Balancing Family Dynamics and Professional Work

For F one drivers, success comes from being in the right car at the right time . Moving teams is a career defining decision and we've seen it go both ways. Lewis Hamilton's move from McLaren to Mercedes rewarded him with six more world championships. Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish scrawn free and is a seven time champion of the world. Get in there, Lewis . What a way to do it, mate . But Fernando Alonso's career is one of what ifs. Several times he moved away from teams just before they became competitive . Of course, drivers don't always choose to move teams. That's where driver managers come in. They help drivers make the best move available, but also help manage their lives, their schedules, their time. You've got questions about how that all works, and we've got a manager to answer them. Welcome to F one Explained Hello everybody we have got news about our next live show at the British Grand Prix later in the episode but hello my name is Christian Huguel welcome to F one Explained and our focus today is exploring the role of an F one driver manager. They're the people who help F one drivers cope with their hugely busy lives . They're also the deal makers who engineer moves from one team or another . Of course, athletes move teams in lots of sports, but the F one driver market is different because there are so few race seats there are only twenty two Formula One drivers . Compare that with more than five hundred registered players in the NBA , more than sixteen hundred in the NFL, more than twelve hundred at the FIFA World Cup this summer . So competition for those twenty two seats in F one is obviously fierce. That's where managers come in my friends. They are a mix of advisor and agent, someone the driver trusts to make decisions on their careers. Sometimes the person the driver trusts the most is actually a relative. Louis Hamilton's dad Anthony was his manager for many years and Carlos Signs manager is his cousin Carlos Anoro, the ideal person to answer your questions on driver contracts and organizing a driver's life . Carlos firstly, a very warm welcome to F one explains. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us here in Barcelona, what must be a busy weekend for you? Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here with you guys and yeah, it's a busy weekend for us but also a special one. So always good to be here in Barcelona. And you are, as we said in our intro, your Carlos's older cousin, I believe, if I have the family tree correct. So my first question normally I think with a driver manager might be how did you get to know the driver? But of course you must have known Carlos from a very young age much since he was born so that makes it easier in terms of how we met, let's say yeah, we since we were kids really, we've always had a very close relationship. I think our family and I think this is a lot with to do with Spanish cult ures, we stick together a lot and family is a big thing in our culture. And yeah, I've always been next to Carlos. Obviously I've followed his entire career from the sidelines, let's say , when he was coming up the ranks and yeah I ended up here working with him which is great. So we know how you got to meet him and I read a brilliant article about you an interview you did for the formula one official webs Iit belieesve. it was last year.. It's really good Actually, we're going to put the link to that in the description of this episode in case anyone else wants to read it too . And I believe from that that you did when you were young, a degree in some form of business related degree. So that's I guess where the sort of management side of your career has come from. Yes, correct . I've always been a massive motorsport fan, obviously growing up and watching Garlos Sr. Racing in Rallying and then obviously Formula One in our home, I think even before Fernando started winning races, I think we were one of the few households in Spain that was watching Formula One every single weekend since I can remember. So I've always been into motorsport and had a lot of passion for it . But from a study point of view or from a work point of view, it was never really discussed that I would end up working with Carlos. So I did my degree in business , studied in Uni in Spain . And after that, I went on to work in a big four , one of the consultancy firms for four years, then moved again , but always based on finance or finance with real estate, nothing really to do with motorsport . So there must have been a point where the conversation happened where you said to this young racing driver and your cousin and he looked at his older cousin who's got all this businessy and management and financing experience. How did the conversation happen? Yeah , this all started in december twenty sixteen. So Carlos had already finished his second season in F one already . He already had a team of people working with him , but I think that together with Carlos Sr. They both decided that they needed someone to be more hands on a daily basis and someone that could also stay with Carlos closely and that had also that maybe business background that could help . And yeah, that's when they had an internal conversation conversation between them . And then once they out of the list of names that they were discussing , mine came up and they offered me the opportunity. And obviously I went back home , slept on it one night and obviously the next