MIAMI – J.J. and T.J. Watt could have picked any team to attend their first Formula One race with, but they never had eyes on anyone else at the Miami Grand Prix than American team Haas.
J.J’s tweet last year about his new-found love for Formula One, spurred by Netflix’s blockbuster hit ‘Drive to Survive’, caught the attention of the paddock and led to a reply and invitation from world champions Mercedes.
Austin’s U.S. Grand Prix is held in October, right in the middle of the NFL season, but Miami’s first race in May is perfect for the pair. For their first race, the towering brothers chose the team situated at the furthest end of the paddock, Haas. J.J. and T.J. are both huge fans of the team’s potty-mouthed team principal, the loveable Guenther Steiner, who is one of the stars of the show.
“He’s been great. They’ve all been great,” J.J. told ESPN. “How can you not be a fan of Guenther? He’s just a great guy. It’s the sign of a great person when they can just sit down and shoot the s— with them so that’s been great.”
The Watt brothers’ trip to Miami’s first race, hosted at a circuit which wraps around Hard Rock Stadium, started with an optimistic DM from Haas head of communications Stuart Morrison and developed into a full-blown chat about F1, the team and, eventually, an invitation for both to attend as guests of the team.
On Friday, the pair took part in pit stop practices, had a garage tour and met Steiner and team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher.
T.J. joked that the pair had asked fairly basic question of Haas’ pit crew during the tour.
“We definitely didn’t pick their brains with the non in-depth questions we had. They were pretty fundamental,” T.J. said. “But they didn’t laugh at us! They just answered them and were just really great showing us how it all worked.
“It’s crazy, the complexity, the scale of the whole operation,” J.J. added. “The pit stops are so impressive. So many things have to go right and only one little thing has to go…
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