[Intro music]

00:00:08 Hannah 

Hi, I'm Hannah. 

00:00:10 Rachelle 

Hi, I'm Rachelle and this is Box Box F1 Pod. And today we're going to be doing our pre-French Grand Prix episode by talking about French things, slightly related to F1. We will not be recapping a dramatic race because we decided to spice things up a bit. But before we get to that, it's time for our digital roundup!

So first for F1 news. and speaking of the French, Esteban Ocon signed a three-year extension with Alpine, which is about as French as you can get in one announcement. Good for him, I guess. I don't think about him a lot, do you? 

00:00:54 Hannah 

Nope, I've never really noticed him this whole season. 

00:00:58 Rachelle 

And then also Romain Grosjean apparently is in quarantine and cannot make his Mercedes test drive, which has now been moved for the second time. This is either all a coincidence or Toto Wolff has seriously reconsidered his generosity. 

00:01:19 Hannah 

OK. In other news about us. At first, I was upset by the hate we were getting on TikTok. Now I fully processed it and don't care. 

00:01:30 Rachelle 

I am also there. We learned a lot of lessons from TikTok. All the TikTokers are very kind to educate us. First lesson, I guess, is Ferrari is iconic. We can't forget that even though engineers seem to always be in a daze when it comes to a Grand Prix. And even though Mattia, who we learned was Michael Schumacher's head engineer, has been an extremely questionable team principal. You don't mention those things because Ferrari is iconic. 

00:02:02 Hannah 

And then OK, basically we put up a video of the clip we were talking about in our last episode where Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, got into a McLaren and it was funny because he's massive and a McLaren is small. But we were talking about the Hobbs & Shaw movie. 

00:02:23 Rachelle  

Where he's actually getting into McLaren. 

00:02:26 Hannah 

Yes, but the problem was I was looking for images of that movie clip and it doesn't exist on the Internet. 

So, then there is a picture of the rock getting into a Pagani. Which, for this purpose, to illustrate a large man in a small car, we're like that should suffice. 

00:02:44 Rachelle 

It did not. 

00:02:46 Hannah 

After that, just imagine for 72 hours straight. Every one of those 72 hours being told it's a Pagani. 

00:02:57 Rachelle 

It's a fucking Pagani!

00:03:00 Hannah 

It was relentless. 

00:03:01 Rachelle 

It felt like a Pagani kept hitting us every time. 

00:03:07 Hannah 

And they're like these women know nothing. 

00:03:12 Rachelle 

Idiots, why would women make a podcast when they don't know what they're talking about? They are disgrace. 

00:03:18 Hannah 

Rachelle replied to the first commenter who pointed that out and explained that you know we were talking about Hobbs & Shaw where it was really a McLaren, but we had to use this image. And there was a girl who read our comment and then proceeded to respond to about half of the comments, which by that time were about 30 of them. And she said, read the comments. We love the feminism. 

00:03:46 Rachelle 

Yes, she said F1 girls have to stick together, and we could not agree more. So, shout out to that chick. 

00:03:53 Hannah 

Yes, this is the solidarity I need in my life. But we would like to make a shirt to memorialise our first TikTok disaster. And we want a shirt that says, “It's a Pagani” Let us know if you would purchase it. 

00:03:55 Rachelle 

Cause it’s funny. 

00:04:00 Hannah 

Anyways, speaking of shirts.

00:04:12 Rachelle 

It's been a big week for F1 Fashion. Ferrari launched Ferrari Style and they had a whole fashion show with supermodels and Charles and Carlos in the audience but, other than that, it was fashion icons.

We watched it and it was very cool. But it really reminded us of the other fashion brand in the Formula One world and how wildly different they are. We are of course talking about AlphaTauri. Both have very futuristic vibes. Ferrari called themselves speed couture. And we could call AlphaTauri post-apocalyptic couture. They both have kind of creepy future vibes. Go ahead. I was going to say you sent the picture of the horse stud that was like embedded in the ear and you were like this is the point in the futurisitic novel where we find out we’re all being controlled by horses.

