SPEAKER_04 0:19

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Check Side the Podcast for Marshalls. I'm Jamie Osborne.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And I'm Jessica Alpha.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

And we have a fabulous episode for you today. This one has been cooking for a while, and we have been really excited because of who this person is and more importantly, what this person does. But on today's episode, we get to visit with Chris Mullen, one of the three people in the FIA who gets to push the green button to make it go lights out. And he's one of the starting team members of the FIA. And I am so excited that we were able to track him down in between seasons. Because once the season starts, there's no getting a hold of Chris. But uh with the new season coming out of F1, the new cars, this is a perfect time. So he's gonna help us peel back the lid on everything that it takes from the FIA side to put on a race, and it's really, really fascinating. Uh, I learned a lot from talking with them. Chris is a great, great guy. Um, we get to work with them. Of course, my team on the start team gets to work with them side by side. Him and Rebecca and Lee, the the FIA starters. But what's really cool is all the other stuff that they do, you know, they work with pit grid. You've been on the pit grid team, Jessica. The the ones that are having to push the lights, you know, when the cars are in their grid positions, all an integral part of the FIA starting process.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Yeah, no, this he was an he's always been so nice and does such a good job and um learned I certainly learned a lot. I had no idea how much he does, which he will get into of all the other things that he does behind the scenes. And um, yeah, very, very cool interview. And uh I certainly hope he will not he was our first FIA employee guest. I certainly hope he will not be the last.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

So oh, certainly. Boy, if uh somebody like Chris can talk to us, hey, you know, who knows? We'll we'll start asking around. And uh so you can you can tell us who you want to hear from on the podcast, because uh that would be a real neat thing. Such a great, such a great interview. He's really a very classy guy, you know. He um he's got a great wicked sense of humor, and um he's he's got some funny stories that we didn't, you know, we don't want to go too into the weeds on stuff like that, but but yeah, he's he's got he's a a lot of fun to talk to when we're just killing time on the start stand. So what have your what has your 2026 been up to, Jessica?

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Uh it's still very early. Um not not a ton. I think you and I have been working all the same things for the most part lately. Are you sick of me yet?

SPEAKER_04 3:25

I feel like we've worked lost many weekends in a row together.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Um we were both in um we both did an SECA race recently up at Eagles Canyon. And uh I think I think you're I don't I'm gonna embarrass you for a second, but um, if I'm not mistaken, you got your national F and C license.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Well, I didn't think that we'll get it done. Yeah, I had to play the role of flag chief. I'm not near what uh Mike Vandermint, the real flag chief, is up there, but uh it's a lot of fun to do to wear a different hat for a weekend. So yeah, that was that was uh actually kind of a lot of fun. It was a cold weekend. You can kind of tell that I am suffering the consequences of that, but it was uh a good weekend. Got uh run a pretty successful event at Eagles Canyon Raceway, which is a really neat little racetrack up to the west of Fort Worth, Texas. It's um, I don't know, fingers crossed, maybe even a future super tour destination. We don't know. It's nothing's official, but at least that's what everybody would like to make happen. Yeah, it's been good so far. But yeah, quiet, but that's about to change. All kinds of stuff is ramping up in our world, huh?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah, yeah, lots of other the this is gonna be the next couple months, lots of pro racing coming our way. Uh, between, you know, we got NASCAR and the Arlington Grand Prix, IndyCar stuff, and SRO and USAC and Miami, and yeah, it's about to be like full of bore.

unknown 4:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

You've been you've been elbows deep in the Arlington Grand Prix.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Yeah, it's been it's been good. But and and you mentioned Mike Vanderment and Gabby, all that team has been doing a really good job putting everything together. They've been thrown a lot to to gather, and so they're kind of the de facto race chairs, and just kudos to them. This is the first year. An inaugural event is always, you know, so much more. We're figuring this out for the first time, and they've been doing it doing a great job and getting it all handled. So uh do look forward to that one. We'll we'll both be up there for that one.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

Yeah, I'll be in a corner, turn 13 next to the baseball stadium.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

Yeah, great seats.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, there you go. Um high speed corner.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

So probably not a lot going on, but it'll be a great vantage point to watch the race.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, nothing wrong with it. So we'll have to do a we'll we'll definitely talk about that one after it happens because yeah, it's always uh it'll be it'll be cool. I have not worked an indie car event in seven years since it was Dakota in 2019. Yeah. So um, yeah, it'd be cool to to be back with them. So, but no, that's kind of it. How about you? Anything else that you can think of that's interesting lately, racing or non?

SPEAKER_04 6:11

I've been just focusing on the podcast, and uh it it was a it was a chore to get Chris um Chris on this podcast, you know, between the differences in um time zones, Chris uh talked to us from his home in Manchester, and uh boy, let me tell you, he's such a busy guy. Like I said, there is no getting a hold of him during race season because he'll make it clear there of all the the effort that goes in. He really doesn't get a uh stop because when they're Formula One is going back to back to back, they literally fly from race city to race city to race city, and they just don't stop. So him making an hour to sit down and visit with us was huge, and so we certain certainly thank Chris Mullen and uh and of course the FIA for letting him uh appear on our podcast. That's uh a huge deal too, and um a real honor, actually.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

So yeah, oh definitely for sure. I I mean all of our guests are extremely special and important, but this, yeah, this is our first FIA person. So that it's it's we've we've we've gotten in, we've we've gotten our foot in the door there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

Let's let's hope we do it right. So without further ado, let's uh introduce Chris Mullen. One one of the uh mini hats he wears is the FIA starter. So in this episode of the podcast, we get to talk with one of the most fascinating folks that I've ever had the chance in racing to work with. As listeners to the podcast know, it's my lucky duty to be the United States uh what we call chief of start, and the ASN Chief of Start is the official designation. But at an F1 event, I don't really push the button or do anything like that, nothing official. We support the team that does. Well, today on the podcast, we've got one of those team members, Chris Mullen with the FIA. He and his team are the ones that push that green button labeled start, and it's gotta be one of the most incredible jobs in racing. Chris, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Hi, guys, thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

