[Intro music]

00:00:07 Hannah

Hi, I'm Hannah.

00:00:09 Rachelle

I'm Rachelle and welcome to Box Box F1 pod so.

00:00:12 Hannah

Today we're going to start with a recap of “Drive to Survive,” starting on season one.

Episodes one and two. We love “Drive to Survive.”

00:00:22 Rachelle

It’s what introduced us to Formula One and made us the passionate fans we are today.

00:00:27 Hannah

Even if you don't like cars or racing or sports, we still think this would be a good show to watch and would highly recommend it because it's very dramatic. So if you like reality TV like “Bachelorette” or “The Real Housewives”

00:00:45 Rachelle

Or if you like “Game of Thrones” or “Succession.” Also, great.

00:00:48 Hannah

Yes, and “Cars” the movie. I guess for car aficionados.

00:00:57 Rachelle

If you enjoyed “Cars” the Pixar movie you'll enjoy seeing the live action version, which is, really, what “Drive to Survive” is.

00:01:05 Hannah

OK, so there will be spoilers. So, I would highly recommend that you actually watch at least the first two episodes, because obviously in this recap we're going to talk about everything that happens.

00:01:18 Rachelle

Also, just to preface, if you haven't seen it yet, or you've just watched it recently, “Drive to Survive” does not follow a chronological format. It sort of weaves in storylines and profiles into the races itself, so if you want to see the races in chronological order, you can buy F1 TV and watch it yourself. 

00:01:47 Hannah

Yes, F1 TV is only $80.00 a year, and we both bought it two weeks ago.

00:01:49 Rachelle

It's a tax write off.

00:01:50 Hannah

Yes, for us.

00:01:54 Rachelle

Not for you. It's a good investment anyway.

00:01:57 Hannah

All righty let's get into episode one. It, of course, introduces and describes what Formula One is, but in probably the most dramatic way possible.

00:02:10 Rachelle

Yeah, in the first 30 seconds, you see literally everything F1 is about from sports to travelling to drama, to money, to power. To passion and everything is big and traveling. It's lots of motor homes and cars and crowds and big personalities.

00:02:28 Hannah

They call it a traveling circus, which is 100% true because they all travel with giant motor homes and cars to gather around the entyre world in like several different countries. And we're going to just start by introducing the teams and the people on them.

00:02:47 Hannah

So first we're introduced to the Red Bull team and Red Bull used to be really good. They won multiple world titles when Sebastian Vettel was their driver, but they've been struggling somewhat recently. This actually, we should say, episode one, like season one, covers the 2018 season. So, at the time when the 2018 season was starting, Red Bull was kind of in a decline or slump, or just not where they wanted to be, and so they were just trying to fight back at this point.

00:03:24 Rachelle

Yeah, exactly. And the way they were fighting back was obviously the way teams fight for the top is a combination of car and drivers. The first thing we're introduced to is Daniel Ricardo, who is one of their drivers and he is the cutest, smiley-est, most cheeky person you will ever meet. He's from Perth, Australia.

00:03:41 Hannah

He's full of jokes. Netflix actually goes to Perth to see Daniel's family and like where he grew up. And notably, there's mounds of dirt everywhere. And so, I had to research what this place was and it's the capital of Western Australia. And “The New York Times” said it’s a hipster haven and that it pales in comparison to Williamsburg.

00:04:07 Rachelle

You're joking.

00:04:07 Hannah

So this checks out. It's very dirty there.

00:04:11 Rachelle

Dirty hipsters in a dirty place.

00:04:13 Hannah

Yes, but I think that's considered the Outback in Australia.

00:04:17 Rachelle

Right.

00:04:18 Hannah

Yeah, I think that's normal and good cause it’s nature-y.

00:04:21 Rachelle

OK. But Daniel lives in a civilized home. There is dirt there also, but not in the house. They have some barbeque and that's a good introduction to their family life.

00:04:32 Hannah

It looks good.

00:04:36 Rachelle

Yeah, his mother is very cute.

00:04:37 Hannah

Yeah, she's a ball of emotions. And she starts by saying that when Daniel was a teenager, he wanted to go to Europe to train for F1 because it's not like as big in Australia and it's mainly in Europe and she said it was a very difficult decision to let her baby go.

