Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott and this is
Speaker 2: Hot Pursuit.
Speaker 3: We had an awesome weekend.
Speaker 2: Hannah, My goodness, that was I think the most fun
Speaker 2: I've had at a car event ever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was so fun. I would I would wholeheartly agree,
Speaker 3: actually for sure at an event for cars and maybe
Speaker 3: even in motorcycles, that was, oh wow, the coolest for me.
Speaker 3: I mean, the star studded guest list that we had
Speaker 3: was just insane.
Speaker 2: I know, everything came together so well, and I have
Speaker 2: to say the access I thought was incredible, both for
Speaker 2: us as media but also for spectators. Yep, I mean
Speaker 2: it felt it made an F one race feel a
Speaker 2: little bit difficult to navigate. Like the access I thought
Speaker 2: at Lamal was just really good.
Speaker 3: Yes, we should explain for you know, people who aren't
Speaker 3: regular listeners what we're talking about. So Hannah and I
Speaker 3: went to Lamal, France to see the twenty four hour
Speaker 3: race last weekend, and we had a star studded guest
Speaker 3: list of CEOs and market movers. We had Tom Wagner,
Speaker 3: who runs Nighthead, which owns the team there Hurts team
Speaker 3: Joda Cadillac. He also owns Singer as well as Revology.
Speaker 3: Obviously Hurts what we had the CEO of Hurts, Gil
Speaker 3: West join us. We had the CEO of Ford, Jim
Speaker 3: Farley join us. We had the CEO of Aston Martin
Speaker 3: Adrian Hallmark. By the way. So, and in terms of
Speaker 3: the race results, right, Ferrari one, everybody was telling us
Speaker 3: the whole time they were sandbag and it turns out
Speaker 3: they kind of were.
Speaker 2: They would all say, we're not allowed to tell you this,
Speaker 2: and we don't. We're not allowed to talk about the
Speaker 2: balance of power. Butt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ferrari sand bags, and so does Toyota.
Speaker 3: Well, no, Toyota got sand bagged. So Toyota was given
Speaker 3: an eleven kilogram penalty, right because they won so much
Speaker 3: at the beginning of this decade, and Ferrari was just
Speaker 3: given a pass. And I think the impressive thing was
Speaker 3: that Porsia took second, Ferrari was first, third, and fourth.
Speaker 3: And then this is.
Speaker 1: A third year in a row Ferrari one. So three
Speaker 1: years in a row.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and amazing their driver Robert Kubica, right, who is
Speaker 3: basically one handed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, unbelievable story.
Speaker 3: Truly an amazing story. But if you think about it,
Speaker 3: Cadillac Actually, if you take out the Ferraris, which they
Speaker 3: were given a huge advantage, then Cadillac comes in. I
Speaker 3: think third. They were they were no. Second because they
Speaker 3: were fifth the number twelve. Yeah, car finished fist.
Speaker 2: I have to say, Cadillac is really developing into a
Speaker 2: fascinating story and it was so great to be, you know,
Speaker 2: around that team in their hospitality, around some of their
Speaker 2: drivers Jensen Button of course, and some of their executives
Speaker 2: Mark Royce. Because the vibe is good. The vibe is
Speaker 2: really good. I think there is a nice little ground
Speaker 2: swell happening, and of course that's great timing going into
Speaker 2: Formula One as a race team next year. That is
Speaker 2: a team to watch just out of a human interest
Speaker 2: story alone.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. I also think I can't remember who which
Speaker 3: media outlet wrote collection of the winners and losers, and
Speaker 3: they included Aston Martin as one of the winners, even
Speaker 3: though Aston Martin's hypercar team was one of the biggest losers.
Speaker 3: At the end of the race, they only beat Pougeot,
Speaker 3: which was really the biggest loser. But I also agree
Speaker 3: that Aston was a winner because they're new to this right. Also,
Speaker 3: they were the only non hybrid entry and for me,
Speaker 3: like watching the race, it was the sound again that
Speaker 3: was the most important thing, and the Cadillacs were the
Speaker 3: most amazing, like deep rumble. They made everybody else sound
Speaker 3: like nothing except for the Aston Martin Valkyrie. That thing,
Speaker 3: the v twelve screams.
Speaker 2: Screaming is the right word for it. It is unbelievable
Speaker 2: to feel that. I mean, you hear it and you
Speaker 2: feel it in your body when it goes by. It
Speaker 2: was so so cool, and I think for me, the
Speaker 2: takeaway is that Lamon is it's about the racing. Really,
Speaker 2: It's about that moment that you just described feeling when
Speaker 2: a Valkyrie goes by. There were no not a ton
Speaker 2: of like influencers and just hordes of celebrities at this race,
Speaker 2: which was I thought it was really nice. You know,
Speaker 2: F one has become all about status and really bringing
Speaker 2: you know, Hollywood stars and musical stars and all of
Speaker 2: that is really great, but Lemon doesn't have that quite yet.
Speaker 2: I think it probably will in a couple of years.
