Stay ConnectedMotor Sport Magazine’s podcasts, featuring the editorial team and guests. Listen to what the doyen of Formula 1 has to say about what’s going on in the paddock as well as in-depth interviews with the sport’s leading figures including Christian Horner, Derek Bell, Mario Andretti, Damon Hill, Patrick Head, Stirling Moss, Tom Kristensen, Martin Brundle, Martin Whitmarsh and Dario Franchitti.
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If it hadn't been for a long lunch with Niki Lauda, a willingness to swap grand prix racing for NASCAR, and a vision for a US F1 team, it's unlikely Guenther Steiner would have found himself leading Haas in Formula 1.
In this episode from Motor Sport's My big break series, Steiner tells Chris Medland about the make-or-break moments that brought him to his current role.
He describes his move to Jaguar's F1 team from Ford's World Rally team — at the behest of Lauda — and his rapid disillusionment at the corporate structure. He returned to the paddock with newly-formed Red Bull, and then transferred to its US division to set up a NASCAR team.
The American life suited Steiner so much that the Italian-born 56-year-old ended up co-founding a successful composites company and championing the idea of a US-based Formula 1 team, which brought him into contact with Gene Haas....
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McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is on a mission to return the Formula 1 team to title-winning form, while also seeking success in IndyCar, Extreme E and at Le Mans. In Motor Sport's latest My big break podcast series, he tells Chris Medland about the moments that took him from growing up as a racing fan in California, to joining a select club of F1 team bosses.
Brown recalls meeting Mario Andretti as a youngster and the F1 veteran's advice that set him off on a racing career. He discovered his talent for marketing while trying to recruit sponsors, and used that ability to grow and sell a multi-million-dollar business that became the world's largest motor sport marketing company.
After turning down chances to work for Bernie Ecclestone and Liberty Media, McLaren came calling in 2016, and Brown reveals why he decided to join and how he has turned the team around, helped by his most radical decision - made soon after he joined.
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George Russell joins Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate in 2022, after an acclaimed three years at Williams. In our latest My big break episode, the 23-year-old reveals how he went from racing as a karting hopeful to signing the contract for F1's top team.
He tells Chris Medland how Alex Albon gave him a leg-up as he was just getting started — a favour repaid when Russell put in a good word for Albon with Williams, and the frustration of being out-paced by team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi during the 2015 Formula 3 season.
Russell explains how he initially turned down a contract from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and came close to signing a contract that would have stopped him from ever driving for Mercedes, before joining as a young driver.
Even before his three years at Williams, Russell had to learn how to impress in cars that weren't competing for victory: he talks about how he did it, and that moment in a Mercedes at Bahrain, when any doubts over his pace disappeared.
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Alex Albon has a second shot at Formula 1 with Williams this year, continuing his rocky journey from karting champion to the grand prix paddock.
In our latest My Big Break podcast, he tells Chris Medland how he rose through the ranks of F3 and F2, battling for race wins and championships with Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lando Norris.
Albon recounts losing Red Bull backing after a tricky first year in Formula Renault, before picking himself up, graduating to GP3 and challenging Leclerc for the 2015 title. He explains why his friendship with George Russell resulted in a broken collarbone that wrecked his debut F2 season; the goodwill that brought him a second year in the championship; and the bold move — combined with a timely win — that brought him back into the Red Bull fold and into an F1 seat just before a switch to Formula E.
Ahead of the 2022 F1 season, the upbeat, grounded Albon shows since again why he's one of racing's most popular figures.
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Formula 1 produced a season like no other in 2021: Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battled for the championship from the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix to the very final lap in Abu Dhabi. To look over the excitement, the drama, the many controversies and the occasional mistake, Chris Medland is joined by Motor Sport F1 Editor Mark Hughes and Contributing Editor Damien Smith
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Kimi Räikkönen was racing go karts with no prospect of moving to cars when a contract offer arrived that looked too good to be true: a monthly salary and a route into single-seaters. In the latest episode from our My Big Break series, Räikkönen recalls his wariness before signing the deal that turned out to be one of the make-or-break moments that have made him the most experienced F1 driver in history.
Ahead of his retirement, he tells Chris Medland about his explosive first season in Formula Renault with his management team of David and Steve Robertson and the F1 test where he caught the eye of Michael Schumacher and earned a seat on the grand prix grid, as well as his moves to McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus.
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A year after surviving a fiery crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean explains why the moment that almost killed him was a "positive experience".
As he prepares to join Andretti Autosport for the 2022 season, Grosjean reflects on the 'big break' moments that brought him to where he is today: his early F1 struggles, his championship-winning return to GP2, and what it took to become an IndyCar driver. As well as that crash.
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Nobody knows the secret to Porsche's winning formula more than Norbert Singer.
The legendary engineer was a crucial part of every Porsche Le Mans victory between 1970 and 1998 and also had a key role in developing perhaps the greatest sports car of all time: the Porsche 911.
In this podcast from our Porsche's winning formula series, Singer speaks about his early career, and how he came close to joining Opel before arriving at Porsche and helping to develop the 917 into a Le Mans winner.
His experience spans the Targa Florio to modern Le Mans and he recalls the driving talents he's worked with at those races. He also offers his view on why the 956 and 962 are the most successful sports cars of all time
Singer describes his view of motor racing's future and explains that he's always nervous when a car runs faultlessly at Le Mans — because it usually means that a problem is just around the corner.
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Tim Schenken left Australia as national hillclimb champion at the age of 22 and returned 20 years later, having competed in F1, raced the Porsche 917/10 to victory at Zandvoort, Nürburgring and Hockenheim, and found himself detained in a Florida police station alongside Ronnie Peterson.
Now Clerk of the Course for the Australian Grand Prix (when it returns), Schenken focuses on his career with Porsche in the latest Motor Sport podcast from our Porsche's winning formula series.
He describes his early sacrifices, including at a wet Spa where his tea couldn't afford wet tyres; the "easy to drive" 917/10; and his endless disappointment at Le Mans.
There's also time to reflect on the challenge of getting to F1 and that story from Daytona, 1972, where he and Peterson found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and without their passports, just hours before a race.
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Much of Brian Redman's endurance legend was forged at the wheel of Porsche's greatest machines.
The self-effacing Lancastrian won the Spa 1000Km four times, took three victories at the Daytona 24 Hours and has a brace of Sebring and Nürburgring overall winner trophies.
Redman joins us to give more insight into Porsche's winning formula, recalling how his impressive early privateer appearances got him a seat at the works team, his experience of being a team-mate to Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriguez and what it was like to drive for a brand in relentless pursuit of performance.
He also compares Stuttgart with his other famous employer – Ferrari – and explains why Porsche engineers told him he was their "favourite driver".
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Much of Brian Redman's endurance legend was forged at the wheel of Porsche's greatest machines.
The self-effacing Lancastrian won the Spa 1000Km four times, took three victories at the Daytona 24 Hours and has a brace of Sebring and Nürburgring overall winner trophies.
Redman joins us to give more insight into Porsche's winning formula, recalling how his impressive early privateer appearances got him a seat at the works team, his experience of being a team-mate to Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriguez and what it was like to drive for a brand in relentless pursuit of performance.
He also compares Stuttgart with his other famous employer – Ferrari – and explains why Porsche engineers told him he was their "favourite driver".
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Le Mans veteran Romain Dumas joins the Motor Sport podcast to discuss all things Porsche, from his early beginnings, a learned love for Porsche and his conquering of multiple disciplines.
From Pikes Peak to fighting with Audi across Europe and the US to a Dakar ambition, Dumas' enthusiasm for racing makes for a compelling listen.
Plus, he gives his thoughts on the future of the World Endurance Championship and why Formula E might not be the way forward many make it out to be.
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If anyone knows Porsche’s winning formula, it’s Jochen Mass. For more than a decade, he raced sports cars with the factory team, competing in seven Le Mans 24 Hour races and winning multiple world championship races.
Mass joins us for the first in our new podcast series, recalling his early days with the outfit, when the Porsche Development Centre consisted mainly of wooden sheds; and the development of the 956 and 962 with the legendary engineer, Norbert Singer.
He describes the fearsome concentration needed to drive the Nürburgring in a Group C sports car; working with team-mates including Stefan Bellof and Bobby Rahal, and explains why Porsche’s IndyCar never achieved its potential.
He’s frank, funny and doesn’t pull his punches. Sit back and enjoy.
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A World Sportscar Champion; Le Mans 24 Hours winner; Formula 1 driver and now a trusted voice to millions in the Sky F1 commentary box. Martin Brundle is inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame this year, in recognition of his exceptional career behind the wheel and the microphone.
In this podcast, Brundle looks back at his racing career; his commentary break filling in for a missing James Hunt, and learning the ropes from fellow Hall of Fame inductee, Murray Walker, whose advice he follows to this day. He talks about the struggle to keep up to date with F1 in the digital age and why he's secretly pleased that Covid put a temporary halt to his trademark grid walk.
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He joined Ferrari as a test driver, partnered Michael Schumacher in his final year with the team and went on to win the 2008 F1 championship... for a few seconds.
Felipe Massa is our latest Motor Sport podcast guest, bringing tales of being part of the Maranello machine; of challenging for the title, then becoming the unmistakable number 2 driver, with the famous radio message, "Fernando is faster than you".
It's the inside story of a rollercoaster career at Ferrari from one of the most popular Formula 1 drivers in recent times.
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Derek Bell shares his vivid memories of his time at Ferrari, which began when he caught the eye of Enzo Ferrari as a young F2 driver in 1968 and soon found himself touring Maranello and having lunch with the Commendatore.
But in a case of being in the right place at the wrong time, Bell describes being the victim of a pared-back Ferrari race programme.
He turned to sports cars, where once more he was seen by Enzo, in a privately-entered Ferrari 512. Another call from Maranello saw him line up for his first Le Mans race in 1970. And the rest is glorious history.
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When Stefan Johansson took the lead at Imola in his second race for Ferrari, he couldn't hear his engine over the roar of the crowd. In the latest from our 'Driving for Ferrari' series, Johansson describes the emotion of racing for the team in the mid-1980s; the contrast with McLaren's clinical approach; and the one question Enzo Ferrari asked him before he joined. Plus - his plan to improve the racing in F1.,
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It's every F1 driver's dream to get a seat with Ferrari... unless the car turns out to be as bad as the 1992 contender. In the latest from our Ferrari podcast series, Ivan Capelli describes the emotion and intensity of signing for the team as an Italian - and how it all unravelled during an "unreal", tense and extremely uncompetitive season
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Gerhard Berger joins Ed Foster for the first of our new series featuring Ferrari's F1 drivers.
Berger is one of the only drivers to leave Ferrari on his terms after both of his stints with the Maranello outfit. He reveals the pressure, the pranks and the privilege of driving for F1's longest-standing team.
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A designer who has worked with drivers including Graham Hill, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Jack Brabham and Ayrton Senna, Gordon Murray knows plenty about what it takes to engineer a Formula 1 great. In the final episode of our podcast series, he reveals some of the secrets to a winning partnership, and talks about his current projects, plus the future of motoring,
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John Barnard pioneered technologies that underpin the modern Formula 1 car, and was first to use a carbon fibre chassis at McLaren where he won titles with Niki Lauda and Alain Prost.
At Ferrari, he developed the semi-automatic gearbox that won the first time it was raced.
In this podcast, Barnard reveals more about working with the top drivers of the era, as well as larger-than-life team bosses, including Enzo Ferrari, Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatore.
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In a career with Hesketh, Williams and Benetton - to name a few - Frank Dernie helped haul F1 into the digital era, pioneering the use of data loggers, active suspension and extensive wind tunnel testing. He also worked with many the legends of the sport, including Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher. In the latest from our podcast series, he tells us what it takes to engineer the greats.
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Patrick Head is the engineering genius who played a crucial role in Williams' success in the 1980s and 1990s. In the latest of our Engineering the Greats series, he talks about starting his career, working with top drivers, including Nigel Mansell, and the future of the current Williams team.
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Without a great engineer, great drivers have no chance to shine. In the first of a new series, Engineering the Greats, Adrian Newey talks about working with some of Formula 1's leading drivers, and what it takes to win championships alongside the likes of Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen and Sebastian Vettel at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull
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Charged with getting the best out of Felipe Massa as his race engineer, Rob Smedley helped the Brazilian to get within a whisker of the F1 world championship.
He was also the head of vehicle performance at Williams and is now working for Formula 1’s promoters, looking to make the technical side of the sport more accessible to fans.
In the final Motor Sport podcast of 2019, he talks through his career: discovering a “baby” Fernando Alonso testing in F3000; his years at Ferrari, plus his thoughts on Williams’ current predicament.
We also ask what happened after he made the famous “Fernando is faster than you” radio call.
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Only one team has won world championships in F1's hybrid era and it's in no small part due to Mercedes' all-conquering engine, built and developed by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains.
To recognise its entry into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame, the MD of the engine division, Andy Cowell, describes the nerve-wracking development of the complex engine; its 'party mode'; the battle to gain ground on Ferrari; and what makes the team so successful.
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Damon Hill and Karun Chandhok offer their unique take on the 2019 Formula 1 season: the drivers that impressed; the best rookie; Leclerc & Vettel's power struggle and the sport's future. Plus, what happened when Karun met Kimi Räikkönen in a Tokyo bar...
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Aston Martin has launched its special edition series celebrating British aviation entitled the Wings Series. It includes special edition models worked on by Q by Aston Martin.
The brains behind the idea are chief creative officer Marek Reichman and director of special projects, Q and sales.
They both joined Motor Sport at the Royal Automobile Club to discuss the initiative as well as other Aston Martin activities.
Listen to insight into that plus the Aston Martin Valkyrie, the development of the Rapide E and the partnership with Red Bull Racing in Formula 1
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Legendary car designer Gordon Murray joined Motor Sport for an evening reflecting on his illustrious career in Formula 1 and the motoring industry.
From his time in F1 to a possible Le Mans entry in 2021, listen as Murray recalls his highlights from a long career and reveals future plans on the drawing board.
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Nigel Mansell joined Motor Sport for an evening of in-depth discussion of a career that included drives for some of Formula 1’s most prestigious teams, the 1992 F1 championship and 1993 CART title.
His career in motor racing spanned 30 years and took him from the lower categories to Formula 1, America and back again.
Mansell talks about his journey to becoming world champion, revealing previously unheard stories and anecdotes from his time as a racing driver.
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Zef Eisenberg is a multiple land-speed record holder, but he's probably best known for surviving Britain’s fastest motorcycle crash: at 230mph, while trying to beat his own record.
In the latest podcast with the Royal Automobile Club and Motor Sport, Eisenberg talks through his record attempts - and crash - and explains why he keeps coming back for more.
“My problem is: when is it enough?” He says. “I want to go further. If you can go 234mph, why not 244mph?”
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Sir Jackie Stewart competed in Formula 1 from 1965 to 1973 in what was a notoriously dangerous period of motor racing history. The Scotsman won three world titles during his career, taking 24 race victories and 43 podium finishes, and campaigned heavily for the improvement of driver safety.
Listen as he reflects on his career as well as the current state of the sport, including why he believes Eau Rouge is not the challenge it is made out to be and why Ross Brawn is the man to lead F1 forward.
This podcast is in association with the Royal Automobile Club.
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Part of the Aston Martin furniture in the manufacturer's GT racing programme, Darren Turner sits down to discuss his career in this week's Motor Sport podcast.
The British GT and World Endurance Championship driver talks about his career in GT racing, his almost two-decade-long affiliation with Aston Martin and even sharing a car with Colin McRae at Le Mans.
The podcast was made in association with Nicholas Mee and Classic & Sports Finance
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Billy Monger had two legs amputated in 2017 after a heavy collision in a Formula 4 race, but immediately set his sights on a return to racing and won this year's Pau Grand Prix.
The 20-year-old talks about coming out of an induced coma and immediately asking who won the F4 race, how he's adapted to racing since the crash, and his friendship with Lewis Hamilton.
The podcast is in association with the Royal Automobile Club, which has awarded Monger the prestigious Segrave Trophy, which marks "outstanding skill, courage and initiative on land, water and in the air".
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To mark the opening of the new 'Murray Walker' television room at the Royal Automobile Club, the legendary commentator recalls the highlights of his illustrious career with a podcast, in association with Motor Sport.
Listen to his memories of working with James Hunt - and the tussles they had for the microphone; why he never sat down during a race; and the reason he doesn't think he would have survived as a commentator in the social media age.
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When Sir Chris Hoy retired from cycling, he moved from the velodrome for the race track, switching from five-minute sprint races to driving in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The six-time Olympic cycling champion joins Ed Foster talks about his cycling career, moving into motor sport, and his latest project that sees him in the cockpit of Formula E and World Rallycross cars — as well as a monster truck.
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Gil de Ferran joins Ed Foster, Simon Arron and Alan Hyde to talk through his career on both sides of the Atlantic: being mentored by Sir Jackie Stewart; setting the fastest closed-course lap of all time, at 241.428mph; and “not preparing well enough” for Fernando Alonso’s Indy 500 attempt.
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Part of the British Touring Car Championship establishment and three times a title winner, Northern Irishman Colin Turkington chats about his low-key start in motor racing, the efforts to which he went to make his first racing car – a Metro – more aerodynamically efficient and the unexpected manner in which a hobby put him on the path to a successful professional career.
He has secured all three of his BTCC championships with West Surrey Racing and BMW – and this season he seeks to emulate Andy Rouse, the only driver previously to have won four. Turkington comes from a family with a strong motor sport heritage – and the dynasty looks certain to continue. When he’s not competing in the BTCC, Turkington can often be found at kart tracks, overseeing the efforts of his two young sons.
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Legendary Formula 1 car designer Adrian Newey joins the Motor Sport team to talk about his wide ranging career in the highest tiers of motor sport.
He talks about his relationships with drivers, his favourite cars, the challenges F1 designers and engineers face and answers questions from our readers.
Newey also won the Royal Automobile Club's ‘2018 Motoring Book of the Year’ trophy for 'How to Build a Car'.
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Tai Woffinden joins Motor Sport features editor Simon Arron and staff writer Samarth Kanal for the latest Royal Automobile Club Talk Show.
