Test Match Special - #40from40: Mark Webber

Episode Date: May 7, 2020

Motorsport star Mark Webber takes a View from the Boundary at the Oval in 2011, giving Jonathan Agnew a fascinating insight into life in an F1 car.

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Boundary on BBC Sounds. Hello, welcome to another classic view from the boundary in our series celebrating 40 years of this iconic feature. I'm Jonathan Agnew. And down the years, we've welcomed athletes from many different sports of the commentary box, all connected by their love of cricket. From rugby to rowing, dance to dancing and football to Formula One, we've spoken to them all. And it's the last sport on that list that we're visiting today. as we go back to 2011 and an interview at the Oval.

On the field, England were on their way to a big win against India, while Offit, we had a very special guest for the world of motorsport. Mark Weber is one of the most recognisable faces in Formula One for the last couple of decades, racing for 12 seasons for the likes of Jaguar, Williams and Red Bull. Back in 2011, he was pushing for the world title against teammate Sebastian Vettel, but kindly stopped by for a chat during a mid-year-old.

season break. It wasn't the first time he'd paid as a visit. He'd briefly popped in during a certain ashes test at Edgemaston in 2005. Yeah, the finish wasn't so pretty, mate, was it? The finish wasn't so pretty. I remember which day you came. Yeah. Do you remember? It was, I do remember going into the dressing sheds and seeing the boys after it, and it wasn't pretty. So whatever day was probably the worst day. It was probably that day. Yeah, so you were there. Oh, right, you were there on that particular day. Yeah. So you popped into the dressing room? I did, yeah. And Warnie was Texan, actually, when I went in. So, um,

Nothing changed, yeah. But, yeah, it was, I mean, it was an absolute nail-biter, wasn't it? I think Gillespie, I think the boys got knocked over, right? There was, yeah, it could have went either way, couldn't it? Two runs. It was a phenomenal test match, phenomenal test match. So, yeah, it was good. And do you like cricket?

I mean, are you here by coincidence? Do you do? I do like cricket. I followed it a lot as a youngster. I played a little bit. I played a little bit with Brad Haddon, actually. So I'm in Queen being near Canberra there, so obviously, He went on and did his thing and I did my stuff.

But my love of the sports really grown since I came to Europe and I suppose turned into a professional myself and then understood obviously the mental state that you've got to be at to really be successful at this level. And Steve War was a huge hero mine. That obviously still is. The way he went about capping the side and also, you know, obviously, never say die spirit.

And I suppose, you know, the true Aussie grit, I suppose, you know, Steve War was that. And then you learn more about it. Obviously, you know, he learnt a lot off, obviously, AB and all those amazing captains that went before. And obviously, Ricky went through an amazing stage when we still had those boys around, obviously, and then, you know, it changed when we lost, you know, Gilles and Haydo and all those guys, which were certainly individually, you know, they could tear any attack apart or, you know, and we had warning at the other end.

So it was a, yeah, it was a great time to watch it. I enjoyed it. And so, yeah, since then, you know, I've still definitely followed the cricket. And, you know, it's the English have grabbed the bull by the horns in the last six to 12 months and they're on fire. Any divided loyalties at all? You live here now, don't you?

And actually, you established your career, really, well, being based in this country. Yeah, I've got a lot of English friends, and I like the UK a lot. But, mate, when it comes to sport, it's zero. Absolutely. I thought you might say that. When the Welsh knocked the English over the other and the rugby union, fantastic. Really?

