Fireside Chat w/ Akshay Gupta

Akshay Gupta is a racing car driver turned entrepreneur. Akshay has spent his early years trying to become a racing driver and participating in several different racing formats. He became an entrepreneur to support his racing career and soon discovered his love for entrepreneurship. He has founded Quixote now renamed as Scouto (acquired by Spinny).

This is a very different episode where we talk about various topics ranging from Akshay’s early racing career, his experience with starting a business and his struggle with a physical condition. Stick around as we also gloss over our journey behind starting F1 Fanfiction Podcast.

This was a unique experience where Akshay truly took up the mantel of the 3rd host and made the conversation so much more interesting than what we planned for.

Visit us at F1fanfiction.com

Follow Akshay Gupta on his Socials:

Website: Akshay Gupta

Twitter: @akshay_racing 

Instagram: @akshaymotorsport 

Join F1 Fanfiction at our Socials:

Instagram: @f1fanfiction

Tiktok: @f1fanfiction

Twitter: @f1fanfiction

Music:

Intro: Howling (Sting) - Gunnar Olsen

Outro: Your Intro by Audionautix

**Transcript Summary**

* **Akshay Gupta's Background:**
* Began with a passion for cars and participated in various racing formats.
* Became an entrepreneur to support his racing career and discovered his love for entrepreneurship.
* Founded Quixote, now renamed Scouto (acquired by Spinny).

* **Fireside Chat Discussion:**
* Akshay's early racing career and experiences with starting a business.
* His struggle with a physical condition.
* The journey behind starting the F1 Fan Fiction Podcast.

* **Road Safety and Autonomous Vehicles:**
* Akshay's perspective on road safety and the role of technology.
* The potential impact of autonomous vehicles on road safety and the future of motorsport.
* The transition from Western to Indian markets in terms of autonomous vehicle adoption.

* **Safety in Formula One:**
* Akshay's thoughts on the safety of street circuits and the use of concrete barriers.
* The trade-offs between risk and reward in circuit design.
* His favorite Formula One race.

* **Self-Introspection and Learning:**
* The importance of self-introspection and learning from mistakes in racing and life.
* The accelerated learning experience provided by sports compared to other areas of life.
* The value of introspection in entrepreneurship and other fields.

* **Advice for Aspiring Racing Drivers:**
* The importance of being willing to look foolish in the beginning in order to learn and grow.
* The dual role of being a driver and a salesperson in racing.
* Advice for aspiring racing drivers on getting sponsorships and dealing with rejection. ## F1 Fanfiction Podcast

### Episode Summary:

The exceptional podcast episode features a unique and engaging conversation with Akshay Gupta, a former racing car driver turned entrepreneur. Akshay narrates his journey from aspiring to become a racing driver to discovering his passion for entrepreneurship. He highlights the significance of persistence, networking, and adaptability in achieving success. The podcast also delves into Akshay's personal experiences, including his physical challenges and mental struggles, offering valuable insights on resilience and overcoming adversity. Additionally, the episode explores the genesis of the F1 Fanfiction Podcast and the hosts' motivations behind starting it.

### Key Points:

* **Embrace Persistence and Networking:** Akshay emphasizes the importance of perseverance and networking in achieving goals. He encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to approach numerous potential sponsors and investors, as it only takes one to materialize. He stresses the need to continuously pitch and improve presentations to increase the chances of success.

* **Focus on Fundamentals:** Akshay highlights the significance of mastering the fundamentals in any field. He shares his experience as a race engineer and driver, emphasizing the importance of understanding the technical aspects of racing. He believes that a solid foundation enables faster progress and better decision-making.

* **Embrace Learning and Adaptability:** Akshay stresses the importance of continuous learning and adaptability. He discusses his exploration of various topics to enhance his conversational skills and broaden his perspective. He encourages listeners to venture outside their comfort zones to gain new knowledge and experiences.

* **Pivot with Purpose:** Akshay shares his unique perspective on pivoting careers. He explains that his primary motivation was always to get back into a race car, and his entrepreneurial ventures were a means to achieve that goal. He emphasizes the importance of having a strong driving factor and the willingness to restructure oneself to adapt to new challenges.

* **Mental Resilience in Adversity:** Akshay opens up about his physical challenges, including being born with club feet. He shares his positive outlook on life, viewing challenges as opportunities for growth and self-improvement. He encourages listeners to respond rather than react to adversities and to focus on finding solutions.

* **The Influence of Upbringing:** Akshay compares the upbringing of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, highlighting the impact of their respective backgrounds on their personalities and approaches to racing. He believes that love and support play a crucial role in shaping individuals' motivations and behaviors.

* **The Future of Formula 1:** Akshay expresses his optimism about the future of Formula 1. He believes that the sport is taking steps to improve regulations and address issues that arose during the controversial 2021 season. He acknowledges the need to strike a balance between entertainment and the integrity of the sport.

### Memorable Quotes:

* "You only need one sponsor. You don't need like a hundred."

* "The more you build your network that way, the more chances come your way."

* "Just go out there and keep doing yeah I mean law of large numbers is at some point gonna come and fall in your lap."

* "Fundamentals, primarily the understanding of physics."

* "I could picture the car in my head moving around and doing certain things and then coming back and giving the feedback to the engineer saying that this but this is not what I want."

* "Business allows you to have like a lot more exposure in that respect and that's when I realized that that's something that I should do."

* "I think it's a good thing that you're kind of since you are on that topic of you know, learning things and you know, learning various different things, I guess the theme as far as I see it, the theme of your career as such in general is like pivot tearing in general in the sense that you have pivoted your career multiple times from a racing driver to like trying to get into this engineering becoming an entrepreneur and I think definitely at least from my perspective it is one of the hardest things to do like once you are like so ingrained into what you're doing getting out of that mindset and then relearning because anytime you're going into a new field, you are basically going to be starting as a beginner and as you mentioned, right? Like you look as a fool as when you're a beginner, like, and that's, that's just the truth."

* "I actually started building a business because I reached a point where I could not race anymore."

* "I've fallen in love with business as much as I've fallen in love with racing cars."

* "The goal and the impact can have on the world, not just people around it and creation of the game."

* "Business is like a disguise to entrepreneurship is like a disguise for inner restructuring."

* "If your driving factor is strong enough you will find a way."

* "I think if you want something badly you will find a way to do it eventually."

* "As for hacks to be able to pivot, the driving factor is probably towards doing it more and more."

* "The map is not the territory."

* "I just take it as a challenge so that I can do more."

* "I can't pinpoint to what led me to think in this particular way or I can't pinpoint to, I can just tell you that I'm bit this way."

* "Respond never react."

* "Chimp management. You have to manage your inner chimp."

* "I think love is a better driving factor than anything else in life."

* "Ego is not that good a driving factor, because it'll make you do things that you should not or would not have done otherwise."

* "I think good things are coming out of it in general."

* "I like to plug this book every time because a few minutes back you were mentioning like Maxwell left to start thinking of what's next right this is book by a Pixar's co-founder at Catanual Creativity Inc. and like the way he starts this book is like I question every single time like what's next and that sort of kept him going."

* "No Angel. Bernie Eccleston's Life Story."

### Overall Message:

The podcast episode offers a compelling narrative of Akshay Gupta's journey, highlighting the importance of perseverance, networking, and adaptability in achieving success. It emphasizes the value of embracing challenges and learning from adversity, as well as the significance of having a strong driving factor and the willingness to pivot when necessary. The episode also explores the influence of upbringing and the role of love and support in shaping individuals' motivations and behaviors. Ultimately, the podcast leaves listeners with a sense of inspiration and empowerment, encouraging them to pursue their passions and overcome obstacles with resilience and determination. ## F1 Fanfiction Podcast Episode 26 Transcript Summary
**Guest:** Akshay Gupta, Racing Car Driver and Entrepreneur

**Key Topics Discussed:**

* Akshay Gupta's journey from racing car driver to entrepreneur
* The challenges and rewards of starting a business
* Akshay's experience with a physical condition
* The history and evolution of Formula One
* The different roles and responsibilities within a Formula One team
* The importance of teamwork and communication in Formula One
* The challenges and opportunities facing Formula One in the future

**Detailed Summary:**

Akshay Gupta, a former racing car driver turned entrepreneur, shared his experiences and insights on the podcast. He discussed his early years as a racing driver, competing in various formats, and his decision to become an entrepreneur to support his racing career. Akshay emphasized his love for entrepreneurship and his passion for building businesses.

The podcast delved into the challenges and rewards of starting a business. Akshay highlighted the importance of perseverance, adaptability, and the ability to learn from mistakes. He also shared his experiences with a physical condition that affected his racing career and how he overcame it with determination and resilience.

The discussion shifted to the history and evolution of Formula One, with Akshay providing insights into the sport's origins and its transformation over the years. He explained the different roles and responsibilities within a Formula One team, emphasizing the significance of teamwork and communication in achieving success.

Akshay also touched upon the challenges and opportunities facing Formula One in the future. He discussed the impact of technology, the increasing popularity of electric vehicles, and the need for sustainability in the sport. He expressed optimism about the future of Formula One, highlighting its ability to adapt and evolve with the changing times.

Overall, the podcast provided a comprehensive and engaging conversation about Akshay Gupta's journey, the world of entrepreneurship, and the past, present, and future of Formula One. Akshay's insights and experiences offered a unique perspective on the sport and the business world, making it an informative and enjoyable listen for fans of Formula One and entrepreneurship alike.

