Fireside Chat w/ Shubham Sham

In this episode, we speak with Shubham who is the co-founder of United Motorsports Academy. He shares his journey from working in Formula One to creating the United Motorsports Academy, which aims to provide education and opportunities for students interested in motorsports. Shubham discusses their advisory board, the Motorsports Accelerator program, and their long-term goals. He also talks about Formula 1 aerodynamics and his experience interacting with Adrian Newey. Visit unitedmotorsportsacademy.com to learn more about their initiatives.

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Music

Intro: Howling (Sting) - Gunnar Olsen
Outro: Your Intro by Audionautix

**Overview of the Podcast Episode:**

The podcast episode features Shubham Sangodkar, the co-founder of United Motorsports Academy. He shares his journey from working in Formula One to creating the academy, which aims to provide education and opportunities for students interested in motorsports. Shubham discusses their advisory board, the Motorsports Accelerator Program, and their long-term goals. He also talks about Formula 1 aerodynamics and his experience interacting with Adrian Newey.

**Key Points and Insights:**

* Shubham's decision to leave Formula One and pursue other interests, including education, led to the creation of United Motorsports Academy.
* The academy aims to provide a comprehensive educational platform for students in India, addressing the lack of opportunities and resources in the country.
* United Motorsports Academy has an international advisory board, including experts from various fields in motorsports, such as Peter Windsor, William Lloyd, and Ian Wright.
* The Motorsports Accelerator Program is a three-month online course followed by a one and a half month hands-on training program. It is designed to upskill students and prepare them for careers in motorsports.
* The academy has partnered with F4 to offer internships and employment opportunities to students, providing them with practical experience in the field.
* Shubham emphasizes the importance of targeting the highest skill set, such as that required for Formula One, to ensure employability even if opportunities in F1 do not materialize.
* The academy plans to expand its offerings to include courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and composites, catering to a wider range of disciplines within motorsports.
* Shubham's decision to step back from Formula One was influenced by his desire for flexibility, personal fulfillment, and the opportunity to contribute to society through education.

**Important Quotes and Statements:**

* "I've been in India for a while and I've been trying to take a step back to assess what I really want from my life going forward and how I can use my skill sets in the most effective way." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "We are creating like a world class platform and a motorsport industry ecosystem for the first time in this country." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "Our first target audience would obviously be students who want to pursue masters while we develop the ecosystem in our country." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "We wanted to kick off the entire United Motorsports Academy by asking ourselves, how do we actually deliver value to everybody?" - Shubham Sangodkar
* "So we said, okay, let's create something thorough. Our first target audience would obviously be students who want to pursue masters while we develop the ecosystem in our country." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "We are doing India's first race engineering workshop, which is going to be a four day workshop done in two cities in Mumbai in the last two weeks of October." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "For the first time in India, out after this year, you'll have a student whose profile will say that he's done one season of internship with a professional F-14 and for me that is big." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "My personal goal is, after three years, I should be able to at least place 5 to 10 students who have not spent 40,000 pounds to work in F1. They should be skilled enough that they can crack an F1 interview from India itself." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "I think the core of it is because I anyways knew I would quit F1 in five years." - Shubham Sangodkar
* "I always saw myself, something here and there's something that I always wanted to contribute back to the society." - Shubham Sangodkar

**Controversies and Insights:**

There were no controversies or particularly insightful moments highlighted in the transcript.

**Overall Message:**

The overall message of the podcast is that United Motorsports Academy is a pioneering initiative aimed at providing education and opportunities for students interested in motorsports in India. The academy has a strong focus on upskilling students, providing hands-on training, and creating pathways for them to pursue careers in the field. Shubham Sangodkar's journey from Formula One to education highlights the importance of following one's passions and making a positive impact on society. # **Navigating the World of Formula One Aerodynamics and Education: A Conversation with Shubham**

In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of Formula One aerodynamics and education with Shubham, the co-founder of United Motorsports Academy. Shubham shares his journey from working in Formula One to establishing the academy, which aims to provide education and opportunities for students passionate about motorsports.

**Key Insights:**

1. **Aerodynamic Innovations:** Shubham highlights the innovative double diffuser concept employed by Red Bull, which resembles two diffusers within one floor. This design allows for intricate pressure gradients, sustaining vortex structures, and enabling the car to run lower.

2. **Favorite Aero Innovation:** Shubham expresses his admiration for the y250 vortex, a concept used in previous-generation Formula One cars. This vortex, generated by sharp front wing edges, aided teams in achieving exceptional aerodynamic performance.

3. **Adrian Newey's Approach:** Shubham describes Adrian Newey's remarkable ability to listen and absorb feedback from engineers, even junior ones like himself. Newey's willingness to engage in discussions and consider diverse perspectives demonstrates his openness to learning.

4. **Adrian Newey's Humility:** Shubham emphasizes Adrian Newey's humility and lack of condescension, despite his legendary status in Formula One. Newey's willingness to engage with and value the contributions of younger engineers serves as an inspiration for aspiring professionals.

5. **United Motorsports Academy:** Shubham discusses the United Motorsports Academy's mission to provide education and opportunities in motorsports. The academy offers programs such as the Motorsports Accelerator program, which aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary for a successful career in the industry.

6. **Long-Term Goals:** Shubham envisions United Motorsports Academy as a platform that empowers individuals to pursue their dreams in motorsports, regardless of their background or circumstances. He hopes to create a network of professionals and enthusiasts who can contribute to the growth of the sport.

**Memorable Quotes:**

* "I want to become like a contact point for anybody and everybody who has a motorsport dream and use my contacts to give people experience." - Shubham

* "It's easier for me to say this after having done all of this. I always call it that I've climbed the mountain of my dreams and now I came down to climb a bigger mountain which is called the mountain of purpose in a way." - Shubham

* "It's okay if you fail. Because I remember I did not back then in India there were only four big IITs that taught aerospace engineering." - Shubham

* "I think the biggest bit was, when I was eventually leaving Red Bull, I said, okay, let's sign the book and take it." - Shubham

* "So that people like you get impressed when they are..." - Shubham

**Overall Message:**

Shubham's journey and the establishment of United Motorsports Academy embody the spirit of innovation, education, and inclusivity in the world of Formula One. His passion for aerodynamics and his commitment to fostering opportunities for aspiring professionals make him an inspiring figure in the sport.