morning I was already confirming that I would love to work with Carlos. Always sleep on it. That's good advice though. It's something my dad always taught me always sleep on a decision still you made that decision and here you are all these years later explain what the role is, and I'm imagining you could answer this question all day, but broadly speaking, summarize the role of being driver manager for Carlos Science. It's funny because the way that I've found it easier to describe in my job is everything that has to do with a formula one driver except driving the car . You lean up it. That's the best summary that I can do of it. But no, but I would like to say that because there are very few Formula One drivers in the world , I think that each driver has his own setup in terms of his internal team. So I cannot speak for all the managers of the other drivers in F one because each one might do different roles and different stuff . It's not like there's a standardized management role within F one . Some drivers have one manager and a lawyer , one compspeople and a lawyer, a manager that does everything In my particular case, I think I am involved in pretty much everything, I would say , not only the sporting side, but also the commercial side , the combs , even personal stuff that I helped Carlos obviously with his daily life away from the truck. So I'm pretty much involved in everything . And then obviously we've got a team of people specialized people for social media, combs, lawyers, physical advisors , all that stuff. But in the end there's like I like to see myself a bit like a director of the orchestra sure . But every decision is made by Carlos ultimately. In modern formula one these drivers are their own big brands now. I think one of the things that surprised me most when I started working in the sports because I was a fan growing up but now I'm working in it was just how busy they are, how much travel, the time in the simulators, the time at the fact , I guess they must need somebody to like you, somebody like you to do things that we don't even think about like admin of bank accounts, making sure they've got a food schedule. These drivers would have to do life admin that we all know if we're busy with work, how difficult that life admin can be and boy are these guys busy the schedule the full schedule of a former one driver is insane . I actually have a summary of the summary of the schedule so that I can check it with Carlos quickly because if we go into the detailed one that goes pretty much minute by minute , if you see the schedule for example, of a, grand prix weekend, it's insane the level of detail that it gets . So that's why we have like a broader calendar where we see things quicker when I check it with him . But yeah, if you start adding up twenty four race weekends, plus the testing, plus other tests that you can do with TPC cars older cars , then you start adding all the marketing days that you need to do for the team, the marketing days that you need to do for personal sponsors. Interviews . And obviously , these guys are still athletes and one of the main things that you need to put into the calendar is some time to recover and also train, which is super important . Absolutely. And I'm asking the question conscious that we do only have a half an hour interview based on your previous answer, but what does a typical Grand Prix weekend look like for you? And I'm imagining it's busy here at Carlos's home race. His home race. I guess that he's got two home races this year. Nowadays, I think that a race week starts on a Wednesday normally with marketing activities that happen either at the track or close to the track, whether it's a filming studio or someplace in the city center with sponsor or just filming or shooting . Then Thursday is when we come to a track for the first time . The day starts early with a lot of interviews, a lot of engineering meetings , and then we also reserve like an hour or an hour and a half for exercise at the end of the day. Normally, Carlos, you will see him nowadays cycling a lot around the track. Yes. But if it's not cycling, we would go back to a hotel or find a gym and do obviously a bit of training on the Thursday afternoon. Then Friday starts always with a good breakfast and mobility exercises and then we come to a track and Fridays are more straightforward normally unless it's a spring weekend that gets a bit more hectic . But like in Barcelona here, which is a normal race week . It's more about the engineering stuff. Let's say that all the comps and the commercial stuff is ticked away on Thursday and from Friday onwards it's more based on the performance side of things . You still do what Carlos does meet and greets , interviews , things like that. But let's say that all of that part is done primarily on Thursdays. I usually run the track in the evenings at race weekends. I can't at the moment I've got an Achilles injury. But still, here we go. Yeah, this is it. I know, I know. That is why I'm not a top level athlete. But there are three drivers you always see running the track in the evenings. Ollie Bermann cycling the track I should say. Oli Bermann, Valtteri Botass and Carlos Einstein always see them in a little cycling club. You always see those three bombing in the laps. Yeah . How do you make sure that Carlos hasn't got too much to do? Because you mentioned how busy it is, I guess it's up to you to find that line. Yeah, there's obviously after many years working with