Speaker 2: I think we're headed in that direction. And that's great,
Speaker 2: that's totally fine, but it's it was nice to be
Speaker 2: at this old French race in this little old French
Speaker 2: town and not have a total like Instagram influencer circuit.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was pretty cool. I actually went over to
Speaker 3: the Portie Hospitality looking for you. At one point I
Speaker 3: was there. Well, I didn't see you, and I stopped
Speaker 3: out on the patio because Mark Weber was giving a
Speaker 3: talk about how you know, WEK works and how endurance
Speaker 3: racing strategy. And then he went inside and sat down
Speaker 3: next to I thought his twin brother. I didn't know
Speaker 3: Mark Weber had a twin brother, and I realized it
Speaker 3: was Eric Banna.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know what's really funny is I was sitting
Speaker 2: behind them. I actually went upstairs in hospitality to sort
Speaker 2: of hide out. This was after we'd wrapped taping and everything,
Speaker 2: and I was just like, I just wanted I honestly
Speaker 2: just want to watch the race. I don't want to
Speaker 2: have to talk to anyone. I want to sit and
Speaker 2: watch the TV and watch the race. So I went
Speaker 2: upstairs and Portia Hospitality. This is after the race had started.
Speaker 2: There was no one there because everyone moved closer to
Speaker 2: the track, and I just sat down behind these two
Speaker 2: dudes and it was like the three of us and
Speaker 2: a couple other folks in the room. That was it
Speaker 2: for an hour, and then eventually some other people came
Speaker 2: into the room, some Porsche executives and puffers, and they
Speaker 2: get the guy to turn around and I realized it's
Speaker 2: Mark and Eric.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I had.
Speaker 1: No idea and they were just chilling it was. It
Speaker 1: was actually really cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was very very cool. I watched most of
Speaker 3: the race upstairs in the in the Cadillac Hospitality and
Speaker 3: just because there was a collection of bros there that
Speaker 3: knew so much about racing. Dario Franchiti was sitting up there.
Speaker 3: Rajnaire formerly a Ford, was up there now, the CEO
Speaker 3: of singer Brian Burke was up there. He's an executive
Speaker 3: vice president at Multimatic. There were just a ton of people.
Speaker 3: Gil West was there, so like every time I had
Speaker 3: a question, and I had so many, I would just
Speaker 3: lean over and be like, yo, Dario, what's the pitting strategy?
Speaker 3: You know? And then he would like explain to the room. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was awesome, so cool.
Speaker 1: I love I love it, I love it.
Speaker 2: I also think we should give a shout out to
Speaker 2: David Clark, who really made a lot of this happen.
Speaker 2: David is kind of a king. I feel like he's
Speaker 2: kind of a king maker in this world. And we
Speaker 2: sort of.
Speaker 1: I saw him.
Speaker 2: We saw him in Cadillac, we saw we kind of
Speaker 2: saw him everywhere.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: That's another one that like when you're listening off these names.
Speaker 2: These are people who have been in the business forever
Speaker 2: and they know everyone. There's nobody they can't call to
Speaker 2: get something done or you know, just to talk to
Speaker 2: her whatever to get insight from It was really cool
Speaker 2: to be a part of that, and yeah, I definitely
Speaker 2: hope we can do it again next year.
Speaker 3: Speaking of kings, we have one on this program today,
Speaker 3: truly a king if his kingdom is not having its
Speaker 3: best year. In twenty twenty five, we're gonna talk to
Speaker 3: Toto Wolf, who is the CEO and co owner of
Speaker 3: Mercedes their Formula One team Mercedes AMG Patronis. He's the
Speaker 3: team principal. He's a billionaire from Austria and I mean
Speaker 3: speaking of highly connected, this guy is married to Susie Wolf,
Speaker 3: so she started the Formula Academy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they talk about a power couple. Also, Toto
Speaker 2: has transcended motorsports become famous in culture, I think in general.
Speaker 2: And I know that's true because my gay best friend
Speaker 2: who doesn't care for motorsport at all but loves music.
Speaker 1: Like he loves Toto.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got some girly friends who are not
Speaker 2: involved in cars at all, they all know all about
Speaker 2: Toto and are big fans. So he has transcended cars
Speaker 2: and he is now on another level. So we're excited
Speaker 2: to have him.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about race weekend, because you guys had a
Speaker 3: good one. Tell us what happened.
Speaker 4: Yeaha was a good one. We finished first and second
Speaker 4: wonder Race with George Russell and excitingly with eighteen year
Speaker 4: old Kimo Antonelli. We finished third, So double podium.
Speaker 3: And how did you get there? Because it's been a
Speaker 3: tough it's been a long slog, right.
Speaker 4: Well, it hasn't been such a slog. I think you're
Speaker 4: being a bit harsh with us here because we've won
Speaker 4: of a bunch of races last year, we've been dominant
Speaker 4: in Las Vegas, but we haven't competed for a championships
Speaker 4: since a while, and in that respect, this this season
Speaker 4: we had many podiums but no victories, and yesterday it
Speaker 4: was on complete merit. We've been strong throughout the race
Speaker 4: on all tires. There was not you know, the lack
Speaker 4: of a safety cow, so it was us really, you know,
Speaker 4: being the being the benchmark.
Speaker 2: Then Jimmy is I think the third youngest driver ever
Speaker 2: to take a race podium, which is huge.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us just.
Speaker 2: A little bit about what you see in him as
Speaker 2: a driver and what you see as he develops, what
Speaker 2: you can expect for the future.
Speaker 4: So, Kimmy has been in our junior program since he
Speaker 4: was eleven, and you can today recognize talent, I would
Speaker 4: say from the age of ten when the kids start
Speaker 4: to compete in the International Go Cutting Series and we're
Speaker 4: having a good group of scouts. You know, I'm a
Speaker 4: City Spen's junior program and that's important in a way.