So, we always start out by asking how you got involved with motorsports tell us your origin story, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Oh, that goes back a long way, obviously, because of my age. Um initially, my start into motorsport was as a very young child, and when I used to live in Ireland, in Southern Ireland, um, and it was motorbikes that I was always into initially. Um, my next door neighbour Jim had a Honda CB750, and as a 12, 13-year-old, you could hop on the back of a biking island then no matter what age, the police didn't really care over there or the guards. Um, so I used to go with him all the time, and we used to watch all the Irish road racing. And I I've loved Irish road racing ever since, um, especially motorbike racing, which I followed most of my life. Um, and then I kind of transcended into F1. I I'd always liked F1, it's got a big following in Ireland, so there's a lot of guys who used to watch it, and when it was on the television back then, and um throughout my career I did different roles, different jobs, and one of the jobs I did was a HGV driver. I used to drive a truck, and I think it was 10 or 12 years ago I got asked to help um a cut uh a team to get their equipment to the track for one of the European races, and I Julie jumped in and said, Yeah, I'll I'll help out. And I think that was in Monza about 11 or 11 or 12 years ago. I think I drove a truck to Monza and kind of got into the paddock and the setup of all the the paddock and the garages and and got involved with all that. And I must have been liked because I got asked to come back the following year, which I did do, and I then ended up on the as a working for a supplier to the FIA then. Um so I was transporting all their equipment and it slowly progressed from there. Uh I made it up to team leader, so I was in charge of the garages, setting it up, uh obviously going to their facility in France, the FIA's facility in France, and organizing all the freight from there and making sure it got to each track on time. And as you guys probably know, sometimes I'm not to be able to do the original races, some of them because of the distances involved. Truck drivers in Europe are only allowed to drive for nine hours uh five days a week, and they can extend that to ten hours twice a week. So we have to get extra drivers in to help. So we do what's called double manning. So it's my job to plan all that, plan the arrivals at the track, uh, get the team there ready to set up all the equipment, and then vice versa, from track to track, how many drivers we needed to get there the next day, especially when they started to introduce back-to-back races, which obviously 12 years ago there was no such thing, and then they introduced back-to-backs and they kind of worked pretty well, and then they introduced the uh triple header, which we did that for the first time, I think, in 2019. I think we did our first triple header, and they said, Oh, we'll never do that again, and now we have three or four triple headers a year because obviously we made it work, all the guys in the paddock made it work, so higher-level staff didn't see any problems with what was going on. They could say, Oh, the guys have made it work, let's carry on with the triple headers. So that was all part of my role. I got on really well with the FIA staff, um, I had a really good relationship with them. Um and then um Neil Callender, he was one of my bosses at the FIA. He left because he'd retired, he'd come to retirement age, so he left. And I'd also worked quite closely with Rebecca. I've worked with Rebecca since 2018, I think. Me and Rebecca have worked together and Lee, to be fair, uh Lee Brown. Um Rebecca went her way. Lee went to work at Mercedes. Um, he worked on the Mercedes uh garage build and the tree house out the back and the motorhome build. He worked there for quite a while, he was in charge of that. So an opening came up, which Rebecca took, and I think that was three or four years ago, Rebecca took that opening.

SPEAKER_04 13:17

That's about right.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

And then obviously, she needed a team rounder. So Rebecca then enlisted Lee at the time, and then Neil Callender was still there at that time, and then I think Neil left six months after, which created another opening, and I was quite fortunate that the FIA approached me after I'd been with them for so long as a supplier. Um, they approached me and asked me to apply for the job, which I did do, and then I was quite lucky to to get the job. So Rebecca then had the team round her that she wanted, uh, that she trusted, because we'd worked together for so long in different areas of of motorsport, and and that's basically how I got to where I was, to be fair. It's it's one of those situations there is long hours, you know, especially when you're working as a supplier, because then those guys are the first ones at the track and the last ones to leave, you know, as was very much the case with the Marshalls as well. You see them there at five, six o'clock in the morning, and then in the evening time they're the last ones to go. And they're the sort of people that make the whole event happen. Now, working directly for the FIA, I'm not the first one in, nor am I the last one to stay. But we trust the guys to do what they're doing because we've given them good training, because we've done that job. We're we don't ask them to do anything that we've never done in the past. Myself, Rebecca Roley, we've all done that job. And yeah, two years ago, I went straight direct for the FIA and and and here I am now. Quite fortunate.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

That's a that's quite the journey.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Yeah, yeah, it's been it's been a really good journey, and then the last 10-12 years have gone really, really fast. You you you'd be surprised how quick it goes. Uh we're we're ready to go off to Australia now. Next I fly this Saturday. It just seems like Abu Dhabi finished, it feels like it only finished two, three weeks ago.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Right, and that's that's a great segue to what I was gonna ask you next. Is kind of walk us through what your typical race week looks like. You fly in, you're there the whole week, I would presume. So tell us kind of in in big picture terms what your race week looks like.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

