Latest / Rusty's Garage / Louise Goodman - Part 2

Transcript

Louise Goodman - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with respected F1 TV reporter Louise Goodman.
• 0:26
  Coming up, the Dare to be Different program and how proud she is now of the great work they are doing.
• 0:32
  Plus, hanging out, working with the great Murray Walker.
• 0:36
  Now, if you've somehow found yourself on the grid here for part two and kind of haven't taken in quality part one of this episode, jump back to the garage and give it a listen.
• 0:46
  From working with the live wire, Eddie Jordan, to freaking out a bit when Eddie Irvine was water skiing days before a Grand Prix with Neil Crompton at the helm of the boat.
• 0:56
  PR work with Martin Brundle and a cool stunt where he traded places with rally legend Colin McRae.
• 1:03
  Plus, a young UK traveller taking in Australia before an opportunity at the Adelaide Grand Prix helped set her on a path of a big F1 adventure.
• 1:13
  We begin part two with a special moment in the history of the Jordan team and how Lou was on the spot at Spa in Belgium to convey the moment for millions of viewers watching in the UK and beyond.
• 1:30
  There is a beautiful moment of crossover for you in the whole Jordan experience, the whole television experience.
• 1:38
  Am I right in saying I think you were there for the Jordan 1-2 and you were the first to interview EJ after the win?
• 1:48
  I was.
• 1:48
  You are right, yes, at the Spa Grand Prix.
• 1:52
  And I'd always said to Eddie, because throughout my time with Jordan as a press officer, we'd never run.
• 1:57
  Throughout my time as a press officer, full stop, I was never with a team that ever won a race.
• 2:02
  At Leighton House, we came very close at the French Grand Prix one year when the cars were, you know, running one and two and then...
• 2:08
  And Ivanka Pelli eventually finished in P2.
• 2:11
  But, you know, I was really good at writing a we almost did this press release, but I'd never done the whole we've run a race scenario.
• 2:19
  And I said to Eddie, who, you know, when I said to him, I'm off to work for ITV, he was like, fantastic, wonderful.
• 2:27
  And we had the deal that, you know, when Jordan wins the first Grand Prix.
• 2:31
  I'm having the first interview made.
• 2:32
  It was like, yeah, no problem.
• 2:33
  So when that happened at Spa, you know, obviously I was delighted.
• 2:38
  It was it was my team.
• 2:40
  I still felt like part of it in a way that, you know, I was able to really savor that win for them because it was people I've been working with for years.
• 2:49
  And it was a bit of a free-for-all in terms of everybody trying to get the interview.
• 2:54
  But I piled him from the back, you know, in the rain.
• 2:57
  It's like, Eddie, you're mine.
• 2:59
  And he was like, yep, yep, this one's for you.
• 3:02
  Come on through.
• 3:03
  So it was great.
• 3:05
  It was a special moment to be able to, you know, to get that.
• 3:08
  That first interview is always...
• 3:10
  an important interview, to be able to get the first interview, to get the actually, you know, the real in the moment.
• 3:15
  By the time somebody is excited for the ninth time, they've lost some of the excitement of it.
• 3:20
  So being the first person to get that interview with EJ was great.
• 3:24
  My other first was getting the first interview with Lewis Hamilton when he eventually won the World Championship.
• 3:29
  And, you know, that was that was great.
• 3:31
  similar circumstances in that everybody was absolutely, you know, it was teeing it down with rain and it was mayhem.
• 3:37
  So that was another get your elbows out and fight your way through scenario.
• 3:41
  You do when you're on the grid like that.
• 3:43
  I know it's tough for Martin these days sometimes, which I think is so wrong.
• 3:46
  Celebs should talk to him when he's doing that grid walk.
• 3:49
  And I know they're meant to now under the,
• 3:52
  under the new rules.
• 3:53
  I just cannot believe the way some of them carry on.
• 3:55
  But I want to draw people's attention to one for you.
• 3:59
  What about the ocean's 11 stars in Monaco?
• 4:02
  Yeah, that was a bit of a coup.
• 4:04
  They came down there promoting, they'd done a tie-up with Jaguar.
• 4:09
  And Navsiddu, who was the very good and another kind of, you know, he was the kind of guy who would come up with, he's the guy who stuck a diamond on the nose of the Jaguar car.
• 4:18
  That's another story.
• 4:19
  But they'd done this deal with the Ocean's Eleven.
• 4:23
  The guys were promoting the film in the Camp Fiddle Festival, which was on just down the road.
• 4:28
  And they were coming up to Monaco to have a photo call in the garage.
• 4:32
  And, yeah,
• 4:32
  Nav had tipped the wink to a couple of the key broadcasters, and thankfully I was one of them, as to where they were going to be coming in.
• 4:40
  So most people were standing up by the garage waiting for them.
• 4:43
  Nav had said to us, okay, we're coming in a boat, they're going to come in through that gate,
• 4:47
  in a war cut so we were all stood around there basically ready to get to get the interviews um and we'd worked out who was going to talk to who so I said I'm going to go for Brad Pitt first somebody else was going you know for for George Cloone nobody went for Damon uh Matt Damon first which was terrible but but anyway so I pile in with uh with Brad Pitt who just totally blanked me and you sometimes think when me was in here so I tried again and he just totally blanked me again which I just
• 5:15
  I hate it when people do that.
• 5:16
  I just think you could at least look and say, you know, whatever.
• 5:19
  But anyway, I turned around, I interviewed Matt Damon.
• 5:23
  He was lovely.
• 5:24
  George Clooney is giving it large to everybody, chatting away.
• 5:27
  So I thought, well, I'll go in there as well.
• 5:29
  So I said, oh, hi, George, you know, you've got time for more.
• 5:31
  But sure, who are you, where are you from?
• 5:33
  And he's giving me an interview.
• 5:34
  Yeah, come on, fire away, fire away.
• 5:36
  Gave me a lovely interview.
• 5:37
  He was really, really great.
• 5:39
  And in fact, we then,
• 5:41
  got up to the Jaguar garage where the photo call was.
• 5:44
  And I always used to watch the start of the race from their garage.
• 5:47
  So I went round to the back and the boys, the mechanics were out the back, weren't really supposed to let anyone in.
• 5:54
  I went, look, what's that over there?
• 5:56
  So they kind of went, oh, what is that?