Speaker 4: It works like the soccer, soccer or tennis academies that
Speaker 4: they identified talent very early on and for a young driver,
Speaker 4: you you know, they start winning races and the really
Speaker 4: best ones win championships and the great ones do do
Speaker 4: that every year. And that's why we saw that Kimmi
Speaker 4: was different from the age of eleven or twelve, and
Speaker 4: then he's continued.
Speaker 1: What do you see it in winning championships already.
Speaker 4: Yeah, already in katting, you have these age groups eight
Speaker 4: to ten, ten to twelve, twelve to fourteen. And if
Speaker 4: a kid starts at the age of eight and is
Speaker 4: already competitive against two year elder children, that's already a
Speaker 4: good indication. And if that child wins a championship a
Speaker 4: year younger than everybody else, that's another good indication. And
Speaker 4: he has been winning through these throughout these categories, and
Speaker 4: that's very exceptional.
Speaker 3: I wonder I always think about this kind of feeder
Speaker 3: program that you have, and I think about I've lived
Speaker 3: in Germany for a long time, so I'm familiar with
Speaker 3: the soccer feeder to they have how many women or
Speaker 3: how many girls are in this Because if we learned
Speaker 3: anything from Lamar this weekend is that you don't need
Speaker 3: to have this kind of dominant alpha male strength to
Speaker 3: win a race like Kuvisa has an injured arm and
Speaker 3: still took the victory over the factory team, So clearly
Speaker 3: women could compete at the top level.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Robert is A is a is an exceptional driver,
Speaker 4: great talent. He had him. He had a Ferrari consigned
Speaker 4: Ferrari contract before he had the rally accident, so he
Speaker 4: would have been a world championhip, no doubt about that.
Speaker 4: And also the resilience that he's shown because he's driving
Speaker 4: with one hand. But in terms of young female is
Speaker 4: just a number game, you know. We when you look
Speaker 4: at Cocating ten years ago of Adred, of one hundred kids,
Speaker 4: there would have been two girls. Now there is fifteen
Speaker 4: or twenty. And that's why we're eventually gonna have young
Speaker 4: females comp think being able to compete in Formula one.
Speaker 4: So we have a young lady in our program. Her
Speaker 4: name is Luna Fluxa, who's winning races, who's winning championships.
Speaker 4: She's going to step into cars in one year, and
Speaker 4: she has she has the talent and the ambition and
Speaker 4: the character to be successful. And the obviously the program
Speaker 4: that my wife manages, the Formula one Academy, which is
Speaker 4: an old female series, has been inspiring for young girls
Speaker 4: suddenly seeing being a racing driver as a career because
Speaker 4: on the past they went no role models. It was
Speaker 4: Susie was in the last one in Formula one. And
Speaker 4: now suddenly there's a Netflix series around Formula one Academy
Speaker 4: that has just dropped, and more girls are starting to
Speaker 4: have an interest.
Speaker 2: You know, last week I was with Frank Wallacer with Bidley,
Speaker 2: you know, Frank the former head of Portion Motorsport, and
Speaker 2: we were talking about how long it takes to develop
Speaker 2: young drivers. I'm curious for Antonelli, for instance, how many
Speaker 2: years do you think he would need to really get
Speaker 2: him to the top of his game and maybe at
Speaker 2: the top of the podium. Is that a three year game?
Speaker 2: Is that a five year game or is it shorter
Speaker 2: than that?
Speaker 4: So that has changed in the last few years because
Speaker 4: it is so difficult to manage the tires. It's not
Speaker 4: only about speed, how fast can you go on a
Speaker 4: single lap boy in a race, but not sturing the
Speaker 4: tires to drive as fast as you can in the
Speaker 4: same time, not sliding them and not making them overheat
Speaker 4: because it loses you lose tons of lap times and
Speaker 4: that is the limitation for young drivers coming up. A
Speaker 4: good example is Piastre who is leading the championship. It
Speaker 4: took him a year and a half actually to kind
Speaker 4: of catch up to London Norris and it's been the
Speaker 4: first year that he has an edge on him, and
Speaker 4: that is I think just the tire management and with Kimmi.
Speaker 4: He doesn't know all of the circuits. It was the
Speaker 4: first time in Montreal, so you start with a massive disadvantage.
Speaker 4: But the car was good and he was able to,
Speaker 4: you know, be fast. But coming back to your question, yes,
Speaker 4: you probably need to look at the three year program
Speaker 4: and say that's the time it needs for a young
Speaker 4: driver to you know, to challenge the more your more
Speaker 4: experienced teammates that are also super fast. I mean, George
Speaker 4: today is among the among the best drivers in form
Speaker 4: of one and that's something you need to give them time.
Speaker 4: You need to accept that there's going to be more
Speaker 4: difficult weekends underperformance, but that's just part of how it
Speaker 4: goes now.
Speaker 3: So do you have a take on whether or not
Speaker 3: a team should have two drivers for the whole season
Speaker 3: and they stay there because a lot of people have
Speaker 3: been talking about this since Jack Dowan was removed, or
Speaker 3: do you think that a team should be able to revolve,
Speaker 3: you know, like occasionally you could use Valucherie and take.