00:04:59 Rachelle

But away he went. And he trained from a wee little teenager up until the 31-year-old man he is today. He seems sweet and charming, but really, he's got a ruthless side which he mentions a lot. He doesn't want you to be deceived by his charming attitude. He is known for being the overtake king. He calls himself the Honey Badger, because apparently they're deceptively ruthless.I did not know this about honey badgers.

00:05:29 Hannah

Ruthless? Are they murderous?

00:05:37 Rachelle

I don’t know. I guess they really go at it like when they build dams.

I see, no, OK. Well, I think that's probably an accurate description because they may think they're ruthless. Much like Daniel thinks he is. But I haven't seen him do anything that aggressive at all.

00:05:57 Rachelle

He's aggressive when he drives. He’s not gentle.

00:05:59 Hannah

He's not like overly. I wouldn't say that's like a ruthless quality. Like he drives well as an F1 driver but like…

00:06:08 Rachelle

There are more ruthless drivers out there.

00:06:12 Rachelle

But if he wants to be the Honey Badger, you be the Honey Badger Daniel. We support it.

00:06:18 Hannah

Yeah, it’s cute. Well, just super quick. So, Daniel is one of the drivers on Red Bull, but also Max Verstappen is the other driver and he's actually like considered the first driver cause like on each team there's always kind of like a first driver that's prioritized basically, over the second driver.

00:06:37 Rachelle

Yes. And, also, he is the number one driver, at least from the perspective of the team. But it's also sort of on the DL still because Daniel was their first. So obviously they're not going to be like you’re second in our eyes. Max is young and super aggressive.

00:06:55 Hannah

And then we meet the team principal, Christian Horner. 

00:07:00 Rachelle

He’s married to Ginger Spice, which is important.

00:07:05 Hannah

And they have a donkey farm.

00:07:07 Rachelle

They have a donkey farm. They're super-duper posh because no one else owns donkey farms. Unless you've got money, cause why would you? And they've also got a lot of little cute ginger children.

00:07:23 Hannah

Do not Google Christian Horner young. Because it's horrifying.

00:07:27 Rachelle

Hannah inserted the picture into the outline, so I'm just staring at a really pale Peter Pettigrew-esque person.

00:07:32 Hannah

It's just staring at me.

00:07:37 Rachelle

Christian Horner aged better than you could possibly imagine at the time. Which all that happened actually is that, like all British men, he grew some stubble at 30 years old and can hide the fact that he's very…

00:07:51 Hannah

Pale 

00:07:56 Rachelle

Pale. But he's very sweet and very cute. Well, I wouldn't call him sweet, but he is very cute. He looks like he's in on a joke and like he's mischievous.

00:08:07 Hannah

He's up to no good at all times.

00:08:10 Rachelle

Pretty much. He looks like it, and he actually is. He's always up to something.

00:08:15 Hannah

Yep, all righty. So that's the whole Red Bull team. And then we move on to Haas. I think we should start with the team principal here cause that's the star. and that's Guenther Steiner.

00:08:30 Rachelle

We’re major Guenther Steiner stans at Box Box. From his eyebrows to his accent, he's everyone's dream.

00:08:39 Hannah

He has nonexistent eyebrows, which you will miss.

00:08:41 Rachelle

Which took us three seasons to notice.

00:08:43 Hannah

Yes, you will miss it if no one tells you, so, you're welcome.

00:08:47 Rachelle

Yeah, our friend told us and we were convinced he was wearing a hat for three seasons. Turns out he just doesn't have eyebrows.

00:08:54 Hannah

So, Guenther’s childhood dream was to manage an F1 team. And he started working as a mechanic like 30 years ago and then he somehow persuaded Gene Haas to start an F1 team. And Gene is incredibly wealthy and owns a NASCAR team, so he was already somewhat familiar with racing. And I guess Gunther's persuasion skills were good. And so then they started competing in 2016. So, at the time when this episode one was starting, this was actually only in their third year of competition, so they were truly new to the game.

00:09:35 Rachelle

As Hannah calls it, they were a startup.

00:09:37 Hannah

Yes, they really are because the more established teams, they typically have a budget of $600 million. Haas only has $140 million, so.

00:09:53 Rachelle

Yes, and whereas maybe in some industries you could hide the budget discrepancy between you and your competitors, if you don't have enough money, you literally crash and burn.

