What do you remember about that day?

So I remember I was here in London, very close to Battersea Park.

I woke early and my scheduled flight out of Farnborough was in the afternoon.

And I called my office and said, can they bring the flight forwards? That aircraft wasn't available.

So I said, OK, find me another plane.

And I think it was scheduled about 11 o'clock.

I headed to Farnborough, said hi to the pilots.

What do you think someone like a Hakkinen and Schumacher kind of had that maybe you didn't?

But it-- when you hung up the gloves, did you think that would be the last time you ever drove Formula 1 cars?

I didn't really think about it because, uh, it's just not how I'm wired.

You know, I'm not someone who pines for the past.

You know, there's...

Of course, conversations like this, there's a bit of reminiscing.

And of course, when I'm with Mika or, or, or Jean Alesi or Gerhard Berger or these guys that I've raced against in the past, we might talk about something amusing or engaging or whatever from the past, and that's normal life.

You do that with your friends.

Is there? Is there or is, is one just got that slight edge of preference?

What's the sensation going through your heart?

The last lap, I think, is more difficult than any other lap because the generation I raced, cars were a little bit unreliable, let's say.

Nowadays, if they fail to finish one Grand Prix, then they're really head in their hands type moment.

But you heard every RPM, you felt every bump on the road.

If there was a tiniest of noise, your heart was in your mouth.

So I...

Without a word of exaggeration, crossed the line, saw the checkered flag and immediately went on the radio to say, can you confirm I've just won the Grand Prix? Just in case I had dreamt it.

It's got to look like a Mercedes victory either way, doesn't it?

Can you remember what it was like to look at him and just imagine what it would be like to race against him, to maybe try and beat him one day?

Yeah, absolutely that.

I was born in 71, so I don't really recall watching Grands Prix in the late 70s, although I would have certainly done with my dad because he was a big fan of Formula One.

But I do remember watching in the 80s, of course, once I'm getting into karting at 11 and having posters of the McLaren on my bedroom wall.

I personally was always somehow a little bit more drawn towards Prost as a as a driver, you know, I think very smooth and, you know, Ayrton was, you know, obviously the benchmark driver of any era, but certainly of that era.

But for me as a young driver coming up through, it was definitely pinch me moments when I first drove a Formula One car.

It was the 1990 V12 McLaren Honda that Honda having won the world championship with a V10 only did a V12 just to show Ferrari that they could as well.

yeah

Yeah.

You know, helmets, as you know, are the most personal thing that the race driver has, and it's, uh, and it's something that we really connect with.

So, uh, when I ended up racing for Williams in '95 through into '96, I actually then wrote to Mark McCormack, I had a multi-year contract, asking to come out of the contract because I just felt that I wanted something more racing centric.

I wanted something more personal to Formula 1.

I, I don't doubt that IMG, like all of these other, uh, big companies, would be commercially very good because that's the space they live in, but I was never...

The money was never the motivation for me.

It was, what is the best car that I can be in? What is the best environment I can be in? This episode is sponsored by Shopify.

How much can a quick driver mask the deficiencies in a car?

[laughs] Perish the very thought

... [laughs] but I think because we are such a, a sponsorship, uh, reliant business, we know we have to deal with partners and sponsors.

We appreciate them.

We understand that the media are an important part of, you know, that exposure that gives us an opportunity to race.

So I think there's a, a, a sort of bigger understanding and appreciation.

So to answer your question, of course, it's a distraction if you're walking through the paddockBut we're primed for it, and you get to your garage, that's your safe haven, you get into your routine, get your helmet on, and get on with the job.

What's it like being live on air in an environment like this, where you're being talked at in your ears, but also that, you know, a driver might have won a championship, so many things are happening around you? What's that like?

Well, I think that motor racing has been a, a perfect sort of warm-up for working in, in broadcasting, because as you say, you're dealing, especially in a live environment, you're dealing with a, a running order that could change, uh, scenarios that change all the time.

So who do you think are the three greatest drivers you've ever driven with?

Well, worked with.

I was test driver for Nigel Mansell, Alan Prost, Ayrton Senna when I was at Williams.

Nigel, in comparison, only won one world championship.

But actually, in terms of British pig-headed spirit overcoming so many difficulties, he broke his neck, had to remortgage his house.

When he was at Lotus, there was a team principal there called Peter Warr.

who famously, when he left Lotus, had said that Nigel will never win a race as long as he's got a hole in his arse.

And what was the biggest thing you learned about yourself? You said you asked all these questions about you and your life and who are you and how do you want to be? What was the biggest lesson you got from that?

So how have McLaren sort of spent more time looking ahead rather than looking in the present?

Well, in, in simple terms, I guess it's like any, uh, sports organization that has a current team and a current championship, and then you'll have your youth team that are simmering away in, in the sidelines where you're thinking maybe next season or maybe if, you know, are they good enough this season if the main striker or whoever gets hurt, that you'd give them a chance.

So the truth of the matter is that you've got your mind on both because you have to.

You, you can't really be 100% just the here and now because that'll be at the expense of '26.

So it'll come down to sort of allocation of people.

Let's say in general terms, if we just simplify it and say that every big team has about 500 people in design office.

At the beginning of, I guess, going into this year, because '26 is a major regulation change, they wouldn't have had all 500 deployed on 2025.

You know, is it, is it about experience at this stage of a season, David?

And with such a focus on attention to detail, the natural talent you had as a young racing driver, when you reflect back on your career, why do you think it is that I'm not sitting here talking to a friend of mine who's also a Formula One world champion?

In the end, when the opportunities came, which was 98, 99, Mika was better placed in those years, you know, than seven years Mika and I were teammates.

I can't remember exactly, but there was certainly, let's say, three of the seasons, maybe more, that I finished in front of him in the World Championship.

They weren't World Championship years.

So he got it right at the time when the opportunity was there.

So I was at Williams 94, 95, did eight races, 94, shared the car with Nigel Mansell, 95.

I was really just making up as I went along and as much that I knew the team well, but we didn't have simulators.

Where were you when you got the call