• 5:58
  You know, I snuck in the back while they weren't looking.
• 6:02
  And I think by that point, Brad Pitt could then say, hang on, it's that bloody woman again.
• 6:07
  And she's behind the scenes with us now.
• 6:08
  So he did finally give me give me the interview.
• 6:10
  So I tell you what, Mike, I had so many people contact.
• 6:14
  Oh, my God, I can't believe you got to speak to George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
• 6:19
  And so that's probably the interview that's got got the most attention from, you know,
• 6:25
  people, friends who had no interest whatsoever in Formula 1, but, like, suddenly it's like, oh, my God, you interviewed George Clooney?
• 6:32
  Now I'm interested.
• 6:33
  Now tell me about, I mean, you're proudly from the UK, obviously, so I could immediately think Silverstone is the fave race, but is it Monaco?
• 6:43
  Has there been a GP along the way, either from memories, from the racing, whatever?
• 6:48
  What's been one that you kind of cherish or look forward to the most?
• 6:54
  I don't have a favourite.
• 6:55
  I do enjoy Silverstone because I love the fact that I think it's a very, you know, the Silverstone crowd is a very knowledgeable crowd and just loves a good race.
• 7:10
  I've been lucky enough to go on the flatbed truck when the drivers are doing the parade around the circuit before the race.
• 7:16
  I've been lucky enough to go on that on a couple of occasions doing interviews and,
• 7:20
  I love all the M's.
• 7:21
  So, you know, Monza, which I've mentioned.
• 7:24
  Montreal always used to be great fun.
• 7:26
  That was just because it's, you know, the circuit is so close to the city.
• 7:31
  The entire city had a real festival atmosphere about it.
• 7:35
  So that was always great.
• 7:37
  And, you know, I love Suzuka.
• 7:40
  Just because, again, I think Japan is a really interesting country, but the passion that the fans have, it's a very different kind of passion.
• 7:46
  It's a very polite passion.
• 7:48
  You know, we'd go there back in the early days when we had pre-qualifying.
• 7:51
  It'd be dark when we got there.
• 7:53
  You know, when the sun eventually came up, the grandstands were full.
• 7:57
  You hadn't heard, hadn't had a sound.
• 7:59
  You know, you can trust that with somewhere like Interlagos, where they do not stop blowing horns and banging drums from dawn till dusk.
• 8:06
  But so very different atmospheres in places.
• 8:08
  And as you know, I love Melbourne.
• 8:10
  I just love, you know, I get excited.
• 8:13
  I land in Oz.
• 8:14
  I get a golden gate time inside me as quick as I can.
• 8:17
  And I love coming to that race.
• 8:19
  It's partly down to getting to see, you know, having a bit of a holiday and getting to see my mates afterwards.
• 8:27
  the years.
• 8:27
  So it does partly feel like a second home.
• 8:31
  And I have so many friends over there, you know, my girlfriend, obviously, but lots of people I've met through her.
• 8:37
  Her daughter is my goddaughter.
• 8:39
  She's now got kids of her own, you know, so I'm up on the farm with them.
• 8:43
  catching up with other mates and getting some holiday and somewhere in the sunshine.
• 8:47
  And yeah, it's the other thing to bear in mind.
• 8:49
  It's, you know, I've left an English winter and I'm heading out to an Australian, hopefully summer.
• 8:56
  Although let's face it, Melbourne doesn't always play ball in that respect, does it?
• 9:00
  We've had a few wet ones over the years.
• 9:02
  I spoke to James Allen for the podcast.
• 9:04
  He gave me a little bit of intel.
• 9:05
  He says he seems to recall perhaps it was Ferrari giving you guys some branded phones one year, maybe with their connection to Vodafone when they were backing or sponsoring Ferrari.
• 9:17
  And he says for me to ask you, what happened to yours?
• 9:25
  I had a little bit of a habit.
• 9:26
  I used to keep my phone in my, I had a little pouch thing on my belt that it would sit in.
• 9:33
  And I had a twice it happened to me.
• 9:36
  And one of them was in Melbourne.
• 9:39
  The other one was in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
• 9:42
  It fell down into the toilet, you know.
• 9:44
  And in Spa particularly, it was like, it was just one of those, one of those, you know, portaloos that you heard the clunk of that.
• 9:52
  And it's like, oh, that's gone, gone, gone.
• 9:55
  That's down into some recess that nobody ever wants to go into.
• 10:00
  Thankfully, in Melbourne, there was slightly more, you know, it was more like a sort of normal toilet rather than a, so I'm not ashamed to say...
• 10:08
  It was literally as I was sitting down, nothing else had happened.
• 10:11
  So my hand went straight down and pulled the phone out.
• 10:14
  But there was no way that was happening with my lovely little, as you say, Ferrari branded Vodafone freebie in spa.
• 10:20
  That was gone, gone, gone.
• 10:22
  Thanks, James, for sharing that.
• 10:24
  Now, tell me, you've got a great relationship, I think, with Johnny Herbert.
• 10:29
  And he's also reminded me, James, to sort of chat about that.
• 10:33
  Some of the fun over the years.
• 10:34
  There's some good stories with Johnny, isn't there?
• 10:37
  Yeah, Johnny was one of those drivers who I'd worked with when he was at Camel, when he first came in with, when he was at the Lotus team.
• 10:46
  Just always got on well with him.
• 10:48
  And we always used to have a laugh with each other.
• 10:49
  So, you know, he was one of the, as I said, the British drivers were all great with me when I moved into doing television.
• 10:56
  But I do remember at Silverstone in our first year, yeah.
• 11:01
  Johnny said to me, oh, you see me a bit more, a little bit more relaxed.
• 11:05
  And I was like, yeah, I'm kind of getting a feel for it now.
• 11:07
  I'm getting a bit better.
• 11:08
  And he said, OK, that's when the fun starts.
• 11:10
  I went, what?
• 11:11
  I went, oh, no, no, nothing.
• 11:12
  And anyway, cut forward, Sunday on the grid.
• 11:14
  I'm standing beside him waiting, you know, to do a live interview with him.
• 11:19
  And Johnny starts poking me, this hand comes out, it's like digging me beneath the ribs.
• 11:24
  And so I'm like, whacked him, stop it.
• 11:27
  So I'm waiting for my throat, even when my throat came, you know, I'm asking hopefully incisive questions about how he's feeling about competing at the British Grand Prix.
