meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
F1 Beyond The Grid

Alpine tech boss Pat Fry: 35 years at the top of F1

F1 Beyond The Grid

karenellenbevan

Leisure, Sports News, News, Sports, Automotive

4.75.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Name a top F1 team or driver – Pat Fry is probably a big part of their success. He’s spent 35 years winning with Benetton, McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine, racing with world champion drivers Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. In that time he’s seen F1 change massively, and played a big role in developing game-changing racing technology. Pat tells Tom Clarkson about the challenges of F1’s new 2022 rules, his favourite drivers, his toughest bosses and how to build a winning team. Pat’s still racing as hard as ever as Alpine’s Chief Technical Officer. Today he’s chasing the performance gains he hopes will make the French team F1 world championship contenders in the future.

Related episodes from the BTG archive
Fernando Alonso
Esteban Ocon
Flavio Briatore
Mika Hakkinen

This episode is sponsored by: 

Harry's: go to harrys.com/grid and redeem your free trial set and bonus shower gel. All you cover is £3.95 for delivery

Blue Nile: UK listeners get £50 off £500 with code GRID50 at bluenile.com/uk until 27th March

BetterHelp: get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/grid

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

resellers and intermediaries are rarely a good thing in business.

0:03.5

So why do you make an exception with your internet?

0:06.1

VORBOSS is a new fiber network for London,

0:08.8

providing 10 gigas standard for the businesses that prefer to deal directly

0:13.0

with the people who designed and built the network.

0:15.6

VORBOSS, the business fiber network built by VORBOSS for London.

0:23.5

If I look back 35 years of play and re-racing cars,

0:26.8

the great developments have happened in Formula One.

0:29.8

You haven't seen that is where the future is.

0:32.0

Those are the things that help engineers make better decisions.

0:35.0

We should, in, you know, three, four, five years' time,

0:38.6

be able to compete at the front.

0:41.2

After decades working at the very top of Formula One,

0:44.7

with Benetun, McLaren and Ferrari and of course,

0:48.1

Eton Senna, Mika Haccan and Michael Schumacher,

0:51.2

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonzo.

0:54.0

Pat Frey is now trying to turn Alpine into championship contenders.

0:59.2

In his long F1 career, Pat has experienced the sports extremes,

1:04.1

some soaring highs and some crushing lows and moments which stopped him in his tracks.

1:10.2

It is hard to know what to do in that situation, you know.

1:13.9

You're chatting with the driver, he goes out and doesn't come back.

1:17.9

Seeing mechanics cry is just, yeah, strange.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from karenellenbevan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of karenellenbevan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.