So we would fly obviously the weekend before the actual race day. So so let's take Australia for example. I fly Saturday, I'll be in Australia Sunday, and then I'll go into the track Monday morning. But there's a hell of a lot of prep work that's been done before that. So Rebecca will have contacted each circuit, she's contacting them as we go through the season. Now we have an ops manual for the equipment that we require for our staff for when they get there. So uh room sizes, building sizes, uh all the tables, chairs, the office equipment, everything that we need. Uh catering. We will send a list of what we need in the kitchens to be able to facilitate catering for our staff. So that's all done 90 days before we even get to the track. So there's a lot of work done in the background. Um passes, um, accreditation, all that's done prior before we arrive to an event. So we'll get we'll go into the track Monday morning. Our freight will have arrived, our air, our sea freight will already be there, and our air freight would have arrived two days before, two probably one or two days before that. The garage setup team, which is one of my previous jobs, uh and Rebecca's and Lee's, they will come in on Monday morning. They'll go in Sunday, they will do a bit of forklift training because in Australia it's one of the regulations that we have to do. So the guys will do a bit of forklift training, and then they will put position all the freight inside our garages, so command centres, uh Q60s, all that stuff. Um, then we'll arrive Monday, we'll check that over with them to make sure everything's in the right position for what we need it for. Uh, then we will go and make sure all the offices are correct, all the things that we've requested in the ops manual is what we've requested. Some circuits are fantastic at this, some circuits are not. Uh, I'm not going to name the ones that aren't. Um, so you know, sometimes we have a bit of a bit of a battle with the organizers, the promoter, they haven't facilitated with what we've asked for, and you've got to take into consideration they're not only looking after us, they're looking after F1, F2, F3, Porsche, or whoever's at the event. So we understand these guys are really busy. So Monday's just making sure we have everything in place. Um, Tuesday, we'll get access to the accreditation centre, so we'll get all our passes. Um then we need to check who's coming to the event from all our other departments within the FIA. Uh, we will envelop all the other passes and then we'll drop them into our hotels at the night time for the people to collect whenever they arrive at the hotels. We will put all the infrastructure in the offices, cabling, uh, monitors, make sure that's all okay. Um, then we'll check hospitality to make sure hospitality's okay. Uh, make sure we've got everything there that we need. Um, obviously, then we'll also look at the tabards for the marshals, make sure we've got all the right tabards. We'll hand them over to the ASN at the track to make sure he's got everything he needs, any of the passes that he's asked for or they've asked for, um, wristbands, as you know, that you guys wear, all that stuff. We'll we'll we'll make sure everything's ready for Thursday. All that has to be in place for Thursday. Wednesday is pretty much the same again. Uh, our technical teams will turn up then. The scrutineer and garage will be prepped and ready for operations from Thursday onwards. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is just making sure everything's set up. Obviously, we go into F2 and F3 because they're obviously in Australia as well. So, we'll make sure they've got all their facilities, they've got everything that they need, their air freight has arrived, none of it's damaged, and just check everything over. Thursday, then is obviously media date. So that's kind of a quiet day for us because all the team members from the FIA will have arrived by that time. Um, so they will all have their accreditation, they'll all be setting up, they'll all be doing their own thing. Um, and we will obviously then the guest department turn up, and then we look at what the guests we have coming to an event, we evaluate how many we've got and and how we're gonna handle that. Because obviously, every year now it just seems there's more and more guests coming, so we need to facilitate them. Uh, and then obviously, Friday, Saturday, Sunday is when it when it I mean, well, Australia's a day early because the high speed test is on Wednesday in Australia rather than Thursday. So we'll do the high speed test. Um, but that's when we get a chance to operate the start system to make sure that's all working. Um, the garage guys will have set the grid lights up. That will probably finish by Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning. Obviously, everything has to be in Australia, everything's a day earlier because of the high speed test on the Wednesday. Normally, high speed test is on the Thursday, as you know. So we have to make sure everything's up and running by by uh Tuesday evening stroke, Wednesday morning, 10 o'clock at the latest. We'll do the high speed test in Australia on the Wednesday. Uh, we get to test our start system, which Jamie, you will, and Jessica, you will see this year is a brand new one. So the old one's gone.

SPEAKER_04 21:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

So we have a new one this year. Um, and we will be telling everybody that's in the start gantry to please don't lean on it because it's all full screen now. Um and and it's very easy to cancel a session, and we don't want that to happen.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Oh, yeah, that would be a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

That would be a bad thing, yes. Um, so that's all good. We we're this the start system, we're happy that that's in place now. We've had a a lot of time to play with it in Bahrain, so that'll be up and running live um in Australia.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And then as you know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we'll arrange to have our meetings with the TSPs, trackside marshals, and Well, I arrange to have our meetings with the grid marshals, which, to be fair, and honestly, I'm not just saying this because we're on the podcast, that that's one of the best parts of the week for us. Because that's when we get to meet you guys in a bunch rather than individually, you know, here, there, and everywhere. And we get to have a chat with you guys and and and obviously deliver the the training, which you you know, it most of you guys know that off by heart. It's only when you get the new influx of new people every now and again, because we always ask those people to come to the front so they can hear us. And you know the guys who's been doing it for years, because they're at the back talking amongst themselves. They've got one ear listening, but they know what's going on, they know what they're doing. But this year they'll all have to listen because there's a new extended paragraph in the grid marshals briefing.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Oh, okay. You heard it here first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yeah, so all grid marshals, whether new or old, you are gonna have to listen because you don't want to miss what we're gonna tell you. Um, so yeah, we yeah, that that's and then it's normal race weekend, then uh it's the you'll always see me, Lee and Rebecca together at a race when there's F1, F2, and F3, because it's super busy, it's unbelievably busy that weekend because you you've got the three different formulas, you'll have Porsche thrown in there sometimes, Porsche Europe or Porsche Asia. Um you'll have F1 Academy in there sometimes as well. So whenever there's whenever F1, F2, and F3 are there, you'll always see the three of us there. Uh if it's just F1, only two of us will attend. So as Jamie, you you guys know that America, uh quite a lot of the races, F2 and F3 don't go, so that's where you don't see Rebecca sometimes, or you might not see Leo, you might not see me. That's the reason why. Not that they don't like coming, they do like coming, but we can't justify the budget to send three people when it's not busy enough to send them. Sure. Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

It sounds like you're busy though, and you've just answered a question that I had was gonna ask you, which is when you in your email signature, when you were responding, I I was baffled by your your title, which is Single Cedar Event Operations Coordinator. And I remember thinking, I thought you would have been starter or something like that, but you've just you've just explained that you truly do everything ahead of time. You would really are. You are in everything, which is like that's certainly more than I ever thought you had to do. So that's that's that's very impressive. All the stuff you guys have to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Jessica, I would love to be able to just rock up, go and press that green button, and then go home again. Unfortunately, it's not like that. It's not like that.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

So just I I mean I certainly knew that you you were involved with setting everything up and all that, but just like some of the stuff you mentioned catering, like wow, I I I had no idea. So that's definitely eye-opening.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