• 11:36
  off camera, you know, he's still poking me and I'm kicking him, you know, basically acting like stupid children.
• 11:42
  He's trying to try to put me off my put me off my stride.
• 11:45
  And it happened on a couple of occasions.
• 11:48
  There was, you know, there was one interview at the where were we?
• 11:51
  I can't remember which Grand Prix it was.
• 11:53
  But again, he was poking and prodding me and grabbing bits of me.
• 11:56
  He really shouldn't be grabbing.
• 11:57
  And, you know, this was this was all going on kind of off camera.
• 12:02
  He also used to kind of
• 12:06
  But then nowadays it's all very organised and if a driver goes out during the race, you know, the team brings them to the pen and you see them doing the interview there.
• 12:14
  But back in the day, it was just a bit of a free-for-all, trying to work out where the driver was.
• 12:20
  And so Johnny would see me coming and Johnny, who quite frankly, he's got a funny little walk because he did so much damage to his feet in his big Formula 3000 accident.
• 12:29
  But he'd see me coming, he'd look over his shoulder and he'd start walking faster and I'd
• 12:33
  like coming for you, make me start walking faster than you break into.
• 12:36
  I was like, wait, stop there.
• 12:38
  So some people, we had a couple of occasions when people said, Oh, what was, what happened with Johnny last night?
• 12:45
  It looked like he'd really upset him.
• 12:46
  What do you mean?
• 12:47
  Well, it looked like you were giving me telling off.
• 12:49
  So no, no, that's just me and Johnny pissing about.
• 12:51
  You really don't need to worry about that.
• 12:53
  No, we hadn't upset me at all.
• 12:54
  We're just being stupid.
• 12:55
  So, and it's like, you know, it's still, I, I,
• 12:58
  A few years ago, I was working in Singapore at the Grand Prix.
• 13:04
  And I was right at the back of the plane and feeling really grumpy about the fact that I was shoved in a corner.
• 13:10
  Just about to take off and one of the hostesses came up and said, Oh, there's been a seat change for you.
• 13:15
  Those words everybody loves to hear, seat change.
• 13:18
  So it's like, fine, I'm coming out.
• 13:20
  So we walked forward.
• 13:21
  I thought, how far are we going?
• 13:24
  We got to approaching business class and she said, there's a seat over there by the window or there's a seat here.
• 13:29
  And it was the back row seat in business class looking back, which is normally not anywhere I want to see.
• 13:35
  Anyway, they're sitting there as well as Johnny Herbert with two glasses of champagne.
• 13:39
  It's like, right mate, I'm coming.
• 13:41
  And we just sat and jabbered the whole, he'd been in a similar situation.
• 13:44
  He'd been given an upgrade as well.
• 13:45
  So we just sat and jabbered the whole way home and we will still do that.
• 13:48
  You know, I met up with him at the Grand Prix at Monaco this year and we're, we're jabbering away.
• 13:53
  So there's,
• 13:53
  People like Johnny, people like Eddie Irvine, who, you know, his sister has become one of my best mates.
• 13:58
  So I'll still catch up with Eddie Irvine on quite a regular basis as well.
• 14:03
  He hasn't changed.
• 14:03
  He's just got a bit madder, a bit more barking.
• 14:07
  You also got to work as a part of some of the names you've rattled off here with the great Murray Walker.
• 14:13
  He's no longer with us, obviously, but people would love a story or two about being around Murray for part of your time there.
• 14:20
  Oh, Murray was just, you know, I'd obviously worked with Murray as a press officer.
• 14:27
  And he was always so, just so lovely.
• 14:31
  Back in the day, we used to send out our press releases via fax.
• 14:36
  But Murray's wife didn't like the fax machine disturbing her.
• 14:40
  So Murray's I had to print off and post to him.
• 14:43
  You know, by then it was totally out of date, but he liked it for his record so that he could categorise it and have it there for information for the next race.
• 14:51
  And he was, you know, I remember him and I still have it somewhere in my files here.
• 14:55
  When I moved from Leighton House to work for Jordan, you know, he wrote me a letter.
• 14:59
  saying, oh, congratulations, dear.
• 15:01
  I'm so pleased to hear about your new job and I'm sure you'll love it there.
• 15:04
  And just the kind of person Murray was.
• 15:05
  So to get to work for him and we used to, myself and James Allen used to drive with Murray to and from the circuit quite a lot.
• 15:14
  So we had all Murray's stories about his days in the advertising industry and which was so funny.
• 15:23
  And again, I remember one year driving
• 15:25
  I think we were on route to Hockenheim and Murray was telling us some of his war stories, having, you know, been
• 15:34
  in the parachute corps, I think it was in the Second World War.
• 15:36
  And he obviously decided that James and I weren't paying enough attention to what he was saying.
• 15:41
  And from the back seat, we heard, pay attention, you two.
• 15:45
  I almost died so we could drive across this bridge.
• 15:47
  James and I were like, oh, sorry, sorry, Murray.
• 15:49
  But he was just such a sweetheart, a man of his time in some ways.
• 15:53
  I remember at the British Grand Prix one year, there was a he'd done an interview with the Mail on Sunday, which is one of the big Sunday papers over here.
• 16:01
  And in that interview, he said, but you know, Formula One isn't really a place for women or words to that effect.
• 16:11
  So one of the guys pointed it out, I said, okay, I'll go and have a chat with Morrie about it.
• 16:15
  So I said, Morrie, this interview you've done, yes dear, yes dear.
• 16:20
  there's this bit here you said Formula One paddock is not really a place for women.
• 16:23
  Well, it's not really, dear, is it?
• 16:24
  I mean, you know, it's more of a masculine.
• 16:27
  I said, Murray, I'm a woman.
• 16:29
  He said, I didn't mean you, dear.
• 16:31
  I didn't mean you at all.
• 16:33
  But you just think, oh, bless him.
• 16:35
  You know, he was mortified at the thought that he'd, you know, he'd upset me.
• 16:39
  But that was just, you know, that was just a typical mind.
• 16:42
  But such a sweet man.
• 16:45
  and to have the opportunity to work so closely with such an absolute legend of the sport and of broadcasting, not just here in the UK, but obviously much love down there in Australia as well.
• 17:08
  Lou worked with James Allen for many years.
