Rob Smedley: Motor Sport podcast - working for Eddie Jordan, the Ferrari years, and a "baby" Alonso
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- Опубліковано 30 гру 2019
- Charged with getting the best out of Felipe Massa as his race engineer, Rob Smedley helped the Brazilian to get within a whisker of the F1 world championship.
He was also the head of vehicle performance at Williams and is now working for Formula 1’s promoters, looking to make the technical side of the sport more accessible to fans.
In the final Motor Sport podcast of 2019, he talks through his career: discovering a “baby” Fernando Alonso testing in F3000; his years at Ferrari; plus his thoughts on Williams’ current predicament.
We also ask what happened after he made the famous “Fernando is faster than you” radio call. - Авто та транспорт
Really don’t understand some of the oddly negative comments about Rob Smedley on here. This man has a great ability as an engineer, you don’t last in F1 otherwise. Who are these morons to criticise his achievements? On top of that, he explains things extremely well and paints a fascinating picture. A great interview.
His socks are dreadful
Brilliant interview. I think Rob Smedley is a great guy and always interesting to listen to. His analysis of Alonso and Schumacher and insight to Ferrari etc. Some brilliant podcasts in 2019 thank you Motorsport team. More of the same hopefully in 2020
I agree, that's one Boro lad who done good.
One of the nicest blokes in the F1 circus. Always enjoyed his contributions to the media and telecasts. Hopefully he will return in some capacity in the near future and provide us fans with more useful information.
Love Rob and his honesty, biggest respect to all the engineers who are not in the public arena like the drivers but make a bigger contribution to the race weekend!
I love this series, so great and far more interesting to hear from the engineers rather than drivers.
Great to see this interview very interesting look forward to more in 2020.
Rob is an awesome guest! He is a great man, great engineer and just wonderful to listen too. I learn alot about F1 and appreciate it more.
Wicked podcast. I love Smedley
Love Eddie Jordan or Hate him but in the 43 years since Frank formed the current Williams team only one team has joined F1 with nothing and went on to win multiple races and fight for a title and that team was Jordan.
brawngp?
@@TheTororist Brawn was a name change on an existing and very well funded works team though, not a true privateer.
@@boing615 didn't he buy them out for like a pound or 2 and take on massive debt?
@@TheTororist He did but the 09 car was designed by Honda with a full works budget and resources then the name was changed with the ownership change and they won the title. That's not comparable to a privateeer like Frank or Eddie who join F1 with a handfull of guys and a dream.
wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.
Fantastic interview.
Great podcast. Smedley is a character
Stewart Noel He is a simpleton by F1 standards who is only remembered because he is camera-happy.
@@davidmacdonald1695 youre a simpleton by everyday standards
Rob speaks of "the fan base" but I can't see a happy ending for F1 moving forward. The series as a whole made a mistake in 2013 when it jumped big time for the huge car manufacturer money, but in doing so the series has lost a lot of it's traditional fan base. There are now just 20 seats available in F1... the series has effectively priced itself out of relevance. The traditional spirit of F1 was innovation and invention. That's what built the traditional fan base. These current hybrid powertrains have strangled the category.
we do wish those extra six seats were in danger of being occupied
The only way that the small teams could have stayed in F1, and been at all competitive is if a budget cap was brought in a long time ago. F1 has always advertised itself as having the fastest and most advanced cars, but once technology, computers, exotic materials and multi million dollar simulators etc became basically required in order to even qualify for a race, it priced everyone other than Williams and Jordan out unless there was a billion dollar company backing the team. Jordan sold out years ago because he was smart, and Williams was basically broke 2 years ago. A budget cap small enough to get privateers back involved turn F1 into a 90% spec series which isnt what anyone wants. I miss the days of the cars looking vastly different other than the paint. The days of V8's, V10's, and V12's on the track together. I want them to go back to normal engines, no driver aides, just basic open wheel cars. Give them tires and engine size limits based on cylinder count. Thats it.
Seems like a really nice guy, great interview!
Great interview. I think you would do well if you could figure out how to demonstrate the involvement of engineers with drivers. Specifically how the engineers can help the drivers. It would be nice to see some of the details of how it is a team effort.
