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itsblasttothepast · 5 months ago

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Random Checo Pérez Post

So, I've been a fan of Checo Pérez for years... since the beginning, actually. I'm mexican, I'm older than him (I'm in my 40's, if anyone was wondering) and I particularly follow mexicans in tough sports for our country (like my boy, Donovan Carrillo, killing it in ice skating).

It can be tiring seeing all the hate he gets for every little thing (without couting the racist/xenophobic comments), and I know he's controversial, but he's also human and makes mistakes. Anyway, that's no the point, as a Checo fan, I've been there seeing all the different teams and teammates, and honestly, I kind of want to go back when he was mostly ignored by the press and the media.

I hardly post anything personal in my blog, I mostly reblog and like posts of you awesome people, but now I'm in a ranty mood and want to share my my impressions of his career in F1.

Starting with Sauber, his very first team:

I call this: Baby Checo Era - Cursed Sauber Era

Look at him, he was so young, full of dreams and growing into those teeth. I think he was very lucky with his first teammate, the great Kamui Kobayashi (I secretly think this is why he's so fond of Yuki Tsunoda nowdays); he learned a lot with Kamui, Checo even admits that he knows about managing tires thanks to Kamui.

They seemed relaxed, and made a great team, and also we had Esteban Gutiérrez, another mexican, as the third driver for Sauber.

Anyway, this was his learning phase, and he was killing it, most of the press was nice/ambigous, some pilots on the paddock didn't like him, but we didn't care because Kamui was there, Esteban was there, and we as fans were there.

I called this 'cursed Sauber era' because it made us believe that life was good and we could be happy forever and ever.

Then it came the worst thing ever (actually, for me, the worst thing ever is Red Bull, but most Checo Fans don't agree on my take). My boy moves to McLaren because Ferrari was still thinking their options.

I call this the Lost Checo Era - Collective Amnesia Era

We thought the move to McLaren would put our Checo on the map, oh boy, we were SO WRONG. No points, no glory, no good car... not even good press. It was a hot mess.

Not even the suit was good, honestly.

His teammate was Jenson Button. He was polite, but we could see he didn't like Checo's driving style, and sometimes my boy made silly mistakes and tried to force his way into the laps rather aggressively (which most drivers did back then, but whatever).

Still, they were mostly nice to each other, but the team was shit back then, and Checo seemed lost and confused (and still wasn't growing into those teeth). When he changed teams, we as fans decided to forget all about McLaren and move on with him. Although I must say Checo has said that Jenson was one of his best teammates and learned a lot from him, so I guess their relation wasn't that bad.

Then it came Force India/Racing Point... oh, Force India, it was our time.

I call this the Hopeful Checo Era - Foce India Hope

Checo came and slayed, honestly. Everything seemed to click with that team, he looked comfortable, in his element, winning points again...

And he finally was growing into those teeth!!!

His first teammate here was Nico Hülkenberg, and they seemed to have a good relation, even friendly I might say.

It was an amazing time, as a fan, I can say I enjoyed all the races, even when he kept spinning out the track or hitting other drivers with his wheels. He and Nico were amazing, and had such a nice chemistry, it was a refreshing change and it made us nostalgic.

Then Nico moved to another team... and another Checo Era starts.

Nico Hülkenberg loggged out of Foce India, and Esteban Ocon logged in...

I call this the No Fucks Given Checo - Force India Breaking Point

We could see Esteban and Checo didn't like each other. It was obvious, and they tried so hard to show they could get along, with hilarious results like Esteban's tweet about Checo trying to kill him twice.

You could feel the tension even in pictures, honestly. As fans, we used to joke every race weekend, asking 'has Checo finally killed Esteban?'

Checo here was fearless and daring, and kept pushing everyone out of his way, including his teammate, which of course is a big no-no in F1... although Mercedes suffered the same with the whole Lewis/Nico thing (and RedBull to a lesser extent with Max/Daniel), but Force India was a mid-table team, so it wasn't a big deal (nobody cared, those were the good days).