• 17:10
  He was the voice of F1 for a time.
• 17:13
  These days James has a management position with one of the most respected digital platforms.
• 17:18
  The growing and changing audience the sport now enjoys because of the drive to survive effect is massive.
• 17:25
  And then with the younger generations, it's clear that they then think, what is this?
• 17:29
  This is great.
• 17:29
  Who is Dan Ricciardo?
• 17:30
  This kid's cool.
• 17:31
  Look at him.
• 17:31
  He's got a tats.
• 17:32
  He's funny.
• 17:33
  You know, this Lando Norris guy, this Max Verstappen guy, him and Hamilton, they really hate each other.
• 17:37
  This is fascinating.
• 17:38
  And then the cast of characters around, you know, Toto Wolff and Gunter Steiner, Christian Horner and all.
• 17:43
  They just totally wrapped up in it.
• 17:46
  James Allen is in the Rusty's library.
• 17:48
  For the record Rusty is not on the board of any big conglomerates.
• 17:52
  No CEO or management types should be subjected to that.
• 17:56
  A bloke making car noises at AGMs.
• 17:59
  He can talk though.
• 18:00
  Back to his pod with Louise Goodman.
• 18:03
  For you, a very special part of your life.
• 18:06
  I mean, when you're immersed in it like that, you get to know the people and so on.
• 18:11
  And I was going to, if you're comfortable, talk about John Boy because he was... Yeah, I'm always happy to talk about John Boy.
• 18:19
  I mean, he was a great character in the pit lane.
• 18:24
  People will know him from Minardi and so on.
• 18:25
  Very sadly, he's no longer...
• 18:28
  with us.
• 18:29
  And I know some time has passed there now, Lou, but that must have been enormously difficult for you.
• 18:34
  It was a very, very difficult time.
• 18:36
  Yeah, obviously.
• 18:38
  I mean, John Boy, we'd first met when we both worked at Jordan at the same time.
• 18:46
  He'd been
• 18:47
  He'd worked with Eddie for many, many years.
• 18:49
  He'd been Eddie's mechanic when, you know, back in Ireland.
• 18:54
  So we met when he was working at Jordan, but it was a few years after that, that we sort of got together.
• 19:01
  So, and he had a massive heart attack just before the British Grand Prix one year.
• 19:06
  It was actually, we were down in London.
• 19:09
  running the cars up and down Regent Street, one of the big roads in London, as a sort of promotional thing.
• 19:15
  All the Formula One teams were there.
• 19:17
  And yeah, John Boy had a massive heart attack and died a few years later on the Friday of the British Grand Prix.
• 19:22
  So yeah, obviously horrendously tough times, but it was a time when you kind of become thankful for the Formula One family.
• 19:32
  I mean, ITV were brilliant.
• 19:33
  They said take off.
• 19:35
  as much time as you like.
• 19:36
  If you want to miss one race, if you want to miss five races, we're behind you whenever you want to do.
• 19:40
  In fact, once you got through the kind of immediate aftermath of something like that with, you know, organising funerals, and I kind of wanted to get back to...
• 19:52
  not that life was going to be normal again, but normal routine, shall we say.
• 19:57
  So I actually went to the I think it was the following Grand Prix.
• 20:00
  It was at Hockenheim anyway.
• 20:01
  But and you then become aware of the fact that, you know, how much of a family formula one is.
• 20:07
  I mean, even, you know, when John had been in the hospital, I'd had a phone call.
• 20:11
  I'd been called to the nursing station one day and they said, we have a man on the phone.
• 20:16
  who says he'd like to talk to you.
• 20:18
  This is very unusual because he's not family.
• 20:21
  And we want to check when, I said, well, who is it?
• 20:24
  They said his name is Professor Sid Watkins.
• 20:27
  So Sid had found out that John Boyd had a heart attack and found out which hospital he was in and had made them, you know, put him through so that, you know, he kind of pulled rank.
• 20:38
  and said I need to speak.
• 20:39
  So, you know, just to say, is there anything I can do?
• 20:42
  Talk me through it.
• 20:42
  What's happening?
• 20:43
  What kind of care are you getting?
• 20:44
  Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 20:46
  And that for me was just an example of what, you know, what Formula One would do.
• 20:50
  Certainly back then, you know, it's much bigger now.
• 20:53
  The teams are much bigger.
• 20:55
  You know, it's a slightly different atmosphere, but, you know, everybody dialed in.
• 21:01
  How could they help me?
• 21:03
  And in fact, when I went the first time I went back to a race, you know, obviously I'm I'm I'm having to deal with a lot of people coming up to me and wanting to sympathize with me.
• 21:11
  And.
• 21:12
  And, you know, it's almost role reversed in some ways because, you know, everybody else is now crying at me and comforting other people and thinking, ooh.
• 21:22
  But it was lovely that, you know, to know that many people.
• 21:26
  And obviously, you know, very special Paul Stoddart's
• 21:30
  that British Grand Prix weekend when John Boy died, he took all the logos, sponsor logos off the rear wing and just put John Boy on the rear wing.
• 21:43
  So for me, sitting at home with my family and watching that race, I'd literally just got home back to my house from London where we, as I said, where we were when John Boy died.
• 21:53
  That was, it really meant something, as did the messages from,
• 21:59
  you know, from the team at ITV who'd put together a little piece about it.
• 22:04
  And so it was, yeah, difficult times.
• 22:06
  But, you know, when anybody goes through something like that, and obviously lots of people have been through that situation, you know, the response from friends and family makes a huge difference.
• 22:18
  And that was certainly, for me, made a very difficult situation just that little bit easier, just from knowing that there are, knowing there are people who care and feeling the love for it all.
• 22:29
  Mm.
• 22:30
  Your effervescence, even now, I love.
• 22:33
  You're an amazing human being, Lou.
• 22:35
  As we move to a little bit of racing here, often in television, you get to do some things and experience what life is like in the racing environment and try and convey that to the audience.
• 22:49
  And I think, if memory serves, you were part of a pit stop for the Midland team, weren't you, with Tiago Montero at the British Grand Prix in 2006?
• 22:57
  Is that right?
• 22:59
  I was, I was.
• 23:01
  We'd planned a feature that had started out much earlier in the year, and it was with the BAR team.
• 23:08
  They were doing a pit stop practice.
