an F1 podcast you like I like F1 too um so I started listening and wherever you guys were good on the technical stuff and what was going on and the analytics you

Fell down quite a lot on the racing side of things yeah yeah yeah yeah and obviously I’ve been carting since since well I say since a young age I’ve been C since my early 20s and I was often going that’s not quite accurate that’s not

Quite how it works in the real life um and you had somebody on the show who knew me through funny enough through Brad through BR KC which is a series that Brad used to run um and said oh actually this guy’s a legit racer so

Have him on I mean I can’t imagine how you’d respond now if somebody messaged you and when you know what you’re talking about let me come on and talk to you I’ve been a I’ve done go cting before but okay so so to people listening it it doesn’t sound like much

To kind of go well I’ve been racing in carting regularly or I’m a Sim racer but but honestly the people who are out there doing regular carting championships Sim racing championships or owner driver things like our our friend Sam with his perso 206 Championship like that that gives you a

Legitimate insight into racing that I didn’t have so then I started carting with you guys and doing M Apex events and after I came off track having lost a few scraps in the in the Midfield and Brad said to me goes oh goes I get it

Now you’ve got no racecraft at all like you don’t you have got no idea but that has developed over the years doing definely has uh carting and doing Sim racing and it definitely gives you an appreciation for the very top level and this is why I encourage everyone go and

Play a game go and do a Sim go go spend 25 quid at your local carart track like it will transform your appreciation of the sport yeah cuz I I I often you often get comments on oh you’ve never driven an F1 car before so yeah racing is

Racing the cars just get faster the the the thoughts of so I missed that I was going to say have a day driven an F1 car these people saying that what is Lance stroll messaging you that feedback yeah exactly um nope not going there um so

The the art of willto whe racing the art the the uh strategy behind how to put a car around the track following the racing line doesn’t change from series to series you know a Tin Top might be slightly you got to take a slightly different line through a different

Corner but the philosophies are the same can I add as well and and and I can’t stress how important even Sim racing let alone real go- cutting is because go- cutting is pretty expensive not many people want to for out the money to do that but jumping on iRacing and and

Learning how the world’s best do it it’s not about this fancy equipment and this massive simig now not a lot of people Noti this about me that I was at one point yours truly was one of set a few records back on iRacing World Records

Let me say on yes yes um but anyway I’m I’m just kidding with the arrogance earliest crash yeah so yeah so point is the the the way that we drive quick and and I know Alex you’re pretty quick on our racing I’ve had to look at your account you got good scores and

Everything like that spanners we can discuss about your account my son it’s my son he plays my son plays he ruins it okay yes now basically like you you to to hit that level where you’re hitting world records and doing this stuff I have been in person watching other

People do it people have seen me do it and people have seen the average people it’s hard to see what makes someone good and it’s like Smooth driving and somebody for example just like you know what I mean is like point2 of a second quicker on the throttle it’s like you

Don’t notice that when you watch on TV whereas like if it’s football and somebody kicks a strike from halfway and you’re like wow not many people can do that anyway I thought I go off into that tangent that’s the value you bring van well listen it’s what it’s about it’s

You know and it’s the understanding of I’ve done you know the the carting I’ve done is relatively low level but I’ve always been in a pack so I have great experience in pack racing which is more experience than you get proper pack racing in in the higher Sports because they’re they’re spaced

Out more um so you know and I’ve got the experience of being able to just jump into whatever they’ve given me and make it work now moving into I can’t believe I’m moving into this phase in my life when it comes to carting I three years

Ago I’d given up on carting I had until um the middle of this year I hadn’t been in a cart in three years and I got the opportunity to do the event with spanners and then actually got the opportunity for the first time in my

Life to have my own C and I’m having to learn again because I now have a machine under me that has a setup and I now have to figure out what I want changed and then how to change it and I’ve now got to go and do that myself so it’s a

Really big learning curve that I thoroughly enjoying to the point where originally the whole point was I’d buy this car it would live at Brad’s house Brad would do all the work and I just drive to the races with him which sounds really kushy but then throughout the

Whole case of everyone else in the league working on their carts every single day I got serious serious fomo to the point where I picked the cart up from Brad made a space in my shed and I stripped my carart and I built my cart by myself with a lot of telephone

Conversations with Brad but I built that myself and I have a massive sense of achievement for that and the series doesn’t start till April we’ve got a test um in January which I’m desperately trying to lose more and more weight for um I’m so I’m bang on the limit by the time we

Get there in January but it and it’s just been a massive learning curve and I’m having to the thing that I’ve the thing that I’ve learned from doing this that’s given me a greater appreciation for F1 drivers is I’m out there during a race I cannot think about what’s going

