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Driving to the Future: Living Life following Formula 1 Racing · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Driving to the future Living Life following Formula One.
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Racing by Dr. Mario Felice
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Tecce.
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Adapted for audio and read by crew Chief Eric from the Motoring
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Podcast Network and Revel Arroway from your listening to Radio Revel
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driving to the future.
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This is not just a story about racing.
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It's a meditation on life, death, and the choices we make in between.
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Told through the voice of Mario, a reflective narrator shaped
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by decades of motorsports, science and personal experience.
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Driving to the future invites us into a journey that begins on the
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track, but reaches far beyond it.
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Across the 11 chapters of his book, Mario explores the metaphor of driving
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as a lens for understanding existence.
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He revisits legendary races and iconic drivers like Jills v nv,
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ton Sena, and Jackie Stewart.
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Not to dryly recite statistics, but to eliminate character,
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courage and conviction.
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Each turn on the circuit becomes a philosophical pivot toward memory,
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excellence, loss, and redemption.
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The narrative weaves together the experience Mario has with
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Motorsports history, his career as a molecular biologist, and his
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thoughts on theology and metaphysic.
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Mario draws parallels between the roar of the racetrack and the silence
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of the biologically microscopic.
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Between the sometimes depth defying risks of overtaking at Monaco and those risks
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involved in Loving Deeply, Mario reflects on free will, virtue, hope, and the
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Infinite always returning to the central question, what does it mean to live well?
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Mario's story is a tribute to those who take the steering wheel in their
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hands, not only on the asphalt, but in the driving of their own lives.
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It honors the racers who have never lifted, the thinkers, who
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have never stopped asking, and the loved ones who smiles carried
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us through the toughest turns.
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It's a story of motion, meaning, and the eternal race wheel run.
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Now let's let Mario take the wheel.
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Scene one, the last turn.
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I always keep the last turn in mind, not just on the track, but in.
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It is the place where everything slows down, where instinct takes over, and
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where you understand what really matters.
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I've taken many turns in my life, some fast, some reckless, some cautious,
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but the last turn is different.
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It's not about speed, it's about clarity.
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I think of Jesus, he never slowed down, not even in the last turn.
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He believed in pushing beyond limits, even when the car protested, even
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when the world said no, that was jz.
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Pure defiant, beautiful.
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I'm watching JZ drive at Z. The car is twitching, unstable, but
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holds it together with sheer will.
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He isn't driving the car, he's commanding it.
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And in that moment I understood.
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Driving isn't about control, it's about surrender.
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When Mario speaks of Gils Vnu, one can almost hear a certain reverence.
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Not just admiration, but a connection, a shared understanding between
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drivers who see the world through the lens of velocity and risk.
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Mario doesn't romanticize his vivid memories.
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He doesn't glorify danger either.
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He respects it.
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He knows what it takes to face the last turn and what it
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costs him to never back down.
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I've lost friends to that last turn.
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I've seen helmets, fly engines explode, silence fall, and yet we keep driving.
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Not because we are fearless, but because we are faithful.
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Faithful to the road, to the machine, to the dream for Mario.
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The last turn is both a metaphor and a reality.
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It's the curve that tests everything you are, and when you emerge from
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it, if you emerge, you're changed.
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I don't race anymore, not like I used to, but every time I get
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behind the wheel, I feel it.
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That pull, that whisper, that question.
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Are you ready?
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And I answer not with words, but with motion.
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Scene two three turns.
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I remember Jackie Stewart at Monsa in 1973.
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The parabolic turn so fast, so unforgiving.
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Jackie's, Tyrell dances through it with precision, like the car
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is stitched through the asphalt.
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He wasn't just driving, he was fox trotting.
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Every movement had intent.
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Every choice mattered.
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He started fourth that day, but a puncture forced him into the pits.
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In those days, pit stops were rare, almost a guaranteed loss for your race.
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But Jackie came back from last place.
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He surged forward overtaking with Grace in Fury, finishing fourth and
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cleansing his third world championship.
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That drive wasn't just fast, it was virtuous.
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It became the pursuit of excellence.
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Mario sees Jackie Stewart's performance not just as a technical feat, but as a
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moral one for him, it's a demonstration of fortitude, patience, and purpose.
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It's a reminder that greatness isn't always about winning.
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It's about how you respond when the odds turn against you.
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A few weeks later, Stewart retired.
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His teammate Francois er, had died in a crash er, had been waiting
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for his moment in the spotlight, helping Jackie learning, growing.
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But fate intervened like Gil's never got the chance to
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demonstrate what he could become.
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And 1973 marked the beginning of the global oil crisis.
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Suddenly driving was discouraged, fuel was rationed.
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Sundays in Italy became car free.
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It felt like the world was turning against everything.
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I loved.
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Some even called for motor sports to be banned, to save fuel, to set an example.
