Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Q&A with racing icon Danica Patrick

Danica, welcome to the Sky Sports F1 podcast. Thank you. How are you doing? I'm good. How

are you? Yeah, very well. Thanks very well. I'm really looking forward to this chat because

there's so much I want to get into. And we've got a lot of questions from people at home as well

on Twitter and Instagram. So I'm going to try and get through as many of those as possible.

I want to talk about your career, your thoughts on Formula One at the moment, and also the future

of motorsport, how we can get more women into this brilliant sport as well. But I thought,

actually, because we're in the comms box here in Hungary, this is quite an apt place to start,

right? Because you've been with us at Sky for a couple of years now. How's it all going? How are

you enjoying being on the other side of the of the mic? It's good. I've been retired for a little

over five years. And every year, my broadcasting presence has grown just a little bit. It started

with just doing the Indy 500. And then it went to a couple of NASCAR races, one F1 race. And now it's

like a bunch of F1 races, as well as the Indy 500 and a couple of NASCAR races. So I have myself

a little 10 race series in the season now. So that feels like a really good retired amount right now.

I mean, when you were when you were racing, did you ever anticipate that you might have a career

afterwards in the media? Was that ever something on your mind? No, no, no. And I'm not sure if full

time is any is something that I could do. Because it's like, if you're going to travel the whole

schedule and do that, do it all just feels like you'd rather drive. So I just enjoy doing so many

other things. I have other companies, I have other interests. And you know, truth be told, I do a

little bit of vacationing now or a lot of it. So I really enjoy that. But you know, what I never

expected was one, actually, how hard it is to do the interviews, to conduct the interviews,

and have unique questions. And even just keep a you have to have a real grip on like so much

of what's going on that it's a lot of information. And I was never really wanted to to really get

into all that anyway, but it's so part of the job. And, and so you have to know a lot of things.

And you have to ask, I've never even thought it would be intimidating to interview a driver. But

like when I do that, I'm like, Oh, geez, okay, here we go. So I now have more empathy for those

interviewing athletes or anyone in particular, anyone like, you know, with a famous name or

doing a big job, because you know, it's a stressful situation and you want to do a good job. And

every now and again, I'd like get I would not be maybe the most pleasant. So I'm sorry to those

people out there that interviewed me that I would, you know, something like they'd ask me like, Oh,

are you excited to be back at Kansas Motor Speedway? And I remember one time roll your eyes.

Oh, no, no, no, worse. I remember on time in particular, I was said, is that the best question

you can come up with? I mean, as an interviewer that strikes fear into the very core of the

I'm so sorry. I, I do think that there are better questions than that, of course. I think that,

you know, I think that that is a pretty generic one. But I do understand the position the

other person's in and just how many people that that interviewer has to know about. So

but but and then I just, you know, the camaraderie on the other side is really fun. And it really,

you know, broadcasts really rely on having a good relationship with the other people

that you're working with. And so that's really the biggest reason why I do the form with so many

Formula One races now is because I really enjoy the crew. Yeah. And I'm going to make sure I try

and ask some good questions here. That's okay. If you don't, because I won't do that to you.

That's very kind. That's very kind. And I'm intrigued to know what was your first break

into broadcasting? So obviously you were you were a racing driver, but but what was the first time

you managed to get on screen, get behind the microphone? I mean, I've been on television

doing various different things for a really long time. You know, I was like, I remember when I was

14, I was on this, I was on MTV, like doing this, like extreme athletes doing things. And

then there was a really big piece that was on ABC sports. And it was called a passion to play

making of a champion. And it was with myself, Anna Kornakova and Tara Lipinski, and we were all 14.