The the I mean the the the time we we have had people in the past who have had uh the the the their email signature as F1 permanent starter. Um that to be fair, I know it might seem like to you guys, that's an you know it's an amazing thing, and and it would trust me, the three of us know how fortunate we are to be able to do that, and we are so fortunate to be able to do that, but that's only a small tiny snippet of what we actually do. Yeah, um, the other bit in our in a in our email signature is obviously operations and logistics. We take care of all the logistics for all our freight. Uh we deal with F1 cargo, we deal with DHL, we're the ones that send the freight out, we're the ones that do all the sealing of the freight. Um we we weigh the freight, we have special documents called carneys. We have to list every single item we're sending in our freight on a carne. So a carne could be that, you know, it could be four or five inches thick, and that only does one container. We've got eight of them, and that's just air freight. We've also got sea freight to do as well. So Lee spends quite a lot of time in France. Lee looks after the sea freight for us, and he's got a busy job looking after our sea freight. Our sea freight is seven identical kits of freight, so we've got seven sets of it, they're all identical, and this is the stuff that we can't fly around the world because it's too heavy and it costs too much to fly around the world. So we try and put as much as we can in our sea freight, which is what all the teams do. Um, so yeah, behind the scenes, we're you know, we're non-stop. You know, today, this morning, I was meeting with new suppliers, uh looking at some equipment for the future in to do with sustainability and our carbon footprint. Uh, and it's just non-stop. It is literally non-stop.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

But we enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

Yeah, that's especially when everything is changing so much as it is this year. I mean, basically everything is turned on its head for 2026. I can imagine that the logistical nightmares are both unknown and multiplied.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Yeah, I mean, we had an instance a couple of years ago because obviously you know what's happening in with the with certain parts of the world where what's happening with the cargo ships, and and and so we have to plan for that because uh once some of our ships go into those areas where there's been trouble with certain countries. I'm not gonna mention which one, we all know where the problems lie. So we invested in another set, so we have to buy duplicate again of everything, um, just in case, and we have that in France ready to deploy in case a ship gets held up somewhere or can't make it. And if that did happen, then although it's called Seafreight, we then have the opportunity to fly that to an event just to make sure that we have that equipment because inside that that that sea freight set there's equipment that we can't operate without, so it has to get there. So we have to put things we have to preempt things as much as we can, um, and make sure that we've got those bases covered in case anything goes wrong, and and you know, you you hope that it never will go wrong, but we have to have it in place just in case it does.

SPEAKER_03 28:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

So this it makes perfect sense now. You were a supplier, this is kind of how you got your foot in the door with the FIA, and then they just say, Hey, do you want to do this? So, what was it like doing start like starting a race for the first time? Because that was probably not something you'd had to do as a supplier.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

No, no, no, no. I I was I was one of you guys in the past operating the grid lights, so I was one of the five people that used to be on the pit wall making sure you guys were comfortable with what you were doing with the grid lights. I don't know whether you remember that, but that used to be my role. Uh, and then when I got offered the job and I accepted, we had an agreement that I would stay with the supplier for uh I got offered the job early 2024, but I agreed to stay with the supplier till Monaco 2024 to make sure that the transition to the person that was gonna take over my job went smoothly. But in that meantime, in the meantime, I was told by Rebecca that part of your role is to start the races, and I th I was like, sorry, pardon? But yeah, you you're gonna have to start the races, you're gonna have to learn how to do it, you're gonna have to do various exercises, various paper exercises, and you're gonna have to learn it. Now, I did not think that was gonna be part of my role, but evidently it was. So I was quite fortunate that Rebecca was Rebecca was a great teacher, she brought me up, she taught me everything. Um, she was quite um calm and quite patient because she needed patience, and because I was often going to go and press the wrong button, and she'd pull my hand back and say, No, don't press that one, press this one. And uh, there was a few times there could have been a few costly mistakes made, but it never happened. Um, but yeah, I I didn't know that was part of the role, to be fair, and and and every time I do it, even even just in Bahrain, because we had a different scenario that we were testing, uh I still get nervous every single time, which I think is a good thing. Uh, because I think that the minute you come complacent, that's when the issues happen. Um, and and the last thing you want to do on live on television is to make a complete mess of the start of a Formula One race because I think it'd be your last one, to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 30:51

Well, talk a little more about that, Chris. I mean, you you approached it from a humble stance, but you are now one of the three people that pushes the actual button. So walk us through the mental processes. You know, the drivers are uh and that and I tell all of the Pitgrid team it's all automated. You the first thing you do on your arrival is you punch in the time of the formation lap. You know, that that fancy time at the beginning of the broadcast, and the broadcast is started, the cars go away, and we that is all done by automation. And walk us through kind of how you what you're looking at, what you're thinking about, the cons contingencies you're worried about as the last cars are coming into place, and the person at the back of the grid starts to wave, walk across waving a green.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

