Welcome Quickstop F1!
Hey everyone, Logan and Aly from FanAmp here with some very exciting news for all of you!
Introducing our newest FanAmp Base… Quickstop F1!!
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Nyasha, the founder, to learn more about why he started Quickstop and to give you all some insight into the roots of their Formula 1 obsession!
Without further adieu… Please welcome Quickstop F1 to FanAmp!
Q: How did you get into Formula 1?
Nyasha: When I was a kid, I used to watch every sport on the TV because I didn’t actually have many toys to play with, so instead, I would just pass the time by watching any sports channel that was on. I remember one day, Formula 1 came on and I must’ve been no older than six but I was just like wow, this is incredible! I was fascinated and my mom noticed my interest, so whenever there was an F1 Sunday, my mom would go to Costco and buy the big pallets of strawberries and I would just sit and watch the races while munching on strawberries. That’s kind of where and when I got into it and every year since then, my interest in it has gone up and down, but it was when I finished university that I really fell back into love with it.
Q: What is your favorite part about running Quickstop?
Nyasha: That’s a good question… honestly, I love making and editing the shorts. I can’t wait to go full time and just edit shorts all day and the creating side is my favorite part of all of it. I used to do food content on a food page, and I still do, but my favorite part about that was being on camera and editing it all together. I love having fun and talking and then putting those little nuggets together and making them into a finished product. I also love seeing them go everywhere and being shared and riling people up in the comments. It’s such a visceral thing and it’s hard to describe the feeling of making something four or five times a week and then having hundreds of responses. It’s crazy to get that real-time feedback of what people like and don’t like and it’s funny because I used to never like the editing side of things, but now I really love having a voice through editing.
Q: If you got to cater a sit down meal for all 20 drivers, what would be on the menu?
Nyasha: Okay… it would have to be vegan because obviously Lewis is vegan. I’m thinking I would maybe do an arancini ball situation with a nice sauce underneath. Actually no… what I would do is maybe make some oyster mushroom tacos to start, which are really good because they’re quite meaty as well. Then for the main, I’d probably do a vegan laksa which is like a Malaysian version of ramen. I feel like that would be quite cool to make and then add some fun side dishes like vegan gyozas or dumplings of some sort. Then dessert, I’m such a basic person with dessert, I love anything with lemon so I would maybe do some kind of lemon compote or lemon tart. I feel like that would be the menu if I were to cook for the drivers, and it would be an honor to do something along those lines. I feel like it will happen one day, it’s definitely one of the things I want to incorporate next year into the content.
Q: What is your reaction to the ongoing debate of who is the better driver between Max and Lewis?
Nyasha: It’s Lewis. I don’t have any other answer than that to be honest. I think that Max has done a great job and I think I was more impressed with him in 2021 than I was in 2022 or even this year. For me, it is more impressive watching a Max that’s under pressure. Even at the beginning of the season last year with Max’s battles with Leclerc, that was impressive, I respected that and it was great racing. This season obviously, Max has been a cut above the rest, but these are the things that Lewis was doing in previous years yet people were just saying it was because he had the fastest car and with Max, people are saying he’s the greatest F1 driver. I think that you can’t compare, they’re two incredible drivers who are very different people and have different fan bases, but that is what creates great rivalries which is something I’m sure everyone wants to see again. There definitely is no definitive answer and I think for me there’s just more evidence for Lewis being better to be honest and that is how I’m going to go.
Q: What is your favorite Lewis Hamilton memory?
Nyahsa: There are so many! Obviously I would have to say Brazil in 2008 which was just crazy with him winning the title on the last corner. That was insane. Also, I have to remember, for him to be the first black driver in F1 and then to narrowly miss out on the championship in his rookie season and then leave the fans all wondering if he will ever do it. He just brought so much excitement especially with looking at how the McLaren car was after he won, he did such a good job just to maximize it. If I had to choose though, I think the first one is the title win in 2008 and then the last one is in Turkey when he won his seventh championship equaling Schumacher’s record. That whole season was incredible for him and all the civil rights activism he did as well was so inspiring with the kneeling and the T-shirts and supporting Brianna Taylor. All of that throughout the season just accumulated to a great title win and the ‘to all the kids out there who dream the impossible’ speech, that stuff is just amazing. I literally started crying when I watched that and I don’t think I’ve ever cried happy tears in sport since then. But yes, I think those two are my favorite memories of him.
Q: What is your favorite piece of content you have ever put out?
Nyasha: There was a fan cam that I made when Lewis won his 100th race which was quite cinematic. I really liked that and there is also one where at the end of the season in 2021 we compared Max Verstappen winning to Scar taking over the pride in the movie Lion King and that was a fun one to make. But in terms of a favorite piece of content, they’re all your favorite until you put them out and then you move on! I think I am just really proud of the consistency and the fact that we show up every week despite everything and we always put ourselves out there and try to make as entertaining a product as possible. That’s what brings me joy and I’ve made so much content over the past few years I can’t even really think of one. It’s an ongoing thing.
Q: Do you have a favorite person you’ve interviewed?
Nyasha: Honestly, that’s a really good question. We’ve had so many cool guests man, and the thing is, loads of them are just friends. We’ve had some big American guests on the show, we’re talking about Darius Butler the former NFL player and we also had Travon Free, who has won an academy award and people might remember him from when he put his Oscar on the grid and joked about it with Martin Brundle. But I think those two are probably my two favorites, mainly for people of that stature to come on our show and enjoy it and want to come on again, it just helps so much when you’re starting out. It gives you credibility and expands you towards audiences who may have never even known who you are. We get so many cool guests though, so it is really hard to choose and we appreciate everyone who comes on the show.
Q: How have you felt about joining FanAmp and having your community based on the app?
Nyasha: It’s been really cool. I think it’s really important to have a safe space for our supporters and I want somewhere where they can go and have F1 discussions and not worry about disagreeing or somebody saying something nasty to them. I’m really excited that we get to do that and build that up for our community and I’m so excited about the potential of it as well. Everything we have done has been really community focused and to have that and be able to take it forward is really cool. It’s one of those things where you just want to protect people and have a safe space for them to share their thoughts and also I know that there is so much potential for us to do some really cool things with the app and I really like the social element as well, with the content that you guys make. It’s all very exciting.
Q: What are you hoping to do with Quickstop F1 in the future?
Nyasha: For us, a lot of our merch goes to America and a lot of our listeners are there. I think it’s a broader market for us to be able to penetrate than in the UK. We would definitely like to move there and I think there are, commercially, a lot more opportunities for us as well. I want to become a motorsport platform that has content, live shows and merch. Having those three things working together and feeding off of each other and doing it in a way which is unique to us within the sport is kind of what I’m looking for with this. I think it’s a really exciting time for us to launch stuff like this with the app and then hopefully starting to make moves to become super self sustainable and then we just go from there.
We are thrilled to have Quickstop F1 now partnered with FanAmp, and we can’t wait to see all of the conversations in the base, even if they’re talking about what food to cook for the drivers!