FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 28th, 2014
TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS GROUP FORMULA ONE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX CONFERENCE CALL
CHRIS McCLOSKEY: Thank you, everyone. In a minute we’ll be joined by NBC Sports Executive Producer, Sam Flood, as well as our motorsports talent of Leigh Diffey, David Hobbs, and Steve Matchett.
We’re going to, this year, have unprecedented coverage, and we put out a press release today which can be found today at NBCSportsGroupPressBox.com, which talks about the unprecedented coverage we’re going to have this year. It begins Friday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern at NBCSN with practice.
We’ll be covering all three practices this year, and for the first time ever this year we’ll have live qualifying coverage on Saturday on NBC, beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern. Of course the race is Sunday, coverage begins on NBCSN at 2 p.m., then moves over to NBC at 2:30 p.m.
Also this week, not necessarily part of our coverage, but a little bit of a bonus, we have today Lewis Hamilton, the F1 points leader this year, who is going to be on the Today Show this Wednesday in the 8 a.m. hour. Feel free to join in on that, as well.
NBC has experienced great results of our viewership this year. We put out a press release last week, you can get that at NBCSportsGroupPressBox.com, if you missed it. And some of the highlights, NBC F1 coverage is up 93 percent versus last year, and it’s on pace for the best F1 season ever for a cable network. Combined NBC NBCSN, NBC coverage is up 46 percent this year.
But now I’ll turn it over to our Executive Producer of NBC Sports, Sam Flood.
SAM FLOOD: Thanks, Chris, thank you all for joining us. Very excited about the weekend. Most excited about the year we’ve had so far. I think the team has done a fabulous job telling the stories and building the rivalries that are going on inside the teams and inside the sport.
Obviously the ratings are all reward for the hard work these guys are doing, but we hope it continues. And what a kind gesture for the North American audience to have a race that starts in the afternoon instead of the wee hours of the morning. And even kinder, still, for our talent team that will be onsite and don’t have to get up at four in the morning and traipse across parking lots to get ready to do a race, This time they’ll be there in person for of the great sports, the F1 race here in North America.
Hand it off now to the man who has the golden pipes from the wrong side of the world, Mr. Leigh Diffey.
LEIGH DIFFEY: Is that the wrong side of the world, Charlotte, North Carolina? Hi everybody. As Sam and Chris mentioned, thanks very much for taking some time out of your day to speak with us.
This is an enormous week for us. As Chris mentioned with the unprecedented coverage, with the amount of hours. Anytime that we can do basically anything that moves on track, Formula One‑wise and we get a shot at live on NBC is huge for us, extra bonus being onsite. Obviously we were at Monaco and Montreal earlier in the year, and we had tremendous build up to both of those events. But this really is our Super Bowl, this is our big home race. And we couldn’t be looking forward to it more enthusiastically.
There is so much going on in the sport right now, and to be going to Austin at this kind of interesting and bizarre period of the sport with a couple of teams, and unfortunately going into receivership, you’ve got all the rumors of the silly season with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and everything else that’s going on.
This season has been extraordinary, because we’ve never had to search for a story once. These amazing stories, whether it be on or off track, have continuously been presented to us this year. So 2014 has been a fabulous season. It’s been thoroughly enjoyable. And to get the ratings that Chris mentioned earlier really is the icing on the cake.
So in short we couldn’t be more pleased and couldn’t be more excited to be heading to Austin.
STEVE MATCHETT: Thanks, Leigh, Steve Matchett here, I’d just like to echo, words that have already been said, thanks very much for taking the time and joining us on the conference call. As you can tell, we are all genuinely excited to be going down to Austin. We don’t get the opportunity to go to all the races the way that we broadcast our races, but we do get the terrific opportunity to go down to Qatar, and we’re all very excited to be doing that.
As Leigh said, to echo some of the words that Leigh said, we are in the middle or towards the end now of a tremendous Formula One season. As far as the teams are concerned, the Mercedes, with their incredible W05 package, along with their drivers Hamilton and Rosberg, have absolutely dominated the sport.
