Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: This set of rules is here with us for five years,
Speaker 2: so it's not about the first racer too, it's about
Speaker 2: the next five years. Again, extremely confident. We have the
Speaker 2: right people, we have the right tools, we have the
Speaker 2: right processes, we have the right partners. So I'm very
Speaker 2: confident for extremely confident for our future.
Speaker 3: So that was Laurence Stroll, the billionaire owner of the
Speaker 3: Aston Martin Aramco F one team. He sat down with
Speaker 3: me earlier to talk about his confidence in his team
Speaker 3: leading the high stakes motorsports category, but he faces challengers
Speaker 3: including General Motors Cadillac, which just unveiled it's four and
Speaker 3: to F one with a splashy Super Bowl commercial featuring
Speaker 3: the new Livery and joining us now live on the
Speaker 3: set is Dan Towers, the CEO of Cadillac Formula one
Speaker 3: and this is a high stakes league here. Dan, very
Speaker 3: cool to see Cadillac GM coming in to this sport,
Speaker 3: especially at the same time as Ford, its crosstown rival,
Speaker 3: enters the scene.
Speaker 1: But tell us.
Speaker 3: About what your expectations are now, because you've had testing
Speaker 3: If I'm not mistaken in Barcelona and you're just about
Speaker 3: have testing in Bahrain with your yes.
Speaker 4: So for us, Barcelona was mostly shakedown, so it's testing
Speaker 4: a lot of new systems and everybody's talked about the
Speaker 4: fact that it's a new chassis, so a new set
Speaker 4: of regulations, new tires, new power units. But for us,
Speaker 4: for Cadillac, we're building everything for the first time, the
Speaker 4: fuel system, you know, just all the pieces on the car,
Speaker 4: and so a lot of it was just reliability focused.
Speaker 4: As we go into Bahrain this week, we're very excited.
Speaker 4: It's now start to push the limits of the car
Speaker 4: and to see what we see what we have.
Speaker 3: You have incredibly experienced drivers right in valcher Botas and
Speaker 3: Sergio Perez. What did they make of the car? And
Speaker 3: you know what kind of feedback did you get from
Speaker 3: those superstars?
Speaker 4: I think some of their feedback similar to the other drivers.
Speaker 4: There's a lot less load under the set of regulations
Speaker 4: on this car, which just means there's less downforce. The
Speaker 4: car is going to feel a little slippier to drive,
Speaker 4: and it's going to be a whole new technique as
Speaker 4: they figure how to use this power unit with the
Speaker 4: electrication piece and the combustion piece, you know, combined. So
Speaker 4: again it's a very different. It's a very different car
Speaker 4: to drive this year, and so everybody's in a big
Speaker 4: learning curve right now.
Speaker 1: And I mean to that point, to that learning curve,
Speaker 1: you're a newcomer in this space. I know that you've
Speaker 1: said previously that you want to be America's team in
Speaker 1: F one, and I wonder, you know what you see
Speaker 1: that looking like if your vision is actualized.
Speaker 4: So it's really leaning into you know, a new fan base.
Speaker 4: If you think about the success that Drives to Survive
Speaker 4: has had or F one the movie which just you know,
Speaker 4: crushed every record, it's created a lot of F one
Speaker 4: curius fans in the US. And that was really the
Speaker 4: thought behind the super Bowl commercial. It's a big stage
Speaker 4: and we wanted to get to people that don't maybe
Speaker 4: consume F one every day. If I want to speak
Speaker 4: to the diehard motorsport fan, it's very easy to that.
Speaker 4: You know, media ecosystem is very developed. The super Bowl
Speaker 4: let us, you know, create a conversation about Cadillac Formula
Speaker 4: one to people who, like I said, saw the movie,
Speaker 4: thought it was interesting and say wait this this team's
Speaker 4: going to be on track in thirty days. I need
Speaker 4: to check this out.