I even remember when Massa complained about Checo's overtake on Lance, and my boy answered 'What are you? his father?'... I think even Kimi laughed at this, it was hilarious, and showed how many fucks he cared.

Unfortunately, Force India had a very questionable management (debatable, Vijay seemed like a nice person), and after stopping paying all the employees, Checo brought legal action against the team in hopes of looking for buyers capable of servicing the team's debts (this is why they like him so much on Aston Martin). This led to Force India to be bought by Lawrence Stroll, and rebranded as Racing Point.

I call this the Reborn Checo Era - Racing Point Pink Era

Honestly, I would fail as a mexican if I didn't put this picture, his first win in F1, we cried so much, starting at the last place, and winning, the fireworks, the tears... and the fact that he had been fired, and here he was, winning, showing everyone to never give up.

Anyway, Checo had a new teammate, Lance Stroll, and it even looked like we would get something similar to Nico, but then they fired him for Sebastian Vettel (no hate to Vettel, it was strategic, and we get it, but it felt like such a betrayal after what Checo did to save the team).

Still, my boy looked good in pink, and he and Lance got along, and gave us amazing moments. I even think that he improved his relation with Esteban Ocon because he was Lance's friend. It was nice.

But when he was fired of Racing Point, we as fans thought 'it's over... our boy is going to leave F1'. We even joked about funding our team so he could stay, it was bittersweet. He won, but he still lost.

Then it came the proposal of proposals... the big league (I wanted Checo to go to Mercedes and race with Lewis), Red Bull wanted him as second driver.

I personally didn't like it. Those teams are hardball, and the press is ruthless. But everyone was so happy for Checo, and I wanted to see him race, so I made peace with it.

And here we are now... I honestly don't know how to call this Checo Era. It has been a rollarcoaster since the beggining, and I wish he hadn't renew and moved to another team... but I'll stay here with him, like I've done since 2011, I just hope that the pressure and the harsh and unnecessary criticism doesn't end up breaking him.

Especially now that he looks so hot and finally has the Tom Cruise smile.

I actually like Max, I think he's a good person, and an even better driver. I think he and Checo have a good relation, friendly at times, frosty some others, but in the end, they reach a middle ground where they can be teammates and not enemies. I like them together, but I don't like Red Bull policies and the way the press seemed to want to make Checo feel like he's a failure just because he isn't Max.

Oh, and also, thanks to tumblr and FB, now I kind of ship RP, and I agree that Max and Checo have amazing chemistry, they look so good together! (but also deep down, I lowkey ship Lewis/Checo... and I still hope to see them together in a team).

So, if you made it this far, thank you very much for reading my weird ramblings. English is not my first language (again, mexican), so I apologize for the grammar mistakes.

I'm a Checo fan, and I'll be until he retires... I just wish that those who aren't, didn't create such a hostile and hateful enviroment.

I hope that when Pato O'ward joins F1, the enviroment is more welcoming and nice.

Checo aun tiene para luchar, y ni modo cabrones, así es la vida.

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erelavent · 2 months ago

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I listened to the hour long high performance podcast with Otmar, which wasn't easy, he's pretty dry, but he drops some truth bombs. Tea is in Red, Interesting facts/stories are in Purple, My Opinions are in Green.

Here is a breakdown:

He discusses that his failure at Aston Martin was due to Lawrence Stroll wanting rapid success after he bought the team. He mentioned that AM was like a church with 2 popes because Martin Whitmarsh was installed into the team and took over 90% of his responsibilities, so he couldn't really do much. He didn't try to challenge the decision too much because Lawrence owned the team, and he has the right to change what he wants.

Over at Alpine, the failure was similar. He didn't have control over the entire team. He said neither the finance team nor HR, communications, or marketing reported to him, they reported to France. He didn't know that would be the case when he signed.