Woffinden has won f Speedway world championship titles, the first British rider to do so. He also picked up the Torrens Trophy, awarded by the Royal Automobile Club for motorcycle riders to have made an outstanding contribution to motorcycling, to have displayed outstanding skill in the field or to have made a contribution to safe and skilful motorcycling.
He discusses the ins and outs of Speedway riding, the physical skill needed, and how many world titles he aims to earn.
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Damon Hill, Karun Chandhok, grand prix editor Mark Hughes and features editor Simon Arron discuss the 2019 Formula 1 Season Preview at the IET, London. This event was sponsored by Footman James and Classic and Sports Finance. The panel talks about the season ahead and then answers questions from the audience.
Motor Sport, its readers and the audience raised £1000 for Damon and Karun's chosen charities: the Halow Project and the Vishnu Devananda Charitable Trust.
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John Watson joins staff writer Samarth Kanal for an informal podcast at Race Retro at the end of February. He talks about the worst accidents of his career, working with and against Niki Lauda, and Roger Penske – 'the best president the United States never had.'
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The Roger Penske Royal Automobile Club Talk Show took place at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London. Motor Sport editor Joe Dunn joins staff writer Samarth Kanal as we talk to The Captain about his incredible career as the boss of one of the greatest racing teams ever.
Topics covered include the loss of Mark Donohue; the incredible 2018 season that delivered the Indy 500, NASCAR Cup Series and the team's 500th win; the team's legacy as the last American F1 team to have won a grand prix and more; the 'Beast' and more...
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Join Motor Sport editor Joe Dunn, features editor Simon Arron, production editor Rob Ladbrook and art editor Damon Cogman as they take you through the new-look March 2019 issue of the magazine. We look at how the cover was created, the new layout of the magazine and the features that await.
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Ever wanted to get started in motor sport yourself, but not sure what it takes or how to do it?
Late last year Radical Sportscars gave Motor Sport's staff photographer Lyndon McNeil the chance to fulfil his dream of going racing by guiding him through his licence test and putting him into the final round of the Radical SR1 Cup at Brands Hatch.
In this podcast we catch up with some of the key names from that feature, Radical's Alex Mortimer (himself a former British GT champion) and driver coaches Stuart Moseley and Roger Bromiley to talk through how they all got start in the sport and expose the triumphs – and the pitfalls – that go along with your early years in the sport.
Topics include crashing, how not to crash, plus the fact there are no benefits to crashing into your team-mate – especially when your family runs the team – and much, much more.
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Karun Chandhok joins Motor Sport staff writer Samarth Kanal, features editor Simon Arron and production editor Rob Ladbrook for the latest podcast.
He discusses the culture shock when he first arrived to race in the UK, becoming the first Indian driver to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, racing at Goodwood and driving Williams Formula 1 cars. He also discusses turbulent times with Lotus and Caterham during his Formula 1 career, and his special debut victory in the GP2 Series at Spa-Francorchamps.
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Join Motor Sport editor Joe Dunn, staff photographer Lyndon McNeil, features editor Simon Arron and art editor Damon Cogman as they look through the February 2019 issue of the magazine.
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Marc Márquez's most wins year since 2014; Jorge Lorenzo wins on the Ducati and switches to Honda; Yamaha, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales struggle; Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia gain traction – just some of this year's talking points from the 2018 MotoGP season.
Freddie Spencer and Mat Oxley reflect on them all and more with Motor Sport digital editor, Jack Phillips.
You can buy the official season review book, written by Mat, now from shop.motorsportmagazine.com.
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Freddie Spencer on the last round of the 2018 MotoGP season in Spain, where "atrocious" conditions made for an exciting race.
He talks about the pressure on riders, his own experience at the circuit (having participated in the Valencia Classic), the race itself – including secrets to overtaking in the rain – and more.
Plus, he explains why this will be his final Rider Insight for Motor Sport.
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Audi team principal Allan McNish discusses Formula E and the future of motor sport with Motor Sport magazine digital editor Jack Phillips, features editor Simon Arron and production editor Rob Ladbrook.
McNish was in London for the Royal Automobile Club Motoring Week, where his 'From Combustion to Electric' motoring lecture took place.
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John Hogan was the man who oversaw Marlboro's involvement with Formula 1 for 30 years, from McLaren to Ferrari, James Hunt to Ayrton Senna, and counts both Ron Dennis and Bernie Ecclestone as friends.
So we joined him at CSM, where he still acts as consultant to look back.
Plus, he explains why McLaren didn't sign Gilles Villeneuve, why McLaren picked Hunt over Jacky Ickx, how Dennis took control – and then lost Marlboro backing, and much, much more.
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Multiple world champion Freddie Spencer reviews the Malaysian MotoGP, as Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez lock horns, Ducati's duo raises questions, and Freddie looks ahead to what's in store next year.
And, could Rossi have saved that slide?
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Maverick Viñales ends Yamaha's win drought, Johann Zarco and Marc Márquez dramatically come together, Cal Crutchlow crashes, and Suzuki claims runner-up; multiple world champion Freddie Spencer reviews it all.
And penguins...
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Freddie Spencer discusses the Japanese MotoGP, that saw another battle between Marc Márquez and Andrea Dovizioso – with the former wrapping up another world title.
Plus, Spencer explains more about his new role within MotoGP as chairman of the stewards.
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Four-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea visits the Royal Automobile Club to discuss his record breaking season, in which he's become the first rider to win four titles in a row and surpassed Carl Fogarty's record for the most wins.
Plus, he reveals how close he came to MotoGP, why he's never raced the Isle of Man TT, what he'll do next and much, much more.
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Multiple world champion Freddie Spencer gives his view on the MotoGP from Thailand, as Marquez out Doviziosos Dovizioso.
Plus, he considers Maverick Viñales' upturn in form.
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A snap 10-minute podcast, with Joe Dunn, Helena Barrow, Simon Arron and Rob Ladbrook discussing the W Series. Launched today, October 10, it is a 'women-only international series addresses historic gender imbalance in motor sport.'
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Freddie Spencer reviews the Aragon round of the 2018 MotoGP season, where Marc Márquez bettered Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso – and Jorge Lorenzo controversially crashed out. Plus, he offers his view on Aprilia's and Suzuki's stronger showing.
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Time got away from us a little last month...
So listen to Joe Dunn and the rest of the editorial team go behind the scenes of the both the October and November issues, featuring Dario Franchitti driving a Porsche 917, Ferrari 512 and Lola T70 on the same day and the rebirth of a famous E-type.
Plus, there's a look at F1's move into esports, and how unseen photos of Mercedes' infamous 1999 Le Mans have reappeared.
Buy the issue at shop.motorsportmagazine.com.
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Senna vs Prost. Tyrrell, Jackie Stewart and Francois Cevert. The Rodriguez brothers, Pedro and Ricardo. Dan Gurney and Eagle. Senna vs Schumacher. John Wyer Automotive and Gulf Racing.
Jo Ramirez was on the inside of it all. He joins Motor Sport features editor Simon Arron and digital editor Jack Phillips to look back on his long career, from moving to Europe from Mexico with Ricardo Rodriguez in 1961 to his retirement in McLaren (with a Harley-Davidson!) in 2000.
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Misano is an important circuit for Freddie Spencer, where he learned an important lesson during his motorcycling career. So he gives his unique insight into the 2018 MotoGP race from San Marino, where Andrea Dovizioso scored Ducati’s third win in a row.
Plus, he offers his view on Romano Fenati grabbing the brake of a rival, which has seen him lose his race licence and his ride in Moto2.
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Motorcycle racer turned TV analyst Steve Parrish joins Motor Sport magazine's Mat Oxley and Jack Phillips ahead of his evening at the Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall.
He looks back on how the world of motorcycling has changed since he retired, including recalling the many antics recounted in his new Parrish Times autobiography., what's changed at the Isle of Man TT and what it was like to be Barry Sheene's team-mate.
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Freddie Spencer looks at the cancelled round of MotoGP at Silverstone, and looks back to his soaking-wet Silverstone victory in 1985 and to his recent bumpy ride around the circuit in the World GP Legends.
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World champion Freddie Spencer comments on the Austria round of MotoGP, where Jorge Lorenzo held off Marc Márquez for the victory.
Plus, he considers Márquez's change in approach this year, and his lack of crashes this year, and whether Lorenzo has learned from Andrea Dovizioso tactics against Márquez.
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Andrea Dovizioso returned to the top step of the podium with victory at Brno, multiple world champion Freddie Spencer gives his take on the race, the rivalry between Jorge Lorenzo and Dovi, and the importance of test riders in MotoGP.
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F1 is on its summer shutdown, so Mark Hughes, Motor Sport's Grand Prix editor, joins Jack Phillips, Simon Arron and Motor Sport's new production editor, Rob Ladbrook, to look at the season so far.
The many, many questions from readers get answered, including whether Mercedes knows how Ferrari made up the deficit and created the fastest car, what will happen at Red Bull, and who's been the best of the rest on the F1 grid.
Plus, the team has its say on who will be world champion come November, and whether they will be in the same league as Fangio.
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Brian Redman takes a break from his Goodwood Festival of Speed schedule to spend 20 minutes chatting with Motor Sport digital editor Jack Phillips to reveal favourite Porsche, the first Porsche he ever drove, what it's like to return to Goodwood every year, why he never raced at Indy and much more – before dashing off to track down his car to join the 70th anniversary parade.
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Joe Dunn takes you behind the scenes of the latest issue of Motor Sport, joined by Simon Arron, Lyndon McNeil, Samarth Kanal and Jack Phillips.
The September issue sees Dickie Meaden on the ground at the Nürburgring with Porsche as it pursues Stefan Bellof's lap record, and so we recall racing's other great records as part of a 'record breakers' feature. Plus Simon Arron takes John Barnard to lunch, Samarth Kanal discovers what it's like at Audi since it swapped endurance racing for Formula E and Mat Oxley delves into the history of MV Agusta.
You can buy the issue the editorial team are discussing at https://shop.motorsportmagazine.com/ or download it instantly in our app: http://onelink.to/motorsportapp
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Freddie Spencer, multiple world motorcycle champion, discusses the German MotoGP, the Sachsenring circuit and its history.
Plus, he looks at Dani Pedrosa's decision to retire from MotoGP at the end of the season and the legacy he will leave.
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Former Ferrari and McLaren designer John Barnard, the man who introduced the carbon monocoque to Formula 1 and the paddle-shift gearbox, joins us to look back on his distinguished career.
In London to launch his new autobiography, 'The Perfect Car', he considers if such a thing exists, looks back on his career, the rights and wrongs of his time at Ferrari, the back story to Nigel Mansell's 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix win and much more.
Unfortunately, a microphone failed during recorded. We apologise for the audio quality of presenter Jack Phillips.
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Editor Joe Dunn introduces the latest (and July's) issue of Motor Sport, joined by features editor Simon Arron, art editor Damon Cogman, photographer Lyndon McNeil and digital editor Jack Phillips.
July saw us preview Le Mans, from the point of view of Britain's many GTE stars, Tiff Needell reminisce about Thruxton, and Mark Hughes unravel the mess of McLaren. In the August issue, Murray Walker, Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Lewis Hamilton and many more look back on Silverstone's eight decades of F1 and Mark Hughes delves into the psyche of Max Verstappen.
Visit shop.motorsportmagazine.com to buy the issues, or subscribe
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the thrilling Assen TT round of MotoGP, from how F1’s potential visit might affect the circuit, and what makes it such a good track, to Dani Pedrosa’s future predicament, to why MotoGP has become more exciting than Formula 1. Plus, he explains why Marc Marquez is so special and why Alex Rins impressed so much.
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the latest round of the 2018 MotoGP season at Catalunya, where Jorge Lorenzo took his second win in a row ahed of Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi.
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Five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell joins Motor Sport's Joe Dunn and Jack Phillips to introduce his new book, 'All my Porsche Races', and look back on his time with Porsche. Plus, he recalls his work on the Steve McQueen epic 'Le Mans', and explains how to take Eau Rouge flat in a Porsche 962...
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John Fitzpatrick, versatile racer who drove for Porsche, Ford and BMW joins Motor Sport digital editor Jack Phillips to look back on his colourful and long career.
He recalls everything from racing Minis with Paddy Hopkirk, watching Jackie Stewart's first Tyrrell test, to winning more races in a Porsche 935 than anyone else and being the only man to win in a 956 in America.
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F1 driver-turned-commentator and TV presenter David Coulthard joins Motor Sport's Joe Dunn and Simon Arron to discuss Formula 1, what it takes to be a racing driver, and his upcoming book, 'The Winning Formula'.
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Multiple world champion Freddie Spencer looks back on the Italian MotoGP from Mugello, scene of Freddie's first double World Championship Grand Prix win, in 1985.
Plus, he explains the small change at Ducati that made the difference for Jorge Lorenzo, what's behind Maverick Viñales' struggles, and looks at Lorenzo's move to Honda alongside Marc Márquez
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Freddie Hunt and Alastair Caldwell joined us for us the latest podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz to look back on Freddie's father James, who died of a heart attack 25 years ago this month.
Plus, Alastair recalls his time with McLaren and how the team changed, as well as how working for Bruce compared with Bernie Ecclestone.
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Six-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx joins Motor Sport editor Joe Dunn and features editor Simon Arron to look back on his early career, his partnership with Porsche, Formula 2 and much more.
Jacky was in London as part of Porsche and Chopard's 356 International event.
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Winner of the 2017 Dakar Rally, the first Briton ever to do so, Sam Sunderland was recently awarded the prestigious Segrave Trophy to celebrate his outstanding achievement. Just before he collected the giant trophy, and just after his 'Segrave tweed' jacket fitting with Henry Poole & Co, he sat down with Mat Oxley and Motor Sport digital editor Jack Phillips to discuss the Dakar Rally in vivid detail.
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the dramatic 2018 Argentine MotoGP race, where Cal Crutchlow scored his first win of the year. Plus, Freddie gives his take on the performance of Marc Márquez – and Johann Zarco – that created such controversy.
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Former racer and TV presenter David Hobbs looks back on his expansive and varied racing career, from Morris Oxford to Formula 1, and on to Le Mans, America and more.
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Former F1 racer and sports car champion Martin Brundle discusses modern Formula 1, the new breed of superstars, sustainability of Grand Prix racing, the halo, plus he looks back on some of his memories from his career.
For more details about the Grand Prix Trust, visit: www.grandprixtrust.com/
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the opening round of the 2018 MotoGP season from Qatar, where Andrea Dovizioso held off a late charge from Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi began the season on the podium.
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Freddie Spencer gives his take on MotoGP testing, and answers the questions we didn't have time for in the full MotoGP season preview.
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World champion Freddie Spencer and leading MotoGP journalist Mat Oxley join Motor Sport digital editor Jack Phillips to look ahead to the 2018 MotoGP season. Valentino Rossi continues his search for a 10th world title, Marc Marquez bids for yet another win, and Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso battle for the lead Ducati seat. Plus, they discuss Tech 3’s switch from Yamaha, and what it might mean.
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Matt and Steve Neal of hugely successful British Touring Car Championship squad Team Dynamics join us for an hour's chat about the history of the BTCC, their memories including that first independents win to almost signing Jason Plato, Bathurst, and racing in the 1960s British Saloon Car Championship.
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Dickie Stanford and Jonathan Williams of Williams Heritage join Motor Sport editor Nick Trott, features editor Simon Arron and (jet lagged) digital editor Jack Phillips.
The pair discuss how Williams Heritage came to be, looking back on some of the cars housed in the collection, plus they talk Senna, Piquet, Mansell and much more.
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Editor Nick Trott, deputy editor Joe Dunn, art editor Damon Cogman and photographer Lyndon McNeil take you behind the scenes of the February issue of Motor Sport, a Colin McRae special. Plus, Gordon Murray reflects, the secrets of the Porsche 956 are revealed, and Dickie Meaden heads to Daytona.
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Design legend Gordon Murray joins Motor Sport editor Nick Trott, editor-at-large Gordon Cruickshank and features editor Simon Arron for the latest Royal Automobile Club Talk Show.
From Brabham and Bernie Ecclestone to his latest road car projects and collection, Murray is on typically riveting form, and he answers your many, many questions.
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the 2017 MotoGP season, who impressed, who didn't.
From Jonas Folger in 10th to world champion Marc Marquez, he counts down the top 10 in MotoGP.
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The latest podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz – David Brabham updates digital editor Jack Phillips and contributing editor Dickie Meaden on Project Brabham, looks back on his time at Aston Martin, Formula 1 and much, much more.
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Karun Chandhok looks back on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
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Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner chats to Motor Sport editor Nick Trott and features editor Simon Arron about his career, on and off the track. From almost signing Fernando Alonso, to where Formula 1 goes next, Horner covers it all.
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Multiple world champion Freddie Spencer on the season-ending round of MotoGP from Valencia, as Marquez does enough, Pedrosa denies Zarco and the Ducatis hit problems. Plus, he explains what it takes to ride Valencia.
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Karun Chandhok reviews the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix from Interlagos. From the stellar Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton’s mixed weekend to the off-colour Red Bulls. Plus, the trouble for Mercedes and Felipe Massa’s farewell home race.
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Nick Trott, Joe Dunn, Simon Arron and Damon Cogman discuss the December issue of Motor Sport, as Mark Hughes compares Hamilton and Vettel, Mercedes and Ferrari, Ari Vatanen takes Lunch, and a Penske IndyCar tackles Prescott.
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Sports car legend, Le Mans winner and F1 racer Hans-Joachim Stuck talks us through his career, his team-mates, Bernie Ecclestone, his father – Hans Stuck – and much more.
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Three-time world champion examines the differences between Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso and what it means the MotoGP title fight, following Dovi's Sepang win.
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Karun's take on a riveting title-decider in Mexico, his view on Verstappen and where Hamilton's title was won
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the MotoGP from Phillip Island, as Márquez edges closer to the title, Ducati and Dovi struggle, and Zarco ruffles some feathers.
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Former NISMO boss Darren Cox examines the state of play in the World Endurance Championship, and looks back on his time with Nissan.
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the Japanese Grand Prix, from Marc Marquez and Dovisizo's duel, the challenging conditions, Zarco's aggression and much more.