[00:00.000 -> 00:07.640] What I like to do is if there's anyone in the world that I am fascinated by, I would like to dig down and understand
[00:07.920 -> 00:10.280] What are their origins like? Where do they come from?
[00:10.920 -> 00:18.200] And I've done that for most F1 drivers. So let's compare the two last year's championship contenders.
[00:36.320 -> 00:47.800] Hello folks, welcome back to F1 Fan Fiction. This episode as you might have already seen on the title is a fireside. We're back with a fireside chat. This time we've got a new host with us, someone who lives by the motto
[00:47.800 -> 00:53.360] innovation is by chance, just be curious always. On F1 Fan Fiction we are your
[00:53.360 -> 01:00.400] hosts. I am Akash and I'm Sarang and I'm gonna hand it over to our third host for
[01:00.400 -> 01:05.080] the night. Third host take it away. Hi, so this is Akshay Gupta, quick
[01:05.080 -> 01:10.440] introduction what I've been into and what I've done in my life till now. So
[01:10.440 -> 01:15.880] started off with just a passion for cars, played with cars ever since I can
[01:15.880 -> 01:20.480] remember, ever since the age of two with toy cars. I had a go-kart when I was five
[01:20.480 -> 01:24.640] years old and I used to live in a small village in Rajasthan where there were a
[01:24.640 -> 01:25.320] lot of mountains.
[01:25.320 -> 01:30.440] So all I did all day was just drive down the go-kart on the downhill, right?
[01:31.040 -> 01:32.360] Because there was no engine in it.
[01:32.560 -> 01:35.040] And that gave me a lot of speed.
[01:35.720 -> 01:39.320] And as I grew up, I discovered we shifted to a larger city.
[01:39.320 -> 01:42.480] I discovered there's something called go-karting with an engine.
[01:43.000 -> 01:45.320] And that's what I spent my weekend doing.
[01:45.880 -> 01:49.680] Gradually discovered that there's a sport called motor racing, where
[01:49.760 -> 01:51.280] people race cars for a living.
[01:51.880 -> 01:52.520] And that is it.
[01:52.520 -> 01:53.760] That is what I wanted to do.
[01:53.920 -> 01:56.000] I think I was 12, 13.
[01:56.200 -> 02:00.480] From that point onwards, surrounded myself with cars in one way or the other.
[02:00.560 -> 02:03.480] Figured there's a national championship that I can participate in,
[02:03.520 -> 02:04.520] couldn't get the budget.
[02:04.720 -> 02:08.160] Gradually moved into saloon car racing, simultaneously started
[02:08.160 -> 02:14.800] studying automobile engineering and then got myself a job as a automotive journalist in a
[02:14.800 -> 02:22.000] print magazine and moved into race car engineering a bit for a while. Realized that's not my thing.
[02:28.080 -> 02:33.680] a while, I realized that's not my thing. Okay. And then switch careers into entrepreneurship while racing cars constantly. So I had gotten selected by Toyota in the national championship.
[02:33.680 -> 02:39.840] In the meanwhile, Nissan also selected through their driver hunt in 2014, 2015.
[02:39.840 -> 02:46.800] 2015, I actually went on to do the Asian GT Academy thing, which is the
[02:46.800 -> 02:48.320] Asian driver selection campaign.
[02:48.720 -> 02:53.000] And 2016, I turned myself into a full-time entrepreneur.
[02:53.640 -> 02:59.120] So that's, that's been the journey in the scene of motorsport and entrepreneurship.
[02:59.160 -> 03:02.760] But when I got into entrepreneurship, it was majorly into cars.
[03:03.280 -> 03:06.800] So I thought I have to start with the
[03:06.800 -> 03:13.360] motorsport project, failed in three motorsport projects to be honest and then moved on to
[03:14.080 -> 03:17.520] building electronics and software for the car industry, which is what we call connected cars
[03:17.520 -> 03:28.000] now. So recently sold the company to a large startup called Spinny and now transitioning working with
[03:28.000 -> 03:30.400] them which is a used car player by the way.
[03:30.400 -> 03:36.240] So yeah, having fun working around this possible doing something or the other with respect
[03:36.240 -> 03:37.240] to cars right.
[03:37.240 -> 03:39.080] That's that's who I am.
[03:39.080 -> 03:40.080] That's my journey.
[03:40.080 -> 03:41.080] Sweet.
[03:41.080 -> 03:43.000] I mean, I love the introduction you gave.
[03:43.000 -> 03:45.760] You pretty much captured everything that we wanted to start with.
[03:45.760 -> 03:55.440] So perfect. So let's talk a little bit about Kiyote, that's basically your company which you mentioned, which you basically recently sold to Spinny.
[03:55.440 -> 04:05.720] Could you tell us a little bit more about what does the company do and what role are you playing now with it?
[04:05.720 -> 04:11.360] So essentially, I break it down for the people in a way whenever I introduced it to anyone
[04:11.360 -> 04:14.880] I meet is that we build software and electronics for cars.
[04:14.880 -> 04:21.400] Electronics is what gets inside the vehicle and connects you to your ECUs, but then be
[04:21.400 -> 04:23.400] connected to the internet.
[04:23.400 -> 04:28.140] So essentially building IoT and essentially doing connected cars.
[04:28.140 -> 04:32.740] So once you connect your data on the vehicle to the internet, you get a lot of information
[04:32.740 -> 04:35.780] that you can leverage in so many manners.
[04:35.780 -> 04:41.780] Not just as a customer, but as a car manufacturer, as a dealer, as a spare supplier, as an insurance
[04:41.780 -> 04:44.020] company, finance company, whatever.
[04:44.020 -> 04:46.880] So what we do is not just build that hardware, but the software layer on the
[04:46.880 -> 04:50.800] cloud, but also the front end for the customer and then some intelligence on
[04:50.800 -> 04:53.600] top of it so that everyone can derive value out of the vehicle.
[04:53.700 -> 04:54.000] Okay.
[04:54.060 -> 04:59.680] So we are going in this autonomous shared and electric future, which is called case.
[04:59.780 -> 05:02.920] Essentially connected cars, like a precursor to all of this.
[05:03.200 -> 05:05.820] Uh, you can not have autonomous cars without connectivity.
[05:05.820 -> 05:08.900] You cannot have shared mobility without connectivity.
[05:08.900 -> 05:12.380] Electric vehicles you can have, but it is better to have them with connectivity.
[05:12.380 -> 05:15.420] So you know how much charge is left before you get in the car.
[05:15.420 -> 05:17.980] So that's broadly what we do.
[05:17.980 -> 05:21.300] My role in the company post the acquisition still remains the same.
[05:21.300 -> 05:30.320] I still function in a way that I lead the company and manage the same team, nothing has changed. It's just the ownership structure has
[05:30.320 -> 05:35.880] changed and we still build with the same motor, with the same enthusiasm to get
[05:35.880 -> 05:40.520] whatever we wanted to accomplish in the company. Awesome, awesome. I think like one of
[05:40.520 -> 05:50.000] the motivations that we've heard you say that got you into this whole journey is with respect to road safety, right? And I think like you've
[05:50.000 -> 05:55.280] said this a couple of times too which is you rather incentivize good
[05:55.280 -> 06:01.640] driving versus these intense incentivize like bad drivers, right? So my question is
[06:01.640 -> 06:06.560] more towards like the whole safety aspect of the whole thing, right?
[06:06.560 -> 06:10.000] How do you perceive safety with roads in general?
[06:10.000 -> 06:12.080] Like what is safe to you, right?
[06:12.080 -> 06:17.200] Like for me, what is safe probably for you isn't and for both of us in the same car with
[06:17.200 -> 06:19.560] the third passenger is a totally different thing.
[06:19.560 -> 06:23.240] So beyond guidelines, A, how do you perceive safety?
[06:23.240 -> 06:27.680] Okay, that's interesting. guidelines? A, how do you perceive safety? So, there is an entire field of study called
[06:27.680 -> 06:32.320] the defensive driving, right? For on-road driving, there's this defensive driving, there's
[06:32.320 -> 06:37.600] this race car driver called Ben Collins, who used to be a stig on Top Gear, right? And he has
[06:38.240 -> 06:48.560] a book on defensive driving as well, right? Majorly for the British market, right? I think that since you're a race car driver, you won't be a safe one on the road.
[06:48.800 -> 06:50.800] But I think the reverse is true.
[06:51.160 -> 06:54.520] Right. And the perspective on safety is very different.
[06:54.520 -> 06:57.560] See, I believe this is interesting statistics.
[06:58.560 -> 07:04.080] There's this company called Nauto in the US, which does AI based
[07:04.080 -> 07:06.880] smart cams so that they can assist you in terms
[07:06.880 -> 07:10.740] of if you're not paying attention to the road, just one of the features, right?
[07:10.740 -> 07:13.700] If you're not paying attention to the road and there's something that you should be warned
[07:13.700 -> 07:14.700] about.
[07:14.700 -> 07:18.000] So it'll warn you about it before it happens.
[07:18.000 -> 07:20.840] It's smartly recognizes whether you're looking at the road, whether you're looking at whatever
[07:20.840 -> 07:22.040] is out there or not.
[07:22.040 -> 07:23.600] So distracted driving, right?
[07:23.600 -> 07:25.480] That's a major topic.
[07:25.480 -> 07:32.160] Now, if you just break it down and look at just US stats, I think in the US, 70% don't
[07:32.160 -> 07:33.760] get me on these stats, right?
[07:33.760 -> 07:39.600] But 60 to 70% of all crashes are front wheel collisions, out of which out of those 60 to
[07:39.600 -> 07:44.280] 70% crashes, almost 50% of them are because of distracted driving.
[07:44.280 -> 07:46.400] And that's a major road
[07:46.400 -> 07:51.920] safety issue that we face. And if you could just limit distracted driving, you can see like a 30,
[07:51.920 -> 07:58.960] 35% reduction in all of crashes. So that is one aspect of road safety. But then there are like
[07:58.960 -> 08:06.000] a bunch of layers to it. What you can very easily quantify is like, look at the data that is around you and then
[08:11.040 -> 08:16.640] study that data and understand what are the major contributors to road safety. And that's, I think, the more objective way of going about it than me telling you that, okay, I feel this is
[08:17.360 -> 08:25.600] safety for me and that is safety for me. That solves the question of the subjectivity in the matter. Fair enough. Fair enough.
[08:25.920 -> 08:30.880] And with that comes like, you know, there are moments when I'm driving and I'm like,
[08:30.880 -> 08:36.320] I'm so waiting for autonomous cars to be here because that just takes the whole human element out.
[08:36.320 -> 08:41.320] And like, even Elon Musk says this, like our generation from now is going to be like,
[08:41.320 -> 08:43.360] Oh, you used to have humans behind the wheel.
[08:43.360 -> 08:44.800] That sounds just so ridiculous.
[08:44.800 -> 08:47.620] And it's a fact. I mean, the time that sounds just so ridiculous and it's a fact I mean the time's gonna come but it's a
[08:47.620 -> 08:51.760] fact and you yourself have been a proponent of you know waiting for the
[08:51.760 -> 08:57.800] autonomous revolution to come what what I want to understand is how do you see
[08:57.800 -> 09:01.260] being in this domain being in this industry studying studying this whole
[09:01.260 -> 09:09.880] sector this is a very complex challenge to solve, right. Like for you, how do you see the evolution of this and with that the
[09:09.880 -> 09:13.840] transition of sort of like the Western to the Indian market because like our