So I'll use I'll use an F1 race as an example. So we're always in the start gantry an hour before the start of a race. Um and uh the reason for that is there's a lot of preparation coming up beforehand. Um, there's a lot of radio checks, checking our equipment to make sure it's okay. In in the start gantry, there is a talk back panel up there that we can speak to various different departments, uh, the main one being race control, and we can hear what they're saying. Um we have our own headsets and a bolero, and we bring them with us. You'll always see us carrying a bolero, a bolero, and a radio and a headset. We'll always have them and walk into the start gantry, and that's our that's our backup. So if if anything happens to the start gantry talkback system, we always have the bolero, the radio, and the headset on as a backup, and we can still talk to race control. So that's the first thing to make sure we've got we've got that. Then we'll go into the start gantry an hour before the race that the formation lap starts, and as you quite rightly said, we'll input the start time for the formation lap. So for argument's sake, uh Europe is normally 1500. Uh, so we'll punch that time in. Um, and then everything from that point onwards is automated. So the pit lane opening, the pit lane closing, that's all made all automated. Obviously, it's different for F2 and F2 and F3 get a 15-minute window, I think. If I'm correct, 10 or 15-minute window, where F1 get a 20-minute window, I think it is for the pit lane being open. Um, then what so the the main role for either my Rebecca, myself, or Lee is in the start gantry is safety. So we will straight away do a comms check with the guys that are on the grid low, the grid wall. So we've got five guys on the grid wall who are basically looking after your guys who you know you've got your marshals at every grid position, and then our guys, if there's five of them, they'll take five or six lights each, whatever way they're panned out, and however they're easy to get to. And they're there just to make sure that your guys are happy. You have new people that are nervous, they're doing it for the first time, and trust me, I know how nervous that can be. Um, it's a daunting thing to be to do that role for the first time. Um, and I we we place our guys there on the wall to make sure if your guys, if the marshals have grid marshals have any questions, or if they're not sure about something, they can turn around and speak to one of our guys, and our guys will explain it. So we're in constant radio contact comms with with the five guys that are on the pit wall. We're always looking around pit lane to make sure there's different rules about uh the people that can be in the paddock. There's there's there's things like uh footwear, people can't wear flip-flops and stuff, all these different things, the age limit in the pit lane. We're looking, we're always looking for stuff like that. And again, when me, Rebecca O'Lear in the in the start gantry, uh starting the race is only a small part of it, it's down to the safety of everything that's going on. We're up there predominantly for the safety side of it. We will watch the cars leaving their garages to make sure there's no bad releases um because we will report them if we see them, and and they do happen quite regularly, more so in the lower formulas than Formula One. But we have had a few instances in Formula One. I think Bottas was one a few years back where he completely spun it in pit lane. Rage control won't normally always be looking at that, but we are their eyes and ears to have a look for them and then we report that straight back to them. Then the cars will go down and do their reconnaissance laps and we'll keep an eye on them doing that. They'll obviously come back through pit lane. Some of them will stop for whatever reason, change tyres or whatever, and then again we watch for safe releases to make sure nobody's held up or there's no near misses. Um, we'll be in constant uh contact with the grid marshall guys to make sure that we've got 20, well, 22 this year, that we've got 22 marshals in position because sometimes we do have the odd one missing now and again, and that's not an issue, obviously, because our guys can jump in and take control of that grid light if they need to. So, and then the guys obviously the cars come round then for the start of the formation like grid lights will start to go green, we will see that. Um we're constantly looking at the drivers. So if Rebecca's starting the race, she'll keep an eye on the drivers. I will keep an eye on the grid lights and keep an eye on the pit lane to make sure that's all clear and there's no obstructions in the way in case we have pit lane starters, which we do on quite a few occasions. Then we'll make sure that the drivers are comfortable, we'll make sure nobody's waving any hands to say they've got an issue. Uh, and if that was to happen, then we would hit start abort straight away and we would send them round for an extra formation lap, um, which gives us time either for that car to start or we get we take that car completely off the track. Hopefully, there's a gate close by and we can get that car out of the way. They'll go around then and they'll come back obviously pre-start of the race. Again, exactly the same thing. Grid lights will start to go green. We have a screen in the gantry so we can see which lights are going green, if they're taking a little bit longer with one light, or and this is something that we've added into the grid marshal's briefing is that with these new controllers we've had now for the last three or four years, there is the odd time where a marshal will press that button, but they won't release it. It doesn't activate until you release your finger off the green button, which is fine, we tell them that. But as again, as I said before, they're in these new guys are quite nervous, you know, and and and we we get that we see it in different countries, in different places, and some of them do get star struck, you know, that they just freeze. But that's fine because our our guys on the pit wall will jump in and help them because that they're walking down, there's a light to get impressed, and then we wait for obviously then all the cars are in position. We'll give it a few minutes, we'll give it a few seconds. It feels like minutes, but it's not, it's seconds. Then we'll wait for the green flag to go across. We always wait till the green flag man, if he's walking from, as we're looking down the track, he's walking from left to right. I never usually start the procedure until he's at least halfway across the track because I don't want the medical car to take him out by accident. Because obviously he's yeah, he's between the back of the race cars and the medical car. And then once he's at least halfway across, then we will we press the start button, the five bank of red lights come on, and then it's totally down to me, Leo, Rebecca, how long we leave the cars there. I think Rebecca's quite quick in releasing them. I tend to try and hold on to them as long as I can, and I think that I've held them for five seconds, but you know what? It's normally two seconds, it just feels like forever. Um, but obviously you can't keep them too long because you don't want the engines overheating. You want to get them away as quick as possible. Um so yeah, and and then and then obviously the cars will leave for the start of the race, and then we open pit lane manually as the last car has gone past the exit of pit lane, or we open pit lane to allow a pit lane starter out after the last car has left. Um, and then we open pit lane, we're now live. We normally stay there for at least two laps, two, three laps, because if you are going to have an incident, it's usually within those first two or three laps. Once we're happy they're in a sort of a chain and they've got round the first few bends, and there's you know they're not three abreast or two abreast, then we hand the control system back to race control, they take control of it, and then we leave the gantry, and then that's our involvement done then until obviously checker flag time.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

Unless there's a red flag.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Unless there's a red flag, and then we and then and then we have to run straight back to the gantry and do the whole process again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:40

So you know what's occurred to me is that everywhere you go in the F1 calendar that you have people like me, your ASN representatives, be they starters or pit lane workers who get the lucky position. Um I bet you've got some. See, we're I mean, in North America, we run races where we have rolling starts, which are a whole different ball game than what the FIA does. So we have a similar training to what you go through and describe. It's just that our cars are moving. And so, you know, it's kind of funny when when you all roll through America at our three different races. Um, we put this team up. I'm very lucky to lead that team, but we put a team up of generally four people to help you out. We don't do much helping, we just have the best seats at the track. But um, I imagine you get a little bit of inconsistency from country to country based on how much they know about what you're doing and and all of that. And I'm not I'm not asking you to disparage anybody, but I is that ever a fact or something that kind of comes into your thinking at some point during a race? I was we're quite lucky.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

I I mean English so again, English-speaking people, obviously, countries, and uh and and that that's fine. You you have a good relationship. Obviously, I mean you guys do help us out a lot because I think I remember one year in Vegas we were I was having issues up there, and and me and you had a conversation and we sorted it out between us, I think, a couple of years ago. It might have been last year, actually. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

It was last Miami.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Last was it Miami, right? Miami.

