P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to the Red Bull F1 car launch, feat. Sergio Perez!

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

We're coming to you live from Red Bull's launch, where their new car looks scarily good. We chat about their impressive launch, a now-classic livery and some fighting talk from Adrian Newey.Plus, we grab a quick word with Sergio Pérez who talks about the off season and how they're gearing up for 2024!WE'RE GOING BACK ON TOUR! Tickets for our April live shows are available right here! You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast on tour. But this time the tour is something excellent Tom Bellingham because we are here at Red Bull HQ. We've just witnessed the car launch. We have. And look at this backdrop. Look just, I am in Wonderland, Tommy. And I think you might well be too.

This is just the coolest place like to have to be this close to Formula One cars. I love this. the way this looks like real-life model cars, the way they're all in like little boxes and stuff. Very cool. It's incredibly cool. What isn't so cool is that we've already done this podcast and we've had to do it again because technical things.

But it doesn't matter because we're still absolutely buzzing and we're going to tell you everything you need to know about what has gone on at this Red Bull car launch. And first and foremost, let's start, because we can't start with questions from you because technically it hasn't happened. We are in the future right now because everything's embargoed. We can't just go straight live with this.

So we have done our own questions. So this one, well, actually, it's just first thoughts. So I guess the first initial thoughts, Tommy, the car is literally just over there. We're looking at it. That's actually a show car. But, you know, there's still, it was still over there where it was unveiled.

And it's a thing of beauty, obviously. It's a Red Bull. You countlessly say every single year that they don't need to change anything. It's Red Bull. It's their branding. It's delivery. It's like a Ferrari at this stage, right?

They wouldn't change it. So there's something crazy, even though in the background we have things like the camo livery over there, which is obviously amazing and whatnot. But yeah, first thoughts, Phil. Yeah. Liverie-wise, I mean, livery-wise is the same as all these, which is no surprise. But like I've said before, it's that brand identity. I think the livery is perfect and they don't need to change it, basically.

And, you know, you think back to kind of, because I'm ancient, Vodafone, McLaren, Mercedes is a great example that. You are ancient. year after year after year and I remember being on Twitter and people were like oh it's the same it's the same it's the same but now you ask anyone what's one of the most banging liverys ever people will say that and part of that is because it's been used multiple times and it's become iconic and this red bull livery like is a modern like iconic livery now it's classic and I just I do think it is genuinely really cool like the the Red Bull logos pop on them on the mat it's awesome and then the car itself, even for technical plebs like us, we can tell it's different,

which is quite a scary thought if they've improved on last year. Yes, we'll get on to exactly how scared I am a little bit later on. But this question comes in from Matt P1 Gallagher. Oh, okay. What's this the best car launch this year? For me, absolutely. Not just because we were here and we got to see it in the flesh, but they did almost exactly what we said at Formula One, car launch should be. Apart from going out on track, but away from the car launch that you would

have seen, they did actually fire up an old school Red Bull for a little while, which was absolutely music to my ears. It was incredible. But then just the chit chat, I know for a fact that some people would be like, it's a bit long, you know, they're chatting away. But David Cuthard, that man has got a seductive kind of tone. He's very easy to listen to. Adrian Newe is a very distinctive person. I love this. I love this. Yeah. And then Christian Horner as well. Like it's, it's an overall, I thought it was an interesting chat, looking back at the history of rebel, 20 years. Yeah. How have they been around 20 years? Yeah. Oh. Oh. Oh, hold on. Okay. Okay. This could make it interesting. We're going into a car launch again. Okay. Yeah. I mean, there'll be a lot of people saying I'm a massive hypocrite because I said, oh, you said you didn't mind the quick videos. And I don't. But this event. is to celebrate 20 years of Red Bull's Formula One team, which like you say, makes me feel incredibly old that they're a team that have been around that long.

One thing I will just mention while it's in my head is that Red Bull Racing used to be Stuart, and we met Jackie Stewart's grandson, who shout out if he's watching, because he said he likes the P1 podcast, and Paul Stewart as well, came and had to chat with us, which was amazing and really, really cool. But yeah, the fact that they're like celebrating the history of this team, it's cool to have a big event when it's an anniversary and a celebration. So they put on an amazing show, the video that did 20 years of Formula One. I mean, you went, you said to me after you're like, that's a video.