him , I think I do understand the dos and don'ts that he prefers and I know more or less the gaps that he doesn't mind being busier and the gaps that he normally needs to be left alone not do anything . Having said that, I do a lot of the work on the background working with the team on the schedule and whoever is involved in the schedule , but then I also I also make sure that he gets a look at it before I finally confirm anything so that he's happy. And normally we tend to agree , but I must have there must have been times where I miss something and he points it out and then we reorganize a bit the whole schedule. But that's more or less how it works. I appreciate there'll be things you don't want to share with us and of course don't share those things, but are there any non negotiables? Things that you've learned that are things that Carlos really likes or really doesn't like when you're setting up those sorts of schedules? There is one thing which is between FP three and quality . You don't put any interviews or any meat and greets with sponsors or anything. That's a golden rule thing that I can share with you guys because I'm pretty sure that every other driver will also ask for that in their schedule. But between FP three andi ,Q thatual's a bit of a sacred for Carlos for him to either eat and relax in his room or eat and go to see his engineers . So it's just for him and for performance. We've spoken a lot about at race weekends. In just a couple of moments we're going to talk about away from the track or away from race weekends but you mentioned that you've got that degree in business . Podcasting is a big business too, which is why we must go for a commercial break. We're back to Carlos Noro in a moment, but now I want to tell you about our next live show. The British Grand Prix at Silverstone will be on the main stage in the F one fan zone on Saturday morning at ten twenty with special guest the nineteen ninety six former one world champion , Damon Hill, of course, British Grand Prix winner F one legend, huge character and personality. I'm a big fan of Damon Hill, can't wait to do live show with him. Our first live show with Daemon, I think that'll be fun. If you'll be there, send us a question for Daemon . We might be able to make you part of the show. F one explains at F one. com pleases the email address F one explains at F one. com Saturday the fourth of july ten twenty at the British Grand Prix . you' Ifre not there , you'll hear the show right here very soon afterwards. All the details are in the episode description and by the way , get this, F one explains fans. If you're at Silverstone on the Thursday of the British Grand Prix, there's another event you can go to. I'm calling it Producer Chris Live . This isn't a joke. F one sometimes advises people who work in the sport to do things on a stage r atace a in the vast producer Chris to talk about making podcasts. And why wouldn't they? This is excellent for the producer Chris brand. It really is. I'm hoping I can be his agent. So that's the drivers in stage on Thursday the second of july at two thirty in the afternoon. Obviously two thirty in the afternoon, two thirty it'd be a bit of a graveyard slot if it was the morning, wouldn't it? I have a quote here from producer Chris. He says I'm not expecting anyone to come, but it'd be nice to see you if you do. Banners are encouraged, autographs and selfies are available afterward s. I'm slightly worried he's letting this get to his head. So for that reason, that's enough of live show news. Let's get back to the episode. Welcome back to F one Explains. I'm Christian Hugill, and this week we are discussing the role of driver managers with Carlos Sins, driver manager, Carlos Noro. Carlos, we've spoken a lot before the break about what happens at the track and on race weekends, how much contact do you have with Carlos away from the track because there must be some downtime, but equally, we've mentioned how busy they are. So how much communication do you have with Carlos away from race weekends? It's a good question and I think there's no straight answer because I think it depends a bit on whether we are in between races or not or if there's the summer break or the winter break. So it does change a bit . I would say not daily because I also give him some space to breathe. I cannot be all over him on a Monday after a race for example. That's a bit of a day where we know it's for him to reset and recharge batteries after the entire race weekend . But apart from Monday , yeah, I would say daily , we still, even if it's not a call , we do WhatsApp quite a lot and he likes to be aware of everything that is going on around his life. So yeah, we're pretty much maybe daily too much, but every couple of days, for sure we are in touch. We were talking before we started recording that we'd had a real flurry of emails around the role of driver managers. F one explained to F one. com by the way if you're listening would like to send us a question . I speculated that possibly one of the reasons we'd had this influx was because you played a role in the last series of dri ve to survive and we've aware a lot of our listeners love drive to survive, which is fabulous. We welcome people into F one in anyway. A massive part of why you popped up so much was a certain move where Carlos moved from Ferrar i to Williams because a certain Lewis Hamilton moved to Ferrari, which let's just say shock up the Formula One world . How did you navigate