So television, like cameras around has been something I've been very comfortable with for a

really long time. But as far as hosting goes, you know, it was cool. NASCAR did a really good

job of utilizing their assets at the track. And so there was actually one race at Pocono,

where it was an all driver broadcast for the series below us, what was then called a nationwide

series. So all the drivers were the broadcast that day. So, you know, and then there was some

other ones where they would have me up there for, for those nationwide races as sort of a guest

analyst. And I did a few of those and always felt really comfortable. So play by play is not my thing

like prof, do you have at it? But, but as far as just like giving a different perspective, a driver's

perspective, a little insight into the, the workings and the dynamics within teams and drivers,

that's something I enjoy sharing. Yeah. As a now a broadcaster, do you miss racing?

Do you do you obviously, because you're going to a lot of race tracks now in this in this new part

of your career, when you come here, is there still a part of you that's kind of going, oh,

I wish I was on track. I wish I was still doing that. I would say that like that feeling of like

the sensation of the car like creeps up maybe one or two percent every year. Like I've noticed

like a little like, oh, like the sensation of it is so unique that it's been a while now.

But I by no means wish I was out there. And I guess as well athletes, you know, once, once you

retire as an athlete, it must be hard to match the adrenaline, the competition in, in everyday life.

I mean, as not an elite athlete myself, I can't imagine much comes close to driving a car over

200 miles an hour and being in that intense competition is that fair? That's probably fair.

Yeah. I mean, because there's a there's a physical risk element. And but mostly like an ego risk

element, you know, my greatest fear for forever was just failing, you know, not being good. So

I think that I think that it is hard to match that, but it doesn't mean you can't kind of scratch

the surface. Like, I have this theory that in general, we kind of find our peak moments,

like we find our peak stress naturally with whatever we're doing based on how, you know,

pushing ourselves because we only push ourselves as hard as we're willing

to stress ourselves out usually. And so I find that everybody kind of has the rhythm. It's

where some people are nonchalant about everything, right? You you meet people and they're like,

cool as a cucumber, no matter what, then you meet other people that get stressed out and anxious

over the smallest things. And so everybody kind of has their set point for it. So yeah,

I still I still get close with various different things that I do. And I'm not sure if it's because

it's just as stressful. Or if it's just maybe maybe it ends up having to do with just my natural

set point or how much I care. Maybe I'm not really sure. Yeah. And I want to get into your career

now. And I want you to take us back to where it all began. What's your earliest motorsport memory?

What's the one thing you look back on in your childhood that you think that was that was when

it all got started for motorsport? Well, my earliest memory is probably not the same as

when it all got started. But but they probably go a little bit hand in hand. I mean, I remember

being at the dirt track with my sister, and my dad was working on a car. And my sister and I

were in the grandstands just like buying like, you know, hot dogs and Freesie pops and Snickers,

I'm sure, and collecting like all the clay that the cars kick up off the corner. And so I remember

that. But when it all changed, I don't think there was a time I went to the track and watched

something that it changed. But I think that driving and winning was probably when it changed.

That was where the dream to become a race car driver came. Like I was winning by halfway

through my first year in go karts. And I remember thinking that I would go to college for engineering

so I could learn how to work on my race car. Yeah. And you came over to England. Then I realized

when I came to England that you did not need to know about cars, you just needed to go make a cup

of tea. We've actually got a question that that links us perfectly into one of our first questions

from Twitter, which is what was your favorite thing about the UK when you came over here?

I didn't love my experience in England. Um, my favorite thing about England,

people are really good at driving in England. Um, I did like that. Uh,

yeah, but then I'd say the favorite, my favorite part about going to England was just that,

you know, it helped me grow up. I learned a lot about life, not really a lot about cars,

but I learned a lot about life. Because how old were you at this point? 16. 16.

I was really young. Three years. Yeah. To be leaving home. Yeah. I'm moving to come true.

So I learned a lot about life and the experience was what really proved to Bobby Rahall that, um,

who was, who's the one that ended up giving me a job, um, driving back in the States after I came

back when I was 19, because I was in England. Like he was like, wow, you're really committed and

you're willing to do what it takes. So it was also part of his decision. So that was the,

that was the best part that came from it. Can I ask you your least favorite part of being in England?