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But the point of motor sports was being missed.
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Racing isn't about waste, it's about striving.
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It's about doing the best you can together.
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Mario's defense of motorsport is philosophical.
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He sees competition not as conflict, but as collaboration.
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The Latin roots of competition combine cum with Petra to seek together
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as in to aim higher, not against each other, but with each other.
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Sena always understood that he was collaborating with
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his rivals on the track.
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So did Jesus.
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So did Jackie.
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They weren't fighting one another.
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They were searching together, searching for the edge, for the truth, for
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the best version of themselves.
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For example, I think of Gilles in Argentina in 1981.
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His Ferrari is over steering, drifting off the racing line, but Gils holds
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the car, controls it, pushes it.
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That in movement is etched in my mind, his car dancing on the limit.
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I didn't see recklessness.
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I saw mastery.
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I've always believed that excellence isn't just about results, it's about
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commitment, about doing your best, even when the odds are stacked against you.
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I remember watching Sena take his first lap in the rain at Dunnington in 1993.
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He'd started fourth.
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Yet, by the end of that lap, he is leading.
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It was like watching a miracle unfold before my eyes.
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He wasn't just faster, he was transcendent.
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Now, I don't worship drivers or teams, so you'd be hard pressed to call
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me a teso, but that lap moved me.
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It was pure.
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It was beautiful.
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It was the kind of moment that reminds you of why you care.
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Mario's reflections are not just about motorsport, they're about life.
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His memories are tactile.
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You can feel the tires skidding, the engine roaring the tension in the air.
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But beneath this detail, you can almost sense a deeper question being mold upon.
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What does it mean to live well?
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To do good, to be good.
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That comes down to choices and the pursuit of something greater than victory.
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It is in the rain, in the chaos, in the silence after the race that I find meaning
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scene three more turns.
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It is 1979, the Italian Grand Prix, Bruno Ali's Alpha Romeo, is flying
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through the parabolas that's sweeping final curves, so respected at Monsa.
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The movement is fast, aggressive, beautiful.
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For several laps.
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Gia Lee has been faster inching closer.
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He's closing in on Nikki Lau's.
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Braum ready to overtake.
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And then just as the past seems inevitable, GIA Melli loses
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control and spins off the track.
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This was heartbreaking, not just for the race, but for the all
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Italian dream that it represented.
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Gia Elli, an Italian driver piloting the Alpha Romero, an Italian car powered by an
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Italian engine, engineered by an Italian, built at an Italian factory, and it is
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this Italian dream all converging into.
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Beautiful reality at Monsa, the temple of Italian Motorsport, that moment
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was more than a missed overtake, more than an embarrassing retirement
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from the race after only 28 laps, it was a missed opportunity to
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show the world what Italy could do.
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Mario's disappointment wasn't just technical, it was cultural.
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Giacomo's Alpha Rome was a symbol of national pride and
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its failure felt personal.
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But even in defeat, Mario saw value.
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The potential was there.
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The dream was real.
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The 1979 Grand Prix was won by two Ferraris.
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Jodi Schechter took the championship, Gilles V following team orders had hung
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back, did not take his chance to win.
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Gilles was loyal, he was patient, but that chance to win would not come again.
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Formula One and the world have changed so much since those days.
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In racing, the championship was mostly European and Italy had a much stronger
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industrial political role in the world.
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That role was given a new reinforcement with the visit of the Pope Pope John Paul
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II visited the Ferrari factory in 1988, just months before Enso Ferrari died.
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The Pope stepped outta a stately protocol and asked for a ride in a
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Ferrari around Theran North Circuit.
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John Paul II demonstrated an understanding of the spirit of the place.
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That moment of faith meeting engineering was unforgettable.
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Mario's memories stretch across decades, but they're not just
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snapshots like the race cars.
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He's loved watching.
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The memories are living moments in movement.
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He revisits races that didn't just shape motorsports, but
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helped shaped his own sense of possibility, pride and disappointment.
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Italian dreams, global shifts and personal reflections converge in
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the turns of Monza EZ and Monaco.
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Senna's death in 1994 still haunts me.
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He was trying so hard, pushing so much, he deserved better.
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Then a tiny piece of suspension pierces his helmet.
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Had that final crash, had mola not occurred, Sena would've won in 94, 95, 96.
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Maybe even 97, but sometimes effort doesn't match the outcome.
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That's life that's racing.
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It is 1997 and Jacques Vi Gil's son clocks an excellent lap time that
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earns him his position on pole at the European Grand Prix in Jez.
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Then the unbelievable occurred.
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Two other drivers set the exact same lap time identical down
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to the thousandth of a second.
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A third driver did the same.
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What seemed a coincidence?
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Felt surreal.
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Having set time.
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First Jacques kept pole and the next day he won the championship.