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Nick Trott, Damon Cogman and Simon Arron discuss the latest issue of Motor Sport, which races the four ages of Niki Lauda. Plus, we drive an Alan Mann Mustang more than 50 years after the first time, Dickie Meaden looks back on the St Mary's Trophy and Mark Hughes dissects the Renault rise.
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Le Mans winners, with seven victories between them, Richard Attwood, Derek Bell and Nick Tandy sit down to look back on their respective careers and what's changed since Attwood's 1970 Le Mans win.
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Karun Chandhok reports back from Japan, discussing Lewis Hamilton's latest victory. Plus, the impressive Red Bulls, Jolyon's tough weekend and the continuing grid penalties problem.
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Karun Chandhok reviews Max Verstappen's Malaysian Grand Prix victory for Red Bull Racing, as Ferrari misses another big opportunity. Plus, he looks at why the Mercedes is either on the pace or off it in Formula 1.
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Freddie Spencer looks at the Arágon MotoGP, as Marc Márquez takes a 16-point lead in the title chase with victory. Plus, Rossi returns just weeks after breaking his leg, and Dovi drops back.
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Karun Chandhok dissects the start crash between Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen, and looks at the dominance of Lewis Hamilton in Singapore.
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Freddie Spencer discusses the big talking points from Misano where Márquez mastered the conditions, Dovi played the long game and Petrucci showed his potential
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Editor Nick Trott is joined by deputy editor Joe Dunn, features editor Simon Arron, art editor Damon Cogman and photographer Lyndon McNeil to take you behind the scenes of the latest issue. It's the first of a new-look Motor Sport, and the team will reveal the stories and secrets behind the changes. And fonts...
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The standout performers from Monza, a look ahead to the fly-away races and how Ferrari still has a joker to play – Karun Chandhok reports back from Monza with his latest driver insight.
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Three-time world motorcycling champion Freddie Spencer joins Mat Oxley and Jack Phillips to review the British round of the MotoGP and look ahead to who might be crowned the 2017 MotoGP World Champion.
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Five-time Grand Prix winner John Watson joined editor Nick Trott, features editor Simon Arron and digital editor Jack Phillips for a typically entertaining 80 minutes for the latest podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz.
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Karun Chandhok reports after a tense Grand Prix at Spa, where Ferrari limited its losses and Force India drivers continued their feud
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Freddie Spencer discusses the big talking points from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where Dovizioso showed his championship class and a title contender hit rare mechanical trouble
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Freddie Spencer analyses the brilliant Austrian MotoGP, as Andrea Dovizioso beats Marc Márquez. Is Valentino Rossi out of the title fight? Has Lorenzo turned a corner? Plus Freddie recalls his memories of the old Salzburgring.
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Editor Nick Trott, features editor Simon Arron, art editor Damon Cogman and photographer Lyndon McNeil sit down to discuss the special September 2017 edition of Motor Sport. From how the front cover artwork came to be, to why drifting made its way onto Motor Sport's pages for the first time.
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Freddie Spencer looks back on the 2017 Czech MotoGP, the first race back from the summer break. How the tyre gamble paid off for Márquez, how Viñales's bike and setup choice played out, and how Dani Pedrosa notched up a MotoGP milestone. Plus, he pays his respects to the great Ángel Nieto.
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Could intra-team battles have repercussions down the line? Karun Chandhok offers his take on the Hungarian Grand Prix, as team orders play their part.
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Reigning world champion Nico Rosberg joined Motor Sport editor Nick Trott at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to talk about his championship-winning year, what comes next and to answer your many, many questions.
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Hamilton stars, Kimi impresses and Bottas recovers – Karun Chandhok offers his take on the British Grand Prix
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Karun Chandhok reports after the Austrian Grand Prix, where a flying Finn clinched a second career win
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Two-time Formula 1 World Champion and Indianapolis 500 legend Emerson Fittipaldi joins Nick Trott, Simon Arron and Jack Phillips of Motor Sport magazine at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall to reveal more about his new supercar, the Fittipaldi EF7 Vision Gran Turismo. Designed with Pininfarina, and built in partnership with Mercedes' HWA race team, the EF7 is due to begin testing in late 2017. Plus, Fittipaldi looks back on his great career, his friendship with Ayrton Senna, moving to England and much more.
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Freddie Spencer offers his take on the German MotoGP – and a word on Goodwood where he was riding a variety of 'bikes up the hill.From the tight and close circuit, the struggles of Yamaha, the Viñales and Rossi battle to the very impressive Folger.
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Nick Trott, Joe Dunn, Simon Arron and Lyndon McNeil take you behind the scenes of the August issue of Motor Sport, featuring Karun Chandhok driving the Williams FW40 and FW14B. Plus, how IndyCar' drivers are surviving the big one, an exclusive Rover SD1 triple test and the Jaguar XJ220, 25 years on.
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Freddie Spencer discusses the big talking points from the Dutch TT where Valentino Rossi showed his champion class and explains how MotoGP is a game of anticipation and judgement.
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Karun Chandhok on the chaotic race in Baku that saw title rivals clash, team-mates collide and a teenager claim an unlikely podium.
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Dario Franchitti joined Ed Foster and Nick Trott of Motor Sport magazine at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall to look back on the Indy 500 and Fernando Alonso's performance. Dario also answers a few of your questions.
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Freddie Spencer looks back at the Catalunya Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Dovizioso made it back-to-back wins as Honda chased hard and Yamaha struggled.
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Lewis' brilliant race, Ferrari on the back foot, and the difficult situation at Force India and much more.
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Freddie Spencer looks back at the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. It was a popular win for Dovisioso while Rossi struggled with his injury.
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Ed Foster, Nick Trott, Damon Cogman, Lyndon McNeil and Jack Phillips discuss the July issue of Motor Sport, taking you behind the scenes of how it all came together. We apologise for the recording quality, normal service will resume next month. Technology problems and interference got the better of us.
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Rob Wilson joined us to talk through his esteemed career, from racing driver to one of the world's most prominent driver coaches. He's coached much of the Formula 1 grid and raced against some of the best in everything, from NASCAR and Indy Lights, through to Formula Ford. He also has his say on Fernando Alonso competing in the Indy 500.
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Karun Chandhok looks back at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix: What happened to Lewis Hamilton? And did Ferrari use team orders to get Vettel ahead of Raikkonen?
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Freddie Spencer looks back at the MotoGP round at Le Mans and also remembers the late Nicky Hayden who tragically lost his life on the Monday after the race.
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Karun Chandhok's latest post-race insight – the big Barcelona updates, how Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes combined to deny Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, and why this is shaping up to be the best F1 season for years.
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Double touring car champion John Cleland joins the podcast team to tell his many stories from his racing career.
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Freddie Spencer gives his take on the Spanish MotoGP, where Dani Pedrosa led a Honda 1-2.
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Ed Foster, Nick Trott, Joe Dunn, Simon Arron and Lyndon McNeil go behind the scenes on how the June issue came together. From Bellof's 'Ring lap, racing's greatest laps to the 'Flying Brick'.
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Karun Chandhok reports back from Sochi, did Massa deny Vettel? Are Bottas and Raikkonen championship contenders? He discusses the major talking points from the 2017 Russian Grand Prix.
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Paul Stewart joins Ed Foster, Nick Trott and Simon Arron of Motor Sport for a podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz.
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Three-time world champion Freddie Spencer considers the best of the 2017 MotoGP of the Americas, including Valentino Rossi's penalty, how he's come to lead the championship, what's changed for Maverick Viñales and the effect the circuit had on the race.
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Karun Chandhok looks back at the major talking points from the Formula 1 from Bahrain, while Alex Wurz reports on the opening round of the World Endurance Championship season from Silverstone.
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Freddie Spencer and Karun Chandhok offer their insights into the recent Grands Prix, the MotoGP from Argentina and the Formula 1 from China.
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Ahead of the Royal Automobile Club’s Tourist Trophy Dinner last month, 2014 Tourist Trophy winner and 2015 World Endurance champion Anthony Davidson discussed all-things World Endurance Championship (WEC), British drivers in sports cars, the future of technology and winning the Formula Ford Festival. With the WEC season opener taking place this weekend (14 to 16 April) in the form of the 6 Hours of Silverstone, Davidson looks to the months ahead.
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Ed Foster is joined by Motor Sport editor Nick Trott, features editor Simon Arron, deputy editor Joe Dunn and art editor Damon Cogman to reveal how the May issue of Motor Sport came to be.
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Freddie Spencer and Karun Chandhok review the opening rounds of MotoGP and Formula 1 respectively in the new rider and driver insights series from Motor Sport.
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Tiff Needell joined Ed Foster at the Royal Automobile Club, Woodcote Park, for the latest Royal Automobile Club Talk Show in association with Motor Sport. The topic? The 2017 Formula 1 season.
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Karun Chandhok and Mark Hughes preview the 2017 F1 season with the podcast team, looking ahead to the new rules, new tyres, new driver line-ups and much more in the latest podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz.
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Freddie Spencer looks ahead to the 2017 MotoGP season with Motor Sport's Ed Foster and Mat Oxley in the latest podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz.
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Online editor Ed Foster, deputy editor Joe Dunn and art editor Damon Cogman chat through the April 2017 issue of Motor Sport, featuring the Formula 1 preview, John McGuinness, motor racing's biggest scandals, and much, much more besides.
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The first Royal Automobile Club Talk Show of 2017 saw Tom Kristensen join us to talk sports cars, BTCC, Japan and of course Le Mans. Kristensen was at the Club's Pall Mall venue for its Annual Motoring Dinner.
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It was only when we rang Jody Scheckter's doorbell that we remembered that the 1979 Formula 1 World Champion was our first ever podcast guest back in 2009. Over 100 podcasts ago we decided that our recordings would be a lot more interesting if we invited a guest along and Jody was an obvious choice. Eight years later and we've finally pinned him down again. We had so many questions from the readers that I binned the script and simply asked as many as possible. Cue stories on his formative years, his arrival in F1, his time at Ferrari, the world championship and his current work at Laverstoke. Enjoy and, as always, let us know what you think.
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James Weaver and Andy Wallace make a popular return to the podcast chair to tell more stories from their careers and also discuss who should be on the shortlist for the Motor Sport Hall of Fame US racing category.
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It's taken us a while to pin two-time Le Mans winner Alex Wurz down – he's a busy man with work in both the World Endurance Championship and Formula 1 as head of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. However, we did finally catch him on his way out of the UK and this is the result: a fantastic hour of Formula 1, sports cars, BMX world championships and being inspired by Steven Spielberg's film ET. Enjoy and, as always, let us know what you think.
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Featuring Ross Brawn and Nick Fry lifting the lid on the success of Brawn GP, TT hero John McGuinness, Alistair Caldwell on 1976, Stirling Moss recalling the Mille Miglia he won with Jenks in 1955, Damon Hill, Stuart Turner, Dick Bennetts on F3 with Mika Häkkinen, and Pat Symonds.
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Ed Foster, Nick Trott, Simon Arron, Damon Cogman, Joe Dunn and Gordon Cruickshank discuss the newest issue of Motor Sport.
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The best bits of the Motor Sport podcast from 2016, with Simon Taylor, Lord March, Cosworth's Mike Costin, Jochen Mass, Derek Warwick and Alan Gow.
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Our final Motor Sport podcast of 2016, in association with Mercedes-Benz, and we sat down with British Touring Car Championship boss Alan Gow. We chat Peter Brock, the past, present and future of the BTCC and even the posibility of a night race...
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Recorded live at the screening of Crash and Byrne, Motor Sport's Simon Arron interviews Tommy Byrne.
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Freddie Spencer joined Ed Foster and Mat Oxley to help decide which 12 names from motorcycling should be on the shortlist for the Hall of Fame in 2017. Plus, Spencer asks yours questions.
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The second-last podcast of 2016 and we head to Goodwood to talk to Lord March about his grandfather, the Festival of Speed, the Revival and what it takes to run these events every year.
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Mike Costin, co-founder of Cosworth and one of the key men behind the DFV, joined the Motor Sport team for an hour-long chat.
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Ahead of the Dewar Trophy and Simms Medal presentations the podcast team sat down with Williams' chief technical officer Pat Symonds to discuss the winners of the two awards as well as Formula 1's 2017 regulations. We also cover the greatest racing driver excuse of all time, courtesy of Ayrton Senna, and Pat's time at Benetton. It's the eighth time Pat has graced the microphone on this site and his ability to distill technical discussions into something even I can understand remains undimmed. Enjoy.
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Dick Bennetts, the founder and boss of West Surrey Racing, first came to the UK from New Zealand in 1972 and has worked with Ron Dennis, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Mauricio Gugelmin, Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello. In 1996 WSR moved from the world of Formula 3 and entered the British Touring Car Championship where it has won 69 races and finished on the podium 231 times.
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Five-time Le Mans winner and 2016 Hall of Fame inductee Derek Bell joined Ed Foster and Gary Watkins to decide which 12 names from the world of sports cars should be on the Hall of Fame shortlist in 2017
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Jochen Mass joined Ed Foster and the returning Rob Widdows to talk about his career and to answer reader questions in the latest Motor Sport podcast in association with Mercedes-Benz.
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Karun Chandhok joined Mark Hughes and presenter Ed Foster to talk about his career, modern Formula 1, both on track and behind the scenes. He also had the all-important task helping to decide which 12 greats from F1 should be on the Hall of Fame shortlist for 2017.
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The man who took Mini to Monte glory, Stuart Turner, talks about his vast and varied career, from rallying, racing to journalism.
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Most of you will know Simon Taylor as the man behind Motor Sport's 'Lunch With' series – one that has included 125 lunch-based interviews with the sport's biggest names. He first sat down for 'Lunch With' in June 2006. The subject was Max Mosley and the pair ate at the Café de Paris where the then-president of the FIA ate "a tiny lobster mousse, green salad, still water and an espresso".As the issues rolled on Simon had lunch with a huge array of names from Tyler Alexander to Alex Wurz via Ross Brawn, Richard Petty, Ron Dennis and the late Chris Amon. After 10 years of lunches Simon has decided to call it a day (he'll still write for Motor Sport, but he's stepping down from Lunch With) and to honour what Damien Smith describes as "the greatest series of interviews in motor sport publishing" we decided to sit the man himself down for a bite to eat. Want to know what all these big names were like to interview? Enjoy.
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Damon Hill discusses his Formula 1 World Championship win, 20 years on, plus modern F1 and much more.
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It's a big one... Our 100th podcast here at Motor Sport and it's the first one in partnership with Mercedes-Benz. It was also our first podcast al fresco in the British summer sun. Derek Warwick was on his usual fantastic form and we cover everything from knicking his Dad's engines in Superstox to his Uncle Stan flying aeroplanes under Tower Bridge (yes, really). We also find time to talk about sports cars, Formula 1 and young British driving talent.
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Alastair Caldwell tells good stories. A lot of good stories. Whether it's about how he got into the sport or what it was like looking after James Hunt the night before the Canadian Grand Prix they are always entertaining and they usually end with a michevous cackle. For this Royal Automobile Club Talk Show we focused solely on 1976 – the year that James Hunt won the title. It was an incredible year in Formula 1 with everything from terrible accidents to race disqualifications. "I remember when we were on our way back from Japan," Alastair told me after we stopped recording, "and we all said to each other: There's no point in taking this to Hollywood, no one would believe what happened." Over 30 years later Rush, the Hollywood film centered around 1976, was made. The Club is celebrating that world championship year all through 2016 and only two weeks ago hosted a dinner with John Hogan, Freddie and Tom Hunt and James' two sisters and brother. We hope you enjoy Alastair's view on the season which changed so much for Formula 1.
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Having accepted his Hall of Fame award Valentino Rossi chats to Mat Oxley about his favourite bike, the competition at the moment and why he is "f**ked" if it gets any tougher.
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The reward for an early start for the podcast team was an hour-long chat with David Richards, chairman of Prodrive. A winner in the World Rally Championship as co-driver, he and Prodrive have gone on to feature at the top of all four-wheeled motor sport. He gives his views on the state of modern Formula 1 and WRC, Colin McRae, Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve. Plus modern GT racing's appeal, and he answers your many, many questions.
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Last night's Motor Sport Hall of Fame kicked off with a panel discussion on motor sport's great rivalries. The stars included five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell, nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, two-time Le Mans class winner Darren Turner, former Formula 1 driver and team owner Jackie Oliver, Motor Sport writer and former Isle of Man TT winner Mat Oxley and editor Damien Smith. To download the podcast please visit our Soundcloud page. You can also subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes.
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Being the month of May we sat down with Sir Stirling Moss to talk Monaco and the Mille Miglia. Moss famously won the latter in 1955 with Motor Sport's continental correspondent Denis Jenkinson aboard the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. In Monaco he also enjoyed great success with Grand Prix wins in 1956, 1960 and 1961. His last win there, when he held off the faster Ferraris behind him, is widely considered one of his greatest races of all time. We also take readers' questions which cover Moss' greastest corners, his retirement from racing and much more.
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Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, Williams in the 1980s, Frank Williams, Patrick Head, the state of modern F1, the problems with overtaking, Toyota, Jarno Trulli... There is not much we don't cover in this podcast with Frank Dernie.
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John Surtees has a lot of fans. That much is clear from how many questions and good wishes were submitted when we announced we were recording a podcast with him.He's also amazingly sprightly and his memory is far better than mine. At the end of the podcast below I fired a completely random question to him about racing around the streets of Madrid in the late 1950s and within a matter of seconds he was into a story about the crowds and Francisco Franco sitting in a dangerous place. Astonishing.We talk through the 2016 Motor Sport Hall of Fame shortlist (below) and John gives his view on who he'd like to see victorious in each category. What's more, we take as many questions as possible.The shortlist, as voted for by you, is: Formula 1 – Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, Gilles Villeneuve, Professor Sid Watkins, Sports cars – Derek Bell, Brian Redman, Pedro Rodríguez, Motorcycling – Joey Dunlop, Mike Hailwood, Valentino Rossi, Rallying – Richard Burns, Sébastien Loeb, Hannu Mikkola, US racing – Dan Gurney, AJ Foyt, Roger Penske.Here's what Il Grande John had to say...
