Latest / Rusty's Garage / Roberto Moreno - Part 3

Transcript

Roberto Moreno - Part 3 · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:18
Hi, it's Rusty here.
0:19
We are just about to fire into the final part of my podcast with Roberto Moreno, the super sub, as they called him, who enjoyed a wonderful career that took him all over the world, mainly in single-seaters.
0:31
Quick thanks to the staff here at Hampton Downs.
0:34
You may hear some of them in the background of the GT Lounge, where I recorded this chat with Roberto over two days, once most of the track action had wrapped up.
0:42
Thanks also to Gary Orton, Tina and all of the excellent team at Kiwi Motorsport for giving us access to Roberto.
0:49
He's working with them as he's done for a few years now in a driver coaching role.
0:54
The stories for young racers in this pod, the life lessons, there are some really good takeouts for you as we get into the final instalment now.
1:06
From your career standpoint, I mean, again, these are moments that are beyond your control.
1:12
It's a serious kick in the guts.
1:14
But you always...
1:15
I don't see it that way.
1:16
You don't see it that way?
1:17
I don't see it that way.
1:18
Tell me how you see that then.
1:19
I see a guy that
1:22
if all went normal, should never, ever get to Formula One.
1:27
And you did.
1:28
And in many, many situations, God has showed me a way to continue that path with a lot of determination and focus, and I finally found a way.
1:43
Do you tell – you're here helping Kiwi Motorsport at the moment and some young kids.
1:47
Do you talk to them about this, about the fact that, you know, okay, the economic conditions are probably a bit different to them, but the essence of it is still the same.
1:56
If you work hard enough, you can find a way.
2:01
If you have talent –
2:04
Max Van Stappen is an example.
2:08
His father spent one season in Formula 3, which he got it back from Red Bull once he signed for Red Bull.
2:17
Lewis Hamilton is another kid that came up with no money and somebody supported him.
2:22
It's a little different than it was, but if you have talent, you still can make it with no money.
2:29
I'll give you another example.
2:31
This fellow from New Zealand.
2:34
He just got in from Loana.
2:36
Liam Lawson.
2:36
Yeah, great example.
2:37
I mean, that's massive sacrifice by that family.
2:41
He's there.
2:41
So it's still possible.
2:44
Yeah.
2:45
Again, there are also some moments that are –
2:50
not fortuitous, that's not the right word, or sort of sliding doors.
2:54
Like I think of the opportunity at Benetton, right?
2:59
And, you know, a set of tragic circumstances affects one of the drivers.
3:04
You happen to be going there on the day to merely help the team out in some respects.
3:11
You're not on the phone like all the other drivers trying to get this seat.
3:14
You're not because of what has happened there with the helicopter accident and so on.
3:19
But it proves to be an important moment for you, doesn't it?
3:24
Again, it's a blessing from God because had I not gone to England that day, which was Thursday before, a week before the Japanese Grand Prix,
3:40
and made few phone calls to people that I knew like Gary Anderson, Ron Toranac, Mr. Carl Motto from Honda and John Barnard, all people that I worked in the past that I really admire them.
3:55
The opportunity would not have opened.
4:00
And I made the decision to go.
4:02
I don't know why.
4:06
I was too early for my meeting.
4:11
You were merely helping them with the steering and dash setup or something.
4:15
What's your own car, I think?
4:17
All that happened was I made a phone call to John Barnard in the morning, about 10 o'clock in the morning.
4:23
from Heathrow Airport, because I had to pass my kill time until 5 p.m. And he said, Roberto, what are you doing here?
4:31
I said, well, looking for a job.
4:34
Again?
4:35
Well, story of my life, John.
4:36
I said, Roberto, since you're here in England and you're going to come very close to my factory, would you be so kind to come and sit on this next year's wood mock-up
4:50
So I can determine if I design the steering wheel to be in the right place, the gear shifter, the gauges and the switches.
5:00
Could you do that work for me so I don't have to call my drivers from Europe before they have to travel to Japan?
5:07
I say, I will do that with pleasure as long as you buy me a cup of tea with chocolate digestive biscuits.
5:17
And he said, they will be here waiting for you.
5:20
Joan Barnard had to have a break from his office for some reason.
5:25
He picked me up at the parking lot.
5:28
He looked stressed.
5:30
He looked very stressed.
5:31
His hair was up in the air.
5:33
His ears were red.
5:34
I look at him.
5:35
I said, Joan, should I come back tomorrow for that cup of tea?
5:38
You don't look too in the best condition.
5:43
No, no, I need you.
5:44
Come, come, come.
5:46
And so we rushed to his office.
5:49
Phone was off the hook.
5:52
Krana first from Ford America was talking to him regarding a guy called Michael Andretti.
5:59
Didn't know what was happening.
6:02
Put the phone down.
6:03
Andrea DeCesaris is on the phone.
