Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. So Max, let's start
Speaker 1: by talking a little bit about this season so far.
Speaker 1: What's your state of mind going into Italy about your racing?
Speaker 2: Very relaxed, to be honest. I mean, yeah, we we
Speaker 2: had I think, pretty pretty pretty decent starts. Yeah, we've
Speaker 2: been you know, I think, just constantly improving a bit
Speaker 2: from from you know, last year. But of course also
Speaker 2: the competition, you know, they have been also improving, and
Speaker 2: I think everyone is getting a bit closer here and there.
Speaker 2: But that's good. I mean everyone is of course trying
Speaker 2: to push as hot as they can, and that's the
Speaker 2: same for us.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to think about, you know, moving to Italy
Speaker 1: and then on too Monico. After Miami, we sort of
Speaker 1: see the fullness and I'm speaking to you from Doha,
Speaker 1: you know, the fullness of this global circuit. Do you
Speaker 1: think the mix is where it needs to be geographically
Speaker 1: or or do you think the calendar needs to be tweaked.
Speaker 2: I think what we're doing in the US at the moment,
Speaker 2: I think is great. You know, having the three races
Speaker 2: there in different places I think works really well. I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: from my side, the only thing I think what can
Speaker 2: improve a bit on the calendar is just the general
Speaker 2: like traveling. We're still traveling a little bit too much
Speaker 2: left and right. I think it would be it would
Speaker 2: make a bit more sense, you know, to to maybe
Speaker 2: start like we did in in Asia, maybe have a
Speaker 2: few back to backs and then do YEurope and from
Speaker 2: yere you move on to the US or whatever. You know.
Speaker 2: So there are few, I think, still a few things
Speaker 2: that we can do better. Also when you look at
Speaker 2: from sustainability. But at the same time, of course I
Speaker 2: understand that you know, having two three races in the
Speaker 2: same country or in the same continent maybe sells less tickets.
Speaker 2: But then at the end of the day, I mean,
Speaker 2: what are you trying to sell? Is it tickets or
Speaker 2: actually sell the sustainability story. You know, that's what we
Speaker 2: have to look at.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: And obviously the global audience as well, that's that's tuning
Speaker 1: in to, you know, watch from from home or bars
Speaker 1: or wherever. So so to that point in terms of
Speaker 1: building the fan base, you know, obviously the US, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, it's getting much more popular.
Speaker 3: Drive to Survive We've heard that story a lot.
Speaker 1: What else does f one need to do what individual
Speaker 1: teams need to do to ensure that the sport keeps
Speaker 1: growing globally.
Speaker 2: Keeping it real I think, yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 2: a difficult one, you know, because it depends how you
Speaker 2: want to attract fans like you can attract it of
Speaker 2: course a very different ways, right, you know, from the
Speaker 2: entertainment side or actually the performance side of things. And
Speaker 2: of course you know the sport has been growing a
Speaker 2: lot lately, probably from you know, more the entertainment side,
Speaker 2: but you know, you also need to question like what
Speaker 2: you actually want because I think it's also very important
Speaker 2: to keep you know, the real die hard fans, you know,
Speaker 2: really engaged. But you know, these kind of things at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, like you know, I'm the
Speaker 2: racing driver. I'm very focused on my performance and you
Speaker 2: know that's already taking a lot of my time, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to just be on top of my game, you know,
Speaker 2: being you know, in touch with with my team what
Speaker 2: we can try and improve. And you know, to be honest,
Speaker 2: what that those kinds of things are not really going
Speaker 2: through my mind a lot. You know, how how should
Speaker 2: I grow the sport? I mean that's not up to me.
Speaker 2: I'm not, you know, also the shareholder of the sport.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm just here to try and win, win
Speaker 2: the races.
Speaker 3: That's a fair point.
Speaker 1: And obviously the commercial success does, as you rightly point out,
Speaker 1: rely very much on success on the track. No one
Speaker 1: has no one would question your success on the track.
Speaker 1: It's worth pointing out that that obviously, you know, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big change with with Adrian Newey leaving.
Speaker 1: What's your confidence level I should say about that side
Speaker 1: of the equation moving forward, ensuring that you can stay
Speaker 1: competitive on the track.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's of course, you know, it's been
Speaker 2: you know, quite you know, a change, I guess, but
Speaker 2: also a shame that you know, Adrian will be leaving,
Speaker 2: because I think it will be always nice for him,
Speaker 2: you know, to be part of what we are doing.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's been incredibly important for us, especially from
Speaker 2: the start of Red Bull Racing, I would say, And yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean at one point, you know, you have a
Speaker 2: lot of good people in the team, a really strong
Speaker 2: technical department that I trust in as well, you know,
Speaker 2: for the future, so naturally the confidence is very high
Speaker 2: and very excited for for the coming years as well.
Speaker 2: But yeah, would it have been nice for Adrian to
Speaker 2: be around as well and see that for sure. But
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, you know, when people
Speaker 2: want to maybe seek new challenges or whatever, you can't
Speaker 2: stop that.
Speaker 1: And so when you think about you know, obviously you
Speaker 1: take care of business on the track, that's clear. How
Speaker 1: much do you think about your business the business of
Speaker 1: Max off the track? You know you have some key
Speaker 1: endorsements with EA, with Heineken. How do you choose those
Speaker 1: partners and what is that process like?