• 23:11
  I was stood watching it, and Alistair Gibson,
• 23:16
  who was their number one mechanic at the time said to me you want to have a go at this i don't think any women have ever done this in a race i'm up for that so we kind of hatched a plan and i spent a lot of time at every grand prix i would join the team for their pit stop practice um and and so we basically then built a feature around or two features around it one for the
• 23:39
  and the other one for the qualifying day.
• 23:41
  And this was before Formula One.
• 23:43
  Formula One now films every single race and gives that to all of the broadcasters.
• 23:49
  But back in these days, some of the races, the British Grand Prix was one of them, were filmed by the host broadcast.
• 23:54
  So ITV provided all of the footage.
• 23:56
  That meant that they could, we could guarantee that they would show me doing the pit stop.
• 24:00
  So that's why we did it for the British Grand Prix.
• 24:02
  So,
• 24:03
  I've done all my training for months in advance.
• 24:07
  The week of the British Grand Prix, I think it was like the Monday or something, I get a phone call from Gilles de Ferran, who was the sporting director who would be here at the time, said, listen, I'm really sorry, Louise, but we've just had a meeting and you can't do that.
• 24:19
  It's like, you are kidding me.
• 24:21
  You know, we've got two features set up around this.
• 24:24
  And I was a little bit angry, but also thinking,
• 24:30
  for God's sake, you know, AY, I've done all the practice.
• 24:34
  Everybody has to do it for the first time at some point.
• 24:37
  And we're in refueling days here.
• 24:39
  So we're not talking sub two second pit stops, you know.
• 24:42
  You know you've got a good eight, nine seconds to get it done.
• 24:44
  So it wasn't so much that.
• 24:47
  But anyway, for whatever reason, they decided I couldn't be part of their pit stop team.
• 24:51
  So then I'm left with a huge hole to fill in our scheduling.
• 24:55
  So I phoned up Andy Stevenson, who was the sporting director
• 24:58
  at Midland, as had been Jordan.
• 25:00
  So obviously I'd known Andy since he was a grubby little number two mechanic and said to Andy, I've got this.
• 25:05
  He went, yeah, you do it with us.
• 25:06
  I went, well, do you need to speak to him?
• 25:07
  No, no, you'll be fine.
• 25:09
  It's not that difficult.
• 25:09
  You know, the boys all had to do it for the first.
• 25:12
  Yeah, you'll be fine.
• 25:12
  You do it with us.
• 25:13
  Just come along and do a practice with us on the Thursday and the Friday.
• 25:16
  So it's like, okay, cool.
• 25:18
  So the first time I went to do the practice, my job was rear left tyre off, which is pretty much the easiest thing.
• 25:24
  Car comes in to stop, goes up on the jacks.
• 25:27
  Wheel gun man goes in, then I'm pulling the tire off.
• 25:32
  I went to do what I'd been practicing and doing and was so easy to do on the BAR.
• 25:37
  And it was a slightly different action on the middle.
• 25:39
  And it was like, oh my God, no.
• 25:42
  So I had to learn like, no, wedge your elbow here for this one and pull it this way.
• 25:47
  And it's a little bit of an up movement.
• 25:48
  And once I got that, I was absolutely fine.
• 25:50
  But so we cut forward.
• 25:51
  And then Andy came up to me just before the race and said, oh, that was an interesting meeting.
• 25:57
  I said, what did you meet?
• 25:58
  I've just told the engineers you're doing the pit stop.
• 25:59
  And I went, what do you mean you've just told them?
• 26:01
  He said, well, I wasn't going to tell them
• 26:02
  earlier, they'd only get a big fuss about it.
• 26:04
  No, they don't need to know.
• 26:05
  So he'd broken this to them in the morning meeting.
• 26:09
  So the irony was actually Jenson, whose car I was originally going to do the pit stop on, the British driver, his car broke down.
• 26:18
  He never even got to do a pit stop.
• 26:20
  So had it stuck with the BAR team, I would never have got to do the pit stop.
• 26:24
  Instead, you know, I did it with Tiago.
• 26:27
  So, yeah, and I think, I believe...
• 26:31
  I'm still appallingly the only woman who's actually done that during the course of a Grand Prix.
• 26:37
  Hopefully that will that will change very soon.
• 26:38
  But I think, you know, you'll see women getting involved in the pit stops in other capacities.
• 26:42
  But yeah, and I think I'm still the the only woman who's actually done a wheel on wheel off capacity during a during a Formula One pit stop, which hopefully is something that will that will be changing very soon.
• 26:55
  You would go in 2009, I think it was, and do some work also for the British Touring Car Championship.
• 27:01
  And you've retained the links with the BTCC to this day.
• 27:05
  So tell us a bit more about that.
• 27:06
  I think there's a kind of co-hosting role.
• 27:08
  You're working with, no doubt, a good connection to Alan Gow and so on.
• 27:13
  Yeah, I love that championship.
• 27:15
  So, yes, when ITV pulled out of the Formula One coverage, it was...
• 27:20
  Aside from thinking, shit, got no job now.
• 27:22
  I then thought, OK, I would like to get back in and do touring because I'd done a season in 2007, didn't do it in 2008.
• 27:29
  So I thought, right, 2009, I really want to get back into doing it.
• 27:33
  So thankfully that came off.
• 27:35
  It's people I'm sure will know of it, but it's kind of our version of the of the of the Aussie V8s.
• 27:41
  But yes, masterminded by by Alan Gow, who's straight straight talking Aussie, basically, isn't he?
• 27:50
  You know, it's.
• 27:51
  So it's, and I just love it.
• 27:53
  You know, Formula One is a special paddock.
• 27:58
  It's an amazing space.
• 27:59
  It's been brilliant to work in Formula One.
• 28:02
  And I still do work, you know, in Formula One, albeit not full time.
• 28:06
  But it's kind of, I do find myself, you know, it's micromanaged in this day and age.
• 28:11
  And there's always somebody saying, you know, you can't stand here.
• 28:13
  You've got to this side of a line.
• 28:15
  You've got to stand two centimetres away on that side of a line.
• 28:17
  And after 20 years of that, you get a bit like, oh, mate, really get a life.
• 28:22
  And there's none of that in touring cars.
• 28:24
  ITV are a much bigger fish in a much smaller pond.
