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Speaker 1: There's a lot to talk about here John as we

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Speaker 1: get to Toto Wolf Team Principal CEO of Mercedes. But John,

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Speaker 1: the real issue here to me, and I'm gonna do

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Speaker 1: a little bit more Spanner and cispar.

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Speaker 2: I was reading about the SUSPEC.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the side impact bar is very, very important for

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Speaker 1: all these different cars.

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Speaker 3: I look forward to flex.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: This is more of an engineering discussion.

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Speaker 4: You're looking at it.

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Speaker 3: Maybe, well, we've got is not running away from the camera.

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Speaker 3: Joined us now Total Wolf Team Principal and CEO of

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Speaker 3: Mercedes AMG Patrona's Formula one Total fantastically catch up with you, sir.

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Speaker 3: Let's just start with this new racetrack. We've spoken to

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Speaker 3: a couple of people about it already. What kind of

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Speaker 3: feedback total are you getting from the drivers on the

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Speaker 3: simulator going into race weekend?

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Speaker 2: First about good morning, good morning to New York.

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Speaker 4: We can also talk side in PIC structures if you wish,

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Speaker 4: you're gonna you're gonna lose some of your some of

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Speaker 4: your audiences.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm skilled with that. Yeah, we can jump on

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Speaker 2: a separate call.

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Speaker 4: I'll tell you so the drivers have been in the

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Speaker 4: simulated and I spoke to Lewis last week when we

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Speaker 4: had a meeting in the factory and he said, as

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Speaker 4: trade is so long and impressive, but we don't really

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Speaker 4: know what to expect because, as you mentioned before, we're

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Speaker 4: racing between ten and twelve local time. Nevada nights, I've

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Speaker 4: heard can be pretty pretty cold, and the only night

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Speaker 4: racing experience that we have is Singapore and a little

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Speaker 4: bit of the Middle East, but obviously never on a

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Speaker 4: new track close to five degree cent degree with Caarella

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Speaker 4: tires that have never experienced these kind of temperatures.

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Speaker 3: It just raised some questions as to why it's being

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Speaker 3: hosted at this time of the year, at this time

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Speaker 3: of night. So how did that come about and would

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Speaker 3: you push for a change next season?

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Speaker 4: Well, obviously Las Vegas stands for entertainment and show and

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Speaker 4: Liberty came up with the plan, which is great. To

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Speaker 4: be honest, we've not raced in Las Vegas for a

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Speaker 4: long time, certainly not in modern form one and going

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Speaker 4: there with this new format in the night, it's going

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Speaker 4: to be spectacular. I think it's pin said before. The

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Speaker 4: track is brained new. That means the surface can be

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Speaker 4: quite greasy or oily because that's what asphal do does

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Speaker 4: when it's new. We haven't raised in those temperatures, as

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Speaker 4: I said before, but in any case, it's going to

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Speaker 4: be a big spectacle. I don't know whether we will

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Speaker 4: be sliding around or whether the track is going to

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Speaker 4: be really grippy, but we shall find out in a

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Speaker 4: few days.

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Speaker 3: We've been talking about qualifying and the prospect of maybe

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Speaker 3: needing to do two three laps to get tires up

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Speaker 3: to whats more temperature to put in that quick a

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Speaker 3: slap to any thoughts on that at this point.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we've had it in the past that sometimes you

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Speaker 4: just needed to slowly warm up the tires because if

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Speaker 4: you push them too hard at the beginning, they grain,

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Speaker 4: you know, then you slide over the surface.

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Speaker 2: The grip is never going to come.

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Speaker 4: So bringing them in, driving them carefully, getting them up

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Speaker 4: to temperature, and that could last a few laps, depending

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Speaker 4: and we're getting a little bit technical here, and depending

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Speaker 4: on how much you heat your rims and your breaks beforehand.

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Speaker 4: And teams have various concepts. They don't want to have

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Speaker 4: the front tires pretty cool and long lasting, or you

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Speaker 4: heat them a lot, which gives you a grip for

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Speaker 4: a single lab for qualifying, but obviously harms them for

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Speaker 4: the race.

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Speaker 3: It could be chaos or it could be really exciting

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Speaker 3: one or the other. It goes to a conversation we've

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Speaker 3: been having all season on this program total just how

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Speaker 3: you balance pursuing commercial gains without compromising race quality. What

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Speaker 3: do you make in the current balance of Formula one.

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Speaker 4: I think we had that balance to cope with that

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Speaker 4: balance for a long time, and I think why we

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Speaker 4: love the sport so much is because it's honest. Entertainment

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Speaker 4: follow sport. We're not designing regulations or content because we

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Speaker 4: want to create scripted content with a certain outcome, with

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Speaker 4: a certain degree of non variability.

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Speaker 2: We're doing this. We launch ourselves.

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Speaker 4: There's technical regulations, they're sporting regulations, and then off you

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Speaker 4: go with a.

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Speaker 2: Certain we'rein a certain.

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Speaker 4: Framework of cost cap, which is similar to the salary

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Speaker 4: cap in some of the US leagues. Everybody has the

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Speaker 4: same starting point, and then we launch ourselves into this.