Least favorite part? I mean, if I'm, if I'm being honest, I, I really,

I thought that I had a lot of friends. And then when I left, I realized that after I called them

all like for six months, no one called me. I was like, maybe if I stop, let's see. And then I never

spoke to anyone again. So I feel like it's really sad to think that I spent three years and got to

know people really well and they just weren't really my friends. That was kind of like a sad part.

And then the other part that was probably not so good is, um,

it's a real toss up between the food and the weather. I mean, I'd have to say the weather

probably got me the most. Like I remember one day I was going out for a run and I got my shoes on

and opened up the door and it was sunny. That's why I was like, Oh, it's time to go for a run. It's

beautiful out. Open up the door and I open up the door and I stood there and it was sunny and it

just started raining on me. And it was still sunny. Probably God saying, get the heck out of here.

Because I just stood there and I was like, wow, it just rains no matter what, doesn't it?

Yeah. So the weather. Welcome to England. Welcome to England. Um, so you, you went back to the states

and then talk us through that part of your career. How did it eventually lead to 2005

and getting that getting that drive in IndyCar? Um, well, my dad and I went to the track and

like lots of weekends in the year, just walking and talking to people, trying to see if they'd

give me a ride and a test in the car, not a ride, even just a test. And so many people said no,

or throughout some crazy number, expense wise to do it. And, um, and then I remember I was just

actually telling the story to a girlfriend just the other day and I was saying how she was asking

similar questions about my career and how I got where I, how I did what I did and, um, getting to

IndyCar. And there was somebody who told me that I could have a full sponsorship if Bobby Ray Hall

signed a letter of intent saying that he was going to run me in the feeder series called the

Formula Atlantic series. And so I was like, all right. And so I went, I was, it was a Milwaukee

race for IndyCar. My dad was like, all right, let's go to the track. And I said, dad, I'm just sick

of it. Like I'm sick of going to the track and walking around and having no one have any interests

that I'm like, I'm just over it. And, um, the thing is I usually do, I, I almost always do the

right thing. I'm not going to say always because I'm sure I don't always, but I usually do the

right thing. And so I was like, all right, let's go. And so he's like, all right, we'll just go for

an hour. And so we went, I saw Bobby and I said, Hey, Bobby, I got a phone call that said, if you

have assigned a letter of intent that says that we're doing the Formula Atlantic series that we

could have a full sponsor. And he said, all right. And I went, Oh my God. And two weeks later at the

next IndyCar race, um, we signed a letter of intent at a press conference at Laguna Seca. And, um,

that's it. And then we saw, I signed a contract that was two years with a third year option. The

third year option was to go to IndyCar. And, um, it was in my second season. I had a good first

season, second season was even better. I, I, I'll fight on the pole. Like I didn't win, but I think

I finished third in the championship or something ran up front a lot. And, um, I was at the Indian

apolis Motor Speedway. So it was May. So it was still early in the season. And, um, Bobby, it was

there. It was the press conference, the media availability day. And Bob was up at the front

and he just randomly, while I was watching this with all the press too, he said that Dan will

be racing Indy cars next year. And I was like, what? Like, oh my God. So that's, that's how the

transition happened. And I mean, with that have happened, if you hadn't have gone to the track,

right, right at the very start of that story, when you were kind of so down and out about the whole

thing, butterfly effect, you never know, strange, you know, the sliding doors. I just was exactly

sliding doors. You just never know what the one moment will be that changes everything. And that's

the reality of for all of life is you are always one decision away from an entirely different life.