[09:13.840 -> 09:17.680] road conditions are nowhere to be compared in terms of like the driving
[09:17.680 -> 09:22.720] style and everything else, right. So where do you see yourself there? Before I
[09:22.720 -> 09:25.360] addressed that you had, I thought on a lot.
[09:25.360 -> 09:30.000] Which is that what happens to the world of motorsport when we have autonomous cars?
[09:30.000 -> 09:36.560] Yes. That is like my biggest concern for everything. Yes. And I'm like hardcore motorsport guy.
[09:36.560 -> 09:47.080] And a petrol head. I'm assuming driving cars you're gonna be a petrol head. Yeah, completely. Yeah. So I have the, I'll talk about my road car, what I'm doing with it.
[09:47.080 -> 09:49.000] Later we'll get to that.
[09:49.160 -> 09:49.660] Yes.
[09:49.800 -> 09:54.120] Essentially what I realized and I spent countless hours thinking about this,
[09:54.120 -> 09:54.800] worried about it.
[09:55.080 -> 09:58.400] And then I realized that what happened to the world of horse racing will happen to
[09:58.400 -> 09:59.280] the world of motorsport.
[10:00.000 -> 10:01.800] And this is one of the actions.
[10:02.920 -> 10:05.640] It became a glorified sport and it exists
[10:05.640 -> 10:07.600] for the select few who want to do it.
[10:07.680 -> 10:11.040] It's not like when we had, oh, by the way, so this is an interesting study,
[10:11.040 -> 10:15.360] which showed that there was a panel which met in the U S because they thought
[10:15.360 -> 10:21.160] that because of horses carrying passengers around, we could have like a
[10:21.600 -> 10:27.140] climate issue and that that's why they wanted to ship to IC engines at that particular
[10:27.140 -> 10:27.640] time.
[10:28.000 -> 10:28.800] I can buy that.
[10:28.800 -> 10:29.300] Yes.
[10:29.640 -> 10:31.040] That makes perfect sense to me.
[10:34.900 -> 10:38.560] The logic there was the dung being put out by the horses was too large.
[10:38.560 -> 10:41.240] The dust being kicked by the wheels were too high, too much.
[10:41.300 -> 10:44.800] And, uh, to collect that dung in the first place, you had to send more horses.
[10:45.100 -> 10:46.600] So you're just increasing the problem.
[10:46.600 -> 10:48.580] And it just didn't make sense.
[10:48.640 -> 10:48.840] Yeah.
[10:49.040 -> 10:52.280] But then we shifted to IC engines and here we are.
[10:52.840 -> 10:58.160] And I believe when we get into electric and autonomous vehicles, let's call them
[10:58.160 -> 11:02.920] hand-driven or human driven vehicles will mostly be driven on racetracks.
[11:03.240 -> 11:05.600] And this will become an even bigger spectacle
[11:05.600 -> 11:09.480] because most people don't have the skills to now ride.
[11:09.480 -> 11:11.120] And there'll be more interest in it.
[11:11.120 -> 11:16.320] And I'm hoping we go back to the days of V8 and V10s and whatnot.
[11:16.320 -> 11:19.320] Bring back Cosmic Dungeons.
[11:19.320 -> 11:27.000] That's one part of the question you didn't ask, but I thought it should be answered.
[11:27.000 -> 11:28.000] Fair enough.
[11:28.000 -> 11:29.000] That's fair enough.
[11:29.000 -> 11:33.000] Yeah, the other thing is, what you actually asked was the transition from the Western
[11:33.000 -> 11:38.000] world to the Indian world, to the developing nations, not just India.
[11:38.000 -> 11:43.000] I think we are a frame away compared to the Western world in terms of getting the autonomous
[11:43.000 -> 11:44.000] vehicles here.
[11:44.000 -> 11:50.720] It's not a question of just technology being there. I think technology will surely to be there. You look at
[11:50.720 -> 11:57.760] different predictions. They range from 5 to 10 years or 15, 20 years. 5 to 20 years is what is
[11:57.760 -> 12:02.800] the max I have heard in most predictions, most credible predictions, let's say. If you look at
[12:02.800 -> 12:06.480] India, the first problem we have to solve is infrastructure.
[12:06.480 -> 12:10.080] And then you can have the technology at play.
[12:10.080 -> 12:12.880] And the second problem is the cost.
[12:12.880 -> 12:18.320] It took us like so long to have just two airbags as mandatory in vehicles.
[12:18.320 -> 12:23.800] What I see as a transitioning case for autonomous vehicles in India would be like a level two
[12:23.800 -> 12:24.800] add us first.
[12:24.800 -> 12:25.200] Let's say we have like a level 2 ADAS first.
[12:25.200 -> 12:29.560] Let's say we have like a step to level 2 ADAS and then we move gradually into level 3, level
[12:29.560 -> 12:30.560] 4, level 5.
[12:30.560 -> 12:31.560] Right.
[12:31.560 -> 12:33.440] Level 2 is significantly cheaper to adapt.
[12:33.440 -> 12:38.840] I think you go as a country has mandated it from 2025 or something that every car which
[12:38.840 -> 12:42.440] I could be wrong about this, but every car that should be sold should have like level
[12:42.440 -> 12:43.560] 2 of ADAS.
[12:43.560 -> 12:50.320] So gradually we'll get there, within this decade you'll see it and then gradually transitioning into level 3, 4, 5.
[12:50.320 -> 12:56.800] I think till like two to three decades away. Okay, okay. Fair, yeah. I think let's pivot a bit here.
[12:56.800 -> 13:02.800] I mean we're still talking about road safety but in from the context of a racetrack.
[13:02.800 -> 13:08.080] So talking about like safety in F in F1, especially all the controversy
[13:08.080 -> 13:14.700] that went about for especially the Saudi GP, and the emergence of street tracks in general
[13:14.700 -> 13:20.400] in F1, the main issue that most people are concerned about are the barriers, the concrete
[13:20.400 -> 13:25.600] barriers with no runoff spaces for most tracks or rather most street tracks these
[13:25.600 -> 13:27.040] days.
[13:27.040 -> 13:34.580] What is your opinion about, is this the right trend that F1 is following and what can be
[13:34.580 -> 13:37.220] done to make this better?
[13:37.220 -> 13:47.720] On the street circuits being more prominent on the calendar, see frankly, I'm a fan of street circuits. I'm a fan of as much, there's this
[13:47.720 -> 13:52.920] trade off always in every aspect. There's this trade off of this risk versus reward
[13:52.920 -> 13:58.600] and a few things as well. Now, Formula One has gotten to a really, really high standard
[13:58.600 -> 14:04.660] of safety. But at the end of the day, if you ask me, the barrier is yes, they are a concern.
[14:04.660 -> 14:08.480] Maybe the design could be better, but I'm sure the FOM of formula one
[14:08.480 -> 14:11.040] management is like on top of it all the time.
[14:11.040 -> 14:14.920] So we able to ensure whatever the best they can, they must be doing it.
[14:15.440 -> 14:18.240] They give there's a physical limitation to where, where they can put the
[14:18.240 -> 14:19.800] barrier, they can't do much.
[14:19.800 -> 14:20.300] Right.
[14:20.520 -> 14:22.760] And I'm guessing that is bandwidth limitation.
[14:22.800 -> 14:25.680] And I've explored a bit of, you know, the
[14:25.680 -> 14:30.040] process of creating street tracks or just understanding how it can happen.
[14:30.040 -> 14:34.760] I also explored an area in Gujarat where we could have one, right.
[14:34.760 -> 14:39.440] And I went through the regulations and I understand that there are limitations when you create
[14:39.440 -> 14:43.780] street tracks, but there are even the joys of having a street tracks, the fans are much
[14:43.780 -> 14:44.780] closer to the action.
[14:44.780 -> 14:45.000] The drivers enjoy being on the limit fans are much closer to the action.
[14:45.000 -> 14:48.440] The drivers enjoy being on the limit more, being closer to the limit.
[14:48.440 -> 14:54.480] And then if you're off the limit, it's more, it just punishes you more.
[14:54.480 -> 14:56.240] And that's what racing should be.
[14:56.240 -> 15:02.440] I am rather against the tracks, which let you make a mistake and get away with it.
[15:02.440 -> 15:04.920] Like with the Tarmac runoff failures.
[15:04.920 -> 15:07.600] That's what I would not prefer. I would prefer more streets.
[15:08.000 -> 15:09.360] It's a little risky. It's okay.
[15:10.040 -> 15:13.280] Yeah. And it's like actions have consequences kind of a thing.
[15:13.480 -> 15:16.600] And it's more prominent on street tracks than on, I think,
[15:16.640 -> 15:18.240] the conventional racetracks overall.
[15:18.920 -> 15:22.520] What is your favorite race that you have ever seen?
[15:22.720 -> 15:26.200] Out of all the Formula One races, what would be your favorite race?
[15:27.400 -> 15:27.760] Good one.
[15:28.600 -> 15:30.120] So many to choose from.
[15:31.280 -> 15:34.440] I think like my personal favorite is, has to be Spa.
[15:34.560 -> 15:36.320] I mean that, I don't know.
[15:36.320 -> 15:40.000] It's whenever I think of a racetrack, that's what comes to my mind.
[15:40.400 -> 15:45.280] It's like the very classic racetrack, you know up in the mountains and
[15:46.600 -> 15:51.660] Looks awesome and as well as you know, the track itself is awesome. That's I would say is my personal favorite
[15:51.780 -> 15:55.440] Yeah for me, I think like Frank or Sham some things that
[15:56.400 -> 16:00.920] Something that had me on my seat was 2011 Vettel's first championship
[16:00.920 -> 16:08.560] It was like he had to like even though it finished crossing he had to wait for others to still come and we were still deciding which order like
[16:08.560 -> 16:13.760] I think the three contending on that final race.
[16:13.760 -> 16:17.760] Yeah, there was so many.
[16:17.760 -> 16:19.760] What track was that one?
[16:19.760 -> 16:21.760] Abu Dhabi.
[16:21.760 -> 16:23.760] No, I think Abu Dhabi, right?
[16:23.760 -> 16:25.000] The first ever championship 31. Abudhabi. Brazilian G. Abudhabi? No. Yeah, no.
[16:25.000 -> 16:26.000] I think Abudhabi, right?
[16:26.000 -> 16:28.000] The first ever championship that he won.
[16:28.000 -> 16:29.000] Yeah, 20.
[16:29.000 -> 16:30.000] Brazilian.
[16:30.000 -> 16:31.000] Brazilian.
[16:31.000 -> 16:36.480] But yeah, he was like, it was like all four had to cross and the position that they crossed
[16:36.480 -> 16:39.680] on decided if Vettel was the champion or not.
[16:39.680 -> 16:43.120] I think this is a race where he crashed in the first lap.
[16:43.120 -> 16:44.120] Which one?
[16:44.120 -> 16:46.080] This is a race, right? Where he crashed in the first lap.
[16:46.080 -> 16:48.680] He spun around. He had damage on the car.
[16:48.680 -> 16:50.000] That, I don't remember.
[16:50.000 -> 16:52.000] Because like, I'm not so familiar.
[16:52.000 -> 16:54.640] He's been crazy in his initial.
[16:54.640 -> 16:58.640] That's why I see him as the younger Max.
[16:58.640 -> 17:00.920] Because he was Max before Max was Max.
[17:00.920 -> 17:02.720] The way he drove back then.
[17:02.720 -> 17:06.720] Like, him being the way he was with Webber too.
[17:06.720 -> 17:15.440] That fight that he for no reason picked in Malaysia with Webber. Like that was what Max is or now he's matured.
[17:15.440 -> 17:17.200] Like that is what he was back then.
[17:17.200 -> 17:19.320] Win at all costs, basically.
[17:19.320 -> 17:21.000] Yeah, exactly.
[17:21.000 -> 17:22.680] Exactly, win at all costs.
[17:22.680 -> 17:33.000] Win at all costs. I think, like I'm not comparing, I'm not saying this, but I have this saying in general, like to be a world champion, you have to be a narcissistic asshole.
[17:33.000 -> 17:37.000] Like you have to believe. I think I have to agree with that.