6:07
And then he puts the phone down from Andrea, unplugs the phone and says to me, look,
6:15
Two o'clock this afternoon, Alessandro Danini, landing a helicopter at his house, crashed and lost his arm in front of his parents.
6:26
They trying to sew his arm back again while we're talking.
6:31
As you can see, there's a lot of things changing.
6:37
A lot of people trying to see if they can get that seat.
6:43
You were the only driver that called before the accident.
6:47
And you were coming here to help me with my work.
6:53
Would you like to drive?
6:56
I said, John, wow, I'm still under contract with this team, that Eurobroom, that they don't want to go racing, it seems like.
7:07
But I'm still under contract.
7:09
So, well, call them, free yourself up.
7:13
I said, well, can I have that cup of tea and biscuits and have a think about this one?
7:17
About how I'm going to do this?
7:19
Yeah, yeah.
7:20
And then he said, yeah, I'll go to the mock-up.
7:23
I'll get Diana, my best engineer, to do the mock-up with you, and she'll take your tea and biscuits.
7:31
He could store Flavio for maybe like an hour.
7:33
An hour.
7:34
That's the most I can get.
7:38
I got an answer.
7:39
I need to have an answer from you in one hour.
7:41
So, okay.
7:42
An hour later, I come back.
7:44
Let's do it.
7:45
He turns the phone around to me and say, Roberto, call your team.
7:49
Okay.
7:50
I call my team.
7:52
And I found out they had decided in that same afternoon not to go racing in Japan and Australia.
8:01
And I was free to go.
8:03
Crazy.
8:03
This is like sliding doors both ways.
8:05
That's a blessing from God.
8:08
I have no doubt that was that.
8:12
Crazy.
8:14
But now you still have to get a piece of paper to say, am I absolutely clear to do this, don't you, so that there's no legal hiccups?
8:23
Maybe that was a mistake of mine because I didn't really need that letter.
8:27
Okay.
8:28
But because I've asked for the letter,
8:31
they realized ah chance to make money yeah this guy is probably racing for benetton because when i gave him the fax number it was a fax number from benetton to send the letter so this english guy that was in that meeting he recognized the phone number and he said oh you are benetton you're driving for them i said oh maybe
8:57
So when I picked him up to get my letter when he arrived on Saturday after I made my seat to drive for Benetton,
9:06
I picked him up at the airport on my way to Monaco to get myself ready to go to Japan.
9:11
I still had to make a stop in Italy because the two suits were being cut and they just needed to measure me and sew the suits.
9:22
They arranged for one of the workers to work on Sunday to do that for me.
9:28
So, I picked this guy at Heathrow Airport
9:35
before I flew off and took him to his car.
9:40
And driving in this two-way road lane, I'm trying to get him to give me this letter, and he eventually said to me, oh, Eurobroom wants $30,000 to release you.
9:54
So I got so mad.
9:55
You hit the roof, didn't you?
9:57
I hit the roof, pull out the handbrake in the middle of the street, hit the curb.
10:03
I said, get out of my car, you son of a gun.
10:05
I don't want to see you again.
10:07
And I was talking like shouting big time, the real Brazilian way.
10:14
So I wanted to kill that guy.
10:17
So I'm not getting out here in the middle of nowhere.
10:20
So I remember I had put his bag in the trunk, the boot.
10:26
So I went in the back, opened the boot, grabbed his bag.
10:30
By now there was about 10 cars behind trying to get out, not understanding what was happening.
10:36
So I got his bag, threw out on the side of the road.
10:41
He saw it, got out of the car to get his bag, and I took off and left him there.
10:47
So, yeah, that was that.
10:49
And then eventually we didn't pay.
10:51
And they never made to Japan and Australia.
10:54
So I was free to drive.
10:56
Amazing.
10:58
What happens in Japan, though, ends up being something really special.
11:03
You're on the podium in Formula One, a brilliant result.
11:07
You're there with your great mates, with this team.
11:10
I mean, in the amazing set of circumstances you've just described to get to even getting the drive,
11:20
And then, you know, with little or no experience with this car, you jump straight in and that was tough on its own.
11:27
And yet you dig deep.
11:29
Yeah.
11:30
And now that's still the last…
11:32
Two Brazilians, first and second, on podium to this date.
11:36
Amazing.
11:38
And not to say in the same team.
11:40
Amazing.
11:42
Anyway, yeah.
11:44
It wasn't without its trials and tribulations, because the car was hard for you to begin with, wasn't it?
11:47
You had to really dig deep, and you needed long baths at night because your muscles hurt and all sorts of things, didn't it?
11:55
See, I've never driven the Euroboom match in the season.
11:59
I only...
12:01
passed pre-qualifying twice.
12:04
So in those days, you did not train like the new drivers do.
12:08
You only train when you drive.
12:11
So I wasn't fit to drive the Benetton car, basically.
12:17
When I did my first run, I remember braking for turn one,
12:23
And I said, uh-oh, this is not the place to brake.
12:27
So I took my foot off the brake, went on the accelerator again for another 50 meters, and then braked again.
