The F1 Beyond The Grid podcast features Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne on different episodes where they discuss about multiple things.
Daniel Ricciardo:
The F1 Beyond The Grid podcast had Ricciardo returning for the second time, alking about different topics along with Formula One. The start of the podcast had him discuss the last two years of life and not just his own life as he refers to pandemic. Talks about being on his farm in Australia, owing to lockdown and how it caused him to miss the sport and being hungry for it.
He continued talking about his farm in Western Australia, his love of space, dirt bikes, playing loud music, his love of the outback. He claims it is the best purchase in his life. He went on about his love of bikes – loved BMX as a kid – always fascinated with 2-wheels, but claims he is not great on same. He then added about his personal journal that he started writing during lockdown, normally does same during flights.
Ricciardo then added more about his love of live music and how much he missed it during lockdown. He tends to lean away from well-known bands and would much prefer to see an up and coming artist. He also loves watching all types of sports and how he gets really into it. And about motor racing, he watches F2 and F3 with interest as he feels he might see something that can help him in his own race weekend.
Talking about the countries, he shared his love of the USA and how he compares it to Australia. He added on his is first time being in Austin in 2012 and how friendly the people were there and then goes on to talk about his love of California and the fact he has property there. The coolest thing he has done in USA is being on a ranch with friends a while back riding around on motor bikes.
Also, for the second time ever, he actually surfed in San Diego, strange for an Australian. Strange but he says growing up he never really went to the sea, however he then refers to this as possibly being a fear of sharks and is still apprehensive of the ocean. He would much prefer to go out on bikes as opposed to swimming or surfing at weekends when young. This led to a “retirement plan” topic where he plans to take three months off and surf every day for that time when he retires from F1.
He has no plans to race at all when he quits F1, but it might change. He loves everything American; huge NFL fan of late and was at the Superbowl in 2020. During the course he has become a fan of the Buffalo Bills and loves their jersey, as then moved on to the fashion topic. Started in 2020 and how involved he became in it. Talked about his “Speedway” connection and his huge love of NASCAR and the clothing that goes with it; shirts, caps etc. Potentially it could be a career move when he retires.
Returning back to Formula One, he talks about how his life has changed from when he first started in Formula One. He says for him he has a love hate relationship with F1 and is super competitive at everything he does no matter what it is. Goes on to talk about his win at Monza and feels he is still on a high from it and still appreciates it. He is still in awe of how many people reached out to him after his win.
He compared it to winning at Monaco in 2018. Talks about being humbled and proud of the reaction to the win from so many people and adds about being at Adelaide as a 4-year-old when Senna won in 1993 and that his father took a photo with him. And seeing that his Monza trophy is beside that Senna’s one at MTC is definitely surreal.
He says the win at Monza was badly needed in light of the year he has had at McLaren. He felt comfortable and confident as soon as the race started. He says form in sports and confidence help greatly in all sports. He then talks about some of his best results not just being race wins but down to his preparation and how he loves watching other sports from a mental aspect, particularly Tennis. In terms of his prep, he talks about playing Table Tennis every day during lockdown and discusses it from a mental viewpoint.
He feels his talent deserves a F1 World Title but does not feel bitter or boastful about, which takes him back to 2014, when he felt he could have possibly won the title that year, his pivotal season. Ricciardo reckons he drove really well in ’14 and ’16 and sometimes thinks he should have had a title by now. But in the present, the title is not his only goal with McLaren and won’t look back at his McLaren tenure as a failure as not winning a title wont dictate his happiness.
He goes on to talk about 2022 with the new regulations and rules and he is looking forward to it and feels they can move on greatly from the win at Monza for next season. He feels as a team they are ready to challenge for the title and that the balance between Zak Brown and Andreas Seidl is excellent and have done a great job getting the team to where they are now. He has high praise for Brown, compares him to Helmut Marko, different personality but same ambition.
He says Seidl has a tremendous killer instinct and has a door is always open policy. Regarding the 2021 F1 fight, he doesn’t plan on racing Lewis Hamilton and or Max Verstappen any differently despite their intense Title battle. He doesn’t want to be involved in their battle in a negative way but also says he won’t change his approach. He concludes by advising, he will go to Australia for Christmas as he has not seen his family for 18 months and also 2021 is the first year he has been homesick.