Hi D Peterson - I think you'll enjoy one of our podcast series this year!
really good insight how he works
Excellent guy !
The reason Rob became to an over night name was because there are no personalities in F1 . People want more from F1 not just cars driving around a track. We want interesting people sharing knowledge, and making people feel and live F1 . It still seems like a spirt we are only looking through a looking glass and no one really understands. I do hope people like Rob help give it the human touch , very interesting interview
I've Worked with Mike Pilbeam at Pilbeam Racing Designs :)
What was the incident with Fernando in 2010 that they were talking about around the 55 minute mark?
Felipe Fernando is faster than you
Love this guy!
Without him, Massa would not have been as successful as he has been.
Massa was a catastrophe before him.
Make F1 sport again.
I enjoy these videos but (for me) it is often difficult to understand what Simon is saying.
He is one of the greatest in F1 and too bad he didn't create a twitter profile yet. :D
the only one thing i like about him is he aint got a twitter profile
"Fernando is faster than you"
words to live by
Massa came back strong afrom the accident, after 3 races he led the 2010 championship!
Smedus 😎👍
58:06 😭
He should race engineer for Albon i think. Albon needs him.
indeed. back in the day, f1 was on the bbc, you had Murray walker and everyone watched. now its all pay per view big money tickets. with so many other activities getting worldwide attention, f1 is loosing its interest.
"Fernando is faster than you."
47:30 Princess Yacht
For goodness sake, give that guy in the middle a different microphone. On every one of these podcasts his voice just booms, and it's very distracting.
It took me 1 hour and 7 minutes to notice the eyerapey combination of jeans + screaming socks + trainers.
I almost immediately was wondering why a guy whom I assume has a pretty substantial bank account is wearing a old pair of worn out Saucony shoes that maybe cost $40.00, especially when he is going to do a taped interview haha.
Alonso's stock rose when he "beat" Kimi. But people forget, Kimi hated the Pirelli tyres post GP 2013 in addition to the handling of that F14T, it had massive amounts of understeer, which is totally opposite to Kimi's driving style and suited Alonso. www.skysports.com/f1/news/24187/9435762/james-allison-doubts-kimi-raikkonens-handling-problem-can-be-solve Without that 2014 season, I think we speak about Alonso differently. The handling issues are corroborated by Kimi and all the engineers at Ferrari too. Alonso was beaten by Trulli in their races together in 2004, Hamilton and Button. He is very beatable. Massa was just trash. Sorry.
Is that the official excuse for Kimmi after he was raped by Alonso in 2014? That he hated the car? Oh come on, you could have come up with something more elaborated really .. Alonso beat the hell out of Trulli in both 03 and 04 seasons and finished ahead of Hamilton in 10 of the 17 races during the 07 season even though they tied in points, but Alonso won their particular head to head in both qualifying and race days. Also Alonso outscored Button during the two year period they were teammates, specially in their second season together when Alonso almost tripled Button´s points pretty much raping him the same way he did with Raikkonen back in 2014. That driver you call trash handed Raikkonen the championship in 07 in Brazil by letting himself get passed, cause there was no way the Finn could overtake him, Massa was kicking his ass and it was only because of team orders than Raikkonen won his only and undeserved championship, because of that and because Hamilton and Alonso took points from each other during that season. Raikkonen was the luckiest in 07. Get your facts straight you novice.
@@richierich3052 No you get your facts right! It's a fact, anyone can confirm by looking at Kimi's onboards and comments. Also, Trulli BEAT Alonso in 2004. 46 to 45 points, Jarno LEFT RENAULT AFTER MONZA TO GO TO SLOW TOYOTA. Before that he had won a race in 2004, outqualified and outpointed Alonso (who won 0 races in 2004). Are you dumb or just a raging fanboy? You can't use 2014-2018 as a template for Kimi either. Please read all below and click the links too. It's worth it I know my stuff. Kimi Raikkonen in his prime was better than Alonso the fastest driver I have seen since Gilles and Ayrton. Let's get down to the meat and potatoes here. www.formula1.com/en/latest/features/2014/5/With-Ayrton-in-mind---the-F1-paddock-on-Senna.html
Read Brundle's last paragraph first. "Kimi has speed, but not Senna's application". What does this mean and why even mention Kimi out of the blue like that?? First of all Kimi Raikkonen is a driver who has a much narrower performance window than someone like Fernando Alonso. Kimi's ultimate speed is quicker than Alonso, but not as adaptive. That doesn't change the fact than on MICHELIN TYRES (remember this point), Kimi was totally unstoppable and the fastest driver in the world.