12:35
So I realized, wow, this guy is so good.
12:39
So now I'm picking up the pace.
12:43
At the end of the day, after full-day practice and qualifying, I was tired.
12:51
called a friend in Brazil.
12:53
He was a guy that was a karate expert and asking him for advice.
13:00
I said, well, open the Bible and read Psalm 23.
13:05
I said, come on, Manel, I need physical strength, not spiritual.
13:12
Yeah, read Psalm 23.
13:16
We're gonna pray for you here, and it's gonna work out, believe me.
13:21
So I did that.
13:24
Next day I was even more tired at the end of the day.
13:27
I started to think the Grand Prix would be tough to finish.
13:33
But during the race, Nelson set up a plan that helped me.
13:40
Not to help me because he thought he could have won the race with that plan.
13:46
which was not making a pit stop, drive like an old lady in the first stint of the race.
13:53
And when everybody stopped for tires, the soft tires, we would start with harder tires, drive slowly, don't make a pit stop and get everybody in the second stint.
14:08
That was his plan.
14:08
And I followed it.
14:11
Worked out really well for me because the first stint of the race I drove like an old lady.
14:16
And Senna took Prost out in the first corner to win the championship.
14:24
Gerhard Berger in the next lap leading the race spun on the water left from those cars.
14:31
Now you've got Nigel Mansell leading the race, Nelson Piquet second, and because I had passed two Williams at the start, I'm now third with two Williams behind me.
14:44
So that was first, second, third.
14:47
Nigel Mansell comes for a pit stop.
14:51
On the way out, he breaks his drive shaft.
14:55
Now it's Nelson and me leading the race.
14:58
Nelson decided to start pushing now, left me behind.
15:03
I was struggling to drive that car at its limit because of physical strength.
15:11
And I had a few moments of almost crashing the car.
15:16
I remember the psalm at that point.
15:19
And somehow...
15:21
a blessing from the sky came and I got that kick that marathon runners get when they run for a long time, which is… You break a barrier.
15:36
You push through.
15:37
Yes, which is like endorphin into your system created by your brains to sustain you alive and…
15:48
And that gave me a kick.
15:50
I got my concentration back.
15:52
I got my breath back.
15:54
And I finished the Grand Prix second play.
15:57
You get to stay with Benetton.
15:59
And, you know, what transpires with the arrival of Michael Schumacher has been well documented, I know.
16:09
It might be worth sharing for people that haven't, you know, he's given an opportunity by Eddie Jordan at Spa, his first ever...
16:18
GP, then there is some moving of chess pieces and Benetton try and get him and that affects you, doesn't it?
16:25
Because you're driving for them at this stage.
16:27
And how did you find out about that?
16:29
How did you feel about that?
16:31
And then the way that you had to deal with them, it must have been enormously tricky.
16:38
To be honest with you, I look with different eyes.
16:43
Now or back then?
16:44
Anytime.
16:45
Anytime.
16:45
Anytime.
16:46
Because...
16:49
Briatore, well, John Barnard and Benetton gave me the opportunity to have a podium in Formula 1.
17:00
At a very old age, I was much older than I needed to be to get into Formula 1.
17:05
What are you here now, 34 or something?
17:07
37 I was, something like that.
17:10
I'm not too sure.
17:11
I was 90.
17:15
So 31 I was.
17:19
So I was old to get your break in Formula One.
17:23
So that's the way I look.
17:26
I was blessed to have that opportunity.
17:31
It would be tough to keep two Brazilians in the Benetton team that needed some good publicity.
17:38
And Bernie Eccleston was behind helping
17:42
Mercedes to get involved in Formula One and Mercedes was behind Michael Schumacher, Hansen and Carl Wienlinger.
17:56
So they were behind those three drivers.
17:59
They put each in the different team for them to develop.
18:03
They were going to buy I believe Sauber and
18:07
When the car became good, it would have a Mercedes name on it.
18:11
They'd already done Le Mans sports cars, hadn't they?
18:13
So, yeah.
18:13
So, they're all ready to get into Formula One.
18:16
And Ecklestone had to direct them.
18:19
And he saw an opportunity to sell my seat.
18:25
You had conversations with him in relation to all this, didn't you?
18:28
Yes, yes.
18:29
And I knew what was happening.
18:31
In the chess piece moves, you would end up driving for Eddie Jordan too, wouldn't you, in the way that all sort of shook out?
18:37
There were some funny phone calls in relation to that.
18:39
Eddie hit the roof.
18:40
I think he wanted money and things, didn't he?
18:43
He calls me.
18:44
After Eccleston calls me and says, Roberto, we're here trying to fix your problem.
18:49
You're being shaft, but I'm here to try to help.
18:54
defend you you either accept these numbers that they put into you or things are not gonna go your way anymore so I took his advice and he made sure the lawyers got paid through Briatore and he made sure I would receive the money anywhere in the world that I wanted okay so done that deal put the phone down try to go to sleep
19:21
Eddie Jordan calls me.