So, this is controversial. Yeah, it is. It is. I think, yeah, it's, when it comes to sport, we know it's a great rivalry because it's always, it's always been like that. It's a healthy, spectacular rivalry. We've seen with the ashes in the last. few years and yeah I say that obviously with a bit of tongue-in-cheek but you know we we well I I certainly support Australia absolutely 1,000% when it comes to if they're playing each other

is there any sort of similar rivalry at all that you experience in your in your sport anything quite as intense as a even compare to to that sort of thing that we're lucky to have in cricket I think every now and again you have two drivers go up against each other which we saw obviously with Sennar and Prost was very, very famous. You know, it's unusual to have a pair of drivers like that have such rivalry over such a long period of their career. You might have teams that against each other, let's say it's Ferrari and McLaren or, you know,

Red Bull and McClaren. But it's not a given which you have, there's so much tradition in this sport. There's a lot in our sport as well, but there's always different sort of players, are you know people arriving and going where in this um there is different players of course but that that great rivalry of um uh of the nations uh is is always you know very spectacular and we don't have that nation rivalry no i do you feel you're on driving for australia i mean

for instance or you're driving for you of course i'm representing australia have done since i since i came over here and i've been the only australian up until a few races ago so it's it's something which there's a small degree of that of course but you are doing it for yourself and then with the team of course so um you're not driving around uh thinking about that you're in a too much i'm in a team environment i'll get 500 people working for our team but yeah so there's a lot of people uh but all mixed nationalities you know we have a lot of different nationalities you know working within our team so it's very unusual i mean the australian team would be vastly made up of Australians you know playing with you know the english obviously at the moment

have got oh a few south africans one or two playing from but um but um anyway that's uh that's how it goes That's how it is how it goes. So what influence did Steve Orr have on you then? And do you still, are you still in touch with him, Prince? I am very much still in touch with Steve. He had a big influence on me because I think, you know, Steve, in many ways, you know, you might argue, you know, it wasn't the absolute, you know, in terms of talent and had the absolute upboat, sort of the gifted sort of touch, I suppose, for the whole sport.

But he, I mean, he worked and worked and worked. He was pretty handy all around. I must be said, we know that. So, you know, he never, you know, the way he protected his wicket was just sensational. You know, he was such a great leader to show to people that, you know, when you put the bag of green on, it's whatever the situation, wherever we are, you know, you will never, ever, ever give your wicket up. And, you know, some of those, I mean, we're talking to him about some of those innings of the, you know,

against Alan Donald where Donald was all over him. and he was getting hit a lot, and he never ever showed once that Donald was getting on top of him. Clearly he was in terms of the run, right? It wasn't, there was clear to be seen, but in terms of the pain being hit by the ball, all that sort of stuff was just, you know, sensational. For me, as a youngster, and as I say,

you don't really appreciate that when you're watching it, when you're too young, but when you then experience professional sport at the highest level yourself, you get more out of it. Yeah. And how are you still in touch now? I mean, do you talk to me? Max message phone. Yeah, I did a function for him.

Together, we did something in the long room at Lords. So that was very good for his foundation, Forever Green. And he's doing some great things for some kids with some rare diseases. So he's been great with that. And I went along to that and, you know, we auctioned off a prize there where I would give some of the people a thrash around a track and scare the hell out of them. So that went down for some good money. Cool, but it did too.

What sort of car? Well, I think we're going to have a few toys out. We still haven't done it yet, but we're looking to get all the guys together and have a bit of fun, because I don't think Steve wants to be too far away as well. I think he wants to come along as well. We come with you?

Yeah, so that was great. It was a really good evening. And, you know, and, I mean, some of the cricket stories you hear of, you know, the Merv Hughes and all this, you know, just, geez, they can tell the good yarn those boys. It's fantastic. Yeah, and it was a very good time for an Australian kid, well, a bit more the kid, I guess, to really get into cricket, wasn't it?

The examples that they... Yes, that they said... Yeah, it was, mate. I think, you know, and that's when Packer got hold of one-day cricket. Yes. Viv Richards, all the, you know, when the West Indies come down, it was, you know, that was a highlight in our house. You know, we'd have the families around, you know,

and, you know, day and night cricket was awesome. Yes. And it really was, you know, culturally a big thing in, I think a lot of Australians growing up, and particularly if you like sports. So they were heroes. And, yeah, they represented us well. And, you know, as I say,

there's a thing that you can make the association later on your own career. I never ever envisaged, of course, that I would never do anything in my own career like that when you're that age. But when you then look back and see what those guys did, there's a lot of things, it's a lot of similarities with all sports so you can draw back on. How will they be taking where they are now, do you think? And you're in Ozzie, you understand the sporting mindset of an Australian.

