The Athletic

The race is on, and with IndyCar stars being talked about as possible future

F1 drivers, which of them really has what it takes to make the jump, and just how difficult

would it be for Colton Hurtor, Patow Ward or Alex Palau to do so. I'm Ed's draw and joining me to evaluate their skills and the scale of the challenge are Scott Mitchell and special guest, J.R. Hildebrand. Well, let's get the pleasant cheese with our regular guest out the way first. How are you doing, Scott? Yeah, I'm good, but brush past me. We've got someone far more interesting

on the podcast this week, so you can crack on. Exactly. Well, I'm very pleased to welcome J.R. Hilda Brand, who's effectively on loan from the race IndyCar podcast, which he hosts alongside the excellent Jack Bennion, well worth a listen. J.R. knows IndyCar Inside Out, contested the Indy 500, 12 times, best finish of second.

I was a very creditable 12th in this year's race.

So welcome to the race F1 podcast, J.R. Yeah, thanks, man. That's great to be on. Great to take a little time while you guys have got a break and chat about some of these IndyCar guys. Yeah, well, it's good to have you to talk about the IndyCar drivers with a bit of an F1 perspective. But before we get into it, I do have to kind of establish your credentials for those who don't remember, because you did have your own dalliance with F1 a few, well, more than a few years ago now, with Force India. So perhaps you can quickly remind people of that, because you were a genuine contender for a proper F1 role. Yeah, yeah. At the end of 2009, so it was coming off of my championship season in Indy Lights, that

for the young driver test at the end of the year, which at that time was a true,

a real true young driver test if it isn't still now, there was no threat of Fernando Alonso showing up and stealing your gig.

That we forced India had a bit of a runoff, basically, of young drivers from a variety of

categories.

And it was kind of a funny story that I think part of my even like being on the radar for it was actually because

VJ Malia owned property in Sausalito, California, which is where I grew up. He owned the local

papers. He had a part of his global car collection there. And so I got to know the guy that

took care of his cars in Sausalito and it's

like totally nondescript warehouse. He had a, you know, like an original 427 Cobra, BMW M1,

like all of this crazy stuff that you'd have just had no idea that it was there. So I'd,

I'd followed this guy home from a car show that was in town once. Like, where are all these cars

going to? And ended up discovering that they were VJs. And I think at least put myself in by the,

I mean, this was years prior to becoming the Indy Lights champ. But I think kind of got myself in the

window with a bit of a prior relationship.

But there was a few of us, and I actually, we weren't privy to who all of the other drivers

...