19:22
Three in the morning or something, was it?
19:24
Something like that.
19:25
I say, Eddie, what do you want?
19:27
Oh, Roberto, you made all that money.
19:30
I just need $60,000 to run you in the car.
19:34
So I put the phone down on him.
19:36
You hung up.
19:37
I just hung up.
19:39
So he calls back.
19:41
Roberto, what happened?
19:42
I said, well...
19:44
I'm not spending my money, Eddie, on your team.
19:48
Forget it.
19:49
I've done what I had to do in Formula One.
19:51
Bye.
19:52
Put the phone down again.
19:54
He calls again.
19:55
Roberto.
19:56
I say, Eddie, I went to you before this all happened.
20:05
And I say to you, would you let me drive for you?
20:09
And we do a friendly thing for you.
20:13
Michael to drive for Benetton.
20:16
And you said no, because you had a contract with Michael.
20:21
They could not take that away from you.
20:25
And there was a lot of money behind all that contract.
20:30
So now you call me and you want me to pay you to drive?
20:35
Forget it.
20:36
I will drive for you for free.
20:39
Oh, what about $30,000?
20:41
I dropped the phone on him again.
20:43
I was so mad.
20:44
I just had lost my situation in Formula One.
20:49
I didn't care.
20:52
And so he calls again.
20:55
Roberto, don't put the phone down.
20:56
I need to talk to you.
20:57
I said, the only way I will not put this phone down is if you do not talk about money.
21:07
Okay.
21:09
Will you drive for me?
21:10
I will drive for you for free.
21:13
Okay.
21:15
Then we set, we made a seat in that five o'clock in the morning.
21:19
I slept maybe two hours.
21:21
I did really well in qualifying that car.
21:24
We changed the brakes for the race.
21:26
It didn't work very well.
21:28
And I spun the opposite way in the middle, braking for Ascari chicane because the brakes locked on the right side.
21:37
in the first or second lap of the race.
21:39
Anyway, Eddie after race say to me, Roberto, do you wanna race another race?
21:47
I say, yes.
21:49
See, but I need to find money.
21:51
I say, Eddie, if I find a sponsor and I will look for one because the next race is in Portugal and I know some friends there, but we have to do a deal with no money
22:06
And if I find money from a sponsor, I'll give it to you.
22:11
And we shook hands on that.
22:13
And that's how it happened.
22:14
And a friend of mine in Portugal, after the race, found Eddie some money and they put the logos in the car, which after that was Zanardi that drove with those logos.
22:27
So Eddie said to me, Roberto, you're the first driver ever that paid me after the race.
22:35
I said, I didn't pay you, Eddie, I found you a sponsor.
22:48
Roberto's love at the technical and development side is a reminder that it's a team game.
22:53
Drivers need a good bond with their engineers, something Rob Smedley enjoyed with Felipe Massa at both Ferrari and Williams, a bond that withstood the immense pressures of Formula One.
23:04
But yeah, it is a brutal sport.
23:06
So when you can find people that you really gel with and you know they have your back, that's really important.
23:12
And that's what happened with Felipe and I.
23:16
Rob Smedley, Chris Dyer, Malcolm Osler and more can be found in the garage library.
23:21
And they all have good stories from the engineer's perspective at the very highest level of the sport.
23:27
Back to the chat with Roberto now.
23:30
The longevity you had in your career is amazing because you would go back to IndyCar and have lots of different drives with different teams.
23:37
What about the final aspect of Formula One and when were you comfortable with knowing, okay, that is it.
23:42
I'm going to go back to America now.
23:44
And how did you deal with that?
23:46
In that season in 91…
23:52
I got a phone call for the last race of the year, because I left at Monza.
23:58
Mm-hmm.
23:59
So... What are you talking about?
24:02
It's straight in Grand Prix.
24:03
Is it the Adelaide?
24:04
Yes, the Adelaide.
24:05
And I was invited to replace Johnny Morbidelli, that had just gone to Ferrari to replace Alan Prost.
24:16
Okay.
24:17
And Minardi, who I love as a person, invited me to drive.
24:24
And then we went to Adelaide in that Grand Prix that rained out.
24:27
Okay.
24:28
And I was able to race for Minardi in that year.
24:32
Then McLaren at that Grand Prix come to me and say, Roberto, we want you to test.
24:42
Senna's car in Portugal for three days, would you be kind to do so?
24:46
I said, yes, indeed.
24:48
So in that year, I drove... Unbelievable!
24:52
I drove from Benetton...
24:55
Eddie Jordan, Minardi, and McLaren.
25:00
Unreal.
25:01
And it was a fantastic three-day testing in the studio as well.
25:06
Was it?
25:06
Yes, fantastic.
25:08
Senna wanted to have a break and have a holiday, and they asked me to do that.
25:15
Amazing.
25:16
I mean, that fits your bill so well, doesn't it?
