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Ultra-competitive and full of jokes: Zane Maloney and Enzo Fittipaldi on being Rodin Carlin teammates
Fresh from their best team result of the season, Rodin Carlin teammates Enzo Fittipaldi and Zane Maloney are put to the test to see just how well they know one another.
There are a few disagreements along the way, but the duo are certainly just as competitive off the track as they are on it.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TEAMMATE?
Enzo Fittipaldi: “I’d say he’s a nice guy, fast, competitive and he’s pretty funny.”
Zane Maloney: “Of course, fast. Nice guy as well when he wants to be. Very funny but in a way that I’ve never seen anyone before. In a very – I don’t want to say in a very stupid way but it comes off stupid, but he’s messing around which makes it funny. Not amazing at tennis… but an amazing driver.”
Fittipaldi: “That’s funny. We had a tennis tournament last week and I was sure I was going to win but I ended up losing. I picked up my performance through the game though.”
Maloney: “We’ll have another match. Mini golf as well.”
WHAT IS YOUR TEAMMATE’S BEST QUALITY?
Maloney: “In terms of on track or off track? I’d try to find the words for, not enthusiastic but he’s very kind to everyone. He’s an outgoing, positive person.”
Fittipaldi: “Same for Zane really, outgoing and positive as a person. It’s important to have a teammate that’s on the same page as you. We’re obviously competing with each other, both part of the Red Bull Junior Team together so very competitive, but at the end of the day we have a great respect for each other. He’s a positive person which is good because, when things aren’t going well for us, it’s important to think positive and find ways to improve.”
IF YOUR TEAMMATE WASN’T A RACING DRIVER, WHAT WOULD THEY DO FOR A JOB?
Maloney: “Enzo would be a YouTuber.”
Fittipaldi: “No, I definitely wouldn’t be. I do it because – we have our channel and I enjoy it as a side hobby to racing and for the fans to have a closer look at what I do and the behind the scenes.”
Maloney: “What would I be?”
Fittipaldi: “I think he’d be an MMA fighter.”
Maloney: “I’d like to be yeah.”
READ MORE: All to play for: F2 Summer Wrap-Up
WHAT IS THEIR MOST ANNOYING HABIT?
Fittipaldi: “Most annoying? Let’s see.” Maloney: “I have two.”
Fittipaldi: “I’ll go first, one is being on time.”
Maloney: “You mean that I’m on time.”
Fittipaldi: “No, no! We compete with that. Today I was late because I had a bit of a stomach ache.”
Maloney: “50 minutes!”
Fittipaldi: “No! Sometimes he’s a little bit late. It winds me up a little bit. The next one is…”
Maloney: “I don’t know how one person can talk so much craziness.”
Fittipaldi: “I think he’s extremely competitive, just as much as I am. When we’re playing tennis, I’m thinking he has to give up the point, I’m sending it from one side to the other and he’s running about and making it, and that was kind of annoying.”
Maloney: “Ok my first thing was going to be lateness. I count late as one second over.”
Fittipaldi: “Hang on I know what he’s going to say. If someone says leave at 05:00 and you’re there at five-zero-zero, you’re late.”
Maloney: “That’s what your trainer told you. One time out of 10 he’s early. Three or four times out of 10, he’s one minute late, or on time. The other times, he’s late and properly late. We’re missing the session. The second thing is he forgets things a lot. If we have a conversation at 9pm yesterday, we come back at 3pm the next day and he’s telling us the same story.”
Fittipaldi: “It’s just such a good story though.”
Maloney: “We’re like ‘Enzo we’ve already heard that one’. Yesterday he came in and said he had a story about his school form back in the day, and he just walked off.”
Fittipaldi: “I was saving it for later.”
Maloney: “We asked him ‘Enzo what’s going on?’ And he forgot he was about to tell us a story. He came back and we asked him again and he just said ‘oh yeah, I had a good time there’ that was it.”
WHO’S THE FUNNIEST?
Maloney: “Enzo. Enzo’s the funniest.”
Fittipaldi: “The thing is everyone’s laughing but I’m not trying to be funny.”
Maloney: “Like I said, I don’t know if he’s doing it on purpose or it’s just how he does it, half the time it’s a funny joke, and half the time you’re thinking is this guy crazy? 20% it’s a good joke, 80%, are you ok?”
Fittipaldi: “Yeah but this guy likes to laugh a lot. I’ll say something serious and he just starts laughing. Then I get confused about why he’s laughing.”