SPEAKER_04 42:31

Um started to rain on the grid.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

That's right, that is right. Uh we don't necessarily remember any time where we've had an issue with with anybody in the start gantry in terms of uh the chief marshals or or whatever, you know, whoever's up there. They've always been helpful. Different circuits do it different ways. Some circuits have people in there doing the timing, um, some circuits have it where they're in an office doing the timing, and that information is relayed relayed back by comms. Um I can't honestly say that I've ever witnessed or been part of a situation where it's caused an issue. It's it that we're quite lucky in that uh Jamie. You know yourself, you've got you know a lot of history, you you're very professional what you do, you're quite knowledge, you're very knowledgeable about what you do, and and the people that they send up to the start gantries, we always pretty much see the same guys every year. It's very rare that we get somebody new. And as soon as we see a regular face, you know, that our nerves kind of settle even a bit more then because we know that we're in good hands. Yeah, and and that's a super benefit to us.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

Yeah, we're also always glad to see you too, Chris. All right. Now, now the juicy question Who picks the celebrities to Wave the checker.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

All I can say on that is not the FIA. We don't have anything.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Oh, really? That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

That's actually an interesting answer. We we we do not get involved with it. I mean we all know that Formula One is a spectacle, it's a TV spectacle, you know that that's that's where our audience is, apart from at the track, it's a TV audience, and we know these things have to be done, hence why we have a second checkered flag. Um I think my personal opinion, my own opinion, and this is not from the FIA or anybody else, the the gantries are for officials, they're not for celebrities. Um and I think the way that we do it now, in my opinion, is the correct way of doing it. There should be an official in the start in the finished gantry waving the checkered flag, which is what's happening, and it's usually one of you guys that do it. And I'm fully behind that, and that's the FIA flag, not the other flag.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

The other flag is now on pit wall through one of the openings in the pit fence, and uh the the people that organise that can film that all day long, and they can put that over their socials, and that kind of takes it away from the official flag waving. Uh the the the checker flag, the FIA checker flag is an official tool and should be used in that manner, and that's why we do it the way we do it now. You you we will not see celebrities in the gantry in the future.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

I personally love that answer.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Maybe for a support race, though, they might still bring them up. Unless that was a that was in the past. This is 2026 moving forward, you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Yeah, yeah. The gantries are for officials for you guys and for us. They're for officials, they're not for I mean, but some places it's not some some tracks, it's not entirely possible to let them do it on the pit wall. Um, Monza is, if I remember correctly, is a glass, it's not catch fences, it's glass. So there is no openings in it, believe it or not. Uh, and there is another one that's glass as well, and I can't remember. I don't know whether it's Abu Dhabi or not, I can't remember. There's another circuit which where it's got glass uh instead of a catch fence. Uh, and then you have the circuits like Australia, where the grid lights, you know, they're on the other side of the track. They're not on our side. Um, or they're not on pit pit wall side, but yeah, going forward, I think the way you've seen it last year will be the way it carries on.

unknown 46:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

So hello kitty. You had your chance. It's it's us now.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Sorry, but I'm not ruling out they're not gonna do it. I'm just kidding. I think you will have celebrities again this year, 100%, but they just won't be in the stand. They won't they'll be doing it on pit wall. They'll be yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

Well, it sh well, they were up in the stand, but they're a support series, so that's what I was saying. Maybe it's different. Yeah, they didn't have anyone waving from the from the ground anyway. I just love to just to joke about that, you know. I'm I'm not sour grapes or anything about it.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

I can tell. I can tell, Jesse.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

So who are you normally talking to on the radio during all that that you described? Is it directly to do you have like a liaison or is it the race director? Who do you tell all this stuff to? Like if something is not going to plan, or who who do you talk to on the radio?

SPEAKER_00 47:37

Race director and deputy race director.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Directly to them, okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

Direct we are in direct comms to them all the time.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

And that's for everything everything that we need to report to them, anything that they need to relay to us. Um, obviously, we're on the same countdown clock, and then you know, we're always talking to each other. We try to keep the airways as clear as possible. Um, there is a few other people, the guys on the grid lights. We can hear the race control can only hear what's going on in the gantry, they can't hear what the grid light guys are doing. We obviously speak to timing, we speak to various other people uh who uh EM Motorsport who do the track side panels. Um so that there is there is quite a few people who speak on our headsets, and more often than not, the closer that we get to the start of the race, so me and Rebecca or me, Lee, or whoever's up in the start country, we can switch a button and we can speak to each other, nobody else can hear us, it's just you know, it's just me and Lee or Rebecca and Lee off vice versa. And probably 10 minutes, 15 minutes to the start of the actual formation lap, we will actually flick ourselves off. So we're just concentrating on on the comms that's coming out of race control because we need to hear what's going on there. We need to be notified of any pit lane starters and you know, or non-starters, whatever the case may be. Um, if we do find out there's pit lane starters, then we have to relay the information to the guys on the grid wall that grid position 10 will be empty, there'll be no car in it, but we still need to see a green light because we will not start the race until we see 20 green lights. Same with when we tell you guys if a car goes into the wrong grid box, still press green anyway because we need you know, all that will be sorted out after the race starts. Um more often than when we get into a situation where there's been an incident after the race has started, that's when the comms become uh increasingly harder to understand because you hear there's five or six people talking all at once, and we're quite lucky like with Rui because obviously Rui's Spanish, so we always listen out for Rui's voice because Rui gives the command to what's gonna happen, so we have to listen to him, uh, and that's predominantly out of all the noise that's going on because everybody's talking about you know, trying to sort out the situation, whatever that situation may have been. Uh, they're all helping each other in race control because people are looking at different areas, and and some other people, Deputy Race Control is in charge of the recovery team to go out and you know recover the car or whatever the case may be. So there is a lot of chat around the comms, and we just stay there, we don't say anything, we just predominantly listen for Rui's voice and wait to hear what Rui says, and and and that's what we listen for. But there is a lot going on.

SPEAKER_04 50:50

Well, as we start to wind things up, shifting toward 2026, it's gonna be a wild year. We've got two new teams. Well, we've got one new team, two new cars, we've got an entirely new car base. I mean, what's the general sense? Are you guys excited about this? Are you trepidatious? How are how are you particularly feeling about what's what you're going to see? You got to see them in Bahrain. Is it going to be a fabulous fun year? Is it going to be crazy and insane? How would you characterize it in advance?

