#caio collet

Caio: Hey, say something. Monday motivation. Oscar: RECEBAAA!

hi there guys, gals, and pals! i decided to make my very own guide to indycar for everyone who maybe wants to get into it but doesn't know where to begin!

this is just part 1! part 2 will be here!

you may be wondering why I'm starting with the drivers first...but truthfully WHY start watching or following something if you can't find at least one person you want to support

also, i of course can't put everything about everyone on here or it would absolutely be like out of hand long, so i just tried to highlight some fun facts, stats, and their past driving experiences/series prior to indycar!

You get an injury, you get an injury..

IndyCar x FIFA World Cup, Part 2

Dennis Hauger (Norway)

Caio Collet (Brazil)

Romain Grosjean (France)

Scott Dixon (New Zealand)

Marcus Ericsson (Sweden)

Rinus VeeKay (The Netherlands)

Interviewr 1: Caio, we're also going to talk about other topics, not just Indy. I admit that in the last weeks we're seeing what's happening in Formula 1, right, with our glorious Oscar Piastri, who hasn't even gotten a podium in two months--more than two months, right. it really is an impressive piece of data, from a guy who we notice is very cold, very calm. you--for those who don't know, Caio lived with Piastri for how many years? two years?

Caio: Three. Three years

Int. 1: Three years. You know him very well, you are friends and all. Okay, tell just us--there's no one watching [interviewer 2 laughs] there's very few people watching. But regardless of what you saw, what do you think happened to him that made him get out of a solid lead in the championship, and now he, in three races, there was a sprint in the middle, right, has to recover at least 24 points?

Caio: I think it's really hard to explain what happened, what is happening, only he knows the mistakes he's made, the things that didn't go the way he wanted during the weekends, but it's really hard to see him in this situation. I think in the middle of the year everyone, including me, thought it was a given that he was going to be champion, like, "easily", right.

Int. 1: Quote unquote "easy", yeah. Huge quotation marks.

Caio: Nothing is easy. I think no one knows how hard it is, I don't know. A lot of people don't know how hard it is to fight for a Formula 1 championship, and yeah, I think the pressure--i think it's a sport with a lot of pressure, and i think in these last few races, since Singapore, he couldn't get it right [with the car], some things during the weekends that ended up going wrong, and I think some mistakes on his end came up, and everything kind of snowballed and today he's in this situation. But it's hard. I root for him, and I talk to him to try to help in any way I can to get him out of it, give him some support off track so he can reset. I think this is really hard, like I said, few people know hard it is to fight for a Formula 1 championship, but now it's time to reset and fight for the title in the next three races, because it's still not over, I still think he has the potential, I still believe he can win this championship. Many people forget it's only--"only" his third year in formula 1--

Int 1: There's also that, yeah.

Caio: --compared to Norris, who I think is in his seventh or eighth season.

Int. 1: [20]19, Norris, right?

Int. 2: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24--yeah, seventh.

Caio: So yeah, it's different, more so because Norris grew with Mclaren, he's always been in Mclaren. Yeah, I don't believe one is fucking with the other, like Mclaren fucking with or sabotaging Oscar in that way. Obviously, there are, like, some things where the team ends up putting a bit more pressure, i think the support system within the team is greater for Lando than for Oscar, but i believe no one is purposefully sabotaging Oscar, but... It's gonna be hard, but we're rooting for him to turn it around or at the very least to get to the last round still in the fight for the title.

Int. 2: But Caio, one thing that caught our attention is how fast it happened, right. Because I have Piastri's results here. He spins in Australia and finishes P9, sure, but then we see from China to Italy, a sequence of at least 12 races, he goes progressively to the podium in all of them, except for Canada where he had the contact with Norris. And then he fell off in a way that--it wasn't something that happened gradually, that we started seeing the cracks. It was out of nowhere. There was the team order in Italy, and then never again [getting a podium]. He commented about that last week, he was interviewed for Beyond the Grid, right, about how the team order in Monza affected him. But can we really say that just that one thing was responsible for his whole season falling apart?

Caio: Yeah, it's difficult. I think, really, when the driver doesn't trust the people around him and you lose this trust to search for the limit, to search, let's say, for something more, it's very hard to extract all my potential if I don't trust my engineer is doing his job right, or if the team, really, doesn't matte what happens, they'll be by my side. It's really hard for you to give it your all, to do everything you can inside the car, and then some mistakes happen. I do think when there is a bit of distrust, like "maybe they're not doing everything for me like I am doing for them", or when this... question starts appearing in your head, that's when things started going wrong. But i don't think that's the reason. I think he's a guy who could easily get over it, because of his quality [as a driver], because of the mental work he's done, for everything he's done in the junior categories. I believe it was a series of things, first it came the team order, then Singapore, that contact with Lando, that I don't think the team... maybe they didn't really understand him, maybe they didn't value his side, they sidelined him a bit, then in Interlagos there was the strategy after the penalty, they didn't know if they were doing one or two stops and they kind of... didn't decide. I think this lack of decision, this lack of support, somemtimes it makes the driver distrust them, and it's really hard to fight for a championship being suspicious that something might be happening.