[17:37.000 -> 17:47.600] Do everything possible, do anything possible to win. That's what makes me respect Lewis a lot more too. Like he was in his early phases, very aggressive and all of that.
[17:47.600 -> 17:52.560] Now he's become much more content with whatever he has and just,
[17:52.600 -> 17:56.680] you know, grateful to all the things. I just see him as a different person.
[17:57.160 -> 17:59.240] I agree.
[18:00.160 -> 18:03.600] No, I mean, so I think like we have a split panel here.
[18:03.880 -> 18:08.240] Exactly. Like I personally don't like Lewis on track. I mean, he's,
[18:08.560 -> 18:12.200] I love for what he does off the track and voicing his voice and stuff,
[18:12.560 -> 18:14.560] but like on track, I don't like him.
[18:14.720 -> 18:16.680] And that too because of exactly what you're saying.
[18:16.680 -> 18:19.640] Like he is a narcissistic asshole that he is. But,
[18:20.600 -> 18:24.760] but I've started feeling right. Like I had the same feeling for Vettel,
[18:32.280 -> 18:38.000] but, but as soon as like stuff started happening since 2017 and 18 for Vettel and he sort of started pulling down the rank, which is what's happening for Lewis for the past few races, I'm starting to feel like this love...
[18:38.000 -> 18:44.240] Yeah, so it's like this love indicator is how you gauge how well you're doing in your career now.
[18:44.240 -> 18:48.480] All the hates now gonna start pushing for Max at this point.
[18:48.480 -> 18:53.840] I think you are right about that.
[18:53.840 -> 18:56.880] But look at it. Okay. So compare it with other sports.
[18:56.880 -> 19:02.440] Have you seen this documentary on Michael Jordan on Netflix?
[19:02.440 -> 19:03.960] I have.
[19:03.960 -> 19:06.240] Basically, if you explore Jordan as a person,
[19:07.040 -> 19:12.960] okay, worth a watch, okay. So if you explore Jordan as a person, everyone in his team hated him,
[19:12.960 -> 19:16.640] because he would push everyone to the limits to be able to win the championship.
[19:17.440 -> 19:23.520] Everything, everyone hated him. In the practice, he just keep pushing everyone on the field just
[19:23.520 -> 19:25.000] to get more and more out of it.
[19:25.000 -> 19:32.000] To be that champion, to be that legendary person, the hall of fame people, right?
[19:32.000 -> 19:39.000] You have to have an at-lose somewhere to be able to want to go and just want that.
[19:39.000 -> 19:47.360] I think all of these people have it. We just don't realize how much it is a necessity to get there.
[19:47.360 -> 19:53.000] I think you can win by being good on that track. Like no one's gonna...
[19:53.000 -> 19:59.200] It is always elbows out. And when you know that you have that car, at least for F100,
[19:59.200 -> 20:09.840] like you know that you have that car to push. Yeah, do what it takes. Do what it takes. I think you can win a few races but to win a championship you have to be that person.
[20:09.840 -> 20:16.120] Yeah, like unless you don't believe it, nobody else is. So, you know, that's kind of the reason.
[20:16.120 -> 20:26.880] I don't think Hamilton is gonna go down without a fight. I think like as much as I'd want him to actually fight for anth title, I think he's gonna take that and go home.
[20:26.880 -> 20:31.840] It's not coming this season but I feel like 2023, it's probably more back sort of thing.
[20:31.840 -> 20:37.000] I just want another close fight and a fair fight at the end.
[20:37.000 -> 20:40.400] Without Nassi being there.
[20:40.400 -> 20:45.800] Fair fight. The key words were hidden in that sentence. Yes.
[20:47.600 -> 20:47.760] So this is a fair fight.
[20:52.200 -> 20:55.880] Uh, one more year, if we can have, I think we have had like good few battles between Leclerc and Max as well right now.
[20:56.360 -> 21:01.520] And then I'm loving to see, like, you can see that the young blood has, uh,
[21:01.560 -> 21:02.640] they always elbows out.
[21:02.640 -> 21:04.720] They're just trying to do anything and anything possible.
[21:04.800 -> 21:08.040] When both of them compete hard, wheel-to-wheel racing, they give it everything.
[21:08.340 -> 21:09.020] So I like that.
[21:09.220 -> 21:12.020] And it's getting closer in that aspect.
[21:12.020 -> 21:13.320] So it's quite a lot of fun.
[21:13.500 -> 21:15.260] I think Formula One is revived now.
[21:16.300 -> 21:17.160] It has, right?
[21:17.380 -> 21:22.660] Like even we had dropped watching because it was what Lewis used to say, people are
[21:22.660 -> 21:25.440] going to get bored if Vettel keeps winning the championship.
[21:25.440 -> 21:27.560] Yeah, it bored me when he was winning it.
[21:27.560 -> 21:27.920] So,
[21:32.120 -> 21:34.320] I think Netflix did a great job also.
[21:34.320 -> 21:40.720] Actually half my social media now is like filled with people posting about Formula One.
[21:41.120 -> 21:43.880] Then there was no one calling Formula One until like four years back.
[21:44.160 -> 21:46.320] Yeah, so Netflix did a great job. formula one, then there was no one until like four years back. Yeah.
[21:50.080 -> 21:51.280] I think like Liberty media has cracked the formula with, you know, doing that partnership with Netflix.
[21:51.640 -> 21:54.360] I think that was like a masterclass move from them.
[21:55.560 -> 22:01.560] If you look at formula one, just as a business acquisition that Liberty did and
[22:01.560 -> 22:03.040] where they've brought it from there.
[22:03.200 -> 22:05.400] If I were the CEO of Liberty, right.
[22:05.840 -> 22:07.640] And I had done such a great job.
[22:07.640 -> 22:13.720] I would be asking for like hefty bonuses because the followers, uh, that is
[22:13.720 -> 22:17.760] increased on social media, online presence, which is increased driver popularity.
[22:18.240 -> 22:21.120] Viewers, viewership has gone up significantly.
[22:21.480 -> 22:23.040] Look at the viewership on Netflix.
[22:23.280 -> 22:23.480] Yeah.
[22:23.480 -> 22:25.200] Look at the revenue that they are bringing in.
[22:25.200 -> 22:28.680] New races, new venues and what not.
[22:28.680 -> 22:34.200] Even in stadium, right? I think Austin last year had 400,000 or something is what they reported.
[22:34.200 -> 22:38.320] Close to half a million people at the stand. That's insane.
[22:38.320 -> 22:39.680] That's insane.
[22:39.680 -> 22:55.080] Even they broke the record for the most viewed F1 race in US ever. Yeah. I think overall they kind of realized that this gold mine of audience was here in the US and they had not tapped it yet at all.
[22:55.080 -> 23:02.760] And I think it was due time now that they had to expand it and get the sport into the US.
[23:02.760 -> 23:06.400] Vijay, I want to ask you this, going back to sort of
[23:06.400 -> 23:11.600] your early life sort of thing. So you said you had a car, sort of go
[23:11.600 -> 23:17.280] car at the age of four and then you drove by yourself and in its true sense
[23:17.280 -> 23:30.880] you are a self-taught racing driver, right. With that, how does the fact and how does the part of self-introspection,
[23:30.880 -> 23:37.120] self-learning, knowing what's going wrong and then you know how to fix it come in? So this
[23:37.120 -> 23:42.640] obviously is from a racing and a driver's perspective, but I guess like that can definitely
[23:42.640 -> 23:49.240] be extrapolated to life in general as well. Yeah that's a very good question to be honest because this is
[23:49.240 -> 23:54.080] something that I've thought in a lot. So people don't realize this what sports
[23:54.080 -> 23:58.440] does to you and more so a sport is because you can witness what you do
[23:58.440 -> 24:02.360] because you can record every move, understand where you're making mistakes
[24:02.360 -> 24:08.920] and what you're doing. What sport does is that it, it just puts normal life on steroids.
[24:09.120 -> 24:09.400] Okay.
[24:09.400 -> 24:16.360] So what results I could have in like, let's say a decade of growing up as a kid.
[24:16.920 -> 24:20.960] I can have that in a year, in a championship, a year of championship.
[24:21.000 -> 24:22.740] I'll have all those ups and downs.
[24:22.800 -> 24:26.920] I'll have all those experiences and I learned significantly higher is
[24:26.920 -> 24:28.440] what I have witnessed personally.
[24:28.840 -> 24:29.200] Okay.
[24:29.280 -> 24:34.040] Why I see this as because the results are quite instantaneous, whereas in life, you
[24:34.040 -> 24:37.840] don't know whether you're on the right path or not, unless there's been like
[24:37.840 -> 24:41.240] significant amount of years, which is passed down and then we discover that,
[24:41.240 -> 24:43.400] okay, this is the wrong path that I took.
[24:43.800 -> 24:45.020] And it takes a lot of time.
[24:45.060 -> 24:48.900] Let's say you, unless you come out of your schooling and you go into the
[24:48.900 -> 24:52.140] professional world, you're going to college, you wouldn't know your marks
[24:52.140 -> 24:57.340] are not that big a sign of what, whether you're doing something right or wrong.
[24:57.880 -> 24:58.380] Okay.
[24:58.640 -> 24:59.940] And sports does that to you.
[25:00.020 -> 25:03.940] And that only happens with the interest of introspection that you do, because.
[25:04.540 -> 25:06.200] At the end of the day, the clock won't lie.
[25:06.680 -> 25:08.340] If your time is slow, your time is slow.
[25:08.340 -> 25:10.640] You can't go ahead and complain about the fact that the car is bad.
[25:10.640 -> 25:13.680] That's the reality.
[25:13.680 -> 25:18.080] You have to just gulp your ego, accept it and figure out how to get better.
[25:18.240 -> 25:22.000] And that happens with the kind of effort that it takes to do it.
[25:22.720 -> 25:23.680] It's the same everywhere.
[25:24.960 -> 25:27.280] So in my, myself, it's the same.
[25:27.280 -> 25:32.640] The reality checks that I get over there is when I go and pitch to investors and I go and pitch to
[25:32.640 -> 25:38.880] customers. And the customer is not willing to buy it, then I get a reality check. Okay,
[25:38.880 -> 25:43.040] what we are building is not that much value. I have to pitch something else, I have to tweak
[25:43.040 -> 25:50.480] this here, tweak that there. So that also excretes learnings, but you can't have that in early life. If you can have
[25:52.480 -> 25:56.880] in early life in schooling during the peak, so that's the role of introspection,
[25:56.880 -> 26:00.560] like you can do what you're doing, the results and all of that, and then just
[26:01.280 -> 26:05.360] trying to sum it all up and make sense of what, where you're going wrong.
[26:05.360 -> 26:09.600] The same principles will apply no matter where you go. You go into entrepreneurship, a job that
[26:09.600 -> 26:16.880] you're doing, some other sport that you do in my school days, just minor competition here and there
[26:16.880 -> 26:22.800] and the same rules apply there as well. So, that's basically what I've learned from racing.
[26:22.800 -> 26:27.920] I think it's made me a much, much better individual than I would have been otherwise.
[26:27.920 -> 26:30.560] No, it makes sense.
[26:30.560 -> 26:34.680] I mean, I kind of completely agree with what you're saying, like, you know, especially
[26:34.680 -> 26:40.360] what you said about when you are in a sales pitch and if the customer is not buying it,
[26:40.360 -> 26:43.240] you're probably not making something that people want to buy.
[26:43.240 -> 26:45.360] And I think Akash like
[26:45.360 -> 26:48.800] we ourselves have gone through this this podcast right.
[26:48.800 -> 26:55.320] Oh we've pivoted and iterated so many times man yes.
