Christophe Perrin - Technical Director,Working With Fred Vasseur, 'Isack Hadjar Will Be in F1'| EP31

Introduction [Music] hey everyone welcome back to the track limits podcast presented by formula addict I am your host swish with my co-host fevin and Henny guys we look great I I if I do so if I do say so myself like I've had a few too many coffees no more for you I'm like yeah yeah but today we are in Paris uh the wonderful Paris not the best weather but it is still warm which is nice and we got in last night and we have a very very great guest for you a veteran in the Motorsport World an individual that has worked with drivers like Charles lir Isaac haar Sebastian vetal Kobayashi Etc keep it going I'm pretty sure and we're GNA go into his stories as an engineer as a technical individual within this sport please welcome Kristoff perin nice to meet you nice to meet you nice to have you we're happy to be with you today that's awesome how are you feeling how are you doing very good very good like you said it's quite cold today but I think still hotter than in your country so it's okay when he came in earlier he's like yeah you guys have 3 meters of snow right maybe not three but at least one and a half at least one and a half we look outside and we say no not today staying inside stay home exctly well this interview is a big thank you also to Isaac haar who introduced us and when we asked Isaac we're like which guest do you think would be the best for this show your name came up right away right away another step of pressure but we we're gonna go into a couple of questions and I think first thing we want to go is into q1 related entirely to your racing career okay so speak to us a little bit about some of the core accomplishments of your career what are some things that you've accomplished that you're super proud of so far in 20 years um what I'm super proud of is uh what I really like today in my in my job is to really take young driver Christophe's career and helping young drivers like Charles Leclerc and Isaac **Hadjar and to really grow them up at the top level of Motorsport of course and when I have some guys like Isaac for instance or like other driver like we I used to have to really feel that there is a potential in one kid and to really help him to develop and to uh and to succeed at the top level of Motorsport is really something that I like of course in terms of driving technical stuff but as well on the on the human being the the the person himself I really like this part and for instance what we did with Isaac two years ago I'm quite proud of it to be honest what I did with with Char because when I got charl in GP SW 2016 before he was in F3 Euros series he was in Formula One before in go-kart and at the end he never won a championship when we reach gp3 and he was the first championship that he has won so I was quite happy because because I also gave him I think a bit the confidence in himself in his talent and it's also a part of the job that I'm quite proud and quite happy to do with my drivers is to to really grow them up as a global person and not only just driving break later and and go quicker in high speeed corner it's just a complete vision of the driver Evolution that I like to so yeah I'm quite proud of this to be honest that's amazing and what does that day-to-day life look like for you both offseason and during the season offseason basically we are doing a lot of data analysis of all the previous year trying to extract some Trends in terms of many technical aspects that I will not now it would be boring for you but yeah basically it's to guide the race engineer in directions that we try to analyze and to do some kind of improvement in the tools as well for quicker analysis uh I'm also developing some software stuff to make some AI analysis quicker for race Engineers so it's a big part of the of the of the winter time because once the season is launched with the travel with everything it's quite difficult to come back on with deep analysis that you have maybe two months to do during the winter and it's a problem that we have now because now the season is finishing mid November in maau in Formula 3 and we restart I'm living tomorrow in Bahrain so we have only two months and a half maximum we also take Day-to-day life during off-season and in-season, focusing on data analysis maybe two weeks of holidays so so it's now the offseason is much shorter and what it was earlier in time where we used to start the season sometimes only in May in Formula 3 uh and we were finishing it sometimes in October in September so and so during that or during the season or during the offseason It Go short how do you maintain your Competitive Edge by it's by doing all this data analysis and by pushing the race engineer to always wonder what they can improve race engineer but as well all the mounting of the car we are making some um big meeting all together with the mechanics as well every part of the every member of the team is is key and it's not only the setup that you are going to put on the car is also how the car is built can we improve the Bodywork mounting can we improve many many stuff so it's time that we take during this winter time and we are we keep pushing every members of the team not only the the race engineer is also the the mechanics even the just the global structure of the team can always be improved and in order to improve efficiency and you mentioned the