Ep51 Stephen Corby - Oct 28, 2025

[00:00:00]

Intro: Are you ready? It's lights and away we go. Let's do it.

Di: Hello, hello and welcome to and Away we Go. F1 podcast, a Formula One podcast that goes beyond the track limits to talk about travel, food, and lifestyle surrounding the sport. My name's Diane Bortoletto and I'm your pre drive to Survive Formula One fan.

And today I'm in per. And today I'm joined by Stephen Corby, who's a motoring journalist who has his own column in the weekend. Australian Magazine. Well, it's not actually a column, it's like pages, uh, and one of the best motoring journalists in the country. I feel absolutely fortunate that he's agreed to come on the podcast.

So welcome to the show, Stephen.

Stephen Corby: Thank you very much. I feel fortunate to be here.

Di: Tell us, are you a pre drive to Survive fan or a post drive to Survive fan? And, uh, where do we find you today? Where are you?

Stephen Corby: I'm at home in Sydney in my office, pumping out the word as usual, and I'm very [00:01:00] much a pre drive to survive fan. Some of my. Colleagues can't watch drive to the five. They say they have to hide behind their couch because it's not real enough. They hate the fact that they exaggerate things and so on.

Di: Mm-hmm.

Stephen Corby: I love drive to vibe and I love the sport.

At the same time, I think it's been good for the sport and I quite enjoy watching it, even though I know it is a sugary version of Formula One.

Di: exactly. I mean, the first episode of Drive to Survive, I just thought, this is fabulous to get all this behind the scenes access to a sport that up until that moment was. Really exclusive and I just love how it's opened up the, the sport to so many new fans that now Formula One isn't so niche, it's, uh, mainstream.

And I love that.

Stephen Corby: It is amazing how it's changed and my, my favorite memory was. Walking through, uh, the paddock a couple of years ago, and Alonso was walking next to Gunter and people were cheering for Gunter and Alonso looked at him like, what's going on? He said, well, let's drive to life for you. I'm more famous than you.

You're just a world champion driver. very funny and I swear a lot.

Di: I know Gunter, gosh,

so you are a motoring [00:02:00] journalist. Like how long have you been a motoring journalist and where, where did that start? I.

Stephen Corby: Almost seems like a drive. No, I, um, I wanted to be a real journalist. I wanted to be a political journalist, and so I grew up in Canberra, worked at the Canberra Times. Michelle Gratton gave me my cadetship. That's the kind of political paper it was at the time, but I was madly passionate about motorcycles and so I. the motoring editor to let me ride about motorcycles and that when I would, uh, pick up a bike from Sydney to ride it back through the horrible cold every week so that I could fang around Canberra like a lunatic. And I did that for years, a couple of years. And then he said to me, would you be interested in doing cars?

I said, mate, cars are per soft idiots who can't ride bikes. I'm not interested. And he just kept pestering me and pestering me. And he finally talked me into going on a car launch. And then I was like. I could kind of get into this. It's quite nice being, uh, treated like a prince. Then I did a few car reviews. My second ever car review was, he said, fly to, um, Los Angeles. There's a Volvo thing on, I don't need you to write anything. It's the end of the year. They've just got some money to spend, have a good time.

Di: Oh wow.

Stephen Corby: I stayed at the Beverly Hills Hilton. I, we stayed at, uh, Palm [00:03:00] Cove or something. It was all just amazing.

And he said, just, just have a good time. I was like, okay, okay. I will write cars for you then.

Di: Yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty good, pretty good introduction into, uh, being a motoring journalist for sure. Like, go and have a free holiday and just enjoy yourself

Stephen Corby: It was

Di: amazings. So where did your love for Formula One come from then? Like, have you, were you a Moto GP fan? Or

Stephen Corby: So when I was covering bikes, I

covered Mick Doohan. I was absolutely mad for Wayne Gardener and Mick Doohan. I really loved the bikes back then, but my lover, formula One goes back to my stepfather. I think had, I remember him losing his mind over Alan Jones. Now that would be 1980. And

Di: Mm-hmm.

Stephen Corby: first memories are of that and then watching Senna

and so it would be a big thing in my house to watch Formula One. I was always a fan of. Even when I was a motorcycle person, I still loved Formula One, so remembering Alan Jones very early on, and then my, the same boss who got me into cars was, uh, generous enough to send me to cover a Formula One race in Adelaide.

I must have been very young. I

Di: Oh

Stephen Corby: 12 because that's the race that, um, I think it was 1994. I must have been very young,[00:04:00]

Di: yeah.

Stephen Corby: when Damon Hill was taken out by Schumacher and I remember

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: surrounded by all these international journalists. I'm just a child by saying and not knowing what to do. And they're just running around like crazy. It's quite obvious that Schumacher has taken him out. And it was this incredibly huge story in Formula One, and I was like, wow. And so I had to, uh, file that. So that was the first time I ever covered a Formula One race. And after that, my, my love of it went up 120%.

Di: As it would, I mean, gosh, what an introduction to, you know, the world of working in F1.

From that first trip to, you know, LA to cover the car launch how did your career progress from there?

Stephen Corby: So I wanted to move to London. So I worked on the, on the Canberra Times for a few years. I wanted to move to London. I moved there in 1997 and while I was there I was able to myself more doing international trips 'cause it's easy to be based in Europe. So I'd go to a lot of car launches. I remember gonna, my first. Big BMW launch and Jeremy Clarkson was there and I remember thinking, oh, he, he's quite funny. the time I didn't realize the writing style, I just, that was kind of push the, pushed the boat out and be a bit, you [00:05:00] know, irreverent and funny. And I thought it was unique. And then I got to London and started reading Jeremy Clarkson.

This is when he just becoming a hit, a hit on top gear in the very early

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: still a bit dull before they got the Magic Hammond and May thing. I read him and thought, well, he's coming much further than I do. So that's when I kind of. Went, you know, all the way with my writing and made it not kind of, I think it was not standard motoring journalism, it's more top gear style, motoring journalism.

So I was over there for a few years. back and worked on, uh, newspapers here, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sunday Telegraph. had a column for a few years called, uh, mail on Sunday, which I just wrote about blokey things, which was fun. about beer, cars, everything. And

Di: Yep.