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Speaker 4: So it's honest to stop watch never lies, and therefore

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Speaker 4: the entertainment's follow suit.

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Speaker 3: And yet we go through these periods of dominance. We

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Speaker 3: saw it with Ferrari like nineties early two thousands. We

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Speaker 3: saw it with you Mercedes for a long time as well,

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Speaker 3: and now with Red Bull. So Lewis has said recently

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Speaker 3: in the last couple of days, the red Bull is

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Speaker 3: so far away. I think they're probably going to be

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Speaker 3: very clear for the next couple of years. From your

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Speaker 3: standpoint as team principle is that a realistic assessment of

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Speaker 3: the future, the next couple of seasons.

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Speaker 2: Where we're giving it all to break a psyche.

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Speaker 4: Like you said, we had five years of dominance of

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Speaker 4: Ferrari and we had a short spell of Red balland

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Speaker 4: then it was us eight times in a row. And

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Speaker 4: now it's the second Constructor Championship for a pull or

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Speaker 4: the third Drivate Championship with an indeed very good driver.

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Speaker 4: So we are, you know, with all we have back

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Speaker 4: in effect and at the racetrack we're trying to come

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Speaker 4: up with a car and with an execution that is

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Speaker 4: as good as it can be, and we have an

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Speaker 4: ext cycle of regulatory engine twenty twenty six. But we've

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Speaker 4: got to turn this around there.

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Speaker 1: Well for this race, and I think total Wolf it's

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Speaker 1: it's very clear. There's three late races left Las Vegas

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Speaker 1: and then back over to the Middle East Cutter in

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Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi. Are you racing right now for next year?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we have done for quite some while.

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Speaker 4: We're still fighting for the second championship in a constructor championship.

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Speaker 4: We are second at the moment and Ferrari behind us,

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Speaker 4: so that's an interesting one. But you know, deep down,

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Speaker 4: second or third, third place doesn't matter. We've got to

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Speaker 4: with all humility fight for the front. And that's why

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Speaker 4: many months ago already we've switched and which was too

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Speaker 4: a new county totally.

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Speaker 1: There's a phenomenal photo of three Austrians, Nikki lauda total wolf,

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Speaker 1: and a guy named Schwarzeneger. It's a really really cool photo.

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Speaker 1: And to take what Arnold Schwarzenegger did and all of

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Speaker 1: our American audience remove from F one understands Italie in here.

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Speaker 1: When you look at the showbiz a Formula one, the

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Speaker 1: Netflix success of which you're a star, his Formula one

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Speaker 1: gone two showbiz in twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 4: Obviously, you know there's a few Austrians of us that

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Speaker 4: have gone beyond beyond the country, and Schwartzenegger probably the biggest.

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Speaker 4: And I was lucky enough to be very close friends

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Speaker 4: with Nikki and we traveled the world around ys function

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Speaker 4: as chairman of the team and there were very valuable

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Speaker 4: lessons that I could learn. Did we go beyond the

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Speaker 4: spots too much entertainment? I don't think so.

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Speaker 2: We have.

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Speaker 4: We're trying different formats with the spring race weekends and

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Speaker 4: all Las Vegas racing in the night, and if it

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Speaker 4: needs calibration to provide a better show whilst staying true

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Speaker 4: to our values of the honest spot, I think we've

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Speaker 4: got to try.

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Speaker 2: But the core product, the.

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Speaker 4: Grandkre on Sunday, within the regulations, financial, technical and spotting

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Speaker 4: is always what Formula one has been all about.

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Speaker 3: Let's finish on the prospective expansion the TOTO. I believe

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Speaker 3: you've been against the expansion of the grid. Do you

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Speaker 3: think it's now ultimately inevitable?

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Speaker 4: I think we The ten teams that have been in

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Speaker 4: the spot have been so for a long long time.

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Speaker 4: The smaller teams or midfield teams have gone through a

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Speaker 4: lot of hardship a few years ago when COVID struck,

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Speaker 4: but in any case they fought for survival and here

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Speaker 4: we are with the cost cap kicking in.

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Speaker 2: The teams have most of the teams have done.

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Speaker 4: Into profitability and finally are in a sustainable way in continuing.

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Speaker 2: But that is not a given.

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Speaker 4: You know, we are on high at the moment, and

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Speaker 4: therefore we've got to respect what the FA and the

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Speaker 4: commercial right holder are going to decide whether they want

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Speaker 4: to have an additional team joining. And obviously if we

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Speaker 4: are being asked to saying, as long as it's a

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Speaker 4: creative for the show, as long as we provide a

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Speaker 4: better entertainment, more income, why would any team be against it.

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Speaker 4: But fundamentally it's somebody else that decides Total.

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Speaker 3: It's wonderful to catch up with you, sir going into

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Speaker 3: race weekend. Good luck to you with the team. I'm

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Speaker 3: looking forward to watching the race over the weekend. Thank

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Speaker 3: you for being with us. Total Welfare Team Principle and

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Speaker 3: CEO of Mercedes AMG Patronus F one