that? When it first comes into you, you must think, okay, we've got a lot to do here. Just talk us through how that was handled . Yeah, I think well first when we learned about it, it was a shocker that's no secret. And I think that Carlos has explained that many times in a lot of interview that it came as a bit of a shock . And I think it also caught everyone a bit by surprise because we all thought that Louis had a contract with Mercedes and I don't know his contract, but for sure there were some sort of clauses there should exit the contract or that's my understanding of the situation . So nobody was expecting that move . And so at the beginning, as I said, a bit of a shock er . But then the following day you already start , like I always say, like setting out the chessboard and placing all the pieces and starting to think of what can happen and the different strategies and who you need to talk to and in what order because it's not the same thing to speak to this team first if you don't have information from that other team. So before you start picking up the phone and doing meetings and so on , we like to do as a team, also with Carlos Sr. Because he's also very present in when it comes to F one contracts, to have a good sit down and a good chat and discuss about it and how we're going to go about the strategy basically of how we're going to face the situation . And from there you start organizing meetings and trying to get as much info as pos sible. It's been widely reported that Carlos had other options other than just Williams, and of course he would do his race winner, he's a phenomenal formula one driver. What we saw in Drive to Survivor was a lot of you talking to the likes of James Val's team principal of Williams, who of course he signed for . Forgive my question, but how much of what we saw on Drive to Survive was completely real. Of course being a television program, sometimes things will be shot for the purpose of telling a story and that's that's completely understandable. But were you right early on going out to talk to other teams when it became obvious that Carlos was, you know, going to be moving? Were you chatting to James? How'd you manage all of that? Yeah, conversations were constant, let's say, sends February up until he signed the contract . Because the way I see it is that our job as his management team is not to decide for him, it's to put all available options on top of the table with the best contract possible in each case . And ultimately, he's the one that decides what he wants to do with his future . And if he wants my opinion, I would give it to him. But in my head, my role is just to make sure that I've done my job in the sense that I've explored every single thing that can be explored and negotiated every single comma of a contract to put it in front of him and he can take the best decision with the best information. If you'll allow me a little personal observation, I've been a fan of Formula One since the nineties, I've been working in it for three or four years now I don't remember a more amicable driver move than Carlos leaving Ferrari and going to Williams. Of course there have been tense conversations along the way. I'm not naive to that. But I also then think back to a moment in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season where McLaren had just won the Constructors Championship and I was stood outside McLaren and Carlos came in and I took a picture and put it on social media that Carlos had come in to congratulate Lando to congratulate the team. It went wild on social media with people saying isn't that lovely of Carlos? That doesn't strike me as coincidence that there seem s to be that warm relationship with Ferrari, with McLaren, another one of Carlos's former teams. Am I right? Is that something you've tried to do with Carlos and his career with sort of not burning bridges and keeping options open maybe for the future? Yeah, one hundred percent. I think that is a bit the way we go about things as a team . When I say as a team, I'm including obviously Carlos himself of, course, but also senior again because I think that there's a big role played by all three of us together when it comes to F one contracts. And I think that the philosophy has always been the same since they won, which is to be straightforward with everyone, to be honest about what we're doing not to play stupid games that can then turn back on you . And Carlos has a way of going about the sport and the way he works with team that in the end , it leaves I don't want to put it as leaving a door open for the future, but it is true that every time he has left a team , he has done it in a way where he's left good relationships, good bridges , and that brings value in the end for the career of an athlete. And Carlos has been very intelligent in doing so. And I think that the way we've been going about contracts from our point of view has always been the same and yeah with that straightforward philosophy. I've got a couple of questions from our listeners. I mentioned the email address F one explains at F one. com. A couple of questions on this from Chris in Canada. Hi Chris. Chris says Hi Christian. I've been an F one fan since I was a young kid watching Jacques Villeneuve win the World Championship. That was nineteen ninety seven. My question is around driver contracts. Unlike other sports, drivers will sign new contracts for the next season during the current season. For example, as we've been discussing, Louis