Yeah. Fascinating. 2005, you raced in the Indy 500 for the first time, you became the first woman

to lead laps and score a top five finish at the Indy 500. A brilliant achievement. But what did

you make of it at the time and reflecting on it now? Yeah, you see the significance of that? More

for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I look back and even when I retired and I was doing the broadcast for

the first time, I remember watching the cars come down the front straightway to start the race,

and I was like, wow, they are crazy. I was crazy. So yeah, 240 miles an hour with just wheels nearly

touching and having to thread the needle at that speed around a pretty flat track. So I remember

thinking that but in the moment in 2005, I was like, when I took the lead, people was asked like

how that felt. And I said, I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. The car was really

fast all month. I almost qualified on the pole. I had a really big moment in turn one of my first

lap because I promised myself I was not going to lift at any point during the qualifying run.

Yeah. And you have to do four laps and it was really cold that day. And so I went in a turn one,

never lifted and it went and I stepped out real quick and I had a one quick lift caught it and

then finished my four laps flat. And so I guess I did even better than keeping it flat. I caught it

from crashing. But anyway, I qualified fourth and then I end up finishing fourth, but I was

leading and then I lost the lead and then I passed again for the lead on a restart and was

leading right up until the very end. And so I just it felt really comfortable. It felt really calm

actually. So but I've always had such reverence and respect for the process. I always I really

felt like I was so fortunate to be in a really good car and have it be really fast. And I also

understood the speed and magnitude of the track and just the fact that we were going so fast and to

never take for granted that the thing is underneath you and just to really be vigilant the whole time.

So yeah, I have different perspective now, but then it felt comfortable.

Yeah. I mean, with the Indy 500, presumably that's something you watched a lot as a child.

And how did it feel to to be there as a participant as a racer?

I mean, you're so in it. Like it's hard to really be objective because you're so in it. You're in

the experience. You're focusing on the job. But I think now with hindsight, I can really appreciate

just the magnitude of it. Like if there was to be a girl right now to go out there and nearly

win her first year, I'd be like, holy, wow, right? And that that's what I did. And

and you know, it's funny, actually, just as a quick little story, I was walking to the

to pit lane yesterday. And I see this person like put his arms up, he's going to say hi to

somebody. This person that he's gonna hug and say hi to is Jacques Villeneuve. And I was like, oh,

and I just I kind of had him. I was like, nah, keep going. Because one, I tell the story because he

was my the only driver I really thought like, wow, that's amazing what he did because he I think he

finished second his first year and he won a second year in Indy Car. One in Formula One. I was like,

that is amazing. That guy clearly is so good that he can just win him whatever he gets in. And so

the fact that I almost won my first year was like, you know, I reminiscent of just this driver that

was so good that he just jumps into it and nearly wins the races first year. But then fast forward

to when I ran the nationwide series, the NASCAR feeder series, we were he would do the road course

races. And so it was road America in Wisconsin. And I was running forth. It was coming down to the

last lap and he was fifth. And he just punt punted me sent me at this, you know, downhill 90 degree

turn four or five or whatever it was at the end of a long straightaway. And I, you know, go off in

the dirt and come back on. Well, here I am in this scenario, my like, only guy that I ever looked up to

now punted me. And all of the news after that was like, why did you want to go to school like you,

you know, just totally supporting me. And I thought, I am so glad that happened because only in that

scenario could I look good next to the only person that I looked up to. Like I look like the good,

the better I was ahead of him, he crashed me to beat to get ahead of me, like all of these things.

And I'm like, I'm kind of grateful he did it because it gave me this sort of like really like

wide perspective on having this experience as a kid looking up to him and then looking better than

him. And it's hard to give yourself credit for the things that you've done. You more than anything

think about what you didn't do. And so it kind of helps to drive home that, you know,

my skill or talent or what I accomplished. And then of course, the next time that we

raced against each other in the nationwide series was Montreal. And inevitably, whenever you have

an incident with somebody on track, you always qualify next to them. So him and I were third

and fourth, second row. And we had to ride around on the truck around the track together on a very

quiet ride. So anyway, that's a long story. But you know, I felt very comfortable leading the race

and, you know, also very grateful that I had a good car to be able to do that.