Stephen Corby: uh. When they launched Top Gear Magazine in Australia, they came and poached me from the newspaper and said, you are the only person for this job. So I was the editor of Top Gear Magazine for a few years, which was just enormous fun. We could just do whatever we wanted. You had the budget. Car companies were willing to do anything to be in the magazine. The first thing we did was take an. An Audi R eight supercar up Big Red, which is like this, the world's biggest sand dune. Totally destroyed the car. They never got it [00:06:00] back. I think it's still

Di: Oh wow.

Stephen Corby: but it was a great

Di: Oh my God.

Stephen Corby: you know, so that was the kind of madness you could engage in, in Top Gear. I was there for probably five or six years, and then they asked me to go and edit Wheels Magazine because I wanted to try and change the tone of that. And so I did Wheels Magazine for a year and then it moved to Melbourne. I didn't move to Melbourne with it, and now I've been freelance ever since, probably. Seven or eight years now freelance. And the freelancing just means I write for as many people as I possibly can. have lots of different outlets and I, um, still occasionally write for Wheels Magazine and the column in the weekend.

Australia is the one kind of in my life. I write that every week, but I write as much as I can for everyone else. Different websites, whatever. that's all the

Di: And what, what's, what are your favorite things to write? Like what do you get excited about writing?

Stephen Corby: Well, there are certain car launches that sort of stick in their mind. This year I went and drove the F 80, and after that I thought if I stop now, that's okay because this is the ultimate I've done, the greatest car ever made. So the F 80

Di: Wow.

Stephen Corby: horsepower. A Formula One car has 1000 [00:07:00] Wow.

slightly quicker to a hundred kilometers an hour than F1 car.

The F1 car would hose you by the time you get into 200, but in initial break it would, uh, the f the F1 car wouldn't quite keep up with the F 80. So it's a

Di: Oh, where was that? Was that in Australia?

Stephen Corby: now we drove it at

Di: Okay.

Stephen Corby: which is a, uh, a super bike track. They said they chose that track because there's one particularly fast corner.

They said, you need to hit the apex of that corner at 250 because only at 250 will you feel maxed down for us. And I was like. Do you mean in the middle of the corner? We'd been 215. They're like, yeah, you'll be fine. I wasn't fine. I think I got to 220 with the fastest I got to that corner, but still terrifying. But that car does feel like an F1 car, so maxed to the ground with downforce that it allows you to do things through corner, you just can't do with other cars. And it's also has Formula One technology. so much of the way the power is delivered, there's electric motors at the front. There's an engine at the rear, and it just has constant tor vectoring and grip.

So at all times you feel like you were nailed to the ground. So it's a bit like a Formula One car, except that they don't have the advantage of traction [00:08:00] control, you know, their traction control is their right foot. This thing makes you feel like a Formula One driver, but you don't need to be anywhere near as talented.

Di: Wow, what an experience. Geez. How did you recover after that?

Stephen Corby: it was. It was.

Di: Where do you go from there?

Stephen Corby: It was, it was entirely bonkers. But we, uh, I think we went from there. We went and got another Ferrari and drove the Stelvio Pass, which I also enjoyed. So that's one of the world's famous, most famous roads, this phenomenal 32 hairpins, I think it is. And we did a drive up and down there, which was quite good. But, um, I don't think anything will ever compare now to that. So it's hard to, it's hard to find an experience like that. But those are,

Di: Wow.

Stephen Corby: super, you drive cars and you go to racetracks and they're all great, but, um, supercars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis and so on, it really is. The dream I had as a teenager with a, with a poster of a lamb on my wall. You can't believe it's really happening to you. So those things are, those things are and easy to write. I think I wrote the F 85 different times, each of those stories. Easy to write because there is so much to say. I could have written a book about it.

Di: I bet. Wow. Geez. You're [00:09:00] just living my dream, actually. That's, I would love to do something like that. That's just incredible.

So Formula One has been part of your life ever since you were. A kid, and you've covered F1 a few times in your career, tell us some stories about that.

Stephen Corby: So, yeah, it's been my passion as well as the, as the work thing. So because you work in area can occasionally get media

Di: I.

Stephen Corby: having that kind of backstage access, being in the paddock and seeing the people, I know they're drivers, but also kind of like for me, years before drivers, while they felt like huge celebrities to me, so it'd be. be in person to person. Interviews with Schumacher was amazing. I always claim that he's actually a robot. I saw him quite close up and he seems to have no pores in his skin. Did you ever see him with a even a slightest five o'clock shadow? I don't think so. He was not human, and I think that, uh, robotic technology was used to create maxus din. Have you ever seen a here on his face? I've seen him close up and he just looks grumpy. But, uh, so meeting them and, uh, and coming to, to be in awe of what they do is something. So I went to Silverston just as a kind of. [00:10:00] I didn't have to work. I just went to watch it. And I remember always Schumacher coming through the first corner and having this different line to everyone else, and you could see that he was faster than everyone else.

I'd get chills talking about it. Like it was so moving for me to see that. And in those days, the noise of the Formula One cars made the fact that it would go through

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: like a rotary blade tearing your, uh, sternum apart. That was just so incredible. So every chance I got to go to a Formula One race, I would go.

The ultimate experience that changed the way I feel about Formula One entirely, which is not many people get to do it, but I got to go. At the last minute they called and said, can you come to Melbourne tomorrow and go in the two seater Minardi?

Di: Wow.

Stephen Corby: and there's a two seater there. Paul Stottard said to tie you in. This woman gets out before me. She's a tall model. She was the face of, uh, formula One that year. She got out and started vomiting in the bin. was so sick. Uh. So they put, they put me in, they strap you in. I'm, I'm behind, uh, behind the driver, and they make you cross your arm like this, and they give you a dead man's button. you've gotta hold this button down because if you pass out, a light will come on on the driver's

Di: Ah,

Stephen Corby: so that he doesn't hurt you because once you pass [00:11:00] out, your neck will be doing this too much. So you

Di: yeah.