Hamilton signing with Ferrari for twenty twenty five ahead of the twenty twenty four season. So of course if we cast our minds back, it was announced that Lewis Hamilton was joining Ferrari in twenty twenty five before the twenty twenty four season had even started, he'd still got year to do with Mercedes. Chris goes on to say why can drivers sign with a new team while still under contract with a current one? Has this always been the case in F one? Or is this more of a modern day thing? Love the podcast and learning about all the different things from people so closely involved in the sports. Thank you very much, Chris. That's a lovely question. Great question, isn't it? Carlos? Yeah, good question. Yeah, yeah. I think it's an interesting one . And I think that my answer is a bit the same as when I said that every driver has their own structure and their own team . When it comes to contract , wow , there's a million things you can put in a formula one contract. So there's no one contract that looks the same as the other . And depending on the situation and the power of negotiation that you might have one year to the other, which might change . You are able to introduce clauses that in other scenarios you are not allowed to. And the same goes for the teams, you know ? There's no real standard contract, I would say . Maybe for some classes, of course, there are , but the juicy part of the contracts, let's say, are always different and will always depend the situation that the driver is at that moment. And I think to add on, if I may, to answer Chris's question a little bit from my perspective, and please do correct me if I'm wrong, you're more about this than me. But also it depends on cultures of different sports. I'm a big soccer fan, big football fan. You more often than not in that case see I nearly said driver, a player being bought out of a contract. And for example, somebody joins Barcelona to join Real Madrid, that would be a controversial one. But that happens then, there's not too much of an advance notice. But in Formula One, it's always just worked a bit differently. The culture of the sport is a little bit different, where tend to nowadays, it's quite rare, isn't it that a driver gets to the end of the season? It tends to mean if they don't know what they're doing at the end of one season, they're probably not going to be there in the next one. There are exceptions to that, but I think it's just the culture of this sport, isn't it? That it tends to work a little bit further in advance. Of course, I think there are two things. Obviously, the way the sport works, as you said, is one of those factors . And then I think that it's the how everyone wants to go about it It's true that obviously I have no clue about other sports because I've only been involved in one so far, but when you look at the movies in from Hollywood and you know they they picture an NFL player or a baseball player getting sat down in front of the GM and telling him you are going to be transferred and you know the player has no clue about it. I don't know that happens like that. My experience of working in football , it really does happen like that. It really does. My experience is working, we have a lot of American listeners. My experience is working in soccer. Don't shout at me English people or football. I don't know about NFL and American football, but yeah, that is definitely how it works in English football. That could never happen here . There is at least in our case, there is no way or there's no universe in which I would go to Carlos and say, Oh by, the way, next year you're driving for this team. Congrats. That doesn't work. Oh my God . Exactly. No, no . I think in our particular case Carlos is informed along the way of every conversation, of every negotiation, even though he might not be part of it because obviously he has to raise an important job, isn't it? And the contracts are discussed throughout the season . So he needs to be focused on the racing, of course . But that doesn't mean that he's not informed of every step that we are taking and he's very much part of the strategy and the next steps that we are taking. So in F one, I don't think it works like other sports . I don't know, I cannot speak obviously for other drivers, but I know that Carlos likes to be informed. He likes to be part of it . It's his career, it's his ultimate decision. So the better informed he is, the better decision he can take. We had a really similar question actually from Nell from Cumberry in the UK. She said a driver is allowed to speak with their new team and be involved with plans for the future before they join or are they shut out of conversations both sides to stop other teams learning potentially important information. I guess there is an element of keeping talks confidential but it sounds like from what you're saying , Carlos, that your Carlos in this situation would be aware of those talks. It's a good question because you do need to understand the project of the team that you are in the ory moving to before you take that decision. So when you're speaking to teams , they definitely need to explain to you what's the plan, what's their strategy? How do they see their team evolving in the upcoming two, three years? So they do need to share that information with you because if not , how am I going to choose that team if I have no clue of what they're thinking for the future. But at the same time they are wary that you might not sign for them. So