He also wants to clear up that he had nothing to do with Alpine fumbling Oscar Piastri. The failure to sign him and properly file the CRB happened in November, and he started in March. Alpine let him to the fall for their incompetence by putting his face on the press release. He states that the decision to do it was intentional and malicious because he asked the press officer about it and she was specifically told to do that 😭. He mentions that Alpine didn't care about on-track performance so much as the people in charge cared about their careers. Given the closing of the power unit development program, and the reported rampant corruption over there I'm inclined to agree with him.

He mentions that even though they didn't sign Oscar Piastri, they did deliver their end of the contract in giving him 5000km of running time in a 2-year old F1 car to ensure he had the experience to get his superlicense points. He thinks that Oscar not signing after Alpine essentially strung him along is unjust enrichment because he received the benefits of the contract without having to give anything back. We'll agree to disagree on that one.

He throws a bit of shade at Alpine by saying that when he was there, at least they were in the mid-field but now they're 9th in the championship.

He mentioned that when he was there Alpine was 25 horsepower down on power on their engine unit and that there is a gentleman's agreement between engine manufacturers that if you are low on horsepower (regardless of an engine freeze), you are allowed to get it back up and he was advocating for Alpine to get it back to equal levels with all the other manufacturers.

He got fired in a Zoom meeting by the head of HR at Renault, not the CEO of Alpine or a superior. Team principals, they're just like us.

He thinks he was fired because he disagreed on how to change the corporate culture at Alpine. They wanted him to get rid of people who had been at Alpine for a long time and were doing a good job and he disagreed because that sends the message that "Doing a good job gets you fired." He thinks this is directly tied to the collapse of Alpine because all their best staff are currently at other teams.

He said if this ever happened again, he would require that he owns all aspects of leadership at a team rather than having them report to his higher ups. That's common sense I fear. He should have learned that lesson at Aston Martin.

He quoted Peter Drucker by saying "Culture eats strategy for breakfast", which shouldn't have been as surprising to me as it was lmao. They're both Austrian-American management guys but like it caught me off guard.

He discusses the need for psychologically safe environments in F1 teams so people are free to make mistakes and improve without fear of your team member or management stabbing you in the back.

He discusses how applying the theory of a psychologically safe environment is easy when you're winning but much harder when you backslide (*cough* Mercedes *cough*). He says that in times of difficulty, leaders have to be able to take responsibility when they make mistakes because it sets the tone for others. However, it's complicated in an F1 team because not all leaders at each strata may implement this strategy so it's not as effective.

He discusses the need for empathy in making the workplace a safe and enjoyable space because that looks different for everyone, some people care about getting paid more and some care about the breadth and depth of work they get to do.

At this point, the interview starts to sound less like a podcast and more like a job interview. Idk if the hosts realize they're doing this but they're asking "How did you as a TP change the work culture?" "How did you ensure the workspace was enjoyable?" and they're making him give examples. it's not really a conversation so much as him listing his strengths and weaknesses and using the STAR method, but we power on.

He discusses Racing Point and how he personally recruited half the team after assessing what they were lacking compared to other F1 teams. He mentions that the only way he was able to poach top talent at other teams was by creating a culture that made people want to work there.

He talks about how he got clever with the Racing Point budget to make the team an enjoyable place to work including shopping for work benches at Costco (I agree Costco keeps the cost low).

He tells this funny story about Lawrence Stroll taking a tour of the factory to determine whether or not to buy the team. Lawrence walks in to the electronics department to find them instrumenting a front wing with an engineer on a stool balancing the wing on a trash can to get it at the right height.

He said that Vijay Mallya was really hands off at Racing Point which made for a successful team because the team was able to do what they do best without a micromanager watching over them.

He says that compared to Vijay, Lawrence is the opposite because he's completely financially and emotionally invested in the team but it works because Lawrence hates losing and he's not afraid to put his money where his mouth is.

He confirms the story that TWICE, with his partner at Soft Pauer, he paid the salaries of all Racing Point employees out of his own pocket because the payment for F1 was coming in late (he mentioned that by the end of his tenure, there were 408 employees and it was in the millions for pay). With the exception of the higher ups and the finance department, the employees didn't know. He said it was a risk because the money from F1 might not have come or it could have come in and being relegated to other causes and he might not have gotten the money back.