[00:00.000 -> 00:02.880] I mean, and hey, if I had not taken that decision, I would have never met you guys.
[00:03.120 -> 00:06.080] So yeah, true that. Likewise, man. Likewise.
[00:06.320 -> 00:07.360] Godspeed to you, dude.
[00:07.360 -> 00:10.080] Your life was just leading up to this moment.
[00:10.080 -> 00:14.480] Yes. To be on the IRL CrossF1 Fan Fiction Podcast. Exactly.
[00:16.880 -> 00:19.360] Folks listening, if you work hard enough, you can be here too.
[00:33.200 -> 00:37.400] Hello, hello. Welcome to the IRL podcast hosted by F1 Fan Fiction. This is episode number two. We are your hosts. I am Akash.
[00:37.400 -> 00:38.400] And I'm Sarang.
[00:38.400 -> 00:39.400] And I'm Shubham.
[00:39.400 -> 00:41.400] Hey, Shubham. Welcome to the show.
[00:41.400 -> 00:42.400] Hello, hello.
[00:42.400 -> 00:48.480] Episode two. I mean, folks, if you've not listened to episode 1, it's with Mr. Akhilesh Reddy,
[00:48.480 -> 00:55.760] the man making all of this happen. And we've got quite a lot of questions about, you know,
[00:55.760 -> 01:00.240] him saying that there's going to be Indian engineers and all Indian team and all
[01:00.240 -> 01:04.160] Indian playground and, you know, make in India and all of those things, right?
[01:05.700 -> 01:12.020] Indian playground and you know make in India and all of those things right so why not have episode 2 which answers those questions for you and who better
[01:12.020 -> 01:16.860] than the man making that happen so welcome to the show Shubham take it away
[01:16.860 -> 01:21.300] what's happening who are you why are you here tell us more well I'm Shubham
[01:21.300 -> 01:25.920] Sangodkar and probably a lot of people must have heard this introduction
[01:30.560 -> 01:37.040] before because of my YouTube channel F1 Aerodynamicist. So I've worked with Red Bull Racing for the 2021 championship which was you know historical in its own right and
[01:38.320 -> 01:43.520] without getting into controversy at the very beginning. Of course. And the 2022 championship
[01:48.800 -> 01:54.560] at the very beginning. And the 2022 championship where I designed on the 2021, I worked more in terms of operations and on the 2022, I worked on the aero design. So it was absolutely mad working
[01:54.560 -> 01:59.040] on these two championships and being at the right place at the right time in the right team.
[01:59.040 -> 02:07.760] I think I kind of achieved my dream of not just working in Formula One but working in Formula One. Exactly, the top team and
[02:07.760 -> 02:14.480] winning championships. Yeah, and when it comes to what I'm doing now and what's been up,
[02:15.040 -> 02:19.840] I've been in India for a while and I've been trying to take a step back to assess what I
[02:19.840 -> 02:30.780] really want from my life going forward and how I can use my skill sets in the most effective way and I made a decision to not go back into F1 as an engineer full-fledged because I wanted
[02:30.780 -> 02:34.660] to pursue other interests and wanted a little bit more flexibility in my life.
[02:34.660 -> 02:38.720] So it almost happened like I took a gap year, you know like being an engineer trying to
[02:38.720 -> 02:46.560] work in F1, having a dream, what usually happens is you get tunnel vision in terms of what you want to do.
[02:46.560 -> 02:49.440] So, you do this, you get this.
[02:49.440 -> 02:55.200] So, I was very tunnel visioned and I think once I took a step back, I think I kind of opened myself to
[02:55.200 -> 02:59.760] what is around me and trying to maybe choose a career path which is slightly different.
[02:59.760 -> 03:04.240] So, I started with the YouTube channel F1 Aerodynamicist in my pursuit.
[03:04.240 -> 03:05.840] I always said that if I made it,
[03:05.840 -> 03:08.760] I would show other people how to make it.
[03:08.760 -> 03:10.920] So that is the DNA of that channel.
[03:10.920 -> 03:12.520] Then I started, okay, let me talk a little bit
[03:12.520 -> 03:13.480] about aerodynamics.
[03:13.480 -> 03:17.040] So I started explaining aero updates,
[03:17.040 -> 03:20.080] which I normally do on my Instagram channel also.
[03:20.080 -> 03:22.960] And then that led to creating a course online.
[03:22.960 -> 03:25.200] And then that led to meeting a lot of people
[03:25.200 -> 03:28.040] in the F1 social sphere, like Peter Windsor,
[03:28.040 -> 03:31.480] William Toy, Break F1, and all these guys
[03:31.480 -> 03:34.280] that I see in the F1 sphere.
[03:34.280 -> 03:38.040] And then I landed up meeting Mr. Omkar Rane,
[03:38.040 -> 03:41.080] who is the co-founder of United Motorsports Academy.
[03:41.080 -> 03:43.840] And it's funny because he has been able to do something
[03:43.840 -> 03:45.200] which is not very common in India.
[03:45.200 -> 03:49.760] He's been able to successfully profitably run a motorsport business for the last five years in
[03:49.760 -> 03:58.560] India. That itself is an achievement. So he came to me saying, you know what Shubh, I'd like to
[03:58.560 -> 04:04.640] create, I'd like to beat the BIC record using an M4 and I was like, okay, let's make it happen.
[04:04.640 -> 04:05.360] What do we need to beat? And he's like, okay, I'd like okay let's make it happen what do we need to
[04:05.360 -> 04:09.640] beat and he's like okay I'd like to hire you as an aero consultant to create the
[04:09.640 -> 04:15.760] aero package for the M4 and I was like okay sounds great I can become the aero
[04:15.760 -> 04:20.440] consultant but I have this little period in my life which I want to spend trying
[04:20.440 -> 04:24.600] to educate people so I said this is my priority so I can come up as a
[04:24.600 -> 04:25.200] consultant and then when I started talking to him about this he said see trying to educate people. So I said, this is my priority. So I can come up as a consultant.
[04:25.200 -> 04:28.880] And then when I started talking to him about this, he said, see, I've had this vision. I've
[04:28.880 -> 04:33.600] grown up students from Maharashtra, from rural parts of Maharashtra, where, you know, people
[04:33.600 -> 04:37.840] don't get an opportunity. So he's built an entire team over the last four or five years, which
[04:38.480 -> 04:45.520] students from rural parts of Maharashtra, and these boys, I have to tell you these guys are capable of building a drift car
[04:45.520 -> 04:52.080] a custom built car today they are extremely skilled and so we came up with this vision of
[04:52.080 -> 04:57.200] United Motorsports Academy because I always felt that we can do an online course
[04:57.200 -> 05:02.800] you know like we can start an online course but how do you actually create an educational platform
[05:02.800 -> 05:05.200] in this country in the biggest population of the country, in the biggest population of
[05:05.200 -> 05:07.960] the world, in the largest population of the world.
[05:07.960 -> 05:09.760] An online course is not good enough.
[05:09.760 -> 05:16.280] When you only teach students hands on, will they be able to understand?
[05:16.280 -> 05:19.440] The whole environment is not just something that you can.
[05:19.440 -> 05:22.160] Exactly, and that is what Omkar again specialized in.
[05:22.160 -> 05:27.440] He has this workshop in Mumbai and I said, okay, this seems logical.
[05:27.440 -> 05:31.960] So that's where our marriage happened in a way and we gave birth to United Motorsports
[05:31.960 -> 05:32.960] Academy.
[05:32.960 -> 05:36.880] This sounds extremely wrong, but yeah, that's where the DNA is.
[05:36.880 -> 05:42.080] So in my last three months, I've just put every side project aside and made United Motorsports
[05:42.080 -> 05:46.000] Academy my full-time hustle where I've put
[05:46.000 -> 05:52.800] together a very very international advisory board which is of the top top people in the
[05:52.800 -> 05:57.840] industry we got Peter Windsor everybody knows him, we got William Lloyd 30 years of experience
[05:57.840 -> 06:03.440] in aerodynamics, we got Ian Wright again 30 years of experience in F1 with Mercedes and McLaren,
[06:03.440 -> 06:05.680] we got Rex Keane 20 years of experience in race1 with Mercedes and McLaren. We got Rex Bean, 20 years of experience
[06:05.680 -> 06:10.320] in race engineering and we're getting universities on board as well. We are having conversations with
[06:10.320 -> 06:16.720] University of Bedfordshire, University of Bolton to create an entire ecosystem. So, if a university
[06:16.720 -> 06:23.600] has a dream, like if he has a dream, you know, in 2023, he should also be able to have a pathway
[06:23.600 -> 06:26.960] unlike me, which was in 2013, 10 years ago,
[06:26.960 -> 06:29.600] where I had to figure everything out for myself.
[06:29.600 -> 06:30.600] Right?
[06:30.600 -> 06:36.120] So the whole idea was, it's been 10 years and there's still nothing.
[06:36.120 -> 06:37.120] Yeah.