His manipulation of the front end of the car from a driving perspective allowed him to preserve his rear tyres and carry far more corner speed than any other driver I have ever seen. He is the undisputed master of the "Traction Ellipse" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_forces
Kimi needs his front tyres to be up to temperature and to have minimal understeer in the car to allow this highly specific driving style to work. When Michelin left F1, the tyre war ended and the Bridgestone Control tyre was introduced in 2007 (his first year at Ferrari). Also, in-season testing was restricted during this period, making it much harder to change the setup through a season. These Bridgestone control tyres had massive understeer over one lap and early stint in a race. This is PRECISELY why Kimi was so bad at quali after Michelin left - he could never get the fronts warmed up over one lap and suffered from terminal understeer.
Let's go back to 2008, in the races he was peerless in terms of race pace most of the time. In 2008, one of his worst seasons, he still set a RECORD FOR MOST FASTEST LAPS IN A SEASON (10). That is insane. ua-cam.com/video/XIucDSQU5WA/v-deo.html Schumacher admitting Ferrari screwed Kimi with the 2008 car development which along with the tyres hurt Kimi massively.Much quicker race pace than Alonso or Massa at Ferrari. This was because the balance of the Bridgestone tyres shifted midway through a race, and as they became more worn with lighter fuel the handling shifted away from understeer. Again. Narrow performance window, but when you hit it, Kimi is unstoppable.
When Kimi returned to F1, Pirelli had a soft tyre but after the tyre changes at Silverstone 2013, Pirelli imposed a MUCH HARDER tyre with tyre pressure and camber limits which severly destroyed Raikkonen's driving style. THESE TYRES ARE STILL USED WITH THE SAME LIMITS TODAY. Before that tyre change mid 2013, Kimi was second in the WDC. Here is an article that goes in depth about how the modern, post 2013 Pirelli tyres stupidly favor drivers who are super aggressive on tyres:www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/f1/kimis-struggles
Suddenly, Kimi was having handling problems again, and until today the Pirelli tyres have remained the same. 2014 was the combination of ridiculously hard tyres, with a pull-rod front suspension (that purposely induces understeer, clearly suited for Alonso's driving style which requires minimal front end - used only on 2001 Minardi before that), and a rookie engineer Spagnolo who was fired.
Let me repeat: Kimi hates turn-in understeer more than anything. It's by far, his biggest weakness/hindrance. As a driver myself, I find Kimi to be the most beautiful driver to watch when he likes the setup of the car. He can cope with oversteer, but he isn't a Keke or Gilles, he is much subtler than those guys were. He doesn't want to let the car hang its tail out and get loose, but he can handle it if it does. In fact he can out-perform his car. I think he did that in 2003 when he nearly won the championship in a car that was getting on for two years old (McLaren MP4-17D). Just a legendary season by him.
Often, when a seriously gifted driver, monsters a less-than-brilliant-car into a flattering grid position-as Kimi did in 2003-he tends to fade come race day-yet Kimi never did. I reckon that is the sign of a truly all time great driver. Like MSC, Kimi is able to hustle a car forward without losing forward speed or making mistakes. In fact he is one of those drivers that seem to make more mistake when their cars aren't quite there. Watching hundreds of onboards, it's clear to see, Kimi HATES turn-in understeer more than anything else, something all F1 cars have done since 2014 massively.