Speaker 4: I think when you take the right decision in terms
Speaker 4: of talent, you must be very conscious about who you're
Speaker 4: putting in the car and if that young driver shows
Speaker 4: a lot of promise, you also need to give them
Speaker 4: time to develop, and that's what we are doing with Kimi.
Speaker 4: There were lots of voices that said, how can you
Speaker 4: put an eighteen year old in a car, especially in
Speaker 4: the Mercedes. You know, it's not like you're competing in
Speaker 4: a smaller team and you're under the radar, but literally
Speaker 4: you're being cutapulted in a seed where people expect you
Speaker 4: to be on the podium or win races. So that's
Speaker 4: been our philosophy. We wouldn't give anyone a seed if
Speaker 4: we didn't think that can be a champion of the future.
Speaker 3: What does Voucherie do for you guys? Because he put
Speaker 3: out a pretty hilarious video on special where he's like
Speaker 3: drinking a lot of espressol and hanging out right. But
Speaker 3: he's obviously an incredibly talented pilot, so I guess he
Speaker 3: can add a ton of value, right.
Speaker 4: Viter is just awesome guy. He's a super talented driver
Speaker 4: and he's kind of found his you know, he's being
Speaker 4: authentic now. I met Viter in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 4: He was a young driver without any financial backing, and
Speaker 4: he was dominating Junior Series. I remember seeing his first
Speaker 4: race in a really competitive feeder series called Former No.
Speaker 4: There was forty four starters. He was on pole and
Speaker 4: at the end of the race he was leading by
Speaker 4: a margin of ten seconds. So outstanding driver then came
Speaker 4: into Formula One and unfortunately ended up with the most
Speaker 4: successful driver of all times. Louis Hamilton has a teammate
Speaker 4: in his peak and vity was a wise world champion
Speaker 4: many times. He's won many races, He's been dominant some
Speaker 4: of the circuits and also against his teammates. When he
Speaker 4: went to Sauba, he you know, he just basically crushed
Speaker 4: them all. But then he ended up without a seat
Speaker 4: and for us a huge opportunity to take back as
Speaker 4: a reserve. I know that if one of our drivers
Speaker 4: would have a fish poisoning, have the best guy, we
Speaker 4: would have the best guy in the car to actually perform.
Speaker 4: So that's positive. And on a different note, he has
Speaker 4: kind of found his you know, his his brand. He's
Speaker 4: an extremely cool guy. He always was, but he's a Finn.
Speaker 4: He was introverted and he's in a way he breaks
Speaker 4: free of the Mercedes environment. And you know he has
Speaker 4: this mustache and the hair and how do you call
Speaker 4: that the mullet, the mullet and he's he's.
Speaker 3: A business in the front party in the back exactly.
Speaker 3: In German it's called a focal.
Speaker 4: Language. Like in the front, you know efficient, and in
Speaker 4: the rear you're fashionable, stylish, and Vitry is an individual
Speaker 4: that can take a mickey out of himself, which is
Speaker 4: so important. You need to be able to laugh about himself.
Speaker 4: And Vitory has the ambition and the talent to come
Speaker 4: back into Formula one and if that doesn't fly, he's
Speaker 4: going to make a career in Lamon that you like,
Speaker 4: or in Indy cars or whatever, because he's so good.
Speaker 4: But on top of that, he's a laugh I mean,
Speaker 4: I saw that video and you really really great content.
Speaker 2: You know. That really makes me think about this conversation
Speaker 2: we had with Jensen Button this past weekend at Lamar
Speaker 2: and Jensen made the comment that Formula one drivers are
Speaker 2: very selfish. They're the most selfish drivers in any series
Speaker 2: we were talking about, of course NASCAR and endurance racing.
Speaker 2: And I'm wondering if you if you agree with that,
Speaker 2: and how do you manage these personalities The egos will
Speaker 2: be honest that you have to have a pretty good
Speaker 2: opinion of yourself to put yourself on the line like that.
Speaker 1: How do you manage that as team principle.
Speaker 4: So there's two things you cannot expect from a one driver,
Speaker 4: to be a lion in the car and the puppy outside.
Speaker 4: These guys are traumatized little six year olds because they've
Speaker 4: been put in a go card as basically toddlers. That's scary.
Speaker 4: You know you're being told drive fast. These cards go
Speaker 4: one hundred kilometers an hour. It's raining, you have accidents
Speaker 4: and you need to rely on yourself. You find out
Speaker 4: that you are alone in this go card and you
Speaker 4: just need to survive, and only the best to There's
Speaker 4: many kids that eventually drop out because of fear, pressure
Speaker 4: or running, lack of talent. So if you make it
Speaker 4: in formula one, you know that you can only rely
Speaker 4: on yourself. It is you need to be selfish. You
Speaker 4: need to beat your teammate. So that is a key ingredient.
Speaker 4: But and here's the caveat. I believe that the best
Speaker 4: ones also have social intelligence, emotional and intelligence, and they
Speaker 4: know how to maneuver a padoc. They are career focused
Speaker 4: and driven, but they are not selfish because they understand
Speaker 4: that in order to be successful and Informula one, you
Speaker 4: need to have the good people around you, whether it's
Speaker 4: in the team or whether it's in your management, and
Speaker 4: you need to look at it from a long term perspective.