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I first met McGuinness at the Isle of Man TT in 2011. I was on the island to write a colour piece about the week’s racing and the big characters and John was top of the interview list.Having organised the trip at the last minute the only hire car left on the island was a pink soft-top Nissan Micra. I decided to take my ‘bike helmet and hitch lifts. It was because of a particularly mad Frenchman – who had given me a lift from my campsite to the paddock that morning on his (very fast) BMW tourer – that I knocked on John’s motorhome door with slightly shaky hands.John opened the door, invited me in and offered me a ‘cuppa’. Being relatively new to road racing it seemed odd that one of its most successful counterparts was happy to be making tea. Formula 1 this was not.What followed was a fascinating 45 minutes chatting about the TT course and what makes it so special. By the end of it I had to keep reminding myself who McGuinness was such was his normality. To be fair, most road racers I have met are some of the most ‘normal’ people in racing. Is it because their passion is so dangerous that they behave off the track the way they do? Possibly.Since that day in May five years ago I’ve bumped into John and interviewed him on numerous occasions and despite the number of TT wins continuing to grow he has always remained exactly the same man I met in that paddock motorhome. He was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame in 2014 and, on typical form, he had the room in stitches as soon as he was given a microphone.“I was first put on a motorbike when I was three years old by my dad,” he told the 400-strong crowd, “and I’ve come a long way since then. I once wrote in to Jim’ll Fix It asking to do a jump with Evel Knievel, but in hindsight I’m kind of glad I didn’t. There’s only so much I’ll do for a jump with Evel Knievel…”Yesterday we recorded the podcast (which you can listen to below) before McGuinness was awarded the Segrave Trophy – a Royal Automobile Club trophy on which is written: “The simple idea behind this Tribute to Sir Henry Segrave is to stimulate others also to uphold British prestige before the world by demonstrating how the display of courage, initiative and skill – the Spirit of Adventure itself – can assist progress in mechanical development.”In the past it’s been won by the likes of Malcolm and Donald Campbell, Geoff Duke, Bruce McLaren, Jackie Stewart, Mike Hailwood, Colin McRae and Joey Dunlop. The Segrave Trophy is truly a ‘who’s who’ of motor racing and McGuinness’ addition to the list of names is, in my opinion, long overdue.How many other sportsmen have stayed at the top of their game for 20 years? Rossi has managed it in MotoGP and there were the Redmans and Fittipaldis, but the list is short. Bear in mind that McPint has stayed at the top of his game in road racing – a part of the sport which remains extremely dangerous. You don’t play on that knife-edge of control for long in road racing without a huge amount of talent.At the end of the podcast I asked him about Macau – a street circuit where he has always been quick – and he paused before answering: “I think I’ve only been arrested there once…” Of course, the subsequent story had us all in stitches.Before he accepted the Trophy from the Club’s chairman Tom Purves, a highlights video was played of his remarkable 2015 Senior TT win (below). After a difficult year in 2014 and then a challenging week up until that race in 2015 some were asking whether it was time for McGuinness to hang up his helmet. He answered in spectacular fashion and dominated the headline event. The video showed a master on the edge of control, but within his talents. It was footage that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.McGuinness was on stage soon after and gave a heartfelt thanks to his wife Becky and to Murray Walker for making the journey to be there in person. Near the end of his speech with the trophy replica in his hand he paused and, with the room expecting another story, he asked deadpan: “Is this gold? It’s bloody heavy. I bet this would fetch a fair sum on eBay.”He says he still has a year or two left in him and I don't doubt it. He does say, though, that when he does retire he'll head up to McGuinness's on the TT track – a quick left-right after Handley's Corner and before Barregarrow – with a case of beer and a few sandwiches. "I can sit there and tell the marshals how fast I used to be through there..."John McGuinness – 2015 Segrave Trophy winner, 23-time Isle of Man TT winner and one of the most humble men you’ll meet.
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The first in a new series – we look back at the 2008 and 2009 Formula 1 seasons when Honda pulled out of the sport. Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, after trying to find a buyer, decided to purchase the team themselves. What followed was one of the most remarkable seasons in Grand Prix history. Here is the full story.
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Simon Arron, Damien Smith, Mark Hughes and Rob Widdows are joined by Williams' Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds to review testing and preview the 2016 Formula 1 season.
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This weekend at Race Retro Damien Smith sat down with 1996 Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill and head of Williams Heritage Jonathan Williams.The first half is dedicated to Damon's racing career with questions from you, the Motor Sport readers, while the second part looks at the cars which brought Damon so much success.
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Lord Hesketh, Stirling Moss, Denis Jenkinson, John Watson, Gunnar Nilsson, Carlos Reutemann, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter and David Purley.
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Ex-McLaren team manager Alastair Caldwell joins us for our second podcast of 2016. We look back at how he got his foot in the door at the now-Woking-based outfit, his memories of Bruce McLaren, the 1976 World Championship with James Hunt and which driver impressed him the most.You will also hear about our request for stories from anyone who was at Brands Hatch in 1976 for the British Grand Prix. In the July issue of the magazine we're looking back at that day and, instead of giving you the (well-told) story from the paddock, we want to hear from you. Were you there? Did you throw cans on the track? What are your memories? Do please use #Brands76 on social media to share your stories. Alternatively, you can leave a comment below or email editorial@motorsportmagazine.com.
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The first podcast of 2016 is here. We persuaded four-time Indycar champion and three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti to come down from Scotland for it and, after answering readers' questions, we launched the shortlist for the final 2016 Hall of Fame category: US racing.We talk about Jim Clark, Franchitti's most satisfying race win, his perfect car for driving the north coast of Scotland and even Ganassi's 'secret' tunnel used for aero testing...In the second half the team decides the shortlist for the US racing category.As always, let us know what you think and thank you very much for sending in so many questions.
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The Formula 1 season review podcast is here! We welcome back Williams' chief technical officer Pat Symonds for a discussion of the year's events, themes and challenges.
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The fourth Hall of Fame category is here. This month we turn to motorcycling and its greatest names. To help us narrow all the names down to a short list of 12 we brought in Mat Oxley and ex-MotoGP rider Jeremy McWilliams. We run through two-wheeled stars from Valentino Rossi to the cheeky Londoner Barry Sheene. As Rob says in the introduction this one's for all you racers.As always, let us know what you think.
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It was 5am and due to a computer failure the queue for check-in at Gatwick airport snaked out of the terminal door. Because of all the audio equipment needed to record a Motor Sport podcast there was no way I could proceed with hand luggage only.Having tried for a few years to secure Nigel Mansell as a podcast guest it looked like I was going to miss the flight to Jersey and the first proper chance... This was going to be a tough one to explain to editor Damien.Amazingly – with a little queue jumping – I made the flight and The Mansell Collection in St Helier, Jersey by 10am. The 1992 World Champion was there already, finishing another interview and within 15 minutes of arriving the tape is rolling. The next hour is spent talking about his rise to Formula 1, his memories of Colin Chapman, his stint in Indycar, the touring car outings and his thoughts on the likes of Senna, Piquet, Prost and Keke Rosberg.
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"Born in a gas station," Tom Kristensen had petrol in his veins from an early age. Despite a flirtation with banking, he went on to win the Le Mans 24 Hours nine times. A record, surely, that won't be matched for quite some time...Rob, Alan Hyde and I talk through his career from his first 'steps' in a go kart to his World Endurance Championship crown via the Goodwood Revival and his new book.As always, let us know what you think and enjoy.
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After flying down specially from Edinburgh and a quick lunch at our new local Italian restaurant Robert Reid sat down to talk through his career and that of his long-time driver Richard Burns.We cover everything from wallpaper with Mk 2 Escorts on it (yes, really) to the 2001 World Rally Championship via Colin McRae and what made Richard so special.In the second half we launch the rally category for the Hall of Fame and you can now vote on any one of the 12 names we decided on with Robert.
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This year at the Goodwood Revival the Credit Suisse Drivers' Forum, hosted by Henry Hope-Frost, consisted of Sir Stirling Moss, Derek Bell, Jochen Mass, Dario Franchitti, Alain de Cadenet and Jackie Oliver. The subject – racing in America vs racing in Europe.
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On Thursday afternoon at the Goodwood Revival, as teams were unloading transporters, we grabbed Steve Soper and Andrew Jordan to sit down and record a podcast.To help us out with the tin top racers BTCC pitlane reporter Alan Hyde joined us for the first time. Well, we say first time, but he's always been sat recording the podcasts with us – this was just the first time we gave him a microphone...Why do Steve and Andrew race at the Revival? And how did the latter find a Lotus Cortina when he drove it in the wet for the first time? We cover the famous Revival as well as the BTCC then and now.
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The doyen of sports car racing Gary Watkins helps the Motor Sport team decide who should be on the shortlist for the 2016 Hall of Fame sports car category. Derek Bell? Hans Stuck? Allan McNish? Henri Pescarolo? It's now up to you, the public, to vote.
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On Tuesday 28th the podcast team of Roebuck, Widdows, Arron and myself journeyed north to the suburbs of Northampton to call on the ex-F1, Le Mans, rally, Can-Am and Indycar designer Tony Southgate.Greeted with fresh coffee and biscuits we tried to condense his four decades in the sport into an hour. There were one or two things we didn't have time to discuss...We did, however, discuss his beginnings in motor racing with Lola, his move to Brabham and then his subsequent stints at Lola (again), Shadow, Arrows, Lotus, Audi... The list is as long as it is varied.
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Motor Sport Magazine podcast
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On Tuesday June 23, as part of the National Women in Engineering Day, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers hosted an evening entitled ‘Women in Motorsport Engineering – Beating the Competition’.BBC Radio 5 Live F1 presenter Jennie Gow chaired the discussion and speakers included Audi Sport race engineer Leena Gade, Force India performance and strategy engineer Bernadette Collins and BTCC data engineer Gemma Hatton. There were also presentations from F1 in Schools world champion Colossus’s scrutineering engineer Rachael Matthews, F1 in Schools UK champion Evolution’s team manager Helen Jarman, Cambridge University masters engineering student Aurelia Hibbert and University of Warwick engineering undergraduate Hannah Sugrue.
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Who’s the fastest driver on the Formula 1 grid at the moment? Is Audi coming to F1? Why did Lee’s father Bob do a naked lap of Silverstone? And which F1 driver refers to him as ‘Father McKenzie’? Just your normal Motor Sport podcast then…
Lee McKenzie guides us through the news and views from the F1 paddock and explains Ferrari’s turnaround, what Vettel was like to deal with in 2014 and whether Max Verstappen is the real deal.
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As Rob mentions when introducing the podcast Mike Earle has spent five decades in the sport. I knew we were covering a lot of ground during the recording so when the audio file landed this morning, courtesy of Alan Hyde, I decided to write down the names that are brought up during the 90 minutes.
Here they are, in order: David Purley, Derek Bell, Peter Gethin, John Watson, Roger Clark, Chris Craft, Jean-Luc Salomon, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Gerhard Berger, Carlos Pace, Bernie Ecclestone, Tom Pryce, Adrian Newey, Jean-Pierre van Rossem, Stefan Johansson, Pierre van Vliet, Alan Jenkins, The Earl of March, Jean-Marie Balestre, Herbie Blash, Niki Lauda, Greg Fielding, Charlie Purley, Joyce Purley, James Hunt, Stefano Modena, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen , Allan McNish, Emanuele Pirro, Yannick Dalmas, Beppe Gabbiani, Thierry Tassin, Dave Scott, Alain Prost, Tom Onslow-Cole, Alan Gow, David Mountain, Eddie Jordan, Keith Wiggins, Marcello Lotti, The Sultan of Brunei, Enzo Ferrari, John Barnard and Maggie Thatcher (obviously). Oh, and there’s also mention of Black Sabbath. Quite a list then.
Mike’s stories – especially about the money man behind Onyx, Jean-Pierre van Rossem – are second to none. Sit back and enjoy (the audio file is under the video).
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2015 F1 season preview podcast
It’s that time of year again: Formula 1 testing’s over, the driver line-ups are more or less set, a competitive order has started to emerge… and we still don’t really know what’s going to happen. Which means it’s time for the Motor Sport season preview podcast.
So join Nigel Roebuck, Mark Hughes, Damien Smith, Simon Arron and Rob Widdows as they discuss the coming season and try to answer F1′s burning questions. What sort of advantage will Mercedes have? Will the following teams be able to close the gap? How will Ferrari fare and will Sebastian Vettel regain his form of two years ago?
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Formula 1 cars, sports cars, Indycars… Mark Blundell must have driven more racers than most. We knew it was going to be a struggle getting his entire career into an hour and not only did it stretch to one hour 15 minutes, but we’ve also agreed that we need to do a ‘Part 2′.
Now busy looking after young drivers, Blundell is a great story teller – something we’re sure you’ll agree with having listened to his tales of manhandling the Nissan R90CK around Le Mans in 1990 for that pole lap and dealing with Ayrton Senna at McLaren.
Enjoy, and let us know what you think.
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From an Allan McNish $10 bet to Formula E, via testing F1 cars for McLaren and Jaguar – there wasn’t much we didn’t cover during the hour with three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti.
As always, let us know your thoughts on everything we discuss. The podcast team will be back in only a couple of weeks with Mark Blundell.
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Project Brabham, Le Mans, Formula Ford, Mike Thackwell, Formula 3000, F1, the ALMS, Jack Brabham… There wasn’t much not discussed when the podcast team sat down with David Brabham.
Fueled with mince pies, chocolate and fudge brownies and a bottle or three of wine Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith, Rob Widdows and Simon Arron bring you the last podcast of 2014.
If you’d like to find out more about Project Brabham please visit the official site www.brabham.co.uk/project-brabham
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Transcription
Rob Widdows: Hello again, everybody. And thank you so much for joining us, for what is the last Motor Sport Magazine podcast of 2014. Aww, but we’ll be back in 2015. And we might just think very quickly about who we’ve had on the show this year. It’s quite a list. John McGuinness, Gordan Murray, Emanuelle Pirro, James Weaver, Andy Wallace. They came together. Perry McCarthy, Pat Simmons, Derek Bell, Jonathan Palmer, and today, David Brabham. Ta da. Wow, that’s a name to conjure with isn’t it? One of the big, big names of post-war motor racing. Brabham, I like it. We’ve got lots and lots of questions. We’ll be with David for at least an hour today and in case you hadn’t noticed we’re all in the Christmas spirit. Aren’t we Damien?
Damien Smith: Yes. That’s as, that’s as good as it gets.
RW: And our website editor, Ed Foster has very kindly provided some chocolate brownies, some mince pies, some wine, good grief. But, never drink while broadcasting, it’s one of my rules. Okay, Damien.
DS: Lucky we’re so professional, isn’t it?
RW: Yes, yes for a change.
Simon Arron: As a, as a diabetic I’m only, I’m only going to be able to have the wine, not the chocolate brownies or the mince pies.
RW: Fine. That’s okay. Okay. Around the table as well as David, of course, we have already been to Damien Smith. We have Simon Aaron and we have of course the vulnerable Nigel Roebuck. David Brabham, you’ve just come back from France. What were you plotting in France?
David Brabham: While you were having red wine, I had red wine in France, as well.
RW: I bet you did.
DB: I did, yeah. Well, , obviously with our plans for the future of Brabham is, is to go back to racing as a team. To race at Le Mans, to race in the World Endurance Championship, so I went down to have a look at the Ligier down there because obviously that’s one of the cars that we’d be considering. As well as talking to the ACO finding out more about their plans. Well what’s the future look like? What have we got to be aware of? So yeah, it was very good. It was a really good trip, very worthwhile and I’m now back.
RW: It’s a big, big project this, because motor racing is as we all know fiercely expensive, fiercely competitive. When did you start to hatch the plot to bring the name back into top line racing?
DB: Well, it’s about nine years ago actually. You’re probably thinking, well what happened in those nine years, ? Well, it’s been probably well documented. But , 19 years ago I started to think ahead of time and go, what am I going to do when I stop driving? Because, I’d seen a lot of drivers, including my brother get to the end and, and then what? what I mean? And I didn’t want to get into that situation. So I started to think about what it is I could do. And , I thought well what? We got this name Brabham, but as a family we do absolutely nothing with it, ? Dad went off and did his thing, , my brothers and I went off and did our thing. And there’s never been any sort of group thing where, , Brabham is a brand that represents everything that the brand is and what can we do with it. So I went to dad and said look, , we should do something with this. And of course, , I wanted to understand what trademarks he had because I remember sort of when Brabham finished in, in the early 90′s, there was a lot of things going on about the ownership of the name and, and , dad ended up paying some money for the name. I think he was offered a million quid to get the name back.
RW: Bet that pleased him.
DB: Yeah, well he, he wasn’t going to pay that, that’s for sure, but he did get it for a lot, lot cheaper than, than that. So by the time I went in there to have a look at it there were a few holes missing because for dad, , he was getting older. He was taking his eye off of the ball on that a little bit and someone in Germany saw an opportunity and registered Brabham and Brabham Racing, started up a business over there calling it Brabham Racing, The Legend Returns. It was building BMW M5s, spicing them up, and calling them BT92. So I only found that out once we’d sort of looked at the registrations, put our own in to start the protection of the name because until I had that I really couldn’t do anything. So obviously discovered that this guy had rejected, there was a rejection for our application. I was like, who the hell was this bloke, ? So by the time we figured it out, he’d launched his whole programme. So the only option really was to go to court to get the name back. And that took seven years in the German courts to basically get the name back. So, , I lost seven years of doing anything with the name.
Nigel Roebuck: Why did it take so long? How could it take seven years?
DB: Well it took from the process of us finding out that this guy existed, then to finding out okay, what’s the process? What are we going to do? I ended up getting a lawyer here in the UK, which then had to have a lawyer in Germany. And so we went through the process, we ended up going to court. We ended up winning the first court case, but of course they appealed. So then it had to go to the higher court of Germany. And these things just take ages before they come round again and you’ve got to do your homework. At the time I’d never realized how expensive going to court was. It’s just, it was horrendous. Luckily I had two racing programs going on or at the height of it was 2009 when I was racing in the American Le Mans Series with Highcroft and Le Mans with Peugeot, which was super, super stressful. It was bloody difficult.
RW: The good thing is you’ve done it.
DB: Yeah, once we went through the second, third time of court we finally won. It took nearly eight, nine months after the court case for the name to finally come back to us. And then it was a case of OK, what do we do with it? I see a lot of brands, you see them walking down the high street, and you see motor racing brands as well. What is the message they’re giving me?