Stephen Corby: the dead man's button as hard as you can. I'm like, who's gonna pass out? He said, oh, you know, it, it does happen. And then off you go, 300 plus down the street. most physically vi. I've been in a lot of race cars. I've been lucky enough to sit next to Peter Brock and, uh, phenomenal rally driver, but I've never felt anything like that. Formula One car. It was the G-Force is, there's a long right hand corner. Melbourne and every time I watched the race, now it still comes back to me how, how hard I was being pushed like this.

I couldn't breathe. I'm just being pushed to the side. Pushed to the side. You're just going, please God, make this corner be over. And then you just start to breathe again. And then they hit the brakes and then you, the first time you hit the brakes, you think you're in an

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: You think they've

Di: Yeah. Right.

Stephen Corby: Oh my God, we're gonna hit the wall. They hit the brakes. The G Force are just so intense. And all I'm done trying to do is just breathe. Just breathe. You can't see because there's a block in front of you. And then the driver, he is driving me and I just turned my head to try and look and I could just about rip his head off and all I could think

Di: Oh,

Stephen Corby: I can't physically with being in the car.

How do they drive it? Think at the same time and race each other. All he was [00:12:00] doing desktops on the track. I flew home to Sydney that night. Eight hours later I was still lying under my desk because I still sick.

Di: oh.

Stephen Corby: I don't normally get motion sick in cars, but it it, it crushed my insides to the point where I just, uh, I've struggled to recover, which is why when I watch that F1 movie and Brad pits 60 something gets in the car I

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: zero stars from me.

Di: I've got a a two seater story as well. Not nearly as awesome as yours, when I first started working in PR was in London in the late nineties, so we were there around the same time. And I was working for an agency that had the Orange Arrows Formula One account, and I was a junior back then and we had a track day in the two seater, in the two seater Formula One car.

And , Johnny Herbert was driving it that day and we had the editor from Mobile Magazine Orange were paying for this day, the mobile phone. Provider. So we, we put the, the editor, she was a tiny little [00:13:00] thing, so nervous about going in the two seater and she made her nerves known to everybody. Anyway, she gets in the car, Johnny Herbert does, you know, I think only three laps of Silverstone and we get back and.

Like you described, she just ran to the bathroom and she was in there for ages. She comes out, she's white, you know, Johnny Herbert's in, and he's like, are you all right? You all? And she's like, oh, I don't know, you know? And he goes, you know, you know the mistake that you made. She said, what? And he said, you told me you were nervous.

I just clocked my fastest time. And she just went,

Stephen Corby: no.

Di: oh. She just, I was just like, Johnny, like here we are trying to generate positive media coverage. Anyway, we got front cover. So the client was happy and it , ended up being a fabulous story, but that was the first time I had been Trackside and heard a, you know, not a proper Formula one car, a two seater Formula one car.

But heard that, and just the, the vibrations that go through your body, like you said, is, oh, it's [00:14:00] totally addictive. I just couldn't get enough of it after that.

Stephen Corby: It was the V 10. The V 10 was its most

Di: Mm.

Stephen Corby: the only thing that I'm, I mean, I miss that now going to Formula One, the first time I ever took my stepfather to Melbourne, he came with me and he said he'd grown up, gonna batur and so on. He's a big fan of all that. And I said, you'll need earplugs.

He said, mate, you know what you're talking about. I don't know. No one needs earplugs. I said, well, I'm putting them

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: them in and need all the V tens come down the street. And he's like screaming in pain, trying to put the earplugs in. You couldn't stand there without earplugs. Now. You don't really need them.

I

Di: Nah. Okay.

Stephen Corby: but they used to sound so peering. There's a great video of Lewis Hamilton being interviewed and the hear V 10 behind him, like running I thinker and just goes, oh, listen to that. miss it too. It's fantastic.

Di: Yeah. It really was something. And actually I didn't wear earplugs because I just loved it so much and I wasn't exposed to it for a whole race with, you know, 20 odd cars going around. It was just, , the two seat of it. . It was brilliant. Wow.

You've had some, , experiences, not just with Formula One drivers, but I've heard you've spent some time with, uh, [00:15:00] Nicole Piastri.

Stephen Corby: I did, we, we, one of the best Grand Prix experiences I had, I went with McLaren to Singapore, must have been two, two years ago. There was this incredible thing where Piastri got up on stage and he was asked a lot of questions. He's in the McLaren kind of corporate box, and then this woman is like waving at him madly from the front row. he's like, oh, I know that's my mum there. And she runs up her hands in Tim Tams and, and Colgate, for some reason, they must have, we must have better toothpaste. her a big hug and, and he says, I've gotta go now. And he leaves and I go and talk to her and it says, mum. She goes, that's the first time I've seen him and I probably won't see him again this weekend. Because he just doesn't have time. That was the

Di: Hmm.

Stephen Corby: she gotta to see him. But then we spent the three days with her. She's hilarious. As people you follow on Twitter will know. And

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: thing she told me about him is that he's quite fearful. He said he is just one of those fearful kids.

Like he wouldn't run too fast down a hill. He wouldn't do something like skiing. He'd be too scared. I said if he aware of what it is that he does for a living, how is, how is he not frightened of that? Just that he just had this weird thing where. That doesn't scare him despite being quite a fearful person.

I think any Formula One driver, I always say [00:16:00] that the difference between Formula One driver or racing driver in general and humans is they don't feel fear. If you can, if, if I approach a corner at 200 plus. thinking, oh, dear, dear, oh dear. Oh dear. Yeah, they're thinking, how fast can I go? Could I go a bit further? If the car gets loose, they quite enjoy that. They like not the parts of their brain that should light up at that point with self preservation do not exist. And I've discussed with lot of, , racing drivers. Mick Doohan in particular, he, he didn't understand fear until he had his son Jack. And then I said, okay, so when you watch Jack. feel fear? Then he said yes. He said, the first time I saw him racing, I felt so sorry for my parents. He said, but now I understand how awful that is. He said, so I don't feel fear for myself, but I can feel fear watching him. And he said,

Di: Mm-hmm.

Stephen Corby: fear. It must be awful. Feeling fear like you're normal human beings.

Di: Yeah. I've always said that Max Verstappen, and what sets him above everybody else is that he's just not afraid to die. Like he's just not, that thought doesn't even cross his mind, you know? Which is. Why he takes risks and why he's just elbows out and [00:17:00] drives so aggressively. Well, that's one theory of mine anyway.