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Again, my opinion from what I've seen so far, uh everybody's excited for the new season to start. You know, it's been a long time since a new set of regs have been introduced. Um, everybody's, you know, really can't wait to see what happens in Australia. I don't necessarily, again, me personally, I don't necessarily listen to what's listen to what's coming out in the media now before the start of uh Australia. They all know the teams all know where they are, they all know what their eggs are, they know what they've got to do. Um, and I think I personally think it's gonna be a fantastic season. I I really do. Um the cars have obviously changed size, uh they've got the 50% battery now, they've got uh the turbos, there's been a lot of changes, and we're not really gonna find out until we actually go racing. I mean, again, I I checked um times from Bahrain last year, race, to times that we were doing this year, but you can't compare the two. You don't know what fuel load the cars are pulling, you don't know what race plan they're going out with, you don't know what the teams are uh that are trialing. You you you can guess, but until those lights go out in Australia, I don't think we can we can I don't think we can predict anything to be fair. There's a lot of teams in the paddock uh walking up and down in Bahrain who are they're all excited, you know. Williams, uh not Williams, sorry, Alpine excited, they've now got a different engine supplier. Um there's a lot of teams now going to be vying for that midfield position that probably were never there before. Um, if you look at the reliability laps for the cars between Barcelona and Bahrain, there's quite a few of the teams who've put a lot of laps in, a hell of a lot of laps in, uh, testing reliability. Uh again, Barcelona, Bahrain has all been testing. Let's see what happens when them lights go out in Australia, and and that's when we'll get a real taste of what's gonna happen for the season. I I can't wait for it, man. I'm really, really excited. More than any past seasons. I can't wait to see what happens. I think I think it's gonna be a real mix this year. I don't think any one team is gonna run away with it.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

That's really great to hear.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:54

So, one last question. You and I can't get away from the start. That's my job. I gotta talk about it. There will be a change to the start sequence in 2026. You kind of alluded to it before. Walk us through what we're gonna see that's gonna be different in 2026 than what we might have seen in previous years.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Um so the start system this year will incorporate a new section which will be implemented as the green flag man is walking across the back of the track at the back of the car. So everything else prior to that will be the same. Um what we've been trialing in Bars in Bahrain is, and again, uh the reason why I could talk about this is because it was on television anyway, it was on on national television anyway, or international television, and so there'll be a set of blue lights, so there will be what's called a pre-start. And what will happen is once I or Rebecca or Lee see the green flag man getting halfway across the chat, green flag waiver, we will then tell Rage Control that we're happy for the pre-start, then the grid lights will all turn blue and the information panel on the start gantry will flash pre-start, which will give each car the opportunity, if they wish, to rev their engines up to spin their turbos, and they will get five seconds, and then once those blue lights are gone out, we will then start the normal five-bank of red lights, and then as soon as we get the five-bank of red lights, it lights out, and that's the start of the race.

SPEAKER_04 55:46

That's right. Wow, what a what a it's cool just just even talking about it with you, Chris. I get all goosebumps and and uh excited because I know what a wild process it is. The first time that I watched from the gantry the start of a race, I was amazed how fast it went. It just zoom and they were gone, you know. Yeah, it's uh best place in the world to watch a race.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

We are honestly, we are so lucky to be up there. I mean, we are incredibly lucky to be up there and do the job that we do. But as I said before, first and foremost, it's not about having the privilege to start that race, which it is a privilege, it's to make sure that everybody gets off that line safely. And and and you know, more often than not, you can see in the junior categories F2 and F3, they probably have more issues than than that goes on in F1. Um, so you just have to be vigilant every single time to make sure everybody gets off that line. The grid marshals, I mean, all the marshals are fantastic, but we have a close affiliation with the grid marshals because you know they're part of what we do, they're an important part of starting a race, and honestly, they're absolutely super quick on that yellow, and then and they're great on the greens as well. It's that they are really are a good bunch of people, all of them. All of them. We love having meetings with them. And and the one thing that the three of us always say before we do start a grid marshal briefing or a TSP panel uh TSP Marshall's briefing is that we're so appreciative of the time that they give up. Um, because we know the volunteers, we know they're at the track super early in the mornings, we know that they stay there late in the evenings, and we you know, it doesn't matter how many times we say thank you for that, it it's it's just we need to make sure that we always say it to them and to make them know that you know these events don't go ahead without people like them, and that's how important they are. Um, and then they need to really you know give themselves a pat on the back because without them it wouldn't be happening. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

What a what a I think that's uh that's the high note we don't want to end on, huh? Just kudos to the Marshalls, as we always like to say on the show.

SPEAKER_04 58:08

100%, 100%. Well, Chris Mullen, uh season of F1, one of the what I'm pretty sure is gonna be one of the more memorable seasons in F1 is about to kick off, and you're gonna be the guy to kick it off with the push of a simple green button. How cool is that! And so fabulous that you were able to make time to visit with us on the podcast. And we really, really appreciate it. It's always a pleasure to see your face pop up on the stand and uh shake your hand and work another race weekend with you.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

It's honestly thank you so much. It's great to see you guys as well. Honestly, we know every trap we're going to, so we know who we're gonna meet and who we're gonna see. And you know, we'd like to spend more time with you, but you know how busy a race weekend is, so but honestly, you need you make us feel so welcome when we come and uh and everything's well prepared, the guys are all well prepared. It's just anyone to think it's easy to do, but it's not easy to do what we all do. It's it's extremely difficult, but we all make it look easy.