And as you’re aware, the last race locked up the 2014 Constructors’ Championship, and it has just been amazing to me, as a former Formula One mechanic to be in touch with those guys, and to see, as I’m sure you’ve seen also on Twitter and social media, just the response from Mercedes and from the European car manufacturers that Mercedes finally, having been around automotive engineering for a hundred years, have finally won the F1 Constructors’ Championship. And they’ve been making such wonderful use of that over in Europe.
And we’ve got a great opportunity when we go down to Qatar later this week, I shall be talking to Ron Meadows, the team manager from Mercedes, and hopefully having an interview with Ron about what it feels like for Mercedes to have won that championship.
And along that line, as well, it gives us a great opportunity to go into the garages and talk to the engineers, the mechanics and find out exactly what’s happening.
I’ve spoken with Ferrari and we’re hoping to talk to the technical director of Ferrari, Pat Fry, and also the engineering director from Lotus, Alan Permane, people that I’ve known for a long while in the pit lane. But to be able to get down into the pit lane and talk to those guys and put something on camera is going to be thrilling for us. And just to be able to be walking up and down the pit lane, to bring the experience of what’s happening in the U.S. Grand Prix, it’s going to be a fantastic weekend.
DAVID HOBBS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking time out to speak to us. As you can tell, Steve is very keen on the Manufacturers’ Championship, which of course is true to week to be amazing for the Mercedes team, and also changing that championship.
The Drivers’ Championship, however this year, has also been full of excitement, with the two leads of Mercedes, swapping the lead of the championship. And there’s still only a handful of points separating them, and it’s not over and done and dusted yet for the Drivers’ Championship. Lewis Hamilton of course won the race at Qatar two years ago, so he’s obviously feeling very comfortable going into this weekend.
But the season has been very interesting, not only from a technical point of view with the teams, but also, of course, the sort of amazing collapse of four‑time world champion in a row, Sebastian Vettel, who has only been on the podium a couple of times this year, and has yet to win a race.
Whereas, his young teammate who came in with I guess a very low expectations himself, and the team winner who is fairly confident, but obviously we’re waiting for him to catch up with Sebastian Vettel, we thought by midseason he might be up with him. This driver, too, (inaudible) comes from the wrong side of the world, has a funny accent, but he also has a great, great smile. And he, of course, has won three races. So he is now third in the Drivers’ Championship. And that of course is Daniel Ricciardo.
It’s been a tremendous year all around for the sport. A lot of good racing and still a lot more good racing to come.
CHRIS McCLOSKEY: All right. Thank you, David. Will Buxton, we had trouble with Will calling in, so I don’t think he’s available right now, but if will does call in, we’ll let everybody knows. Let’s begin the call and take questions.
Thanks for taking my question. My question is for Steve. Steve, you spoke about all the success Mercedes has been having this season. Can you put your finger on why that is? Is it the drivers, the mechanics, a combination of all of the above? What is it that’s made them so great and successful this season?
STEVE MATCHETT: It’s a very good question. And if I knew the full answer to that, I would probably be paid a multi‑million dollar contract from Ferrari. All the teams would love to know the answer to that.
Mercedes are an amazing engineering company, even away from Formula One, it’s very evident on their other forms of motor sport it they’re involved in and certainly with their road car program, that when they design something, they design something incredibly well.
And coming into the 2014 season, Mercedes took a very brave step, but it certainly paid off for them, towards the end of last season to stop the development on the 2013 car early and throw all their resources towards designing the W05 car, the chassis for this year.
Particularly with the new power train regulations that were introduced this year. So we did away with what had become a very sort of standard V‑8 up until last year. That’s gone away, so now we have the V‑6. It’s turbo charged, it’s got a new hybrid electronic system on the car.
So it has been a huge shake up in terms of engineering challenge for all of the teams. And Mercedes has just done an outstanding job of not only producing a terrific engine, a terrific super charger ‑‑ turbo charger, and a terrific curve system, but it’s also integrating that package, that drive chain, with the chassis.
And that is one of the huge advantages that a genuine manufacturer, as opposed to just a Formula One constructor has, because the engine guys can talk with the chassis guys, and they’ll come up with a happy compromise between the two to make the car and the engine the best it possibly can.