00:10:03 Hannah

If you don't have enough money, it's very embarrassing.

00:10:10 Rachelle

Yes, physically. You literally – not metaphorically crashing and burning – you’re literally on fire in front of everyone.

00:10:16 Hannah

Your car is literally falling apart in front of the whole world.

00:10:20 Rachelle

But that is no a reflection on Guenther as a man.

00:10:25 Hannah

No! He comes from humble beginnings. It's not his fault everyone is rich. OK. One of the drivers on Haas is Kevin Magnussen. He has no fear.

00:10:38 Rachelle

Very lovingly tells the camera that he has no fear when he drives. Doesn't think about the consequences of crashing the car. And he's not worried about dying. Which all sound like things that you should definitely be concerned about.

00:10:51 Hannah

Yes, and actually in the context that we just talked about, about how you need money to essentially buy high quality. Makes sense that, if you're driving for Haas, that can't be a concern of yours. Cause it's like a 50% chance your car will blow up. So he's probably on the right team, but I am concerned about his wellbeing for sure.

00:11:15 Rachelle

Yes, he could burst into flames and well, they're wearing flame retardant suits, but his car could burst into flames at any moment.

00:11:24 Hannah

Metaphorically, he could burst into flames.

00:11:28 Rachelle

But he does not care, which is really all that matters, because if you're worried about bursting into flames, you're never going to get into the fire.

00:11:35 Hannah

Yeah, if you're at all easily embarrassed, you should not be on the Haas team. 

00:11:37 Rachelle

Yeah. It’s a no shame zone.

00:11:46 Hannah

Which leads us to our second driver, Romain Grosjean. He is just known for crashing.

00:11:53 Rachelle

If you see a car crash, chances are, Grosjean is in that car.

00:11:56 Hannah

90% chance it's Grosjean. Especially if it's into a wall for no reason. Uhm, but no, I do feel kind of bad for him 'cause he gets so much shit for it, but sometimes it is unbelievable.

00:12:11 Rachelle

It truly is. He, actually, in a couple episodes he'll take us on his therapy journey because the humiliation from the crashes were getting a bit much for poor Grosjean. But I'm glad he got help. You really do need help if you're in this industry because you need to be a very specific kind of person to willingly get into a car like this.

00:12:30 Hannah

They truly highlighted the most dramatic, humiliating parts of the sport for our entertainment.

00:12:39 Rachelle

Yes, and a lot of the drivers were a little put off by that. That they're like, oh, you just show crashes. But all we want to see is crashes so I don't really know what they're talking about.

00:12:50 Hannah

Netflix knows what we want.

00:12:52 Rachelle

Yes, and like all reality TV, you take it with a grain of salt. You realize people are portrayed in a certain way and like storylines are massaged for the benefit of the episode. But it really does draw you in and then when you watch the real races, it feels the same. Almost. Sorry, quickly, important to note that we said that Haas is an American team, but that doesn't mean that the people driving for them are American. You'll hear, you'll see it as soon as you watch. Like it's so hard to miss that everyone is from a different place. but Grosjean is French, Kevin's Danish. Uh, Guenther is Italian, but sounds German.

00:13:35 Hannah

He's Italian. But he grew up in like a very northern part of Italy that was very German. 

00:13:41 Rachelle

In the mountains.

00:13:41 Hannah

Like German-Austrian. Then, the first race that kicked off the 2018 season and is highlighted in episode one, is the Melbourne Grand Prix. Just before we get into the actual race, the notable results from the qualifying race was that, Haas, their two drivers qualified to start in 5th and 6th place. Which in other sports is not great, like 5th and 6th. But, in F1 actually, just objectively, those are decent positions, but then, especially because Haas is usually dead last and there's 20 spots totals, so they're like usually really far behind. 5th and 6th where the highest start positions for this team. And the entyre team was like jumping up and down, hugging each other like they just won the Super Bowl, basically.

00:14:48 Rachelle

Yeah, Guenther giddily phoned Gene to let him know that they qualified 5th and 6th. Which, we didn't hear Gene, but I don't think he was quite as enthusiastic as Guenther.

00:15:01 Hannah

The crazy thing is they didn't even like win, fifth and sixth in the actual race. They just qualified to start in those positions and they were like, I don't think there's any other sport where you would get that enthusiastic reaction from like just getting into the race.