25:18
What was that car like and what were they like to work with?
25:20
Fantastic.
25:21
Just amazing.
25:22
You know, I also developed sometime before for McLaren the very first throttle by wire.
25:31
They were the first one to use it.
25:33
Wire by wire.
25:34
And they asked me to test for them.
25:37
So I did a lot of developments for those people.
25:40
Are you proud?
25:41
I mean, you talked about the podium there with Bennett's on before, but some of the technical stuff along the way, I mean, there's been some pretty cool things that you have.
25:50
You must be equally to an extent proud of those achievements too.
25:54
Very much so.
25:57
The thing I'm very proud of is I could call
26:01
Any of the top engineers that had worked with me... And they would take your call.
26:05
They would take my call and they would spend hours talking to me about things in the race cars.
26:12
You know, just for an example, Patrick had given me the tips...
26:19
To another team.
26:21
It's unheard of.
26:22
It's unheard of.
26:24
The respect I had from those people were unique.
26:27
Ron Turanac.
26:29
We could sit for hours.
26:30
Gary Anderson.
26:32
We go throughout the night talking about developing things in the car.
26:37
I would love to have some thoughts on, on IndyCar.
26:40
When you look at your career, there are lots of great teams that you were with.
26:45
One thing that really does stand out in a statistic sense, I'm not going to get the year right and you will correct me, but it's Cleveland.
26:53
And it had been, I think 12 years, maybe since you stood on the top step of the podium.
26:59
Take me there.
26:59
Take me to that day.
27:00
What was that like?
27:01
And what did that mean to you?
27:02
And that's going already to IndyCar.
27:05
Yeah.
27:06
Um,
27:08
I'm in 92, no drive in anything.
27:15
And I get this phone call from a guy that rent me an apartment in Monaco that he knew everybody.
27:24
He say, Roberto, Alex Scafi is not driving for Andrea Moda.
27:31
They hardly have a car.
27:33
but they need a driver to go to Brazil.
27:36
And you're in Brazil now having a holiday.
27:38
Would you like to drive there?
27:41
I say, well, if you get them to pay me $15,000 cash on arrival, I'll stay the weekend.
27:52
And they did?
27:54
And they did.
27:55
Unbelievable.
27:57
Yeah.
27:59
So he talked to them.
28:02
And he said, okay, the money will be there on arrival.
28:06
And I met this guy that had these black shoes pointed.
28:10
Pointy.
28:12
You kill cockroach in the corner.
28:16
And with his black leather jackets and things, and he got me this envelope.
28:23
He said, hi, I'm Andrea Sassetti.
28:26
Here's what you ask.
28:28
And I counted $15,000 cash.
28:31
I put it in my pocket.
28:32
I said, okay, where's the car?
28:34
There was no car.
28:36
There was bits and pieces everywhere in the garage.
28:40
And the mechanics were trying to put all this together overnight.
28:44
So I found a box and I slept in the box while waiting for them to finish the car to make a seat.
28:51
And the goal was to do three laps so they wouldn't be kicked out of Formula One.
28:58
And we end up doing three laps for them in Brazil and, um, get them to secure a seat in Formula one.
29:08
So I told Satzati, I said, as long as you give me that $15,000 every time on arrival, I'll do the rest.
29:19
I'll be on the weekend for you.
29:21
And every time happen.
29:23
And, um,
29:25
There's something very curious that happened there.
29:28
There is a documentary in Italian about this.
29:33
It's called The Fast and Furious, or The Last and Furious.
29:40
Furious, okay.
29:42
It's a documentary.
29:43
It's online.
29:43
You've got to buy it for $15.
29:48
It's about this team, the worst team in Formula One, the qualifier Kai Monte Carlo.
29:56
So the way that happened was with Andrea Moda, although there was not enough money, the car was not finished being built.
30:08
We had a great group of people that I knew from Cologne.
30:14
Yeah.
30:15
And I say to those guys, I say, come on, guys, let's make this car one time qualify.
30:22
We're going to be heroes if we do so.
30:25
See how we're going to do that, Roberto.
30:27
I say, well, we've got a good chassis.
30:29
We've got a good engine.
30:31
We need to find the rest of the parts to finish the car.
30:35
So we talked to the designer of the car.
30:38
We knew what we needed to get.
30:40
And I went to my friends, and that was a very, very unique scenario.
30:47
I got some shocks and springs and rear wing from teams like Ferrari, Benetton, and Williams.
31:00
This doesn't happen anymore now, stuff like this, eh?
31:03
I just had friends everywhere.
31:05
Wow.
31:06
So I was able to get those parts.
31:11
The group of people were able to make one car ready.
31:16
Whatever was missing, I was the one that went and asked people for it.
31:21
And cobbled it all together.
31:23
And it took us a couple of months to get all that done.
31:28
Before Monaco in Imola, we already had a good car, but a wheel bearing ceased, and we did not qualify there either.
31:38
So I convinced Andrea Sassetti that we should go to a very slow track, wherever we can find one.