they cannot give out too much too much information . So it's a fun game where you need to read between the lines a bit as well and you know make the most of what each team is telling you to then obviously make the decision. And of course, another part of Nell's question, Carlos was about once that contract is signed. You know, once Carlos has signed for Williams but is still racing for Ferrari , how much is he involved in conversations with Ferrari? Because there might be certain information that they don't want Williams to know for the following season. And can they talk with other teams at that point? It's a minefield, isn't it? It's a very good point actually. And it's a weird a bit of a weird situation really because you are you're racing for a team until December , but you know already since the summer break that the following year you're going to be in another team. So I think that at least what Carlos does, his ultimate respect for the team that he's driving for until the end of his contract . So in the case of twenty twenty four, he gave absolutely everything for Ferrari until the last race and the last checker flag . Does the team hide certain information for the driver? I guess they do because they would not disclose absolutely everything of what is being planned for the following season to a driver that is lea at the end of the year , but it's also in their interest that that driver performs until the end of the season . So again, it's a fine line between keeping the relationship as open as possible so that the performance is there at the highest level , but also trying to keep key points or the secrets for the following season. Carlos, I appreciate you a busy man, we've just got a couple more than we'll let you go, but I'm fascinated by the dynamic of working within your family. I think I know a lot of people who are very, very close with their family, but maybe working with them constantly might be a bit too far. Families can bicker. Families can have arguments. How is having the family dynamic with a working relationship I think the biggest conversation that we had before I joined Carlos's team is that or the golden rule was that the difference between when we are working and we are at home has to be massive. Like there needs to be a very thick wall what is work and what is downtime . And I think that we've done a good job in doing that and keeping that wall to differentiate both things . He knows perfectly well that when we are working I treat him exactly the same way that I would treat my partners when I was working for a big consultancy firm back in the day . But then if we are having lunch on a Sunday in August in Mallorca and I ran out of Ckeo and I want another one. He's my younger cousin, you know, stand up and go stand up and go, give me another Coke, please . And it's funny because he does it and he laughs, you know, and that's the sort of good relationship that we have and we maintain. And I think it's key to the success of working together for so many years in an environment that is very high pressure, very intense where we travel together I think I see Carlos more than I see my wife. Which hopefully she's not listening to this podcast. She's not aware of this comment but it is true. It's a very intense relationship and if you don't set the rules and you respect your own rules , it can get very tough very quickly. And also we've spoken a lot about how this is for Carlos, but this is an intense role for you. Managing a formula one driver, the travel, being away from home so much . What are your favourite parts of the job? What are the trickiest parts of the job and how do you make sure that you have downtime as well as making sure that your driver has downtime. You need to sleep as well. Yeah, it's obviously it's a twenty four seven three hundred sixty five days a year job . We don't really, even Carlos, I don't think he really disconnects fully throughout the year. You always have an eye on your phone, on your emails, on your WhatsApp, even on social media, which of course is for doing my job. You cannot say , I'm going to delete my Instagram account of you need to be there. You need to be aware of what's going on . Having said that, of course, you then have a family, so you do need to find a way to make it work so that you're being a husband and a dad and also an everyone manager . So it's not easy, obviously, it's a challenge, but the key for me is that you need to be passionate about what you do. And my job might seem attractive from the outside and very flash y and very glamorous or whatever it is that comes with F one . But then obviously there's the reality of the amount of hours, the travelling, the jetlag, the feeling sore after a plane and having to connect to three meetings in a row. There's a lot of that going on . And the key for me is that involved with every one, if you don't have passion for the sport and for racing, there's no way in the world that you can do this job. It's impossible because it will eat you up and it will wear you out very quickly. And I think that passion is what keeps us going and without that , this job would be impossible. Carlos, we've been doing this podcast. This is our fourth season. This has been one of my favourite episodes we've done. I really appreciated your insight. You being so generous with your time. It's a fascinating area at Form,ul aa formal that one we don't normally get to hear about. So really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming on FOXPAINS. Thank you very much for inviting me and keep going because I enjoy a lot of the podcast and I think it brings a lot of insight for the fans that otherwise it's difficult to get. So yeah , congrats and keep going. You're very kind and do one favor for us. Make sure the next time you're at a family event and you run out of a drink make sure Carlos goes to get it because he owes you that he will, he will. We follow our own rules. He will . Thank you very much guys . Carlos signs as a lovely man. He's a humble man. I think he would make you a drink. So maybe it's not just his cousin who could get away with that. Thank you to Carlos Noro for speaking to us. Fascinating to learn more about what driver managers do. I mean, what I said, that's one of my favorites we've done. He's a lovely classy man from a very classy family with Carlos Einstein Sr. Of course, the legend in his own right, Carlos and Carlos, all the Carlos, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens in the F one driver market. It tends to go in waves. We have quieter ones, but that doesn't often last. I think there's going to be quite a few driver moves this winter and now we know a little bit about how those negotiations work. We love meeting people like managers who work away from the on track action in F one Explains. So if there's anyone else you'd like to hear from any F one job you want to know more about email us F one explains at F one . com speaking of emails , I say it a lot. This is our fourth season of doing this podcast . I genuinely think I've had the most listener interaction in terms of my personal social media, my Instagram, my TikTok , and also the podcast's email address Fon explains FON. After the last episode , where we toured Audi's shiny new hospitality unit and everything went very well. Producer Chris has written here until we got to the kitchen. I still think it went well even in the kitchen . Somebody called Emirates, Christian, I'm a new listener , a big fan. However, you sound like an alien when you talk about food. A few weeks ago you asked the difference between poutin, poutine, poutin, I still don't know, and chicken. I thought this was an elaborate joke, but now I've heard the Audi episode that you also didn't know what for Falli is, I'm starting to think it wasn't sincerely concerned. Producer Chris has also written me a pronunciation guide for Falli Apparently it's pronounced far for Lee and Chris has written emphasis on the first syllable , same pattern as totally parfully, totally . Look, I don't you give you all giving me so much stick for this. Producer Chris, producer Jamie, listeners, so many listeners. Rebecca from Sydney. I wanted to explain something to you since you seem confused about it most in the most recent episode. Far Falee, like Totally, is a type of pasta, just like spaghetti is a type of pasta. I hope this helps. I didn't know forgive me. I didn't know. Look, I'll be honest with what I know about. I know about Formula One. I do podcasts on it. I've written a book on it. I don't know about pasta. I'm not doing pasta explains, am I? Numi on Spotify explain further. Farfully means butterflies in Italian, which makes sense when you look at the shape of them. Thank you, Numi. That's Numi, I'm not too, that's fine. She's just said, well, they've just said some information. They've not patronised me. Kim from California. I know exactly how you feel. I was once criticized for not knowing what T ortellini is. Kim, thank you. There's loads of pastor. Not overly cultured man. I don't know, do I? I've genuinely had so many messages on this. So many messages . Somebody called Mr. T. Wood even took the time I think this was on Twitter to send me a graphic showing different types of pastor. By the way, Alan McNish didn't know. Clearly he didn't know. You can hear him skirting round it in the episode so don't all have a go at me. I expected to be afraid. And the poutine Poutine thing with Alex Jakes the other week again I didn't know it's because I was thinking poultry, right? Poultry with chicken . Anyway , Chris has written me a statement to read out. Apparently, I'm supposed to read this. It says here, I've heard your concerns and I'd like to read this short statement in response. You the listener rightly expect high standards of information from F one explains and for me as the presenter. On recent episodes my knowledge of food has fallen below this standard. I'd like to formally I'd like to formally apologize to you , to Alan McNish, to the nice chef at Audi who was on the episode, and to F one official pastor partner Barrilla, whose faffee is exceptional, but also to the entire nation of Canada for my uninformed comments about one of their beloved national dishes. I will be spending the F one summer break at a reeducation retreat where F one's favourite chef Gordon Ramsay will yell facts at me about food for three weeks. I won't I'm going on holding. Thank you for your support and I seek to become a podcaster who knows the difference between Farfully and Fusili between Pute, Putin and Poulay. Yeah, very good, Chris. Lovely. Good. I've read it, right? Fine. Hope we can put this behind us. Keep sending your messages, providing it's not about pasta. F one explained to F one. com See you at the British Grand Prix with Damon Hill if you're there. Don't speak to me about pastor. If not, you'll see it on the podcast feed the Friday after the British Grand Prix I'm going now. You've put me in a bad mood bye