Stephen Corby: Absolutely. The fact that they can have an accident. Get back in the car and not be slower like you think anyone else, if you have a spin or something, you get back and your, the self preservation kicks in, you're a little bit nervous, they're just back on it again, and there's

Di: Back on the horse.

Stephen Corby: no, if you had fear, normal fear like the rest of us feel, I don't think you could drive like that. You certainly would slow you down when you have a crash. It never slows it down. Same with motorcycle. I remember seeing Kevin Schwan slide off the bike at the end of Eastern Creek and slide about 800 meters. His leathers were burned. He just got up and ran back to the pits and

Di: Oh,

Stephen Corby: bike. I would feel shaken, but he just feels

Di: yeah,

Stephen Corby: oh, that's annoying.

Let's go and do it again.

Di: yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, this has ruined my lap. Let's go, you know, try again. . I know. They've got a different chromosome, I think. Then the, the rest of us Normal. Normal Joe's out here. Yeah. So Nicole's hilarious. And she told you about that, about Oscar, that he's strangely, quite fearful off the track and outta the car.

Um, was that just as a kid, do you think? Or [00:18:00] like now?

Stephen Corby: there was always a fearful kid and that she, she, I said that he'd like that now. She said a bit, but obviously not, but not, not when it comes to car racing, but you just wouldn't. Believe the kind of person he is when you consider what he does for a living. But she's also just, just, she's merciless in taking the piss out of him and telling funny stories about him, that kind of thing.

And she's just full of energy and bubble and so on. She did actually get to see him, um, at the end of the race, and I saw they got, like, they got five minutes together with the family, but it, it's, she said it's just so difficult to. To get any time with him and how much they enjoy it when he comes back to Melbourne, because that's, it's so rare and you think, you know, he went away as a 14-year-old kid pretty much

Di: I know, right?

Stephen Corby: England and I, you know, my daughter's 14.

I can't imagine that. It's sort like also the idea of, you know, Antonelli racing at 18 years old like they're children,

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: and the, and the physical difficulty of what they're doing. And yet you forget also how that Oscar is still very, very young when he stands there in his short that connect Lando's.

He still looks very young.

Di: Exactly right. And I listened to an interview with Gabrielle Bortoletto, , who I joke is my cousin, because we've got the same surname, but a different spelling. One t not two. [00:19:00] And he went to Italy as. A kid as well as a 14-year-old, but he didn't have like a chaperone. He wasn't in boarding school.

He lived above a garage and was working in a mechanic's kind of garage during the day as well as doing some racing and in, Italy. And I was like, my God, like no one to look after him. Look out for him, look just insane.

Insane. And,

Stephen Corby: I mean, Oscar seems very mature and, and

Di: hmm.

Stephen Corby: like an old person's head on his shoulders. But I

Di: Exactly.

Stephen Corby: experience must, must mold you in a way that, you know, you can't imagine. And just the drive to want it that much, that this is what I wanna do and I'm willing to, you know, not be with my family and that kind of thing.

Not see my sister not be there for birthdays, but I'm here, I'm gonna make a career. But, and you gotta remember that we, we talk about the ones who make it, but 95, 90 8% of people don't make it. That's a

Di: Exactly. You know, and It always astounds me when you hear of families who uproot and move to Europe or move across the other side of the world to follow a 13 year old's dream. I'm like, [00:20:00] gosh, that dream would have to be set in concrete, right? To uproot the whole family for everybody to change their lives and move, move overseas.

You know, it's not like me learning guitar in year six and then giving it away six months later because, I didn't like carrying my guitar to school every week. You know, it's just, you'd want to have a solid commitment. It's, it's such a big call, like imagine all the kids that have got that commitment and the families just can't support them in that way.

Mm-hmm.

Stephen Corby: need, so you look at Daniel, Ricciardo and his family then, you know, uproot themselves and go to Europe and, and throw everything at him having that career. But like Ricciardo's lucky that his family had money. It's a more incredible story of Mark

Di: Mm.

Stephen Corby: there without the money and uh, and will that ever happen again, you've gotta have some kind of financial backing as well as emotional encouragement of your parents to, to

Di: Exactly.

Stephen Corby: very expensive sport to get into.

You've gotta have money or money behind all the way.

Di: Yeah, it sure is.

So speaking of Mark Webber. Mark you've spoken to him, haven't you've interviewed him before. Yeah. Tell us what that was like.

Stephen Corby: Well, the last time I thrown we, I was at this [00:21:00] dinner and there were probably six journalists there, five of whom were like influencers who might have heard of Drive to Survive, but weren't that interested. And so they sort

Di: Oh God.

Stephen Corby: amongst themselves and I'm like sitting there just with Mark Webber asking everything I could think of to ask about Formula One and different tracks and phone.

Then I made this horrible mistake of saying, oh, I remember. year when you were gonna win the World championship and you had that horrible spin in the rain in Korea, you know, I was really upset. I was watching it on TV and I'm really annoyed and gee, geez, that was bad. And you're looking at me just looking horror on your face.

And he goes, oh, was it, oh, was it bad for you? Was it? He said, do you think I forgot about it? Yeah, I do remember that actually. Thanks so much for bringing it up. Why don't you gimme a paper cut and put lemon on it. It's uh, so that was, that was awkward. That was very awkward. 

Di: How old were you? Like how old were you then? Like,

Stephen Corby: That

Di: oh gosh.

Stephen Corby: ago. He does, he does some work for, for Porsche. So he was at a Porsche thing. He'd

Di: Right?

Stephen Corby: the drive program for us. He,

Di: Yep.

Stephen Corby: Indue. He said, oh, these are the, the roads you should drive around here. At the end of the day, he's there to talk to you about the car.

But really you just wanna ask him about Formula One and

Di: Yeah, of course.

Stephen Corby: [00:22:00] always do when

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: But he's, he's great. He's got fantastic stories about hanging out with Tom Cruise and so on. He lives his lifestyle. You can't quite imagine. It's, it's quite remarkable.