00:15:20 Rachelle

Yes, exactly. And also, it's like, people are like milliseconds apart from each other, like it's very, very close. So the mid-tier competition is as intense as the top.

00:15:31 Hannah

And another result from the qualifiers worth mentioning is that Daniel, the Red Bull driver, he had to start at position eight in the race because he got a penalty. And that just put a lot of extra pressure on him because no Australian F1 driver has placed in the top three in a home race in Melbourne. And so his one goal for this race was to place in the top three, and getting from position eight to three is very challenging.

00:16:05 Rachelle

Yeah, and it's also just extra pressure because it's his home race. That's probably why they featured it in the first episode where we meet Daniel because it's important to him. And as the only Australian driver, Melbourne is a big deal for him. And literally every Australian rocked up with a giant cut out of Daniel’s head. So, it’s stressful, I imagine, for poor little Daniel.

00:16:26 Hannah

Well, speaking of stress. So, morning of the race, they cut to Daniel's parents, who you know because they live in Perth, were close to Melbourne, and came to watch his race. And his mom is very cute and stylish. I appreciate her Gucci sunglasses. But she's incredibly anxious. Like she was biting her nails, shaking uncontrollably, and on the verge of tears just watching him like get into the car.

00:16:57 Rachelle

Yeah, she was like I don't even care if he places just come out alive. And it's like lady, relax. Like she was so stressed I was getting nervous watching her.

00:17:08 Hannah

Yes, it was very cute though.

00:17:10 Rachelle

And then the race starts. We cut to the paddock where all of the mechanics and the backend people and Christian Horner are sitting and watching. And Christian makes this huge deal about how mentally draining it is to watch all the graphs as the two cars are driving around. He's like, there's just so many things to look at, there's two cars on the grid. I’m exhausted. And it's like, you're not even driving, you're just looking at a graph. Please relax.

00:17:36 Hannah

He only has one job and it's to look at graphs. He doesn't even have to interpret any of them for anyone. And there's only two. There's only two outcomes, and he's just like freaking out like there's so many different outcomes from this.

00:17:57 Rachelle

You’re a little over the top Christian. It's not that big of a deal so.

00:18:00 Hannah

So. Well has started in positions five and six, and then Verstappen, from Red Bull, he just spun out, so Haas actually moved up to positions five and four, which…

00:18:15 Rachelle

You can bet that Guenther peed his pants.

00:18:18 Hannah

Top five? That's unprecedented for this team and then, disaster.

00:18:26 Rachelle

Disaster struck Haas. Magnussen pit and then flies off and we see a mechanic panicking. Rightfully so, because a tyre was not put on tight enough and he has to leave the race.

00:18:42 Hannah

But we should also say before the actual race started, Guenther had a pep talk with his team which first started out with him saying we can do better than last season. And then he said, but we do have new mechanics in the pit today, so we got to be real careful. And then, I mean, that pep talk ended and you could see it was, it was more foreshadowing than encouragement. Uhm, but yeah, I guess because there was a few new mechanics, but one of them they just did not have enough training, or they were just like too tyred, and the tyre was not put on correctly, so the car, like, just didn't get the right pace. And then, after Magnussen had to retyre his car, Grosjean, the second Haas driver, came in to get his tyres replaced and the exact same thing happened.

00:19:40 Rachelle

Yes, so both cars went from 4th and 5th to completely out of the race.

00:19:45 Hannah

And Guenther is incredibly pissed.

00:19:49 Rachelle

Very pissed.

00:19:51 Hannah

But trying to keep it together.

00:19:57 Rachelle

Which really just looks like, maybe, one less F bomb if he's trying to control himself.

00:20:02 Hannah

Well, they're like some of the Haas like press people, they're like, there's actual media who want to talk to you right now. Like, literally, when they retyred the car and the whole race is going on, the media was coming to the Haas like motorhome, trying to get an interview and you could see Guenther was about to boil over, but he's like, Oh yes, they should know what happened, I'll talk to them.

00:20:33 Rachelle

And poor Guenther. See, the beauty of being an F1 driver is when things go south, you just keep your helmet on. So, like Kevin Magnussen did not take his helmet off for like the remainder of the race, he just sat there in his helmet. Yeah, he was definitely crying, whereas Guenther was just raging all over the place.