 00:05:26 Hannah 

Yes, OK, so basically imagine yourself in Westworld, but not in the cowboy one where they're all robots and super futuristic robots acting like humans. This is the type of clothes that they would wear, like very monochromatic.

00:05:44 Rachelle

Wait, are you talking about AlphaTauri?  

00:05:46 Hannah 

Well, so they would, the rich would wear Ferrari. The poor would wear AlphaTauri. Cause I mean Ferrari does have more color vibes, horse ears, there's horses on everything. There's a golden horse on a necklace. And that screams royalty. 

00:06:13 Rachelle 

This is a much less intellectual comparison than the Westworld one, but it reminds me of the capital and The Hunger Games, where they were all super flashy. Yeah, then when you go through all the other states or whatever, they're all wearing AlphaTauri. 

00:06:27 Hannah 

Cause OK, this is the thing like Ferraris like royalty, like high class. AlphaTauri, as we were saying before, is like what a dictator would make his minions wear to get rid of. 

00:06:39 Rachelle 

Yeah, when you're trying to cancel out individualism. 

00:06:42 Hannah 

Exactly. So, as most people in F1 know, AlphaTauri is like the Red Bull junior team, but if you didn't know you can just go to their AlphaTauri website and the copy will tell you everything you need to know about why it's named AlphaTauri. 

00:07:04 Hannah 

Before you even get to the copy, the first sentence is that that they are an independent brand of anything else. 

00:07:11 Hannah 

Literally, they're dependent. 

00:07:14 Rachelle 

Yes, after which the first sentence. Do you wanna read it? 

00:07:19 Hannah 

Yes, the brand is named in honor of the AlphaTauri star, the brightest, most radiant and energy rich star in the constellation of Taurus, parentheses, the bull. It refers to the energy that inspires the brand AlphaTauri and the stars placement directly in the bullseye aligns with the brands focus on precision and perfection. Alpha nods to being a leader, and the name AlphaTauri pays tribute to its Red Bull heritage. 

00:07:54 Rachelle 

Yup, and then it says reflecting your far infrared rays back into the body. Not sure why  it's doing that. 

00:08:02 Hannah 

Not sure, yeah. So, take a look at their website and Instagram. Unfortunately, they made the F1 drivers models so there's a lot of Pierre Gasly and Yuki and even Max. 

00:08:17 Rachelle 

I personally am quite offended when I see Pierre Gasly in AlphaTauri clothes because I think he's really cool and it's just being muffled. 

00:08:28 Hannah 

I'm more offended on Yuki’s behalf because he, I think, has a dazzling personality that he needs to express. I hope he gets a sweatshirt that just says fuck. 

00:08:40 Rachelle 

We can mail him one. And they would definitely be the heroes of our YA post-apocalyptic novel that would free society from the shackles. They would bring individualism back. I guess we will now move on to the French Grand Prix. Today we're focusing on the circuit, which is named the Paul Ricard circuit. The French Grand Prix has a long history, it's over 100 years old. It's the birthplace of the Grand Prix. 1906 is when the first grand prix was held, and it was in France. They use 16 different circuits in F1 before they settled on the Paul Ricard Circuit, and it was in the most recent history, It was used between 1970 and 1991, but there was a lot of drama, some deaths. It's a very windy place. There's a really long straight so it makes it go really, really fast, and it's not the safest, so someone died during a test drive. And it returned back in 2018, 25 years later. They made it a little shorter so that speed wasn't as much of an issue. That's pretty much the whole… well I guess also, it was the breeding ground for a lot of French drivers in the 60s and 70s funded by Elf, which is a French oil company which has so much drama. So, so much scandal associated with it. They were investigated for conspiracy and fraud, and it was very deep-rooted, but they sponsored a lot of French drivers and they sponsored a lot of Formula One teams. So, they have a long history in Formula One. And they use Paul Ricard to breed French drivers and they had a school there to help drivers move up to Formula One. And that's about it. Now I think Hannah will tell us a bit about Paul Ricard. 