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It felt like divine justice for Jacques's father, Gilles, for Sena,
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for all the good, their untimely deaths had denied them and the world.
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Mario doesn't believe in coincidence.
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He believes in meaning that race with its impossible symmetry and
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the poetic justice of the outcome.
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The Grand Prix of EZ was more than a sporting event.
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It became a moment of redemption.
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He sees justice in both results and in effort, and also in commitment.
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The willingness to do good even when the world doesn't seem to reward it.
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Louis Hamilton is winning at Monaco and.
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2008 in the rain.
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The track is changing constantly, but Hamilton keeps getting faster.
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His yellow helmet drifting through the Grand Hotel, hairpin Hamilton's
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command of the car and the track brought back memories of Sena in 89.
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Same track, same brilliance.
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Hamilton was going to accomplish a lot that day.
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I saw it clearly.
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Driving is more than a movement.
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It's a way to feel your potential to go fast as marvelous.
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But not because of the speed, rather because of what it reveals.
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Your instincts, your courage, your control.
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I started with motorcycles, a 50 cc Vespa, then in 1 25 CC Gera later cars.
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I love the sound, the throttle response, the feeling of acceleration.
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Oh, I never liked diesel.
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Too dull, too slow.
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I wanted to be a racing driver, but of course, life took me elsewhere.
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I studied, I taught, I worked at a university.
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Still the desire for speed and its marvels never left me.
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Mario's admiration isn't blind.
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It's earned.
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He sees greatness not in fame, but in moments, in choices.
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In turns well taken.
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Mario's journey isn't one of regret.
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It's one of reflection.
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Though he didn't become a racer, he became a thinker, a storyteller, and a seeker.
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Mario sees excellence everywhere in skiing and racing and in life.
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January 18th, 1975.
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The slalom ski champion Gusta Thony races downhill at swell.
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No one expected thony to do well in that downhill, but he did.
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He committed, he excelled even as only three thousandths of a second
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separated him from the winner.
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France Clammer.
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That performance helped Thony win the Alpine Ski World Cup.
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That's what I admire.
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Not just the result, but the effort.
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TH's downhill run reminded me of Formula One, high speed precision.
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Risk and the pursuit of something greater to live well.
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To do Good.
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That's the turn I keep chasing.
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Scene four, the dream turn, the real turn.
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Scott Stoddard is driving fast, too fast.
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He's closing in on his teammate who doesn't want to be passed.
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Monaco is unforgiving and overtaking there is nearly impossible, but Scott tries
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anyway, coming out of the tunnel, driving into the chica, the teammates collide.
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The crash is violent.
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Flames erupt.
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Scott is seriously injured, but he didn't give up.
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He came back, he raced again.
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Scott Stoddard demonstrates the ambition, the pain, the determination, even though
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they are on the screen, they are real.
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They represent the reflection of the spirit of drivers like Lorenzo Badini,
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who died in a similar crash at Monaco just a year after the film was released.
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The story of Stoddard portrayed by Brian Bedford in the movie Grand Prix resonates
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to Mario because it captures something he believes to be essential, the willingness
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to risk everything for excellence, not out of recklessness, but out of purpose.
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And he finds himself exploring the emotional truths revealed through
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the fictional characters in the movie as they mirror real life drivers,
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their risks and their choices.
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Stadard in the film wasn't being reckless.
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His was commitment.
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He knew the risks and he accepted them.
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That's what racing was.
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In those days.
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The cars were dangerous, the tracks were unforgiving, but
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the drivers weren't suicidal.
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They were seekers.
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Today, the risks are lower.
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Technology has made the sports safer, but that essence remains
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the pursuit, the drive, the dream.
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Mario can draw parallels between the fictional stoddard and the real driver.
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Nikki Lauda, who returned to racing after a near fatal crash, Lau's
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comeback at Monza in 1976 was legendary.
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His decision to stop racing in Japan later that year was
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controversial, but deeply human.
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Lauda was always in my thoughts.
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I followed his career closely.
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I read his interviews, I watched his races.
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I felt like I knew him even though we never met.
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When he died, it felt personal, like losing a friend.
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He was buried with his original Ferrari racing suit.
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That gesture said everything.
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I remember loudest words when he left Ferrari in 1977.
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He wondered to himself where he and Ferrari would be in two years.
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Ironically, Ferrari won the championship exactly two years later.
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21 years would pass before Ferrari would see their next win.
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And in the middle of those 21 years was 1982, the year in
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which Geo's Vinu should have won.
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Mario's connection to Nikki Lauda is emblematic of how fans
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experience motorsport, not just as entertainment, but as a relationship.
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Through media, memory and emotion, drivers become part of our lives.
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His reflections are layered with irony, insight, and longing, and he
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sees the sport not just as a series of races, but as a tapestry of
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choices, consequences, and character.
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We follow drivers, we admire them, we learn from them, and sometimes
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we feel like we know them, but the truth is we only know fragments.