What do you think they'll be feeling at the moment? To see England up there at number one, and of course Ashes is at home and away and that sort of thing. Yeah, I don't think they'll be losing a huge amount of sleep over the rankings at the moment in terms of where England are in South Africa or whatever. They will be losing sleep over their own performance, no question about it. That's what they've got to focus on, they've got to regroup. It takes a long time, as you've seen with England, to get into this position.

And it takes time to get yourself in trouble as well with respect. So that's what's happened. We have, I think, a big squad now. we don't have a team of 11, let's say. We haven't got that, you know, that team where, like, you know, if Haydow was going through a bit of a rough patch, you stick with him, it's fine, you'll come good, you know, it's fine, there's slats there, whatever. You know, you had that, there was just rocks everywhere throughout that,

throughout that sort of team. Now, we're a little, we're massively on edge, obviously the confidence goes, which is a bizarre situation for, people might think that's a bizarre thing for the Australians to go through, confidence has gone. Well, hello, hello, it happens. It's sport, yeah. It's sport, and it does happen, and we've got to have the stability, the continuity then, and then when you get, obviously, the trust they've gone through, obviously, some change with the selectors now.

There's a lot of change in Australian cricket and prioritising on what we can do to, you know, what eggs we're going to put in the basket and then get on with it, really, and that's what we've got to do because at the moment, obviously, England are very, very well settled. And in three or four years time, they've going to have a huge, they're going to have a bit of a change too, because obviously the average age is not, not mega, mega low there. So that's how it is. And they won't be taken, they won't be enjoying them, mate, at all. And I'm just happy, I'm just happy that we're not touring here now at all

because we're not in a state at the moment to be, you know, taking on, you know, you boys, I don't think. I saw Alice to cook at the British Grand Prix this year and I went up to him and I said, mate, you've been a real pain in the, you know, in the Watsy because he's been phenomenal. And that is something which I can, you know, again, this relation, you know, the concentration that he's shown, you know, obviously he's had not every innings has been phenomenal, but he's had some phenomenal innings, you know, when you start, you know, the amount of time at the crease is just, you know, as any sportsman, you have to respect that. It's interesting how you focus on concentration. I mean, that is obviously a really key part of your success, I guess, is an absolute rigid concentration. I mean, you can't let, you can't relax rest. A micro second at 190 miles an hour? We can't. We can't. Certain tracks are a little bit more different to others, obviously.

Monte Carlo, a street circuit, the car's moving around, a lot's very bumpy. The arm co is always very, very close. And the track's always testing you. It's always asking you to give a little bit more, and sometimes you give a sniff more, and it's over. You might clip the barrier, or you might go in even harder. So other tracks you get away with a bit more. So that is different to, you know, Steve used to say to him, mate,

I only concentrate, you know, I might be out there for four hours, but I'm not concentrating for four hours, you know, I walk away from the crease, we've got it, you know, reset, come back again, next delivery, boom, that's it, and concentrate, start really ramping the levels of focus up, you know, narrowing the focus, when the quicks are sort of halfway in their run-up, and that's it, do the delivery, whatever happened, keep the premeditation to a minimum, and deal with that, and then he goes away again and relax. We can't do that, obviously, so we've got two hours of much more intense, we've got communication with the radio we've got you know there's lots of things which are different but

there's there's some similarities still which like you say is of interest for me also interesting you talk about confidence and yeah you lose your confidence of cricket uh it's not a good place to be as a sportsman but to lose confidence in your in your game again can't be a good place to be can it um well the stopwatch is very important for us obviously so we the lap times having the feel for the car putting the car absolutely on the limit so nearly been in front of the car. So it's similar to again to other sports where you have a feel that you're, it's a little bit, you know, in that slow motion state where you can predict what's going to happen, the corner, you sort of, it's, it all comes a bit easier and that's

what, you know, confidence, the lap times are coming easier. You can give feedback about the car because you've got the mental capacity to talk about the car a lot more. Instead of really, you know, hassling the car and putting all your energy and focus into getting the lap times out and then you come back in and give feedback on the car. The boys are asking, you know, the technical guys, where can we improve? Well, I don't know. That means you're putting, you know, there's way too much going into action. So you need to have the mental capacity then to be able to debrief and make the car quicker.