[26:55.320 -> 27:00.960] So I completely jive with what you're saying.
[27:00.960 -> 27:05.720] You should go back and see like if one of the initial screenshots are the videos
[27:05.720 -> 27:10.840] like you'll see it's so raw like we're trying to keep it raw cause like we love
[27:10.840 -> 27:16.880] just chatting this way but yeah yeah you're right like we've come a long way
[27:16.880 -> 27:28.840] in the year we've come along. Yeah, I think that's the best way. There's this quote Uh, it's called, you need to look like a fool in the beginning.
[27:29.320 -> 27:29.640] Right.
[27:29.640 -> 27:31.280] And then learn through the process.
[27:31.460 -> 27:31.920] Essentially.
[27:31.920 -> 27:33.680] It's what, that's what it's trying to say.
[27:33.680 -> 27:37.280] I'm not putting it, but beginner will always look like a fool.
[27:37.280 -> 27:39.160] You just need to have that capacity.
[27:39.480 -> 27:39.720] Yeah.
[27:39.720 -> 27:40.560] You okay with it.
[27:40.600 -> 27:40.880] Yes.
[27:40.880 -> 27:41.120] Okay.
[27:41.120 -> 27:42.160] And that's how you learn.
[27:42.560 -> 27:45.840] I've, I've done a lot of cool things while building
[27:45.840 -> 27:52.480] the company, while raising cars. If I go back to the kid who wanted to raise, like if I
[27:52.480 -> 27:57.840] go back to the 13-14 year old Akshay and he comes to me and says that okay I want to raise
[27:57.840 -> 28:08.400] cars, I'll be like you're a middle class kid, why? How will you do it? That's the thing I'm going to tell my 14 year old self to be honest.
[28:10.880 -> 28:16.000] Yeah while you're on the topic let me ask you this question. So I guess like you yourself have
[28:16.000 -> 28:20.880] gone through a lot of playing a dual role in your racing career as well that's basically like
[28:21.440 -> 28:28.400] being a driver and also being a salesperson of yourself at the same time pretty much to get sponsorships to fund your career.
[28:28.400 -> 28:35.240] I guess like my question is that if you are to meet yourself or you know
[28:35.240 -> 28:42.800] anybody who is planning to start their career in racing what's your advice or
[28:42.800 -> 28:47.120] tips or anything you know basically about. Except I get money for sure
[28:47.120 -> 28:54.160] but like. Yeah but on getting sponsorships, on like being not being afraid of you know
[28:54.160 -> 28:58.640] knocking on thousands of doors and being rejected and you know how to deal with this and how to you
[28:58.640 -> 29:06.640] know even get started with this. Yeah so in, I recently did it to a certain extent because I started
[29:07.160 -> 29:08.600] again, national championship.
[29:08.600 -> 29:12.320] I went to the Toyota cars again, the way they were available, the
[29:12.320 -> 29:13.320] championship was happening.
[29:13.320 -> 29:19.760] I just did it last December, this December and met a few kids who are in their
[29:19.760 -> 29:24.080] early, when the teens were racing, were trying to make a career out of it.
[29:24.480 -> 29:29.320] So my advice there was my learnings that I get from going out there and
[29:29.320 -> 29:33.720] trying to sell myself to be able to raise sponsors are significantly worth
[29:34.040 -> 29:36.080] more than what I could have done.
[29:36.240 -> 29:41.600] Had I pursued and gotten in a career in like, let's say, let's say I followed a
[29:41.600 -> 29:42.040] ladder.
[29:42.200 -> 29:42.520] Okay.
[29:43.280 -> 29:46.080] And I went from touring cars and national championship,
[29:46.080 -> 29:49.760] Asian championship, did some European championships,
[29:49.760 -> 29:51.640] some of what like crores and crores of rupees
[29:51.640 -> 29:53.600] to be able to do all these touring car championship.
[29:53.600 -> 29:55.440] That is the route I wanted to take.
[29:55.440 -> 29:57.920] Being a factory driver,
[29:57.920 -> 30:01.000] you have to be close to the realities
[30:01.000 -> 30:03.400] that it's like one in a 20,000
[30:03.400 -> 30:09.720] or one in a 30,000 shot that you'll get from all across the world to be a factory driver after having spent
[30:09.720 -> 30:12.020] like a lot of amount of money to be able to get there.
[30:12.700 -> 30:14.260] Again, that's a big possibility.
[30:14.720 -> 30:20.220] My say to people is that just focus on what you are, what you have right now,
[30:21.420 -> 30:25.760] go out there, explore and just pitch as much as possible.
[30:25.760 -> 30:27.120] You only need that one sponsor.
[30:27.120 -> 30:29.000] You don't need like a hundred.
[30:29.000 -> 30:32.200] So out of the hundred pitches, you only need one out of the thousand pitches.
[30:32.200 -> 30:35.280] You only need one and numbers is the game.
[30:35.280 -> 30:40.160] So if you have like 10,000 leads, you have to email all of them, build an itch, keep
[30:40.160 -> 30:42.280] reiterating your pitches.
[30:42.280 -> 30:45.120] Some of the pitches that I look at early on, they look
[30:45.120 -> 30:52.480] so stupid. I wonder how people even entertain people to get into a discussion based on those
[30:52.480 -> 30:59.040] presentations that I do. But then if I look at version 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I might have 100
[30:59.040 -> 31:07.680] versions over the years. All you need is one. So I might have emailed like 15, 20,000 people over the years and I might
[31:07.680 -> 31:15.120] have gotten few responses, maybe less than 200 responses. And out of that I got into a
[31:15.120 -> 31:21.680] 100 thing and out of those 100 meetings, maybe two sponsors backed me. And that's
[31:21.680 -> 31:29.200] been the journey and that's the same if you look at entrepreneurship and you're going to raise funds based on a profile like if you're an early
[31:29.200 -> 31:34.400] unproven entrepreneur, you go out trying to raise funds, you'll have to approach like 100-200
[31:34.400 -> 31:39.760] investors, maybe 10 will give you a meeting and maybe one will materialize and but all you need
[31:39.760 -> 31:45.200] is that one. What you learn in the journey is how to sell and persuasion is one of
[31:45.200 -> 31:49.960] the best skills to learn because it helps you everywhere because most of what we
[31:49.960 -> 31:55.160] do is human interaction and most of human interaction, if you can persuade
[31:55.160 -> 31:58.200] someone to do something, that's it.
[31:58.600 -> 32:03.040] You have a lot of things cracked. To the kids who I meet now, who want to go into
[32:03.040 -> 32:05.040] racing, I just say that keep at it, keep learning,
[32:05.040 -> 32:10.640] keep exploring, keep reading about whatever you find online as to how to sell, keep improving your
[32:10.640 -> 32:17.280] pitches and keep going out there and trying to get something and you never know. So like Lewis
[32:17.280 -> 32:28.000] Hamilton met a McLaren boss and then got a drive in the McLaren. Something will crack. You have to be
[32:28.000 -> 32:33.500] optimistic and hopeful and just go out with that hope and if it doesn't you came
[32:33.500 -> 32:41.720] out learning a lot. So you're still better off. Fair enough. I think Mark Soutar, one of
[32:41.720 -> 33:09.960] our previous guests also kind of mentioned this that you know a lot of like and that that was of course in context of photography but I think that like extends to everything in general is like when you attend enough places you sometimes tend to be at the right place at the right time and I think that kind of you know like jives in with what you're saying when you send out 15,000 emails right like you're gonna eventually
[33:09.960 -> 33:14.120] hit the right person sometime and probably at the right time as well but
[33:14.120 -> 33:18.560] they can actually give you what you want so
[33:19.560 -> 33:30.500] so there's a mental model on this which is called randomness and optionality. So to be more, to be luckier in life, all you have to do is increase the probability
[33:30.500 -> 33:31.500] of luck.
[33:31.500 -> 33:36.520] When I was actively trying to raise sponsors, I used to go out in every event that I could
[33:36.520 -> 33:41.300] find locally in my state around Ahmedabad, every single entrepreneurship event I attended
[33:41.300 -> 33:45.960] every single so I could meet more businessmen, decision makers who could maybe
[33:45.960 -> 33:49.360] give me a chance to race cars somewhere.
[33:49.360 -> 33:50.720] And this I did everywhere.
[33:50.720 -> 33:55.400] The more you build your network that way, the more chances come your way.
[33:55.400 -> 34:01.440] One of my largest customers right now came through that particular approach.
[34:01.440 -> 34:03.800] One of my investors came through that particular approach.
[34:03.800 -> 34:08.120] One of my sponsors came through that particular approach one of my sponsors came to that particular particular approach so just go out there
[34:08.120 -> 34:12.720] keep yourself out there and keep doing yeah I mean law of large numbers is at
[34:12.720 -> 34:18.520] some point gonna come and fall in your lap and the thing is it just happens in
[34:18.520 -> 34:22.600] the right time if it if it happens before time though you're not ready for
[34:22.600 -> 34:25.640] it it just becomes like the thing you didn't deserve much.
[34:25.920 -> 34:29.360] And then it, uh, it fades off and leaves you worst.
[34:29.680 -> 34:34.320] So those are your one off things where, you know, uh, a child
[34:34.320 -> 34:38.800] prodigy got famous because of this feed on the internet.
[34:39.480 -> 34:49.500] And, uh, but if you spoil the journey through what happens post that in life, even there's this study for the people who win the lottery.
[34:49.500 -> 34:53.760] Most often, they are the worst off after winning the lottery.
[34:53.760 -> 34:59.400] I want to raise a sort of like a very tangential discussion at this point, right.
[34:59.400 -> 35:06.840] So, Mr. Miyagi always taught wax on, wax off before you go into a fight, right. So you
[35:06.840 -> 35:10.760] get your fundamentals right, like you have that build that patience,
[35:10.760 -> 35:15.400] perseverance and then get those mental models right and then enter a fight.
[35:15.400 -> 35:20.680] You've sort of tried to do something along those lines where you've
[35:20.680 -> 35:30.320] been a race engineer and been a driver. Do you see importance in sort of learning those nuts and bolts, doing that wax on wax
[35:30.320 -> 35:35.520] off with the car before getting into that? I used to get into all sorts of
[35:35.520 -> 35:42.760] detail to the point that I almost was overthinking to a fault. So what I used
[35:42.760 -> 35:47.920] to do is set up the car exactly the same way that it was in the real life
[35:47.920 -> 35:51.880] and replicate it on a simulator and then practice as much as possible.
[35:51.880 -> 35:56.880] Find all the videos I can on the internet, all the pictures I can to understand the road,
[35:56.880 -> 36:02.320] the track surface on every corner, all the content I can to know who has written about
[36:02.320 -> 36:04.320] the track, where and all of that.
[36:04.320 -> 36:06.000] I went to some really hard
[36:06.000 -> 36:12.080] details to know because I didn't have the advantage of practicing before going into the race because I
[36:12.080 -> 36:18.560] couldn't afford it. So I found another way to do it and it helped to some extent but then I overdid
[36:18.560 -> 36:27.040] it to some extent but having your fundamentals is what helped the most. I just owed the thinking part.
[36:27.040 -> 36:29.040] Because you can't think and write.