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Still.
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Those fragments matter.
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They shape us.
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Scene five, beyond the last turn, faith and hope.
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I am running late for a meeting, driving at about a hundred kilometers
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per hour, reasonable for a moderately crowded road in ideal conditions,
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but this time I am pushing the limit.
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It's raining and visibility is poor.
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I'm just coming out of that tight curve when I see the two lanes of
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stopped cars, barely 50 meters ahead.
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The road is slick.
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Breaking hard, seems impossible.
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I downshift from fourth to third, the engine roaring.
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The gears resisting.
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I jerk the steering wheel and the car begins to drift.
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Somehow the rear wheels swung around, helped to break the speed.
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Then miraculously the car straightens and slips through the narrow gap
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between the two lanes of cars.
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Once I stopped, I saw I had only had a minor bump, just a broken mirror.
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I was alive, unhurt, but shaken
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in those few seconds as I managed my auto into that unlikely safe stop.
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I saw death.
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I found myself revisiting my life, my youth, my studies, my
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marriage, my children, my work, like the refrain of a favorite song.
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My thoughts began focusing on three questions.
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Had I lived well, had I done good, was I afraid to die?
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A moment of crisis, a tight turn, a blocked road, and the
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looming possibility of death.
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Yet he doesn't dwell on the fear, jumping at the chance the experience gives him.
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He reflects on life mortality and the search for meaning.
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His questions are universal.
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They echo through philosophy, religion, and science.
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What is life?
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What is death and what does it mean to live well?
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Here is an image that taunts me.
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Eton Sena on the grid at Ola helmet off.
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Eyes closed moments before what will be his final race.
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Sena looks troubled.
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Of course.
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He was troubled that crash just yesterday that had taken Roland Rut, Berger's life
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during the second qualifying session.
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Today, Sena had packed an Austrian flight to unfurl after
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the race in Roland's honor.
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And yet, perhaps the trouble behind his brow is something anchored
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more profoundly in his soul.
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He closes his eyes, his expression softens.
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He is ready not just to race, but to face whatever the race might bring.
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Only seven laps later.
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He would be gone.
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I've watched that footage many times.
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It forces me to confront the question.
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So many of us avoid asking ourselves, what is death?
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Why do we fear it, and how do we live knowing it's always near.
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Not one to shy away from the hard questions.
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Mario confronts them with logic, science and faith.
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His background in medical biochemistry gives him a unique
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lens, one that blends molecular precision with metaphysical inquiry.
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Professionally, I am a medical biochemist.
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I've studied the chemistry of life, the textbook definition that
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defines life as reproduction, growth, substance exchange, adaptation.
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Yet these definitions falls short.
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Life is more than molecules.
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We are all familiar with the never ending debate on the origin of life.
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Evolution versus creation.
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Evolution explains how life changes.
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But does it explain how life began?
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Oh, yes.
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Amino acids could form in early earth conditions, but that primitive
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formation we know about doesn't explain the how of existence itself.
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How does a hydrogen atom exist?
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How does anything exist?
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Aristotle spoke of the premium move-ins, the unmoved mover.
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St. Thomas Aquinas echoed this, everything that moves is moved by something else.
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And this concept leads to the need of a first cause.
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A creator, Mario's logic inevitably leads him to faith, not as
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superstition, but has reason.
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If existence has a cause, then that cause must be beyond matter.
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And if that beyond matter cause is a creator, then death is not the end.
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These are not abstract reflections.
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They're grounded in experience, in moments of fear, in memories of loved
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ones, in the quiet realization that life is finite, but meaning is infinite.
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Faith gives us hope, real hope, not wishful thinking, but certainty.
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Certainty that something good will happen, that life continues beyond death.
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The Sermon on the Mount says, blessed are the poor in spirit for
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theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
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Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.
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These words are not just poetry.
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They are promises.
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We all live with expectations.
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We say we hope for a better life, but true hope is not statistical.
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It's not about chances.
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It's about truth.
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If we are immortal, then hope is real.
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And if we were created out of love, then death is not a failure.
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It's a transition.
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Scene six, turning to a wonderful smile and seeing love.
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It is July, 2019.
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I'm at Goodwood in the uk.
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Jackie Stewart has returned to the circuit in a blue car, the mantra.
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He drove to his first championship 50 years earlier in 1969.
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He will be followed by two Terrell's, both driven by his sons, Paul and Mark.
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Jackie stops before loading himself into the mantra and looks back to
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an elderly woman who has accompanied him sitting in her wheelchair.
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This was Helen, his wife, and as she smiles towards him, he
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approaches and hands her the flower he'd secretly brought with him.
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Just for her that tableau stayed with me.
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It wasn't just a nostalgic moment between an old married couple.
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It was love, a love that had endured decades, victories, losses, and illness.