[06:37.120 -> 06:44.760] We are creating like a world class platform and a motorsport industry ecosystem for the
[06:44.760 -> 06:46.000] first time in this country.
[06:46.000 -> 06:50.000] And that's where IRL, because this podcast is about IRL,
[06:50.000 -> 06:53.000] that's where IRL just came in and said...
[06:53.000 -> 06:56.000] Shivam, sorry to interrupt you. Tell me this.
[06:56.000 -> 07:01.000] Whose Rolodex did you steal to get all these people on the panel?
[07:01.000 -> 07:07.680] Whose phone did you steal back in the paddock man i'm pretty sure you did
[07:13.120 -> 07:18.080] well very interesting question i actually still can't believe that i got them all on boarded in the way i did because so i'll tell you the story of each of them peter was just my youtube
[07:18.080 -> 07:23.520] collaboration um i started with peter as a youtube collaboration i went on to his channel and i was
[07:23.520 -> 07:28.160] explaining him on his friday race weekend videos I would do the arrow updates, read for four weekends,
[07:28.160 -> 07:32.120] we loved each other's DNA. And I said, Peter, I want to do this in this country. Would you
[07:32.120 -> 07:38.280] be willing to help? And Peter being Peter, he just said, yeah, let's do this. And obviously,
[07:38.280 -> 07:43.760] I knew him a little bit. He asked around, he asked Craig about me, Craig Scarborough.
[07:43.760 -> 07:45.680] And I had spoken to Craig a little bit.
[07:45.680 -> 07:46.680] That's one person we know.
[07:46.680 -> 07:48.560] So yeah, that's one person we know.
[07:48.560 -> 07:48.960] Yes.
[07:49.960 -> 07:51.400] Not not feeling so left out.
[07:57.200 -> 08:00.560] And then William has been, you know, the biggest supporter.
[08:00.880 -> 08:03.920] I think William was the only person who would support you.
[08:04.120 -> 08:06.360] He was the guy when F1 wasn't famous,
[08:06.360 -> 08:10.400] you texted him on LinkedIn with the right enthusiasm. He would text you back.
[08:10.800 -> 08:14.120] Like he's helped countless students. Right. So for me,
[08:14.120 -> 08:18.320] William was that mentor that far away mentor who I never met,
[08:18.360 -> 08:22.040] who I never saw that internet gave me my first day at the university where I did
[08:22.040 -> 08:25.100] masters. William had a guest lecture
[08:25.100 -> 08:29.060] and I was like, you remember me, I'm the guy who's been texting you on LinkedIn and irritating
[08:29.060 -> 08:36.020] you pretty much for the last five years. So that's how I met William. Ian Wright happened
[08:36.020 -> 08:43.120] to me, I was posting some analysis on LinkedIn that I do and Ian commented back on it and
[08:43.120 -> 08:46.080] started saying, started giving me suggestions, what might be right,
[08:46.080 -> 08:47.320] what might be wrong.
[08:47.320 -> 08:49.560] And then that conversation grew when I said,
[08:49.560 -> 08:51.160] I want this guy on this.
[08:51.160 -> 08:53.960] He sounds to be somebody who's in a position in life
[08:53.960 -> 08:56.720] where he's willing to give back to people.
[08:56.720 -> 08:58.480] So that's where Ian happened.
[08:58.480 -> 09:01.480] And Rex just happened to be a profile
[09:01.480 -> 09:03.520] that I absolutely loved on LinkedIn.
[09:03.520 -> 09:06.480] And I got in touch with him and you know having
[09:06.480 -> 09:16.240] those Australian genes in him he was just like yeah mate let's fucking send it.
[09:16.240 -> 09:20.640] But yeah he was just like let's send it and I have to say Rex Keane has, we are calling
[09:20.640 -> 09:30.080] him for our first workshop which we'll speak about'm sure. But he's been the biggest supporter of this idea and is becoming a mentor soon for this idea itself.
[09:30.080 -> 09:32.320] So he's as excited as us about this.
[09:32.320 -> 09:33.280] So, yeah.
[09:33.280 -> 09:34.160] This is so awesome.
[09:37.200 -> 09:39.520] Quickly, what's your website?
[09:39.520 -> 09:44.160] Like for the folks listening and if they just want to do a side browse, where do they go?
[09:46.400 -> 09:52.880] So the website is going to be unitedmotorsportsacademy.com. We are going to launch this officially on the 21st of
[09:52.880 -> 09:59.120] August. So you know once 21st of August is seen you'll hear a lot of noise from us. We have a nice
[09:59.120 -> 10:04.560] campaign planned. All right while they're here let's give them some information here as well.
[10:05.000 -> 10:09.560] All right, while they're here, let's give them some information here as well. So, tell us a little bit more about the Motorsports Accelerator Program.
[10:09.560 -> 10:12.760] I see that you have a whole thing planned out.
[10:12.760 -> 10:20.200] We wanted to kick off the entire United Motorsports Academy by asking ourselves, how do we actually
[10:20.200 -> 10:21.840] deliver value to everybody?
[10:21.840 -> 10:24.320] So we said, okay, let's create something thorough.
[10:24.320 -> 10:27.920] Our first target audience would obviously be students who want to pursue masters
[10:27.920 -> 10:31.800] while we develop the ecosystem in our country. So we said let's create
[10:31.800 -> 10:37.000] something which would provide a platform for students to build their
[10:37.000 -> 10:40.960] portfolio so that they can get admissions into the top universities. A,
[10:40.960 -> 10:45.760] they can upskill themselves to the level of the top universities abroad.
[10:45.760 -> 10:50.720] B. Because a lot of students struggle even if they make it. And three is the biggest problem
[10:51.600 -> 10:57.440] why even though you've seen a lot of Indian students go abroad but they don't make it into
[10:57.440 -> 11:07.740] motorsports is because imagine a student who's done his master masters in the UK. He has done really really well. And imagine a student from Europe or from UK.
[11:07.740 -> 11:09.740] Both have equivalent profiles.
[11:09.740 -> 11:13.000] The distinguishing quality will be because
[11:13.000 -> 11:17.340] the kid from Europe or UK has grown up in a culture of motorsports.
[11:17.340 -> 11:23.980] He will naturally have more internships, more design projects,
[11:23.980 -> 11:26.600] more opportunities of being trackside, of being
[11:26.600 -> 11:30.120] a steward or whatever, like volunteering opportunities.
[11:30.120 -> 11:32.040] Exposure in general, sure.
[11:32.040 -> 11:33.040] Exactly, right.
[11:33.040 -> 11:39.440] And that is where this student lacks out because he has not built his portfolio that way.
[11:39.440 -> 11:43.920] He's only made it a very academic centric portfolio, even though we have competitions
[11:43.920 -> 11:45.920] running in this country. So
[11:45.920 -> 11:51.520] what we wanted to do was provide like a thorough online program which provides you
[11:52.240 -> 11:58.720] a three-month course which you can take in a flexible manner the way you'd like
[11:59.280 -> 12:04.160] when you're at your college and then provide a one and a half month hands-on training program
[12:06.800 -> 12:12.000] college and then provide a one and a half month hands-on training program at the workshop. So, you basically bridge the gap and you are upskilled. Omkar and his team is going to train you
[12:12.640 -> 12:16.240] and they've built cars for the last five years. Who's going to teach the online course?
[12:16.240 -> 12:21.760] World-class experts. These people are the people you would beg to learn from if you went and paid
[12:21.760 -> 12:25.480] 40,000 pounds in a British university.
[12:25.480 -> 12:31.200] So we want to bring that high quality education through the motorsport accelerator program
[12:31.200 -> 12:34.640] and the hands-on training through that program as well.
[12:34.640 -> 12:37.240] And that's why we call it the accelerator program.
[12:37.240 -> 12:41.640] So we are planning to launch that January next year or January or February.
[12:41.640 -> 12:46.160] Obviously, it takes a lot of effort to put them together.
[12:48.640 -> 12:49.920] So yeah, that's the accelerator program in a nutshell.
[12:54.880 -> 12:58.480] So you've already have this whole United Motorsports Academy YouTube channel, but it's all dead. There's no video. So what's the play?
[12:59.360 -> 13:02.160] That's the play is block the name to win the game.
[13:02.400 -> 13:03.400] play is block the name to win the game. Okay.
[13:03.400 -> 13:04.400] Okay.
[13:04.400 -> 13:05.400] Okay.
[13:05.400 -> 13:07.320] Well, yeah, so I did that.
[13:07.320 -> 13:08.460] So it's funny, right?
[13:08.460 -> 13:11.440] Because this idea happened from me and Omkar.
[13:11.440 -> 13:14.480] So I just went online and said, let's just block this name everywhere.
[13:14.480 -> 13:17.280] And then let's, and then we onboarded two more people.
[13:17.280 -> 13:22.800] We onboarded a marketing head and we onboarded operations head.