Speaker 4: The short term optimization will not make you the most
Speaker 4: successful driver. And we've seen it in the past that
Speaker 4: people missed out on great careers because they were acting
Speaker 4: arrogantly or selfish optimizing every single opportunity rather than being
Speaker 4: a team player. Louis Hamilton is a fantastic team player
Speaker 4: and he's been the most successful of all time. Michael
Speaker 4: Schumacher was able to assemble the team around him and
Speaker 4: being hugely successful. So you see that with the best
Speaker 4: so talent, ambition, but also consciousness that it doesn't all
Speaker 4: revolve around yourself. There is other people that are part
Speaker 4: of your success. And how I've been managing this from
Speaker 4: the first day that I have been in Former one
Speaker 4: is that I make no difference between the two drivers
Speaker 4: and the rest of the company. And I've been telling
Speaker 4: them that there's two and a half thousand superstars in
Speaker 4: this team, whether they work in the machine shop and
Speaker 4: the cleaning, in aerodynamics or driving the car. I'm not
Speaker 4: going to treat you any different than any of the
Speaker 4: other people. If you a selfish and you put our
Speaker 4: joint success at risk or or you damage our brand,
Speaker 4: then I'm gonna be and then I'm going to be
Speaker 4: ruthless about it. You have no part in this team.
Speaker 4: And that's that philosophy worked because our drivers have understood,
Speaker 4: they respected, they care that everybody you know is part
Speaker 4: of the success, and they realize that when they crash
Speaker 4: into each other. For example, people can't pay their mortgages
Speaker 4: because they don't they don't earn their bonus.
Speaker 3: I get it. I get that, and I love the
Speaker 3: egalitarian take. But there's obviously an importance having someone as
Speaker 3: good as say Lewis Hamilton to help lead the team.
Speaker 3: You do what you do, but he also must have
Speaker 3: contributed a lot in that sense. Do you miss Lewis?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure personally you can still hang out
Speaker 3: with him, but do you miss him in that sense?
Speaker 3: As such an experienced leader, as such a champion.
Speaker 4: You always have to miss a person like Louis Hamilton.
Speaker 4: And as you say, we're still close friends. We have
Speaker 4: given our word to each other that we will stay
Speaker 4: close friends. We're fighting hard on track with the gloves
Speaker 4: off of our because we need to fight for respective
Speaker 4: teams and that's the kind of rule we have. But
Speaker 4: off track, we spend some time with each other. We
Speaker 4: travel with each other, and I don't want to miss
Speaker 4: the friend that I've been, that I've that I've that
Speaker 4: I've gotten for so many years, the longest ever drive
Speaker 4: a team relationship in Formula one twelve years. He's rarely
Speaker 4: see that in any other spot. And when it comes
Speaker 4: to developing the car, obviously he has a lot of experience.
Speaker 4: He seed it all and to replace someone like Louis
Speaker 4: Hamilton is always going to be difficult, you know.
Speaker 2: With Lewis, obviously he probably hasn't been finishing as high
Speaker 2: up this year as he wanted. But also I've read
Speaker 2: plenty of his comments in the press that he is unconcerned.
Speaker 2: He is this is a long process, this is a
Speaker 2: new team, a new car, and of course anyone would
Speaker 2: be foolish to count out a champion like Lewis Hamilton. Ever,
Speaker 2: I'm just wondering how you see that now from your
Speaker 2: side of the track, so to speak, as he is
Speaker 2: learning a new car and a new team and taking
Speaker 2: some time to do it.
Speaker 4: I fully agree with that you know, you don't learn
Speaker 4: driving that quickly. In twenty twenty one he was great.
Speaker 4: Than the regulation changed and it got a little bit
Speaker 4: more difficult, but he was still performing on a very
Speaker 4: high level. And just by changing teams suddenly you don't
Speaker 4: lose your skills. I think everybody needs to have a
Speaker 4: period of adoption, different car, different DNA of how how
Speaker 4: that vehicle drives, new engineering team that you need to
Speaker 4: start to work together then be involved in the continuous
Speaker 4: development in the car so it suits your driving style.
Speaker 4: It's an all Italian team, you know, he's a British
Speaker 4: guy parachuted in there and uh and that takes time. Also,
Speaker 4: we have seen a little bit of a pattern that
Speaker 4: lewis at the beginning of the season. You know, he
Speaker 4: needs to come into to find that mojo, and the
Speaker 4: second half of the season has been always very strong.
Speaker 4: So don't ever write Louis Hammerton off.
Speaker 3: Can I just point out that Mark Marquez did not
Speaker 3: need any time for that. Do you watch one of
Speaker 3: the other leagues or sports that you're I know you're
Speaker 3: super busy with Formula one so you probably can't. But
Speaker 3: Moto GP, Mark Marquez has been so insanely dominant, and
Speaker 3: he is old and broken and switched not only to
Speaker 3: a different team, but he's working for the Italians who
Speaker 3: really don't like him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there is the exceptional athletes that that
Speaker 4: clearly outstanding in that category. And he has shown that
Speaker 4: switching manufacturers hasn't hasn't affected him. On the contrary, he's
Speaker 4: he's great on the on the Ducati as well. I
Speaker 4: don't know how many word championships did Mark Marcus win.
Speaker 3: He's got eight now.
Speaker 4: So it's like Lewis, right, yeah, true, and these are
Speaker 4: the greats and some adopt easier, some some take a
Speaker 4: little bit of time. But I mean Louis Hamilton is
Speaker 4: one of the greatest goals of course all time.