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A love that had grown deeper with time.
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Mario sees in Jackie and Helen Stewart, something timeless, not just
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a racing legacy, but a human one.
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A relationship built on care, respect, and shared experience,
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it reminds him of his own journey.
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Love isn't defined by sentiment alone, and for Mario, it's a metaphysical
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reality and unselfish force that transcends biology, logic, and even time.
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March, 2011.
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Spring is in the air.
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I am not in the mood for spring, though I'm in the ICU after
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having suffered a heart attack.
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Myocardial infarction is what my doctor notes in my chart.
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I know exactly what is happening.
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My medical training makes it impossible to ignore.
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A stent has been placed, the damage has been contained, but just as in the
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moments after slipping between two rows of stopped cars on a rainy highway.
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I find myself shaken as I lay in that hospital bed.
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I look to my left and see Lisa, my wife, standing there in a surgical gown as she
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notices me glancing at her, she smiles.
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And in that moment, that shaken feeling melts away.
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That smile my wife offered me went beyond comforting.
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It was transcendent, embedded in the upturn corners of her lips, the
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lines that bracketed her mouth, the fanned out wrinkles around her eyes.
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I could visualize our past, our present, our future.
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It was love, real love, the kind that doesn't fade, the kind
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that reveals something eternal.
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Mario's reflections turn inward.
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The racetrack fades and in its place emerges something quieter, more intimate,
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A smile, a memory, a moment of grace.
30:25
Love for Mario is not just an emotion, it's a metaphysical truth,
30:29
A force that binds individuals across time, space, and spirit.
30:34
Love is not just attraction or affection.
30:37
It's a gift, an unconditional donation.
30:40
It's not about preserving oneself or one's species.
30:44
It's about giving even when it costs you.
30:50
St. Paul said Love is patient.
30:53
Love is kind.
30:55
It is not jealous.
30:56
It is not pompous.
30:57
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
31:05
Love never fails.
31:09
Like the words of the Sermon on the Mount, these lines are not simply poetic.
31:14
They contain description of self, something real, something that
31:19
exists beyond physical matter.
31:23
Mario's Reflections on Love are grounded in experience, in smiles, in memories, in
31:28
the quiet moments that reveal eternity.
31:30
Mario sees love as proof of the metaphysical.
31:32
If love exists and it does, then so must the soul.
31:36
So must the creator.
31:38
Ergo so must meaning.
31:41
Each person has a unique molecular identity.
31:44
Our genes, our environment, our experiences, they shape us.
31:49
But love goes further.
31:51
It connects us not just horizontally with others, but vertically with our origin.
31:59
Love is a three dimensional relationship.
32:01
It is the bridge between individuality and universality
32:07
between the finite and the infinite.
32:11
Lisa's smile in that ICU wasn't just beautiful.
32:15
It was a revelation.
32:17
It reminded me that love is real, that life has meaning, that we are not alone.
32:30
Scene seven, turning, driving.
32:32
Choosing free will.
32:40
I remember Alto a good driver.
32:43
More importantly, a good man when asked at Monaco in 1982 about the risks of
32:48
racing, he didn't romanticize them.
32:51
He simply said his wrists were no greater than those faced by the Carre, the Italian
32:56
police who confront danger every day.
33:00
That humility stayed with me,
33:05
though.
33:05
While Barreto's career was brilliant, he was never fully rewarded.
33:10
He did nearly win the championship with Ferrari in 1985, but
33:15
technical failures cost him dearly.
33:19
Then in April, 2001, Reto is testing, uh, LA Man's prototype.
33:24
He's 44 years old, no longer in Formula One, but still racing, still
33:28
chasing excellence until a mechanical failure sends him into a wall.
33:34
He died instantly.
33:38
Mario sees Al Barreto's life as a testament to quiet integrity.
33:42
Not every great driver wins championships.
33:44
Not every good person is recognized, but the choices they make, the risk that
33:48
they accept, reveal something profound.
33:51
Mario, of course, must confront the concept of free will, and not as an
33:55
abstract philosophy, but as a lived experience through the lives and
33:59
choices of drivers like Michaela ato, Nico Rossberg, and Lewis Hamilton.
34:02
He explores how decision making under pressure reveals character,
34:06
courage, and conviction.
34:08
Commitment is the only part of success that deserves reward, talent,
34:13
luck and resources matter, but only commitment comes from choice.
34:19
Nico Roseberg has to pass Max Verta to win the championship at
34:23
the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2016.
34:26
Overtaking the Dutch Belgium driver will be risky.
34:29
Verta is a hard one to pass yet Roseberg does not hesitate.
34:34
He drives inside.
34:36
He goes wide.
34:36
He nearly collides but makes it, and with that move wins the title.
34:42
He then retired from racing.