That's important to be able to do that. So, yeah, and composure is another big word, I think. You know, once you start to be confident, then obviously that will bring composure. And when you've got composure, you know, when I started winning my first few races and then when you win and you control the whole Grand Prix and that's uncharted waters. When you start as a sports and controlling things where you haven't been before, uncharted water,

that gives you lots of composure and then you perform much better. And form? Can you be in and out of form doing what you do? Yes, you can. You can. I think, you know, the mistakes might increase. So to the educated eye, yes, you would see that.

The engineers also will pick that up. You know, if you're driving very, very, very well, it's exactly the same as being out in the middle made out there in terms of mistakes to a minimum. And the consistency, you know, the same thing again. There's lots of guys who will be able to drive similar to me, but they won't be able to be as consistent. And even within their lap times, within the race,

you might get two or three guys, and that's the difference between some Grand Prix and others. If you can't quite, you know, you can do five laps on the bounce that holding that super, super lap time, but then you might have two or three laps where you can't, and that's also form. Yeah, focus. Mark Weber's our guest, I'd love to talk to Mark,

about this fascinating sport. I've always wondered, but if I got in your car, would I be able to drive it? Yeah, I could get it to move. Yeah, I could get you to drive it, yeah. I think, what are you weighing in it? I mean, what's your weight? Rather too much.

You are rakeishly thin, and ladies and gentlemen, he's turned down, piece of cake we've offered to. When I came in this morning, I saw the cakes. I know. Everyone's, yeah. It's not a good place for a formula one, rather. Yeah, it's dangerous, man.

I love all the switch. You have to really keep an eye on all that, obviously. Well, again, you know, in my mid-20s, no problem. I got, you know, slaughter everything I wanted to, you know, chocolate's ice cream. I loved it, and I still do. But now, sort of mid-30s, just got to, I've got to put a bit more in. If I take some, I've got to, you know, the training's got to, yeah, I've got to give rid of it.

So that's changed. but um put me in your car come on your car i think um yeah you would be you'd be blown away first of all about the environment you know it's not it's not comfortable so it's not it's not like you know obviously a road car it's very very um no leather seats mate no aircon no radio it's all very very harsh there's two pedals to start with so you haven't got three pedals i've only got throttle on a brake the clutch is on the back of the steering wheel so that'll be the first thing i'll have to talk you through and then once the boys had fired the car up we're in neutral We'd need to pull the clutch on the back of the steering wheel,

and you'd change gears by two little paddles behind the steering wheel, basically. So you'd pull one of the paddles, and you'd see... You'd feel the car go into gear. It's a bit like an automatic in a way, but it's not. It's still a manual gearbox. You need to still control it. And then you'd slowly release the clutch going away from you with your fingers. The fine, you know, the detail is very, very, very good.

The feel you have you, the fingers is fine. so and then you drive out the pit lane and then you're on then you're out there mate really so it would uh yeah then the car would be very much uh would be laughing at you i think from that point onwards mate it would be um yeah it would be uh the cars are designed to you know the ties the brakes everything you got to get they only perform well when they when they when everything gets very very hot and you know the brakes the ties everything you know there's such a narrow band for the car to operate otherwise they feel very awkward and clumsy uh so i've all the same i mean it's yours the same as very similar very similar

uh i mean obviously you know from a car at the front of the grid which is certainly ours uh in the top few to a car at the back we're talking four seconds per lap which is a lot in our game you know if you finish three or four laps behind in a grand prix then obviously you're on a different planet it'd be like there'd be even not even a comparison me going out in the middle out there you know it's I know roughly what I'm doing, but you're not at the races, basically. But the car, for you, would feel the same. I mean, everything would be similar, the downforce, all that sort of stuff. You wouldn't, because you're not going to test the car to the limit.