On with the cart while I’m battling well what’s going on with the cart if it’s got a bit of underst bit of oversteer whatever that I might think about then changing once the race is over I cannot think about that how these guys go around the 200 mph switching buttons and

Talking about strategy and wanting to let somebody overtake so you can beat somebody how they doing that and they’ve got that mental um Acumen to make that work is just phenomenal well they’re better than you aren’t they that’s the that’s the key element there they’re smart and they’re young and they’re fit

I’m just trying not to die yeah well they get to do it all the time whereas you have to like carve out these small pockets of joy you know this these small pockets for yourself once the the horrible children are fed once all the boilers have been sold but uh Alex you

Them to you lately um yeah you’ve sold me two uh boilers sold you too I’ve sold mold I’ve sold molden a boiler even though that’s not your your job you’re not on the shop floor I really do appreciate the fact that you go in and you you’ve sorted us all out whenever

We’ve needed eating stuff um but you’re in the worst possible time we said jonno is in the best time because he’s like a beautiful flourishing flower covered in pollinating bees I’m going to be there soon don’t say that I I’m slightly ahead of of Alex where my my kids can kind of

You know feed themselves without without dying um and I’ve sort of come out of the other end a little bit but you are right Alex in that zone with your two wonderful little ones how old are they like five and eight uh they are eight

And six eight and oh my God why they’re so close well yeah and and the thing is is it’s a case of you know for the years that I’ve been doing this show I’ve always done the majority of race shows but that’s because my kids were going to bed at

Like 6:00 it I could get on for I could get on for A4 to 7 A4 to 8 call time but now quter to 8 is bedtime bath time making dinner all that kind of stuff which is the whole reason I haven’t been able to get on apart from the odd day

Where kind like maybe Lauren will just let me she’ll do everything and I’ll and I’ll and I’ll go into the office and shut the door um which is a which is a tough thing you know to have a full-time job um okay I’m I’m I’m based on the

Road so I’m out seeing customers it’s the last week before it’s the it’s the last week before Christmas when we’re filming this and you know I’m I’m I’m working from home a lot this week I got a lot of admin to do and end of year

Stuff to do um but to do all that and then have to get onto the show has been really difficult and I’ve been sad because I’ve been missing it but also doing the show helps me enjoy the season more yes because yeah we get to I have to pay more

Attention and because I haven’t had a show to do I’ve been like okay I can you know talk to the kids or yeah because they’re they’re playing in front of the Telly while I’m trying to watch so if you ever think I’ve missed something that’s gener that’s the reason well

Actually that’s that’s a big reason like why podcasts are are popular so if I’m really enjoying a TV show first thing I do is go and find like oh Game of Thrones podcast to to then kind of pick it apart cuz I often think like we’ve

All watched the race why do you want to listen to us talking about it it’s because that’s that’s just that’s what you want to do you want to kind of go a sanity check did I catch everything like what did that person think oh that person’s an idiot and they’re they’re

Wrong but as much as listening to it helps you do that certainly producing and participating in it means wow I actually have to I have to take notes but I also think with F1 unlike football you can find anybody who’s into football to have a conversation with

Because football is a lot because F1 is a lot more of a niche sport it’s you you want it’s a sense of community it’s why we’ve got such a brilliant community in the slack group because they all live miles and miles apart hardly anyone in there knows each other from The Real

World and that’s what that slack Community does it brings a bunch of like-minded people together whenever I meet a customer who tells me they like F1 I my my whole body sort of changes because like oh we can have a conversation with f one there are particular I look forward to going to

See because I know we’ll spend most of the time talking about Formula 1 well then as a dad both of you are dads how do you feel about 204 races in oh God is this this is a really good question it’s a really good question there’s just too

Many races for for my lifestyle and and it’s only going to increase Alex but you know as a as a dad or as a parent you have like spousal tokens because every non minute you spend not parenting is a minute your partner has to spend parenting so there’s a fine negotiation

For that and when it was like 18 19 races it was absolutely fine like F1 time is ring fenced time and I could get away with going kids Daddy doesn’t love you while the Formula One is on but now that has kind of stretched to

It’s going to be like 24 25 26 and then the sprint races well I’ve well I’ve got to watch the sprint races and that these are more times where then the family doesn’t organize to go on a day out yeah so so there’s just going to come time

Where they where she turns around and says we can’t not do family things because there’s 30 F1 races a year so Alex it’s that that fine negotiation isn’t it I’ve especially now that I’ve taken up this this carting Series where it takes me away for a weekend at a time