[36:29.040 -> 36:31.040] You can think before and after.
[36:31.040 -> 36:32.640] You can't think and write.
[36:32.640 -> 36:34.320] And that's where I was wrong.
[36:34.320 -> 36:35.600] But here you're right.
[36:35.600 -> 36:40.800] The fundamentals, primarily the understanding of physics.
[36:40.800 -> 36:46.000] I could picture the car in my head moving around and doing certain things and
[36:46.000 -> 36:49.560] then coming back and giving the feedback to the engineer saying that this but this is
[36:49.560 -> 36:50.560] not what I want.
[36:50.560 -> 36:54.520] So maybe we should adjust the dampers and this particular setting on the rear right
[36:54.520 -> 36:56.360] or something like that.
[36:56.360 -> 37:01.640] And those fundamentals always help because I would get to an ideal set of faster than
[37:01.640 -> 37:08.160] other drivers around me is what I noticed most of the time. Have you explored motorsport engineering in general?
[37:08.160 -> 37:14.480] I kind of like I'm interested in general in sim racing like I have tried my hand at understanding
[37:14.480 -> 37:19.920] like you know all the various settings and the various configurations at how you set
[37:19.920 -> 37:25.160] up a car but honestly like the more I've tried to understand it the more confused
[37:25.160 -> 37:32.080] I get a lot of times and I don't like it it still feels to me like it's a black
[37:32.080 -> 37:37.400] box and you know it feels magic somehow but yeah I don't know I've tried a lot
[37:37.400 -> 37:45.040] but I don't think it comes naturally to everybody I guess I would say. For me I mean it's just been from a very noob
[37:45.040 -> 37:52.440] perspective of what a noob would do like at one point we tried to build like an
[37:52.440 -> 37:56.400] Ackerman steering just for a fun toy car that we were building but like that's
[37:56.400 -> 38:00.720] that's somewhat to the extent of what I would have gone into it but there's so
[38:00.720 -> 38:05.940] much more beyond that like which is just. I really raised
[38:05.940 -> 38:10.500] credentialing could never be like a career for me because I am not someone
[38:10.500 -> 38:14.880] who likes to go into the depths of things. I would like to stay and know about
[38:14.880 -> 38:22.320] everything to certain extent. Till the point my curiosity was fulfilled.
[38:22.320 -> 38:25.400] So and if you want to be in the field of
[38:25.400 -> 38:28.840] engineering you have to go to the depths of one thing and one thing alone. Yeah.
[38:28.840 -> 38:34.080] Yeah. And that's when I realized that engineering is not for me and business allows you to
[38:34.080 -> 38:38.440] have like a lot more exposure in that respect and that's when I realized that
[38:38.440 -> 38:41.880] that's something that I should do. Like on that point that you're saying I feel
[38:41.880 -> 38:46.680] like I sort of my resonating factor with that sentence there is like,
[38:46.680 -> 38:51.680] I love how when you've sort of browsed through multiple topics,
[38:51.800 -> 38:55.360] like chatting with anyone becomes, becomes fun.
[38:55.880 -> 39:00.240] Cause you can sit in a room and just like talk for hours. Okay.
[39:00.240 -> 39:04.440] Like you keep moving, jumping on topics, but you can just like go on for hours.
[39:04.480 -> 39:08.600] And obviously you learn too much out of it, but then there's always that, okay,
[39:08.600 -> 39:10.960] we want to talk about this. Let's talk about this sort of thing.
[39:11.160 -> 39:15.320] Quite honestly. So this is an interesting story. I was in Pune, I was 19 years old.
[39:15.320 -> 39:18.200] I was doing a job in a magazine, okay.
[39:18.280 -> 39:21.040] Like explore the dating scene in Pune.
[39:21.200 -> 39:24.080] And then I realized that I could get a few dates,
[39:24.480 -> 39:25.720] but I had nothing to talk about.
[39:25.840 -> 39:30.840] Like small talk was such a struggle because my worldview is limited to cars.
[39:31.600 -> 39:35.600] All I'd done most of my life is explore cars in one way or the other.
[39:36.000 -> 39:37.840] And I didn't know much about the world outside.
[39:37.840 -> 39:40.160] And that's when I started reading about topics outside,
[39:40.880 -> 39:43.600] able to have like conversation topics when I got on dates.
[39:44.120 -> 39:45.000] And that's that
[39:45.000 -> 39:50.760] so I explored this more and what you're talking about just resonates there.
[39:50.760 -> 40:10.600] I can imagine Akshay sitting with like a pop culture textbook just to prepare for dates. Yeah, it was. I think it's a good thing that you're kind of since you are on that topic
[40:10.600 -> 40:16.360] of you know, learning things and you know, learning various different things, I guess
[40:16.360 -> 40:21.760] the theme as far as I see it, the theme of your career as such in general is like pivot
[40:21.760 -> 40:25.600] tearing in general in the sense that you have pivoted your career
[40:25.600 -> 40:30.720] multiple times from a racing driver to like trying to get into this engineering becoming
[40:30.720 -> 40:36.000] an entrepreneur and I think definitely at least from my perspective it is one of the hardest
[40:36.000 -> 40:42.240] things to do like once you are like so ingrained into what you're doing getting out of that mindset
[40:42.240 -> 40:47.500] and then relearning because anytime you're going into a new field, you are basically going to be starting
[40:47.500 -> 40:49.300] as a beginner and as you mentioned, right?
[40:49.300 -> 40:52.460] Like you look as a fool as when you're a beginner, like, and
[40:52.460 -> 40:53.500] that's, that's just the truth.
[40:54.040 -> 40:59.380] Uh, so I guess my question here is how have you yourself
[40:59.420 -> 41:01.060] dealed with pivoting your career?
[41:01.180 -> 41:06.720] Multiple times, how difficult it is and you know, how to make it easier, I guess.
[41:06.720 -> 41:14.240] So I never actually ever pivoted. Okay. So here's the thing. I actually started building a business because
[41:14.880 -> 41:26.720] I reached a point where I could not race anymore. And I thought the only way to get wealth fast is to build a business to be able to race cars again and so my objective was always
[41:26.720 -> 41:32.560] to race get back into a race car. So ever since I've been 12, I've only been thinking about oh how do I
[41:32.560 -> 41:40.960] get myself into a race car. It's just that because of wanting to get into a race car so badly,
[41:40.960 -> 41:48.200] I've explored various career paths that would help me get there. So journalism was this naive idea that if I write about my races,
[41:48.640 -> 41:51.840] then I can get myself into,
[41:52.240 -> 41:56.840] I can get myself sponsors or two, and that can help you propel my career. Right.
[41:56.840 -> 42:00.680] And then business was a way to get money, to be able to race cars again.
[42:01.160 -> 42:04.000] And that's, that's the idea, right? But, uh,
[42:04.040 -> 42:05.520] just because of getting into business,
[42:05.520 -> 42:09.720] I've gotten like a broader perspective towards life in general and, uh,
[42:09.800 -> 42:14.080] realize that there, I think I've fallen in love with business as much as,
[42:14.080 -> 42:16.720] I've fallen in love with racing cars. Uh,
[42:16.720 -> 42:18.400] just the concept of entrepreneurship,
[42:18.960 -> 42:21.280] the goal and the impact can have on the world,
[42:21.280 -> 42:23.360] not just people around it and creation of the game.
[42:23.640 -> 42:25.400] And that's changed my perspective a lot.
[42:25.720 -> 42:26.880] About pivoting.
[42:27.200 -> 42:28.360] Yes, there's been a pivot.
[42:28.480 -> 42:33.680] The driving factor has always been one, but the pivots have impacted
[42:33.680 -> 42:37.880] being a way that, uh, let's say the major pivot was getting from sports
[42:37.880 -> 42:41.720] to entrepreneurship, where one, in one place you have, like, if you have ego,
[42:41.720 -> 42:43.240] it helps you the other place.
[42:43.240 -> 42:44.360] If you have ego, it kills you.
[42:45.760 -> 42:46.560] have like if you have ego it helps you the other place if you have ego it kills you. So just
[42:54.080 -> 43:00.240] those internal restructuring required to do it was I often say this that business is like a disguise to entrepreneurship is like a disguise for inner restructuring. Okay so you're just essentially
[43:00.240 -> 43:09.000] building yourself from ground up again or just restructuring how you function and that's entrepreneurship. It's not been easy but I think if you want
[43:09.000 -> 43:14.240] something badly you will find a way to do it eventually. So I think if
[43:14.240 -> 43:20.960] your driving factor is strong enough you will find a way. As for hacks to be able to
[43:20.960 -> 43:25.560] pivot, the driving factor is probably towards doing it more and more.
[43:25.560 -> 43:30.120] This is interesting, right. Like we're talking about drive here, we're talking
[43:30.120 -> 43:35.080] about you know continuously keeping pushing and you know motivating yourself
[43:35.080 -> 43:40.880] but something that sometimes goes unnoticed or undermined from a spectator
[43:40.880 -> 43:50.360] point of view is how much of a mental toll that might end up taking on you because you are you know without an actual dopamine hit you are
[43:50.360 -> 43:58.480] like stimulating a dopamine hit so that you can keep going. Now and we can again
[43:58.480 -> 44:06.840] like switch gears here but we want to come to a chapter in your life where you've actually gone through
[44:06.840 -> 44:12.120] both physical and I guess like some amount of mental fight that comes with
[44:12.120 -> 44:18.640] it, right. So, and you know what I'm talking. What I find on the positive side is an
[44:18.640 -> 44:28.480] inspiration where you know you've sort of fought through something where many people might think of giving up
[44:28.480 -> 44:34.280] or not even thinking about a dream just because of a particular issue with themselves,
[44:34.280 -> 44:36.680] whatever it is, minor or major.
[44:36.680 -> 44:41.680] But how does one go above that?
[44:41.680 -> 44:45.960] And then what is your experience? I mean, who better than you to talk about it?
[44:46.240 -> 44:50.440] So if you just want to spend some time there telling our audience what it is,
[44:50.440 -> 44:53.040] what it was, and if someone is listening,
[44:53.040 -> 44:55.280] who is going through something like that, what should they do?
[44:55.560 -> 44:59.600] Yeah. So I was born with this defect in my legs,
[44:59.640 -> 45:02.480] which is called cluft feet. So most people don't know this,
[45:02.520 -> 45:06.360] but in India about 1,50,000 kids are born with every year.
[45:07.600 -> 45:09.200] I don't know the exact stats right now.
[45:09.200 -> 45:10.320] Don't get me on that.
[45:10.840 -> 45:14.880] But that's a lot of kids being born with fluffy.
[45:14.920 -> 45:18.320] The fluffy is essentially when you're born, your legs are twisted inside.
[45:19.160 -> 45:22.560] So ankles are twisted inside, not legs, actually ankles are twisted inside.
[45:22.560 -> 45:23.060] Right.
[45:23.200 -> 45:28.000] So when I was one 92, there was no Ponseti
[45:28.000 -> 45:33.360] method in India which is there. Ponseti method is a simple way of putting a plaster around your leg
[45:33.360 -> 45:39.920] and then in a particular place so your legs get back into shape. It works with young kids but it
[45:39.920 -> 45:45.440] generally doesn't work with adults after a particular age that it doesn't work. So I had