So they're all basically the same, yes. Ties, gearbox, engine, all the sort of stuff. But for the pros, the guys at the front, obviously, we feel, obviously, the difference between a good and a bad car. And when you are going, when you're at full tilt, you say it's not comfortable. I mean, is it noisy? You've got all the radio stuff going on? Is it really hard work in that? Yeah, it is.

It is hot. Some races, you know, for example, the Singapore Grand Prix, it's low 30, 32, 33, very, very humid. It's fully encapsulated, obviously. So we've got the helmet on, we've got, you know, gloves on, fireproof overalls. Seat belts in positions which aren't particularly comfortable, you know, for a long period of time. So it is tough. A lot of G-forces. We would have between half a liter and a liter of water to drink in two hours,

so not much because we've got to keep the weight down. And I can lose up to two kilos, worst case two and a half kilos in the two hours if we have a lot, a lot of fluid loss. So it's a tough afternoon's work. The heart rate's high, obviously, got to make decisions, so that's adrenaline comes into it, all those type of things. So around pit stops, so, yeah, it's, It's a fascinating, you know, in terms of what the body can do, I suppose.

It's a different sport, but, yeah, it's interesting. It's brilliant. And also what, it must have so varied. I mean, it starts to rain. It's like Geoffrey in his uncovered pitches, isn't it? I mean, you've got to make a decision about, you know, the whole thing changes, isn't they? I mean, the whole track must completely change character. That's right. A lot of different skill sets required, driving in.

The track, like I say, can change, you know, one minute you're doing one minute of 30s. The next minute you do it, one minute, 50s, 20 seconds are lapsed slower because the conditions are just so, extreme and that is again you need that that that composure that sort of you know okay this is how it is we've got to get through this port of the Grand Prix and then conditions will constantly changing so uh yes it is different and and uh the track layouts as well so you know there's lots of different things which uh test us and that's what it should be like at this level in formula 1 we need you know we race in all conditions to to to to a degree uh and all different types of tracks where some other categories don't race in the rain for different reasons but we

We're supposed to be the ultimate driver, so we need to try and drive in all conditions. Do you think about the danger, Mark? I mean, there's awful business with the red arrows yesterday, obviously. Speed equals danger equals, and we saw what happened yesterday. Do you ever think about that? Yeah, I think it's part of the sport, mate, growing up. I'm very, very comfortable with it myself. I'm not, the only way I think about it, I suppose, is that,

I know that my, for example, my mom and Ann or the people, my loved ones aren't super comfortable with it. They know that it's part of it, but I'm more comfortable with it than they are. So I'm not, I had a bad crash in Valencia last year where I was pretty relaxed through all of that to a degree, but I was disappointed what they might be seeing, you know, and you know that that could end in a different way. So that's not particularly nice for them. but I'm fine with it when it's the most dangerous part of our job is when we have a failure on the car

which is very rare these days touch wood anything breaks where a passenger really in the car so and that could happen and that's really Russian roulette and really where what type of corner it is how quick you're going

where the runoff is how hard you might go in and the angle on those type of things so that's where our boys and they've got to do a great job for us in building the car and safety is very very important important and then the rain obviously visibility if you can't see if someone has a problem on the strating you're doing 180 to 200 mile an hour still with low visibility and he's across the track it's kind of imagine that's that's also another dangerous part but

generally I mean the steps forward I mean obviously if you haven't seen the center film magazine I'd recommend you to go and watch the center film I know you're not a huge motorsport buff but the center film was he's the last guy that we've lost in our sport which is in in in F1 obviously we've lost other other guys unfortunately but they've moved of safety on a lot and that's a great movie on on you know

the politics of the sport and also just you know how I suppose encapsulating what we go through as drivers yeah I must do it so I'm on my list because I hadn't realized that the race that I saw him win it was apparently one of the classic center wins 93 it was at Donington

I've had lots of people saying hey that was one of his finest because I remember it was wet Yeah, you told me about that off air I think that was a classic Grand Prix because of when we spoke previously about the changing of conditions so he just dominated the first three or four laps of that Grand Prix and made the rest of the guys look pretty average

I mean you've got to keep in mind he was racing against and they're all at the top of their game so it was really a master class from him on an inferior car as well he didn't have the car so he needed the conditions and the skill to win so you saw a good one there now we've got some messages coming in and by all means feel free to email or use Twitter of course you're on Twitter on you

Aussie grit I'm on Twitter yes I sent you one at Wimbledon and you ignore me but sorry Sarah Holt has Mark managed to keep sane during the mid-season break must be itching to get back at spa next weekend and any banter with the Force India team expected enough of this test series, she writes. Oh, okay.

