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00:00McLaren is chasing McLaren, I should say. McLaren. Full stop, then McLaren, right?
00:05Oh, okay, I see that.
00:06Chasing one of the biggest achievements in motorsports, the Triple Crown, again, because they've already done it once.
00:13That means winning Monaco, the Indy 500, and Le Mans.
00:16Joining us now is Zach Brown. He's the CEO of McLaren Racing.
00:20And, Zach, you've actually, under your leadership, you guys have won one leg of that.
00:26We're a third of the way through. Two more to go.
00:30And you're getting into the WEC, the hypercar level, at Le Mans.
00:35So you now have the chance to win that as well.
00:39And I hear that you keep asking Fernando Alonso to get back in the car at Indy.
00:44Yeah, we've got some unfinished business there.
00:47But I'll tell you what, we have an awesome driver lineup.
00:49We've got four cars qualified for the race.
00:52We've finished second twice in the last few years.
00:55Which is coming up this weekend.
00:56At Indy, we've crashed going for the lead, so we're so close.
00:59So this weekend, I'll be at the Indy 500 and spectating from the Montreal Grand Prix.
01:05Fortunately, I've got great racing teams that do not rely on my attendance for success.
01:10You've invested a lot into this.
01:12I mean, you're building a new facility in Indianapolis.
01:15Matt mentioned the hypercar in Le Mans.
01:16But also in other ventures.
01:18You're invested in the F1 Academy and having women rise through the ranks there.
01:22What are the economics of that?
01:23Because obviously, F1 can command huge price tickets, whether it be private equity interest or sponsorships.
01:29What about these ones that don't have as big of a viewer base?
01:33What is sort of the cost-benefit analysis of putting this big of an investment into them?
01:37So they all stand on their own two feet, so they all have to be proper businesses.
01:43Of course, Formula 1, the size and scale, is unlike not only any other motorsport in the world, kind of
01:48unlike any other sport in the world.
01:50So that's in a league of its own.
01:51But when you put them all together, it gives us a unique selling proposition.
01:55If you'd like, being the only team to have won the Triple Crown, the only team competing for the Triple
02:00Crown, it provides opportunity for our sponsor partners who want to get into different aspects of what these different series
02:08deliver.
02:08It's a great opportunity for our employees.
02:11People want to move around, look for new opportunities.
02:13And most importantly, it's very exciting for our fans.
02:16You know, it's like 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 5 when you put them all together.
02:21You know, when we get that next leg of the Triple Crown done, that third race, whichever one that is,
02:26whether that's Lamar or Indy, I think it will just have that much more excitement to it.
02:30And at the end of the day, we're all about our fans.
02:32By the way, so in Formula 1, we've seen some crazy new rules and power trains.
02:39All Matt has done over the past months is complain about the new rules.
02:43Let's just set the context for you, Zach.
02:45Let's just say, the first race made me very unhappy.
02:48I think it's getting better.
02:49In WEC, obviously, engineers are incredibly important, right?
02:53They're hypercars, and you have three drivers.
02:55In Indy, is that the one where the driver matters the most?
02:58Well, I think in any form of motorsport, you have to have the best drivers in the world because no
03:03matter whatever the regulations are, the best drivers you need because all the teams are fantastic.
03:11So Indy car, as you rightly said, is a spec series.
03:15We use a single chassis, so it becomes much more about setup and strategy of the race car versus development
03:21of the race car, where Formula 1 is the ultimate in development.
03:25The car, about 80% of the car, changes over the course of the year.
03:28And then the World Endurance Championship, the hypercar, is almost kind of somewhere in the middle.
03:33But, you know, when we're building racing teams, the first thing on the shopping list is get the best drivers
03:39in the world, no matter what series you're in.
03:41The other big change for F1 this year, and it's the thing that's been out of everyone's hands, is the
03:44disruption for the races in the Middle East.
03:46And it really, really changed the calendar.
03:49You have this big gap, which I'm sure is different for teams and maybe taxing.
03:52And for fans, they have this big gap, too, where F1 isn't at the front of their mind.
03:56Obviously, safety is the most important thing.
03:59But how has that changed this year?
04:02We went from a race calendar that was so incredibly busy to one that felt very spare to start the
04:07year.
04:08Yeah, it was, you know, it was obviously very unfortunate.
04:10We all want to go racing.
04:12You know, we weren't any less busy because you're constantly developing, you're in the simulator, you're developing your race car.
04:19So some people said to me, so what are you doing with your time off?
04:21And I was like, there's no time off.
04:23You know, we have the benefit of, you know, you can tune in and watch us go IndyCar racing and
04:27things of that nature.
04:28So I think there was still plenty of content for fans.
04:31It was unfortunate.
04:32I hope we get one or two of them back on the schedule.
04:35It is a long schedule.
04:37So it gave us a chance.
04:39We had an accident in Australia.
04:40We needed to understand the power unit a little better.
04:43So we were able to take advantage of, I wouldn't say the downtime, but the non-racing time.
04:48And we came out very strong at the following race.
04:52And, you know, we're so close with the last couple of podiums to winning a couple of races.
04:56So I'm excited.
04:58And I think, you know, these technologies, anytime you bring out new technologies, everyone has to understand and kind of
05:03massage them.