Ryan on Twitter would like to know what the biggest highlight for you was during your Indycar and

NASCAR career. I mean, that first Indy 500 was by far and above really the most

really even above win formative experience. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was like the win in Japan

I was good there the first year I qualified like a fraction off the pole. My first time there the

year before or a few years before, which led into the Indy 500 in my first year that I did really

well. And so it was just one weekend. But my first Indy 500 that was like fourth race as an Indycar

driver. I was super fast in rookie orientation. I was fastest on fast Friday. I nearly qualified on

the pole for the race. I nearly won the race. And many of the days that we practice, there would be

like the fastest practice whoever was top of the charts at the end of the day would go to a press

conference. I had that many days. So I had my like $10,000 checks from a bunch of those days. So like,

I won a lot that month. Yeah. And it changed my whole life. Like people said, especially agents

that, you know, I'm like, where are the sponsors and the endorsements? And like, when you win,

then they'll all come. They didn't even change that. Like, so my life didn't really change that

much after I won. But after that first 500, my entire life changed. Yeah. Yeah. And then qualifying

on the pole for the Daytona 500, not because it was hard. It was not hard. It was all the crew.

They just prepared the car and you just hold it wide open. Again, dismissing what it takes. But

anyone who drives NASCAR will agree with me. It's very easy to qualify. But starting next to, again,

the one driver I looked up to the most in NASCAR, Jeff Gordon. So having that experience to be able

to pull find the pole next to him and have those photos is also cool. Yeah. I wonder if we have

a bit of that in F1 actually, because obviously there are drivers who would have grown up watching

Lewis Hamilton, right? Sure. Some of our younger drivers. And you then find yourself going into

a corner with Lewis. I mean, Lando. Fernando Alonso would be 42. Like, I think I saw some picture

on Instagram. It was like a sperm. And Fernando Alonso, when he was like, whatever, whatever,

Osco, I think it was Oscar. And then it's like him at this age with Fernando now. And it showed

like the delta of like, when he was born, this is what Fernando is doing, which is probably F1.

I never thought we'd talk about Fernando as a sperm in this podcast. But there we are. There we are.

He can envision it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A fish. Does that sound better? Little fish. There we go.

Perfect. But yeah, you do forget, don't you? There's some of these drivers. These are heroes.

These are racing heroes. Totally. And they're racing against them. I want to just get your

thoughts on ovals. And for some of our F1 audience, and for myself, I think ovals are just this sort

of mythical, the speed, the danger of oval. I mean, compared to, say, a more traditional

racetrack. Just tell us what it's like to race an oval. I mean, you have to really trust yourself

and trust your instincts because trying to step over that usually ends badly. So I think that's

why I, especially at Indie, I mean, I ended up crashing in my last Indie 500. But until that

point, I didn't ever crash at Indie. And I really didn't crash by myself very much. In fact, I think

I had the longest streak when I, maybe when I retired or finished finishes in Indie car was

like 50 or something in a row without it, without being out of the race. And so that's many seasons

because there's only, you know, there's less than 20 races in an Indie car season. I think one year

was maybe 14. So, but like ovals take a lot of respect. So, you know, I think that Americans,

this was our, this was our assessment as Americans and like in an American series like the Indie car

series, that Europeans were a little less respectful about the oval situation. And maybe just because

they were less familiar, they thought they could kind of do certain things to the car out there.

But the gravity of the crash is so much worse. So it really took a lot of respect out there to,

you know, not swerve, cut off, and then also just, you know, leave the little room for error

because there's nowhere to go. Like if you, if there's a mistake, someone in front of you and

you are right there, there's nowhere to go. So, so they just take a lot of respect, but they're

fun. They're like threading the needle, man. It's, you know, and then you got to be brave to

sort of search out where the grip is. That was definitely more of a NASCAR thing because the

line would be sometimes at the very bottom and at the very top. But in Indie car, it tend to be

much lower on the ovals, but we'd sometimes get three wide racing. Yeah. Wow. Another question

from Instagram. Matthew, great name. We'd like to know, what do you think the American racer

feeder series needs to do to steer more rookies towards F1? Do you think? In America? Yeah. Do

you think there's, there's, there's a path from American motorsport into Formula One?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, somebody just, I think there's actually a lot of Indie car drivers that would

love to race Formula One right now. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. There's a, there's a

bunch of guys that would like that opportunity. So, I think that, I think the fact that it's

a much more of a road course racing series now, when I first started in Indie car, it was,

there was only three road courses on the entire schedule and now it's basically, it's majority.