I'm sorry but I'm not gonna clap for Otmar for paying the Force India employees' salaries out of pocket TWICE because how much money was he making to be able to afford to do that in the first place? Does that not speak to an extreme disparity in pay between the team principal and the other employees? It's like when a CEO makes 200 times the average worker. Maybe instead of paying out of pocket, you should have shrunk the pay gap and put the extra funds in an emergency fund for moments when pay would be late.

He said he paid it twice to maintain team morale, even though he didn't tell the employees because why would he, he's not trying to lord it over them.

After he is asked how he gets his business partner who doesn't even work for Racing Point to help pay for the team's salaries and how he poached Andrew Green from Red Bull, Otmar talks about building trusting relationships by listening to the lowest dissenter rather than dismissing them while still giving weight to subject matter experts.

Otmar mentions that what he likes most about F1 is the immediacy of the competition. You see results almost immediately week after week as opposed to waiting 4 years at a car company to see results (he compares it to his days working at Ford).

Otmar says that ideally, he would like a build a new American-backed F1 team in 2-3 years with the right people.

"We're a sport, supposedly." —Otmar Szafnauer (lmao). He mentioned that out of the hundreds to thousands of people working on an F1 team, only 2 are actually sportsmen. So, in reality teams in F1 are really just technological development companies.

In that vein, you respect the drivers but also need to make it known that they don't know everything. He mentions that drivers are supreme athletes but for a lot of them, that came at the cost of a formal education (place your bets as to who he's talking about) so you treat them differently to say, an aerodynamicist.

The host says that this episode was likely filmed 1-2 days after Daniel liked drove in F1 for the last time. I'm not sure if he means Singapore or any of the other times Daniel was rumored to have his last drive. The host asks if, due to this lack of education, we (the general audience of F1) are to harsh on drivers when they underperform. Otmar says F1 is a meritocracy and thus teams have to do what is needed to ensure they perform best in the championship including dropping a driver midseason based on the availability of other drivers and their stats. I disagree, F1 is definitely not a meritocracy.

He mentions that when Logan was dropped, he thought that his replacement would need 3-4 races to adjust but he was wrong because Franco Colapinto got up to speed almost immediately. So though it's a tough position to be in, he understands the need to maintain positions in the WCC.

Otmar says that Daniel was a brilliant driver and he's unsure if his decline is due to confidence because the engineers at Alpine (Renault at the time) sang Daniel's praises and he knows that he eventually outperformed Nico Hulkenberg.

Best driver Otmar worked with is Seb at Aston Martin because of his relentless work ethic. He explains that during restarts, Seb would ask the engineers to measure which part of the track had the highest grip so that in the off chance he was in the lead, he would know to accelerate in that area giving him an advantage over the other drivers. He liked that Seb left no stone unturned and he admired that.

Driver Otmar would never like to work with again is Rubens Barichello (he chose him cuz he's old lol). He tells the story of Rubens complaining that the tyre was shifting on it's rim and underbraking. Otmar thought he was making it up because he didn't think he could feel that and that it was more likely that the grip would deteriorate before the seal for the tyre rim did but Rubens was adamant so they marked it. They checked at the end and it had moved a few degrees but he felt it.

Otmar would have loved to be a TP to either Max or Lando (he knows Lando's dad). He thinks Lando is too hard on himself and if he could be more positive, it would suit him well. He talks about injecting him with some American optimism.

Otmar talks about his other business, EventR. Its an interactive and collaborative itinerary and he created it while at Aston Martin to deal with logistics and changes in a more streamlined way.

TLDR; this entire podcast was a job interview of Otmar's effective leadership and why a team should hire him.

#f1 #otmar szafnauer #lawrence stroll #martin whitmarsh #oscar piastri #daniel ricciardo #max verstappen #lando norris #sebastian vettel #rubens barrichello #nico hulkenberg #logan sargeant #franco colapinto #renault #alpine f1 #aston martin f1 #racing point #high performance podcast #super long read

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