Definitely managed to keep saying. It's important to have a bit of a break away from the sport as well, obviously. We absolutely love driving the cars, and there's no better venue to come back to in Belgium in Sparse. All the drivers are we looking forward to that, because I certainly am. Is that your favourite track? Is that your favourite track? It's a great track, mate. Really, really good.

Undulating, quick corners, you know, old school. We love it. It's really good. But I think people need, obviously, you know, they have to understand that we do, you know, the travel. This break is, we don't really need the break if the season finished in a few weeks but keep in mind we're still racing nearly to the first week of December coming back after Brazil

so it's a long season so you need to switch off get away from the media, get away from all the telephones and just have a bit of a break and you get away from it and as for Force India I think I'll be God I think the Indians will be staying very quiet at the next few Grand Prix with those guys.

So Spar's your favourite, which is the most challenging and the most testing one? Which one do you sort of go to Bethlehem before and think, okay, here we go, this is it going to be a challenge? Well, that's the reason we like Spar is because we think, like we want to be challenged like that. The tracks where you don't really get that, like, for example, Bahrain is not the most challenging of venues.

The corners are pretty repetitive. There's a lot of runoff. The drivers don't really get punished for their mistakes. so it's there's a few tracks of late which they've designed that's I mean Abadabie's not bad but you know there's there's a couple which you know aren't the old school sort of interesting perhaps yeah that's right yeah they're not they're repetitive and they're they're not overly stimulating for the driver to drive on yeah is it a friendly circuit I mean have you got mate so other other drivers your

friends is it like playing in a cricket team or a football team or something where yeah you look forward to seeing each other and you I don't know, go after a beer at the evening or something, or is it that sort of circuit asshole? No, unfortunately not. It's not like that. It was in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and the reason it was like that in Formula One is because I think they lost so many of their mates. So many of their mates got killed. So they, the respect and the camaraderie was so high that they really, I think, cherish the times that they could spend together because the strike rate then was unfortunately very, very high.

It really was that bad? Well, I think, yeah, I mean, talking to people, Jackie Stewart, Jackie said, you know, the difference between when he was racing and now is very, very different. We still have a lot of respect for each other, clearly, you know, but we don't catch up anywhere near as much socially as what those guys did back then. They used to travel a lot together. They, you know, their girlfriends and they all travel together. You know, where now we don't do that. We, at all, it just doesn't happen. So I've got some good friends on the grid for sure. but I still, you know, don't catch up with them, you know, massively away from the track. It's going to be interesting post-career if we see each other more than we do when we're actually racing

because it's actually still quite hard to, you know, get super close when you're competing against each other. It just looks such a glitzy world. Yeah, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors, Aga. It's a lot of smoke and mirrors, mate, unfortunately. Behind the scenes, it's not always like that. No. Yeah, they do a good job on TV to make it look better than it is, but it's good. Don't get me wrong. It's a very, you know, the cars are very quick. It's a super professional sport. It's, you know, it's well put together. It's, it is well put together. But it's, you know, this on TV, same thing. We're looking out here over the pitch. You see it on TV. It looks absolutely, you know, phenomenal. And it looks good here. But you can still, you know, there's still a few warts here and there, which is the same with Formula One. That's how it is.

Is it? Even in Monte Carlo, I mean, the whole sort of business are going to see a Grand Prix there. I'm not being a charity dues here, where they go to an auction there and people bid thousands of bands to go to see that. Yeah, it is a... I'm probably going to be a bit biased. It is a phenomenal sporting event, the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. I'm not big into people watching, mate, all that sort of stuff.