34:45
That decision shocked everyone, but I think he actually decided during the
34:50
race, perhaps at the moment when he realized how close he came to losing
34:54
everything he had achieved his goal.
34:57
That was enough.
35:00
Louis Hamilton is pushing it hard on the soaked track at Austin, Texas
35:04
in that final practice in 2015.
35:06
Everyone else is being cautious, but Hamilton is having none of that.
35:10
He dances on the edge, sets the fastest lap, beats them all by nearly a second.
35:17
Hamilton didn't need to take that risk.
35:20
The championship wasn't at stake, but he chose to compete, chose to excel.
35:27
Hamilton exercised free will.
35:30
Free will allows us to choose to be good, to do good.
35:37
Mario believes that knowing when to stop is as important
35:39
as knowing when to push on.
35:41
Free will is not just about action.
35:43
It's about discernment.
35:45
He also sees driving as a metaphor for moral agency.
35:48
Every turn is a choice.
35:49
Every lap is a test.
35:51
To drive well is to choose.
35:52
Well.
35:54
St. Paul said.
35:57
Do you not know that the runners in these stadium all run in the race, but only
36:02
one wins the prize run so as to win.
36:08
Mario's Reflections on free will are grounded in experience in racing,
36:11
in medicine, and in teaching.
36:13
He sees choice not as a burden, but as a gift, and driving for him remains one
36:18
of the purest expressions of that gift.
36:20
With the coming of autonomous self-driving cars, drivers, and driving may soon
36:25
become obsolete, but the act of choosing of steering one's life that will never
36:32
disappear, we will always drive, even if not with wheels, then with will.
36:46
Scene eight.
36:48
Turning by fundamental virtues.
36:56
Sebastian Betel is driving for Toro Rossi, a team no one expected to win.
37:01
We at Monsa, the year is 2008.
37:04
Viel takes the poll possession and wins the race.
37:07
Despite the rain, despite the treacherous conditions of
37:10
the track, Batel drove with precision, courage and grace.
37:15
He didn't just win.
37:17
He revealed something deeper.
37:19
The power of virtue that weekend reminded me of Donnington in 1993 when Sena won
37:26
in the same kind of dangerous, rainy, wet conditions with an inferior car.
37:32
But Patel's wind was different.
37:34
Toroso wasn't just under powered.
37:36
It was underestimated.
37:39
And yet he prevailed.
37:42
Mario has shifted gears on us, literally and metaphorically.
37:46
He explores how the fundamental virtues that guide human behavior
37:50
also apply to motorsport.
37:51
Racing for him is not just about speed or skill, it's about
37:55
character, about choosing well under pressure, about living with purpose.
38:00
Mario uses vet's performance as a reflection of the cardinal virtues.
38:04
Not just talent, but prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.
38:08
Each playing a role in the dance between driver and machine.
38:13
Prudence is the charioteer of the virtues.
38:16
It guides decisions at Monsa, the BOL turn demands it.
38:21
You must break just enough.
38:23
Not too early, not too late.
38:25
You must accelerate with care.
38:27
Knowing that the exit speed determines your lap time prudence is in caution.
38:32
It's wisdom.
38:35
Justice comes next on the main street at 340 kilometers per hour.
38:41
You're not alone.
38:42
You're surrounded by others, each with their own goals.
38:45
Justice means respecting their space, their rights, their
38:49
dignity, even in competition.
38:52
Fairness matters.
38:55
Fortitude is tested in the first chicane.
38:58
You break from top speed to a crawl.
39:01
It's violent, it's risky, but you must commit, you must endure.
39:06
Fortitude is not bravado, it's resolve.
39:12
Temperance arrives at a sca.
39:15
The temptation to overdrive is strong, but excess leads to error.
39:20
Temperance, moderates desire, it balances ambition with control.
39:27
Mario's reflections are not just technical, they're moral.
39:30
He sees racing as a crucible for character, a place where virtues
39:34
are tested, revealed, and refined.
39:36
Mario's view of racing is expansive.
39:38
It's not just about cars or circuits.
39:40
It's about humanity, about the pursuit of excellence, about the choices
39:44
we make and the virtues we embody.
39:47
Motor sport is a relationship horizontal between drivers,
39:52
vertical, between man and meaning.
39:56
It's not just about winning, it's about striving, about
39:59
doing good, about being good.
40:03
The Theological Virtues, faith, hope, and Love guide our goals.
40:10
The Cardinal Virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, and
40:13
Temperance guide our actions.
40:17
I've seen many drivers win, but the ones I admire most are those who drive
40:22
with virtue, who compete not just to beat others, but to better themselves.
40:29
That's the real race and it never ends.
40:39
Scene nine, turning around molecular energy for life.
40:49
It is a beautiful engine, not the one you hear roaring down a
40:53
straight way, but the one that hums silently inside every living cell.
40:59
The A TP syntheses an exquisite molecular machine that rotates like a
41:05
turbine driven by a stream of protons.