05:04And I think what you said was it's getting better for sure it is.
05:08The racing is very exciting on TV.
05:10The drivers don't necessarily love how they've had to adapt their driving.
05:14But I think we're working closely with the FIA.
05:16We made some regulation changes in Miami, which was a step forward.
05:20Miami was awesome.
05:21Yeah.
05:21Miami was a great race.
05:22Great for you guys.
05:23A great race for us.
05:24Almost a perfect weekend.
05:25So was Japan, right?
05:25I mean...
05:26Japan was great.
05:26We got the safety car, unfortunately, landed at the wrong time for us, the right time for Mercedes.
05:34But, you know, that's racing.
05:36Yeah.
05:36I mean, my problem with it is if you have to lift and coast, that's not really...
05:41That doesn't seem like really race car driving.
05:43But it seems like there is less of that right now.
05:46Less of that.
05:47We'll get that kind of out of the system.
05:48And any time you need to use strategy, you know, it is racing.
05:52And I fully get that drivers want to be flat out all the time.
05:56You do have to...
05:57Or on the brakes, right?
05:57You want to be controlling the load.
05:58You want to be on it.
06:00Yeah.
06:00But it is still very much racing.
06:02You know, DRS, when that came out, you know, with the movable rear wing discs passing,
06:07that, you know, people went, that's artificial.
06:09And then 10 years later, no one was talking about that.
06:12So I think, you know, with the amount of lead changes, it does become...
06:15I still talk about it.
06:16I still talk about it.
06:17He's still talking about it.
06:18What I feel like...
06:19So it has been awesome to watch.
06:20And to Dani's credit, she has dragged me along this year.
06:23Strategy is amazing.
06:24I mean, it'd be like arguing that, like, tire choices aren't interesting.
06:27Like, all of that strategy, I think, leads to more, like, rounded and interesting sport.
06:31The thing is, these cars have...
06:33If you're someone who's my age, or Zach's, right?
06:35These cars have grown so much bigger...
06:36I think he's calling us old.
06:37And the aero has grown so complicated that you need to create something artificial in order
06:42to allow passing.
06:43Otherwise, it just doesn't...
06:45Is that right?
06:45Yeah, because the cars are so aero-dependent, and they're stuck to the ground, that soon...
06:50You know, it's like when you get on a plane, and that's why they space planes out, you get
06:53turbulence.
06:53As soon as you get any turbulence, it's hard to come up on the other car.
06:56So we came up with DRS, which has worked great.
06:58So I think it's very much still racing.
07:02I understand exactly what the drivers are saying.
07:04I've driven the cars.
07:05So when you get clipping and lifting and coast, you know, you have to manage tires.
07:09Sometimes you have to manage fuel.
07:11I think the good news is it's been produced great racing, and we will smooth out this technology, so we'll
07:17have the best of both worlds.
07:18I mean, you've always...
07:19And I mean, the sport as a whole has always been kind of on the bleeding edge of technology, and
07:23you've always had really advanced analytics.
07:26Does AI change anything?
07:27How are you using it at McLaren?
07:29We're using it all throughout our racing team.
07:32You know, Gemini is a huge partner of ours, so we couldn't be more fortunate to have a leader in
07:37AI helping us understand and deploy AI.
07:40We're doing it in everything from strategy to car development to business operations to fan engagement.
07:47So there isn't anywhere that we're not deploying it.
07:51Do you have to use Gemini?
07:52Because Claude's looking pretty good in kind of their horse race of who's leading.
07:56We love Gemini.
07:57They've won wonders for our racing team, and as have all of our partners.
08:02You know, they're very integrated into our racing team now.
08:06You know, it used to be a sticker on a car 20 years ago, but now with the amount of
08:09technology in our sport, we're dependent upon the Ciscos and the Dells and the MasterCards to reach all our fans.
08:16So they're big contributors to making us win on track.
08:20Dude, for me, having it on Apple TV has just opened up everything.
08:24And I don't know if, you know, Danny probably had a subscription to whatever F1's thing was always.
08:29But I can now watch every single minute, and it changes everything for me.
08:35I'm always watching on Pit Wall, so I have yet to see a broadcast, but the feedback that I've had,
08:40the numbers are very strong.
08:42So I think there was some initial concern on when you go to kind of behind the paywall, the numbers
08:47have exceeded last year's numbers.
08:49So that's great news.
08:50And all the feedback I'm getting has been unbelievable.
08:53And I think they're just getting started.
08:54Of course, they were behind the movie.
08:56A sequel's coming, we believe.
08:58I don't know that they've officially announced it.
09:00Maybe I just officially announced it right there.
09:02And so the sport just continues to grow and grow.
09:05It's very exciting.
09:06Where can we watch the Indy race?
09:08Is there some platform that's just as...
09:10Fox.
09:10Okay, on Fox.
09:11And they're an investor.
09:12And the IndyCar TV ratings have grown tremendously.
09:16And I think Fox has been...
09:17It seems like Formula One is lifting all boats.
09:19I think racing in general in North America and the world is great because I think if you're a fan
09:24of sport, you're a fan of sport, you might have your preferences, but I don't think it's an either or.
09:28I think if you're a Formula One fan, tune in to an IndyCar race, you'll love it, vice versa, and
09:33I think we all win.
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