Speaker 3: Of course, he's up there on that level with a
Speaker 3: Rossi as well.
Speaker 2: Speaking of Lewis, obviously he was the producer in this
Speaker 2: F one film. Toto were how involved were you in
Speaker 2: this in the filming? The production? The film's coming out
Speaker 2: very soon. I'm actually going to see it tonight in
Speaker 2: a press screening.
Speaker 3: Is there a total in this in this movie?
Speaker 4: Yeah? About them? Actually, I mean I'm really I'm really
Speaker 4: really proud. Yeah, And he's taken a lot of interest
Speaker 4: in the role, so and say how does it work?
Speaker 4: He spent some time with me at the race, had
Speaker 4: him in the garage listening to the intercom. Exceptional, exceptional
Speaker 4: guy also to be so keen and understanding, trying to understand.
Speaker 4: And yeah, we've been involved from early on. Obviously Lewis
Speaker 4: was the main one guiding the team in in the narrative,
Speaker 4: in the storyline, what's realistic, what's not? I can only
Speaker 4: take a mini credit in it. I'm an executive producer
Speaker 4: and I was told when that's on the screen, that's
Speaker 4: pretty good. But other than that, you know, we have
Speaker 4: we helped to build the cars. So we built f
Speaker 4: two cars that are cars that that are racing in there.
Speaker 4: We we pointed bread that racing drivers schools to learn it.
Speaker 4: And obviously there were meetings where you know, we were
Speaker 4: asked of our opinion is that realistic or not? Is
Speaker 4: that what you would do? And so we had a
Speaker 4: we had a contribution and that and you know, I've
Speaker 4: seen them. I've seen the movie in premiere for the
Speaker 4: team principals and drivers in Monte Carlo, and I don't
Speaker 4: see a mistake. There's nothing that I would not see
Speaker 4: us being uncompletely unrealistic. I mean you have the drivers
Speaker 4: Sonny who is a who is who is older than
Speaker 4: what you would think, but not much more. All of
Speaker 4: all of the the all of the storyline is realistic,
Speaker 4: and even for us racing insiders, we couldn't find anything wrong.
Speaker 3: We actually asked Jensen Button over the weekend, like, what
Speaker 3: is the difference when you're forty five as opposed to
Speaker 3: twenty five? I mean he still has in incredible reflexes, right,
Speaker 3: And what makes younger drivers better because they do always
Speaker 3: have a few tenths on the guys, even the champions
Speaker 3: who are twenty years older.
Speaker 4: I think that the true champions can compensate some of
Speaker 4: the sharpness that you lose. I mean cognitively, all of
Speaker 4: us becoming elder, you lose some of that. I think,
Speaker 4: what your reactions, what your eyes see, motoric capability, that's
Speaker 4: something that's getting slower. But you can compensate that by
Speaker 4: the better, right amount of training. So that's one thing.
Speaker 4: The other is that the courage. You know, young drivers
Speaker 4: are sometimes you know, not thinking too much about the
Speaker 4: risks of the spot, and the older you get, you
Speaker 4: may realize that a little bit more. But again they
Speaker 4: are the outstanding ones are keep a bit of compensating
Speaker 4: that in you know, different training for example. So you
Speaker 4: know Alonso's going to be forty forty yere and he's
Speaker 4: still an exceptional driver.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 3: We were talking to Matt Brown about him. He could
Speaker 3: he could help them.
Speaker 4: Uh, I mean, Zach Brown is in his early fifties
Speaker 4: and he he still thinks of himself as being a
Speaker 4: great driver.
Speaker 3: He may need to lose a few pounds.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I need to be. Zach is a friend of mine,
Speaker 4: so I got to be. I need to be careful.
Speaker 4: But as you have said, you know you can get
Speaker 4: him in. It's just a matter of how quickly you
Speaker 4: can get him out again. But wow, that's really nasty.
Speaker 4: But he's a good friend. He's going to take that
Speaker 4: with a with a pinch.
Speaker 2: So that did make the point back to the drive
Speaker 2: that being an elder driver, you do have more to lose.
Speaker 2: Potentially once you get married, you have children, you start
Speaker 2: to have more at stake.
Speaker 3: You recognize your mortality.
Speaker 4: You know, I can just tell it from my personal career.
Speaker 4: I think I was never afraid of the mortality thing.
Speaker 4: You know, nobody will survive anyway. And if you can
Speaker 4: say that you had you know, you're doing what you want,
Speaker 4: you love what you do, you have a great family,
Speaker 4: then there's point is eventually going to come. So there's
Speaker 4: not a thing in time in a car that I
Speaker 4: thought about mortality. But you start, you kind of start
Speaker 4: looking at things that you haven't in the past, you know,
Speaker 4: with me, particularly in in rallying, suddenly I saw trees
Speaker 4: that I have never seen before that I would have
Speaker 4: not looked at before or under in the Rasky. You know,
Speaker 4: when it's when it's raining and there's aqua planning, you
Speaker 4: think about lifting as a twenty five year olds, I
Speaker 4: would have never thought about lifting over acua planning. It
Speaker 4: is what it is, you know, So that changes. But
Speaker 4: it's not being scared. It's just that I hear you
Speaker 4: realize I hear you.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you saw this news, but Caring
Speaker 3: is naming Luca DeMeo from Renault it's next chief executive officer.
Speaker 3: And you are very fashionable, very stylish in an elegant way.