[45:45.440 -> 45:53.120] like multiple rods in my legs to straighten up the legs for surgeries and while growing up as a kid
[45:53.120 -> 46:00.160] I never knew like the you know you don't know that this is a limitation unless you're told so.
[46:01.120 -> 46:06.000] So I didn't know it was a limitation because I'm growing up as a kid in a world where this is what I have.
[46:06.640 -> 46:07.800] So there's this mental model.
[46:08.240 -> 46:10.480] The map is not the territory.
[46:11.000 -> 46:11.500] Okay.
[46:11.720 -> 46:18.600] So if, if there's this interesting story, which goes like two fish cross each other.
[46:18.960 -> 46:19.400] Okay.
[46:19.400 -> 46:23.240] And one fish asked the other, Oh, how's the water?
[46:24.000 -> 46:27.920] And the fish goes ahead and then ask another fish, what is water?
[46:28.960 -> 46:32.640] Okay. So you don't know that you are in water already. Right.
[46:33.120 -> 46:36.880] And, uh, you don't know that, okay, this is a physical limitation.
[46:37.120 -> 46:40.880] So you do what you can. So I never thought of it as a limitation as such.
[46:41.280 -> 46:46.000] It was not that big a limitation growing up because the
[46:46.000 -> 46:49.640] surgeries that I had gotten had corrected it to a significant degree.
[46:50.040 -> 46:55.400] But I still have like limited motion in my ankle. One of my feet is like an inch
[46:55.440 -> 46:59.880] smaller than the left one. The right one is inch smaller. So that is a limitation.
[47:00.320 -> 47:09.960] A limitation in terms of one is a flat foot that's not that big a concern but then it leads to more and more injuries as I keep pushing myself physically more
[47:09.960 -> 47:16.200] right because the two structures are different now even to this date I've
[47:16.200 -> 47:20.600] never seen it as a limitation as much quite honestly I just see it as a
[47:20.600 -> 47:26.320] challenge more yeah okay and I think I was speaking to a friend who's a therapist.
[47:26.320 -> 47:31.040] So we were having a conversation over dinner and then I was telling her she didn't know about the
[47:31.040 -> 47:36.880] club feed. So it just got brought into the conversation and she was telling me that
[47:36.880 -> 47:41.680] she didn't know and then how do you take it up. I'm like I just take it as a challenge so that
[47:41.680 -> 47:47.600] I can do more. I can maybe do something for the kids who are born with left feet apart from me.
[47:48.200 -> 47:52.920] And that is where it struck me that most people don't think that way because
[47:52.920 -> 47:59.960] she told me that most people who come to her with any issues think that the
[47:59.960 -> 48:04.000] world was back to me, why was it back to me? Rather than the world was back to me,
[48:04.000 -> 48:04.960] what can I do for it?
[48:05.200 -> 48:14.880] Yes. Yes, yes. And I can't pinpoint to what led me to think in this particular way or I can't pinpoint
[48:14.880 -> 48:19.920] to, I can just tell you that I'm bit this way. Right, right. So this is my attitude this is how I do things
[48:20.560 -> 48:31.000] but I can't pinpoint to what led to it. Yeah.. I don't understand human nature good enough to tell you what led to this particular approach.
[48:31.000 -> 48:47.560] I think like this is good because one theme that at least I like to take from this is and it's difficult to do it but I don't remember where I read it. It's like respond never react. Right
[48:47.560 -> 48:53.160] and as human nature it's always first instinct to react to things but it's
[48:53.160 -> 48:58.160] like take a deep breath, take a step back, see what the problem is and then solve
[48:58.160 -> 49:03.760] it. Like it's always a problem solution sort of thing. Let's try approaching it
[49:03.760 -> 49:11.040] in that way and then it life becomes a bit more easier. I think there's this concept of chimp management.
[49:11.040 -> 49:20.760] You have to manage your inner chimp. Which is your instinctive brain versus your logical brain.
[49:20.760 -> 49:26.560] I think if you can do it in sports you can get a long way ahead.
[49:26.560 -> 49:35.240] I mean I love the way you put everything I guess like overall coping with adversities
[49:35.240 -> 49:42.160] I guess in general like let it be like physical, mental, anything I guess any adversities in
[49:42.160 -> 49:46.960] general in life I guess it's also about adversities kind of push you
[49:46.960 -> 49:53.680] to be the best form of yourself. I think at least that's been my experience of whatever little
[49:53.680 -> 49:58.480] experiences I've had in my life. The last one year of... Exactly and that's right and
[49:58.480 -> 50:08.560] something wonderful started from that which is this podcast. I was sick for a while and that led me to start this podcast
[50:08.560 -> 50:14.400] with Akash. I guess at least in my life, I have seen that it has pushed me to become
[50:14.400 -> 50:29.640] a better person in various different aspects. Because I think it's like, when you're down, you want to pick things up again and then things that you take granted
[50:29.640 -> 50:33.920] otherwise you have to kind of push through on your own, I guess.
[50:33.920 -> 50:37.680] And that kind of probably motivates you more, even more, I guess.
[50:37.680 -> 50:38.680] I don't know.
[50:38.680 -> 50:44.520] I think these are approaches and I often see people take the bad approach as well when
[50:44.520 -> 50:45.200] they're't.
[50:45.200 -> 50:53.560] This is interesting thing I heard on Instagram that if you see any superhero
[50:53.560 -> 51:00.400] movie, both the villain and the hero has the same backstory. One chose to do the
[51:00.400 -> 51:05.860] right thing out of it and look at Batman and Joker, both had traumatic
[51:05.860 -> 51:10.180] childhoods but one chose to give it back to the world in a way that the world
[51:10.180 -> 51:15.100] should hurt and one chose to protect the world, to protect humanity because
[51:15.100 -> 51:21.100] humanity needs to exist. Is this the approach we take and I believe like humanity is
[51:21.100 -> 51:29.500] something that that's a topic that I care about a lot. So, it just fascinates me. I never understand it.
[51:29.500 -> 51:31.500] It just fascinates me.
[51:31.500 -> 51:35.500] How much do you think, and this is an open question for the floor, right?
[51:35.500 -> 51:41.000] Like, how much do you think this has sort of inculcated in Max?
[51:41.000 -> 51:44.500] Because like, we joked about him a few minutes back, right?
[51:44.500 -> 51:46.000] But like like we saw
[51:46.000 -> 51:50.160] him in that raw aggression where no one on the track liked him because he was just
[51:50.160 -> 51:55.840] trying to be Grosjean at one point and crash into everyone. But with the
[51:55.840 -> 52:01.120] fight with like a seven-time world champion and a decade-long driver in F1
[52:01.120 -> 52:05.080] last year, like brought out a very different side of Max, right. He was
[52:05.080 -> 52:09.280] very calm, composed, at least on the front. I mean behind camera who knows what
[52:09.280 -> 52:13.320] is going on. But like do you, do you like both of you like do you think he's
[52:13.320 -> 52:18.360] probably gone through some like mental coaching to sort of inculcate some of
[52:18.360 -> 52:22.720] the discussions that we are having right now. What I like to do is if there's
[52:22.720 -> 52:25.800] anyone in the world that I am fascinated by, I would like to do is if there's anyone in the world that I am fascinated
[52:25.800 -> 52:30.680] by, I would like to dig down and understand what are the origins like,
[52:31.080 -> 52:31.720] where do they come from?
[52:32.360 -> 52:34.520] And I've done that for most F1 drivers.
[52:34.760 -> 52:39.400] So let's compare the two last year's championship contenders,
[52:39.800 -> 52:41.600] Hamilton and Verstappen.
[52:42.040 -> 52:46.100] So Verstappen comes from a family where if you look at his father
[52:46.100 -> 52:53.440] who has been charged multiple times of assault, not just to people randomly
[52:53.440 -> 53:00.520] but also to his own wife, divorced multiple times. There are stories in the media, I don't know how
[53:00.520 -> 53:12.240] to there but there are stories where Max was beating up the kid all throughout right and that's how he's got to race and he has been home schooled. How is that? He is not. Interesting.
[53:12.240 -> 53:19.040] Yeah I didn't know that. He's just a racing machine. All he has seen and done in his life is
[53:19.040 -> 53:25.640] racing. He's like limited exposure to the world. He's just one goal, which is to win the world championship.
[53:26.280 -> 53:27.840] That's what he's designed to do.
[53:28.280 -> 53:30.000] And that's his upbringing, right?
[53:30.000 -> 53:31.000] Versus Hamilton.
[53:31.040 -> 53:35.160] If you look at him, comes from a different sort of family altogether.
[53:35.640 -> 53:39.640] His stepmother was doing two jobs to be able to afford him a racing career.
[53:39.920 -> 53:43.280] They had mortgage the house multiple times to be able to afford the racing
[53:43.280 -> 53:44.960] career, a lot of love that he got.
[53:45.000 -> 53:45.540] His younger brother is, has some disabilities. They had mortgage the house multiple times to be able to afford the racing career. A lot of love that he got.
[53:49.720 -> 53:50.000] His younger brother is, has some disabilities.
[53:51.120 -> 53:51.540] He's seen that going on.
[53:53.400 -> 53:54.880] He's so grateful to what he has now.
[53:58.280 -> 53:58.620] So different people all together, different upbringings.
[54:00.480 -> 54:01.060] He has a lot of love from his family also.
[54:08.880 -> 54:14.080] Had a bit of a mix out in the middle where he was growing up and young face where in his 20s he had a lot of fame so that happens. Parents would always like to control you and whatnot right but
[54:14.080 -> 54:20.880] has gotten back and then has been a different person altogether right. So two very very different
[54:20.880 -> 54:25.200] personalities, very different approaches to doing things.
[54:25.200 -> 54:32.760] But if you ask me and this is philosophical, this is yeah, yeah, if you ask me, I think
[54:32.760 -> 54:35.600] love is a better driving factor than anything else in life.
[54:35.600 -> 54:41.360] Ego is not that good a driving factor, because it'll make you do things that you should not
[54:41.360 -> 54:45.000] or would not have done otherwise. So, the motivations
[54:45.000 -> 54:51.720] as to, I even won world championship. I went to, I went three. What now?
[54:51.720 -> 54:57.400] Now it's so easy to win. Let's say Max gets there, he has the best car. Winning won't be
[54:57.400 -> 55:01.320] fun for him. And where else would he go from Formula One? What is there to do?
[55:01.320 -> 55:06.240] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that was beautifully,
[55:06.280 -> 55:11.280] like at least last year after Lewis lost, which was his race to win,
[55:13.480 -> 55:17.680] you could, you had these footages of like his dad with him,
[55:18.040 -> 55:22.400] you know, consoling through whatever they made and stuff. Yeah.
[55:22.920 -> 55:24.920] Right. And that shows like, okay.
[55:24.960 -> 55:26.380] And that was a very
[55:26.380 -> 55:33.880] graciously accepted defeat. Sure there was drama and it was meant to be but it
[55:33.880 -> 55:38.840] was a very graciously accepted defeat. Yeah definitely. I was surprised.
[55:38.840 -> 55:43.400] I was surprised when you could take it that well. And we had also talked about this on