It was very cool. And the thing is as well, I guess with the position that Rebel are currently in right now, they're winning everything. So they can actually show the lows and quite a few lows they put in the higher. Yeah, they did, yeah. Because, well, they can show the sort of journey that they've gone through. I did love how they, you know, they had the multi-21 stuff in there. They threw everything in there.

They did, yeah. So it was quite an honest look back, really, at what Red Bull had been through. They kind of were building up, then a bit of success. And then, of course, the Mercedes era and then back to success again. So I thoroughly enjoyed it. This next question comes in from Tom P1 Gallagher. No, Tom P.1Belling him. This lighting is throwing me off.

Why did Red Bull do one like this? and others didn't. Because it's the 20th anniversary. If you can still see us, by the way, the lighting is changing all the time. It hasn't been changing this entire time. But now because we've started filming our second recording of this podcast,

they've decided Matt and Tommy can do it in the car. This is why we don't go outside. Yes, because it's much easier at home. Anyway. Yes, because it is the anniversary that there's been, I can see all the boards around, you know, with the 20th anniversary Lego, 20 years of Red Bull culture and racing.

They're kind of, they were really celebrating the fact that they were, this essential, essentially like a bit of, not a, it's a fair to say a joke team, but I think a lot of Formula One teams, if you think the mid-2000s, very corporate, you know, corporate and kind of, you had the Ron Dennis's and like that in Formula One. And Red Bull came in and they're like, we're an energy drink brand. Oh, this is, you know, we're going to be a bit silly. And, you know, they had a Star Wars livery and they had a Superman livery and all. And they, yeah, they were laughed at. And one thing that David Corthard mentioned was, you know, they were the first team to invite everyone, like, open their motorhome up and energy stations to say, like, oh, you know, whatever team you work for, come in have a drink.

Come and have a red bull. Yeah. Yeah. And the sip of this energy drink. Yeah, exactly. You need it working in the F-1 palette. Yeah. And yeah, they've kind of changed the game and they're celebrating that fact.

So I think it's been a really cool event. And of course, we would say that because we're here. But it was really, really cool. Love it. Now, before we get into the second half of us enjoying ourselves at the Red Bull car launch, we were given an exciting opportunity to chat for a few minutes with Sergio Perez. Unfortunately, the audio went a little bit weird, but hopefully you can forgive us. It has a tremendous job, you know, considering how competitive we were last year and changing the world also.

That's something huge and huge for our teams. And you just see Alhanger, everyone is here. What is it like, I guess, having that off-season, sometimes. imagine they're finally chilling now. So then build up to the season, do you still get those butterflies, that excitement when you see the glory? Yeah, definitely.

I know it's a massive law. Only did. It's a tiny season when you're performing big, whatever, do you, the bus, you, buck and cow, rain, it shows, so, yeah, it is, I pray, I didn't need cuddle. Is it having a bit of time out of the car

and then getting in, I guess, the shakedown or first lap of the year? Do you go, oh, God. That's fast again, isn't it? Did it catch you by surprise? Does it not scum of a lab? Yeah, the first two, three laps is like, ah, or parts of breaks and so. But then it gets back to the phenomenon.

At the end of the bowling, we have a bit sore from the whole body. It doesn't matter how much training you've done. You would always still be a bit sore, but it's a spot. I was going to say, because your training can't really prepare yourself to be thrown around in the fallout run car, but I guess you've been hanging weights off your neck and things like that. Yeah, but is that your least favorite ever said? Yeah, the neck, you know, because once we always have like a huge neck to the system and yeah every time you turn it on it feels like you move in a lot of muscle so when you are in off-season finally you are relaxed your muscles are relaxed but when you're still training the neck it's like always a

little bit of pain hidden if we speak to Danny Rick recently and he said that he genuinely has trouble sleeping because of how thick his neck might do you find yeah yeah it's like yeah once you start training the necker I think it's a very different bottle about it and reduce prane. Absolutely not. And one final thing, we've asked all the drivers that have on the podcast, what is one Formula One role that you would change if you were in charge? What would be the one long would change? Um, two teen. I had answer a good question. There are so many things that would like to change on probably reduce them on the braces with it. Yeah?

What's not too long? Do you? I think 20 would be a great no. 20. All right, perfect. Deco, thanks for keeping me out. I appreciate it. This next question comes in from Matt P1 Bellingham. Wow, lots of different variations. What are your thoughts and what Adrian said? Now, I found this was the petrifying part.