[13:22.800 -> 13:27.020] And these people were like marketing person is like 20 years experience in the industry.
[13:27.020 -> 13:30.820] The operation guys is like specializes in launching events.
[13:30.820 -> 13:35.260] And these guys said, kid, this is not how it's done.
[13:36.720 -> 13:38.140] You might be good in your stuff,
[13:38.140 -> 13:41.220] but this is not how you kick off a project.
[13:41.220 -> 13:44.860] And the launch went from June to August
[13:44.860 -> 13:46.840] to the point where now everything is
[13:46.840 -> 13:51.120] world-class. The website that is being created is world-class.
[13:51.440 -> 13:55.600] The social media posts that are going to come out are world-class.
[13:55.680 -> 13:57.960] The deals that are going to come out are world-class.
[13:58.320 -> 14:01.560] It's like if you do not portray a social image to be world-class,
[14:01.560 -> 14:03.880] then how will people think your posts are world-class?
[14:03.920 -> 14:05.160] That's true.
[14:05.160 -> 14:08.160] That's why the engineering mind, right?
[14:08.160 -> 14:09.160] Exactly.
[14:09.160 -> 14:10.160] The engineering mind.
[14:10.160 -> 14:11.160] Tell us about it.
[14:11.160 -> 14:12.160] That's our struggle.
[14:12.160 -> 14:24.880] Anyways, let's talk a little bit about collaboration between F4.
[14:24.880 -> 14:25.840] What's going on there?
[14:25.840 -> 14:30.560] You know, as you created this idea, you want to, and you go and talk to people about this,
[14:30.560 -> 14:36.000] there are always the doubters who are like, is F1 actually that big in India?
[14:36.000 -> 14:37.440] Like, is it a thing?
[14:37.440 -> 14:41.120] Like, are people going to pay you to do a course?
[14:41.120 -> 14:43.200] Stuff like that.
[14:43.200 -> 14:47.920] And we got these questions from a lot of people who are into motorsports, you know do a course like that and we got these questions from a lot of from people who are into
[14:47.920 -> 14:53.680] motorsports you know people who do speed fest for example. Interesting. We said all right let's do a
[14:53.680 -> 14:59.280] let's do a market study right let's do let's do a market study which is good which is going to be
[14:59.280 -> 15:08.000] good for us and for everybody so now my Udemy course for example, which is there. I launched it on my birthday on 28th of July, right?
[15:08.000 -> 15:16.000] And it's 16th of August today. I have 278 students from 43 countries out of which 75 are from India.
[15:16.000 -> 15:23.000] Right? It's just blown. And I can only see it getting better.
[15:23.000 -> 15:27.000] Hang on. How much did you expect? Like what was your target when you put this out?
[15:27.000 -> 15:29.000] 100 in the entire year. Until the end of the year.
[15:29.000 -> 15:34.000] Oh damn. So you are popping champagne right now. Sure.
[15:34.000 -> 15:39.000] Yeah. Other than the fact that Udemy takes a pretty much big amount of the chunk.
[15:39.000 -> 15:47.000] But I was just like, I don't want the money. I got my market study.
[15:47.000 -> 15:49.000] It's the validation.
[15:49.000 -> 15:51.000] Yeah, validation. Sure.
[15:51.000 -> 15:54.000] So we were thinking about a proof of concept.
[15:54.000 -> 15:58.000] And we were thinking of doing a workshop.
[15:58.000 -> 16:02.000] We were just going around ideas.
[16:02.000 -> 16:04.000] And that's where we got introduced to Ananya.
[16:04.000 -> 16:09.440] And I was talking to Ananya about this. That's where you know that's where then Ananya put us in touch with
[16:09.440 -> 16:14.340] Aditya Patel. We had we jumped on a chat with Aditya and Aditya told us what their vision
[16:14.340 -> 16:21.560] was what they wanted to do and I said listen we're ingenious we've got this we can we can
[16:21.560 -> 16:26.360] create we can give you the right students, the passionate students, the people who deserve
[16:26.360 -> 16:31.080] an opportunity in this country. We will get those people for you. So it so happened that
[16:31.080 -> 16:36.600] we got a perfect platform to give the entire proof of concept which we earlier spoke about.
[16:36.600 -> 16:43.120] You know, where we can teach students and we can place them and provide them opportunities
[16:43.120 -> 16:50.880] to work in motorsports. So for the first time in India, for everybody who is listening, we are doing India's first
[16:50.880 -> 16:56.080] race engineering workshop, which is going to be a four day workshop done in two cities
[16:56.080 -> 16:59.920] in Mumbai in the last two weeks of October.
[16:59.920 -> 17:07.360] So Mumbai first and then Chennai, in which basically we'll have Rex Keane coming down to India
[17:07.360 -> 17:14.160] and teaching race engineering and covering all the basics that you know a race engineer
[17:14.160 -> 17:19.120] anybody who aspires to be in motorsports in the form of race engineer as a race mechanic
[17:19.120 -> 17:24.200] as a data analyst or just to be on the grid and to understand to get that exposure of
[17:24.200 -> 17:25.280] what's really needed.
[17:25.280 -> 17:31.360] Yeah. And the cool part about it is we're going to have around 150 students openings for 150
[17:31.360 -> 17:40.120] students out of those 24 students will be selected to work as assistants to race engineers and race
[17:40.120 -> 17:45.000] mechanics for the Indian F4 championship for the entire season.
[17:45.820 -> 17:47.960] Sponsored. Right.
[17:47.960 -> 17:52.000] So everything for the student is being taken care of. Right.
[17:52.000 -> 17:56.160] So for the first time in India, out after this year,
[17:56.320 -> 18:01.000] you'll have a student whose profile will say that he's done one season
[18:01.360 -> 18:10.000] of internship with a professional F-14 and for me that is big. I was joking with my partner that I would do this.
[18:10.000 -> 18:18.000] I have never got the opportunity to do this. Sign me up. I will compete in this. Sign me up. Exactly.
[18:18.000 -> 18:27.680] And what's even cooler is like the, you know, you started this podcast by saying that Akhilesh Reddy spoke about making India, getting an Indian team.
[18:27.680 -> 18:39.040] And that's where we are pushing. So, 4 students out of our first season will be employed the next year in IRL and F4 Championship.
[18:39.040 -> 18:41.960] Professionally. With financial compensation.
[18:41.960 -> 18:48.400] And then, IRL has big plans to have an Indian team, like an entire team run by Indian engineers.
[18:48.400 -> 18:54.080] Definitely, you know, once things pick up, it's going to be big. So, yeah.
[18:54.080 -> 19:05.000] It's going to be fun, right? Because like if you think. That's what I've heard.
[19:05.000 -> 19:10.000] So imagine this, right? Like people going in auto rickshaws and travelling across India.
[19:10.000 -> 19:13.000] Like, hey, where do you work out? Yeah, this Indian team that you work for.
[19:13.000 -> 19:21.000] Yeah, that would be sick, you know. And my personal goal is, after three years,
[19:21.000 -> 19:28.360] I should be able to at least place 5 to 10 students who have not spent
[19:28.360 -> 19:31.560] 40,000 pounds to work in F1.
[19:31.560 -> 19:36.640] They should be skilled enough that they can crack an F1 interview from India itself.
[19:36.640 -> 19:37.640] That is my dream.
[19:37.640 -> 19:39.840] If I can achieve that with this academy, that would be sick.
[19:39.840 -> 19:43.240] But not just F1, because F1 is super competitive.
[19:43.240 -> 19:45.840] There are so many forms of motorsports that
[19:45.840 -> 19:50.960] students don't even know of. There's Endurance Racing, there's GT3, which actually in all their
[19:50.960 -> 19:56.560] rights provide you more exposure to racing than F1 does. There's Rally, there's Dakar,
[19:56.560 -> 20:02.560] there's motorcycle racing. So another thing that we really want to do is campaign hard for other
[20:02.560 -> 20:05.440] motorsports as well. We want to expose
[20:05.440 -> 20:12.400] and create courses for them. Why do people not know about this? Because A, I know about GT racing,
[20:12.400 -> 20:17.840] but I don't know anything about what it takes to get into GT racing. I don't know what an engineer
[20:17.840 -> 20:30.720] does in GT racing. Yeah, I was going to come to that actually because like a car is a car is a car is a car right like while F1 ends up being the main carrot like what's that other plethora of sports that people don't know
[20:30.720 -> 20:37.440] about right so yeah but it's just a car is a car is a car is a car is not just a car because if you
[20:37.440 -> 20:41.760] learn of you know there's a saying if you aim for the sky at least you'll be on top of the tree
[20:41.760 -> 20:50.880] because I aimed for F1 I was skilled enough to either do an aerospace job, do a job in Ashton Martin in the high performance car
[20:50.880 -> 20:58.720] sector. So it's about skill set. If you target F1, you target the highest skill set possible.