[55:43.400 -> 55:49.840] the episode I guess like if the tables were turned and if Max was in Hamilton situation I I can't
[55:49.840 -> 56:05.000] see no you know timeline when Max would react the same way that he was doing. We punched and stole everything. Okon got a few of those, right?
[56:05.000 -> 56:08.000] I think Brazil at some point when he was unlapping.
[56:08.000 -> 56:10.000] Poor guy.
[56:10.000 -> 56:16.000] We were actually watching this finale at the Chennai airport after coming for a date.
[56:16.000 -> 56:21.000] So, like a bunch of 10-15 race car drivers together at the airport screaming
[56:21.000 -> 56:26.000] while looking at the footage of what was happening. We could not believe it.
[56:26.000 -> 56:30.000] And the entire airport was filled with a lot of race car drivers
[56:30.000 -> 56:32.000] because that was a racing weekend.
[56:32.000 -> 56:38.000] And there was like disbelief in everyone's faces as to what they've just seen.
[56:38.000 -> 56:41.000] I don't know how Lewis took it.
[56:41.000 -> 56:46.360] I was sad for two days visibly that people in my office kept asking me what is wrong.
[56:46.360 -> 56:47.520] What happened?
[56:47.520 -> 56:50.160] And I kept telling them that it was worst.
[56:50.160 -> 56:54.480] But they're like, you don't understand the sport law.
[56:55.840 -> 56:56.160] Yeah.
[56:56.560 -> 57:01.560] I mean, I was also kind of mixed, like I was happy for Vastapan, like I was happy,
[57:01.560 -> 57:07.600] the championship that he had fought and he had really, know put in everything into that like if we forget the last
[57:07.600 -> 57:12.320] race like if we completely get that out of the picture like I feel that Max did
[57:12.320 -> 57:15.960] deserve to win that championship in general I mean the amount of bad luck he
[57:15.960 -> 57:18.680] has had through the season and everything so like I was happy about
[57:18.680 -> 57:24.200] that but at the same time you know I was quite mad about the whole
[57:24.200 -> 57:25.120] thing that happened and you know like I feel bad mad about the whole thing that happened.
[57:25.120 -> 57:29.360] And you know, like, I feel bad that like Lewis had to face that at the same time.
[57:29.360 -> 57:36.800] Sarang, I convinced myself with the fact that Lewis has had enough serendipity throughout his career.
[57:37.440 -> 57:42.080] Like, with that championship where Massa was gonna win and then Lewis is like,
[57:42.080 -> 57:44.320] what? I think Glock, right? It's that famous,
[57:44.320 -> 57:48.000] it's Glock, it's Glock, it's Glock? It's Glock. It's Glock. It's Glock. And he wins.
[57:48.000 -> 58:06.000] So, yeah. I think I don't mind Maxwell. Yeah. But I mind the way it is. None of them lost. This is the sport which is losing. None of them lost. This is the sport which lost. Yep, yep, yep, yep, definitely.
[58:06.000 -> 58:10.000] But I think good things are coming out of it in general.
[58:10.000 -> 58:12.000] I guess like this year at least I'm seeing...
[58:12.000 -> 58:13.000] No more Messi.
[58:13.000 -> 58:14.000] Yeah, that's one.
[58:14.000 -> 58:21.000] But overall I think this year they are like clamping down on rules a lot more.
[58:21.000 -> 58:24.000] Like they are actually enforcing the rules that they are saying.
[58:24.000 -> 58:28.100] Right up till last year we always had like these optional corners where you could
[58:28.100 -> 58:32.500] if you want you can go outside the white line and then sometimes the white line
[58:32.500 -> 58:37.100] is the you know the place where you can't cross or sometimes it's a curve
[58:37.100 -> 58:41.340] and they choose to decide at lap 40 that yeah you know it's not allowed anymore
[58:41.340 -> 58:46.880] so I'm glad that that is kind of not being repeated this year. I think
[58:46.880 -> 58:54.400] the last the last pack that F1 got overall after that last race, they have decided to like
[58:54.400 -> 58:58.560] take actions over that. So I'm glad that at least something good came out of it. I think we won't
[58:58.560 -> 59:06.420] know until it comes at the cost of entertainment. yeah fair enough yeah just still to find
[59:06.420 -> 59:19.460] that out. I like to plug this book every time because a few minutes back you
[59:19.460 -> 59:23.900] were mentioning like Maxwell left to start thinking of what's next right this
[59:23.900 -> 59:25.160] is book by a
[59:25.160 -> 59:29.760] Pixar's co-founder at Catanual Creativity Inc. and like the way he
[59:29.760 -> 59:34.240] starts this book is like I question every single time like what's next and
[59:34.240 -> 59:38.840] that sort of kept him going. Like we made Toy Story which was like the biggest hit
[59:38.840 -> 59:42.980] of that time. But where do we go from there? So like what's next? And it's more
[59:42.980 -> 59:47.040] of a management book masked as a Pixar journey
[59:47.040 -> 59:49.640] story from like founding to wherever it is.
[59:51.360 -> 59:54.280] I haven't read it, but it sounds really interesting. I'm curious.
[59:54.760 -> 59:56.800] Yeah. Give it, give it a read when you get time.
[59:57.840 -> 01:00:00.840] I highly recommend this book called No Angel. Bernie Eccleston's Life Story.
[01:00:04.280 -> 01:00:06.000] Ah, interesting.
[01:00:06.000 -> 01:00:08.000] Very good.
[01:00:08.000 -> 01:00:16.000] And we'll see the journey of how he took over Formula 1 from the FIA.
[01:00:16.000 -> 01:00:26.160] So Formula 1 used to kind of belong to the FIA. Before that it was just like a bunch of teams coming together as Formula One. There was no structure. And then
[01:00:26.160 -> 01:00:32.800] FIU governed it and then he took over and then he made it his own and he sold it not once but twice.
[01:00:36.240 -> 01:00:40.240] Very interesting, not just from a business perspective but a historic perspective on
[01:00:40.240 -> 01:00:44.720] Formula One and there's this book called Total Competition from Ross Vaughan and Adam Carr,
[01:00:44.480 -> 01:00:48.800] on formula one and there's this book called total competition from Ross Vaughan and Adam Carr which is about strategy and management in formula one.
[01:00:48.800 -> 01:00:49.800] Yeah.
[01:00:49.800 -> 01:00:54.640] This is also brilliant that I use for my day-to-day business a lot.
[01:00:54.640 -> 01:00:59.040] Have you read the book how to build a F1 car by Idrin Yumi?
[01:00:59.040 -> 01:01:00.040] Yeah, yeah.
[01:01:00.040 -> 01:01:02.160] I have read 50% of it.
[01:01:02.160 -> 01:01:03.160] Okay.
[01:01:03.160 -> 01:01:04.160] Yeah.
[01:01:04.160 -> 01:01:05.500] Yeah. That's that's on my wish list next. I'm really interested in that. I've heard a lot of it. Okay. Yeah. That's on my wish list.
[01:01:05.500 -> 01:01:07.500] I'm really interested in that.
[01:01:07.500 -> 01:01:09.500] I have heard a lot about it.
[01:01:09.500 -> 01:01:11.500] That's really nice.
[01:01:11.500 -> 01:01:13.500] You will find a mention of Jeremy Clarkson.
[01:01:13.500 -> 01:01:15.500] Really? Interesting.
[01:01:15.500 -> 01:01:17.500] Oh man. I spawned this ending.
[01:01:17.500 -> 01:01:19.500] Okay. Very tangential.
[01:01:19.500 -> 01:01:21.500] Who is your favorite among the trios?
[01:01:21.500 -> 01:01:23.500] Okay.
[01:01:23.500 -> 01:01:25.000] Jeremy. Jeremy.
[01:01:25.000 -> 01:01:26.000] Jeremy.
[01:01:26.000 -> 01:01:33.000] Yeah, he is the entertainment for sure but like I'd probably go with Hammond.
[01:01:33.000 -> 01:01:37.000] Oh really? I would go with James May. Interesting. This is a very nice split.
[01:01:37.000 -> 01:01:41.000] Okay, we have all agreed.
[01:01:41.000 -> 01:01:43.000] What are your reasons?
[01:01:43.000 -> 01:01:47.080] I guess for me it is more than Top Gear.
[01:01:47.080 -> 01:01:50.920] So actually while I used to watch Top Gear, he wasn't my favorite.
[01:01:50.920 -> 01:01:58.440] Jeremy was my favorite, but after like post Top Gear, like the BBC Top Gear at least,
[01:01:58.440 -> 01:02:02.960] ever since I think James Mee has done a lot of other things as well.
[01:02:02.960 -> 01:02:07.200] And I followed him a lot through that. I think after watching that when I
[01:02:07.200 -> 01:02:13.040] go back and watch episodes, I kind of appreciate him more I guess. And like and the jokes of him
[01:02:13.040 -> 01:02:21.920] being old also start being. Exactly, that as well I guess. Yeah, for me I mean I think like
[01:02:28.480 -> 01:02:36.000] Yeah, for me, I mean, I think like, the more I read about it, like, Hammond is actually a big Porsche head. He loves resurrecting those. I mean, as much as Clarkson belittles him for those Porsches,
[01:02:36.000 -> 01:02:47.920] he is gone through quite a lot of accidents. I think one or two they have shown on the shows over the 26 seasons. So he bounces back from those.
[01:02:49.280 -> 01:02:56.480] Yeah. I just appreciate Jeremy as a journalist also, because I've seen his writing,
[01:02:57.120 -> 01:03:02.080] I've read his books and there's this interesting article that he wrote about how to be a journalist,
[01:03:02.080 -> 01:03:09.160] automotive journalist. And his advice there is just, know you have to be even when you're on the screen all
[01:03:09.160 -> 01:03:13.720] the time you have to be a very good writer okay and it has to be about
[01:03:13.720 -> 01:03:18.240] writing so that is a part that I like Jeremy for because then he comes up with
[01:03:18.240 -> 01:03:29.500] these flamboyant ways of describing something he'll overdo it to a large extent. Some of the most unbuoyant ways of describing a scenario.
[01:03:29.840 -> 01:03:33.000] And just captivates you in that way.
[01:03:33.000 -> 01:03:35.440] That's why I like Jeremy more.
[01:03:35.440 -> 01:03:40.440] And this, he's like humor, which is really good.
[01:03:43.000 -> 01:03:52.480] And on that bombshell audience, we end. This was definitely a good show.
[01:03:52.480 -> 01:03:58.480] Akshay, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for having me.
[01:03:58.480 -> 01:04:03.920] I like what you guys are doing. These are your hosts, Sadaf and Fanfiction, signing off. It's off to
[01:04:03.920 -> 01:04:05.000] Akshay before we wrap up.
[01:04:05.000 -> 01:04:14.000] So what's next is I want to build more businesses. I want to build what I'm building right now to a level that I intended to.
[01:04:14.000 -> 01:04:26.640] I want to race cars and have fun. I don't want to race cars with a particular goal of, you know, just win this championship or that championship, but more in line with, I want to race on all
[01:04:26.640 -> 01:04:33.920] the tracks that exist that I've dreamt of racing on as a kid and multiple different
[01:04:33.920 -> 01:04:40.320] cars and just progressively take it up there and save enough for my kid to get into racing
[01:04:40.320 -> 01:04:42.120] whenever that happens.
[01:04:42.120 -> 01:04:43.120] Nice.
[01:04:43.120 -> 01:04:46.000] So yeah, that's the goal.
[01:04:46.000 -> 01:04:48.000] Building businesses just fascinates me a lot.
[01:04:48.000 -> 01:04:50.000] And it's a lot of fun.
[01:04:50.000 -> 01:04:52.000] It's a lot of fun.
[01:04:52.000 -> 01:04:54.000] Very fulfilling also.
[01:04:54.000 -> 01:04:56.000] There's meritocracy in the world of entrepreneurship
[01:04:56.000 -> 01:04:58.000] compared to motorsport, let's say.
[01:04:58.000 -> 01:05:00.000] So, that is what I enjoy more.
[01:05:00.000 -> 01:05:02.000] Just, yeah, two things that I enjoy more
[01:05:02.000 -> 01:05:04.000] will do as much as
[01:05:04.000 -> 01:05:12.160] I can of it and yeah