41:09
This motor assembles the energy currency of life.
41:13
Without the energy this motor creates, we wouldn't move, think, or breathe.
41:19
Its structure is perfect.
41:21
It's function precise, and yet it's invisible to the naked eye measured
41:27
in nanometers, a billionth of a meter.
41:30
Some call it proof of intelligent design.
41:33
I don't, I see it as evidence of something deeper.
41:38
The mystery of existence itself.
41:45
Mario often uses this molecular level rotary cell motor as a pole
41:49
position from which he may present a more fundamental question.
41:52
How does anything exist at all?
41:55
Not how it functions, but how it came to be.
41:58
He easily draws striking parallels between the natural elegance of this motor and the
42:03
roar of the engine in a Formula One car.
42:05
For Mario, science and spirit are not opposites.
42:08
They're intertwined.
42:10
While we can explain transformations, how molecules combine, how energy
42:14
flows, explaining existence continues to escape our abilities.
42:20
Aristotle doesn't clear the concept for us with his unmoved mover.
42:25
Neither did Saint Thomas Aquina suggesting an instigator of all movement,
42:30
and that's where my faith begins.
42:32
Not in complexity, but in origin.
42:37
I admire the invisible organic engine working silently deep within the
42:42
mitochondria in the same way I admire a Ferrari V 12 roaring with compression
42:48
under the brightly painted hood.
42:50
Both are engines, motors that convert energy into motion.
42:56
Both are beautiful.
42:59
Mario's scientific training gives him clarity, and Mario's
43:02
reflections are not dogmatic.
43:04
They're deductive.
43:05
He sees science as a tool for understanding, not a weapon for
43:08
argument, but his philosophical curiosity gives him depth.
43:12
It's not just a molecule, it's a metaphor.
43:14
He sees the molecular world, not just as a system, but as a story.
43:18
That being a story of creation, purpose, and possibility.
43:22
We've come a long way.
43:24
We've mapped genomes, build molecular models, synthesized
43:29
lives, building blocks.
43:32
We've disproved the old idea of V Vitalis, the vital force.
43:37
But in doing so, we've risked throwing out our humility with the bath water.
43:44
Not being able to locate a soul in a cell doesn't prove it, isn't there?
43:49
Not physically.
43:50
But metaphysically Mario's reflections of molecular biology lead him back
43:56
to the human condition, to fear, to hope to the COVID-19 pandemic.
44:02
It's March, 2020.
44:03
I am confined in my hometown of Naples.
44:06
Confined like so many others here, like so many others across the globe.
44:11
The streets are empty, the sun is shining, but the city is quiet.
44:15
People are quietly confined with their worst fear.
44:19
Not of the virus, but of death, mystery, the unknown.
44:26
These paralyze us despite our knowledge, our technology, our progress.
44:31
That mystery stops us in our tracks.
44:35
Of course, we searched for answers.
44:38
Naturally, we clung to statistics, to headlines, to hope.
44:42
But real hope doesn't come from probability.
44:46
It comes from truth.
44:49
Truth requires education, not just information, but formation.
44:54
The ability to think, to discern, to choose.
44:58
Mario sees the pandemic as both a medical and philosophical crisis.
45:03
COVID-19 exposed our fragility, our ignorance, our need for meaning.
45:08
And so his reflections returned to the drivers.
45:10
He admires not just for their speed, but for their choices.
45:13
For example, Gunnar Nielsen, who died of cancer at age 30,
45:17
founded a research foundation that still supports oncology today.
45:22
Ni didn't just race, he gave.
45:26
He chose to do good even as he was dying.
45:29
That's what it means to live well, to drive well, to turn well.
45:35
We are driven by energy, by love, by hope, and even when the track
45:41
is silent, the race continues.
45:50
Scene 10, the last turn, the infinite.
45:59
Pete Aaron stands alone on the Manza circuit.
46:02
The grandstand are empty.
46:04
The track is still littered with the debris from the race.
46:08
The day before he had won the championship, but Sati had died.
46:14
Stadard had suffered.
46:16
Aaron walks slowly, silently asking himself, did I deserve this?
46:22
Did they deserve more?
46:26
That final scene from Grand Prix with James Gardner portraying
46:30
Peter Darin always stayed with me.
46:33
It wasn't about victory, it was about reflection, about the weight of
46:37
consequence, about the mystery of fate.
46:45
Air in silence holds a universal truth.
46:47
Our lives are shaped by both our choices and by circumstances beyond our control.
46:53
We must keep walking, driving, and choosing, and therefore Mario
46:57
considers this truth to show a beginning rather than an ending.
47:01
A leading transition from the physical to the metaphysical, from the racetrack to
47:05
eternity through the lens of motorsport.