31:47
And we found, I believe, Bineto.
31:50
South of Rome.
31:51
South of Rome.
31:51
South of Rome.
31:55
It was first, second, third on the Formula One car.
31:58
And my engineer, Hayden Burview, is from New Zealand.
32:04
Yeah, great guy, worked with me in Indy cars and he was one of my engineers there.
32:13
So we worked together.
32:14
We were able to make the car turn more for Monaco.
32:18
We set up the diff in a way that would work for Monaco.
32:22
We got the right height right and we went to Monaco.
32:29
When I got to Monaco, we were in pre-qualifying.
32:33
So we had to pass pre-qualifying.
32:36
To even get through to the weekend, the race weekend.
32:38
Yes.
32:39
So I knew this girl from Elf.
32:45
Her name was Beverly.
32:49
So I say, I need your help.
32:53
I said, what do you need?
32:54
I said, well, everybody has this special fuel that's worth 50 horsepower in a Formula One car.
33:05
Is there any way you can let me have, you know, only a few gallons so we can do pre-qualifying at least?
33:12
I said, oh, Roberto, I can't do that, but I can take you to my boss and we can talk to him.
33:20
Long story short, I convinced this guy to lend me a few gallons of special fuel as long as I took them myself and nobody knew about it.
33:33
Okay.
33:34
So I did all that, took it to the car.
33:38
I told Hayden about the fuel, but not to tell anybody else.
33:43
And we used that fuel in the car and somehow
33:48
we qualified the Andrea Moda car in Monaco.
33:52
We passed pre-qualifying first.
33:54
And I remember one of the best moments of my career is driving to the pit lane in Monaco after pre-qualifying.
34:04
Every single person working for the top teams came out of the garages and clapped at me, driving into the pits.
34:14
That sensation will stay with me until the day I die.
34:20
And the team only lasted until Monza.
34:24
They stopped paying me the $15,000 or I stopped working.
34:29
When did you draw the line on Formula One and know that after all that work, all that time?
34:35
After Monza.
34:36
Because you'd done so much.
34:37
You'd come back so many times.
34:39
I thought, done.
34:41
I got my podium.
34:42
I made it up there.
34:44
I was already on the limit of age when I made.
34:49
Yeah.
34:50
So are IndyCar teams calling here?
34:53
Are you calling, thinking I might go back to America?
34:55
When did you entertain that idea and start thinking about that?
34:58
At the end of 1993, I say to my wife, you're pregnant, why don't we pack it up, move to America?
35:07
Florida?
35:08
Did you go to Florida?
35:09
Yes.
35:09
Well, first we went to Indianapolis.
35:12
Let's see if I can get a drive in IndyCars.
35:15
And if worse comes to worse, our daughter will be born in America and have an American passport.
35:22
So my daughter was born in Indianapolis.
35:25
They met at this hospital.
35:28
Didn't find a ride.
35:31
I went to every shop.
35:33
Met everybody.
35:35
The whole year.
35:37
Didn't get a drive.
35:39
Then I bumped into a very good friend of mine, Carlo Gansia.
35:45
And he was running Pedro Denise.
35:50
He was sort of behind Pedro Denise, who was a very wealthy Brazilian driver.
35:59
He saw an opportunity because they owned a chain of supermarkets in Brazil for the same idea that Chip Ganassi had in America.
36:12
of a supermarket clientele, not clientele, but whatever you sell inside of a supermarket, they would be the sponsors of the car.
36:25
Gotcha, gotcha, yeah.
36:26
He saw that idea that Chip had in IndyCars.
36:30
He took that idea to Pedro's father in Brazil and he bought the idea and they were able to get all the
36:42
people that sold the stuff on the supermarket to sponsor the car.
36:47
So we had Parmalat back in sponsoring cars through a supermarket.
36:55
And they hired me to develop Pedro Denise in Formula One.
37:00
Got you.
37:00
In a coaching sense.
37:01
In a coaching sense, but I would be the number one driver, coaching Pedro Denise, driving in the same team.
37:11
Wow.
37:13
So I got a job in 95 for that.
37:16
Spent a year in Europe.
37:18
That was my last year in Formula One.
37:22
After that year, I found a way to drive IndyCars in 96 through again, a blessed situation.
37:35
Somebody came cross path with me at the right place at the right time, found me somebody that would sponsor me.
37:45
And I was able to break into IndyCars in 96.
37:48
Amazing.
37:50
What is it about those machines?
37:51
I mean, I remember the Gold Coast so fondly, epic races there.
37:56
I mean, that chapter for you to be a part of that, what an amazing booking to your career in some ways.
38:07
Yeah, it was.
38:08
I always remember Indy cars were great.
38:11
They were more like a club racing compared to Formula One in the 80s.
38:18
But you enjoyed the challenge of something new, something different again, didn't you?
38:21
Yes.
38:21
For me, it was what moved me, challenges.
38:25
Yes.