use of AI earlier is that a big part of kind of has it become more of a big part in the last couple of years or um and where do you think the future of Motorsport and AI I I think I think f one start to do some stuff with that and I think it's key for us in junior formula to also start to approach this these things basically we are building The evolution of junior formulas and their impact on driver development some tools to do some big data analytics with Statistics mathematics when when we are quick why when we are slow why trying to aggregate a lot of data and to extract some Trends so data scientists start to be as well quite important in even in junior formula so because I think junior formula now has much more professional than what it was 20 years ago when I started to be honest now the level in junor Formula is is really really impressive and that's why as well I think junior formula teams now are better to extract uh drivers and to to put them F1 and that's why I think globally the level of f driver nowadays is really really high as well even higher than what it was 20 years ago even if it's of course difficult to compare but and then with the junior Challenges and growth of Hitech GP under Oliver Oakes formula teams I mean high-tech it has to be one of the best up there right and they have so many you know great Racers but they're also involved in so many different racing categories yeah so how has that been you know being a part of that exp that was a big challenge in the last five years to be honest because basically High take today when Oaks took over the role like six or seven years ago um the high-tech of today is completely different to what it was because Hightech name is quite old but what how it is run today is only with Oliver HS as the as the lead it's only like six seven years so basically I joined them at the end of 2018 when we launched the F3 program and then each year we add a program basically so in 20120 we had the f2s and we had the British f3s and the British f4s and the F4 uaes and so so yeah but I have to say we are in in our structure that we have today we are younger than teams like AR Grand Prix or like Prema of course which I think are one of the two main reference in junor formula with klen as well y but um I hope we are we are getting there quite quick and we can even overtake them yeah and we actually had the ability to spend a few days at high-tech uh we have a a kid who's up Track Limits recent visit to Hitech GP’s facilities and their expansion plans and cominging in GB3 will Ma Tire oh yeah um so we had the ability to see the car reveal and do a tour of Hightech which when was it this was like last week last weekend yeah yeah and it was fantastic I mean you guys have the the factory is on point yeah the factory is new from one year and a half to be honest and it's really basically we build it in order to have a to have the capacity to keep growing the company and with a longer term view that's why it's quite huge to be honest oh yeah and it's spotless there's not a dust could be found yeah yeah f is quite isn't there two F1 simulators there too right Hy yeah there's an the big F1 simulator that you guys have that is like they have like eight projectors or something it's crazy it's yeah we made a big investment with this tool because we are thinking is also one of the most important tool to invest for the long-term future yeah and we basically we have two simulator and this one that you saw we just have it since one year oh wow okay quite new yeah and in terms of even just the drivers that you work with what has been the hardest challenge that you have faced with having Young Drivers and whether it's IM maturity or just not understanding that they're quick enough but they have to learn to be patient it's a good question what is the hardest [Music] thing it's sometimes when you have Performance coaching in motorsport drivers that they think are super talented whereas they are not so so how do you break that news I've been lucky enough to to work with super talented drivers but team have driv are and you have some driver which are less good but they know they are not so good and their expectations are not that high but the problem is coming when the expectation is there where the talent is there and this start to be a problem and this is when the difficult situations start to happen to be honest yeah and even more when the parents of this kind of driver are quite close and if they think like their son yeah then it start to be really a mess yeah well kind of piggybacking off of that I mean you've worked with some of the most talented uh drivers Charlie Clair George Russell uh Sebastian ble um what do you think is the key characteristic or trait that you see in some of these uh young young drivers much like maybe you saw in the other the ones that you just mentioned I would say the most successful one in the long-term Vision are the one which are always wondering what they can improve always what they can improve on their themselves but always what the team can improve and they become like proper leader like pushing each other and being able to Federate people behind them uh for me the characteristic of all the guys that you just mentioned they were all quite critic against themsel against their team members but always in a in um in a good way to say we we are not good enough in that that that this is my fault this is my fault let's move