Int. 1: Now, during these months, specially during the time he was winning races, leading the championship, you, I believe--obviously you were racing, you have to focus on yourself, he's your friend but you have to focus on yourself. But you must have heard a lot of people saying "he's cold", "he doesn't show emotions". Is he actually a cold guy in his day to day life, or is he maybe a guy who's colder inside the car? And maybe that... uh, this falling off in these last few races, maybe because of this characteristic of his personality it may be hard to go back to how he was before. How do you see this question of his personality, do you see a lot of bullshit, like "nah, this guy's cold"? Or is he just like one of us, but it's just his expression that you can't really get a read on what he's feeling?

Caio: No, I think he's totally just like one of us, it's just his expression that sometimes you can't really decipher what he's thinking, but in the years that I lived with him he was exactly like he is today. He doesn't talk much, it's hard to get something out of him, like going out to dinner, got out to, like, celebrate, go out to do something. He's a guy who keeps to himself, he's quiet, chill, he really likes to do his own thing, to stay at home, to have a routine. He doesn't let go of his routine for a lot, so it's very hard to--even to get him out of the house to do something else. And he's the same guy that i've always known, to this day, i think that's a really nice thing about him, he barely changed. But it's hard to be in this world, it's a world with a lot of people, a lot of money, a lot of sponsors, a lot of politics, in Formula 1 everything is grander. And of course fighting for the championship affects you a bit. His life, sometimes even too much, he's totally focused, he only thinks about this, this is all he does, so unfortunately I think it ends up affecting him a little.

Int. 1: His family, in some way, do you think they also give him this support?

Caio: Of course, of course. It's a little hard because of the distance, his family is in Australia, they go to some races, but not all of them, so I think sometimes, uh... I won't say he misses it, because I don't know, but I think he wishes his family, his friends, were there during the weekends, because it's really hard to to be there "alone", let's say, so... but like I said, it's only his third year in Formula 1, so he has a lot to learn. We all hoped he'd win the title this year, and if he doesn't win it's going to be a huge learning opportunity in his career, and next year he will definetely come back even stronger, but I still think he has a chance to fight for the championship.

Int. 1: Now, speaking of something that was talked about a lot, including Andrea Stella, about how it bothers [Oscar] having to deal with tracks where the grip isn't the best. And you, speaking as a driver, right, how does this work, exactly? Is it the driver that--he's there and sees that the ground is a little slippery. Norris, like we said, he's been in Formula 1 since 2019, he's been there for a lot longer, so he knows, somewhat, how to deal with that in a Formula 1 car. How does a driver deal with a track with characteristics that he doesn't really like? For instance, with Piastri having to deal with the lack of grip.

Caio: Yeah, you have to adapt. I think today, the level they're in they can adapt with no trouble, but sometimes a driver with a really good technic suffers a little more for not being able to apply it on tracks with a little less grip, because sometimes you have to adapt a lot more instead of applying that perfect break, the perfect speed. When I was Oscar's teammate I saw he had, like, a really really good driving technic, his breking technic, but i think when the track has less grip you start to adapt, you start to change [the technic], you go with your feeling, and maybe Lando has an advantage in that regard. So maybe that might be something in favor of Lando, but I think both of them can adapt really well because of their level.

[They ask Caio about US-American tracks and talk about Vegas being cold]

Caio: [...] and like you said, with a cold track [the track progession] takes even longer. it's gonna be hard for... for those who say Oscar has difficulties with this kind of track, I don't believe so. I believe, sometimes the weekend happens, things move in a way that makes it harder or easier for someone. So we'll see, but I'm really rooting for him to at least be on the podium and take some points away from Lando.

Int. 1: It just came to mind--we were going to change the subject, but I--when we have the São Paulo GP, do you end up becoming like a host to him? Have you taken him to restaurants?

Caio: Yeah, yeah. This year unfortunately--

Int. 1.: You didn't have the time, right?

Caio: Yeah, I was out of the country, I got here Saturday morning, so I went straight to the track from the airport. But every time he comes, he arrives a little earlier and we go out for dinner, I introduce him to some of my friends, to even get him to relax on the weekend, to do something.

Int. 1: Take him karting...