So, so I think that that is what makes the transition much, much more straightforward.

Yeah. And then seats, right? You need a seat and there aren't a lot of seats in Formula One.

Quite a seat. Not a lot of seats. There's a bunch of guys that aren't gone anywhere. So, I mean,

it's about catching that wave, right? The wave of the drivers transitioning out of the sport and

opening up seats for, for new drivers. And so, sometimes that happens in bigger waves than others.

But, you know, if it's, if you're not in one of those waves and you're ready,

what are you going to do? Go race Indie car. Yeah, absolutely. We've seen a lot of drivers go

the other way, haven't we, from Formula One to Indie car. So, it's maybe just time for a,

for a few, for a few to go the other way. Now, I want to get into your thoughts on,

on, on how we can get more women involved in motorsport. How, and when we're going to get a,

a woman lining up on the grid in Formula One. It's been 30 years since there was a woman racing

in F1. Are you encouraged by the steps being taken at the moment to get a woman on the grid?

Or do you think more needs to be done? Well, you're assuming I want that. You're assuming that,

that is important to me and it's not. Okay. You know, it's always like an interesting stance I have

on it. I think that what makes a sport really popular is great racing. Like you can have,

half the field out there women and have it be follow the leader. And it's not going to be

interesting to watch. Good racing. And that's what we have so much of these days in Formula One.

I mean, pretty much everything other than Max is a toss up for who's going to be really good,

that who's going to be second, third, fourth, fifth that weekend. And, and so that's what makes it

really appealing. And so I think as a, as, as someone who obviously was a girl, like you just

got to come up like normal. And I, and I do have a little bit of not a criticism, but an opinion

about female series is that it's fine. It can give opportunity for some who might not get a chance.

Otherwise, um, to show what they can do. But at the end of the day, you're going to have to race

against guys. And so it's like, you know, I don't, do you watch golf? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you

watch golf, you watch that like a lot of times he'll like a golfer that's maybe not ranked as high

will rise to the occasion with the one he's golfing with, whoever he's golfing with. Yeah.

And I think that tends to happen. Like in all sports, that's why you see some of the best wanting

to run around like practice and be with the best is because then they get better. Like if you bench

yourself off of something that's not the best, then it's going to affect your effort level, your,

your mental goal, like what you envision yourself doing. And so you really have to put yourself

in the toughest situations and you might as well do it early because it's only going to get harder.

And so I, I just think that I think that giving proper tests to be able to see if,

if a driver of a female is fast enough is, you know, some great way to know if there should

be a next step forward. But as far as anything beyond that, I think they should be racing with

the guys. I think it's racing in the same series. And they just got to get people around them that

believe in them. Yeah. Cause looking at your career, you didn't have a W series, did you?

You didn't have an F1 Academy. You've fought your way to the top. Or at minority anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I giggled along the way. I'm like, I never got any minority money or anything

like that, you know. And you did pretty well, you know, and you got to the, you got to the very top.

So yeah, it just, it just pops goes to show. You know, if you, if you were Stefano Domenicali

right now, is there anything you'd be doing to change opportunities for women in motorsport?

Is there anything you think that he or formula one could be doing better to at least perhaps give

some opportunities? I mean, I think that I think the more times that you put yourself in a position

to show what you can do, the better off you are. And it's better to be in the car than not. Yeah.