[20:58.720 -> 21:02.800] And if the opportunity did not come, if you were not at the right place at the right time
[21:02.800 -> 21:06.280] in a way, then at least that skill set is not going anywhere.
[21:06.280 -> 21:07.280] It's going to get you employed.
[21:07.280 -> 21:09.320] It's going to get you a good job.
[21:09.320 -> 21:10.640] Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
[21:10.640 -> 21:11.640] For sure.
[21:11.640 -> 21:13.600] I have two questions on this collaboration, right?
[21:13.600 -> 21:19.480] Like the first is, you said there's like 150 seats available for folks to get into the
[21:19.480 -> 21:20.480] program.
[21:20.480 -> 21:23.560] Like, how do, what if I want to be one of the 150?
[21:23.560 -> 21:28.880] Okay, so you know, when our website will go live, the project is called LIME, it's called
[21:28.880 -> 21:32.360] Launchpad for Indian Motorsport Engineers.
[21:32.360 -> 21:35.360] It's called the LIME workshop.
[21:35.360 -> 21:39.120] And the way you register for this is once our website goes live, there will be registrations
[21:39.120 -> 21:42.360] that you can take online and you'll have to fill up a form.
[21:42.360 -> 21:52.800] So now the question is what if you have thousand people wanting to get into line. So that's why we'll be asking you a question about what is your DNA,
[21:52.800 -> 21:59.200] like why do you want to be attending the workshop and that motivation question answer is how if we
[21:59.200 -> 22:06.240] have to be in the good position, if we have the good problem of over registrations we will we will use that but
[22:06.240 -> 22:11.520] there have been some people who've already pre-registered so we are going to you know
[22:11.520 -> 22:17.760] we are going to because we did a again a market campaign uh one month ago um and there are some
[22:17.760 -> 22:21.600] students who I have gone through their profiles and they're all very skilled so we are going to
[22:21.600 -> 22:31.520] get them in directly they're going to have an early bird entry and then once we launch on the 21st, we are going to have new entries and let's see how that
[22:31.520 -> 22:37.360] goes. Yeah, and then my second question is going to be, I mean, we've been talking about vehicle
[22:37.360 -> 22:45.840] dynamics and mechanical engineers, but what about all the other disciplines like chemical, materials, fuel, computer science?
[22:45.840 -> 22:52.160] Is there anything for those folks? Yeah, very good question. So, we know computer science,
[22:52.160 -> 22:59.360] AI, ML is big. So, we are doing two amazing courses which I am really looking forward to
[22:59.360 -> 23:04.000] because I don't know anything in this aspect myself. So, we are doing an AI course with a
[23:04.000 -> 23:09.840] German company where basically it's AI and CFD which they are already working with F1 teams to show
[23:09.840 -> 23:14.680] how AI can be used in you know computational fluid dynamics or aerodynamics and then I
[23:14.680 -> 23:23.560] am doing a course with another collaborator I cannot mention but the idea is to use machine
[23:23.560 -> 23:27.280] learning and big data to solve F1 problems and this person
[23:27.280 -> 23:28.680] already does it.
[23:28.680 -> 23:32.400] So we have something very interesting for the computer science folks.
[23:32.400 -> 23:37.640] For the chemical engineering, not nothing yet, but we are going to try and figure something
[23:37.640 -> 23:38.640] out as we see the demand.
[23:38.640 -> 23:43.040] For materials, definitely there is going to be a course on composites, which is going
[23:43.040 -> 23:46.480] to come, which is what everything, all race cars are being made up of today.
[23:46.480 -> 23:50.840] And for electrical and electronics, we are going to have an entire, the phase 2 of the
[23:50.840 -> 23:53.720] academy project is to go into the EV sector.
[23:53.720 -> 23:58.640] So we are looking, so if you are somebody listening to this podcast, we are looking
[23:58.640 -> 24:03.440] for somebody who can help us strategize our EV model about how we go into this industry
[24:03.440 -> 24:08.560] because in India there are a lot of people doing EV already so how do we stand up is the question right so we're still
[24:08.560 -> 24:12.720] strategizing around it because it's not our forte so we're looking for the right person
[24:12.720 -> 24:15.680] who can help us bring the right partners on board as well.
[24:15.680 -> 24:20.320] You know what today it's like you have an answer for every question it almost feels
[24:20.320 -> 24:30.720] like you know but weight does move. Which is a good problem to have.
[24:30.720 -> 24:32.600] Hey I have to ask you this.
[24:32.600 -> 24:40.120] So besides going on live streams and losing bets and taking your partner to dinner, what
[24:40.120 -> 24:42.800] do you normally spend your time on?
[24:42.800 -> 24:46.000] I mean I live in Goa so there's always something to spend time on.
[24:46.000 -> 24:55.000] So these days I've been spending time on, I do a lot of self-reflection work.
[24:55.000 -> 25:02.000] So you know I try to do a lot of meditation work and just a little bit of physical fitness.
[25:02.000 -> 25:05.360] Because I think it's been a long time since I've had a time to step back.
[25:05.360 -> 25:12.240] So I've spent a lot of time with family. Like you wouldn't imagine I haven't spent one year in my hometown in Goa since 2013.
[25:13.360 -> 25:18.720] I've just been on the go. So I've been you know spending time with family, really enjoying that,
[25:18.720 -> 25:26.840] taking my nephew and niece out for you know some on the beach, dessert spending some time with mom so yeah quite
[25:26.840 -> 25:32.600] boring stuff stuff that people call boring but you find value in once you move abroad
[25:32.600 -> 25:36.760] once you move abroad and you don't have them that's what you find value in yeah three people
[25:36.760 -> 25:56.000] on this stream or on this show understand exactly what you're saying yeah but on this sort of philosophical note, right, what makes you sort of like not quit, but take a step back from a dream role, right?
[25:56.000 -> 26:01.000] Like everyone's aspiring and you're enabling like a country to do what you've done for two years.
[26:01.000 -> 26:10.560] And then you said, you know, boss, I'm going to take a step back, not to do what everyone wants to do, but, you know, do something I want to do. How do you do that?
[26:10.560 -> 26:19.280] How do you take that decision? I think it requires a lot of guts in a way, but I think my time at
[26:19.280 -> 26:27.000] Red Bull gave me a clear perspective of how my future would be like, You know how, for example, when you are doing a masters,
[26:27.000 -> 26:29.000] you think, okay, I'll start working for a smaller team,
[26:29.000 -> 26:31.000] make it into F1, then make it to a bigger team.
[26:31.000 -> 26:34.000] So you have like a pyramid approach in your head.
[26:34.000 -> 26:37.000] But I reached on top of the pyramid very quickly.
[26:37.000 -> 26:41.000] So I could see, like I can do this for the next 5 years.
[26:41.000 -> 26:44.000] Where will I be as a human being,
[26:44.000 -> 26:46.440] emotionally, mentally,
[26:46.440 -> 26:53.280] physically and aspirationally. And I said, great, I can do this. I've been in a very,
[26:53.280 -> 26:58.160] I'm always grateful for this that I never thought that in the last eight months, I've
[26:58.160 -> 27:08.440] actually rejected three F1 teams for an interview. And. Yeah. Right. Nice. And I've been very grateful for, for this opportunity to come, but I think the
[27:08.440 -> 27:12.600] core of it is because I anyways knew I would quit F1 in five years.
[27:13.320 -> 27:13.520] Okay.
[27:13.520 -> 27:17.400] Because for me, there are certain things as I've, you know, F1 was a dream, but
[27:17.400 -> 27:20.560] when you grow up in life, there are other things also that you fall in love with.
[27:21.360 -> 27:24.720] And I always say that being born in Goa is, is a privilege.
[27:27.280 -> 27:32.560] And I always saw myself, something here and there's something that I always wanted to contribute back to the
[27:32.560 -> 27:39.200] society. In my entire life, I've always done something in education. When I was in college
[27:39.200 -> 27:43.280] in my Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering, I had a small startup in which I would go to school,
[27:43.280 -> 27:49.720] every school, five schools in Goa, I would come down every month and basically introduce them to technology,
[27:49.720 -> 27:53.560] introduce them to people of various skill sets so that they could find mentors. So I
[27:53.560 -> 27:58.120] always knew that I wanted, my dream was to always start this three idiots level school
[27:58.120 -> 28:08.920] in Goa. So I said, I can do this for five years and take a step then, or I take a step now.