Speaker 3: What do you think about this potential to if you're
Speaker 3: a great leader in automotive or in racing, that you
Speaker 3: could do something and also in luxury or fashion, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean this kind of shift. Have you thought about that?
Speaker 4: So, first of all, Luca is a star for me,
Speaker 4: and I've texted with him this morning and congratulated him
Speaker 4: and said, it's a shame. You know, we've worked in
Speaker 4: Formula one together. I'l beIN he's gonna have say this
Speaker 4: engine next year, next year, but he's not around and
Speaker 4: he was fundamental in making that happen. So I really
Speaker 4: really rate him as a manager. And I think when
Speaker 4: you have an understanding for an organization and he's not
Speaker 4: under an no around, I mean massively. Yes, he was
Speaker 4: great at Sayad, he was exceptional at Volkswagen before. If
Speaker 4: you have an understanding for an organization, if you are
Speaker 4: able to motivate people, if you have empathy, but at
Speaker 4: the same time you create the right amount of pressure,
Speaker 4: you can succeed in any industry in my opinion. And
Speaker 4: I mean, I think for caring is a coup to
Speaker 4: have someone like look at me as a CEO.
Speaker 3: It's just cool, that is. I mean from engineering to
Speaker 3: fashion there's a huge difference, right, one of them is mathematical,
Speaker 3: methodical and the other one is just an innate sense
Speaker 3: that you have.
Speaker 4: But as a car guy, you also have a sense
Speaker 4: of you need to have a sense of esthetics. Cars
Speaker 4: need to look good. People look you know cars Always
Speaker 4: people say I'm buying a car because it's you know,
Speaker 4: it doesn't burn a lot of fuel, or it's it's
Speaker 4: you know, it looks good, has a lot of power.
Speaker 4: But all these things are just disguising the real reason
Speaker 4: we're buying car. Buying a car is an emotional act.
Speaker 4: It's how I want to be perceived, not how I am,
Speaker 4: but how I want to be perceived. And a proper
Speaker 4: car guy and I see that we're all a Calanius
Speaker 4: who runs Mercedes, they understand that very well. What is
Speaker 4: it the customer wants to have? What's the aesthetics of
Speaker 4: the car of the future. It's not about what you
Speaker 4: like today, it's about what this is going to be
Speaker 4: in three years. And I remember having been shown around
Speaker 4: the next generation of Mercedes is a few years ago
Speaker 4: by all a Calanius and Gordon Vagano is the chief
Speaker 4: design of Mercedes, and he said, so he's shown Louis
Speaker 4: and I around. He said, how do you like the
Speaker 4: cars that are coming in three years? And we said, well,
Speaker 4: we don't like them. He said, I'm glad that you
Speaker 4: say that, because if you would like the cars in
Speaker 4: three years, I know it would have done it wrong
Speaker 4: because you will like them in three years.
Speaker 3: But not now.
Speaker 4: So sense of aesthetics, Look, Luka's going to do just fine.
Speaker 4: He is designed been part of designing great cars. He's
Speaker 4: going to be part of designing great Cuci clothes, finding
Speaker 4: the right story, finding the right people that are kind
Speaker 4: of designed the closes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Okay, So what for you is the most beautiful car
Speaker 2: ever made?
Speaker 4: WHOA? I would say spontaneously the three hundred s L call.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're not wrong, but it just since you
Speaker 3: work for Mercedes, it's but.
Speaker 4: It is the car. I mean it could you could
Speaker 4: You could also say, you know, to fifty gto ferraris
Speaker 4: a spectacular car. But looking at the way that non
Speaker 4: Mercedes head, I think the most amazing car is also
Speaker 4: the one that was the most expensive car of a
Speaker 4: SOULD is the unhaut could Pey, you know, the pre
Speaker 4: three hundred s L. You look at that car and
Speaker 4: it's just the beauty in itself with the technology that
Speaker 4: was unseen in those early years. And then the three
Speaker 4: hundred was the development of the road car, which then
Speaker 4: became a race car. But these are just the best
Speaker 4: cars in the world.
Speaker 3: I mean, Hannah's written about that car extensively.
Speaker 4: I was there, you there when it was sold. I mean, congratulations.
Speaker 4: I think this was an event that does a car person.
Speaker 4: You can be proud that you've been part of it.
Speaker 4: But also, you know, I'm driving the three hundred is
Speaker 4: LS and it's a fifty to fifty six car, nineteen
Speaker 4: fifty six car, and that thing drives two undred fifty
Speaker 4: kilometers an hour. It breaks like a modern kite even
Speaker 4: with the old tires. You know, you can you can
Speaker 4: swish around the corner and you can see how far
Speaker 4: advanced Mercedes was in terms of the developing high performance
Speaker 4: cars back in the day and again or in hardcopy,
Speaker 4: it's amazing.
Speaker 3: I would also like to have a three hundred sl.
Speaker 3: How much time do you have to hang out with
Speaker 3: cars to enjoy, you know, the aesthetics of or the smell,
Speaker 3: the vibrations, like the good old stuff, since you're so
Speaker 3: busy at work with the new stuff.
Speaker 4: Not enough, unfortunately, But I you know, I'm so lucky.
Speaker 4: We I have Mercedes company cars and I get driven
Speaker 4: around with Mercedeses to and from the races. That's really great.