• 28:28
  And obviously the drivers and the teams are all very aware of the
• 28:32
  the synergy between the television coverage that we provide and what they can get from it.
• 28:37
  So they are very open.
• 28:38
  They are very accommodating.
• 28:41
  You know, drivers come out of briefings.
• 28:43
  I can remember the first time I knocked on the door of one of the trailers
• 28:48
  looking for a driver, the door opened.
• 28:50
  They were very clearly having an engineering briefing, which as a press officer even, let alone a journalist, had I gone anywhere near one of our engineering briefings, I would have had my head torn off.
• 29:00
  But so there I was like, no, what, are you right?
• 29:03
  It's like, I was just looking for, can't remember who the driver was.
• 29:06
  Oh yeah, do you want to?
• 29:07
  And they sent him out of an engineering briefing to do an interview with me.
• 29:10
  I thought, oh, this is a whole different ball game here, isn't it?
• 29:13
  So it's, yeah, it's just such a lovely environment to work in.
• 29:18
  And also the racing is bloody brilliant.
• 29:20
  I'm regularly jumping up, down, and shouting at the television, you know, watching the touring car races.
• 29:25
  It's elbows out, you know, all systems go, 20 minute, 25 minute, you know, minutes of,
• 29:35
  mayhem, chaos, adrenaline, you know, I absolutely love it.
• 29:40
  We also on the bill have, you know, amongst the support categories, we've got things like the British Formula Four Championship, which again, that's where all the youngsters are cutting their teeth.
• 29:51
  So, you know, I first met Lando Norris as a tiny weeny little 14 year old actually racing in a
• 29:59
  a category called the Ginetta Junior Championship.
• 30:01
  And then he moved up into British Air 4.
• 30:04
  But so we get to see him.
• 30:05
  We'll get a lot of foreign drivers will come and race in British Air 4.
• 30:08
  So Oscar Piastri, for example, you know, did his single seater racing here in the UK in British Air 4.
• 30:14
  Logan Sargent, another driver who's come up through British Air Force.
• 30:17
  So it's great for me to have interviewed those drivers as little kids back in the day.
• 30:23
  And I'm now still interviewing them, you know, either when I'm down in Melbourne for the Grand Prix or I'll do some work in paddock clubs at some of the events nowadays.
• 30:32
  There's that same driver who is, you know, now reached the heady heights of Formula One.
• 30:37
  It's been lovely seeing Oscar and all his family this year as well.
• 30:41
  You know, so excited to be at the races with him.
• 30:44
  And I was chatting to them in Bahrain.
• 30:49
  I was working the paddock club in Bahrain and I was chatting to his family.
• 30:52
  I said something about friends and family.
• 30:54
  This massive cheer went up from everybody in the front row.
• 30:56
  So it's like, okay, that'll be your friends and family.
• 30:58
  So I was chatting with them afterwards and then I saw them again.
• 31:02
  Melbourne, they came running up.
• 31:03
  Hi, Louise.
• 31:06
  I think it's lovely when you can still see people still have that enthusiasm.
• 31:11
  I...
• 31:12
  I still have that enthusiasm when I go to Grand Prix now.
• 31:14
  I think if you're doing it, if I was still doing it full time, I would have lost some of that enthusiasm.
• 31:20
  So it's lovely when you see that enthusiasm in people because it's really hard work, Formula One.
• 31:25
  And nowadays, we used to get to Monza.
• 31:28
  We would have Japan, Australia, flyaway races, jobs are good in end of season.
• 31:31
  Whereas nowadays you get to Monza at the end of the European season, they've got like another eight long distance flyaways with triple headers.
• 31:38
  And it's seriously, seriously hard work nowadays.
• 31:41
  Amazing.
• 31:42
  Could you tell that some of those names you rattled off like Lando and Oscar were going to be stars of the future?
• 31:50
  You know, I think you can, you can never guarantee somebody's going to be a star, but I think, you know, over the years I've learned, and you said right back at the beginning about media training, which is something that I do now.
• 32:02
  And you can see when drivers come in, you get to know the characteristics that somebody needs to have to go all the way.
• 32:11
  And it's 100% not just down to their driving ability.
• 32:14
  Obviously, that's a key part of it.
• 32:16
  but attitude and application are what separates, you know, there are a lot.
• 32:22
  And in fact, a very good example of that, and I hope he doesn't listen to this when I'm quoting him adversely.
• 32:28
  When I was, I knew when Oscar got into Formula One, I'm thinking, which year was he doing?
• 32:33
  Which year was he?
• 32:34
  And I suddenly realized the reason why Oscar in British Air 4, I didn't have so many memories of him was because there was a driver called Jamie Caroline who'd absolutely blitzed the championship that year.
• 32:45
  um jamie's a british driver and he got so far because he had the wrong attitude and he didn't imply himself in the in the same way that a driver like like oscar did so so you can you can you can see that in youngsters i back in in the early days when i was doing my my media training i did a session for world series by renault um and they got all of the drivers so that was a
• 33:10
  World Series by Renault, kind of like British F4 or F4 level.
• 33:15
  The championship doesn't exist anymore, but raced around Europe.
• 33:18
  And when they had the British race, they took all the drivers along to Enstone, where the, as was Renault, now Alpine factory is not far away, so that they could spend some time with the engineers, look around the factory, do a few bits and bobs.
• 33:30
  And one of the things that they wanted was to do some media training.
• 33:33
  So I had a big group of drivers.
• 33:36
  Really difficult.
• 33:36
  Racing drivers, as you know, have short attention spans.
• 33:38
  You need to keep them involved.
• 33:39
  You need to keep them engaged the whole time.
• 33:41
  So I was thinking, my God, how am I going to write this session that keeps them all engaged?
• 33:45
  So we're in a sort of a lecture theatre at the factory.
• 33:50
  And as the drivers came in, I was expecting them all to go and sit in the backseat.
• 33:53
  They slumped down.
• 33:54
  Oh, bloody hell, we've got to do media training now.
• 33:56
  But actually, there were a couple of them who came and sat right at the front.
• 33:59
  The whole time I'm talking throughout all of the the exercises that we're doing, they're asking me questions, they're hanging on my every word.
• 34:05
  They're one of them was slightly challenging.
• 34:07
  Well, I don't think I'm sorry, I just blame why I was you know, that was fine anyway.