38:26
Overcoming, if you told me it was impossible, that would kick me.
38:32
That would give me a kick to try to make it happen.
38:36
Just imagine, I closed everything in Europe after 18 years, moved over to the US,
38:47
But always there was a hope of something, like the first year I went to England was to learn English.
38:54
This time now I'm going to America just to have my daughter being born there.
39:00
So that was something.
39:04
If everything went, didn't happen, something would have happened.
39:11
And so I always set myself that way.
39:16
And it wasn't easy to get to IndyCars again.
39:20
I went to see a friend in Brazil at the end of 1995, after the 40-course Formula One season.
39:31
And I said to her, I'm ready to stop.
39:34
I've tried America, didn't work.
39:37
Formula One is finished for me.
39:39
I don't like touring cars.
39:41
I'm going to stop.
39:43
She said, you're not.
39:44
I said, yes, I am.
39:46
No, you're not.
39:49
You're born in Rio.
39:51
We were in Rio at that time.
39:54
The governor of Rio has decided to sponsor a motorcycle rider.
40:00
And if he's sponsoring him, he's going to sponsor you, believe me.
40:05
I said, come on, do you know him?
40:06
He said, no.
40:07
But I'll figure it out, she says.
40:10
And she's a very determined lady.
40:15
who helped her husband who was a treat the pleasure and to go back to, to, uh, to be able to walk again.
40:23
Wow.
40:23
Wow.
40:24
A little like a robot, but he, she was behind him and she made him walk again.
40:30
She found a way to meet the governor in that day.
40:37
And she convinced the governor to give me billboards around the city of Rio for me to sell for sponsorship to go racing.
40:47
Amazing.
40:49
And by doing that, we found somebody that would try to sell those billboards to sponsors, like Marlboro, that we knew the connections.
41:03
But he didn't do a good job.
41:06
And a few months later, we hadn't found anything.
41:10
But in the same office, some other guy walks in.
41:18
That's why I say it's another blast from the sky.
41:21
Okay.
41:23
Came in to...
41:25
complain about an ad that he made on the newspaper through that agency that will, they're trying to raise money for the billboards.
41:39
And he looked at the conversation, all that, and before he went home, he said, by the way, give me one of those proposals.
41:48
Tomorrow I'm going to see somebody that might like this.
41:52
And the next day, he got me a $2 billion sponsorship, became my best friend, and he went racing with me throughout my IndyCar career.
42:06
Unreal.
42:07
Until I stopped racing again.
42:11
So that chapter in my life opened through sponsorship, through another blast from the sky,
42:21
And this guy, Pedro da Silva, opened many doors for me.
42:32
And because we succeeded with a very back market team, we came third in the Michigan 500 race, which replaced the Indy 500 race in that year, in 96.
42:45
Yeah.
42:49
I was able to find other drives after that, like Penske test team, replaced, I replaced Christian Fittipaldi at the Newman House, made fantastic friends forever.
43:11
They all loved me.
43:13
And I started performing well with them.
43:19
became the super sub of IndyCars, replacing Mark Blandell also at the Motorola PacWest team.
43:29
Made a name for myself.
43:32
And eventually, Patrick hired me.
43:36
for uh full season in Indy cars and we almost won the championship and finished third unbelievable what were those cars like and what are your kind of little recollections of that era you rattled off some of the names that were there then i mean there are teams even now that i mean Penske is iconic you know um to do what you did what you did
43:59
At that age and to hold true to the values that you're talking about.
44:07
Stand up for the challenge.
44:09
Find a way.
44:11
Don't – Give up.
44:13
Don't give up.
44:14
Yeah.
44:14
Don't give up.
44:15
This is a great example for young racers.
44:17
I have a –
44:18
I have an interview done by a guy that used to work for Honda, the engine guy of a Honda center days.
44:26
He became a journalist eventually.
44:28
And he wrote, he made a big interview with me.
44:32
And the, the, the cover of this interview on this magazine was, um, uh, never give up.
44:42
Give up.
44:43
Hmm.
44:45
Um, so, um,
44:48
Um, it wasn't easy, but driving those cars were fantastic because I had to jump in the car at the last minute and I ended up performing better than the drivers in that team.
45:07
Mm-hmm.
45:08
And I could fit in so easily into a package.
45:13
Mm-hmm.
45:14
and work with engineers and have results.
45:21
So when I got the full-time Patrick deal, it was so fantastic.
45:32
It took me a little while to get going, but we made the car quick.
45:37
And we fought for the championship.
45:41
So very good cars to drive.
45:44
Very good environment.
45:45
Very competitive.
45:48
When Nigel Munster went there in 1995, was the most competitive year.
45:53
And Indy cars were great then.
45:58
except the breakage between the Champ car and RL.
46:04
Other than that, everything was fantastic.
46:07
I loved those cars.
46:09
I was able to develop them.
46:12
And you got to stand on the top step of the podium again.
46:17
Yes.
46:18
So winning Cleveland.