Here’s the F1 podcast with Daniel Ricciardo: https://audioboom.com/posts/7963705-daniel-ricciardo-on-winning-with-mclaren
Jean-Eric Vergne:
The latest F1 Beyond The Grid podcast features Jean-Eric Vergne, who has plenty to discuss. He started with talking about living in the UK since his F3 days, briefly lived in Switzerland before returning to London. He moved on to talks about being an ex F1 driver and that he and other drivers had talent. Possibly should have done things differently.
He says his issues were winning regularly in lower categories and he had a winning mentality when entering F1, but wanted to fight for podiums and he should have known better it would not be the case, in short, wrong mentality and should have enjoyed eigth and ninth better when it was achieved.
Vergne reckons if he returned to F1, he would enjoy those placings better. He would also be a stronger person and not as nice as he was. He then talks about knowing about being replaced at Torro Rosso, early in 2014. He was irritated of not going to Red Bull when Sebastian Vettel left and he advised that Franz Tost wanted to keep him, pairing an experienced driver with Max Verstappen at Torro Rosso for 2015.
He respected Marko, who he says respected drivers, says he was fair. He spoke about Marko calling at unusual times for Race debriefs. Vergne feels he should have tried to ingratiate himself more to Christian Horner back then, as he says he wishes he had a manager when he was at Torro Rosso, it would have helped but managers were a no-no with Red Bull.
Looking back at his F1 career, he talks about some of his races including one of his early Grands Prix (Malaysia 2012) and the tactics he applied, stayed on intermediates in driving rain although he almost collided with Vettel. He talks about his skill in the wet weather, something he learnt in Karting, as he then goes on to talk about Monaco and Canada 2013, particularly his battle in Canada with Fernando Alonso. He also adds about his stirring drive in Singapore in 2014.
He felt when he knew he was not being kept by Torro Rosso, he felt pressure started to lift and he enjoyed his driving more. Also advises drivers should use Psychologists more. He says his greatest strength in F1 was actual racing and not qualifying. He enjoyed the technical side, setting cars up, wind tunnel visiting. Vergne says engineers listen more to drivers who suggest solutions, when the driver understand what he is talking about.
He says the best car he drove was the Torro Rosso in 2014 and not the Red Bull RB7 which he drove at Abu Dhabi in the young driver testing in 2011. He did also advise that the most fun he had driving was in Formula 3. He felt he was “untouchable” in the Red Bull RB7 in Abu Dhabi testing 2011, so much so that he reckoned had Vettel been there that day, he would have beaten him.
Vergne says timing in careers is not always everything, as he talks about Hamilton going to Mercedes who when he joined them, they were well behind Red Bull but hard work got them to where he is now. He talks about his post F1 career on leaving Torro Rosso in 2014 including talking to other teams. He was offered Ferrari test role but did not really enjoy it, particularly when he saw former team mates and friends still racing. He only drove the car once in his tenure in the role.
He speaks with fondness of his time in Formula E and the Le Mans programme with Peugeot. He talks about his initial drive with Andretti Racing in Formula E where he speaks in high praise of Michael Andretti and the way his confidence increased after a successful debut in FE. He goes on to talk about when he initially drove in the Le Mans series (LMP2 category). For the upcoming future, Vergne talks about his all the new drivers who he will be with at Peugeot but does not know who his team-mates will be.
He feels 100% he is enjoying racing much more than 5 years ago. He then talks about his non racing activities, namely, The Spirit Industry, Restaurants. And as an animal lover he talks about Cheetahs and the work he has done with the foundation. Vergne concludes by talking about the battle between Hamilton and Verstappen, saying he would love to see them driving as team-mates but is unsure of who will triumph overall in 2022
Here’s the F1 podcast with Jean-Eric Vergne: https://audioboom.com/posts/7967548-jean-eric-vergne-on-learning-from-f1-regrets
The story was written by Neil Farrell
Here’s the last F1 Beyond The Grid podcast episodes