00:20:50 Hannah

Yeah, Guenther kept it together for about 5 minutes for an interview and then he called Gene.

00:20:57 Rachelle

And said one of the most iconic quotes of all time, “we finish 4th and 5th here, we fucking look like rock stars. And now we're a fucking bunch of wankers.” But in a German accent.

00:21:11 Hannah

I don't think there's a quote that better encapsulates Haas. They could, and they wanna be rockstars so bad, but in the end, they are wankers. Sorry.

00:21:25 Rachelle

Wankers should never be said in American accents. It sounds so bad.

00:21:29 Hannah

Sounds disgusting. Anywho, so that was the Haas debacle and so they were out. And then the actual race results were Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, and then Daniel came in fourth. Which actually, is not bad at all, but because of like the pressure to place in the top three in his home race and you know to, just like, perform super well. He was disappointed in himself. But he got the quickest lap of the race, which clearly shows he tried.

00:22:06 Rachelle

Yes, but he still kept his helmet on, so don't be so hard on yourself Daniel. Take the helmet off. To finish off this episode, Christian gave a wonderful quote: “You know where you'll be starting, but you don't know where you'll be finishing” and that is F1 in a nutshell.

00:22:23 Hannah

Yes, it is. Now on to episode 2 titled “The King of Spain.” The most important character in this episode is Carlos Sainz Jr., who's on the Renault team.

00:22:38 Rachelle

I just wanted to say we might be a little biased.

00:22:42 Hannah

No, he is the most important.

00:22:45 Rachelle

Oh OK, sorry.

00:22:51 Hannah

In this episode. It’s about his rise.

00:22:53 Rachelle

You're right, you're right.

00:22:54 Hannah

No, I don't think in general, he's the most important. I just meant in context of the episode.

00:23:02 Rachelle

Tell us about Carlos, Hannah

00:23:03 Hannah

OK, so he was a little Spanish boy and he looked up to Fernando Alonso. Because Fernando, who actually we'll get to later, but Fernando is a two time world champ in F1 and so Carlos watched Fernando Racing in F1 growing up and wanted to be just like him but…

00:23:26 Rachelle

Yeah, he was his inspiration, when he was nine. Fernando had already won, so it might be time for Fernando to retyre. I don't know.

00:23:34 Hannah

There's a generational gap here that's large.

00:23:41 Rachelle

Carlos actually said to his father that when he grows up, he wants to be just like Fernando, which is slightly offensive to his father, who is also a motor car racing champion but not in F1. So, Carlos is ready to do bigger and better things than his father.

00:23:57 Hannah

We get us some insight into Carlos’ home life. And we also meet Carlos’ cousin, whose name is also Carlos, but his nickname is Caco. And he's actually Carlos’ manager for like his F1 career. And, despite his name being Caco, he's actually very suave and scholarly, and wears thick rimmed glasses. He doesn't go with the name.

00:24:29 Rachelle

No, he's not Kaka. He's much better than that. He dresses very smartly in a little pastel shirt and a vest, and his little glasses, and looks like literally every Spanish person I know. Every single one wears the exact same outfit, but he's cute. And we love Caco. Also, they're all named Carlos. At one point, they're all in a room together and it's Carlos Sr., Carlos the Caco, and Carlos Jr., all watching football together.

00:24:58 Hannah

Carlos the Caco. Yes, their house is beautiful. And then, in the morning, they wake up and are freshly dressed in button up pastel shirts and just look so put together for breakfast where they share green smoothies with one another.

00:25:16 Rachelle

Just very healthy and European is how the scene looks. And it's just unfair because no one in America wears that. Eve.

00:25:25 Hannah

in America men wear basketball shorts and an intermural T-shirt. And it's not a good look.

00:25:36 Rachelle

Get your shit together, America.

00:25:40 Hannah

Also, I guess they have a family dog that they did not formally introduced, but we see it scampering in for breakfast and it had clearly rolled in dirt.

00:25:51 Rachelle

And Carlos Jr., picks up the dog, holds it up like Lion King and says “this is not a dog. This is a piece of sheet.” So now there are two cacos in the house.

00:26:07 Hannah

I bet the dog’s name is Carlos. I 100% think his name is Carlito.

00:26:17 Rachelle

It should be if it's not.

00:26:21 Hannah

I guess we should move on to the rest of the Renault team. 

00:26:26 Rachelle

The second driver on the Renault team is Nico Hülkenberg, who we know nothing about and that's all you need to know. His name is Nico Hülkenberg and he's less important than Carlos.

00:26:34 Hannah

Exactly, and then the team principal is Cyril. And I cannot say his last name.

00:26:44 Rachelle

My name is Cyril Abiteboul. It is all fantastique. I am French blah blah. He is the Frenchest man to ever French. Like it just seeps out of him. There's no other adjective for Cyril.

00:27:01 Hannah

It just seems like, regardless of whether he's happy, sad, or neutral, his eyes are welled up with tears.

00:27:10 Speaker 3

Define sorry, go ahead.

00:27:10 Rachelle

He is very emotive.

00:27:13 Hannah

He's very dramatic.

00:27:14 Rachelle

He said if I don't deliver, I'm fired. And then giggled but grimaced at the same time. Which he will not know…

00:27:22 Hannah

So many emotions.

00:27:25 Rachelle

It foreshadowed, what’s to come.

00:27:32 Hannah

Yep. All right, that's Renault. Now we move on to McLaren. McLaren has one of our favorite CEOs ever, Zak Brown. But at the time of this 2018 season, he was just the executive director. So, spoiler, he gets promoted. OK, so when they start the scene, it's at the McLaren headquarters in England and you see Zak driving in in a Range Rover.

00:28:01 Rachelle

You know, maybe he got the McLaren with his promotion.

00:28:05 Hannah

Yes, power move. Just put it into your negotiation package.

00:28:11 Rachelle

Otherwise, there's no excuse for him to drive a Range Rover to the McLaren headquarters.

00:28:18 Hannah

Yes, it was very passive aggressive. And at the time, like kind of right before Zak started, McLaren also had like a long legacy of being a highly successful F1 team, but had experienced a five year decline. So, Zak wanted to join the team and was excited to help the team make a big comeback back to the top.

00:28:44 Rachelle

Yes, which is what everyone says when they join a sinking ship. That they want to challenge.

00:28:48 Hannah

Yes, and it should be noted that Zak is one of the very few American CEOs, or even just like generally in F1, like one of the few Americans there. 

00:29:04 Rachelle

And he's like American, American. Like the same way that Cyril is French and Carlos is Spanish.

Zak is American. He's got the beer belly and everything.

00:29:14 Hannah

And Netflix shows one tiny clip of Zak in the office. And he's like talking to an accountant and he's just like, can you flip everything into dollars please? And accountant’s like, all right, yeah, I can do that. And he's just like, yeah, I really need you to flip it into dollars or it's just going to become a lot or something like that. It's just he's just very… I think, Netflix included it to show like the American viewers like even though this guy is the head of McLaren and he's in this fancy office in England, he's just like us. He also doesn't know how to read pounds.

00:29:59 Rachelle

He stayed true to his roots.

00:30:02 Hannah

Yeah.

00:30:03 Rachelle

I mean, when I lived in England, I had Google out every time I had to convert something.

00:30:10 Hannah

Exactly. Extremely relatable man.

00:30:13 Rachelle

Very relatable, he could have Googled it himself. He could have been like £8 million in dollars for every number.

00:30:20 Hannah

It looked like he had a stack of financial reports on his desk, though. Well, it was also kind of funny cause he was like, I really wanted to join McLaren to create change. And then it cuts to him being like, please change all these reports. Ok anyways.

00:30:43 Rachelle

Bring America to McLaren was Zak’s goal. Anyway. The second driver for Renault, for McLaren, is Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champ and Carlos’ childhood hero. He is very serious and says a lot of words that are like about his experience and how, with that, he'll guide the team in the best way possible. Which really all I hear, is he's the Mariah Carey of F1. 

00:31:20 Hannah

Very diva like, yes.

00:31:22 Rachelle

Major diva. Thinks he's hot shit.

00:31:22 Hannah

That always sets people up for failure. If you have to talk yourself up to everyone else, it's because you're insecure.

00:31:30 Rachelle

If you say you're the best, you're not the best. You know who’s the best? Lewis Hamilton. Because he never says he's the best. He thinks it. We all know he's thinking it.

00:31:43 Hannah

He believes it. Yeah, but he shows it because that's the best way to let others know.

00:31:44 Rachelle

He lets his work speak for him. And exhibits humility which Fernando could really use a strong dose of.

00:31:51 Hannah

Yes, OK, so those are the teams. So the first race we cover in Episode 2 is Baku in Azerbaijan. It's a city track which is a cool view. The whole like first, I don't know, like 30 seconds was just full of everyone crashing. So much so, that Fernando had very damaged parts on his car and he had to change his tyres on lap one, which kind of like, there's no coming back, really if you're already screwed on lap one.

00:32:29 Rachelle

Yeah, honestly. But he didn't give up. He had two wheels on one side of his car and his engineer was just like, uh, Fernando, maybe box box, we might need to change some tyres. But his car was falling apart. They had to rebuild the car in like two seconds.

00:32:47 Hannah

Uh, so Fernando reenters, but from the back. And then Carlos is actually in the mid-tier, fighting to get in the top five. Which, lucky for him and unfortunate for everyone else, shit goes down. So, first, the two Red Bull drivers, Daniel and Max, crash into each other. There's a lot of tension and drama, but that's actually going to be covered in episode three. Maybe because it deserves a whole episode.

00:33:17 Rachelle

Lots of shots of Christian Horner glaring at graphs and Daniel and Max slowly walking away and looking around in slow motion.

00:33:26 Hannah

Yes, so they essentially took each other out and also, from their crash, a lot of debris fell off their cars. So they had to do a yellow flag which brought in the safety car to lead the safety dance.

00:33:42 Rachelle

Literally the best part of any race is a safety car. And for anyone who's not seeing the safety dance, which is what we call it but no one else calls it cause they're dumb is when the cars follow along behind the safety car in like a squiggly line because they have to keep their tyres warm, but it looks like they're doing the worm. It's very slow. You're not allowed to pass. You're just moving in your spot until all the debris has been moved. So, it's very difficult for something to go wrong during the safety dance. Unless of course, you're Grosjean.

00:34:13 Hannah

And yet.

00:34:17 Hannah

So Grosjean, reminder. He's the Haas driver known for crashing into anything and everything. So, during the safety dance, when they're not even competing or going at a high speed, he manages to crash into the wall while he's zigzagging doing the worm. And he took himself out of the race as a result.

00:34:42 Rachelle

Yes, and Caco just goes, ouch. And that was his whole reaction.

00:34:47 Hannah

And Guenther. Guenther goes, I'm fucking speechless. And he really was. He did not talk to Grosjean after that.

00:34:57 Rachelle

It was so passive aggressive he literally wouldn't look at him. Didn't he threaten not to feed him?

00:35:02 Hannah

Well, that's later. He built up to it, First he doesn't speak to him and then he doesn't give him food.

00:35:12 Rachelle

Well, you know what Grosjean deserves it.

00:35:15 Hannah

Well, this was egregious. No one’s seen such a thing, no also.

00:35:21 Rachelle

All the principals are shocked.

00:35:25 Hannah

Even the mechanics are shook up. And then, just to recap, the two Red Bull drivers are out. Grosjean, the Haas driver’s out. And then, Bottas, who drives from Mercedes, he ran over debris and punctured a tyre, taking himself out of the race.

00:35:49 Rachelle

Tyre failure will get you every time.

00:35:52 Hannah

Unbelievable, his boss, or the team principal and CEO, Toto Wolff, who we have not met yet, but he's wonderful he's shocked. It's just, I think, Toto isn't used to bad things happening to him at this point in his life, you know.

00:36:17 Rachelle

He doesn't know what to do with himself.

00:36:22 Hannah

However, Carlos gets to P5. 

00:36:26 Rachelle

Woo hoo, Carlos! He's on his way to a Kingdom.

00:36:30 Hannah

Yes, because like we said, Fernando had like a little situation on lap one, but impressively, actually Fernando came all the way up to 7th place. But since Carlos finished fifth, he's a about to be ousted as the King of Spain.

00:36:52 Rachelle

And then, we go to Spain. This is the home race. They always like to put in a home race because there's a lot of emotion and drama associated with it, especially when there's two people from one country, like Fernando and Carlos. Fernando’s an old hat at this, so he has a lot of fans that are cheering him on and he's like, yes, of course they are here, but I am here to support the children, bla bla bla. I don't know, whatever, he's a drama queen, I don't like him.

00:37:22 Hannah

Also, whenever anyone says they're doing it for the children…

00:37:26 Rachelle

It's not for the children like.

00:37:28 Hannah

It's very fake PR. He's doing it for himself.

00:37:33 Rachelle

The kids are a side effect.

00:37:34 Hannah

A decoy.

00:37:40 Rachelle

And Carlos is pretty and cute and just smiley. And people don't pay as much attention to him, but he's also a newbie and, like, in his father shadow, so he's here to make a name for himself. Even though it's the same name.

00:37:50 Hannah

And we love when Carlos says to everybody, “vamos!” like “Dora the Explorer.”

00:38:00 Rachelle

Which I don't think anyone in Spain associates vamos with “Dora the Explorer.”

00:38:06 Hannah

It's my only frame of reference.

00:38:08 Rachelle

That's all I think whenever I hear him talk. Like where's my backpack? Is Caco Boots?

00:38:16 Hannah

Yes, Caco is Boots. And Carlos Sr. is the map.

00:38:23 Rachelle

He guides him. Wow, what a reference.

00:38:28 Hannah

OK, and so before the race starts, there's some Renault mechanics joking that Grosjean won't make it past turn one.

00:38:38 Rachelle

And lo and behold, Grosjean crashes on turn 1. And takes out a Renault car with him. But who's in the Renault car? Is it Nico? Is it Carlos? Everyone’s on the edge of their seats. But it’s fine cause it’s just Nico. So everyone can relax.

00:38:59 Hannah

Yeah, everyone was freaking out like cause Carlos’ whole family was there. Cause, again. it's a home race so they're like local. and Spanish people are similar to the French, are very emotive except instead of tears in their eyes, it looks like they're about to scream. So, they were very concerned that it was Carlos and he was about to take himself out in his home race. But then they were like oh thank God, just Nico. We don't even know him.

00:39:33 Rachelle

It was so cheerful. Poor Nico just crashed into the side and they’re like oh it's Hülkenberg, woo hoo! Where’s Carlos?

00:39:43 Hannah

So back to the race. Fernando was chasing Carlos like right behind him and it was super dramatic, especially towards the end because Carlos started having some engine issues that required him to slow down a little bit. But despite slowing down, Carlos managed to finish in P7 in front of Fernando.

00:40:07 Rachelle

And what does that mean? There's a new King of Spain in town. Fuck off, Fernando.

00:40:14 Hannah

Netflix thinks you only need to win two races against your opponent to be the new king, so.

00:40:20 Rachelle

No, no, not win, just finish above them.

00:40:23 Hannah

Yes, he finished 7th, to be clear, but it was in front of Fernando. Which is the only thing that matters for Netflix.

00:40:33 Rachelle

Yep, they have crowned Carlos the official King of Spain with 7th place.

00:40:39 Hannah

I don't disagree.

00:40:42 Rachelle

Neither does Cyril.

00:40:44 Hannah

Yeah, Cyril is thrilled.

00:40:48 Rachelle

He's never been happier because this is the highest they've placed since they returned to F1, cause Renault was like one of the founding cars or something like that then they went away and then they came back and they sucked and now they don't. They finished. P7 and Cyril is over the moon.

00:41:05 Hannah

Yes he is, but more to come with him.

00:41:11 Rachelle

It's all downhill from here.

00:41:14 Hannah

And that's your Box Box F1 cliffhanger.

00:41:19 Rachelle

Those were the first two episodes, we hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions or comments or concerns, or just want to say hi, please email us at boxbof1pod@gmail.com. That’s boxboxf1pod@gmail.com. Or DM us on Instagram @boxbof1pod.

00:41:43 Hannah

Don’t send us your concerns. Just questions and positive comments.

00:41:50 Rachelle

OK, if you have concerns, make sure to put Rachelle in the subject line and then Hannah will know to ignore.

00:41:57 Hannah

I will not read it.

00:42:00 Rachelle

Uhm, Hannah is positive vibes only, whereas I thrive in negativity. So please send me your comments.

00:42:10 Hannah

Alrighty, box box.

00:42:13 Rachelle

Box box