WHAT’S THE MOST EMBARASSING THING YOU’VE DONE WHILE BEING ON THE SAME TEAM?
Fittipaldi: “I don’t actually know.”
Maloney: “Not much. Enzo was storming around after he lost tennis. Stomping around and we were asking if he was alright. Nothing too embarrassing though.”
IF YOU HAD TO COOK A MEAL FOR THE OTHER, WHAT WOULD YOU COOK?
Maloney: “I don’t know.”
Fittipaldi: “I would cook him the perfect baked salmon. In the oven, 200 Celsius. Fillet of king salmon. Two teaspoons of butter, little squirt of lemon, then you get a brush and brush that into the salmon. Then you cut up some garlic, very thin, spread it around the salmon. In the oven for 20-25 minutes, comes out good as gold. Bit of rice and beans on the side.”
Maloney: “Don’t put in the beans. I don’t like beans. Rest sounds good.”
Fittipaldi: “I like cooking.”
WHO’S THE BETTER LOOKING?
Fittipaldi: “Me. I’d say me.”
Maloney: “Your nickname is the little shark and I do think you resemble a shark a little bit.”
WHO KNOWS THE MOST ABOUT CARS?
Maloney: “We’d need a quiz on that, but I think it’s me. We have done quizzes before but it’s 1-1 at the moment. The quiz I won was a lot bigger in terms of the percentage difference than he won.”
Fittipaldi: “Nah it wasn’t.”
Maloney: “So the first one you beat me by two and it was out of 100, the second one I beat you by 20.”
Fittipaldi: “Yeah but that second one had a poorly worded section in.”
Maloney: “Ahh ok my bad. Mixed wording. It’s 1-1, maybe you’ll have to ask someone in the team.”
WHO’S ON THEIR PHONE THE MOST AND WHO TAKES THE LONGEST TO REPLY TO MESSAGES?
Fittipaldi: “Zane is on his phone the most.”
Maloney: “Ok but it’s what you’re on the phone for. He’s on his phone a lot for TikTok, I’m on mine for watching YouTube and podcasts.”
Fittipaldi: “Yeah but I’ve barely used my phone today.”
Maloney: “Ok well let’s check screen time.”
Fittipaldi: “Ok, what’s your daily average? Don’t change anything!”
Maloney: “Five hours 51 minutes.”
Fittipaldi: “Five hours 19 minutes.”
Maloney: “Ahh that’s close… In terms of replying, I take longer to reply. He randomly calls me at 1am sometimes. When I go to bed, I put this Enzo Fittipaldi guy on mute.”
Fittipaldi: “Ok so he posted a video of his cousin playing football, so I had to call him and ask if his cousin played for the national team.”
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST THING YOU’VE LEARNT FROM EACH OTHER?
Fittipaldi: “I don’t know, you’re always learning from each other.”
Maloney: “Without even thinking that you are, you’re always taking things in. Enzo has more experience. He knows more about the F2 car and how to go quick. Looking at the data, seeing what he’s doing with the car that maybe I didn’t think would go faster.”
Fittipaldi: “Same. Looking at the data and seeing where he’s quicker and learning how he does it.”
Maloney: “Also learned from him about how not good it is to be late!”
Fittipaldi: “No come on, we’ve both been late.”
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TELL YOUR TEAMMATE BUT HAVEN’T DONE SO YET?
Fittipaldi: “There was definitely something I was supposed to tell you this morning, but I can’t remember.”
Maloney: “Enzo talks and says so much already.”
WHO SPENDS THE MOST TIME IN THE GYM AND WHO IS ON THE SIM THE MOST?
Maloney: “On the sim, Enzo. In the gym, me. He loves the sim a lot more than I do. I loved it during Covid but then I got so angry with it. I only use it at Red Bull and Carlin. At the gym, maybe now we do similar but consistently over the last two years, I think I’d have done more.”
Fittipaldi: “I think now it’s similar but his mum is a trainer. His dad was a pro rugby player so.”
Maloney: “Yeah I trained a lot.”
Fittipaldi: “But now, in F2, it’s similar.”
WHO WOULD WIN IN AN ARM-WRESTLING MATCH?
Maloney: “We did it already.”
Fittipaldi: “Let’s go.”
Maloney: “Left and right hand. This is important.”
Maloney wins
Fittipaldi: “It’s cause he has the technique!”