00:10:31 Hannah 

Ricard was born in Marseilles, in southern France to a family of wine merchants. And he had an early passion for painting, but his father made him join the family wine business. 

00:10:46 Rachelle 

He wanted to be an artist and he was forced to make alcohol instead, and so, my presumption is that that made him wander around the streets of Marseilles, and he ran into an old shepherd. Who introduced him to an alcoholic beverage named Pastis, which is an unused flavoured liqueur and aperitif. Unfortunately, the anise seed, spice, was banned in France during the First World War because it undermined the French war effort. I did find that alcohol above 16 degrees was banned in France, which I guess makes sense because I don't know clear head fighting spirit, anyway. So, he was so taken by Pastis, which might be a sign of alcoholism. She he sat in his bedroom forever trying to refine a better version of pastis. And he experimented with different spices he used anise, fennel seeds, liquorice, provincial herbs. It almost sounds like mulled wine. 

00:11:55 Hannah 

Yeah, but you know this makes sense cause he is in the family wine business. He found what was in the family closet. And just threw it in.

00:12:07 Rachelle 

That's probably what happened. Anyways, he ended up concocting a precise Pastis recipe, but it has never been disclosed to the public, and remains a secret to this day. 

00:12:21 Hannah 

Even though Pastis was banned during the First World War, Ricard still sold prestige illegally and branded it as the most authentic Pastis of Marseilles. And he named the company after himself in 1939 and he sold 2.4 million litres of his Pastis at the time. 

00:12:41 Rachelle 

Ricard was known for saying that the ban was his biggest source of inspiration and creativity. And that's where a lot of his marketing schemes and stuff came out. And so, during the Second World War, when it was banned again, cause it was contrary to the values of France, which again makes a lot of sense. He decided to put it to the side and experimented with rice farming. He sounds very much like like  one of those people, and entrepreneurs who do a bunch of startups. He just does like a whole bunch of crap. So, he was a rice farmer and using his distiller skills, he made petrol out of plums and cherries. 

00:13:25 Hannah 

Yup, he did. Don't ask me how. 

00:13:28 Rachelle 

Talk about innovative. 

00:13:30 Hannah 

And it fuelled the French resistance.

00:13:36 Rachelle

Go Ricard. Wow

00:13:37 Hannah

I can't believe the French were fuelled by plums and cherries. but I also can believe that. 

00:13:43 Hannah 

Oh my God oh OK. 

00:13:45 Rachelle 

The French were fuelled by plums and cherries. 

00:13:47 Hannah 

Yes, they were, and they won. Kind of.

00:13:54 Rachelle 

He is the unsung hero of War World II.

00:13:57 Hannah 

Paul Ricard is the Paul Revere of France. 

00:14:03 Rachelle 

The plums are coming! The plums are coming!

00:14:04 Hannah 

Incredible. OK, so basically after World War II ended, Ricard resumed his Pastis business at last. 

And he hired some people. And he actually became the Minister of Interior for some reason. He again he's a startup in and of himself. 

00:14:30 Rachelle 

Uhm wait, sorry I'm looking at a different article and I really just want to read this one paragraph. 

00:14:34 Hannah 

Yes, do it. 

00:14:36 Rachelle 

“This is the mood in which the Maison Du Pastis was conceived. It was the first place dedicated to the diffusion of all these jewels of drinks, very simple, or extremely complex, whose selection will depend on their quality. All differences of taste will be respected: from the fan of siesta and “pétanque” (French bowling game) to the expert on great wine and gourmet food. ‘VIVE LE PASTIS!’”

00:15:06 Hannah 

I am very sold. I need to get my own Pastis by Ricard. 

00:15:08 Rachelle 

Pastis by Ricard.