RW: What is the Brabham brand message? Is it sideways, gritty and…
DB: What I did do is I got someone in who was a brand expert and told him to tell me what Brabham is. What do people think and feel about the brand? Basically after about 15 months of research and interviewing fans, and Brabham owners, and people within the sport, people dad worked with, people I worked with, we really did our homework on what the brand represents and it’s inspirational, it’s pioneering, innovation, engineering.
RW: Absolutely.
DB: They were the core messages. They were the DNA of what Brabham is. So, and of course when dad died, all the magazines, that’s all you saw was those headlines that were underneath Jack’s picture. So we got our branding right. And so then it was a case of OK, now we understand what that is. We have to come back into racing. But, as I’ve said many times before, for race teams to survive just as a race team year in, year out is really tough. Did I want to bring Brabham back into that industry like that, or should we be looking at something different? Is there an opportunity for Brabham as a brand to come back into racing and do something like it did years ago and was a game changer? Can we do something now? And this is where Project Brabham came about. Where we’ve come in and said we’re going to open the doors, we’re going to inspire fans to be involved.
RW: Yeah, great.
DB: It was all about communication between the fans and the team. We’d make decisions together and things like that. I’ve got 31 years of knowledge of a racing driver, as a professional driver for a long time, what does it take? We’re gonna create Brabham Digital, which is for fans and the drivers. And of course with engineers, to inspire engineers as well through racing. So people learn and experience through the team with an open door.
RW: How much is Australia involved? Because Australia is such a big part of the whole background to the thing, isn’t it? Or is this a very British Brabham?
DB: Well, it’s a very David Brabham programme, put it that way. Yes, I was born here, I was raised in Australia. I’ve spent more time here in the UK. I’ve traveled the world. I see myself more as a world citizen, more than from one particular country. And this program is a global initiative.
RW: Fantastic, good.
SA: Does the launch of this programme David… you said you were looking for something to do once you stop driving. Does this mean you’re actively now looking at winding down your own racing career?
DB: Well, if you’ve noticed I haven’t done a lot the last two years…
SA: But you are still involved.
DB: Yeah, yeah I mean, I’ve done three races this year, big races. It’s like Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring, which we nearly won and the World Endurance Championship at Shanghai just the other month. So it was good to keep my eye in and everything. But for the last two years I’ve only done six or seven races because my main focus… I had to come to a point where I’ve just got to park my driving and get this program up and running.
SA: Have you drawn a line under it then now?
DB: No I haven’t drawn a complete line under it right now, but I’m getting more and more involved in what this is going to take. It’s not just starting a race team. It’s also creating Brabham Digital and the content… I mean it’s a massive, massive program. So I guess if, if you were me and I’m you, I’m interviewing me, and I’m saying what you want a job with me? Tell about what your days are like, how committed are you as a racing driver? I’d probably be struggling to employ myself.
RW: Can we can we go back in time a bit because you were into football, weren’t you when you were younger.
DB: I was the Ryan Giggs…
RW: Were you now?
DB… in Australia.
SA: You were one of Manchester United’s local fans then I guess?
DB: Yes I was! It’s funny because I obviously grew up in a family full of racing but it didn’t really interest me, there were beautiful trophies that people would just stare and look at. And I’d just walk past like they’re objects, because they didn’t mean anything, really. I was seven, eight, nine, ten when all that was happening. But I had a football in my hand and I’d go out every day and play football. And we had a really, really cracking team. I started when I was seven. I scored something like 38 goals in my first season. We won everything, absolutely everything. And then nine, ten, 11, and 12 years of age, we always made the final, which we lost every time but we were one of the strongest teams. And that was my passion, that’s all I thought about. And then my family decided that I needed to follow Gary and go farming, and go to an agricultural boarding school where they didn’t really play soccer. They just played Aussie rules. So my soccer was finished. I had asthma as a kid as well for about seven years during the time I played, and I went for a trial but I had an asthma attack so it never happened. Probably luckily so.
RW: How did it go from football, to agriculture, to motor racing, where I guess it was pretty much going to end up? Wasn’t it, in the end?
DB: Well, I never even during school, I never thought ‘oh, I’m going to be a racing driver’. I was groomed to be a farmer. We had a four-and-a-half-thousand-acre farm. My two brothers were racing, so I was the last one in the chain and dad thought ‘well, at least one of them is not interested in racing’. But what I was interested in while I was growing up on the farm and at school was speed. Because I would… I just loved getting in a farm vehicle, a tractor, a motor bike, it didn’t matter what it was. I had to get from A to B as fast as possible and as sideways as I could. So I should’ve been a rally driver.
RW: You were putting that together with being a racing driver?
DB: No, no, I didn’t even think about it. I left school at 16 and then went to a college to learn about wool, to be a wool classer. Dad didn’t want to pay for a wool classer so he thought I’d be quite good at that. And so I’d be there looking at all the microns and everything of what the wool was and putting it into categories. But then I went and spent three months in America, which was my first big trip away from Australia. And my brother Jeffery was racing in Indycars in ‘82. And that was really for me, the first time I saw racing for the first time. He was asked to help Al Unser Jr. win the CanAm Championship. So Geoff had won the CanAm Championship for VDS the year before, in ‘81. So they brought him in with a second car to help Al Junior. And so he said, ‘you want to come along and have a look?’ So I thought, ‘yeah great’. So I went and had a look, and he was getting his seat done, and I wondered around the workshop, which was one of the first workshops I had ever been to, in a race team. There was a go kart sitting over in the corner with the mechanic working on it. And I wander over there and I’m looking at this go kart, and the first words out of my mouth were, ‘do people race go karts?’ Exactly. And the bloke turned round and said ‘are you adopted?’ I said ‘no I’m not’. But he just couldn’t work it out. My brother Geoff said I’m his younger brother and I don’t even know people race go karts at 16, 17 years of age. No idea. Problem is, that was the moment, that was the spark, the change, sometimes you go a long life and something happens and you go on a different path. I just thought, ‘I loved driving fast anyway’, so it was like, ‘right okay, I wouldn’t mind having a go at that.’ Of course, when I went back to Australia and sat down with dad and said, ‘I’d really like to have a go in a go kart’, you can imagine the look on his face. It wasn’t full of smiles and ‘oh, yes he wants to be a racing driver’, it was ‘you got to be kidding!’
RW: He didn’t want to pay for that either, did he?
DB: No he didn’t because I convinced my neighbour I went to school with which was about three hours away from the farm. We were at boarding school together and we actually bought a second-hand go kart together. And we went off, we went off racing without dad’s help or influence.
RW: Mike Thackwell got involved early on didn’t he? You did the Laser Championship. Have I got this right?
DB: No, no Mike Thackwell, my brother-in-law because I married his sister Lisa… I obviously went through karting, Formula Ford. Graham Watson who was running Ralt Australia wanted to go over to do the Tasman Series and he wanted to take me in a Formula Ford and my brother Gary in a Formula Atlantic car and Mike Thackwell was going to be the other driver. I did a test in a Formula Atlantic car and the test went really well. I would have put it P3 on the grid from the previous race. And they said ‘right, you’re coming with us in the Atlantic car’, so that was the end of my Formula Ford career. I went off and I was his team-mate for a month racing all around New Zealand with Mike, a real legend of our sport. He was incredibly fast and he was only 26 when he retired, so he was 25 when I saw him. He was on it, I learned a lot. He was weird, but I learned a lot… You interviewed him a couple of years ago, didn’t you?
RW: Well, yeah, partly thanks to some help from David actually I finally tracked him down.
DB: He was great, wasn’t he?
RW: Fantastic, I like him a lot, yeah. That’s maybe because I’m weird, but I like him lot.
DB: Yeah, he’s good weird. I mean he’s not weird, he’s just a really interesting character and he just does what he wants to do. He walked away from the sport at his peak, never turned back, never got back in a car again, which takes some… you know what I mean? And actually he doesn’t give you an impression that he regrets it at all. He changed his life, had different aspirations. He went to do North Sea helicopters, flying, learned sign language, did scaffolding work in Perth and he surfs a lot. He’s always been a surfer.
RW: Yeah, he should come in and talk to us hopefully, because he’s good fun.
DB: I don’t know if he would, he’s always been a bit shy in that area. You’re not going to get an interview with him… I
RW: I did, but it took me quite a long time, actually.
SA: It’s interesting, I interviewed your son Sam about his Formula Ford programme earlier this year we were chatting about stuff. He said there was a day when he was still karting that none of the family were available to take him and Mike said he’d do it. Mike gave him a lift there, and he’d never related Mike really to motor racing and he said they got there and they started doing a track walk. He said for the first time in his life… to me it’s just uncle Mike, but then suddenly he became alive with ‘right, turn in here, and you do this’. He’d never seen that side of him at all.
DB: Yes I think Sam will remember that day forever. He just thought it was a fantastic day because obviously some father-son relationships don’t always go smoothly at a race track, especially for myself because I’m quite hard on Sam and I push him a lot. For Mike it was a different ball game and he really enjoyed the day. I think all those things came out in Mike. I think it was a great day for Mike, and for Sam.
RW: Is this Project Brabham thing, was it partly with Sam in mind as well?
DB: Well there’s a lot of things that made this a reality in my mind and it was ‘what do I do at the end of my career? What has the family got moving forward as it’s something that they can work towards in a sense. Nothing was created before that with dad’s era in terms of how do we carry the legacy forward? How do we create a business for the family for generations? All those things sort of came in and of course I’ve got sons, and one’s racing, one’s into cricket. But it’s something that potentially he could be involved in, but like I said, I’m pretty tough .It’s ‘hey, if you’re not on it and you’re not an asset to a team, there’s no reason why you would be in our programme. If you’re on it, you’re serious, and you’re an asset and you’re a Brabham, well, that’s a bonus.
SA: I’ve asked him that very question last Sunday and he said he badgers you about it every five, ten minutes or so, and he said you said to him ‘prove yourself and you’ve got a chance’. Which I think is absolutely great.
DB: It’s quite right. I mean I see a lot of fathers in the industry who all they can see is this wonderful son that can’t do anything wrong. I’m a little bit the opposite. I probably need to back off a bit.
SA: He did mention that as well.
DB: Yeah, I know, I bet he did. But he’s a great kid, and I can see he’s definitely got the Brabham genes in terms of ability and speed and awareness and feel for the car. With the court cases I didn’t have much money to take him racing so he’s had a limited programme. So from what he’s done, he’s done a good job, he just needs a break, he needs a proper programme to really see what he can do, and if he gets that then he really can show his abilities. Then he would be someone we would consider.
DS: What’s it like watching Sam come through the ranks now compared to when you were doing it? I mean, it’s always been hard, it’s never been easy. Is it harder now? Or is it the same? How would you rank it?
DB: Well, I can only talk through my own experiences. And when I came over here, I came over on a free drive, because Camel was sponsoring sons of famous drivers. So that was my opportunity to come over here and do Vauxhall Lotus with Derek Bell Racing and Justin Bell. And then I went for a drive in F3 in ‘89. And there were five of us going for a competition. I won that mainly because I was the only one that actually answered the question about the sponsor, ‘what is Jewson?’ The other four said ‘I don’t know’. It’s funny, it just shows you, you’ve got to think ahead. I had just come from Australia and I saw ‘Jewson’. What the hell is Jewson? I thought, ‘well I don’t know what they are, but I’m going to find out what they are so I ended up getting some bumpf from them and I walked into a store and walked around. Of course, the question came to me, ‘what is Jewson? I thought ‘now how do I put this into words?’ Just sometimes something just comes to you at the right time. ‘Well, when I think of Jewson I think of the home’. And it just, it just ticked the box.
DS: Smooth.
DB: Exactly. Very smooth. I don’t know where it came from! But it came from somewhere. So I got to drive. And I’ve been a paid professional, I even got paid doing F3, and since those days I’ve just been on this great run really of a paid professional. Back then you had Jewson, you had Marlboro, you had Camel, you had CellNet, you had opportunities to get a drive for free. It was a great time, actually. We were on BBC primetime television. Now it is down to wealthy parents that can afford to go racing. So I think for Sam and not just Sam, but kids his age and in his situation, I think it is tougher.
RW: We’ve got lots of questions from our readers, listeners by the way. There’s one from Anthony B. I don’t know why people can’t give their names when they ask as question… anyway, Antony B asks ‘was it harder to qualify for a Laser Series race back in ’85 or a Grand Prix in 1990? That’s quite a good question actually.
DB: No believe me the Lasers were a lot easier. A lot easier. I mean when I went to Formula One in 1990 I wouldn’t say I was ready, to be honest with you, but I just felt a year of F3000 would’ve been good. That was the plan, to do that. They stopped the F3000 programme, so Damon Hill and I were going to be team-mates. And they, well, they did actually ask me to do Phoenix, the first round, literally that week of the race. I was supposed to be doing F3000. Phone rings, and I’m asked ‘how would you like to come out and do the first race in Phoenix?’ And I thought about it for a second and I said, ‘no thank you’. He said, ‘what?’ I said ‘well, I’m not ready, I’m not fit enough’ I was unprepared and I just didn’t feel like I could do the job justice, based off the running that I’d had in any sort of F3000 car. So, I said no. And then, after two races, that’s when they stopped our programme. They said, ‘look we want you in Formula One car’. I had no option. Go and look for another drive, or be a Formula One driver. It was tempting. And of course you had pre-qualifying. You had 30 cars going for 26 slots. Brabham at the time… we’re on the decline, unfortunately the BT58 which was the year Martin Brundle had some cracking races, I think Martin was third at Monaco that year. I drove that car, my first F1 car, and it was a beautiful car. It was just a dream to drive, it was so easy. Then the BT59 came out, and it was half ready, the gearbox wasn’t ready, so they put the old gearbox in. I talked to the guy who designed it back then and he said it was the worst car he ever designed. Unfortunately they ran out of money pretty much halfway through the year. It was a very difficult situation yeah.
RW: What was it like in the family during that whole period where Brabham was going disappear any minute?
DB: It was bought by this person, then Bernie Ecclestone had it for a while. When Bernie had it, to be fair, it worked. They were still a good team.
RW: Yeah, yeah, very successful.
DB: But then of course you had different owners before I got there and unfortunately it was just slipping away. And it was effecting my father’s other businesses.
RW: Yeah, I wondered.
DB: It did because people would ring up and say ‘what’s happening with Brabham because I hear there’s a lot of problems’. Thinking it was my dad’s businesses. So it was not an easy situation for the family to see the name go down.
RW: Absolutely.
DB: It wasn’t good. And there was nothing we could do about it.>>
RW: Did your dad and talk to Bernie Ecclestone about all that because it was when Bernie decided to sell it was the time it started to go a bit pear shaped, wasn’t it?
DB: Dad was not interested in doing anything with a Formula One team, that just wasn’t him. He’d done all that
RW: No absolutely but his name was…
DB: Yeah, well it hurt him. I know it hurt him. When it did fold that’s what motivated him to get hold of the name as best he could at the time. To stop it from damaging his other businesses and things like that.
NR: Actually, a story that comes back to me we were talking earlier on about the importance of Brabham as a brand. When Bernie bought it, what in ‘70, ‘71?
DB: In ‘70, yeah.
NR: Yeah, yeah that’s right. My old friend Alan Henry went to interview Bernie at around that time, when he’d just acquired it. At one point during the interview, he says to Bernie ‘so anyway, Bernie, what are you going to call it?’ And there was a silence. And Bernie just looked at him as if he was a half-wit, and he said, Brabham, Alan. He said ‘if you and I bought Marks & Spencers we wouldn’t call it Ecclestone and Henry would we?’
DB: It kind of sums it up, though. I mean back then the name Brabham was one of the biggest in the sport.
RW: Nigel will be publishing his book of Christmas Ecclestone jokes later this month, and I highly recommend it…
DB: Actually I was talking to Ron Tauranac, and he never quite told me the full story of what happened there, but he did say he got stitched…
RW: How did that come about, getting into the big sports cars?
DB: Well, there were some discussions I know at TWR at the time about drivers, and Fiona Miller said to Tom what about David Braham? So, I got invited to do the XJR 15 Intercontinental Cup, which was the three races at Monaco, Silverstone and Spa. A million-dollar prize fund for who won. So, I was lucky enough to be invited to do that. That was in ‘91 and by that time I’d come out of Formula One because I didn’t have any money. So I was doing sort of part programme in F3000 and they said ‘would you like to do this championship?’ And I thought ‘great opportunity’. So, I went to Monaco to do their race and I actually finished second behind Derek Warwick. After the race they said ‘oh, how’d you like to come and drive the XJR 14 in a test?’ By that time that thing was just the talk of motor sport wasn’t it? I mean it was just amazing. They didn’t say anything more than that. They just said ‘would you like to come do a test?’ So I said ‘well, let me think about that… yes!’
They said ‘great, call us next week when you get back from Monaco’, so I was straight on the phone, and I said I’m ringing up about the test thinking ‘things can change’ and whatever. And they said ‘well there’s no point you testing for us if you’re not going drive for us’. I said ‘are you offering me a job?’ I mean that was like a complete bolt out of the blue. Because they needed someone to replace Martin Brundle, who was doing a joint F1/ sports car campaign. And because Tom wouldn’t pay for four drivers. He only really paid for three. So Martin or myself would start in one car and finish in the other. So I remember going there to the first test whilst Ross Brawn was there because it was the last car he ever penciled apparently. And I just couldn’t believe the performance of the car. It was just amazing, it really was and I went to Nürburgring and we finished first and second.
SA: It’s funny, that car, David, everybody who ever drove it seems to say the same thing, they were just startled by it the first time they drove it and…
DB: Yeah, I think if you asked anyone who drove that car, with all the cars they’ve driven in their life, what’s the one car that just sticks up in your mind that has something special? All of us would probably say that car.
SA: Without a doubt Martin does.
DB: Yeah, without a doubt, I do as well. They had a great team there and for me, that was my first introduction to a professional race team, because Brabham was in a little bit of a disarray at the time, lots of money problems, or whatever. But this was a proper programme, working with people like Ross Brawn, I did some stuff in America with Tony and yeah, I mean, that was a really good thing for me, and then to work with Teo Fabi and Derek Warwick as well, driving each other’s car that had completely different driving styles, so the setups were completely different. And that taught me to be adaptable in that period. I went on to drive lots of different cars, quite well. So, I think that really taught me how to adapt as a driver. It was a watershed moment and it saved my career, because it was going nowhere for a period of time. And then Jaguar came along and I was there to help them win the World Championship, which we did.
RW: In ‘94, you went back into Formula One. Why?
DB: Why not?
RW: Thanks!
DB: Yeah, well I mean, it felt a bit like unfinished business, there was an opportunity to get back into the Formula One…
RW: Again, not a great team, not a big team.
DB: No, it was a small team, under funded, but there was no other option. It was like ‘give it a go, don’t be frightened of it, let’s see what we can do with it’. And obviously from a financial point of view it was very difficult. Obviously with Roland’s accident Imola it was not an easy situation for any of us to deal with but we got through to the end of the year. Don’t know how but we did. And for me that was pretty much the end of my Formula One career. Like I said I’ve never brought money to a team, I’ve always been a paid driver. Never had the kind of backing to take me to a big team or anything like that. In fact in ‘91 I had a chance to drive the Jordan.
NR: Really?
DB: Yeah, I just needed half a million US dollars at the time.
NR: Was that the 10 laps?
DB: Yeah, maybe. I didn’t get to that far down the line with the conversation with Eddie…
NR: You can have the Wednesday morning… Here’s a half a million and then we’ll talk about the next day, yeah.
DB: Exactly. So that was an opportunity. But it just didn’t happen.
SA: David, just come back to the… I know it’s a slightly morbid subject, but the end of the ‘94, everyone focuses on the Senna accident, how did you all cope with that weekend?
DB: I don’t know how we coped with it because when something like that happens… I’d never had an experience like it before. What the hell do you do? If it happened now I know what to do. I know how to think, I know how to react, I know the people around me I’ve got to speak to, I’ve got to put an arm around or whatever. But back then you’re stunned. You’re just in a state of shock. The whole team was… Formula One was… the world was… all of a sudden, we’d had a Formula One driver die and it was my team-mate. So it was very difficult, but there’s something deep down inside you that knows you just go to keep going, it can’t defeat you. You’ve just got to keep going. That’s why I raced the next day. Which was kind of an unusual thing at the time to do because most people would have packed up and left, but we did the warm-up and came in and we actually were fairly competitive. Don’t know why. Probably they put me on empty tanks or something, I don’t know. But I came in and I wasn’t right mentally, but we were fast enough when I came in that it just slightly lifted the team a little bit and I thought, ‘I’ve got to race for them, I’ve got to’. And that was my way I think, of not focusing on the situation. I know Roland, he would have said ‘go with it’. These things happen and for us it was a new experience. Not easy at the time but it taught all of us something out of it. It taught Formula One something out of it, because things changed quite rapidly after that weekend in terms of safety. And it probably saved many lives afterwards, many lives. So it was like, there is a silver lining through every dark cloud and a lot of really good things came out of it.
NR: When you started the race the thing that always comes about, and I’ll never forget that weekend because it just seemed to be ‘well, what conceivably is going to happen next?’ But even the accident away from the start. I mean that was a big accident and presumably you must have been in the middle of all of that. So, I was going to say…
DB: I remember thinking ‘not again’.
NR: How did you deal with that?
DB: I think because you are racing there’s that mentality where… It wasn’t easy to have that clarity in your mind because you’re cluttered with so many things going on at that time. I was lucky in the race that I had… normally we didn’t race with anyone, we just got in everyone’s way, but I actually had a race with someone which was a real plus. And then I had a steering failure in the end and luckily I didn’t hurt myself. But it was one of those where you just got out of the car and you just go ‘I just need to get out of here’, you just have to kind of escape really, because there was just too much going on. The adrenaline, even when I was dicing on track… My right foot on the accelerator was bouncing up and down, I had absolutely no control of my right leg. I was trying to keep it flat on the straight, but it was just bouncing up and down. The adrenaline was all over the place.
RW: Lets take another question and this comes from Peter and he begins by saying how much he loved your father’s career and your career and I think we all feel that way.
DB: Thank you, yeah.
RW: And he wants to know what the ‘94 breed of Formula One car was like to drive. Was it a bit of a magic carpet ride? Well, actually yours wasn’t…
DB: Our biggest problems were downforce and power, clearly. It wasn’t an evil car to drive, it was just slow. And what made a lot of cars more difficult to drive was when they change the rules like that because they did some stuff to the floor. They did all sorts of things to slow the speeds down. And, of course, that just completely upsets your balance and everything. Even weight distribution and all that sort of thing. So, for us, as a small team, it took a while to try and adapt because we couldn’t test, we didn’t have the money to test, so we were testing at the race track. And the cars got more difficult after those rule changes for sure.
RW: Interesting. Another one comes from Sombrero his name is.
DB: No surname?
SA: Sombrero Smith.
RW: Or no Christian name.
DB: Hat. Mr. Mexican Hat.
RW: Anyway, Sombrero, thanks for the question. Only joking. He wants you to talk a bit about Audi at La Mans and his question is very simple – why are they so, so good at it?
DB: Well, I’ve been racing against Audi for a long time. In the Panoz days you could beat them. In the late ‘80s, early ‘90s to early 2000s you could do something if they just faulted a bit, you’re in. Jan Magnussen and myself would just pounce, and we could do it. I’ve just seen this progression that just got better and better. You got to think, they’ve been at it for a long time now. They spend a vast amount of money.
We had a competitive car back in those days. They were still learning about sports cars when the R8 came out… that thing just got better, and better, and better, and I actually had the privilege of driving it at Jerez. In 2003 when I joined Bentley we were all testing there, it was the first test for the new Bentley which Johnny crashed so we never got to drive it after. He trashed it after six laps or something in a brand new car and broke the top. So I ended up being a spectator and then they asked me at the end of the test ‘would you like to jump in the R8’ and I thought ‘that’s the thing I’ve always been trying to beat’. I jumped in it and I thought ‘no wonder this thing is so…’ it was just so easy to drive. And the engine was just amazing. It was a very successful car. Very reliable. Very easy to drive. And I think they started to get it at that point. And the diesel power… they’ve had a big advantage for such a long period of time without a doubt. I didn’t realize that until I drove for Peugeot in ’09 and felt what diesel power was like. It was a different world. In terms of the power advantage, the amount of money they spent, when you look at it now, what they spend… Not only on the car but just the hospitality at Le Mans is ten times more than the budgets that people are running just to do the whole year. And fantastic attention to detail. I mean, they’ve got it right. They know how to win. They know how to win now. And, okay, they didn’t win this year, Toyota did a very good job, but they were still strong. Still finished second. They’ve had a fantastic run and they’ve been very difficult to beat.
RW: Sombrero has a question about Peugeot actually. He wants to know why was it that the foreign-driven… I’m not quite sure what he means actually. The foreign-driven 908 was the fastest car in 2009.
DB: I think he means the one that was not driven by a French driver.
RW: Yes, exactly.
DB: Well, we weren’t the quickest. We won but we weren’t the quickest.
RW: You had fewer problems?
DB: Yeah, we had a perfect race. It was very clear that we were not the car to win. Car 7, French drivers, French team, it’s pretty well documented that was the one they wanted to win. I was intrigued by the politics that were going on at that time. And I saw that was actually to our advantage because car 9 with, with Alex Wurz, myself and Marc Gene, we had an engineer that came from rallying, never done Le Mans before, never done sports cars before. So you could see the importance of our car… But, what they didn’t realize is that they, gave us an opportunity because we could separate ourselves from some of the other stuff that was going on. We just focused on what we had to do. We figured out that the splitters were breaking if you went on the curbs too much. So we made a pact that we wouldn’t bounce all over the curbs. That meant we lost time, quite a lot of time, but the other cars kept having to come in and changing splitters and that’s where they lost a lot of their time. So Alex and Mark did a fantastic job, the engineer that we had learned very quickly, in fact he had chicken pox before the event. He turned up on the Friday so we virtually were running without an engineer to begin with. Sounds weird with the big factory Peugeot team, doesn’t it? But we were experienced campaigners. We knew what we wanted and he turned up with spots all over him. And you could see he was not right, but he had to be there. And full credit to him because he took the helm then and we won the race.
RW: Fantastic, it was a great win.
DB: Yeah, it was an unbelievable win. And we nearly didn’t win by about, probably ten meters, which people don’t realize, that we nearly lost by ten meters of track because of a safety car at the end. We came in for a pit stop, as Mark Gene drove out the safety car was going down pit straight and we were literally one or two car lengths in front of it. If we were just that little bit behind we would have had to have stopped. Car 7 was in that lineup. It then would have been in front and we would’ve had to have waited behind the queue. It was getting close to the end of the race. We just got out in front, ended up at the back of the queue halfway around the lap. And of course for them, for Peugeot, after that they said ‘okay, no more racing’.
RW: I’m interested, when you said you first drove it, I mean it sounds as though the horsepower took you by surprise.
DB: It did. It really did. I drove it out of the pits at Barcelona for the first test. By the time I got out of the pits and accelerated and got to the first corner, you should have seen the grin on my face. It was huge because I just thought ‘I could win Le Mans with this’. It just pushed me back into the seat. And it was an interesting situation because I was actually driving for an opposition manufacturer with Honda in America. We were racing against each other at Sebring. And I remember it was a surprise getting the email from Peugeot. I was at Sebring just about to do our first test and this e-mail came through and I opened it and it said ‘what are your contractual arrangements re Le Mans’, and I was like ‘what?’ I had to read it twice. I was free for Le Mans, as long as Highcroft and Honda said it was okay. Now they weren’t doing Le Mans. Within two days I got the okay and then I went to have a meeting and they were a bit unsure abourt me being in their car being with another opposition team, and they did say that to me. They said ‘I’m not sure about this’. And I just said to them, the very fact that I’m in your office talking to you about this, do you not think this kind of highlights the way I go about my racing? He didn’t have a response to that and I never put any secrets across either side it just, it’s not what you do. If I did that then my name would’ve been mud afterwards, and my career would’ve been in trouble. So we kept everything above board and to be fair, not Peugeot, not Honda asked me once about the opposition. So everybody was very much above board.
RW: It’s good to hear.
DB: Yeah, it was really good. And of course, I’ve got to thank Highcroft and Honda for giving me the opportunity too.
DS: You must have thought before that came up that the chance of an overall Le Mans win was probably gone, didn’t you?
DB: Yeah, I mean I’ve done 18 Le Mans and I’ve really only had two chances of winning. One was with Bentley in ’03. We finished second so I was gutted after that race because I knew we had a 50% chance of winning, we were so much quicker than everyone else. We had problems, the other car didn’t. And it was a one-two, which was great. Great to be part of Bentley’s return to racing.
RW: Yeah, fantastic.
DB: And to have a one-two as a Bentley boy. Unbelievable. But it was gut wrenching for us to finish second. We had the fastest car, but it doesn’t always win, does it?
RW: Okay, let’s take a question from Kip. A nice simple name, I like it. Kip wants to know about Geoff actually. He says that he’s always followed your and Geoff’s careers. And in fact he remembers catches his hat from the podium at the 1988 Road Atlanta Race.
DB: Brilliant.
RW: That’s Geoff’s hat, I imagine.
DB: It wouldn’t be mine.
RW: No, exactly. You would have been back in?
DB: I was here, actually, ’88. I was doing Vauxhall Lotus, or F3, yeah.
RW: Okay, right, sorry. I can’t remember what happened an hour ago, sorry. Anyway what’s Geoff up to? He wants to know whether Geoff’s going yo be part of the resurgence of Brabham.
DB: No, no. He’s, he’s flat out helping Matthew’s career. I think he’s kind of positioning himself now back in America because he lived there for some time. Went to Australia when Matthew was born. And now Matthew’s racing and has done very well in the States, his focus is fully on him. Obviously I keep him up to date with, as well as Gary, just what’s going on but this is very much 100% my deal. Any chance of my brother putting any money towards this? On our crowd funding campaign we started from one pound to 10,000 pounds as contributions. He wanted a 50% discount on the one pound contribution… That’s my brother.
RW: We should ask you where you’re at with the project in terms of crowd funding because it’s obviously been successful and it’s really worked?
DB: Yeah, I mean, you come up with a new idea and you’re just not quite sure how people will take to it and, like I said I always felt a change is needed, we got to look at another way of making sure a race team can survive. Crowd funding gave us the seed money to get the ball rolling. It engaged a community straight away with what we are doing. We’ve had maybe 3,000, I think about 3,000 people now, from 64 countries have contributed, really just off an idea.. This is our idea, this is what we would like to do. This is not a finished product saying, right, here’s a team, we’re going do this and this and everything’s up and running. This is about starting the journey now, but come and be part of it. And so, it’s very much done its job. We set a target at 250,000, we got 278,000. There’s a bit more come in obviously since then. And we’re very busy at the moment trying to get partners involved in our Brabham Digital experience because that’s a big program. We’re talking to manufacturers about LMP2 cars. We’re looking at factories where we’re going to position ourselves. There’s a hell of a lot to do. But we keep the community updated. I was on the train writing down what’s happened since crowd funding finished to give out to our community – what type of people we’re talking to, the things we’re looking at, just to keep them involved.
RW: Exciting, isn’t it?
DB: I think it’s all right. I mean, for me it’s a real, I get a real buzz from the whole thing, because I really see an opportunity and for me it opens up a whole array of commercial opportunities as well because we are talking to education at the same time. How can we engage a community of students to learn through the team? Something that’s exciting to learn through.
RW: Let’s take one last question, this comes from JoePro, yes I know, anyway he wants to know the best sports car you ever drove, that’s the Jag I guess?
DB: Correct.
RW: Okay, and the best Formula One car you ever drove, that’s a bit tougher. Shall we leave that one?
DB: Well no, actually I drove a few. I drove the Footwork. I was a test driver for Footwork which wasn’t, it was a little bit pitch sensitive. And Alan Jenkins didn’t like that word when I said that it’s a bit pitch sensitive, but it was. But it wasn’t a bad car and then they improved it after that, with a Mugen engine… Yeah, it wasn’t bad. I didn’t drive a Formula One car for like three years and then a phone call came out of the blue and that would of been, it was in ’97. I’d just come back from Japan, doing the 1000kms out there in August.
I got home, literally, within a week, and Tony Dow rings up, who was involved with Tom. And they were looking, obviously working with Bridgestone at the time, and I got invited to go over to, to test at Suzuka, in a year-old Ligier doing tyre testing. That car, it wasn’t the best, but it was all right and it was great opportunity to do tyre testing there. And had not having been in an F3 or F1 car for three years, that wasn’t an easy thing to jump back into. It takes time and I remember getting to the end of the first day thinking, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna get through the next day’ because my neck was just gone. So I got up and thought, ‘right, just keep pushing’. My first lap out was as quick as I did the day before, and then I had to come in, we had an engine problem and that was the end of the test. So that was the last time I drove an F1 car.
RW: And now you’ve just been to see Ligier again, literally.
DB: Yes. Well, a different Ligier, but…
RW: Well, yes, okay.
SA: Rob, we’ve actually got a question from Ed Foster at the far end of the room, he’s just scrawled on a piece of paper, which I can just about read. He’s asking what the Panoz was actually like to drive. I seem to remember we discussed with Mr. Weaver and Wallace…
DB: It was like an oven, and you doing more than one stint in Le Mans was always hard work… James Weaver had the most beautiful line about driving it, as he would in his beautiful English. He said, ‘when you drive a Panoz you lose the will to live’.
It was damn hot. It wasn’t easy to drive. I would say there were only a few of us that could get the most out of it. Anyone coming in was just that little bit off, because it was so different, so weird, sitting on the rear axle like that and you’re moving around and stuff. But certainly for Jan and I we were the main drivers so we were in quite a bit so we got used to it. But anyone coming in found it tough.
RW: We’ve never really talked a lot about that whole Panoz thing. I mean, it’s an extraordinary, the whole story is amazing, isn’t it? An individual like that and all that money, it’s amazing.
DB: It is. I remember reading reading about it in Autosport. I remember it was on the inside page, it was just a little column, had a picture of it, and it said, ‘front-engine Panoz’. And of course, my dad, in the ‘60s, took the engine out of the front and put it in the back with Cooper and I remember reading it, long before I’d done a deal, and I thought, ‘well, you’ll never see me in that thing’, so I turned the page. If it wasn’t for Dave Price’s persistence to get me in the seat it would never have happened.>>
DS: What about the noise?
DB: Sorry what was that?
DS: The noise! Given the fact your dad came out with hardly any hearing from motor racing and there was some irony that you ended up in a bloody Panoz of all things.
DB: Yeah, I know, I learned a lot, living with a deaf father, to be honest with you because even when I was karting I had earplugs. A lot of kids don’t, which is not the right thing. And I came up with an idea of sewing in my balaclava some sponge, so I did that. And sewed it on like a cut-up piece of Nomex underwear, and got it all done because that with the earplugs did help. If I didn’t have it on, boy, I did notice a difference. This was late ‘90s when I did that. And of course now you can buy them. You can, I think Sparco do them… I just think it should be compulsory because the damage to our ears in a racing environment, it’s stupid. Why we keep going down these paths and not doing something about it just baffles me sometimes.
RW: Tell us a little bit about Don Panoz.
DB: Yeah, speaking personally, I don’t know a huge amount about him, apart from what he did, and how he made his money.
RW: I mean he was very involved all the time?