SPEAKER_04 59:14

That's right. Well, Chris, thanks for your time, and uh we'll see you at the track.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Perfect, guys. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. Thanks, Chris.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

Yep, see you soon. So that was our interview with Chris Mullen, and um what a what a cool way to end of just giving his shout out to the Marshalls. You know, it's that of course that's kind of what we started this podcast about, but it's so much more than that. Of course, we we talk about people that work in all different facets, and we're hoping to even expand that more to, you know, in the future to talk to drivers and this and that. So it's certainly not pigeonholed, but what a you know, what a cool thing, you know, for him to talk about how just how important it is, you know. He he it's not lost on him or anyone at the FIA of how critical the Marshall role is at these.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:01

Right. Uh, and and the safety thing, you know, every single podcast I think we talk about safety in one form or another, and you know, to realize, yeah, we we all do that. Every we're always looking for unsafe things, but you know, the way Chris made it very clear is that it's always there. You know, you you tend to forget, you know, you think oh, you're watching celebrities on the grid. Well, yeah, they're watching celebrities on the grid, but they're making sure the celebrities don't get run over or you know, have a foot rolled over by a tire or you know, run over by a tool trolley or something like that. And you know, there's so many little tiny things about what it takes to put on a race weekend. You know, Jesse, you and I have talked about it a lot about people think they just show up and do a race, and you know, the preparations for these races are intense. They, you know, Coda will prepare for an F1 race beginning in June. You know, it's when they start putting up the temporary structures and things and the races and until October. So, you know, people that think there's you know, we just as the as uh Chris said, just roll up and and push a button, uh, it doesn't quite work like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

No, definitely. I mean, all the the planning and the calls and the emails and the this and that that goes into it. I mean, just you know, even like to move a uh intervention post, that's not just a willy-nilly, that's like a committee decision. And we have to take all the things into you know, account of okay, how is this gonna affect it's not just something that's taken lightly with anything. So, yes, there's yeah, any change that's made has to go through, you know, with like and it's because of safety, you know, yeah, for everything. So yeah, there's so much more that goes into it than I think people realize. So yeah, it was cool to get to hear that. I truly had no idea how much, you know, when he's talking about all the stuff that he handles, because it and it makes so much more sense that he got into the role he's in because, you know, okay, if you were working for a supplier, you know, they he he proved himself to be reliable and that he got along with everyone and this and that. So it's not it's another one of those things like we can train you on the job. It's it's and I think we've heard this from uh other guests we've had, the chiefs of the different specialties. We need to know that we can trust you. And this certainly seemed absolutely no different of okay, you know, maybe you've never done done a start before, but we can train you on that. We know that you we can count on you to be here and to to get along with everyone and and get the work done and have a strong work ethic. So it certainly sounds like that's that's exactly how that worked.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:50

Yeah. Well, awesome. That was so much fun. It was so great to to finally get to talk to him and and learn all that we've got. Jess, this is gonna be a wild 2026 one season. What are you gonna predict from it? What do you think is gonna happen? How many episodes of Drive to Survive will there be?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:13

Oh god, I don't I'm like years behind on that. I I'm you you're asking like the worst possible person. I'm I'm so behind on all of it, but I will say, and we're we're we're neutral here with everything, but the catalog team, uh it's gonna be really interesting, I think, to be their addition. And I've always thought Botas and Checo were very cool, and you know, I think this will be their time to shine. You know, I think both of them, you know, on their on their highest level of whatever team they were on were always kind of second fiddle to someone else. And so this is kind of gonna be their chance to really like hopefully spread their wings a little bit. But so I'm excited to see that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:54

I'm excited by the second American team. You know, Haas has always been an American team, and if you'll think back, and I know Jess, you don't know all the details of all this, but Haas's first year they turned a lot of heads, and they they they hit they swung above their their uh weight level the first year, and I'm hopeful that that happens for Cadillac this year. I mean, who knows? Everything is brand new. Of course, all the attention in America is gonna be on them because they're brand new and because they're an American team. But I really something Chris said was exactly what I'm hoping for. He he implied that he thinks there'll be a lot more fight in the middle and a lot more of the the mid-pack teams that we're not used to seeing in the mid-pack. I love that. I'm always rooting for the underdog. My highlight of last season was when Nico got on the podium for a kick sauber. I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world. So I'm looking for a lot. I hope to see a lot of those kinds of surprises. Personally, I I'm not I'm less excited about F1 when it's just dominated by the usual characters.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

Of course.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:10

And the more struggles that the big manufacturers have, I don't wish them ill, but I wish that each weekend gets more exciting, and that's how it gets exciting, you know. So that's kind of what I'm hoping for. But um, everybody's saying, you know, one thing, but I've learned over the years, just take the media guesses with a grain of salt, especially early in the year, and especially with so many variables as are gonna be in the cards this season. I I hope it's gonna be one of the memorable seasons of F one.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Yeah. Oh, I I definitely think it's gonna be definitely interesting. And like, yeah, it's what like Chris was saying. He's like, I think it's gonna be uh gonna be more of a fight this year, w as it kind of was last year, you know. That was it was cool to see McLaren, you know, get their flowers finally, you know, with with everything. So yeah, we'll we'll see. But uh, we got Miami for is our first one.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

For the season. First of May. We'll get to yeah, that's that'll be here in no time. So no kidding. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:18

Well, all right. I guess we should just wrap up this episode and uh get it into the mix master. And with that, I'll let you know that this copyright, this podcast is copyright of its owners and creators. And though Jessica and I are employed by Circuited Americas, nothing we say represents an official opinion or endorsement from the circuit or any of their clients or series. We might mention all opinions are our own. Well, until the next time, Jess, we will see you and you will uh have a few more stamps in your passport. Uh you're off to off to the Scandinavia to listen to some music.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

Yeah, yeah. So uh I'll still have my MacBook with me. So I'm gonna have to answer emails for Arlington. So it's you can still get a hold of me. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:07

She'll just she'll just write all of her A's with that little circle on top of it. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:11

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:13

All right, everybody. That's gonna wrap it up on this episode of the podcast. We'll see you on the next. Oh, and we need to mention at the very end, we have a new podcast email address. It is podcast. Podcast at tracksidepodcast.com. Podcast at tracksidepodcast.com. If you've got feedback, if you've got some uh show ideas, if you've got a voice recording you'd like to share with this, that's the way you get it to us. It's podcast at podtracksidepodcast.com, and I'll put that in the show notes so you'll have a clickable mail link too. So so there, progress. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

Send us something. Let's do a viewer mail episode. I think it'd be fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:00

Oh, you've heard the challenge Jessica's thrown down. All right, everybody. We'll see you on the next one.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:06

Yep, yep.