MIAMI – JJ and TJ Watt could choose any team to enter their first Formula One race, but they have never set their eyes on anyone else at the Miami Grand Prix other than US team Haas.
JJ’s tweet last year about his new-found love for Formula 1, fueled by Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ blockbuster, caught the attention of fans and leads to an answer and an invitation from world champion Mercedes.
Austin’s US Grand Prix is held in October, right in the middle of the NFL season, but the first race in Miami in May is perfect for the pair. For their first race, the towering brothers chose the team located at the furthest end of the lawn, Haas. JJ and TJ are both die-hard fans of the team’s potty training principal, the lovable Guenther Steiner, who is one of the show’s stars.
“He was great. It was all great,” JJ told ESPN. “How can you not be a fan of Guenther? He’s a great guy. It’s the mark of a great person when they can just sit down and shoot crap at them to that’s great.”
The Watts’ trip to the first race in Miami, held at a lap around Hard Rock Stadium, began with an upbeat DM from Haas’ head of communications Stuart Morrison and evolved into a full conversation about F1, the team, and finally, an invitation for both to attend as team guests.
On Friday, the pair took part in pit stop practice, had a garage tour and met Steiner and the team’s drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher.
TJ joked that the pair asked pretty basic questions about Haas’ pitiful team during the tour.
“We’re certainly not picky about their brains with the non-specialist questions we have. They’re pretty basic,” says TJ. “But they don’t laugh at us! They just answer them and are really great at showing us how it all works.
“It was crazy, the complexity, the scale of the whole operation,” JJ added. “The pit stops are impressive. There’s a lot that has to go in the right direction and there’s only one small thing that goes wrong.”
During JJ’s Twitter interaction with Mercedes last year, he joked that their loyalty can be bought, but both are devoted Haas fans.
“They hooked us up,” said TJ. “We are Haas boys in every way.”
In a separate interview with Sirius XM, Watt talked about all the drivers in F1 – including the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and the defending champion Max Verstappen – he is delighted to meet Magnussen, who made a surprise return to the sport this year.
“My legit is Kevin Magnussen,” JJ said. “I think it sucks that he comes back from being out of F1, then rushes into Bahrain and goes out and crushes it.”
Whatever team principal Guenther Steiner is, I’m a fan.
A big thank you to Guenther, KMag, Mick, Stu and everyone in the Haas garage for their hospitality and allowing us to test our stopping skills.
We might not fit in the car, but we could lift the damn thing.
Can’t wait for Sunday pic.twitter.com/Yci1gNUGrR
– JJ Watt (@JJWatt) May 7, 2022
ESPN spoke to Magnussen about Watt’s comments on Friday, after he had just completed two hours of practice at the slippery and challenging Miami track, and asked what it feels like to meet the Arizona Cardinals manager. how.
“It’s so scrary!” he replied laughing. “The scariest thing this weekend so far. He’s big. Great respect for those guys, the training they do. It’s phenomenal.”
While in the race, JJ will also oversee the fantasy F1 tournament he created to play with his brothers, teammates and some high school buddies, which he runs in pen and traditional paper without the help of the web.
“I just came up with it,” JJ told ESPN. “We’re trying to figure out a reasonable way for someone to not just pick the top 5 guys every week. It’s going pretty well.
“Prior to the one free practice, we will all pick four riders in order of snake drag. After qualifying you calculate your riders’ total number of positions, the person with the lowest number will be awarded. First pick for real race.
“We choose in segments. From one to five, six to ten. You can pick one guy from each segment and then take your total from the whole weekend.”
“You never know, someone might head in. When George Russell 2nd place because it rained, you would never have thought that would happen.
“It was pretty cool. It was a blast.”
When asked who is winning their league right now, TJ joked that it was “could be” JJ, but “just is”.
In his radio interview with Sirius XM before speaking to ESPN, the ultra-competitive Watt brothers said managers may have to watch the footage to decide which of them to replace. change wheels faster.
JJ then joked “as long as it’s not Michael Masi!”
The brothers are still trying to figure out how Hamilton lost last year’s championship. Former race director Masi incorrectly restarted the race after a late safety car, helping Verstappen dramatic past him on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
When asked by ESPN what he’d done about the controversial 2021 title decider, costing Masi his job, JJ said: “It’s unbelievable for Lewis. As an athlete, the most important thing you can do I want the playing field to be fair and competitive and be able to tackle it on the field fairly.
“So when something is out of your hands and you can’t handle it on the pitch… the way he handles it is impressive, let alone the billions of things that have probably gone through in the past. His head that he wanted to talk about was quite unbelievable.
“Honestly, I don’t mind who wins. I think it’s interesting that after all those races it’s just been a single race and it literally goes to the winner. I just want to see it fair.”
TJ, who said the driver he most wanted to see was Hamilton, said: “It was great to see Lewis following him throughout the season, it was like ‘holy cow, is this really happening?’ It’s a storybook ending, so to leave it unquoted, reasonably quoted-unquoted, is a bit disappointing. I understand that you want it to end with a lap. But you want it to be. solved with a real lap.”
JJ then added his surprise that Mercedes had not done everything in its power to turn the results upside down.
“If you really think about it from a business perspective, there’s millions and millions of dollars there, the eighth world record championship… I don’t know. There’s been a lot going on and I’m real. surprise.t was taken to a higher level.
“It’s crazy. With how much money is involved in this sport? It’s crazy.”
The Watts will hit the grid ahead of the race with team Haas, their allegiance to America’s only F1 team guaranteed.