Speaker 2: Luckily, you know, I you know, I have a really
Speaker 2: strong group of people you know around me that I
Speaker 2: think know me pretty well, you know, so I think
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, the sponsorships and endorsement deals,
Speaker 2: you know, they need to fit me and you know,
Speaker 2: we need to be able to you know, work very
Speaker 2: well together, which I think with the with the deals
Speaker 2: that we have in place at the moment, they work
Speaker 2: really well for me. And then also I'm probably a
Speaker 2: bit more natural in the way that you know, I
Speaker 2: can express myself, so that definite me, Yeah, it works
Speaker 2: very well because you also, you know, we do a
Speaker 2: lot of racing, We do a lot of similar to
Speaker 2: work back at the factory, we have a lot of
Speaker 2: marketing days and then plus your private deals as well.
Speaker 2: You know, there are a lot of days that are
Speaker 2: gone in a year because it's also important, of course
Speaker 2: to to rest up and actually you spend time with
Speaker 2: family and friends because you know, I fun, of course
Speaker 2: is great, but that's not what I'm going to be
Speaker 2: doing the rest of my life. So it's important to
Speaker 2: you know, find your free time as well and enjoy
Speaker 2: life as well a little bit.
Speaker 1: And so that that begs the question that a bit,
Speaker 1: you know, as you think about and I don't imagine
Speaker 1: it will be soon, but you know, life after the sport,
Speaker 1: how do you build your your business portfolio? How do
Speaker 1: you think about you know, the business of max moving forward?
Speaker 1: What do you see yourself doing down the line?
Speaker 2: I probably, you know myself, I will always race a bit,
Speaker 2: but you know, a bit less than form one. It's
Speaker 2: very intense, you know, I have a lot of plans,
Speaker 2: you know, outside of that. You know, I do a
Speaker 2: lot of the simulated stuff like virtual racing, and I
Speaker 2: want to try and find a way of you know,
Speaker 2: drivers who don't have the money to start in go
Speaker 2: cutting or other kind of categories, you know, to make
Speaker 2: it into real racing. I want to try and create
Speaker 2: an opportunity for them through the virtual world, the same
Speaker 2: racing world, you know, to also have a shot at
Speaker 2: it in real life. So this is something that I'm planning.
Speaker 2: I don't want to rush it. I want to do
Speaker 2: it well. But that's something that I definitely, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm very interested in. And everything else outside of that,
Speaker 2: I think, you know, it just depends a bit more,
Speaker 2: you know, how much free time you have as well.
Speaker 2: Of course, there's plenty going on in the background. But yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of people around me, you know, people that
Speaker 2: I trust, you know, they take care of that.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Speak of plenty going on in the background there. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's been a lot of off track noise, you know,
Speaker 1: on the team drivers moving around. How do you stay
Speaker 1: focused amid all that and how does that affect your
Speaker 1: decision making?
Speaker 2: I think I'm quite a relaxed person, you know, So
Speaker 2: when I go home, I honestly don't really think about
Speaker 2: Formula one too much. Other kind of things around, you know,
Speaker 2: other teams or whatever, that doesn't interest me at all,
Speaker 2: you know, what is happening there. I'm just very focused
Speaker 2: on what I have to do within the team and
Speaker 2: outside of that, you know, I really want to try
Speaker 2: and switch off as much as I can. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm pretty relaxed. Of course, a lot of things,
Speaker 2: you know, from the start of the season happened, but
Speaker 2: and the other you know, on the other hand, I'm
Speaker 2: just here for the results, you know. I try to
Speaker 2: focus for you know, on the performance side of things,
Speaker 2: and then just try to do the best I can.
Speaker 3: You know, it was interesting.
Speaker 1: I was in Miami and you know, witnessed that very
Speaker 1: I dare say, sweet moment between you and Lando, you know,
Speaker 1: when he when he won that race.
Speaker 3: What does that mean for the sport?
Speaker 1: Obviously you've been dominating and yet I would imagine and
Speaker 1: you understand that, you know, good competition is ultimately what
Speaker 1: is going to drive fans.
Speaker 3: So how do you square that in your mind?
Speaker 2: Well, they first of all, you know, they beat us
Speaker 2: very and squares so then yeah, I'm good friends with Lando,
Speaker 2: you know, so I was very happy for him to
Speaker 2: win his first race. Is always I think a very
Speaker 2: special moment when you win your first race, you know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, just genuinely happy. Of course the fans like
Speaker 2: to see it as well. From my side, of course,
Speaker 2: you know, personally I wasn't happy with with how the
Speaker 2: weekend went, but we still came out of there with
Speaker 2: the most points of everyone, which even when a weekend
Speaker 2: didn't go away, you know, you can still I guess
Speaker 2: in a way be satisfied with that. But as a team,
Speaker 2: you know, we always try to do better, and that's
Speaker 2: why we're here in Italy now to try and do
Speaker 2: better than what we did in Miami.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to go back very quickly, but
Speaker 1: before we wrapped it to something you said at the
Speaker 1: beginning about you know, the calendar and you know some
Speaker 1: of the tweaks that maybe need to be made. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like, you know, both with your team and
Speaker 1: the other teams and Formula one FIA, do you feel
Speaker 1: like they listen to you as the top driver and
Speaker 1: other drivers in terms of your wants and needs, in
Speaker 1: terms of really your part in growing the sport.
Speaker 2: I think they are always very open to have a
Speaker 2: chat or listen, you know, so that has never been
Speaker 2: a problem. Of course they might sometimes think the same,
Speaker 2: but then sometimes it's just you know, it's not possible
Speaker 2: to change it on a short term because of you know,
Speaker 2: deals that have been made about certain dates as well
Speaker 2: in the calendar, you know, but I think it is
Speaker 2: always very open for a chat, so for me from
Speaker 2: that side, it's never been been a problem. And you know,
Speaker 2: I'm also always very happy to talk about stuff that
Speaker 2: can be improved in the sport that I love of course,