You know, I've got to be careful what I say, but, you know, that's... I can take and leave that stuff, don't get me wrong. But to have a Formula One race where they do at Monaco is... It is special to see the guys, you know, through the streets of Monaco, the noise, you've got the water, you've got the dramatic cliffs behind,

it's pretty spectacular and obviously the weather's normally pretty good, so I wouldn't pay that sort of dough to go and watch it, but some people love to go and see it, and that's what they do, yeah. It's a good event, it's a good event, yeah. Is it a clean sport? Always when you have that amount of money involved, there's going to be politics, and, you know, it's been like that for a long, long time, it'll be like that in the future where you have agendas.

you know, stuff going on behind the scenes, which, you know, not tarnish the sport, but there's certain things which come up every now and again that might be a little bit unsavory. And that's the way it is. It's not a small little sport, mate. It's a multi-mort. There's a huge amount of money. It goes either way. And so at times there will be things that might not be that enjoy.

Yeah, and everyone, I mean, the drivers are all straight, as it were. I mean, you've seen this business in cricket, as we know. I mean, what sort of checks are made, tests are made on all of you when you're competing? Yeah, well, I think driver-wise is pretty straightforward. I mean, you can't, I mean, well, like you say. You could throw a race. Well, no, you could. You could.

I mean, any sportsmen, the end of the day, we've seen it with rugby league, we've seen with cricket, we've seen, you know, with AFL in Australia, some guys having a little bit of a flutter, so absolutely completely unaware of it going on in our game or in our sport. I think there's just not enough races as well, I don't think. You know, when you've got so many matches or, you know, small little things going on, I suppose the temptation is higher maybe for these guys to have a bit of a crack or the result is going to be pretty much like that anyway,

or there's so many things that you can bet on. But in our sport, I think it's very hard. Well, you could say I want to crash at the first corner and go put some money on that and you can go down and do that, but it's not. It's just too many risks involved to do things like that. It's not, you know, the comparison to other sports is quite different, I think, in that respect. So, and technically the cars, obviously, that's a big aspect, which, you know, you've got to start on top of. Obviously, you know, people could cheat with the car.

So they've got to be, the governing body's got to be over that, like an absolute rash to make sure that that's all fair and played for. And that's where most of the politics come into play where you've got, you know, the rules and the ambiguity of how the rules are read and teams interpret. rotation that sort of stuff and you've got to be careful with making sure the right people are happy with what's doing what and that's where the sport can get difficult sometimes yeah and not naming names but do are there drivers because there must be huge pressure if you're behind and you've got to win a race are there is that a danger for you as well there's someone out there who just doesn't handle that pressure very well takes a chance takes a risk someone overtakes when they shouldn't do knocks you out all that sort of side of it uh you're sort of hot-headed ones oh yes there's always there's always there's always there's always an element of that going to take place, mate. But, you know, the cars are, I'm in control of most of the things that I do with my car. I can't control at all what he's going to do. If they do something absolutely ridiculous and stupid, then that's going to happen. But pretty unlikely at that level, pretty unlikely.

I mean, most of the, you know, we're not racing, you know, at the local, and I'm not, you know, having a cracky question. I'm just saying we're not racing at the go-kart, you know, sort of where we got that. that's the worst thing for you. If I go and do a little go-car race or whatever, you've got a big target on your back. You know, guys trying to do these desperate moves and carry on and take your head off.

You're like, well, settle down guys. So when you're doing a Formula One race, everyone's, you know, it's generally pretty professional from top to finish in terms of, you know, that situation of passing moves and things like that. And they've got their own race they want to finish as well. Yeah. Jeffrey's here. He said it was like watching Scale Electric earlier on.

Scale Electric, yeah. What do you reckon? Put him right. Well, I'll have to take him for a lap then. I would love to you. Yeah, hi Geoffrey. How are you? Pleasure to meet you. Listen, how can you interview him? You put the wrong petrol in your car. Oh, thank you, Geoffrey. I thought you'd bring that up.