DB: No, not necessarily, enough to upset things… I’m just joking. He has a very different view to life to a lot of people. He’s an entrepreneur. He thinks outside the box. He gets excited by challenging the way people think and do things. And if someone said to him… I’m sure it was probably Adrian Reynard, who when he said , ‘I want to put the engine in the front’ Adrian said, ‘well that’ll never work’. ‘Well, I’m gonna show you it’s going to work. That was his mentality. You don’t become a billionaire by being stupid and he had a very different twist to things. He didn’t understand the sport like you meet people who just get it. He didn’t get it at the time. He just couldn’t, you could see that bridge, this gap between the real racing and what he thought it was. Which was kind of probably good in some way because he had a different perspective. Sometimes we can be a bit too close to it and can go down these paths and someone from the outside goes, ‘what the hell are you doing that for? Let’s go this way.’ And a very interesting character. I got on well with him, and his wife, Nancy, really well. And I had from not really looking at that picture, thinking I’d never drive a car like that, I ended up with six years at Panoz. And we were a small team. It was a great team. Really just terrific team. We were really hungry to win. Everybody was on it. Driving with Jan Magnusson was a great, great pleasure. We had one of those relationships where I’d do all the development and set up work because I love all that sort of stuff and I know I’m good at it. And it was like I’d come in, Mags was there, fag in his mouth, in the pit lane. And he’d look at me, go ‘is it ready, Brett?’ He’d stub the fag out, jump in the car, go like a bloody rocket and we both pushed each other all the time. If he was half a tenth quicker than me he’d look at me and go, ‘so what was it like to be spanked today Brett?’ And then it would be my turn. We just had a fantastic relationship and Chris Gordon was our engineer. And we just really gelled, which I think sometimes made it difficult for the other car with other team-mates coming in because we were the focus. But we were driven and we were up against Audi and that was our high motivator. Beat Audi if we can and when they faulted just a bit, boom we got them.
It’s a great story, Panoz. And it also was the absolute savior of Jan, as well. I mean, he became a hero in Denmark again, for the second time, after the disappointment of Formula One. So it’s just a great thing, isn’t it?
I guess when I saw Jan first, not really knowing who he was until he was in the team – he wasn’t my team-mate at that point, he was in the other car – I could see why within the Stewart Grand Prix organization it just didn’t work, it was like putting a square block into a circle. It just didn’t fit. I think there’s a few of us actually that have come out of Formula One and gone into sports cars and gone, ‘actually, this is a lot better’. We just totally enjoyed racing in America. The American Le Mans series was a really great series, a really great series.
SA: I would’ve thought it’d be just the right thing for Mark Webber as well, that kind of atmosphere.
DB: Yeah, I mean I know Mark, I’ve had some conversations with him, and he’s really enjoying sports cars. He did fantastically well in Formula One, he had a great, great career, achieved a lot. And then he’s gone into sports cars as one of the top, top names, and he’s enjoying life, which is fantastic. He’s a bit sore at the moment, but…
DS: Were you watching, did you see any of that live?
DB: I was kind of in and out watching it, and then I had to go off, and then, when I came back, it was… someone texted me I think, and said, ‘boy, that was a big shunt from Mark’. And I ran to the TV and as I came in they were just literally talking about it, but I didn’t see it. So then I had to find a YouTube clip to find it. That was a big one. They had a commercial break and they came back from the commercial break, and the first picture back from Brazil was the wreck sitting there with fire and everything else. I thought ‘Jesus, is that…’
RW: Not what you want to see.
NR: No. No.
DB: It doesn’t matter what driver it is. Yeah, but I think he went off there in January, didn’t he?
SA: 2003
DB: It was turned into a bit of a multiple, didn’t it?
NR: Yeah. It was the huge shunt.
DB: Well, when I saw it, I did text him, I did say ‘what is it with sports cars and big shunts with you, mate?’ Couldn’t resist.
This is a good time if you’re coming in as a team into sports cars. I mean, it’s really on the up, isn’t it? It’s great to see. As we know in sports cars it goes in circles. One minute it’s up, one minute it’s down. It’s definitely on an up. The manufacturers are getting back involved. And they’ll pump millions into marketing, so it’s good for the series. Good for everybody involved. It’s exciting for Brabham to be coming back to racing, but also into a series that’s starting to come up. And of course, one day I’d love to see Brabham back in Formula One.
NR: Yeah, yeah.
DB: That’s a long way down the road, but Formula One and Brabham, it’s in its DNA. Obviously it’s not achievable at the moment. But in ten years time, who knows?
NR: Can I just ask you a question about your dad? We lost him this year and I’ve always thought about him… There are certain drivers, really great racing drivers, who seem to me to be curiously underrated by history. And I’ve always thought that about your dad. Do you think the same?
DB: I asked Stirling Moss to just tell me about it. He said, ‘absolutely’. God knows why he is, but you’re right. He wasn’t a marketing man was he? I mean I think for Dad when I think about what he achieved and how he achieved it, it is pretty amazing. When I turn 40 I thought when Jack was 40 he was winning his third world championship. He’s also winning the Formula Two championship in a Brabham Honda. He’s also got the biggest racing car manufacturer in the world to manage and there he is testing the cars, all the bits and pieces. Then he’s going jump into a Grand Prix car and race against Clark and Graham Hill and John Surtees and Jackie Stewart,
I think Dad, the first thing that he said was, ‘I learned how to win by going as slow at possible speed. And I think because he thought to survive in that era and to win, he had to play a smart game. So he wasn’t as spectacular as some of the other guys, although there were races…
RW: I tell you, he certainly could be.
DB: When he turned it on no, they couldn’t beat him. And, of course, he’d get out of the car, he’d be more interested in talking with Ron who, without Ron, Dad would never have achieved what he’d achieved. But they would go off together back in the workshop. He wasn’t going on PR mode or anything like that. And I just think all those little things that he kind of did just took him off people’s radar. I think that played a role. It was his character, he wasn’t, he just was straight down the line. Told it as it was, didn’t say much, but when he did, people listened.
DS: Are there any plans in the longer term, you’re talking at the moment about running a sports car team with maybe a custom chassis from Ligier or whoever. But I mean, are there plans in the longer term maybe to set up a place in Chessington and put a Brabham badge on a car now and again?
DB: Yeah, absolutely, I mean further down the road, we’ve talked about, in our program, becoming a manufacturer in Formula One, in sports cars, in LMP1. But because we’re a kind of open-sourced race team, where people can get involved, we’re talking to companies now about collaborative design software that allows people to help contribute to designing a race car of the future so…
RW: Adrian Newey could join in…
DB: Well, he could put in an application. We’ll look at it and we’ll interview them, yeah. But this whole programme’s about engaging a community, inspiring a community of engineers, engineering in this country’s got a problem, there aren’t enough engineers, English engineers. I think in six or seven years, it’s going be 50% down on where it really needs to be.
RW: Which is what Richard Noble’s been saying for many years.
DB: Yeah, so with the Bloodhound program, and Williams announcing what they’re doing, trying to find the next Adrian Newey or Wes Brown… Well we need programs like that out there in the marketplace and Brabham is trying to do its bit as well.?
RW: That’s great. Fantastic. Thank you very much, it’s good fun.
DB: Thank you, yeah, it’s great fun.
RW: We could talk a lot more couldn’t we? Actually, it’s been a really, great broadcast to end the year on. Thank you David, very much indeed.
I think, I think we all wish you the best of luck with the projects, it’s really good to see what you’re trying to do. And it’s good to see the Brabham name back.
DB: Thank you. I have to say that you guys, the whole of the media have really got behind it. We haven’t found any real negativity to what we’re trying to do, which has been fabulous and so thank you not just to the fans that have contributed and been involved. And people can still be involved, they can still buy the pre-order, the sort of digital packages in advance to be part of the team. And it’s growing and there’s a lot to do, but it’s an exciting future.
RW: We should put all those details on the website, shouldn’t we Mister Website Editor?
DS: We should, yes, he’s giving them.
RW: Okay. Thank you very much everybody, Damien, Simon, Nigel, Ed, thank you very much for putting all our podcasts together this year. And to Alan, sitting quietly in the corner every time, making sure you can hear us. And we’ll be back in January, 2015 with another Motor Sport Magazine podcast. Thank you so much for your support this year. We do need it, and we love it. See you soon. Bye-bye.
Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine
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Hamilton vs Rosberg, the Mercedes dominance, the brilliance of Daniel Ricciardo and the financial crisis that Formula 1 is facing – just some of the topics that the podcast team discuss in their F1 season review.
Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith, Mark Hughes, Simon Arron and Rob Widdows discuss all the big topics over this hour-long recording.
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As we sat in Jonathan Palmer’s Brands Hatch office we overlooked a motorbike track day in action and were served bacon sandwiches, fresh coffee and orange juice – as podcasts go, we were already onto a winner (not a good one to miss Simon Arron…).
You’ll be pleased to hear the content was also great as Jonathan talked about Jolyon’s success in GP2 this year, the state of Formula 1 and why he has so far not been tempted to run a team. We also looked back at his career and how he managed to train as a doctor while racing in Formula Ford (reading medical notes while hammering up the M1, towing his racer).
As a side note, I took the editor to and from the podcast in my 1992 750cc Fiat Panda. While I doubt he will be buying one anytime soon, he wasn’t totally disgusted by it. Having said that, it was a far cry from the helicopter Jonathan arrived in.
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Henry Hope-Frost hosts a Credit Suisse Drivers’ Forum with Derek Bell, Sir Stirling Moss, Jochen Mass, Alain de Cadenet and Max Chilton at the 2014 Goodwood Revival.
While the topic is perfect team-mates, teams and cars, the five racers also discuss safety, the junior categories and weird noises in the night at Le Mans…
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Last week the podcast team paid a visit to Pagham on the south coast to see Derek Bell. If you’ve heard our last podcast with the five-time Le Mans winner, you’ll know he’s got a wealth of great stories from his long career.
Derek’s on typically good form in this installment of the Motor Sport podcast. As always, let us know what you think in the comments and feel free to share any memories you have of our guest.
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Pat Symonds – Williams’ chief technical officer – stopped by for a podcast last week to talk about all things Formula 1, including the Grove squad’s return to the podium. Along with the Mercedes duel and the emergence of Daniel Ricciardo, Williams’ success has been one of the biggest stories this year, so who better to talk us through the season?
This is Pat’s fourth time behind the Motor Sport mic and F1 has changed so much since his first appearance in 2010. Will Mercedes still be on top the next time he comes in? Or will Renault and Ferrari propel their teams to the front of the grid?
As always, let us know what you think in the comments.
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On June 24 Ed Foster hosted an evening of discussion at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Joining him were Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds, Mercedes-Benz managing director Andy Cowell, Cosworth sales director Kirsty Andrew and Motor Sport Grand Prix editor Mark Hughes.
Formula 1′s current direction has come under fire from a number of directions and attempts to improve ‘the show’ have largely been met with derision from those inside the sport and the fans looking in. In this special installment of the Motor Sport podcast our panel answer the question: are F1′s new rules working?
Let us know what you think in the comments section.
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Anyone who’s read Perry McCarthy’s book Flat Out, Flat Broke will know that he’s got a knack for telling a story – and he’s got a lot of them.
Perry’s season with Andrea Moda is obviously a huge talking point but he also regaled the team with tales of sponsorship hunting, a rivalry with a certain hulking Brazilian driver and how he nearly became ‘The Gimp’. His opinions on modern F1 are also well worth a listen.
Let us know what you think in the comments section.
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Henry Hope-Frost hosts the Credit Suisse Drivers’ Forum over the Grand Prix Historique de Monaco weekend. His panelists include Stirling Moss, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell and current factory Porsche driver Romain Dumas.
Being hosted in Monaco, the topic of conversation centres around the famous track in the Principality, but the four also talk about great tracks in general, safety (or lack thereof) and even entertain a question from Motor Sport‘s editor Damien Smith…
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Podcast with Wallace and Weaver
You never quite know where the conversation will go with these podcasts, but it’s safe to say that no one could have predicted the topics in this one.
Andy Wallace and James Weaver were on typically good form and, amongst the tales of Formula Ford and Le Mans, we cover private jets with gold taps and Jonathan Palmer’s dodgy painkillers.
As always, let us know what you think.
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An hour with Emanuele Pirro was always going to be lively and the five-time Le Mans winner didn’t disappoint.
As well as inventing subscription offers, he talked about celebrating Goodwood and Le Mans wins, his F1 career, Tazio Nuvolari and what he learned from Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost when he was testing at McLaren.
As always, let us know what you think.
Recent Motor Sport podcasts
F1 season preview
Gordon Murray
John McGuinness
Frank Williams
Gary Anderson
Tony Brooks
Allan McNish
Stirling Moss
Richard Noble
If you would like to subscribe to the Motor Sport podcasts then visit our iTunes page.
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2014 F1 season preview podcast
Once the dust had settled on the pre-season Formula 1 tests in Bahrain and Jerez it was time for Motor Sport’s podcast team to gather and preview the 2014 season.
On the panel were editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck, features editor Simon Arron, senior contributing writer Rob Widdows and new Grand Prix editor Mark Hughes.
Who’s quick and who’s not, what might happen between Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen and where does Red Bull go from here – it’s all in there. As always, let us know your thoughts on anything that’s discussed.
Recent Motor Sport podcasts
Gordon Murray
John McGuinness
Frank Williams
Gary Anderson
Tony Brooks
Allan McNish
Stirling Moss
Richard Noble
If you would like to subscribe to the Motor Sport podcasts then visit our iTunes page.
To find all our podcasts in one convenient place, visit our SoundCloud page.
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We’ve been trying to pin Gordon Murray down for almost six months, but we’re glad we hung in there as it was a fascinating hour. An hour which was then followed by another 60 minutes chatting when the microphones were switched off.
We must apologise now for the sound quality. A glitch in the system meant that this one is below par compared to the normal high standard. We’re sorry and we’ll be back to normal next month!
To read Gordon Murray’s Motor Sport feature that he refers to please click here.
Recent Motor Sport podcasts
John McGuinness
Frank Williams
Gary Anderson
Tony Brooks
Allan McNish
Stirling Moss
Richard Noble
If you would like to subscribe to the Motor Sport podcasts then visit our iTunes page.
To find all our podcasts in one convenient place, visit our SoundCloud page.
Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine
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Audio podcast with John McGuinness
A few hours before the 2014 Motor Sport Magazine Hall of Fame we managed to tie 20-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness down for a chat.
It was a fascinating hour spent talking about the TT, Michael Schumacher’s talent on a motorbike, what the future holds for John and what it takes to win 20 times on the Isle of Man. A podcast not to be missed.
John McGuinness is inducted into the Motor Sport Magazine Hall of Fame.
Don’t miss the Motor Sport Hall of Fame programme on Sky Sports F1 on Friday January 31st at 8.30pm.
Recent Motor Sport podcasts
Frank Williams
Gary Anderson
Tony Brooks
Allan McNish
Stirling Moss
Richard Noble
If you would like to subscribe to the Motor Sport podcasts then visit our iTunes page.
To find all our podcasts in one convenient place, visit our SoundCloud page.
Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine
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Audio podcast with Frank Williams
The podcast team travelled up to Williams’ Grove base for the last recording of the year and chatted to the great Frank Williams.
He was on fine form and talked about Nigel Mansell, his favourite Williams cars, Adrian Newey and a man who refused to go to sleep unless he was wearing pyjamas…
Frank Williams in his office at Williams HQ
Thank you for listening to the podcasts this year – we’ve been extremely lucky to have sat down with Richard Attwood, Pat Symonds, Lee McKenzie, Martin Brundle, David Coulthard, Anthony Reid, Henri Pescarolo, Nelson Piquet, Emerson Fittipaldi, John McGuinness, Stuart Graham, Danny Sullivan, Vic Elford, Richard Noble, Stirling Moss, James Allison, Mercedes engineering director Andy Cowell, Gordon Day of Williams Hybrid Power, Allan McNish, Tony Brooks, Gary Anderson and Frank Williams.
However, even with those guests there’d be no point in doing the recordings if you weren’t listening to them. So thank you for your time and we hope to bring you many more hours of listening in 2014. Have a great Christmas one and all.
Recent Motor Sport podcasts
Gary Anderson
Tony Brooks
Allan McNish
Stirling Moss
Richard Noble
If you would like to subscribe to the Motor Sport podcasts then visit our iTunes page.
To find all our podcasts in one convenient place, visit our SoundCloud page.
Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine
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Gary Anderson has been a jewel in the BBC's F1 crown with his understanding, knowledge and experience of the sport's technical issues.He was the perfect guest for our 2013 Formula 1 season review and, armed with countless graphs, tables and data sheets, helped us work through just who the big winners and losers were.
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We've been doing these podcasts for four years now and, with one a month (and sometimes more), that adds up to over 50 hours of content.In those four years we've been lucky enough to interview seven Formula 1 world champions, drivers who share 38 Le Mans wins, a 20-time Isle of Man TT winner, four F1 commentators, two team principals, a CART champion and a four-time IndyCar champion. However, in all that time we haven't had 'the racing dentist', Tony Brooks. We've been all the poorer for it – as you will realise, if you didn't already, when you listen to this hour we recorded recently.
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Three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish was in the office on Tuesday in order to be the guest editor for the January 2014 edition of the magazine.Despite relishing his new role and trying to send us all home early, we did manage to record a podcast with him before everyone took his advice and vacated the building.What followed was an hour's insight into Le Mans, Allan's future, Porsche's return to top-line sports car racing and what Toyota's F1 effort was like as a driver. Oh, and he even managed to get Simon Arron to make a mistake with a date...
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From what we hear from you readers our BBQ at the Hurlingham Club on September 18 went down very well, with classic cars on show, a silent auction and the guest of honour on good form.Sir Stirling talks plenty about his career, including his time with Denis Jenkinson on the Mille Miglia, so if you've ever wondered how they sorted out their bathroom breaks during the race, have a listen. If you'd never wondered about that, don't worry, there's a lot more besides.
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"We deployed the parachute at 600mph and immediately you had 6g deceleration," Thrust2 driver Richard Noble tells us."The weird thing about this extreme deceleration is that it upsets your inner ears, which give you your balance. You are absolutely convinced that you are driving vertically downwards into the centre of the earth. It's an extraordinary experience, but soon the g comes off and you're down to 400mph. By then it's a bit boring really."This was 30 years ago, but Noble is once again in the middle of another World Land Speed Record attempt with the BloodhoundSSC.LSRs are a world apart from any other motor sport project. However, whether you're a fan or not, you don't want to miss this podcast we did with BloodhoundSSC's project director. The numbers are baffling, the 1000mph target almost unbelievable.We could only scratch the surface in an hour, but if you want to find out more visit www.bloodhoundssc.com.
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You never quite know who's going to turn up to these podcasts at Goodwood – we camp ourselves out in the drivers' club and hope that some of the famous names at the Festival of Speed will want to come and have a chat before or after their lunch.This year didn't disappoint as Anthony Reid, Henri Pescarolo, Nelson Piquet, Emerson Fittipaldi, John McGuinness, Stuart Graham, Danny Sullivan and Vic Elford all gave us some of their time.