I if if we have to go do a family thing that’s over a race weekend I’ll [ __ ] and moan about it internally but I’ve got to go okay yep okay and I’m going to have a drink so you can drive and I sit there in the car with with the phone out

The the benefit the only benefit I have is my wife likes F1 she’s she’s she’s taken a back seat with a lot of it recently just because time and whatever and if I’m I’m much more interested than she is obviously but she doesn’t mind it she’ll sit there she’ll watch the start

Of the race she’ll sit with me and watch the race and the kids are starting to like it too which does help um one of the early races recently uh I came downstairs in the morning and both kids followed me downstairs very shortly after can we watch the race with you

Like oh that’s nice that’s nice my my boy went through seasons of just he he stopped caring um but now he’s suddenly back into it this season and now it’s a big like he wants to sit down and and watch the race and have the live timings

Up but it’s taken it’s taken him to 13 really to to get into it uh properly so so the thing is you and your wife you do seem like really well suited and you and you seem to kind of get along and like you’re an effective team me and my wife

Have nothing in common she has never sat and watched the whole Formula 1 race she she wants to like she’ll talk to people as if she’s involved in you know in my life in podcasting but do you know she’s never ever once listened to a single episode of any podcast I’ve ever done

Like she just that’s there’s good and bad with that I think there’s good with Alex’s situation I think there’s good with your situation it depends what your personality is you know sometimes some people like separation like by watching F1 and they don’t have their personal people bothering them always go and

Watch I watch her gigs when she’s up on stage doing sing songs and I think like well why don’t you listen to my podcast she never does the only thing she ever listened to was when I hosted a gardening show and she would tune into

That I’d be like I don’t even know I don’t even know anything about gardening why are you listening to me talking about gardening uh but yeah your your unit Alex I I like I like your unit you’re very nice people we we’ve we’ve got it we’ve got it quite well we work

Well as a team I me we we were friends before we got together um and we’ve known each other since school kind of um so there’s a lot of that that goes with it and we we got together because of the mutual things that we liked um rather

Than just meeting in a nightclub kind of thing um but the the differences as well is I do a lot around the house you know I do I do a lot of I do the majority of the cooking I’m in the morning when Lauren’s got to get kids I’m messaging

Lauren now as we speak saying Alex is saying he does most of the stuff around she’ll she’ll tell you she’ll tell you you know but you know because you know I work from home a lot and I don’t need to leave that early most days you know

Lauren Lauren has to get the kids out of the of the house at4 7 because she works at the school the kids go to um but I’ll get up I do their breakfast and I do everything else to get them sorted so they’re ready to go and their snacks and

All that kind of thing so I do a lot um you know I couldn’t ask to do a lot of the things that I want to do and the hobbies that I’ve got and the things I want to do if I didn’t it’s the only difference between me and

Lauren is she hasn’t got many hobbies um which bugs me because I’d like for her to have hobbies um because people I think are happier when they’ve got Hobbies but you know we’ve got a we you’re right we we’ve got a good family unit and we’re good people I like to

Think I got two questions what ever happened to dadhub and did Alex ever jump on Dad Hub when that came out yeah um it it was from another time in my in my life um I I I I think um the the problem with parenting podcast is everyone’s in such different stages

We just happen to find that little bubble where everybody was in that stage where that it’s that first shock of becoming a parent and you you go oh I see oh I get it now I’ve never actually been busy in my whole life I’ve never actually had no time because you always

Go I haven’t got the time for that like I’ve got such a b you don’t understand busy until you’re then thrust into a family unit and you go oh wow the the time is so narrow and precious uh but I’m up at the other end now I’ve got

Nothing to complain about if anything you know it’s great I can send the kids to the shops you know they they they help around the house so if anything it gets easier I got nothing to are both in secondary school now aren’t they yeah yeah exactly I’ve got nothing to they

Make their own they make their own way easy oh yeah no no like there’s no reason for me to wake up in the morning so we I have we have we have waved them off from beds before we don’t often do it cuz normally we get up have breakfast

And everything but we have done it before we got okay good luck bye off you go um guys I hope you think that this is a a valuable use of time obviously we’ come in with the topic we’ve chatted for an hour and I would say it’s optional

For these meet the panels you could just turn it off if you think ah this isn’t interesting I don’t care what Uncle Steve and and that Canadian lady are like outside of M Apex stuff so it’s completely optional it’s non- Canon you won’t miss anything if you switch off

But me personally I’ve enjoyed getting to know jonno little jonno a little bit better an old crusty van jeene over there so join us for more topics and meet the panel throughout the winter until we see you next work hard be kind and have fun this was M Apex Podcast yeah