Di: And like it's just brilliant that he's. I guess helped shape Oscar's career and he is there to mentor him. I did see somebody comment that on social along the lines of Mark Webber's demons of his, , paranoia of the team favoring somebody else is going to ruin Oscar's chance for a world championship.

Like have you got any thoughts about that?

Stephen Corby: I saw something horrible as well where they, you know, people were having a go at Oscar and it, it just said, um, through the season, Oscar loses, loses the grip. Oscar would be like, and it was just a picture of Mark Webber in a Red Bull outfit. It's like, you know, I thought that was particularly cruel to bring up that,

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: but I just think he's a fantastic manager for me.

He's so. Measured and and driven. So he was, I saw him at the start of the year at the Melbourne Grand Prix and we were talking about Oscar, and he was so confident. Then he said, this is gonna be the year you watch. He's really, he's learned so [00:23:00] much about tire management. He's learned so much in the last year. I think the car's going, you'll be surprised how fast the car is and people will stop asking me whether it was the right decision to take him out and, and put him in McLaren. This is the year that people will stop asking me that question.

Di: Yep.

Stephen Corby: I don't buy that entirely, that it is paranoia.

I mean, I don't think that them messing with the car is probably conspiracy theory too far, but the idea that they're favoring Lando is simply. Clear to me. And

Di: Mm-hmm.

Stephen Corby: fight like crazy against that as much as he can,

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: I don't think

Di: Good.

Stephen Corby: having him in your corner. And it's one thing that the English commentators with all of their bias often, regularly point to.

He is very lucky to have Mark Webber in his corner.

Di: Yeah, definitely. I've been saying all season as well that this is Oscar's year and you can just. See how much he's improved since, you know, he started Formula One, but even just on some race weekends, and I've said this before, like he might start FP one, FP two, FP three, and I know that the free practices, they're setting up the car and they're testing different ties, et cetera.

[00:24:00] So it's not a true indication of times, but you know, you see where he might not be taking a corner as fast as someone else and whatever, but . Come Qualy or come race day, he's on it. Like he's, he just learns every single session and I don't, I honestly don't think there's a better driver on the grid that does that.

You know, takes the mistakes, takes the data, the analysis, and then applies it to improve lap times. .

Stephen Corby: And that's amazing thing. I always think when, when they come in at the end of a session, they can look at exactly what Lando is doing. They can see where Lando is broken. They can see his approach angle in the corner. You can look at it and go, could I do that better or am I better off doing it my way? And as v said, the weekend, every single racing driver drives slightly differently. And

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: is a different approach. And that's, even though it's, it's a, it's a breadth between them. Sometimes it's that little approach that little bit later that Max goes in or that ly gets at Austin through the corner.

The, the differences are so amazing. But he does seem to have the ability to apply that information, get faster through the sessions, or he did until recently. And so I must ask you, do you still think this a [00:25:00] did here?

Di: Do I still think it's Oscar's ear? I, I do. I think now that he's on the back foot, now that he's the hunter rather than the hunted, I think that'll just. Ignite something extra in him and like he's had a taste of leading the world championship and I think he'll fight like crazy to get it. I think the only reason he won't win the World Driver's Championship this year is if there's issues with the car, if there's bad calls from the team with strategy or tire management.

, Or if the team stuff him up, really. Or if there's bad luck, like if he's taken out. Has an accident through no fault of his own. I do think Oscar's got what it takes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not losing hope yet.

Stephen Corby: No, at this point it just takes 1D NF, doesn't it? That thing, A DNF would

Di: It does

Stephen Corby: for any of those three

Di: it

Stephen Corby: now, so

Di: exactly.

Stephen Corby: doesn't happen. You don't want it to be decided like that.

Di: No. Exactly. And those three drivers we're talking about, of course, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. .

So have you got a Formula One team? Is there, you know, have you [00:26:00] always followed an F1 team or an F1 driver? Like who do you support?

Stephen Corby: It's weird, isn't it? Because unlike other sports, you tend to follow a team. I, I, my team is always dependent on who the driver is and so,

Di: okay.

Stephen Corby: a Senna fan, so therefore I should be a McLaren fan. When Mark Webber comes in, wherever Mark Webber was driving, that was my team. So now it's very much Piastri wherever Pastry's been, I'm following that guy. I, I do like the McLaren team, but, uh, if, uh, if for some

Di: Hmm.

Stephen Corby: suddenly went and drove somewhere else, I would suddenly be a fan of that team.

Di: Okay. Do you still like the McLaren team, given how the favoritism is really clear towards Lando?

Stephen Corby: Yeah, I should have used the past tense. I would, I have always liked the McLaren team until recently. Well, I'll tell you my great, my great fear is I think the next race will be pivotal if Lando's opens a gap in the next race, and Verstappen is still getting closer. Won't be surprised if they say, look, to make sure that we win the world championship, we have to prioritize the driver in front with the most points. [00:27:00] Now, they could have

Di: Hmm.

Stephen Corby: a couple of weeks ago, might have been wise once Max started winning races, but I won't be surprised what happens. They'll be outrage and we'll all be annoyed down here, but everyone in England and the sky commentators will tutut and stroke their beard and go, well, it's the right thing to do. And if

Di: Exactly.

Stephen Corby: I'll be horrified. But I. think Oscar really needs to put points on the board and get in front again, so that if that

Di: Yep.

Stephen Corby: gonna happen to him. But they, I, I also think they wouldn't do it if it's him and then they stand a real chance of, you know, Max Verstappen stealing it somehow, which would be just the worst of all possible outcomes.

Di: Yeah. Yeah. Like if Oscar doesn't win the World Championship. I hope it's Max and I'm not a Max Verstappen fan, only because the whole Lando's favoritism has been so blatant and the whole British media are so blinkered to it. It's crazy. And they say, oh, your Australian fans are biased. Okay, I am.

I'll own it. So if it's not Oscar, then I mean, obviously I would prefer it to be Ferrari because I am a Ferrari fan. I'm an Oscar Piastri fan first, and then a Ferrari fan equal first. I can't believe , [00:28:00] I've actually been cheering for Max Verstappen this season, which is just something I never thought I'd find myself doing.