[28:08.920 -> 28:15.720] So what so happened was that, you know, I had February was the deciding month regarding
[28:15.720 -> 28:16.720] what I do.
[28:16.720 -> 28:21.600] And I had two opportunities in mind, like plan A and plan B. Plan A was obviously go
[28:21.600 -> 28:25.640] through the conventional route of working back into F1 and Plan B
[28:25.640 -> 28:34.360] was going into the education field to make a difference in people's lives.
[28:34.360 -> 28:39.760] And this would most importantly provide me flexibility because I knew my F1 life would
[28:39.760 -> 28:43.700] be, you know half of your holidays are gone from the summer break because they are mandatory
[28:43.700 -> 28:47.160] holidays which just get taken out and the rest of the two weeks is
[28:47.160 -> 28:51.160] probably is when you get an off in December. So I don't want to be the kind
[28:51.160 -> 28:54.360] of person who comes home for two weeks in an entire year and I have a single
[28:54.360 -> 29:01.640] boy so it makes it even harder. And yeah I think the couple of you know side
[29:01.640 -> 29:07.280] ventures that I took in the form of YouTube, in the form of the
[29:07.280 -> 29:13.520] Instagram channel and everything else really helped me to know that there is potential
[29:13.520 -> 29:21.400] here and I can, if I work on it for 2-3 years, then I can really become somebody who pioneers
[29:21.400 -> 29:27.280] motorsport education in India and that is what I really want to do with everything through my heart journey.
[29:27.280 -> 29:34.240] I want to become like a contact point for anybody and everybody who has a motorsport
[29:34.240 -> 29:38.080] dream and use my contacts to give people experience.
[29:38.080 -> 29:39.840] You know, I want, that's my dream.
[29:39.840 -> 29:46.000] And I thought this is better than this in a a way. Honestly, in a way.
[29:46.000 -> 29:48.000] Because you've created a platform to
[29:48.000 -> 29:50.000] create more of you.
[29:50.000 -> 29:52.000] Yeah.
[29:52.000 -> 29:54.000] Yeah. I think like a good takeaway
[29:54.000 -> 29:56.000] there is like, yes,
[29:56.000 -> 29:58.000] try to see the long picture and not your short term
[29:58.000 -> 30:00.000] gains.
[30:00.000 -> 30:02.000] I think it's easier for me to say this after
[30:02.000 -> 30:04.000] having done all of this.
[30:04.000 -> 30:05.000] Yeah. I always call it I mean it's easier for me to say this after having done all of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[30:05.000 -> 30:11.680] So I always call it, I always call it that I've, I climbed the mountain of my dreams
[30:11.680 -> 30:16.920] and now I came down to climb a bigger mountain which is called the mountain of purpose in
[30:16.920 -> 30:17.920] a way.
[30:17.920 -> 30:18.920] Yeah, interesting.
[30:18.920 -> 30:19.920] Interesting.
[30:19.920 -> 30:20.920] Ah, that's a t-shirt right there.
[30:20.920 -> 30:21.920] Yeah.
[30:21.920 -> 30:30.920] Thank you. t-shirt right there yeah the mountain of purposes is what I'm going to hike for
[30:30.920 -> 30:34.920] the next couple of years lovely nice one that's amazing and hey if I had not
[30:34.920 -> 30:39.080] taken that decision I would have never met you guys so yeah true that likewise
[30:39.080 -> 30:48.480] man likewise your life your life was just leading up to this moment. Yes, to be on the IRL cross F1 fanfiction podcast. Exactly.
[30:50.760 -> 30:53.280] Folks listening, if you work hard enough, you can be here too.
[30:55.000 -> 31:02.880] Well, let's talk a little about your origin story, about how you got into F1 in general. How did you get into Aero?
[31:03.320 -> 31:07.160] We hear that you have been enjoying battles
[31:07.160 -> 31:15.280] between Alonso and Hamilton in 2007, seeing races on Spa, cars going to Eau Rouge. It's
[31:15.280 -> 31:18.840] very specific. Most people are, you know, whenever they see me saying they are like,
[31:18.840 -> 31:22.600] hey, I want to be the driver. Like, let me think about, I want to be the mechanic who
[31:22.600 -> 31:27.720] is, you know, in the pit box. Especially like, Hey, what is that front thing on there? Right.
[31:27.720 -> 31:28.640] Like I want to do that.
[31:32.720 -> 31:33.960] Oh, very true.
[31:33.960 -> 31:37.400] And a lot of people think that because I love F1, I'm a proper motorhead.
[31:37.720 -> 31:41.280] The reality is I'm not, I'm a very aero guy.
[31:41.480 -> 31:45.920] Um, you know, I'm not into too much into cars and all of that.
[31:45.920 -> 31:49.760] I love the sound obviously, but I love aerodynamics more than anything else.
[31:49.760 -> 31:52.520] So for me, it was just a curiosity.
[31:52.520 -> 31:58.320] You remember the dial that used to come back in F1, that dirty looking dial that F1 graphics
[31:58.320 -> 32:03.400] used to have, that they would show the gears.
[32:03.400 -> 32:06.000] So I was looking at this turn and I'm like,
[32:06.000 -> 32:08.000] the car is going really fast.
[32:08.000 -> 32:10.000] The car is going really fast.
[32:10.000 -> 32:15.000] I'm like, is this a joke?
[32:15.000 -> 32:19.000] How is the car going so fast?
[32:19.000 -> 32:21.000] Please somebody tell me.
[32:21.000 -> 32:23.000] It looks unnatural, that's true.
[32:23.000 -> 32:30.000] I'm like, the engine is also in the car. Even if you have the engine in the car, this is unnatural.
[32:30.000 -> 32:38.000] So that's where, you know, with this extremely shady internet back in Goa, I remember, I typed on Google,
[32:38.000 -> 32:42.000] like how does an F1 car go so fast?
[32:42.000 -> 32:46.800] And I came across, and this is me probably in sixth standard, seventh standard like
[32:46.800 -> 32:54.320] 12, 13 years old absolutely innocent not knowing what I'm typing and I'm like and you know there
[32:54.320 -> 33:01.120] was something that came up that said aerodynamics I'm like fancy word I like this what is this
[33:01.680 -> 33:06.840] and then yeah and then I'm like what is aerodynamics And then, yeah, and then I'm like, what is aerodynamics? And then somewhere
[33:06.840 -> 33:12.000] I read, and this is where like, you know, Scarb's post, like blog, I remember way back
[33:12.000 -> 33:17.420] when you have a blog, was really helpful because I started reading this blogs from Scarb's
[33:17.420 -> 33:23.560] and from me and you know, from Peter. So I typed this word aerodynamics and I was like,
[33:23.560 -> 33:25.320] great, I want to learn this. Now I know that this is what I was like great I want to learn this.
[33:25.320 -> 33:28.680] Now I know that this is what makes it happen I want to learn this.
[33:28.680 -> 33:34.100] And this is the coolest part because I say this a lot in my seminars that I do at universities
[33:34.100 -> 33:37.320] that you need to be brave when you are young.
[33:37.320 -> 33:39.440] Like it is your time to be brave.
[33:39.440 -> 33:40.440] It's okay if you fail.
[33:40.440 -> 33:46.640] Because I remember I did not back then in India there were only four big IITs that taught
[33:46.640 -> 33:50.720] aerospace engineering because for aerodynamics I realized that you need to learn aerospace
[33:50.720 -> 33:56.560] engineering, not mechanical engineering. So IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Chennai,
[33:56.560 -> 34:03.600] back in those days. Top four IIT you need an all India rank of at least 1000. And obviously
[34:03.600 -> 34:06.720] coming from Goa we never had that pressure of preparing for
[34:06.720 -> 34:12.000] these competitive exams and all of that. I did well, I did well to get into the best NITs and
[34:12.000 -> 34:20.000] even in BITs, but neither NIT or BITs provided aerospace engineering. So I chose aerospace
[34:20.000 -> 34:25.600] engineering in a private university in Bangalore and I said I'm going to use this as the playground
[34:25.600 -> 34:31.520] and I was extremely lucky because that university had just begun that time that particular branch
[34:31.520 -> 34:37.840] so we had all the experts from HAL, from NAL teaching the subjects you know all retired
[34:37.840 -> 34:42.960] retired people so I got an absolute amazing opportunity to learn aerodynamics back then so
[34:42.960 -> 34:48.240] that is how my origin story happened where I just literally didn't need any motivation. I
[34:48.240 -> 34:52.680] knew a word aerodynamics, I knew aerospace engineering, I knew that someday if I
[34:52.680 -> 34:56.680] want to get into F1 I need to be an aerospace engineer to begin with. Simple.
[34:56.680 -> 35:01.560] And I also knew one thing that no matter what I study in aerospace
[35:01.560 -> 35:07.520] engineering, space I did not care about back then. It so happened that I got the interest.
[35:07.520 -> 35:14.200] But I knew that I just did not have to be the best in my college or university.
