https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFwiw0UsdpI

When Sam Michael arrived in F1, he worried he wouldn’t be able to keep up. But he became an influential and experienced leader at two of the sport’s biggest teams. From a race engineer at Jordan in the late 1990s, to senior director roles at both Williams and McLaren in the 2000s, Sam enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top before leaving F1 in 2014. Speaking to Tom Clarkson, he reflects on more than two decades in the pinnacle of motorsport and reveals the people who influenced his life the most. Sam shares fascinating insight into some of the big names he’s worked with; Lewis Hamilton, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Rubens Barrichello to name a few. He explains the characteristics that separate the greatest racers from the rest, how he made drivers take a test to understand their knowledge of cars, what he misses about F1 and much more. 02:43 – Life in Australia
07:25 – Heinz-Harald Frentzen’s championship potential
15:23 – Where Sam’s passion for racing comes from
19:27 – Leaving Australia for England
25:43 – Working with Rubens Barrichello
35:45 – Hamilton’s attributes
39:00 – Why he joined Williams
42:23 – Tension between Ralf Schumacher and Montoya
46:08 – Double diffuser in 2009
52:33 – People who’ve had greatest impact on Sam’s F1 career
54:42 – Rosberg and Button’s intelligence
01:01:24 – Becoming McLaren Sporting Director
01:05:57 – Why Sam left F1 in 2014 For more F1® videos, visit https://www.Formula1.com Follow F1®:

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