00:15:11 Hannah 

Designer. So, basically the French Government kept interfering with his business and so he got over it and stopped running it daily in 1968. Although it still existed but under the stewardship of his son Patrick. And then the company merged with their rival Pernod in 1975 and then became known as the Pernod Ricard Company. And by the 1990s, Ricard was the most widely sold French alcoholic drink in 140 countries, and at the time of Ricard’s death, Pernod Ricard was the third largest global spirits company. 

00:16:02 Rachelle 

Do you think that what they say alcoholic drink, they mean like hard liquor? Because surely wine. So, another element we talked about how multi-layered Ricard is. And  if we look back to the beginning, to his roots, he was an artist and that really translated into the branding of Pastis. He drew inspiration from his home city of Marseille and got blue and yellow in there and used it as the logo. And he distributed it everywhere, that blue and yellow logo was known everywhere as Pastis. And his first venture into marketing, we could say, was in 1948 when he became the first commercial sponsor for the Tour De France. He covered pickup trucks with their required colours, which were blue and yellow, in case you forgot, sun and sky. And he did free music concerts along the road, which I think is quite clever. And then he built the circuit. Paul Ricard, which is almost as complex as the man himself. So he built this track along with some racetrack building experts and they finished around 1970, when the first Formula One race was held there. It's near a little town called Le Castellet in the South of France. And it hosted 20 years of F1 grands prix until 1990 when someone died. I actually don't know if that's what cut it off, but it was around that time someone died during testing and then they've returned in 2018, then 2019, and then COVID. And now here we are commemorating Paul Ricard and his legacy. Before we move on, though, from Paul Ricard, I just read another thing about him. In his later life, he wrote an autobiography, produced the first French coloured film. He also established an exposition of wines and spirits and to create a complete and permanent encyclopaedia of all wines and spirits. And then he also created the Museum of Ricard, advertising objects on an island. 

00:18:20 Hannah

He bought two islands. 

00:18:23 Hannah 

Yes, he developed two Mediterranean islands. He also was an exceptional environmentalist. 

00:18:26 Hannah 

And in his retirement, he was able to paint. 

00:18:30 Hannah 

Finally. Anyway, cool guy. For any long time listeners, of a month, you might remember that Cyril Abiteboul is our favourite character in the F1 world. And we were devastated when he left. He disappeared completely off the face of the planet for like six months. No one knew where he was and we had a lot of hypotheses about where he could be and what he could be doing. But recently he came back, he came back into the public spotlight when he announced that he's the new Motorsport advisor for Mecachrome. And as a little background on Cyril, he rose through the ranks of Renault, so he started as like a baby little engineer that didn’t matter and became the head of Renault team principal unfortunately then he got fired. This was all leading up to our favorite segment that we've done once, which is where in the world is Cyril? Which is adapted to be where in the world was Cyril? Because now we know where he is. And it's just us speculating on what Cyril’s up to. 

00:19:41 Hannah 

I speculate that his favourite artist of all time is Olivia Rodrigo because she has Cyril vibes. She’s stewing over a heartbreaking breakup. And we think that Cyril, before he had to go to work and he was on a little hiatus, he was probably driving in his car in Perth, Australia past Daniel Ricciardo’s home playing Driver’s License.

00:20:10 Rachelle 

On full blast. 

00:20:12 Hannah 

Yes, and crying of course. 

00:20:14 Hannah 

Of course. Listen to the song guys, because I've never heard anything that encapsulates all of Cyril’s unspoken feelings more for losing Daniel as a partner in Formula One. 

00:20:29 Hannah 

I also think he would like Olivia Rodrigo’s song Good 4 U cause it's all about how the partner who dumped them really moved on quick and seemed happy. 

00:20:43 Rachelle 

But does Daniel seem happy?

00:20:47 Hannah 

No, but better than Cyril, in some respects. 

00:20:55 Rachelle

That is true. He's probably getting paid more. But he seems pretty grumpy. I feel like there are some other songs where you thought you were tragically slighted, and then it turns out your ex is doing not as great as you thought. 