Speaker 1: Well, That gets a little bit to what I was wondering,
Speaker 1: which is why is Super Bowl commercial? I mean, you
Speaker 1: take a look at some of the numbers. On average,
Speaker 1: I believe super Bowl ads were eight million dollars. We
Speaker 1: heard some reports that they got to ten million dollars
Speaker 1: for thirty seconds. I mean, why was it important to
Speaker 1: sort of have your debut at the Super Bowl so
Speaker 1: to speak.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really just that big audience. I think it's
Speaker 4: also just you know, it's it's this cultural moment in sports.
Speaker 4: The Super Bowl has become so much you know, about
Speaker 4: the ads as much as the game, you know, depending
Speaker 4: who you talk to. And again, so this let us
Speaker 4: have that platform to reach the F one curius, to
Speaker 4: reach a new fan base for Cadillac Formula One, to
Speaker 4: say that we're coming and let's us kind of put
Speaker 4: that American spin, this bold American team. I mean, what's
Speaker 4: more American than announcing your showing your first ever livery
Speaker 4: than at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about the business of Formula One and
Speaker 3: really the business of racing. Because you've been involved in
Speaker 3: motorsports for a solid decade now with Game Ridge, with
Speaker 3: Andretti now a TWG, So how do you make money
Speaker 3: in this sport.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it starts with growing a fan base,
Speaker 4: which is really was job number one with the Super
Speaker 4: Bowl commercial, building up the fan base, and then you know,
Speaker 4: taking those metrics and reaching out to sponsors and building
Speaker 4: up that piece. And so it's a you know, you
Speaker 4: have a marketing machine. I mean really, when you think
Speaker 4: about today's modern F one, you know it's yeah, you've
Speaker 4: got the team, maybe you have a power unit company.
Speaker 4: You need to have a media company inside your Formula
Speaker 4: one team as well, because you're marketing to the world,
Speaker 4: You're creating content, you're creating, you know, drawing in eyeball's interest,
Speaker 4: you're storytelling, You're doing all those things to create commercial
Speaker 4: value for the team. And that's essential in today's Formula one.
Speaker 3: By the way, Checko and Botas are perfect for that.
Speaker 3: I mean absolutely, Terry is an amazing storyteller in his
Speaker 3: own right. What did you what was your strategy when
Speaker 3: you group these brands together? Because I see like an
Speaker 3: American heritage line here through Jim Bean and Tommy hillfigure
Speaker 3: for example.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I think as we think about what does it
Speaker 4: mean to be a you know, a American, we want
Speaker 4: to have these iconic American brands, these American originals that
Speaker 4: really create a you know, a foundational pillar in our
Speaker 4: in our sponsorship ecosystem. And I mean Tommy is fantastic,
Speaker 4: Jim Beam, you know, Cadillac. These are iconic American brands,
Speaker 4: and so we're you know, formula ones of global business.
Speaker 4: So we're going to want to have non American brands
Speaker 4: on the car as well, but we definitely want to
Speaker 4: have those bona fide set up where we're anchored in
Speaker 4: these iconic American brands.
Speaker 3: What do you make of the sort of Win on Sunday,
Speaker 3: Cell on Monday Mantra from the fifties and sixties. I mean,
Speaker 3: GM is getting in a big way back into racing,
Speaker 3: not just an F one. I went to Lamar with
Speaker 3: Mark Royce and crew and watched their hypercar there, which
Speaker 3: was amazing to see. But they also have you know,
Speaker 3: vehicles that nobody else can produce right now. They have
Speaker 3: a super Charge V eight with a stick and the
Speaker 3: CT five V Black Wing, So I'm really pumped about
Speaker 3: their offerings.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, the product line is just as spectacular. It's actually
Speaker 4: actually after one of the F one bar to meetings,
Speaker 4: Cadillac They brought out every car in the lineup and
Speaker 4: we just spent the afternoon driving them. And so the
Speaker 4: product lineup is so strong, and so there's this upward
Speaker 4: mobility from a market share standpoint in Cadillac. It's the
Speaker 4: perfect time to bring Formula one in the Cadillac car
Speaker 4: brand together