Stephen Corby: I always argue with people who are fans of Max Verstappen, and I have to say, but why? What is it you like about the fact that he's willing to break the rules seriously? Injured or kill other drivers? Wouldn't bother him, would've killed Hamilton if it wasn't for the, um, for the Halo.

Di: Oh

Stephen Corby: All

Di: gosh. Yeah.

Stephen Corby: him.

Like, it just,

Di: Yeah. So ruthless.

Stephen Corby: driver. He's such a great racing driver. I think he's physically the most talented racing driver in the world. I think he is the best. And if you put them all in

Di: Mm.

Stephen Corby: car on, on the same track. I think he would probably win because A, he's probably a little bit faster, but b, he's willing to take that everyone else out.

And that's, uh,

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: just don't like that side of him. So I have to say, I think

Di: Mm.

Stephen Corby: I would be bitter and whisper, dip. Lando wins, but I'd still prefer that to Max getting another one.

Di: Yeah. Fair enough. That's why this world is such an interesting place. If we all had the same opinions, it'd be boring. So, um, with Max, I guess. I've liked seeing a different side of him in recent times, seeing him with Kelly, [00:29:00]seeing him with his daughter, , which has not changed his driving at all since he's become a father.

And also seeing him not win, , every week. Like when he was winning everything, I couldn't, I couldn't stand him. That said, I was exactly the same with Lewis Hamilton when he was dominating. I was just like, ah, here we go again. .

And truth be told, in 2021 when it was between Lewis and Max, I really didn't want Lewis breaking Michael Schumacher's record of seven World titles because I'm a massive Schuey fan.

Ah, but now I really wanna see Lewis get an eighth, in a Ferrari. I don't know when it's gonna happen. Like it just feels like it's. Almost an impossible dream, but, , we live in hope. You never know what next year will bring with a new regulation, so

Stephen Corby: Well, that's a great thing about the new regulations. Next year, all the cars go from the air. We dunno where they're gonna fall. And if Ferrari come with a, with a fast car, as they kind of did when Schumacher got there. That's, I think next year is his last chance. But in, if, in that case if the car was super fast, it would be a hell of a fight with Charles because I[00:30:00]

Di: Oh, yeah.

Stephen Corby: he's a very, very good driver.

And I think that Hamilton, as much as he might like to be, one of the most interesting things, that, um, Webber ever said to me was about, I asked him why he retired. When he did, he said, you just can't drive passed about 34. He said, you're only losing a tiny bit here and there. He said like a hundred to here and a hundredth there.

But in Formula line, that too much. He said, you just can't go. And I can feel it. He said that I'm getting older, it's slowing down. My actions aren't there, and I see him a few years later and say, well, how is Alonso doing it? And he goes, I don't know. He said, the thing with Alonso is he has no other hobbies. has no other interest in life. All he wants to do is drive cars. He said, I'm happy to go and do other things, but Alonso just wants to keep doing it. I asked him again about Lewis if you, he said, I don't. He said, honestly, I remember saying that. I don't understand how anyone can continue to do at that age.

He said, because you've gotta be slipping a little bit. It's like a cricketer. You know, they, you know, Ricky Ponting was amazing, but he now admits that at the end he did slow down a little bit. There's, it's just the tiniest Marvins change.

Di: Hmm.

Stephen Corby: human body ages, the brain slows down. But, um, think Hamilton's probably got one more year. think a lot of people would say, I do [00:31:00] think that if he'd won the contentious race and he'd won that season, I'd think he would've retired. I mean,

Di: Yeah, quite possibly.

Stephen Corby: And it

Di: Yeah, exactly.

Stephen Corby: so annoying about it. He should have

Di: Yeah. Oh. I mean, what are we talking four years ago and we're still talking about it. I think we'll be talking about It does still hurt. I mean, I wasn't hoping for Max to win that race because it was so unfair the way it, it was done. But I was also, like I said, not wanting Michael Schumacher's record to, , to be taken off him because he.

Yeah, he was just a hero of mine for many, many years. And yeah.

Stephen Corby: it did create the best season of, uh, drive to survive ever.

Di: Yeah, yeah. It,

Stephen Corby: and it

Di: it showed,

Stephen Corby: great drama that only 0.1 can provide. That kind of, I mean, you know, unexpected. It looks like it's over, but it's not like that

Di: yeah.

Stephen Corby: you so thought he had it and

Di: I.

Stephen Corby: the crash at the wrong time, everything goes out.

I remember just like driving home, kicking cats all the way home. It's just so angry [00:32:00] at two in the

Di: Oh,

Stephen Corby: it was too. It'd been up till two in the

Di: oh

Stephen Corby: no good reason.

Di: You're right. It still does hurt. It just still feels wrong

Marker

Di: and what about Philippe Masa, suing Formula One for being robbed of his championship? What's your opinion on that?

Stephen Corby: it's amazing. I mean, I was at that race, the crash skate race, and at the

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: when the rumors started going around, you're like, which is not possible? No one would do that. Like what team would say to you, drive a crash into the wall. So I think. Mean, he, he has a, at least morally he has a case, doesn't he?

But, um, and there's Flavio banned from the sport forever for his

Di: Yeah, right.

Stephen Corby: And there

Di: God.

Stephen Corby: the, there he is back now kicking, ruining Jack Doohan's life grumpy in the pits. I mean, that, that's, that's a weird lifetime band isn't, I mean, it's so wrong. And that's what, when you think about when people talk about conspiracies in Formula One, I always point back to that one and say, you think sounds mad?

That's impossible. How mad was that? But it actually happened. It's

Di: Yeah, exactly.

Stephen Corby: I do feel for

Di: Yeah. . [00:33:00] I feel for him as well. But it's kind of like, what are you gonna. What are you gonna achieve by winning this court case? Besides being able to say you're a Formula One champion, like you've missed all the glory days you've missed. Yeah, and it just feels like a lot of stress, like having to go through a high court case, which I think that's the next step, isn't it?

Um, I,

Stephen Corby: But legally I can't see winning. But you could always argue that there were so many other variables. Is that the only reason you didn't win? You know,

Di: mm.

Stephen Corby: the, the, the, the cross argument would be Alonso would've beaten you in many other ways. So, I

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: as I say, morally, I feel like he has a case, but I don't know that legally it's, it's that strong.

