Formula 3000

But man, 2002 IRL, if you thought CART was taking some risk, I mean, IRL was gnarly at that time.

How did the F3000 deal come about? Because you ended up over in Europe and you were one of the few americans that you ran well in f3000 you got podium and you got some f1 tests out of that which is a lot of americans i mean we've seen some of the americans recently uh from indycar have gone over there and not doing well

yeah so i kind of took stock of the opportunity at the end of 2002 and it was like okay you know maybe i could find another cart ride but you gotta remember cart was like it's kind of on the rocks You know, they were running out of money, trying to fight the battles.

They were just on the verge of starting to subsidize tons of teams, as you remember, for 2003.

Maybe I could pull that off.

So that's what I tried to do.

I went and ran F3000.

Like you said, I got some test drives with BAR and Jaguar.

They were just fantastic.

And I went to Europe to drive an F3000, which is the category under Formula One.

I did a couple of races at the end of the 92 season.

And I was planning to do the whole of the 93 season in the category under Formula One.

And that's kind of how inquisitive we are as human beings.

And I think, well, the way that I introduced him was like, you might remember this man when he was running with Il Barone Rampanti in Formula 3000.

And the first line that Alex comes out with, I was absolutely gobsmacked by was Well, thank you very much for the introduction.

And from that perspective, it just really gives you, you know, when you've been in the presence of someone like that who's been through so much, you know, the Lausitzring incident in 2011, then coming, well, in the early 2010s, and then coming back from being a double amputee to then going on to winning Olympic medals at, of all places, Brands Hatch in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Alex Albon is one of them.

I raced in GP3 back in 2016.

Um, yeah, it's, uh...

It was an amazing track.

Hands up.

I do remember Christian from when he was driving in Formula 3000 and he had his 3000 team and all of that stuff, right? And of course I know him from Formula One and I've been in the paddock when he's been there and the whole bit, but I've never worked for him.

But my question is, When he's been team principal at Red Bull and then as it expanded for the technology company and then starting up the engine company, all of that's great.

He's had incredible financial backing always.