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On June 17 Motor Sport teamed up with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Formula Student programme to host an event featuring three of F1's top engineers. Ed Foster was on hand to question former Lotus technical director James Allison, Mercedes engineering director Andy Cowell and Gordon Day of Williams Hybrid Power. If you want to know more about 2014's new engine formula and the sport's future increased efficiency there's no better place to start. The crowd of young engineers had plenty to ask as well.
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David Coulthard: "Have you never been wrong?" Another driver: "No, never." DC: "Oh, come on, even at home with your wife?" AD: "Nope, not that I can think of." You'll have to listen to the podcast to find out who Coulthard couldn't get to admit that he had ever been wrong, but we're sure some of you already have a good idea who it might be... The hour recording with the 13-time Grand Prix winner was one of the best yet – we hope you enjoy it and, as always, let us know what you think.
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Ex-Formula 1 driver, 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours winner and F1 commentator Martin Brundle was fresh from a McLaren F1 seat fitting for a future Sky feature when he came to see us for a podcast in the Motor Sport offices. He never stands still, but that's partly why his opinions on motor racing are still so on point.Racing against Senna, Schumacher, the current Pirelli tyres, safety in F1... it's all discussed.We apologise now for the lack of Rob Widdows – he was away at the Nürburgring 24 Hours so Ed Foster is in the hot seat.
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Our new website columnist Lee McKenzie came into the office yesterday to record her first Motor Sport podcast.First up was the aftermath of the Malaysian Grand Prix, but we also get Lee's thoughts on Finnish drivers, her favourite circuits and what it's like interviewing Vettel and Webber after a disobeyed 'Multi 21' team order... Oh, and Nigel Roebuck talks about the joys of a fight after a NASCAR race.To read Lee's thoughts on the first two Grands Prix of 2013, click here.
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This month, the team – with a slight change of line-up – sat down for a chat with Pat Symonds.Pat's returning to the F1 pitlane with Marussia this year, a place he hasn't seen since 2009. After the pre-season tests, he was primed to give his opinion on which teams could impress at the start of the season... and which may not. He also talks about 2014's regulation shake-up and the differences between working in the modern age and his early days with Toleman.Joining Rob and Nigel for the first time is Motor Sport veteran Simon Arron. Or, as Rob calls him, 'The Encyclopaedia'.
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This month the team sat down with Richard Attwood, winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1970.Regular listeners will know how entertaining Richard can be after Ed's evening with him and David Piper. Nigel also commented afterwards that he has rarely known a racing driver with such incredible recall. For fans of the Porsche 917, Richard's experiences of the car's difficult early days and his Le Mans win with Hans Herrmann will be particularly interesting. The historians among you should enjoy this one
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On December 5, Motor Sport hosted a special readers' evening with Sir Jackie Stewart OBE.Joining the three-time champion at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone were Nigel Roebuck and Damien Smith, as well as former Tyrrell and McLaren man Jo Ramirez. After dinner, the four sat down for a question and answer session which you can hear below. Sir Jackie shared his thoughts on some of his contemporaries plus a few more modern drivers, and gave an insight into his trademark smooth driving style.We also used the night to launch our annual Hall of Fame event along with our auction for the Grand Prix Mechanics Charitable Trust.
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This month, to coincide with Jody Scheckter's guest editor special, the team sat down with him to discuss the 2012 Formula 1 season.
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On November 8 Dick Lovett hosted a special Ferrari evening in its new showroom just outside Swindon. We say showroom, but really it's a Ferrari mecca.As well as Peter Lovett talking to the crowd about how the dealership started, I sat down with David Piper and Richard Attwood to talk about their careers racing Ferrari sports cars.It's not the full recording, but it will give you a flavour of the evening. As always, Richard and David's stories enlightened us on an era very different from today's.
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On October 2 we hosted a special readers' evening with John Surtees.After a three-course dinner editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck and editor Damien Smith sat down with the 1964 Formula 1 World Champion to talk about his career on 'bikes and cars.
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This month we sit down with Tiff Needell – the star of Fifth Gear and Top Gear. He made it, briefly, to Formula 1, but his success came afterwards in sports cars and tin-tops.What you'll all be pleased to hear is that he's a proper old school racer who laments the loss of cross-ply tyres and the old circuits. You won't be surprised to hear that he got on rather well with the rest of the podcast team.
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Deputy editor Gordon Cruickshank has been working at Motor Sport for 30 years and in honour of the occasion we sat him down to ask about the 'good' old days of the magazine when a certain Wesley J Tee ruled over the publication.The stories are absolutely brilliant – even if you have only ever read one or two issues this is a must.What's more, after our chat with Gordon, Nigel, Rob and myself go through the first half of the Formula 1 season.You will also notice some new theme music, which is thanks to Steve Mason.
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You never quite know who will be in the Drivers' Club when we're recording the podcast, but – once again – we were in luck.We hope you enjoy an hour of Tom Kristensen, André Lotterer, Marino Franchitti, John McGuinness, Brian Redman, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jacky Ickx and Karun Chandhok.
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It was up to Silverstone for our latest podcast to see MotoGP Tech 3 Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow.There were also a few changes to the usual Motor Sport team as our 'bike writer Mat Oxley joined Rob Widdows and Ed Foster to chat to the 2009 World Supersport Champion.As always – let us know what you think. We're pretty sure you'll find Cal a refreshing change to the corporate world of Formula 1...
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Straight-talking BRDC president Derek Warwick on current Formula 1, his career, his work for the BRDC and trying to punch Michael Schumacher's lights out.Needless to say this was one of our most enjoyable podcasts to date. We hope you agree.
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en Edwards had been commentating for the British Touring Car Championship for nearly 10 years when he got the call from the BBC in November 2011.He's now the lead commentator for the BBC's F1 coverage in 2012 and we decided to pick his brains about what it's like behind the microphone, next to David Coulthard, and what he thinks of the season so far.We've asked him plenty of your questions so enjoy...
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We always knew an hour spent with five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell would be an hour well spent.But we didn't realise just how amusing it would be. Indeed – this is the first podcast that finishes with an impromptu round of applause.Derek is so full of stories that we could have spent the entire afternoon in the office listening to his tales. We've got in as many as possible, from Formula 1 and sports cars, but if you're still not satisfied (we think you will be) there's always his book Derek Bell: My Racing Life. We hope you enjoy it.
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Welcome everyone to our first podcast of 2012.Pat Symonds is the only podcast guest we've had more than once, and when you listen you'll realise why. He's a straight-talking F1 engineer who not only tells it how it is, but also has the ability to explain even the most technical parts of the sport to people who haven't got an engineering degree (i.e. us).We hope you enjoy it and do let us know your thoughts on everything we talk about.
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It seems like only a few months ago that we recorded our 2010 Formula 1 season review in our local pub, the Chelsea Ram.But a full 12 months have passed, and to change things around a bit for this year's season review we decided to 'upgrade' to the Bluebird restaurant. This may just seem like a good excuse to enjoy the food and wine this Chelsea establishment has to offer, but there was more to it than that.Built in 1923 as the Bluebird Garage for Sir Malcolm Campbell, this Art Deco building was the place where in 2005 David Coulthard introduced Adrian Newey to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. The negotiations that meant Adrian would leave McLaren and join the ranks in Milton Keynes came at a later date, but the seed had been sown. It's this partnership that has been a major factor in Sebastian Vettel's two World Championships and so – good food aside – it seemed a fitting place to record our last podcast of 2011.Our latest issue includes a full season review, taken from this recording, as well as Nigel Roebuck's top ten drivers and an exclusive interview with 2011 runner-up Jenson Button. Want to know who Jenson thinks is the most aggressive driver on the grid? Look out for the February issue on UK newstands on December 30.In the meantime, from all of us on the podcast team, a very happy Christmas and thank you for listening. It's been a great year for the podcasts and we hope you've enjoyed them. We'll be back in the new year with a great guest to kick us off. The first recording will be on January 19 so look out for the podcast soon after that.At the risk of sounding like a BAFTA Award winner, I would just like to thank Alan Hyde for looking after the sound so brilliantly (it's not easy making a bunch of smokers sound good) and Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith and Rob Widdows for providing the content. More of the same in 2012, please...
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On Saturday October 8, Motor Sport hosted a readers’ evening in association with Audi UK at the Audi quattro rooms in West London. Star guests included Le Mans winners Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Audi factory team engineers Howden ‘H’ Haynes and Leena Gade.The documentary Truth in 24 – that everyone watched at the start of the evening – follows the factory Audi team as they fight through the gruelling race in the knowledge that their car is technically slower that its rival from Peugeot. In one of the most nail-biting Le Mans in recent history, the Audi team works together to overcome its rivals, and it is engineer Howden’s inspired tyre-change decision 23 and half hours into the race that helps the number two car to victory.After watching the film editor Damien Smith sat down with all four as well as editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck. Here is the recording of the discussion...
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Ahead of our December issue – that will be in UK shops on October 28 – we sat down with Sir Jackie Stewart to record a podcast. Why ahead of our December issue? Well, Sir JYS will be the guest editor of the magazine.We won't tell you too much about the upcoming content – that will have to wait for a few weeks. However, suffice to say that it should be a cracker.The podcast went as well as we expected and Sir Jackie's opinions on modern Formula 1 remain as relevant as ever. We hope you enjoy it and as always, let us know what you think. Don't forget to watch out for the December issue at the end of October, it's not to be missed.
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This podcast is a little bit special. On September 16 we took over a small corner of the Drivers' Mess at the Goodwood Revival and interviewed anyone who was passing.It just so happened that Eddie Cheever, Arturo Merzario, Martin Brundle, Sir Stirling Moss, Nick Mason, Rauno Aaltonen, Gerhard Berger, Sir Jackie Stewart, Tom Kristensen, Andy Priaulx and Emanuele Pirro passed by when we were there.As you can imagine, it was an action-packed hour and 20 minutes spent discussing everything from the new BMW DTM machine to why Sir JYS rolled a car, via what Sir Stirling thinks of some of the 'newer' cars at the Revival and why Pirro ended up sending a £5000 cheque to Goodwood.We hope you enjoy it and, as always, let us know what you think about any of the subjects we discuss.
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When we finished our podcast yesterday every member of the team agreed that it was the best yet. We weren't surprised though because chatting to Murray Walker for an hour was never going to be dull.We hope you enjoy it and – as always – let us know your thoughts.
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Here we are, another month, another audio podcast!Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith, Rob Widdows and myself sat down on Tuesday July 26 to talk about the German Grand Prix, the Formula 1 form book and the future of sportscar racing.Have a listen and do let us know your thoughts on everything we discuss.Something you may want to put in your diaries is that on August 24 we will be doing an audio podcast with the great Murray Walker. It'll be online the next day and should be a cracker. If you want to ask him a question just click here.
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Team Lotus reserve driver Karun Chandhok is our latest podcast guest. He talks to Nigel Roebuck, Rob Widdows and Damien Smith about the role of the reserve driver, his contribution to Team Lotus’s ongoing development, the upcoming Indian Grand Prix and meeting his great hero, Alain Prost.
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Motor Sport hosted a special evening in London on June 6 as a group of our enthusiastic readers joined us for a private viewing of the stunning new Ayrton Senna film.We were honoured to be joined by the movie’s producer Manish Pandey and former McLaren team coordinator Jo Ramirez, the man who somehow managed to remain friends with both Senna and Alain Prost during their incendiary two years as team-mates in 1988-89.This is the full, unedited, recording of the open discussion after the film which included Jo, Manish, our editor-in-chief Nigel Roebuck and features editor Rob Widdows. We apologise for the sound – it was recorded live!Do let us know your thoughts and keep checking the website for upcoming readers' evenings. We'll be doing plenty more.
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Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith, Rob Widdows and Ed Foster discuss the Formula 1 season so far – the DRS, the KERS, the Pirelli tyres and whether or not it's proper Grand Prix racing.We hope you enjoy it and of course, if you don't agree with what we're saying... let us know!
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These podcasts are coming pretty thick and fast at the moment, but we didn't want to hang on to this one for too long, especially since Allan was on such good form.Allan McNish Motor Sport audio podcast Damien Smith, Rob Widdows, Nigel Roebuck, Ed Foster 2On Tuesday March 29 when we recorded it he had spent the past nine hours in a film studio recording a three-minute clip for an Audi advert. When he made it to the Motor Sport offices we couldn't believe he even wanted to do the podcast and we definitely didn't think he would be as lively as he was. So thank you Allan!Allan McNish Motor Sport audio podcast Damien Smith, Rob Widdows, Nigel Roebuck, Ed Foster 1As always, we hope you enjoy it – we certainly did – and do let us know what you think.
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Well here we are, the March podcast! Dario Franchitti has not only won the IndyCar series three times and the Indianapolis 500 twice, but he is also a great podcast guest as we're sure you'll agree.Many thanks to the Royal Automobile Club this month, who very kindly let us record the podcast in its Pall Mall HQ.We hope you enjoy it and – as always – do let us know what you think.
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Here we are... the first of our 2011 podcasts.We made the journey to the McLaren Technology Centre yesterday and managed to distract Martin for well over an hour. We hope you enjoy it! As always, let us know what you think.
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Over the Christmas period we thought you may want a break from it all, so we recorded our season review that Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith, Rob Widdows and Ed Foster recorded in the local pub, the Chealsea Ram.
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Here's the second part of our season review podcast... We hope you enjoy it and please do let us know what you think.
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Despite freezing cold weather and a tube strike, Pat Symonds made it to our Chelsea offices and spent a very interesting hour with us. Thankfully Pat is one of the few engineers in Formula 1 that can explain the staggering amount of technology in Formula 1 in layman's terms and what he has to say about KERS, the new rules and Red Bull this year was fascinating. Not to mention what he had to say about Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Jean Alesi.
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Here we are, the latest Motor Sport audio podcast. Considering we are doing a proper Formula 1 season review (to be recorded in the local...) in a few weeks, we thought it would be a good time to have a look at the WRC.Malcolm and Matt were great guests and had some very interesting things to say about the state of the WRC, the dominance of Loeb, Räikkönen's performance this year and why rally fans should be quietly hopeful about the future of the sport.
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We know you've been waiting longer than usual for the next audio podcast, but I think you'll agree this one's worth waiting for. We gathered in the Drivers Mess at the Goodwood Revival and chatted to Stirling Moss, Bobby Rahal, Martin Brundle, Tom Kristensen, Richard Attwood, Jochen Mass, Emanuele Pirro, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey. Quite a line up...
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Welcome to another Motor Sport audio podcast. There was no avoiding the team orders scandal from Hockenheim, but we also have a look at the Formula 1 driving standards, the relationship between Vettel and Webber and whether it's too late for Schumacher to start producing the results.
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Welcome to another Motor Sport audio podcast. This month Christian Horner very kindly gave us an hour of his time (something that's almost unheard of for a team principal in the middle of the Formula 1 season!) and we made the trip up to Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes.The journey wasn't without dramas... Myself, the editor Damien Smith and all the recording equipment set off from head office in Chelsea in plenty of time in his trusty BMW. However, within a mile of traffic the car was hot, very, very hot in fact and it soon came to a grinding halt. After a brief panicked phone call to my brother Will, I deserted the editor at Shepherd's Bush and ran to my brother's car (a surprisingly brilliant Ford Mondeo ST220) that he very kindly lent me.So, if you're wondering why Damien doesn't say too much in the podcast, it's because he was on a tow truck – with his car. The recording thankfully went according to plan and I hope you enjoy what Christian has to say.Thank you for the car Will, and thank you Christian.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the Patrick Head podcast is here! It's taken a while and a couple of date reshuffles, but it was well worth the wait. Thank you all very much for sending in your questions – we managed to cover quite a few. However, we didn't manage to ask as many as we would have liked as some of Patrick's stories were too good to interupt. Have a listen and I think you'll agree...
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Welcome to another Motor Sport audio podcast. This month we take a look at the first three races, the drivers, the teams and of course the racing.
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Welcome to our March podcast with 1996 Formula 1 World Champion and current BRDC president Damon Hill.He played a big hand in securing the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and has an interesting perspective on Formula 1 at the moment, a perspective he's not afraid to air.Enjoy... We all certainly did.
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As I'm sure you'll agree Brian is one of our best guests yet as the tales of his racing career are quite simply, jaw-dropping.
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Welcome to a very special Motor Sport audio podcast. This month we're joined by Mario Andretti and Brian Redman – such a stellar line-up that we've had to cut it into two parts!
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Welcome to the first Motor Sport audio podcast of 2010. What does Nigel Roebuck really think about the return of Michael Schumacher and all the other news from the F1 paddock?
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The last of the Motor Sport audio podcasts of 2009. For those of you who were upset about John Watson's views on Kimi Raikkonen in the last episode, you'll be pleased to know that we have gone some way to rectifying the situation... Or at least a certain Niki Lauda has.
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Welcome to another Motor Sport audio podcast! This month we're joined by 1981 British Grand Prix winner John Watson.Nigel Roebuck may not be doing his usual impressions, but John Watson certainly doesn't sit on the fence... As always let us know what you think.
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Welcome to another installment of the Motor Sport audio podcasts. You'll all be pleased to know that Roebuck's Lauda impression makes a return and we're even treated to a 'Sir Jackie Stewart'. Besides mimicking the Formula 1 paddock we also discuss Alonso's move to Ferrari, Kubica's situation, Singapore 2008 – briefly, you'll be pleased to hear – and the Goodwood Revival amongst others.
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Our latest instalment in the Motor Sport audio podcast series. But this time Nigel Roebuck, Rob Widdows and Ed Foster were joined by 1979 Formula 1 World Champion Jody Scheckter.He's known for being out spoken, and he didn't disappoint. As always – let us know your thoughts and whether you'd like these more often than once a month.
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Welcome to another Motor Sport audio podcast with Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith, Rob Widdows and Ed Foster. Even though there's a gap in Formula 1 racing at the moment there's still plenty to talk about...This month we had to run and hide in the attic of the next door office thanks to a 'minature oil rig' outside our office. Drilling. All day. Every day. So apologies for the slight echo...
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