You know, so I think that, I think that just more, more cars, more track time and more opportunities

to show what you can do is just always a good thing. Yeah, absolutely. And Doug on Instagram

would like to know, is there a woman on the radar through the junior categories that you believe

has the speed to be competitive in formula one? I don't know. You know, we were talking about

Jamie Chadwick last night and she's doing some racing over in the States. I think she's linked

up with Andretti. And, you know, that obviously she seems like she's a pretty good candidate to

have an opportunity. But, but otherwise, I don't really know. I don't, I don't follow it super

closely. There's Haley Deegan who does NASCAR off-road kind of stuff that is pretty young. I

mean, she's been driving for a really long time, but she's, you know, I think about how long she's

been around. And then I'm like, wow, she's only, I don't, I'm not sure exactly, maybe 21 or something

like that 2021. So I'm like, wow, she's pretty young. So yeah, there's, and then there's probably,

I'm sure there's others that I'm totally not mentioning that I, that I don't see. I don't

really watch a lot of racing when I'm not doing it, when I'm not out there, when I'm not, I watch

more because I'm part of the broadcast and I need to be informed and know what's going on. But

you're not going to find me like on my vacation weekends, just catching up on all levels of

motorsports. So I'm, I'm not, it's a, it's not a soup. It's not an interest of mine outside the car.

But I do love sharing my experiences and relating it to the fans watching and working with really

fun people at Sky. Yeah. I mean, you are absolutely a role model for, for young drivers, for young

women drivers everywhere, aren't you? Because of your, because of your path and what you've done,

absolutely a hundred percent. I want to talk about Formula One today. A question on Instagram,

what driver would be the best if all drivers had the same car? So if we put all of the 20 Formula

One drivers in RB 19s, say for this season, who would you pick as the one, maybe apart from Max,

because we're going to say that Max would be bossing that in the RB 19, but yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's pretty tough for me to not keep thinking about Fernando Alonso. I mean,

just his ability to be, I mean, he's 41. He's like reemerged as such a, such a,

so competitive and, and just doing that over and over again. It's like a second coming,

I think is just so impressive. So I, I think that he's someone I consider to be, I mean,

you can't exclude Max. I think when we're talking about all, all, all, all, when you apply all the

styles, I mean, that would be a pretty great, pretty great duo right there between Max and Alonso,

because they're both so, they're both pretty aggressive too. So that would be fun to watch.

I mean, I'd be really curious to see where Lewis fell in that too, because, you know,

I feel like he's just, he doesn't, obviously he's had so much success with all of his championships.

But yeah, I think, I think that he might be really, really close right there. And especially

when you take into a race consideration and the length of it, he's just so consistent. He

doesn't make a lot of mistakes. And so he'd be snatching the lead when those two are going at it.

Yeah, yeah. Do you know, I mean, are you surprised that we haven't seen a situation where we do get

the best drivers in the world all in the same machinery? Because all they tried to do that,

did they? Yeah, they tried to do that back in the day with the Iraq series and back in the States.

And the bottom line is, and anybody in motorsports will really know, there's no two things that

are, no two cars, no two engines are the same. It's just going to be small differences,

especially in the engines, like the torque curves. And this is why you have like,

you know, I'm going to my old go-karting days, but you'd get like the, you'd get the dyno to

give it the, you'd see the power torque. And, and these are essentially the same engine, but they

all produce a different result just based on, you know, the harmonics, how perfect at the,

the bore size. There's just so many different things that contribute to just making these

little bit of differences. And so you're just never going to get two identical cars. It's just,

it's just like impossible. Paul would like to know on Instagram, what's your favorite Indy car

and F1 track? It's quite a broad spectrum. Yeah. My favorite. What's your favorite one?

I mean, my favorite, let's just go with like favorite track. I always loved racing at Richmond

and Martinsville. Those were two really fun short tracks. What's the key ingredients for you?