00:21:05 Hannah 

I'm sure she has one of those. 

00:21:10 Rachelle 

I'm sure she has. When we were making so in case you didn't see, we made an Instagram post pairing Taylor Swift songs to each Formula One team. And when we were going through Taylor Swift's discography, almost every single song seemed to relate to Cyril’s emotional state. 

00:21:26 Hannah 

Oh yeah, do we have that list? 

00:21:32 Rachelle 

We started one. If you guys want to see a Cyril-based playlist. 

00:21:33 Hannah 

Let us know. Like I remember, we started with Love Story, of course, because he did have like a little love story moment with Daniel cause they were doing fine. But then it was… 

00:21:50 Rachelle 

He loved him. He loved him. And then Bad Blood. That seems applicable. 

00:21:55 Hannah 

Yes, Bad Blood because of the bad breakup and. OK, wait, before we get into the breakup it was Love Story and then You Belong With Me. And then Teardrops on My Guitar. I guess that's when the breakup started and then it became Bad Blood when Daniel straight up was like I'm going to McLaren. 

00:22:19 Rachelle 

There was that one. What I love about Cyril is that he wears every single emotion on his sleeve and there's that one scene in Drive to Survive where Daniel walks by the Red Bull paddocks and Christian Horner shouts out to him, is Cyril speaking to you yet? And Daniel was like, almost. And I just think it's so sad, cause Christian really loves like stomping on Cyril’s heart. 

00:22:47 Hannah 

Cause it's so easy. 

00:22:48 Rachelle 

It is so easy. 

00:22:50 Hannah 

Basically, so Christian, there's no hill he won't die on and there's no heart he won't stomp on.

00:22:59 Rachelle 

Especially Cyril. I think he takes particular joy stomping on Cyril.

00:23:03 Hannah                                                                              

Yeah, cause of the engine.

00:23:03 Rachelle 

His heart is almost as easy to break as the Renault engine. Do you think Guenther and Cyril hang out? 

00:23:13 Hannah 

No. Cause Guenther would drop kick his heart to another continent. I mean, Guenther is the most like brutally honest person. 

00:23:26 Rachelle 

No, he's not. He couldn't fire half his team. 

00:23:28 Hannah 

No, he did. He said in an interview I don't wanna fire my team and then he did. 

00:23:35 Rachelle 

That's true, he did. 

00:23:36 Hannah 

He definitely can fire people. 

00:23:36 Rachelle 

Maybe he fired Cyril and that's why Cyril disappeared because the emotional trauma was too much. 

00:23:42 Hannah 

Imagine being the team principal of Renault. And then the team principal of Haas comes to fire you. 

00:23:53 Rachelle 

No, the French prestige couldn't handle that sort of. 

00:23:57 Hannah 

North Carolina charm. 

00:24:01 Rachelle 

Yeah, Guenther is North Carolina. 

00:24:05 Hannah 

He's a perplexing. 

00:24:09 Rachelle 

But dumb as to what we think Cyril is doing. Last time we talked about him getting a tattoo of the badger, of the honey badger. Or running away from his commitment to that. What do you think Cyril’s been doing this entire time? Message us. Comment. Email us. And we’ll compile the list in the next episode. If there is a list. Anyway, we love Cyril. He's our favourite. We're so glad he's back. OK, all right well on Sunday it's the French Grand Prix. We will be racing at the Paul Ricard and you know how much more you will appreciate this race now that you know the man behind it. 

00:24:53 Hannah 

He's the father of Pastis of Marseilles. 

00:24:57 Rachelle 

We cooked French food. Hannah already made it. 

00:25:01 Hannah 

I made Pot-au-Feu.

00:25:01 Rachelle 

I'm gonna make gougeres. Which are French cheese pastry things, and I will be making it with a real French man. 

00:25:14 Hannah 

Wow. 

00:25:16 Rachelle 

So they will be so authentic. So anyway see you guys on Sunday. Box Box.

25:20:00 Hannah

Box Box!