00:00Tell us about what your expectations are now, because you've had testing, if I'm not mistaken, in Barcelona, and you're just about had testing in Bahrain with your new driver.
00:08Yeah, so for us, Barcelona was mostly shakedown, so it's testing a lot of new systems.
00:12Everybody's talked about the fact that it's a new chassis, so a new set of regulations, new tires, new power units.
00:18But for us, for Cadillac, we're building everything for the first time, the fuel system, you know, just all the pieces on the car.
00:24And so a lot of it was just reliability focused.
00:26As we go into Bahrain this week, we're very excited to now start to push the limits of the car and to see what we have.
00:33You have incredibly experienced drivers, right, in Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
00:37What did they make of the car, and, you know, what kind of feedback did you get from those superstars?
00:43Well, I think some of their feedback is similar to the other drivers.
00:45There's a lot less load under the set of regulations on this car, which just means there's less downforce.
00:49The car's going to feel a little slippier to drive.
00:51And it's going to be a whole new technique as they figure out how to use this power unit with the electrification piece and the combustion piece, you know, combined.
00:59So, again, it's a very different car to drive this year.
01:03And so everybody's in a big learning curve right now.
01:05And, I mean, to that point, to that learning curve, you're a newcomer in this space.
01:09I know that you've said previously that you want to be America's team in F1.
01:13And I wonder, you know, what you see that looking like if your vision is actualized.
01:18So it's really leaning into, you know, a new fan base.
01:21So if you think about the success that Drive to Survive has had or F1, the movie, which just, you know, crushed every record, it's created a lot of F1 curious fans in the U.S.
01:30And that was really the thought behind the Super Bowl commercial.
01:32It's a big stage.
01:34And we wanted to get to people that don't maybe consume F1 every day.
01:37If I want to speak to the diehard motorsport fan, it's very easy to.
01:41That, you know, media ecosystem is very developed.
01:44The Super Bowl let us, you know, create a conversation about Cadillac Formula One to people who, like I said, saw the movie, thought it was interesting.
01:51And it's like, wait, this team's going to be on track in 30 days?
01:55I need to check this out.
01:57Well, that gets a little bit to what I was wondering, which is why is Super Bowl commercial?
02:01I mean, you take a look at some of the numbers.
02:03On average, I believe Super Bowl ads were $8 million.
02:06We heard some reports that they got to $10 million for 30 seconds.
02:10I mean, why was it important to sort of have your debut at the Super Bowl, so to speak?
02:16Yeah, it's really just that big audience.
02:18I think it's also just, you know, it's this cultural moment in sports.
02:22The Super Bowl has become so much, you know, about the ads as much as the game, you know, depending who you talk to.
02:27And again, so this let us have that platform to reach the F1 curious, to reach a new fan base for Cadillac Formula One to say that we're coming.
02:37And it lets us kind of put that American spin, this bold American team.
02:41I mean, what's more American than announcing you're showing your first ever livery than at the Super Bowl?
02:46Talk to us about the business of Formula One and really the business of racing, because you've been involved in motorsports for a solid decade now with Gainbridge, with Andretti, now at TWG.
02:57So how do you make money in this sport?
03:01Well, you know, it starts with growing a fan base, which really was job number one with the Super Bowl commercial.
03:05Building up the fan base and then, you know, taking those metrics and reaching out to sponsors and building up that piece.
03:11And so it's, you know, you have a marketing machine.
03:13I mean, really, when you think about today's modern F1, you know, it's, yeah, you've got the team.
03:18Maybe you have a power unit company.
03:20You need to have a media company inside your Formula One team as well, because you're marketing to the world.
03:25You're creating content.
03:27You're creating, you know, drawing in eyeballs to interest.
03:29You're storytelling.
03:30You're doing all those things to create commercial value for the team.
03:33And that's essential in today's Formula One.
03:35By the way, Checo and Botox are perfect for that.
03:38They're absolutely perfect.
03:38I mean, Valtteri is an amazing storyteller in his own right.
03:41What did you, what was your strategy when you grouped these brands together?
03:44Because I see, like, an American heritage line here through Jim Beam and Tommy Hilfiger, for example.
03:51Yeah, absolutely.
03:51I think, as we think about what does it mean to be, you know, American, we want to have these iconic American brands,
03:57these American originals that really create a, you know, a foundational pillar in our sponsorship ecosystem.
04:04And, I mean, Tommy is fantastic.
04:06Jim Beam, you know, Cadillac.
04:07These are iconic American brands.
04:10And so we're, you know, Formula One's a global business.
04:12So we're going to want to have non-American brands on the car as well.
04:15But we definitely want to have those bona fides set up where we're anchored in these iconic American brands.
04:20What do you make of the sort of win on Sunday, sell on Monday mantra from the 50s and 60s?
04:27I mean, GM is getting in a big way back into racing, not just in F1.
04:32I went to Le Mans with Mark Royce and crew and watched their hypercar there, which was amazing to see.
04:39But they also have, you know, vehicles that nobody else can produce right now.
04:43They have a supercharged V8 with a stick and a CT5V Blackwing.
04:47So I'm really pumped about their offerings.
04:48Yeah, no, the product line is just spectacular.
04:51It was actually after one of the F1 board meetings, Cadillac, they brought out every car in the lineup.
04:57And we just spent the afternoon driving them.
04:58And so the product lineup is so strong.
05:01And so there's this upward mobility from a market share standpoint in Cadillac.
05:05It's the perfect time to bring Formula One and the Cadillac car brand together.
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