What do you love saying in a race track? Like a lot of passing. Yeah. Like cars that go off,

like where the car is not the same the whole run, it just, it fades and you have to manage it. And

if you manage it better, have a better long run car, you can get by so many. Like I just,

I love that. I also love traditional passing tracks when they come, when it comes to ovals,

the ones that aren't like four wide side by side. I liked more those traditional passing where it's

hard to run too wide. It's a bit more of a setup of the past then instead of just momentum and

running a different line. I enjoyed, I really loved the rhythm of mid Ohio, if you could get

that right. And in Indy car, that was fun. I love, I really liked Brandt's hatch. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

I raised the full circuit, the full GP circuit in England. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought Brandt's

hatch was a pretty cool track actually. I hated Thruxton, even though I know nobody

raises theirs like junior level, I'm sure. But I enjoyed Brandt's hatch. That's pretty good.

Yeah. I love Indianapolis. I love Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Just, there's just so many

levels of love for that. Fans, the size, the atmosphere, the energy, the speed, the success I

had. Final question from Instagram. If you could make a guest appearance at any European circuit,

which would you choose? As a driver. As a driver. As a driver. Yeah. As a driver. Yeah. This is

your, this is, this is your, you're coming back. You know, it's the, you know, there's big, big

swan song, but media, media attention around it. You're driving one final race in Europe,

which is that circuit that you choose? Maybe it's Brandt's hatch.

Yeah. But it has to be on the schedule, right? Yeah. Go on. Let's say it has to be on the F1

schedule. I mean, I raced at Spa in a Formula Ford. Yeah. So going there in a Formula One car

and going up the hill and like, dude, I found it hard to be flat in a Formula Ford. Like,

can't imagine what it's like in an F1 car, but, or what the feeling is, it might be easy to be

flat out going up the hill just from the downforce, but, but just that track is somewhere that I had

experienced at such a low level of motorsport that it'd be pretty crazy to experience it.

And it was like Blanchement or something, like really, really fast king. Yeah. Maybe, maybe there.

Yeah. Yeah. That would be a more fun track than Silverstone. Yeah. Okay. Tickets are selling

fast. So we'll, we'll try and make it happen. So just, just finally, we know that you've got a

lot of other interests now. You've obviously retired from motorsport, but, you know, I've

got down here entrepreneur, author, podcaster, winemaker. You're pretty busy, right? With,

with stuff post post post racing. And the like many things were going on before, like the wine,

I bought the property in Napa Valley in 2009. So I didn't retire until 2018. So some of these

projects have been going on since before, but yeah, the podcast keeps me really busy. I do it as

really a selfish indulgence into people that I'm fascinated with and topics that I want to learn

about. I promise that if I talk to anyone longer than 45 minutes that I, or a half an hour that I

would mention aliens, cause I said, Oh, if anyone talks to me long enough, I will surely mention

aliens. And you'll know if they're listening, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we talked about all that kind

of stuff. Yeah. And psychology and all kinds of things. But that, the wine, the name is Somnium,

which means dream in Latin, because I really just had a dream one day to have a winery when I was

standing drinking a glass of wine, acceptably, of course at 10am. And I was like, hmm, I want to

have something like this someday and made that happen. And so yeah, and then I vacation a whole

bunched. So like for instance, right now I'm coming off of literally being on vacation for the last

four or five weeks since the Montreal F1 race and being here in Budapest. I've literally been on

vacation the whole time through Greece and Italy and Monaco and Mallorca. And it's, it's been a

really, really fun. So I, I enjoy doing that because it's stuff that I never had a chance to do when

I was driving. I just, if I had a week, one week a year, it was great, you know. And so having the

opportunity to do those sort of things now is really a really cool thing. Yeah. You have to come back

every summer. Okay. Yeah. I love it. I want to be a European in the summer. I want Europe in the

summer every year. I'm so ready for that. Maybe not in the winter. No. No. I'll go back to Arizona

Danica, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you, that's fun. Thank you.

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