• 34:13
  Those two drivers, one of them was a very young Australian, Daniel Ricciardo.
• 34:17
  And the other one was a French guy called Jean-Éric Fern.
• 34:20
  And, you know, those were the two drivers who stood out in that session.
• 34:24
  And those were the two drivers who went on to subsequent success.
• 34:29
  So you can't, it is, as I say, it's that.
• 34:33
  It's not just the driving ability.
• 34:35
  It's the desire and the passion and the asking the questions and the wanting to go the extra mile.
• 34:40
  That's what makes them stand out.
• 34:42
  I love it.
• 34:43
  That's a great takeaway for young racers listening to the podcast.
• 34:46
  Thank you.
• 34:47
  Can we also talk before we wrap this up, Lou, about something that's really, I think, important?
• 34:52
  And you have been kind of a pioneering figure in this for me in many respects.
• 34:57
  I'm sure you'll say that there's lots of others as well.
• 34:59
  But for women in motorsport, it was a smaller group probably to begin with when you were –
• 35:07
  sitting out in public relations and working with teams and so on.
• 35:11
  But now what was Dare to Be Different, which has become FIA, Girls on Track, and so on.
• 35:17
  And I think you've even attended not just the UK version of that, you've been a part of it in Melbourne and so on.
• 35:22
  It's become a seriously important and thankfully a very successful thing, hasn't it?
• 35:29
  Yeah, it has.
• 35:30
  And I've really done an about face on a personal level with this, because when I was first working as a girl in the paddock, I didn't say, what am I a girl?
• 35:39
  Big deal.
• 35:39
  Whatever.
• 35:40
  Makes no difference.
• 35:40
  I'm just here to do a job.
• 35:41
  Don't point out.
• 35:42
  Don't make it special.
• 35:43
  Nothing.
• 35:44
  And even when I was working with ITV, I can remember there was a girl who was working as a data analyst at Red Bull.
• 35:50
  And the boss of this, oh, we need to have a work.
• 35:53
  No, don't do that.
• 35:54
  Don't want to do that.
• 35:54
  So what's a girl working in it?
• 35:56
  Subsequently, over the years, I've had so many girls come up to me and say, Oh my God, when I saw you working in Formula One, when I saw you doing touring cars, I thought, Oh, girls can do that.
• 36:06
  So I've realized actually there is some benefit to that visibility.
• 36:11
  And, you know, it's
• 36:13
  can be a controversial topic because effectively we're saying like have a bias towards the girls.
• 36:19
  But I think, you know, there is a benefit to doing that because I think the public perception and for me, it's people outside the sport rather than in the sport.
• 36:29
  You know, if you ask a Formula One team, they don't care whether you're male, female.
• 36:33
  They're highly competitive and they want the best people for any given situation.
• 36:37
  But the fact of the matter is, if you look at the talent pool, there are less girls, there are less people from sort of, you know, diversity of ethnic backgrounds.
• 36:47
  So why is that?
• 36:48
  You've got to look at the education system.
• 36:50
  What's telling people that girls do this and boys do that?
• 36:54
  And, you know, so for me, I think it's really important that we do open people's eyes to the fact that, you know, motorsport is,
• 37:05
  There are loads of jobs there that are open to anybody.
• 37:10
  But I remember doing a podcast a few years ago and I was hosting it and we had a bunch of engineers working Formula One, six girls, five of them had been to all girls schools.
• 37:22
  And that to me said, hang on a minute, what's going on in here in our education system that it's kind of defaulting towards, if you're in a mixed education, it's defaulting towards the boys doing engineering, it's defaulting towards the boys doing this.
• 37:35
  STEM subjects that are likely to lead on to, you know, to work in Formula One.
• 37:41
  If you look at the majority of the girls in motorsport, they're in media, they're in marketing, they're in...
• 37:45
  areas of the sport that traditionally there have been more women.
• 37:48
  So, and I think that that needs to be changed.
• 37:51
  And I think that visibility is part of it.
• 37:53
  You need to see it to believe that you can be it.
• 37:56
  So, so that's why I wholly, you know, jumped on board with Dare to be Different.
• 38:01
  That's why I think, you know, Lewis Hamilton's initiative is really important as well.
• 38:05
  you know, he's put not just his name, but his own, you know, put his hand in his back pocket to fund some scholarships for people from, you know, diverse ethnic backgrounds to get into it, because it's a similar kind of thing.
• 38:21
  It's that, you know, expectation of who's going to be doing what job that I think we need to change.
• 38:27
  So, you know, I
• 38:30
  Just to contradict that, you know, when you come to things like the W series, I personally am not in, I've done a little bit of driving.
• 38:37
  I've done more rallying than I have racing.
• 38:40
  I'm not in favour of all-girls series.
• 38:42
  For me, it's like when I was rallying, you know, they'd say, you're the fastest lady driver.
• 38:46
  I used to say, I'm the fastest driver with tits.
• 38:48
  Who cares?
• 38:49
  You know, that's irrelevant.
• 38:50
  I'm not the fastest driver.
• 38:52
  I didn't win.
• 38:54
  I take the check that went with it because that was useful for my budget.
• 38:58
  And so similarly, you knew with W Series, I'm like, who wants to be the fastest woman driver?
• 39:02
  I just, you know, I think it's about being the fastest driver.
• 39:05
  I've always celebrated the fact that I think, you know, equestrian, sailing, motor racing are three sports where men and women can and do compete on a totally...
• 39:15
  um, level, level footing.
• 39:16
  But what I, what I do like about things like W Series, and obviously now we've got the, the F1 Academy, which again, on the level of being an all female championship, you know, it's irrelevant.
• 39:29
  Um,
• 39:31
  And there are a lot of other racing drivers who would say the same thing, female racing drivers.
• 39:35
  It's like, I don't want to compete just against girls.
• 39:38
  I just want to compete.
• 39:39
  But I wholeheartedly applaud and celebrate the exposure that it gives, that it opens people's eyes so that, you know, when they see a girl, and this is what Susie Stoddard, who first set up Dare to be Different, which, as you say, was the cornerstone of what is now FIA Girls on Track,
• 39:58
  And, you know, she said it is that visibility and having that visibility is so important because if you can't see people doing that, you don't know that you can do that.
• 40:08
  And, you know, 20 years ago, young girls were looking at Formula One and the only or the most obvious example of a woman working in that sport was a dolly girl holding a pit board.