47:08
He explores death, not as defeat, but as a doorway to the infinite cena's final
47:13
lap at Ola Jill's final qualifying run.
47:17
It's older.
47:19
Both were chasing excellent.
47:21
Both were betrayed by circumstance, and yet both lived with purpose,
47:28
with passion, with love.
47:31
Their deaths were not the end.
47:33
They were transitions.
47:35
Their lives did not end with the body.
47:38
They continue in memory, in meaning in the infinite.
47:43
I believe we are immortal, not metaphorically.
47:47
Literally, our souls do not die.
47:51
Our choices matter.
47:53
Our love endures.
47:57
I imagine Sena and Jills still driving, not on Ola or Z, but on
48:03
a track beyond time, a circuit of light, a race without end.
48:11
I see them side by side.
48:14
Their cars glowing, their hamlet's bright, their spirit's free.
48:20
Eternity is more than an abstraction.
48:23
It's also a destination, a place where justice is restored,
48:26
where love is fulfilled.
48:27
Where hope is realized.
48:29
Mario's reflections transcend motorsport.
48:32
He sees in every turn a metaphor, in every race, a parable in
48:36
every driver, a seeker of truth.
48:42
I remember the words of St. Paul.
48:45
I have competed well.
48:48
I have finished the race.
48:51
I have kept the faith.
48:54
That's what I want, not just to drive fast.
48:59
Mm-hmm.
48:59
Not just to win, but to live well, to do good, to finish the race.
49:06
With faith,
49:10
I'm getting older.
49:12
My body is slowing, but my spirit is accelerating.
49:18
I am ready for the next turn, the eternal turn, and I know I won't be alone.
49:27
My final turn will not be a farewell.
49:31
It's a promise, a commitment to keep driving through memory, through
49:38
meaning through the infinite.
50:01
We are all drivers, some of us with engines, others with ideas, with love
50:07
and with hope, but all of us face turns moments that test our courage,
50:11
our character, and our commitment.
50:13
And in those terms, we discover who we are.
50:16
Mario's journey reminds us that life is not measured in laps or trophies,
50:20
but in choices and in the way we treat others, but also the way we respond
50:24
to loss, on the way we keep driving.
50:27
Even when the road disappears, the track may change, the car may age,
50:31
but the spirit, that being the will to strive to love and to believe
50:36
remains so as we approach our final turns, may we do so with grace.
50:40
With memory, with faith, and may we find beyond that last curve, not an end,
50:46
but a beginning to something infinite because the race never truly ends.
50:50
It just changes lanes.
50:53
We hope you enjoyed this audio adaptation of Dr. Mario TE's book,
50:59
driving to the Future, living Life Following Formula One Racing.
51:03
The part of the narrator was performed by Crew Chief Eric from
51:05
the Motoring Podcast Network.
51:07
And the voice of Mario was provided by Revel Arroway.
51:10
From your listening to Radio Revel, driving Through the future is a deeply
51:14
personal and philosophical journey told through the lens of Motorsport.
51:17
Across its chapters, Mario reflects on excellence and purpose through
51:21
the lives of drivers like Gils, VV Ton Sena, and Jackie Stewart.
51:25
Mario explores the pursuit of greatness, not for fame, but for meaning.
51:29
Racing becomes a metaphor for striving towards one's best self.
51:32
He also covers memory and reflection because the past is not romanticized,
51:36
but revisited with clarity.
51:38
Mario honors moments of triumph and tragedy using them to ask
51:42
deeper questions about justice, legacy, and the fragility of life.
51:46
He also talks about virtue and free will racing demands, prudence,
51:49
fortitude, justice, and temperance.
51:51
Mario sees these virtues not just as overtakes and pit stops, but the moral
51:55
choices drivers make on and off the track.
51:58
He leans into love and relationship from Jackie and Helen Stewart's
52:02
enduring bond to his wife.
52:03
Lisa's smile while in the ICU Love is portrayed as a metaphysical
52:07
truth, an unselfish force that transcends biology and time.
52:11
With his background, he also leans into science as well as faith.
52:15
Mario Bridges, molecular biology and metaphysics, drawing parallels between
52:19
a TP Synthes and Ferrari engines.
52:22
He sees in both the fingerprints of design, mystery, and
52:25
divine origin, and finally, he touches on morality and hope.
52:29
Death is not feared, but contemplated.
52:32
Mario believes in the soul's immortality and in the continuation of meaning
52:36
beyond the body and the eternal race.
52:38
We all run.
52:40
If you wanna learn more about Dr.
52:42
TE's original book, you can pick it up today by searching, driving
52:45
to the future, living life.
52:47
Following Formula One Racing.
52:48
Pick up a hardcover copy for 1399, a paperback for $5 and 30 cents, or
52:53
on Kindle all through amazon.com.
53:57
We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Break Fix Podcast, brought
54:01
to you by Grand Tour Motorsports.
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