Whereas most drivers dislike that twitchy tail-endy feeling when they're trying to wipe off 120 mph in 100 metres along with five downshifts and then get the car neatly turned in, all Kimi wants to do is GET IT TO THE APEX. For Kimi, any understeer - any push - is a hindrance to that.All the cars have done since mid 2013 Silverstone tyre change and 2014 is UNDERSTEER. Especially at Ferrari. He would much prefer to rely on his ability to catch and re-catch his car's errant rear end, using tiny applications of steering, throttle,brakes balanced against one another and thereby make a beeline for the apex.
Very few drivers in the history of F1 feel comfortable doing this, (driving the way Kimi does).
I was amazed when I saw a telemetry shot years ago of Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen's speed traces. The single most important influence on overall lap time is corner speed and the single most important influence on corner speed is apex speed. Whenever a driver compares his telemetry with that of his teammate usually the key factor is apex speed along with the ability to throttle on hard and early, to smooth out the trough that appears a "V" on the speed versus time line which represents the low point on the speed axis. When I saw Mika and Michaels speed traces, I was struck by the fact their V's looked more like higher U's in other words, there was no sharp dip in their apex speed. At McLaren, Kimi's traces looked like that as well, since he was truly at one with the car and it's a result of his ability to hustle his car to the apex while others are still trying to get everything battened down under control and pointed in the right direction.
He is a god of driving. Anybody that actually pays attention to F1 knows this, his peak during the tyre war was monstrous, and basically the cars have not suited his driving style which has prevented him from showing that scary pace he has.
Here is Brundle on Kimi, Alonso, Button and Schumacher's driving styles to further confirm what I was saying: ua-cam.com/video/TOhgI1hQA68/v-deo.html
In summary: Kimi Raikkonen's peak at McLaren, with Michelin tyres was just scary. He would have EASILY won the 2003 and 2005 WDC if not for horrible reliability and bad luck, and his work in a McLaren for half a decade is as good as any driver I have seen in his era. To me, his peak was better than anything Alonso ever did. And for that I put Lewis 1, Kimi 2 THEN FERNANDO 3. Considering how Fernando, in a car he loved, in an era he loved, lost to Trulli and was generally always slower than Kimi on raw pace.
www.scribd.com/document/357132880/The-Kimi-Enigma-Autosport-24th-August-2017 Here is a bonus article that also goes more into detail on this
I don't think I would happy if I had an engineer telling me not to beat my team mate. The first objective for any driver is to beat his team mate, whoever they are. Disappointing.
Darren Hoggett sorry, but thats a completely different situation. Probably you do not really know much about that era at Ferrari. Smedley was totally right to do that. Beating Michael Schumacher, a seven time world champion, at Ferrari what was indeed SCHUMACHERS TEAM, as a Rookie - is just mad and an illusion! He would have done more harm than good, and also it would never have been possible and not been good for Massa himself. So he did completely the right thing and took pressure from his shoulders! Probably you should listen a little bit closer to what he says about Michael. And about that team. As a rookie he would never ever have been able to beat Schumacher. As a rookie he woukd never have been able to use this team like s 7times WC who BUILT that team and where everyone admired him! There was just no way he could even come close to beat Michael in his Rookie year at Ferrari! So Smedley was absolutely right to take thus pressure of him!
And you forget that this is a TEAM sport!? There is no I in team?? Ferrari were within their right to tell Rob to tell Felipe to allow the right result for the team! End of.
@@michaelastockbauer672 Michael didnt build the team. He was not a manager.
Not if you drive for Ferrari and are contracted as a number 2 driver
@@User-nu6km you misunderstand. You can have the best race engineer etc on your side of the garage
41:00, what a delusional comment about Massa! 51:06, I am sorry that is just EMBARRASSING too.
Kimi hated the handling of the Ferrari car in 2007 and 2008, and Michael Schumacher came out and ADMITTED that in his role as "technical advisor" he had introduced updates in 2008 that thoroughly screwed Kimi's driving style - here is the link proving that ua-cam.com/video/XIucDSQU5WA/v-deo.html&t=237. Peak Kimi was better than Alonso.
"Peak Kimi was better than Alonso" .. yeah, we saw that in 05 and 06, also do not forget the painful rape in 2014 when they were teammates, was that peak Kimi also?