[35:14.200 -> 35:19.760] If I ever want to make it into F1, I needed to be the best in the world of my age at that
[35:19.760 -> 35:21.480] time.
[35:21.480 -> 35:25.680] And that attitude is I think what eventually allowed me to get
[35:25.680 -> 35:29.560] into F1 because that attitude got me a job at Bell Helicopters in Bangalore
[35:29.560 -> 35:34.120] when I probably must have been the best resource of my age when they were
[35:34.120 -> 35:40.080] hunting for people you know that that company itself is a big aerospace giant
[35:40.080 -> 35:47.200] in the US so it provided me a big opportunity to do everything I learned at Bell was the foundation
[35:47.200 -> 35:51.760] for everything else that I did later. So yeah, and even when I went to Italy, I remember,
[35:51.760 -> 35:56.240] I remember that, you know, I was totally, when the aerodynamics professor came in, I knew I had to
[35:56.240 -> 36:01.760] make my opportunity count. It's even so much that, you know, the FSA team of our university
[36:01.760 -> 36:11.560] in Italy was ranked number 13 all over the world. So it was a very good team. And everything happened in Italian because it was an Italian team. So
[36:11.560 -> 36:16.200] I was like, first year I was like, not like our communication is lacking. There's this
[36:16.200 -> 36:20.800] so much lack of communication within the team. So I decided to take the problem in my own
[36:20.800 -> 36:25.000] hands. I said, make sure I will become the lead. Now everybody has to speak English.
[36:25.000 -> 36:27.000] Makes sense.
[36:27.000 -> 36:29.000] And I think this is what Ferrari needs.
[36:29.000 -> 36:31.000] Of course.
[36:31.000 -> 36:39.000] Just saying. Italian management is not going to be a problem.
[36:39.000 -> 36:45.440] We are not only solving India's problem for engineering, we're also solving Ferrari's problem to be honest.
[36:51.920 -> 36:55.440] Why not? While we're on the topic. Exactly. You need a British guy to run the team, you know. Whack those couple of engineers if they don't perform. Start a race.
[36:56.480 -> 37:00.560] Direct, out. I mean, that's what they do anyways, but just not here.
[37:03.920 -> 37:08.000] While you're on F1, right, like let's, let's push F1 as a topic.
[37:08.000 -> 37:10.000] So, 4 months back, this is what I have heard from you.
[37:10.000 -> 37:14.000] 4 months back, you said, I am waiting for some people to crash.
[37:14.000 -> 37:16.000] You will get to see the floor.
[37:16.000 -> 37:18.000] Everything is in the magic floor.
[37:18.000 -> 37:22.000] So, basically all magic is on the floor and I will get to see floor.
[37:22.000 -> 37:23.000] 4 months back you said.
[37:23.000 -> 37:25.280] Since then, like too many floors
[37:25.280 -> 37:31.920] have been made for us. You have seen plenty now. Well, now that your voodoo has worked, what have you gained
[37:31.920 -> 37:37.360] and knowledge and what have you learned from all these bare bones that you've seen? I think the
[37:37.360 -> 37:41.920] most I learned was from the Red Bull floor because you know it was very different to what I had seen
[37:41.920 -> 37:47.640] and the rest of the floors are quite conventional. I mean they are not conventional by any sense.
[37:47.640 -> 37:52.800] What I mean to say is you can guess by looking at them that something like this is happening.
[37:52.800 -> 37:55.800] Like Red Bull's floor, you need to see.
[37:55.800 -> 38:01.480] I did an entire series, I think three part series on YouTube but Red Bull's floor is
[38:01.480 -> 38:03.480] just mind blowing.
[38:03.480 -> 38:06.560] You need to take ten looks at it even if you are coming up with a theory.
[38:06.560 -> 38:13.120] And what they have done is, they have thrown that conventional theory out that floors are used as skirts.
[38:13.120 -> 38:19.360] You want to... and I call it, and I think I have called it out on social media.
[38:19.360 -> 38:29.920] I call it the double diffuser is back in town. It's just not a diffuser anymore. It's a double floor. So, what they're doing is literally is that they've literally made one floor into two diffusers where
[38:29.920 -> 38:34.640] they're using, you know, the front part of the floor to obviously generate the downforce. And
[38:34.640 -> 38:41.120] you see all those crazy winglets that are there at the floor edges that are there. So, they're
[38:41.120 -> 38:48.920] doing a lot of extraction, you know, like how a diffuser at the end of the car just removes, throws the floor as wide as possible. So they are doing
[38:48.920 -> 38:55.360] extraction mid floor and then there is an inwash basically which allows air to come
[38:55.360 -> 39:00.980] in again and then there is another extraction happening to the diffuser at a very high level.
[39:00.980 -> 39:05.680] So they have kind of been able to have two diffusers in a way within one floor.
[39:05.680 -> 39:10.880] And on top of that, within each of that, there is so much intricacy, which is trying to,
[39:11.680 -> 39:18.000] you know, play with pressure gradients and helps you most importantly to sustain the health of
[39:18.000 -> 39:25.560] the vortex structures, which is what allows them to run the car so lower. The reality is that any aero upgrade in the
[39:25.560 -> 39:35.280] history of F1, realistically is 0.2 to 0.3 tons. The best you will get is this much.
[39:35.280 -> 39:39.920] But McLaren made like a heap jump. So there must be something going on more than aerodynamics
[39:39.920 -> 39:45.760] here. And the reality is that they've been able to run their car lower by redesigning their floor.
[39:46.480 -> 39:53.360] Interesting. Hey man, I want to ask you this. What's like your favorite aero innovation in
[39:53.360 -> 39:58.160] general this season, maybe, or even last, in maybe decent history, let's make it that way.
[39:58.800 -> 40:05.000] That's a very interesting question. I think there are a couple of bits which completely blow my mind.
[40:05.000 -> 40:12.000] One is this whole double diffuser, not just the original one but also these floors,
[40:12.000 -> 40:20.000] like how you are able to take such a simple concept and just use your freedom of thought to imagine something like this that would work.
[40:20.000 -> 40:27.080] Because the conventional thought is all about run the car as low as possible, use your edge
[40:27.080 -> 40:33.280] wings to kind of, let's say seal the car, seal the floor, but they've just gone the
[40:33.280 -> 40:36.860] complete opposite way of what traditional theory tells you.
[40:36.860 -> 40:42.960] So Red Bull has been able to foster creative thinking in order to just let people design
[40:42.960 -> 40:45.800] something that does not fit your normal
[40:45.800 -> 40:50.480] aerodynamic theory like you wouldn't be able to understand it until unless
[40:50.480 -> 40:55.760] you see it that something like this is happening right and and my thing the
[40:55.760 -> 41:00.960] second one is something I used to love like the the previous generation of cars
[41:00.960 -> 41:05.280] with the y250 vortex remember like how they had the front wings and all those
[41:05.280 -> 41:11.200] front wings had those really sharp edges like in a line so all those edges would cast a vortex
[41:11.200 -> 41:16.560] which was called the y250 vortex and that would help you like different teams used it different
[41:16.560 -> 41:27.760] ways and that is why you know like if you look at the previous generation of cars just look at it aerodynamically and you go like you know that Oppenheimer meme where he just goes like that.
[41:27.760 -> 41:28.760] Right yeah.
[41:28.760 -> 41:38.240] That is everybody else like what are you trying to do to me, please tell me.
[41:38.240 -> 41:43.400] Those cars aerodynamically was in my opinion like external aerodynamics like floor was
[41:43.400 -> 41:47.200] a different thing but externally they were just alien technology.
[41:47.200 -> 41:48.800] Like I was just too good.
[41:50.200 -> 41:52.240] Hey, one more thing. Okay. So of course,
[41:52.280 -> 41:56.360] internet loves to make memes about, you know, uh, Adrian Newey being like,
[41:56.360 -> 41:58.720] I don't know, like a mad genius wizard or something.
[42:01.360 -> 42:09.000] And like visualizing aero as he walks. Uh, like, I want to understand, now that you have worked a little bit on that end,
[42:09.000 -> 42:12.000] how does the overall development of the car go by?
[42:12.000 -> 42:19.000] How much influence does the lead designer or something have over the overall car?
[42:19.000 -> 42:21.000] How does it generally go about?
[42:21.000 -> 42:26.560] So yeah, obviously Adrian is no longer involved in the day-to-day development of
[42:26.560 -> 42:32.800] the car because obviously he's got an entire team that takes care of it and he's at a point where