We shall

Di: Yeah. Yeah. He should, he should probably play that moral card and win the, not the sympathies, but the support of, the wider fan base and, and build up his, , following that way. I think he might get more joy from that then, .

Stephen Corby: I did enjoy

Di: Anyway.

Stephen Corby: documentary, you know, in the Braun documentary, and they

Di: Oh yeah.

Stephen Corby: with his helmet and he's still got the helmet. That was amazing. If you get how that was. [00:34:00] The other thing interesting about Braun, the Braun documentary in that year is how close it is to what's happening now.

So whenever they go to Jensen and say, do you think, Oscar's feeling the pressure at this point of season, he's been in front, everyone thinks he's gonna win, and now his teammates coming back and I'm thinking, well, no one is better placed to answer these questions than you Jenson. Please

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: So you do see that comparison for sure.

Di: Yeah, I do really like Jensen Buttons commentary, especially when he is paired with Danica Patrick. It's just comedy gold, just watching his facial.

Stephen Corby: her, you just watch his face. trying to keep it together. And just

Di: I know.

Stephen Corby: see, it's like, it's like a, a silent groan. can see the groan trying to get out of his body. Like she says something and he just wants to groan. He's like trying to hold it in. Oh, so intelligent, what you just said.

Di: You are offering so much insight and value to the viewers. It's just this Oh, it is comedy gold. Just

Di: Well Monaco is a race [00:35:00] that we've both been to, but you experienced it way differently to me. I think I was there in 2014. When did you go and tell us about your experience in Monaco?

Stephen Corby: I think it was 2020. And there is an Australian, uh, tour group that takes people over there and you can, for a certain amount of money, uh, you stay in a hotel in Nice. And then you have these choices of how you wanna get to your super yacht in the morning. You can helicopter in, you can get a boat in.

I just went for the boat. Daniel Ricciardo's on the boat next to waving him. And then

Di: Oh God.

Stephen Corby: in this three level super yacht. just behind one of the grandstand, you can see the cars going past. And it's just amazing from from the morning espresso martinis to the end of the day when they're doing lay backs, it's giant bottles of vodka as big as this, and constant entertainment, magicians live bands, the most amazing food you've ever seen. But the weird thing that that happens at Monaco that I didn't know about was boat hopping. in the afternoon when everyone's had a lot of free champagne, you just start hopping boats.

Di: Yeah. Right.

Stephen Corby: down in a spa bath on the third floor of a super yacht. With a [00:36:00] Dutch uh, pop singer who was singing in Dutch and everyone's like, oh, you're so lucky to be here with whatever his name was.

And, uh, Carner. And um, that was very odd. So that was cool. But a part of the experience as well is that you get grandstand tickets, so you can at any point go and sit in the grandstand. I think out of the 40 people on the boat, I was the only person who used the grandstand tickets. Most of 'em are like,

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: the boat? But I wanna go and sit. We sat right at the swimming pool and watched 'em come through there. And oh, and the other thing you would know about Monaco is that if the track itself becomes a nightclub at night, they,

Di: Yeah,

Stephen Corby: there, they would, they would, the Rass Cas becomes a nightclub. There's pole dancing and lights and everything, and in the morning they just scrub the glass away and it becomes a racetrack again.

There's no, no

Di: I know.

Stephen Corby: it. As a party. As a party, it is definitely the, the most fun one to go to. I can

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: the, the tickets, the, the super yacht experience and everything was at the time, I don't think, gone up much. $12,000 for the three days, I ate and drank at least $14,000 worth of value outta that.

And I did it as a travel story. That's why I was there doing it to a travel [00:37:00] story for several people. And I would honestly spend my own money to do it again. I keep

Di: Yeah. Right.

Stephen Corby: again. It's a bucket list to go back and do it again. With, with friends of mine who are huge Formula One fans, I'm like, it sounds like a lot of money, but it is worth every dollar.

Di: wow. Yeah, we just were plebs in the grandstand. It was a, a last minute decision that we made two weeks before I had a, a trip to Italy, a work trip to Sicily actually, that fell through at the last minute and it was like, well. We're gonna be in Italy anyway, you know, Monaco really is just up the road.

, Shall we go to the Monaco Grand Prix? And my husband, who is a, was a lukewarm Formula One fan at the time, just went, yeah, sure. So I just booked tickets. I didn't even tell him how much it cost. And we're talking like 11 years ago, it was $1,500 for the both of us to get a wooden plank. With two lines painted on it that said 55 and 56 no backs, just a grand stand, just a, a plank seat, , opposite the marina and was just the greatest day of [00:38:00] our lives.

It was brilliant. Like right downstairs, right on under the, the grand stand was a Heineken bar. Not once. Was there a cue? We just got eight euro pints and we sat there and just had just a awesome day. Daniel Ricciardo finished second in that race. And I was watching people like you on this, on the super yachts, with their back to the track half the time.

And I guys turn around you idiots. Look what's happening. Like yeah, it was super fun.

Stephen Corby: me. I think it was 800 euros a day for the grandstand to sit in the grandstand. I was like, what if you're paying that much, just chip on the extra and get on a soup yacht? I

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: it

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: there are these companies that do it. And I was like, well, that's, that's a pretty good option.

And you can actually carry on, on the Monday. You can, um, drive a Formula One car, which I was supposed to do. They said every year on the Monday

Di: A Formula One car.

Stephen Corby: So you can drive formula. You go to Paul Ricard, you go through the day, you start with Formula Reno and they build up and build up. And as long as you don't crash any, the cars, at the end of the day, you get to drive a Formula One car. that's part of this tour as well. You can add that on as a package. But every single year until I [00:39:00]was there, someone had dropped out on the Monday, 'cause I had two hungover. They said,

Di: Oh,

Stephen Corby: at six in the morning. Someone won't come. Always. Two or three people drop out. I'm sitting there waiting, waiting by the phone and everyone turned up that day. 80% of them didn't get to the Formula One car. They couldn't progress through the stages. So that's, uh, that was upsetting. And then they come back from that on Monday night and then for the next five days, you drive across Europe in 12 different supercars staying at five star resorts. And that's part of the whole package.