@@richierich3052 Did you even read a thing I posted or do you have ADD like Alonso? I clearly explained why you cannot compare 2014 Kimi to 2003-2007 Kimi. Kimi was way faster than Alonso in 2005 but his car broke down in 2005 all the time in FP (10 place grid penalties) or when leading in races. In 2004 his car was slower and he won a race too....
@@richierich3052 TBH Mattiacci raped Alonso the hardest. That must have left scars.
@@ciaronsmith4995 from what I know and what´s been reported Alonso left Ferrari, he was not sacked by Mattiacci, therefore what you say makes no sense .. just for a change
@@ciaronsmith4995 stop with the bs Mclaren was not as reliable as Renault in 05, both teams had the same number of DNFs during the season, and therefore were as reliable as each other, you wont accept the fact that Alonso, driving a slower car, beat your Raikkonen , move on, its been almost 15 years since that happened mate..
I would take a prime Kimi Raikkonen (at McLaren on the Michelin tyre), Lewis and MSC over Alonso, Felipe or Montoya.
Smedley is a bit clueless. He is ignoring some key variables affect driving performance. Alonso is not as good as he says here, he is just affected by having worked with Kimi during a period Kimi HATED the handling of the car and working with Felipe, who is massively inconsistent. Forgetting that 2004 Trulli had the measure of Alonso as did rookie Lewis.
Ciaron Smith i do not think Smedley would take Alonso, Felipe or Montoya over MSC. I suggest you to listen to Smedleys Interview at Beyond The Grid. There he explains and describes how great and unbelieveable good Michael was and why, and that there was never another driver like him.
Again one more countless brits who downplay Valtteri. Well he was faster 5 hours a go in 2020 first qualifying and got podium, Louis was second. Lets say that again Louis Hamilton was SLOWER.
Valteri is SLOWER than Hamilton. And that comes from someone who does not like Hamilton. Year after year Hamilton whipped the floor with Bottas...Bottas was never close to Hamilton over a season. Being continiosly quick- thats what the real great drivers are! Bottas was never continously quick. He always was quick one or two times a season. And lost almost every other race. Thats not a great driver. Everyone can do this. Even Sennas or Schumachers teammates beat them one or two times a year. Because even they made mistakes sometimes. But its ridiculous to say one of them was better than them because they had beaten them once or twice in one season...i honestly hope Bottas beats Hamilton all the time! But unfortunately Bottas only has proven, year after year after year, that he just is too slow and not continiously quick. And only because he now was quicker once- its ridiculous to say what you say. Bottas has proven that he has no chance against Hamilton for years. He reminds me of Coulthard. Like Coulthard Bottas keeps saying the same things, talks about Championship and beating his teammate. Only to prove every year that he is continiously slower....
And Smeadley nailed it! Its not about being quick one or two times a year! Its about being quick in EVERY RACE. Thats the real greats! Bottas is clearly not one of them. And Smeadley nails it with what he says.
@@fam.hunger5244 Hamilton was peaking when Valteri was new talent. We cant say that yet. Yes Hamilton is exceptional driver (bad character) too but prone to error once pressured, just like last race. Another finn, Nico Rosberg already won him one time.
@@eedesign878 agree with what you say about Hamilton. But Valteri is not a new talent anymore. If he would be one of the greats Hamilton would not have such an easy life...a "New-Senna" or a "New-Schumacher" would have given him the hell of a season already...while Bottas gives him an easy life. Sorry but thats not what real Champions or even all-time greats are made of...and thats sonething one can say easily, as Bottas is long enough in F1. Senna or Schumacher already brough the best in serious trouble...Bottas - not at all. So...sorry.
@@fam.hunger5244 Nico won 3 years a go. Bottas has had only two seasons on Merc, on first rookie season he won several GPäs which is not easy feat. Second season last year he was in overall leader first half of the year all the way to summer break. And this season he started with pole and race win and is now leading the tables again. Valtteri is very polite and team player, which might make you think that he is weak. No he is not. Remind your self also that he is competing agains one of the all time greats. 6 championship wins. Senna or Schumacher never had that kind of opposition in their own team. Not even close.
Fake engineer. Always more interested in being on camera than being an important player in F1.
Clearly not