[42:33.520 -> 42:40.000] Adrian normally involves himself in places where he thinks he can make a big influence i.e. normally
[42:40.000 -> 42:44.880] the suspension design is something that he loves. He loves the aero mechanical coupling of the car
[42:44.880 -> 42:50.000] so he normally tends to focus on those bits which he can still design by hand and then give somebody
[42:50.000 -> 42:58.080] to design on a CAD software. But I think where Adrian's experience really comes into picture is
[42:58.640 -> 43:03.920] listening to the driver's feedback and understanding what they are lacking in terms of grip or in terms
[43:03.920 -> 43:05.040] of performance.
[43:05.040 -> 43:09.520] I think he gives a lot of feedback to the simulator team. And I remember, for example,
[43:09.520 -> 43:15.600] there was this really nice incident at the start of the 2021 season, 2022 season, where
[43:15.600 -> 43:19.640] everybody was lacking a front end and Max is a completely different driver when he's
[43:19.640 -> 43:26.240] lacking a front end in the car. He just needs that. He just needs it at any cost. So we started thinking of
[43:26.240 -> 43:31.360] okay which designs have shown non-linearity that can provide him a good front end as he goes in
[43:31.360 -> 43:36.800] cars. And so you know you said okay I don't need pure performance. I need something that
[43:37.600 -> 43:43.040] you know a designer think about a design that can give this characteristic and not this performance.
[43:43.040 -> 43:49.280] Very few people would be willing to say that. A lot of people would just say I want performance, you know, let the driver adjust.
[43:49.920 -> 43:57.840] Yeah, car should go room, you know. Yeah, exactly. So, I think for me what was most mind-blowing
[43:57.840 -> 44:07.040] about Adrian Newby was there was a situation where everybody had gone on a vacation and I was the only one from the front car team
[44:07.040 -> 44:12.760] sitting there and Adrian came looking for my manager and Adrian was like, okay, there's
[44:12.760 -> 44:17.000] nobody clearly here and I was just like, yes, Adrian, can I help you?
[44:17.000 -> 44:18.800] I just like sent one.
[44:18.800 -> 44:23.360] And then Adrian came around and then we were discussing about some of those geometries
[44:23.360 -> 44:25.840] that we had previously spoken of.
[44:25.840 -> 44:31.240] For me what was crazy was here is Adrian Newey, you know, sitting down, actually standing
[44:31.240 -> 44:37.880] beside me and I'm like shitting in my pants like what's happening.
[44:37.880 -> 44:43.080] And I am explaining him how certain geometries are working and how they are trying to solve
[44:43.080 -> 44:44.400] a particular issue.
[44:44.400 -> 44:49.400] And he's absorbing all of that. He is not coming with a premeditated mindset that what to tell
[44:49.400 -> 44:56.640] the kid. He is listening to my perspective, he is listening to my understanding of the
[44:56.640 -> 45:03.120] problem and then some points giving his feedback. So for me, just his ability to listen whether
[45:03.120 -> 45:05.600] he took it home or not is a different question.
[45:05.600 -> 45:10.960] But he never superimposed like authority or superiority even on somebody like me.
[45:10.960 -> 45:14.880] And for me, the biggest bit was, when I was eventually leaving Red Bull, I said,
[45:14.880 -> 45:16.560] okay, let's sign the book and take it.
[45:16.560 -> 45:23.840] So I went to his office and I had not met him for a long time.
[45:23.840 -> 45:27.800] So I thought, obviously, he had forgotten about me or something.
[45:27.800 -> 45:28.800] Why would he remember me?
[45:28.800 -> 45:30.520] I'm insignificant.
[45:30.520 -> 45:33.680] So I went to his office and I kind of
[45:33.680 -> 45:36.080] created a pitch in my head in which
[45:36.080 -> 45:40.080] I would be able to introduce myself again and remind him
[45:40.080 -> 45:42.440] about what we did and tell him goodbye.
[45:42.440 -> 45:45.120] I knocked on his door and I said,
[45:49.120 -> 45:50.480] and he just looked at me. He's like, yeah, sure. Tell me, how can I help you? I heard you're leaving us soon.
[45:50.480 -> 45:52.160] First name basis.
[45:52.160 -> 45:53.760] He knows my name.
[45:53.760 -> 45:57.400] Did you pinch yourself?
[45:57.400 -> 46:00.880] No, I blanked out at that point.
[46:00.880 -> 46:04.880] I was like, I forgot what I had in my mind.
[46:04.880 -> 46:05.000] Imagine this, right? I went out at that point. I forgot what I had thought in my mind.
[46:05.000 -> 46:11.000] Imagine this, right? If a camera is following Shubh at that point,
[46:11.000 -> 46:16.000] he's got a smile on his face all the way from that office door to the time he sits in the plane.
[46:16.000 -> 46:19.000] And it's just like, he's not getting rid of that thought.
[46:19.000 -> 46:24.000] Yeah. And this describes you the man for who he is.
[46:24.000 -> 46:28.560] Yeah. He could have just easily called me in, you know, said a couple of nice words, signed
[46:28.560 -> 46:30.160] the book and off you go.
[46:30.160 -> 46:35.800] No, he made me come in, he made me sit down, he started asking me what my plans were, what
[46:35.800 -> 46:37.320] I'm doing next.
[46:37.320 -> 46:42.520] And then he wrote this extremely lovely letter, which is there on that book where he says
[46:42.520 -> 47:14.280] thank you Shubh for working on this car, looking forward to seeing you, best wishes, Adrian. वो अपने बुक में जाता है, वो प्रश्मान के लिए आपके पर परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए आपके परश्मान के लिए in my head. I just went like that. So, his reception towards somebody like me also was
[47:14.280 -> 47:19.200] something that I always take away and I think this is for everybody who is listening, the
[47:19.200 -> 47:28.320] best people I have met in the industry whom I absolutely respect are people who are extremely humble. And I think that
[47:28.320 -> 47:34.160] is something that my mentors have always left upon me that yes, become great, do big things, but
[47:34.880 -> 47:39.040] carry that humility within you, carry that humbleness to anybody who's aspiring within
[47:39.040 -> 47:45.400] you. And I think that kind of said it all for, at that point. I was like, okay, great.
[47:45.400 -> 47:46.400] Nice.
[47:46.400 -> 47:47.400] Lovely dude.
[47:47.400 -> 47:52.360] Yeah, I mean, obviously, there's no end to this conversation that we want to have.
[47:52.360 -> 47:56.040] Like, you know, there's so many still questions, you know, like, why does he still have, why
[47:56.040 -> 47:57.880] do you still have your Italian number?
[47:57.880 -> 47:59.600] In our conversation, why?
[47:59.600 -> 48:00.600] You've left it.
[48:00.600 -> 48:01.600] Why?
[48:01.600 -> 48:02.600] But...
[48:02.600 -> 48:03.600] Why?
[48:03.600 -> 48:04.600] Simple, very simple.
[48:04.600 -> 48:05.000] So that people like you get impressed when they are... Why? You've left it. Why? Why? Simple. Very simple.
[48:05.000 -> 48:07.000] So that people like you get impressed when they are...
[48:07.000 -> 48:10.000] I can't hear. This guy is still on there.
[48:10.000 -> 48:15.000] But coming back to the whole thing,
[48:15.000 -> 48:19.000] stay tuned if most likely you are listening to this episode
[48:19.000 -> 48:23.000] before the 21st. So head over to
[48:23.000 -> 48:28.400] the website again. UnitedMotorsportsacademy.com. There you go.
[48:28.400 -> 48:32.080] So head over to the, to the website, uh, apply, uh,
[48:32.120 -> 48:35.320] to the Lime program that's going live on the 21st.
[48:35.320 -> 48:39.520] If you are listening to this after the 21st, then why are you still waiting?
[48:39.520 -> 48:42.440] Just go to the website and do yourself a favor.
[48:43.320 -> 48:45.680] I think the good thing for folks listening is
[48:45.680 -> 48:51.960] we've, the people bringing you this have gone through the hardships to make this
[48:51.960 -> 48:57.120] possible for you so that you don't have to. Everyone who's passionate about the
[48:57.120 -> 49:04.140] sport is trying to make this happen. Shubh does a live watch with F1 with
[49:04.140 -> 49:05.000] Geet YouTube at times.
[49:06.640 -> 49:07.760] So come on there.
[49:07.760 -> 49:09.800] He's always up for answering questions there too.
[49:09.800 -> 49:11.520] I'm speaking on his behalf at this point,
[49:11.520 -> 49:13.720] but I'm just taking his nod for a yes.
[49:15.320 -> 49:16.160] But yeah.
[49:16.160 -> 49:16.980] Yeah.
[49:16.980 -> 49:17.820] Yeah.
[49:17.820 -> 49:18.660] Yeah.
[49:18.660 -> 49:19.480] Yeah.
[49:19.480 -> 49:24.480] F1 aerodynamicist, Shubham, United Motor Academy
[49:28.360 -> 49:33.800] with IRL F4 and F3 Regional coming your way. Stay tuned and yeah, keep listening to the IRL podcast. Stay tuned for the third episode
[49:33.800 -> 49:37.280] soon. Cheers. Bye-bye. Cheers. Have a good one, guys.
[49:37.430 -> 49:39.490] you