So you can do just the Monaco bit. Or you do the entire European supercar tour, which start with the, with the race and ends in the champagne region with the champagne drinking experience. So that

Di: Oh my God.

Stephen Corby: than 12,000, but it is, that's dream holiday stuff.

Di: Yeah, totally.

Stephen Corby: but for people with real jobs.

Di: Well for journalists if they're able to, uh, be hosted and write about it and tell the world about it. But, uh, yeah, on a, on a, on a journalist salary perhaps. It's just how the, the other half live. Right. Or people that are super fans that just save up and, you know,

Stephen Corby: once.

Di: have a

Stephen Corby: It's a, it's a

Di: Yeah,

Stephen Corby: and [00:40:00] why

Di: exactly.

Stephen Corby: for. I keep telling my wife

Di: So, that's exactly right.

Marker

Di: well, Stephen, , just before we jump into the final three, let me ask you this. What is it that you love about Formula One? One sentence.

Stephen Corby: For me, it's the, it's the notion, it's the knowledge I have of what they're doing in the car that makes it feel so rich for me, because I know how fast the car is and how hard it is to drive. I used to love the sport of it and the politics of it and all that kind of thing, but now I just have the utmost respect for what they're doing in the car and that that's what I love, particularly if it's the track that I've been to. I can feel and see what it is they're doing, and it blows my mind.

Di: Brilliant. Brilliant.

Well, the final three questions, these are questions that we ask every guest that comes on the podcast.

If you could travel for a holiday to any Formula One destination, whether it's race week or non race week, current or former, where would you choose to go on a holiday and why?

Stephen Corby: Non race [00:41:00] league would be tough. Uh, I'm, I'm gonna have to say spa because that's the race that I most wanna see. And then having lived in Europe a couple of times, I regret enormously that I didn't make it happen. And my colleagues have been to spa. I, I gave up a ticket to go and drive the newness and GTR around spa and my colleagues went and did that.

To drive through a rouge do all that. And they said it was absolutely mind boggling. So that, that's the one I have to go to because it's the, the race I think it has, it still has the best racing and nothing annoys me more than the fact that it's not a full-time part of the calendar anymore. 'cause that is

Di: I know.

Stephen Corby: And the

Di: Yes.

Stephen Corby: wants that. We've got all these races in, in the Middle East and America. Vegas is. It seems as like a slightly pointless race, but if I was gonna go anywhere for a holiday and non race week, that is a Formula One destination. It would probably be Austin, which is also another Grand Prix wanna go to, but Austin's a fantastic town.

Di: So If you could holiday with any Formula One driver, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Well, it, it would've been Villeneuve in the past, but since he's become a commentator, I, I find that he's becoming, um, he seems to be one of those people who says outrageous things for, uh, [00:42:00] for the sake of getting attention. And he doesn't feel

Hmm.

Stephen Corby: the same Villeneuve that when Villeneuve won the World Championship, I was, , watching it at, uh, NEC in Birmingham at a motor show. There were thousands of people there in Clarkson was on stage watching it with a microphone. And when Schumacher and Villeneuve had the incident, the police, it went wild. And I'd made a bet with several friends that if Villeneuve. won, I would dye my hair blonde. My, my hair used to be brown, and so I

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: blonde and spiked it like Villeneuve.

That's how much of a fan I was of him at the time.

Di: Yeah. Right.

Stephen Corby: my answer, that would definitely be Eddie Irvine.

Di: Yeah. Right.

Stephen Corby: Because he is the party boy. He's

Di: Yeah,

Stephen Corby: And did, he was, he was doing the grid walk the other day and, and Martin ran into, and he was just like being horribly inappropriate. Martin had to walk away,

Di: yeah,

Stephen Corby: he said, oh, I'm mates with, you know, the boss of phone. I still get a ticket. But he just seems like he's exactly the same LA that he always was. And I think I would like to have a

Di: yeah. Yeah.

Stephen Corby: done a holiday with him in Dublin.

Di: Oh God, that would just be wild. , That would be, yeah, I was a fan of, um, Eddie Irv back in the day.

, Now I don't know if you're much of a cook. So if you're not a cook, then what would you like to [00:43:00] eat? If you were to cook or eat a Formula One themed meal, a cuisine from any race destination, what would you choose to cook or eat and why?

Stephen Corby: I wish I could cook it, but I would, uh, I would have qual tower from the, from the Hawker market in Singapore and every time I

Di: Hmm.

Stephen Corby: to the race in Singapore, I go there and have it. It's one of those tiny little places that has a Michelin star because the charcoal tower is so good and get an extra spicy, it is phenomenal.

It's one of my favorite things to eat in the world. So that would definitely be it. But there are a million choices to answer to that question. I would also go for barbecue in Austin.

Di: Mm-hmm. .

Stephen Corby: Also very good. Again, I wish I could cook it as well as they can. When you get off at the airport in Austin, you can smell it, man.

There's a barbecue place in the airport and you can smell barbecue from the moment

Di: Yeah.

Stephen Corby: get there. I've been there and I've woken up in the middle of the night with meat sweats because I've eaten so much barbecue meat,

Di: Oh God.

Stephen Corby: up and do it all again.

Di: . Oh, fabulous. Oh, what an amazing chat. Thank you so much Steve and Corby. I've thoroughly enjoyed this and I feel like I could just sit here all day and listen to all of your F1 and motoring stories. I bet there's a ton more that you've [00:44:00] got, , banked there. So thank you very much for coming on the podcast and sharing them with us.

Stephen Corby: No problem. I've written them all into a book. It's coming out next year. I dunno what it's gonna be called yet, but the book is coming, so all the stories will be in there.

Di: Well make sure you share it with us when the book is published and maybe we'll get you back on the podcast to talk about it then.

Stephen Corby: we'll come and chat about it. Sure.

Di: Absolutely. Sounds great. Well, on that note, if you've liked what you've heard, subscribe, rate review. The podcast. You can find us on all the podcast listening apps.

Also on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. , And you can also email us and away we go F1 podcast@gmail.com. Well, that's all we've got time for this week. Thank you very much, Stephen. Until next week and until lights out

It's lights out, and Away we go and away we go. Podcast is produced by Dianne Bortoletto. Let's do [00:45:00] it.