You know nothing about it. Go away, one laugh would be enough at him in the same car as you, I can tell you. I can tell you what. Since Geoffrey expressed interest, yes, would you like to ask him to drive him around in the Red Bull? There's a twin-seater, is there? You could take him around. Are you as competitive playing other sports? So Simon on the Twitter. Yes.

It's a fiercely competitive. You have to be able to get to where you are, don't you? Yeah, I think so. Unfortunately, it's in the DNA, isn't it? So, yes, I am. Right, because at the moment you're second? Second of the World Championship, yeah. Yeah.

Is there any physical way you could get up there now? Physical, we'll probably knock Seb out. I've got to try and... No, I think, you know, he's had a great start to the season, and now it's tightened right up. All four of us are getting similar results, so McLaren and Ferrari are performing very well. So the second part of the championship is going to be...

I'm really looking forward to it. actually, you know, get some victories under my belt. And Seb, it's probably his to lose. You know, he knows that he's got a good lead. But, you know, in sport, as you know, mate, anything can happen, so you've got to keep boxing. Yeah. How does that relationship work?

I mean, you get very competitive together. Again, are you mates together? It's the toughest relationship you can probably have because you're supposed to be teammates and you're in the same team. All the guys and girls are working together for you two. But he's the one that you want to probably beat the most. Is he?

Well, to prove your point in a way. Yeah, in the team. So the rivalry has always been quite high between teammates and legendary, and we've always had interesting battles between teammates on the grid in Formula One, so that will always be the same, mate. Hey, it's great to talk to you. I've really enjoyed it, Mark. Thank you. Fascinating. And I'll be watching. Well, I say the DRS on your... We've got DRS here. You have DRS, don't you? We've got DRS too, mate. Completely different.

You've got a button that says DRS. What happens? Sort of flaps open or something? You've hit the nail on the head, mate. Yeah, really. a wing opens up and so it's amazing we've got DRS in cricket and DRS in F1 there you go two different meanings is all as controversial as ours though I suppose not no

nowhere near as controversial as yours mate another classic came in 1991 when the then England manager Graham Taylor talked to Brian Johnston about his love of cricket I'm not really a ball I like the batty I like batting in a funny sort of way

My father has always said to me that one of the worst things, and I suppose I'll open a sort of talking point here, but one of the worst things he ever did was to send me for coaching. He said that when I was, before I had that, when I saw the ball, I used to try to hit it. And when I came back from coaching, then in fact I tried to play everything technically correct. And that he always felt that as a young,

I mean, I think it would have very much liked me actually to be able to develop not only my footballing ability, which, fortunately, I got a career in professional football, but my critical ability as well. But he often felt that after I had about 18 months coaching, and I came back and I then tried to play everything. Now, I always remember seeing anything down my leg's side as a left-hander. I loved it.

But then after the coaching, I seemed to have to play every ball properly. I don't believe in taking people out and coaching on the real weakness that they have. I believe in coaching people to their strengths because I think that something that a person is good at, one is interested in getting better at that. And I think that it gives him a tremendous amount of confidence. And consequently, any weaknesses, and we all have weaknesses,

I tend to feel that those weaknesses improve through having a greater confidence. I think if you concentrate very much so on somebody's weaknesses, you don't necessarily get the bigger rewards. I think if you coach on somebody's strengths, you get big rewards. And then the weaknesses, because nobody's perfect. The weaknesses look after themselves

because the strengths come through and they override the weaknesses. So in many respects I'd like to think that both individually and collectively my coaching is based on, or has been based, very much on getting people to believe in themselves and to do what they're good at

and to do it even better and to let the bad things look after themselves and ignore them. You've got to be a tremendous psychologist, haven't you? You've got to treat every single person different Because everyone is different. Well, everyone is different.

All this business, you know, about people say, I don't like it when people say he treats everybody the same, because I don't. I'll treat you the same if you are the same, but you're not. So you treat everybody differently. Look out for plenty more from the Test Match Special Archive. There's so much already there and still to come.

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