Speaker 4: And I appreciate that I was giving a company car
Speaker 4: in the UK new s class S sixty three, and
Speaker 4: I wrote and I wrote an email to the head
Speaker 4: of Mercedes Spence you Can. I said, I'm so thankful
Speaker 4: and grateful that you're giving me a company car like
Speaker 4: the S sixty three because seeing it, stepping into the car,
Speaker 4: driving it or being driven is just pure joy. And
Speaker 4: in the same way driving some of the some of
Speaker 4: the vintage cars around, it's it's you know, I need
Speaker 4: to pinch myself sometimes being able to have this Mercedes cars.
Speaker 2: I want to ask a little bit about motorsport in general.
Speaker 2: Matt and I are all hyped up on Lamont because
Speaker 2: we were just there. Would Mercedes ever run a factory
Speaker 2: team at Lamont?
Speaker 1: Would you join join?
Speaker 2: And obviously there's so much branding potential for you.
Speaker 1: Where do you see motorsports?
Speaker 3: We're told us a bargain total thirty forty million for
Speaker 3: the season. What a bargain.
Speaker 4: It's a bargain, yeah, uh define bargain. No, But I'm
Speaker 4: you know what I'm I'm looking at it. Lamar. I'm
Speaker 4: a racer. Lamar twenty four hours is one of the
Speaker 4: greatest races in the in the world Formula one. For me,
Speaker 4: obviously my bias is the best there is. It's the
Speaker 4: best driver's quick as cars, the greatest tracks, and then
Speaker 4: there is a long time nothing. But if I would say,
Speaker 4: what's next Lamar twenty four hours and if I found it,
Speaker 4: and that is really one for insiders in the notch life,
Speaker 4: the new book in twenty four hours. That for me
Speaker 4: is you know, the top of the top. And when
Speaker 4: I'm not having a Formula One weekend, I can watch
Speaker 4: Lamar race pretty much through the night. You know, I'm
Speaker 4: following the live feed and some of the drivers have
Speaker 4: a personal interest. And as Mercedes, it's something that we
Speaker 4: did in the past. We aren't particularly you know, that
Speaker 4: wasn't our happiest place. We had a very bad accident
Speaker 4: in the fifties when we when we exited and and
Speaker 4: then some of our prototypes have been flying taking off
Speaker 4: in the nineties and early two thousands. I think it
Speaker 4: was in the nine nineteen nineties. But what it is
Speaker 4: for me today is we are concentrating on you know,
Speaker 4: the main platform and that is Formula one. It's what
Speaker 4: we want to do. Right. This captures ninety nine percent
Speaker 4: of the audiences and and everything else is you know,
Speaker 4: comes second. Now we have entered with Mercedes in it,
Speaker 4: with the GD three car. That's something which we are
Speaker 4: looking at. That is our customer program.
Speaker 3: Speaking of aesthetics, I think it was probably the best
Speaker 3: one in the g T three s.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it looks really great. Yes, and then there is
Speaker 4: the little you know, caveat all the Collanius and of Mercedes.
Speaker 4: We are raising people and we don't like bops. We
Speaker 4: don't like balance of performance. We don't like somebody assessing
Speaker 4: your power, your energy consumption, you wait, your driver's skill.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: And then you know I'm being harsh.
Speaker 3: Now it's you that won't survive. I think you're right.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's going to survive after this. It's
Speaker 3: just not fair.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, you spend so much time and money
Speaker 4: and effort in developing the quickest car and then you're
Speaker 4: being put in kilograms of balanced into this car. And
Speaker 4: I don't want to be I just want to, you know,
Speaker 4: build the quickest car, and Formula one has shown how
Speaker 4: it goes. Give us a cost cap. You know, dou
Speaker 4: lamt give everybody a cost cap. You cannot spend more
Speaker 4: than achs whatever you said thirty forty million, and we
Speaker 4: didn't this thirty forty million, that is what. Then you
Speaker 4: can do what you want. I mean, still there's regulations,
Speaker 4: but nobody needs to bleff in pre season racing or
Speaker 4: in qualifying. But it's war, it's you know, gloves of
Speaker 4: PA racing. If that was to happen Lemar, absolutely would
Speaker 4: you know, it would be something that we would be
Speaker 4: looking at. But at the moment, BPE having some officials
Speaker 4: judge whether whether you're quick or too quick putting ten
Speaker 4: kilograms in your car taking it out from someone else
Speaker 4: the next day, not for us at the moment.
Speaker 3: Hey man, it's been really great spending some time with you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you, and I really enjoyed it. And you know,
Speaker 4: it's good to have a chat with the two of
Speaker 4: you so enthusiastic about cars. Having been in Lemont. There
Speaker 4: won't there wouldn't be many Americans. I guess that you
Speaker 4: would have found in Lemont this weekend. So great that
Speaker 4: you have been.
Speaker 3: There more with Cadillac more right, So.
Speaker 1: Yeah, true, true, I mean, we love it.
Speaker 2: And I know you won't remember, but we last spoke
Speaker 2: in Las Vegas at the F one Race in Vegas,
Speaker 2: and I always very much appreciate you taking the time
Speaker 2: for Bloomberg, So thank you, very pleasure for me all.
Speaker 3: That's how we have for this. We'll be back the
Speaker 3: same time, same place next week. Thanks so much for
Speaker 3: joining us. I'm Matt Miller, I'm
Speaker 1: Anna Elliott, and this is Bloomberg.