The F1 Beyond The Grid podcast had its second episode with Pedro de la Rosa where he spoke about McLaren/Ferrari/HRT plus Lewis Hamilton/Fernando Alonso and more.
After McLaren’s Lando Norris, a former Woking-based F1 team’s driver de la Rosa featured on the second F1 Beyond The Grid podcast episode. Here’s all what he talked with Tom Clarkson:
- De la Rosa began the F1 podcast by discussing about his age, and love for racing. They then talked about his debut, and the experience which came with it – Michael Schumacher holding the door included.
- De la Rosa then gave his two cents about the drivers coming into F1 at younger ages in current times. The Spaniard said he predicts that these crop will burn out earlier.
- He went on to discuss the very beginnings of his career and the hardships he faced, especially as his father didn’t want him to become a race car driver.
- Moving forward in time, de la Rosa spoke about his time working with Hamilton, and what he thought of the Brit at McLaren.
- He recalled the story of how he got the seat during 2005 Bahrain GP, in lieu of an injured Juan Pablo Montoya. They discussed about the race then.
- Sticking with the McLaren theme, Pedro explained how he felt about his time with the team in 2006 and 2007. Here, he said that the lack of consistency and race-by-race signing was hurting his confidence. He also said that Hamilton threatening his seat was cause for discomfort in the team.
- Moving on, he gave insight as to what it was like being in the middle of one of F1’s biggest scandals – spygate. He denied that McLaren deserved to be fined and penalised, and said that the information was never used. Further, he said that Alonso did not deserve the blame he received for the FIA finding out about McLaren’s schemes.
- Switching gears, de la Rosa discussed what it was like being a test driver in an era of F1 where testing was so common. He revealed that sometimes, he would do two test sessions a week. Also, he spoke about the MP4-18, and how his ability to handle that car gave him a chance at the race seat.
- Talking about several other drivers, he gave his opinion on Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean, and a few others. He said that the pressure on Vettel will be crippling, and that Hamilton and Alonso are incredible F1 drivers. Additionally, he told of Kimi Raikkonen’s specific car preferences, and rated him highly, putting him on the same level as the Brit and Spaniard above.
- De la Rosa then told the story of his resignation, and how Ron Dennis responded. He also discussed how his move to HRT eventually opened up an opportunity at Ferrari, where he rebuilt his relationship with Alonso.
- He then expressed how surprised he was with the lack of resources at Ferrari compared to McLaren. Also, he explained the emotion he felt in his first test with the prancing horse at Jerez.
- Continuing on, he discussed Max Verstappen as he rated the Dutchman extraordinarily highly. He then told stories of his years with Eddie Irvine, and his ruthlessness, and poor sportsmanship.
- Aside from this, he spoke about his relationship with Niki Lauda, which deteriorated somewhat after de la Rosa was fired by Niki, but recovered later.
- He also spoke about how surprised he was to see Jaguar turn into a successful F1 team like Red Bull Racing.
- Finally, he said MP4-20 was the one he enjoyed most due to its lightning pace.
Unlike last year, F1 is not allowing the use of Beyond the Grid podcast within the story and so we can only provide you the link of it, here: https://audioboom.com/posts/7533436-pedro-de-la-rosa-on-spygate-hamilton-vs-alonso-and-racing-christian-horner
Here’s the last podcast with Lando Norris
The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani