00:59:16 · John Collison, Toto Wolff
[00:59:16] S1: I've always wanted... I personally find Drive to Survive a little too so paparazzi. I always want more of the technical details and more of the the race craft. And so I think maybe that there will be the opportunity over time for, you know, different subshows or something like that because I understand why they make the choices they do. I think what they have is probably... Has the most mainstream appeal, but they'll probably find that there are sub emphases that would be [00:59:40] S0: It's a good it's a good point. We actually haven't thought about because we tried to develop... And Stefano de Micali, who runs Formula One, is excellent at that. To grow it in the right demographic. Yeah. We are still niche in some parts of the world. So we have large group of fans in every continent. But when you look at The United States, it's very much big cities and affluent. Yes. I can see that when you go to New York, Miami, San Francisco, LA, Austin, the spot is very present. People recognize you. I was invited to the Super Bowl in Arizona a few years ago. No recognition. You know? So we are kind of not developed in the middle of The United States Yeah. [01:00:20] S1: Which is NASCAR. Right.
01:00:20 · John Collison, Toto Wolff
[01:00:20] S1: Which is NASCAR. Right. [01:00:21] S0: And so this is very much the the demographic, the current demographic that Stefano is is aiming at. Because it's niche, it's it's high-tech. Mhmm. It's it's... How can I say? It's very European Yes. And glamorous to a certain degree. And we've... We have this hardcore fans. Interestingly, many of the young ones follow free practice on on Friday. They will know everything about the updates on the car, the error updates. They also know about the wags, the wives and girlfriends of the drivers, and all of these influences and blogs that that are existing. Yes. [01:00:58] S1: We're kinda getting into what does it mean to be an f one fan these days because it's interesting. You have this pyramidal structure where you can be extremely engaged and follow the team around, or you can go to one race when it comes to your town, or you can watch drive to survive. Or maybe you just come across YouTube clips in your feed occasionally, and so now there are all these different layers. And so how has that changed from a Mercedes strategy point of view, the fact that you have so many different types of fans now versus the old paradigm of you turn up to a race or you don't? [01:01:29] S0: You know, as a team today, we we have so many different fan groups or not only fans, but stakeholders. [01:01:37] S1: Mhmm.
01:01:37 · John Collison, Toto Wolff
[01:01:37] S1: Mhmm. [01:01:38] S0: You have, obviously, Mercedes. What is it we do for the car's brand to enhance Yeah. Reputation and see... Fundamentally selling cars? So what is that? What can we do for... So when... I have this customer theory. A customer is someone that makes your life better. So my number one customer is Susie, my wife. So whatever I will do and say is always focused on is she gonna like that or not? Because that has an effect of my life quality. My family, very important. My... The people that work for Mercedes, my employees. If I have them in a good space, then the car is gonna go faster. And the real... Relationships matter. Then it's sponsors and and and co shareholders. What is it I need to do for them to to say that this is a good investment or a good platform? And you can trickle that down. And then it's the the fans, and then there might be the social media followers. You can trickle that down. And what I'm trying to do is in my priority list of customers to identify the objective to achieve the best outcome. So that is what I've always done in any of my, you know, my... The way of of looking at a life. Sounds a bit rational and brutal, and maybe the reality is it's not No. [01:03:09] S1: You're ranking [01:03:10] S0: but I'm ranking your priorities. I'm... Exactly. [01:03:12] S1: Yeah. F one is interesting because you have the teams. You have f one, the organization, the company itself, and then you have the FIA, which people might not realize is different. What are the tensions
01:03:25 · Toto Wolff, John Collison
[01:03:25] S0: between all of those groups? I think tensions have been very limited in in... Recently, in recent times. Because there was this pressure always between Formula One as being, you know, the the commercial sides of it and the commercial rights holder. The FAA being the governing body, making the rules... Policing policing the rules, and then the teams. Mhmm. And there was an, let's say, an umbrella contract between all three stakeholders, which was called the... Which is the famous Concorde Agreement. Mhmm. Because it was signed on the Place De La Concorde in in Paris many, many ten year ten year... Tens of years before. And the commercial... So the teams, we don't own the league, contrary to the NFL, for example. But we we are we are getting quite a large percentage of the profits that Formula One Mhmm. Formula One do. Liberty and the public shareholders retail or institutional institutional investors own Formula One, and we get the profits. The FAA is being paid by Formula One for their services. But the FAA is also the one that granted the rights to Formula One in a hundred year agreement. Mhmm. So they need to be respected as a as a stakeholder and not only as the policeman. Mhmm. And I think that was where crack... Cracks appeared a few years ago or even before, you must say. But today, it's quite... It's more aligned. We're gelling more the three entities for the benefit of the sport. [01:05:02] S1: But if there is
01:05:02 · John Collison, Toto Wolff
[01:05:02] S1: But if there is [01:05:04] S0: a disagreement, what will it likely be about? What could the disagreement look like, you know, in in... Do you know how the the profits split, for example? These contracts are being renewed every five years. The age old debate. Yeah. Exactly. Or, you know, where are we? Which countries are hosting races? [01:05:26] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Will that new Spanish circuit that nobody likes a mistake? [01:05:30] S0: So I'm a traditionalist. I love going to the old circuits because they represent history for me. Mhmm. But, also, the racing is based on this. For whatever reason, the layout of the old tracks, which had vast areas that they were available because places were not as developed as today, provide great racing, overtaking, cars being able to go side by side. [01:05:51] S1: That was a criticism of the new Spanish track. [01:05:53] S0: Exactly. That there wasn't a lot of overtaking. But Madrid did have... And I'm not saying this to make anybody look good. Madrid as a city is spectacular. The track that is built in this area is spectacular. I must say the job that they did over the few years since they have got the contract [01:06:14] S1: Mhmm.
01:06:14 · John Collison, Toto Wolff
[01:06:14] S1: Mhmm. [01:06:14] S0: Is nothing but outstanding. But I think where it didn't work is that the track is so spectacular in terms of for the drivers and the kind of camera positions with this long banked corner. But it didn't account too much for the new generation of cars for the difficulty to overtake. Mhmm. And for next year, already, I think they're gonna change the layout of the track because it's on the permanent track to provide more straights. [01:06:41] S1: Oh, so it's not a permanent error. They can they can just rejigger it? Exactly. How configurable is it? [01:06:46] S0: When I spoke with the CEO of the track on the weekend, and he just mentioned a few corners that key things can be adapted or should be adapted. So they are open minded about it. [01:06:55] S1: Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So there's fundamentally this tension between you're creating a destination and you're designing a racing track, and there are some slight tensions between them. [01:07:04] S0: Maybe you don't have as much room [01:07:04] S1: as you want to work with, but you you can break that trade off a little bit where you can you can improve the track even [01:07:12] S0: I don't think there's [01:07:13] S1: even is that. [01:07:14] S0: I don't I I don't think there's tensions. I think, fundamentally, all stakeholders, including the host Yeah. Wants to have a great Grand Prix, and that means having attractive racing Yes. Whilst having good, you know, spots for the public to