on we are all together and uh the honesty as well the honesty is uh very important I think uh if they want to succeed at the top level and Federate people behind them yeah at least the cap I think the capacity of Federation of people uh for the driver is one of the key the higher they go in level the most important this quality is I think yeah especially in F1 when you have to work with 1,000 people behind you it's even more yeah for sure and you worked with Charles like you said at a very young age you know the fact that you were part of you know his first big Championship is is incredible Working with Charles Leclerc at a young age & working with Lewis next year um Charles is obviously one of our favorite drivers and a lot of people's favorite drivers he's so talented a lot of people put him up there right especially on a Saturday in qualifying people are like he is normally faster in than Max yeah um do you feel like he's been unlucky do you feel like that you know no World Championship so far has been an indication of skill or or luck um I think luck on luck Never Comes by random I think he's one of the fastest driver I have ever seen on one lap Pace if not the fastest to be honest I made a poll in in Red Bull Ring with him 510 on P2 and between P2 and last there was also five TS wow yeah so so basically I think on one lap Bas is maybe maybe even quicker than Max it's difficult to know obviously but um so I don't believe in like I also think that there is um uh a lot of circumstances around him and but I don't think it's only bad luck uh um I still think for instance he was making too much mistakes in races especially uh so the pace on one lap was huge but when the car was a bit behind he was over pushing it sometime and making some mistakes and this is something where he know it he has to he has to improve on and to go so contrary to a guy like um for instance Alonzo um maybe he's less quick than charl on a one lap Pace I'm I think so but in terms of being able to extract the maximum of his car and the materials that he has whether is P1 is P5 P10 p15 he will he will extract the maximum always of his material so this is one way where I think sh still can can improve yeah and with him uh now next year leis Hamilton is joining Ferrari what do you think that D Dynamic is going to look like in that garage for me I think I I have I have been lucky to work with Fred verer for 15 years because I was in when he was there so and I think Fred made a massive move yeah and I really think it will create emulation between charl and leis would be very interesting to see on the one lap pce who would be the quickest today I cannot tell you which which one would will be the other one like I cannot really say really it will be the most exciting stuff that I for next year um but I really think it will help for charl to to to rise his game because I think it's quite easy for driver when if your teammates are a bit weaker you are pushing less yourself and this is where Max is really impressive to be honest because the last five years his teammates were not at his level but he still managed to push himself hard and to be at the top level and this is one of the quality of Max that definitely I think char or also still need to to make a l step on that yeah that's great and last question for q1 uh there's a lot of Rumblings right now in the junior categories about a kid going Kimi Antonelli moving up the Formula ladder & seat at Mercedes into F2 Kimmy Antonelli um I don't know if you have your opinion about him do you think that one day he could take that Mercedes seat it's to be honest with you it's quite difficult for me to really speak about him because uh I followed him in go-kart because I was helping a kid at this moment in go-kart and he was already quite impressive um I know that that in junior formula in F4 and in formula last year he made a really impressive job as a rookie basically I think in F4 he won three championship in in his first year in theer it seems to be a a pure talent to be honest his test in F2 last year in Abu D were quite impressive he was very close to Beerman at the end of the first day already so um so definitely is a pure talent but he's only 18 and we don't know how the kid will develop and how for sure he has a structure around him with Mercedes with Toto Gwen being there around him he's in premar which we all know is one of the best team so he has all the environment around him to to be able to be successful now he has to deliver and now he's in a position where he has never been before because now he has the pressure and to be able to deliver when you have the pressure is different as well than when nobody expect you to succeed yeah so it's another part of the of the challenge that he will need to to learn and we will see if uh the kid is is is really a special one or not or he chokes which is not it's just very common right in the when when the pressure is high and then the rookies come in yeah you have some you have some drivers who are really performing Under Pressure yeah they need this adrenaline of the qual to be able to perform for instance in Winter test you never see them and when comes the the first qual they are there and you have some driver which are completely the opposite so I think kimy already show that he was able to deliver when pressure was going higher because his uh last season in Formula Renault he didn't start so well to be honest and at the end of two or three runs he was maybe 30 points in the championship from from the a driver so Sten and and trit so I think uh we will see but I I think it can be uh it could be definitely a Contender for his first year we already saw in the past anyway sorry you were asking a question around how many oh yeah just around F3 yeah with the the F3 schedule how many races are going to coincide with F1 and F2 no bar you open Yeah so basically we have 10 Race weekend at the same time than F1 we have after the World Cup in maau in Hong Kong which is a bit special for Formula 3 which we won last year with Luke bring the williiam driver and uh F2 has 14 r weekend at the same time than F1 basically we are doing the European in addition to bahin and the EU rounds we are doing European rounds for cost reason yeah that is a wrap for q1 verdict people purple purple you got a purple sctor is true I hate when when I'm my live is not Pur good to know Kristoff is through to Q2 stay tuned for that coming up hey guys quick break but for this one we need to get in character hey that's much better it's more like it yeah and we can promote one of our favorite sponsors surf shark and let me start by saying I love surf shark for all the research in this podcast every time I go on a new web page I get a cookie popup it's so frustrating type of cookie I don't get that nope another feature that I love and we've like basically just used two days ago when booking our flights to Portugal you could use surf shark go on turn it on first and set the location that you want to be in and from there there's no price discrimination based on where you are so you actually get the best and most fair pricing for your flights um and and just travel alog together oh speaking of travel whenever we're traveling and we want to watch some of the shows that we're streaming from home we could turn on S shark stream like you're at home it is honestly one of the best useful tools that we have when we're traveling is and we have a great deal and so can all our listen out there get the same deal so you can get 84% off your yearly subscription and get four months on top of that so follow the link in the description below and get the same deal we're getting yeah the link right here yeah and in the description box perfect thanks Sur shark welcome back to the track limits podcast Kristoff had a purple in q1 and now it's through to Q2 Kristoff your feeling so far feel good again some pressure but uh stting quite well so I will try to finish it the same way maybe Paul I don't know of course I hope so let's take you back I'm curious as a kid um where you grew up was Motorsport a big part of your family how did you get into to falling in love with the sport Christophe getting into motorsport & karting you would be disappointed with my answer because not at all now I'm even more Curious no no no my parents were not interesting at all in Motorsports this comes when my uncle put me on a go-kart when I was 11 12 uh and it was like a virus suddenly arrived and uh since that day I wanted to be driver to be honest initially like a lot of uh but my parents they didn't have the money they didn't have the will to bring me on Gokarts each race weekend so they say no no way you do driver so it was working not too bad at school so basically I I went for engineering to and I still oh sorry I still try to um to drive for on my side on my side when I have some time of season I quite like to do go cart or ring or this kind of stuff but and obviously I made all the operations organized by the French Federation to detect Talent each time I arrived in final but I never won so at the end I was also missing tent I have to say I mean we uh not me I'm not really good on the go-kart but PR not in converis unfortunately I just know where my skill set is and it's it's not that but we did a season where we did go carting um as well in Goodwood in Canada yeah and it was pretty fun to watch um Michael's not here but I would say he whooped everyone unbelievable her husband is just on a different she's her his engineer yeah I'm his engineer performance performance coach he's winning I mean we need to find our Engineers I know right yeah he's not allowed home unless he's winning you want a new job yeah I don't think he's old I think he's a little too old now to be a race car we should tell he still doesn't he still has that belief that he can like get into a car and kill like literally I think he's talented that's the thing he did a a a Time race uh I forget just um somewhere where we live it's nothing crazy and he had no practice his friend just asked him to fill in for him and um within I think it was um aund and so entance people that entered and he came 17th ah not bad it was just for him he was like I've never driven this car just got in it was an actual proper car so he was pretty proud of that that's crazy I think that was a Mazda Car Mazda cup or something like that something like that not but any but yeah taking you back um you also had a role within Renault Sports can you tell us about a little bit more about that what your role involved and how it even helped you you Christophe's involvement with Renault Sport and the World Series by Renault you went quite far yeah I did we did a lot of research here because I Stay yeah basically I stayed one year in ronos sport where I was in charge of all the being the link between the teams and the technical supplier of the single sit that Rono was looking after yeah so it was a World Series by Rono 3.5 the formula R 2 lit and as well the it was the year of the launch of the World Series by Runo you remember the World Series by R there was Megan trophy as well and Cleo c yeah so I was in charge of making all the link between um teams and the supplier of the cars and to improve the reliability improve the the userness of the car and to make teams happier to use the yeah the Runner Sport projects basically yeah and I guess kind of continuing to talk about your career like you from AR Grand Prix to Hightech like how has your management style um and just like overall like how you've evolved um as as a leader the management Moving from Art Grand Prix to Hitech style when I started in Grand Prix I was not managing anything because it was my first job after after Renos sport so little by little I become responsible for instance of the aerodynamic development in because it was in the time in the Formula 3 where AO development was completely open like it is in F1 now of course you have a technical regulation but you could do a lot and uh so I think my management style went from being quite academic in terms of aerodynamics and to now having more global view of the world structure the world in in Hightech I think my added value is not only on technical side is as as well on all the process to improve the global structure efficiency I would say so I mean I guess you touched on the aerodynamics uh aspect like how has that um like or they how has that significantly changed throughout your time um by like I said before it was quite open in Formula 3 and now for cost reason basically in my last year in Formula 3 we spent something like three weeks in Wind tunel we were doing some cfd we were doing so we had quite some expense here for Formula 3 team so it was really really uh interesting in terms of pure engineering but to be honest at some point it was just stupid for this amount of money to be spent to be at the front and we have to remind that we have in junior formula where the budget needs to be controlled so basically the FIA tried to reduce all what was possible to achieve in aerodynamics so aerodynamicist were a bit sad of course uh but uh but it was good time and all what we learn here I can still use it in my uh in my F3 or in my F2 today because it's still adding value for the race engineer today exactly and we know that drivers are The competitive nature of race engineers and team dynamics obviously competitive with each other are Engineers competitive with each other the good ones yes yeah yeah of course of course uh the race Engineers are competitive but I want to have in my team Race engineer who are competitive but they still have the group uh performance efficiency as a main goal so I don't want to have selfish engineer and this is the limit where you need to have comp competition spirits but not selfish person and this is where sometimes it's difficult to find the limit and this is as as a manager now it's to to higher the right profiles is something quite important for the spirit in the team and for the performance globally and are there people like let's even look at F1 are they people in F1 that you you know you Leadership examples in motorsport, like Fred Vasseur look at them and you're like they're great at their job as a manager or even as an engineer I have to say as a manager because I know bit Fred from art I know what he was doing in art and I can I think we can already see what he's starting to to achieve in Ferrari in one year and a half in less than one year and a half I think he is already doing really good job I I have some friend of mine being an engineer but uh I think Fred is one of the example coming from junior formula who is I think really impressive I think the work he made already in sober was quite impressive but it was not so easy to see it because it was more far on the grid yeah but at the end I think his last year in sober I think sober finished P6 if I'm right I think it was the best classification of sober since 10 or 15 years so I'm I'm quite uh impressed by his capacity of leadership and how to create winning environment and I mean talking about F1 itself regulations are coming 2026 Thoughts on the upcoming 2026 F1 regulations and their impact that's a big overhaul a lot of Team principles even engineers said Hey this not the way you should go is that your the same opinion you have with a new regulation yeah it's it's quite difficult to be honest it's quite an open topic uh obviously with the world evolving with more green more of course F1 needs to do something something because it's for the for the image it's giving to the external world so people who are saying that it's not good they can go in Formula E if they want so um I still think the F1 needs to be at the top of the technical aspect of the show of course but it's it's still if you want to have manufacturers involved in F1 they need to be able to sell something to their own customer so they need to uh to show the added value of and for F1 involvement yeah so I understand personally the decision that they are making it's thanks to this change of regulations and that OD is coming yeah and that's why kadak may come as well so I think it's it's good I think for the long-term vision of the sport yeah that's true and then on kind of final question on my end would be what advice do you have for people watching that want to get into Race Advice for aspiring race engineers Engineering work harder than your neighbor uh don't uh I hope you will not need too much hour to sleep and and to recover as well uh and no really because when you have patient and if you have if you are hard worker basically you will succeed maybe it would take longer time if you have no connection nothing but to be honest I'm a good example I didn't have any connection at all where I started not at all so it's uh if if you have patient and you're hard worker it will come at some point uh obviously so uh yeah and for the Just For The Race Engineering side um I would say put your ass in a go-kart because uh I saw quite often some race engineer trying to give advice to drivers but they are not so good in terms of driving themselves so sometimes their advice are yeah yeah let's be honest just makes no sense yes and sometimes the drivers they can see very quickly and after he lost confidence in his race engineer exactly so this is the worst thing when the driver is losing confidence in his race engineer because the confidence is two or three times up yeah that's very true the last question I have is we've talked a lot about your career and racing who is Kristoff outside of that a nice Christophe's personal life and hobbies outside of motorsport guy worry uh no I quite um like simple things to be honest barbecue with my friends I I used to follow a lot of sports because I have quite the competition Spirit like I say so I'm quite interesting a lot of P sport uh I like to to go with my sons as well to do some go-karts or to enjoy just time and playing tennis as well um I like to to to go in the in the mon as well during the summer break to just have a um a break but with nobody no crowd just being not alone but being in a place where it's a cal and this this is yeah just simple thing of life to be honest and do your kids want to um I guess go into racing or cing or uh my older son is quite keen on go cart racing but he doesn't have the talent to be driver watch this watch I'm sure you're very Frank with it I'm sure you tell the truth no he he he he knows it but to be honest it doesn't prevent us from having very good time and now he's improving quite a lot to be honest but uh so I'm quite happy for him but now we are having very good time to together but it's just for pleasure and and and that's it there you go that's what matters yeah exactly to just to to to share some good time with your son I really like it like that but love that heny your verdict green oh no no I don't think so should be purple no I think I think this is purple let's do it by two1 on P2 two purple we're going to see if Kristoff can get another purple to get P by he might be Charles declair we don't know faster maybe Q3 rapid fire round coming up soon welcome back to the final segment of the track limits podcast we are here with Kristoff that now has two purples Q3 Rapid Fire Round and is going to aim for one final purple what by two10 you said by two10 it has to be by my target is 510 perfect here we go rapid fire round answer these questions rapid full of fire first question most embarrassing moment you've ever had at a race weekend it doesn't have to be race weekend racing related maybe it can be a a test a test session yeah okay so it was in 2006 we were going in nogaro with Kam Kobayashi and he wanted to buy some wine with because he had he had some friend of him coming after the test session so we stopped in a farm while going to noal by car and and um and is saw the the farmer was making us a a tour basically and then far he just saw a goat and I saw can we doing like that and really surprised by this uh Goat coming and the Goat arrived close to us and just jumped on the wall oh my God and CI was Kristoff what is this strange dog and and it was quite embarrassing for me what is a strange dog oh my God and basically you never saw goat before yeah what yeah and it was so funny and I said mate are you joking or what he said no and it was so frightened and Afraid by this by this strange animal looks like a dog so it was so funny so it's yeah when you ask for an embarrassing moment hilarious but keep it for you I don't know but I want to good we're not going to Shared this at all right yeah next question if you can have one food for the rest of your life what would it be one food uh for sure not Burger because in England when I used to go here we just eat burger so not uh I really like it's quite strange but V liver okay liver yes ni my fav like is it cook is it cooked a certain way wi bloody okay like just like I W wi like it wow we got I've never had that try that any another guilty pleasure do you have any TV shows that to be honest not not so much I'm sorry for that I don't look at so much the TV um except for normal news or something like that but the TV show um no not so much I was following it's it's more a theory with a young Sporter in tennis which was displayed like last year but not properly a TV show no one one which quite uh which is quite funny is when you have like it's a bit stupid but when you have the husband of the wife trying to um in front of another couple and trying to um toh to show that they know very well each other with some stupid question I don't know if you have that in in the newly married or like newly like a where where yeah they test each other to see if they know each other God what is his favorite color and she said blue and whereas it was red so yeah we should do a TL track limits how well do we know each other I me he's my brother so if he it's my favorite color no idea purple yeah oh okay purple which is why I gave you purple next question you talked about goats let's talk about the greatest of all time but for driving greatest driver of all time I have to say uh I think leis for me is a goat because I think he's the most complete driver we have a ever seen and the fact that he's keeping this level so long is so impressive of course Alonzo is impressive but I think in terms of results and capacity to Federate people behind him I think leis is so so impressive for me it's I I think about it a long time but I for me it's leis yeah I why we the sweater and when you see an driver so exceptional like Max but Max is already saying that he he will not stay so long in the sport and this is where I think leis for me is really the good because to achieve what he's doing actually at not 40 I think he will be 39 this year or9 so it's it's so impressive yeah that's true on the funner side though if you can have one superpower what would it be uh two ones uh the first one would be to be able to translate myself wherever I want in the world in half a second like translation yeah teleportation teleport yeah yeah teleportation because it would save me so much time in traveling that one comes up quite a lot in the racing yeah yeah okay and the second one should be to uh being able to recover some driver who died when they were too too young to be honest I I have a deep thing to to J and to Anne because they were I I knew them very well to be honest and they were really really nice kids so yeah I would really like them to be there yeah I like that one that's new we've never had that one no no no so it's a good superpower I want that for you too if you had to choose another sport to be a professional in uh what would it be tennis yeah I would say I really like this sport because the mental game is so important as well such as uh like in Motorsport I think jovic is the leis of the tennis to be honest agreed and uh he's so strong he's so uh so complete yeah and he's a goat I think as well in tennis today I just watch the statistic he won more than 80% of his match in every type of Court like hard hard grass and and he's the only player to have ever been able to do that that's a goat definitely what piece of Motorsport memorabilia do you want to own or are you really happy that you own it I don't own so much no h i no sh gave me his met Isaac as well Val as well Bas I was his RAC engineer for three years so it's I'm very proud of of this to be honest maybe uh Aon ones I would of course a lot of people would like to but eron was quite impressive and Michael as well which was my idol for 20 years basically before it was Louis yeah uh most unpopular opinion you have unpopular opinion be about everything and anything I in motorport or in anything or it could be any in Motorsport I would say that um he he was thought to be not a good driver but I know because I race engineer him that is much better than what every people is thinking is nikin uh we achieved P2 in the gp3 standings and uh he delivered some very good things in gp3 in F2 he finish P5 in the second season and uh achieving really good overtaking move I remember him in Silverstone on Yuki or other driver and people think he not that good but I think Nikita is performance is really related to um his environment and if he trust his environment if he trust his environment you can really extract a lot from the kid and I think the kid is much better than what uh his very small carer can show for him great answer yeah best prediction for the F1 2024 season or bold prediction 2024 but of course Max will be the natural title Contender I would say I would hope charl will rise this game as well um I expect leis and and George to be there because George is also one driver I was lucky to to engineer and and he's one of the top top guy I think and I expect to see the match between piastri and Norris to because for me PS3 is one of the most successful in junior formula was one of the biggest talents that I have ever seen I never work with him to be honest but uh I think his career in Jor formula is is huge what he achieved to be able to be champion in Formula 10 F3 F2 3 years in AOW basically uh nobody did it before so um I I'm really looking forward to seeing which one will take the leadership in mline yeah but I think they will be there as well they think Lando I think it will be a match of four five drivers I hope I hope at least but much closer yeah and the question mark with Fernando as well depending on the ason if it was more like initial season launch performance or he will strugle more if it's like at the end but yeah when it's all said and done who do you think will have more championships Oscar piastri or Charles declair oh very good it was not written like that in your question in your question it was between Char you mentioned osar I was like oh that's a good answer uh very difficult question I because they both succeed in F3 F2 level and two years in a row as a rookie in F2 basically they make quite difference charlot achieved the first seven pole of the year if I'm right and Oscar achieved the last six poll of the year so I but I I I it's difficult to for me they are the one of the I think with L they are the two most talented kid I have ever seen in J formula so so I I had an answer withan charl but with this one I know better charl so I I can say he has all the quality so maybe I would say Char but t yeah how about Lando versus uh Oscar who do you think will win uh a Grand Prix first butar already won yeah it is it was a spr yeah soin I I should C re reframe that question who will win like a full Grand Prix not Sprint bre why it's it's tough one because in the end lond didn't stay so long in junior formula um so it's I it's difficult to make an opion on him yeah because he R in F1 when he was so young and now we can see he really grw up a lot but I in I would bet on Oscar I would too yeah if I have yeah yeah that's a good one if you were stuck in an elevator with battle what's the first thing you would do in uh in a boat or in a what in a elevator in elevator I mean if it was a boat would you in an elevator in a boat in a big boat a ship yach that's B with v I will remind him I will speak with him in French because in one year in ASM because the name of atic Grand Prix before was ASM and he was with us in 2006 and I will uh speak with him in French and REM remind him when he was coming back from this first F1 race in uh I think it was in USA he came back in F3 and he spent his world first free practice in zart saying to his engineer my brakes are not working my brakes are not working was so we Mak him stop at some point and we compare the data with Paul Jer who was there there was Kobayashi as well and his break were perfectly working but because he was coming from F1 with a carbon break with a lot of done Force he he had the feeling that The Brak were not working so I would I would remind him this this little story I think because I know he make his race engineer really crazy during the world fre practice and I think he stopped twice three times I have a problem on my brakes mate you don't have any problem it's just Formula 3 it's not F1 anymore oh my god um so now another uh stranded or you're trapped on an island or stranded on an island um which of the F which three of the F1 drivers would you bring oh of the F1 driver yeah it could be current or previous F1 absolutely F1 so um difficult question for the partying I would I would come I would ask valter and Nikita yeah for the for the spirit competition I would he's not in f one yet but I hope he will Isaac because we were doing some F1 culture quiz together like a little battle together yeah and I have to say he's one of the driver who beat me he's really impressive for that Isaac he has a culture so wide even sometimes I was asking him some question of before he was born and he knew the answers and I was sure I would destroy him when I was asking him some stuff in 95 and this kind of stuff and and he knew each time the answers wow so he has so for the fun and for the quiz I would I would uh I would like him and for the third one yeah again I would like J and anine to if possible to be there because they were J is I fight I Was a Race engineer of valter rotas when he was with us so I fight with him basically on on track yeah but he was such a nice kid and basically his talent his palar is not at the level of his talent because is same yeah he was so quick on one lap as well he made a poll on D on Valas by 410 on D where you have six Corner basically four five t a bit like Charlene red bu ring where he was so impressive final question which of these titles best resonates with you if somebody was writing an autobiography on your life the hardest worker the free spirit the dream catcher or the Daredevil I would say the dream catcher because it was my dream to to be in Motorsport when I was when I first did my go-kart run with my uncle like two months after I knew it's what I want to be in and what I want to do but at this moment it was just a dream so I could say to to my sons or to my fam that I manag to catch my dream let say that's amazing would do that and I think you might have caught a purple here you did I mean that story of the sheep dog the sheep dog strange dog strange this it was the that I remember and I used to to tell to my friends this story and each new year when we go from 31 to first when comes the midnight they all ask me to to tell again this story every new year because when when they have drink a bit and everything aniversary so it's kind of story which are quite famous now in my environment love thank you so much Kristoff for coming on where can people follow you if they want to stay along for your journey excuse me on social media are you on social media can people follow you anywhere not so much I'm not so much on social media I have to say yeah no not so much brilliant well don't worries we'll put you know what we'll put the high-tech socials go follow Hightech an incredible season coming up hopefully for Kristoff and Hightech thank you again for coming out was a pleasure thank you very much to all you was very nice first experience for me like that but enjoy it anymore s you didn't say your joke oh joke I mean fair enough I might as well end the episode here with a joke feel free to copy this down if you're watching or we might cut if it doesn't you're going to do the punch line though I don't know about that what do you call Kristoff a spider with 10 eyes spider with 10 eyes good question um a superwoman by it's so dumb we are so cutting that like share subscribe we'll see you guys in the next episode thank you [Music]