• 40:19
  So I think it's really good that we're now seeing, you know,
• 40:23
  girls holding clipboards because they're engineering and doing that kind of thing.
• 40:29
  Hopefully it won't be long before we see more girls with spanners because they're working as mechanics.
• 40:36
  Do I want it to be 50-50?
• 40:37
  No, it's not about that.
• 40:38
  It's not like, you know, I think it's...
• 40:41
  Some people are always going to veer towards something.
• 40:44
  And I think it's probably, you know, more likely that, that, um, you know, more men will veer towards engineering, but I think we need to make it a level playing field so that it's the same opportunity.
• 40:55
  And also so that I think if you look back to a lot of the women who worked in motorsport back in the day, we're all quite strong, feisty women.
• 41:03
  And I think we needed to be in order to fight our corner.
• 41:06
  Um, and, uh,
• 41:08
  And therefore, you know, that's a personal characteristic.
• 41:13
  It doesn't make you good at your job.
• 41:14
  But if you have to be good at your job and be a strong, feisty woman, that's cutting aloud a whole load of women who are just really good at the job but might not be strong, feisty and, you know, prepared, as we all were, to say, sort of, you know, and fight our own corners and join in with the banter kind of thing.
• 41:30
  So I think it's really important that that gets promoted, which is why I'm so happy to attend the events here in the UK to, you know, meet up with the girls down in Melbourne at the Grand Prix.
• 41:44
  And it's nice to meet all the Aussie girls who are working paddocks down there as well.
• 41:48
  So, you know, all the girls who are working Super Cup and that kind of thing.
• 41:53
  Now, finally, you brought up a little bit of rallying there before.
• 41:56
  I'm glad you did that.
• 41:57
  I hope you didn't undersell it too much in your comment because, if I'm right, back in 1999, there is a third in class for you in the British round of the World Championship.
• 42:09
  I have the trophy right here.
• 42:11
  Sitting.
• 42:13
  sitting by my desk.
• 42:15
  Tell me what you were driving and tell us a bit more about that.
• 42:18
  It says third in class, class A5.
• 42:21
  That's like the tiniest, teemiest little.
• 42:23
  I was driving a Ford cab with a lovely Irish journalist called Maurice Hamilton, who you will know.
• 42:29
  Yeah, yeah.
• 42:30
  Maurice was my co-driver.
• 42:31
  You know, that started out, Tony was big into his rallying, and I can remember him one day calling me into the office and saying, what are you doing at the weekend?
• 42:40
  Yeah.
• 42:40
  I think particularly why I said, oh, right, you're gonna be my co-driver on the Y-Dean stages.
• 42:46
  I need a rally driver.
• 42:46
  My regular rally driver's pulled out.
• 42:48
  So it was like, fine, into the deep end.
• 42:50
  Absolutely loved it.
• 42:53
  And then, so I'd always, you know, got on a rope and stuff, and then suddenly cut forward, you know, when I'm working for TV, suddenly people are more likely to say, would you like to have a go driving our car?
• 43:03
  So Ford came along, they had this Ford car championship.
• 43:05
  They said, did I fancy having a go?
• 43:07
  And I was like, yeah, I'm 100% up for that.
• 43:08
  So that's how it started.
• 43:10
  I absolutely loved it.
• 43:12
  Absolutely loved it.
• 43:14
  And worked towards, you know, building up my skills so that I could do Wales Run a GB, which, you know, and rallying, to be able to compete on the same stages at the same time as a, you know, a world-class event like that was just incredible.
• 43:35
  And the step up, you know, I was used to doing national rallying
• 43:40
  The only time you saw people was when there was, you know, if you saw people out on the stage, you thought, well, I need to be careful here because that's where you were most likely to have an accident.
• 43:47
  That's why they were standing there.
• 43:48
  Whereas, you know, when you're doing a world championship event, the streets were lined with people as you're driving from stage to stage.
• 43:56
  And particularly there was one day when the last couple of stages were cancelled for those of us who were running further down the field.
• 44:03
  So it...
• 44:05
  the big cars went on to do them, but that meant that basically we've now cut ahead.
• 44:09
  So my little class, which was one of the very small classes, so we're running at the back of the field, we are now driving on the road just ahead of the main stars of the World Rally.
• 44:18
  So as I say, we're driving through streets and little villages in the middle of nowhere, where everybody's come out to watch the superstars of rallying come past.
• 44:26
  And there's myself and Morris waving at them as we go past and beeping the horn and, you
• 44:31
  But yeah, what an experience.
• 44:33
  What an amazing experience.
• 44:35
  I just loved it.
• 44:36
  And I sort of sometimes think now, God, I'd love to do that again.
• 44:41
  But I know.
• 44:43
  I got to the, by the time I was doing World's Rally GB, I really got my eye in.
• 44:48
  And certainly on that event, I really found out what they meant about being in the zone.
• 44:53
  You know, Morris and I were absolutely spot on.
• 44:56
  He was calling two corners ahead.
• 44:57
  He knew what I wanted, the information I wanted, when I needed it.
• 45:00
  I was visualizing stuff.
• 45:01
  It was all those kinds of things that you think, wow, this is what, this is a tiny, you know, shining a tiny light into that world of sort of,
• 45:12
  professional driving, being a professional sports person.
• 45:15
  It was absolutely fascinating.
• 45:17
  If I tried it again, now I'd be absolutely rubbish and I'd kick myself for being so slow.
• 45:22
  But yeah, it was an amazing opportunity.
• 45:26
  I absolutely loved it.
• 45:27
  You can walk it, you can talk it.
• 45:29
  I knew this podcast was going to be good because our dinners when we're together for the Australian Grand Prix and a few other events we get to do from time to time, the conversation is always terrific.
• 45:38
  Thank you very much for the little insight around attitude and application for media training.
• 45:44
  I reckon that's a great takeaway, as I said before, for the young racers that are listening to this.
• 45:50
  Congratulations on everything you've done.
• 45:52
  in your career so far and keep powering.
• 45:55
  Lou, I look forward to more on-air stuff with you in the years ahead.
• 45:58
  Thank you so much, Rusty.
• 46:00
  It's always good to chat to you and I look forward to catching up soon.
• 46:10
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 46:14
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 46:18
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 46:20
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 46:25
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.