46:21
And the two races I won in IndyCars, they were not given to me.
46:26
They were really won by a lot of efforts.
46:34
One from pole position led the race throughout.
46:40
and it was the first time that we were quick, and people got a surprise few people.
46:45
I remember Dario Franchitti making some comments saying, well, you won't be lasting very long or something like that, and I won the race from pole position all the way through.
46:59
And in Vancouver the year later,
47:04
we beat Penske fair and square.
47:07
So, with two very strong wings.
47:12
And I made a career in IndyCars from the back door again, like I did in Formula One.
47:20
Made some good money.
47:22
Made my name.
47:24
I've been respecting the IndyCar world up to this date.
47:28
Whenever I show up, people have a lot of time for me.
47:31
Even the new people that
47:34
did not know me before.
47:35
They know about me.
47:36
Excellent.
47:38
So I had a very, very long career, and that's why I still do coaching, because I love racing.
47:49
I love going racing.
47:50
I love coming here to New Zealand.
47:53
I love the people that really like racing, like Tina and Gary.
47:58
From Kiwi Motorsports.
47:59
From Kiwi Motorsports.
48:00
Gary Orton.
48:01
Yeah, yeah.
48:02
So I have great friends like Scott Dixon has a lot of time for me.
48:10
He used to say, well, I admire you so much, so old, and you're so competitive.
48:15
And now he's doing what I used to do.
48:20
So here we are.
48:22
We're going to wrap this up in a second.
48:23
You jumped back behind the wheel of a car last week in Taupo.
48:28
The driver, I'm standing down at turn one.
48:30
My daughter is filming.
48:32
And I watched this Formula Atlantic come to me at Warp Factor 9.
48:37
I laid on the brakes.
48:38
Right on the limit.
48:40
Right on the limit, you know.
48:41
And I'd say, who is that?
48:42
And I looked at the helmet and I went, ah.
48:46
That was a five-lap run.
48:49
I had to make the most of it.
48:50
But I don't know if you've ever, maybe you have and I don't know this, but I don't know if you've ever used the word retired because you're still in motorsport in some way.
49:00
And here you are and you rewound the clock last week and got to drive again and enjoyed it.
49:05
I mean, clearly the passion Roberto has never, I mean, there are these really emotional moments
49:13
peaks and troughs for you, some immensely testing moments.
49:17
There are incredibly satisfying moments where you bounce back from that.
49:21
And you never, maybe you did, but you never seem to lose the love for the sport.
49:28
Not at all.
49:28
Lots of people would, ah, not for me, you know.
49:32
But it's the other way.
49:34
I made my career in racing.
49:38
So this is the love of my life.
49:41
I'm blessed to be able to do what I love in life.
49:45
I met great people.
49:47
I stumped my name in racing around the world at the highest level.
49:54
Against the odds sometimes.
49:55
From nothing.
49:56
Complete against the odds, always.
50:00
So I just have a lot of good memories of everything.
50:07
Mm-hmm.
50:10
And I became the impossible sometimes be possible somehow.
50:16
Mm-hmm.
50:17
So that's me, you know, overcoming challenges and the most difficult times succeed in some way.
50:27
Congratulations.
50:28
So, you know, you can say, okay, you could be world champion, but you didn't do this.
50:35
I don't see it that way.
50:36
I see a guy that had no chance and complete against the odds.
50:45
make it to the highest steps in Europe, in America, around the world.
50:53
So I'm just so blessed that that has happened to me.
50:58
Congratulations.
50:59
Are you a granddad now?
51:00
Oh, yeah.
51:01
I've got three grandkids.
51:02
What do they call you?
51:04
Vovor.
51:05
What does that mean?
51:06
Which is grandpa in Portuguese.
51:08
Vovor.
51:08
I love it.
51:09
Are you enjoying that part of life?
51:10
Very much so.
51:11
Very much so.
51:12
I take them karting, but I don't put a lot of effort.
51:16
Just for fun.
51:18
Have a good time together.
51:20
I teach them how to ride bikes.
51:21
I teach them the things that I teach my girls when they were young.
51:27
Wonderful.
51:28
You've been incredibly generous in your time with me.
51:30
I'm exceptionally grateful for that, Roberto.
51:33
You had success where I came from, where I grew up in London.
51:36
Australia you've had success in this country as well and you've been to all the other places that you've just mentioned and and made it well done and I love the fact that to this day you know that kid that started in the the camber shop and was passionate about bikes and cars and engines loves it to to this day well done.
51:58
And I still do.
51:59
I didn't race the Grand Prix because my neck is a little weak.
52:03
You know, if I drive for too long, I might get paralyzed.
52:08
So I had to be careful.
52:09
I put the brace in my neck to do those laps.
52:13
But I enjoy it.
52:15
And I still have what it takes other than the neck.
52:20
Thank you so much.
52:21
My pleasure, Greg.
52:22
My pleasure.
52:30
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
52:34
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52:38
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52:44
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