This was the scary part. This could be 24 wins out of 24 kind of part when Adrian's mentioned about the car in a simulator and then they put it out in shakedown and things were looking correlated to what they saw in the simulations. That is petrivate. The fact that they have been improving from last year's car, they said that last year as well

that they weren't even expecting to be dominant and then they'd had the most dominant season in Formula One history. Yeah. Yeah, Adrian, I think, has been cooking in a massive cauldron and when I look at that car, I am absolutely petrified that no one else is even going to get a sniff. Yeah, it was very fascinating to Adrian. We talked about 2021 and the crazy season that they had and they were actually so. saying that they were behind at the start of 2022.

They were late to development. And you thought, oh, that would make it difficult for them. But they were still winning races. Of course, they did have a little bit of a struggle at the start. They think they had a double DNF, didn't they, in the first race? Which seems mad to think about now, because it feels like they've been dominant for so long. But the way Red Bull have, you know, they won that year comfortably in the end. Max one wrapped up the title with a few races to go.

And that's when they didn't have a head start on the competition. This year, they have, you know, and the fact that it is an evolution, like I said at the start of the podcast, you know, even plebs like us can tell that, you know, we're normally here just going like, oh, the livery is not changed, but like you can tell that is a different car because my word, the shoulders, it's hench. Yeah, it's got some bulbous shoulders on them. Aggressive is the only way I can use to describe that car. You look at it and you go, wow.

that is mean. Similar to, I guess, Mercedes when they launched the no-side pod concept, and they were, that worked, didn't it? So you're saying Red Bull? No, no, because Adrian Ui's at the helm, so I'm never going to go against what he's cooking up. But it noticed to be different. You know, you see that there isn't much air intake either.

You're like, how the hell are they going to cool the car? I'm sure they will. I'm sure they figure it out. Yeah. But it looks like a much quicker, meaner machine. And one which I think you'd be very silly to bet against them to win the championship. Oh, yeah, wait, I put Landon Norris to win the world title. Have you changed your mind?

Yeah, I might backtrack on that, even though I didn't want to be boring. Next question, from Tom P1, Tommy. Red Bull painted their car. Does this mean they have an advantage? As music starts now, we're going through all the motions here today. I think there's an interesting point about the painting of the car and this sort of stuff. Of course, it is still very much Red Bull branded. But I think they get away with not painting as much of the car as perhaps it looks like

when you show it on camera. Yeah, exactly. Like they've obviously got this very dark navy as their kind of base color. And I know, obviously we've been fortunate that we were right at the front at the launch and we could able to see how it looked. And yeah, I mean, the front wing, for example,

the rear wing is all carbon. But because it is like this really dark navy, you can't actually tell on track because it just looks, like the Navy almost looks black anyway. So yeah. They've got an advantage from that side, but they've still painted a lot of the car. So they're obviously pretty confident. It's going to be very quick.

They're very confident. And they're also confidently trying to get us to leave now, because we've had to re-record again. So finally, our experience of the car launch, Tommy, it's been incredible. Wonderful. As I say, as at the top, I think it's exactly what a car launch should be. Of course, they are celebrating a massive thing as well. So we don't expect this every single year. But just to see this kind of room is just an amazing piece of history. They've got so many, cool rooms now because I guess they've been winning a lot so therefore they have a lot to show off. And Rebel spoiling you again. Monaco, Vegas. Car launch. Car launch. You're converted, yeah.

You need to up your game otherwise. Duh, do, do, do, do. You know, it's coming. All right. So Ferrari, let's, let's get something, maybe a little drive in the F 2004. Let's see, you know, let's see what happens. Just that. Yeah, exactly. Just that. Not too much to work. Tell me what your final thoughts? Final thoughts are, yeah, thanks Red Bull for an amazing day. And Not thank you to our microphones for not recording. Yeah, screw you microphones. Thank you, Red Bull.

Hopefully you also enjoyed the little voiceover dump that I've done of the Sergio Perry's interview because we still want to share with you what he actually said, even if apparently technology doesn't work. So we'll see you very soon. Lots of love. And screw microphones.

Bye. Bye. Make sure you follow us on all of our socials. We're Matt P1 Tommy on Twitter, TikTok, Twitch and Instagram. You can also sign up to our Patreon at the link in the episode notes for ad-free episodes, full video interviews and extra bonus episodes for as little as $5 a month. Finally, make sure you're following us on Spotify. See you soon. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST's creator network.