Ferrari, of course, are also in that position. Renault as an engine supplier are not in that position with Red Bull, as an engineer supplier, Renault are producing an engine that must go to their group of teams. And they’re not designing that car, that engine package, specifically for Red Bull.
And I think it’s the integration of all the parts, all the mechanical parts with the chassis that’s made the big difference. Of course you could say Ferrari is in that position, as well. But Ferrari would concentrate, I think, too much on last year’s car, and didn’t give themselves enough development time.
In short the answer is, yes, terrific engineers, great mechanics. They have on the whole very good reliability. Everybody has had problems this year, again, because of the new technology. But they have done the best job. And that certainly shows in terms of the number of points that they scored. I mean they absolutely trounced the opposition this year.
But next year, the other teams have some opportunity to catch up. So I would say Mercedes will work as hard as they possibly can in the off season just to knock off those little edges on their design and just to hone what they’ve got to an absolute fine razor’s edge. And if anything they’re going to be stronger than ever in 2015. The other teams have got a huge task ahead of them to catch up to Mercedes.
This question is for Steve and David. How important in the grand scheme of F1 and its brand in America is this race? I know can you put that in words?
DAVID HOBBS: Well, of course the U.S. Grand Prix is of major importance to Formula One because many, many of the sponsors involved in Formula One have got American roots. And of course everybody involved in Formula One, from the tire manufacturers to the car manufacturers, America, USA, is one of, if not their biggest markets. Obviously biggest market for Ferrari and the biggest market for Ferrari. A huge market for Pirelli. And a huge market for Ferrari. So this is a very, very important race.
So I know that the teams over the years have often pointed out just how important this race is. Bernie Ecclestone, who runs Formula One, sometimes seems to be a little bit ambivalent about racing in America. But the fact is that all teams involved very much want to race in America. And I think they’d all like to have a couple of events here, when you think about it. The USA is certainly bigger than the whole of Europe. It has about the same population, probably a little bit less, but nevertheless it is a big enough place to have at least two Grand Prix, plus the Canadian.
Yeah, I think the teams all look very much forward to coming to this event. It’s a particularly good track. It’s certainly worked out to be very, very good from a racing point of view. We’ve had very good races there the first two years. And looking for another one this year. So I would say that all teams and most of the sponsors are very anxious to have a U.S. Grand Prix and make it a good, strong event.
Jumping to another point, what do you make of the ‑‑ there’s going to be an 18 team grid to start. What do you make of that and the kind of impact that will have? Just it’s an interesting time in the sport right now. What do you make of that right now?
DAVID HOBBS: It’s a very, very disappointing development, two teams, Caterham and Marussia have had a pretty star‑crossed career ever since they joined in 2010. But nevertheless I hoped they would gain a bit of strength and get more competitive. And it’s particularly unfortunate to Marussia, who has scored a couple of points this year, but has been forced into administration the last week or so. Because those two points will be worth a tremendous amount of money for them next year in terms of travel and the way the money is spayed out to formula 1. It’s not a good sign.
And I certainly hope that Formula One take this as a real warning and they do really re-look at the structure of Formula One, how the money is paid out, how it’s ‑‑ who gets what, and where it goes. And that they do make some constructive efforts to try and reduces the cuts. Obviously the big team like Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, are not terribly keen on cost restraints, because they have all the money.
But I think sooner or later they’re really going to have the face the fact that there’s only ‑‑ every cake is finite, so every slice of that cake is finite. You can’t just keep on take bigger and bigger slices for yourself and hope you’ll be able to somehow muddle through. It’s a serious situation.
It’s particularly disappointing, this weekend at the U.S. Grand Prix, which obviously is not a tremendously strong selling point. But hopefully the racing at the front end will blunt that a little bit. And I think people at Mercedes and Ferrari, obviously Lotus, and are going to be really happy to be racing here.
And that’s from their point of view, looking at the driver’s point of view, it will be four less cars to keep lapping. They’ll probably appreciate that, the drivers.
STEVE MATCHETT: It’s probably worth highlighting to an audience that may or may not be overly familiar with the way that Formula One works, and David touched on it earlier on, with my interest in the constructive championship, it’s worth remembering that all of the teams have to be independent constructors. And that’s what makes Formula One, Formula One to a large degree.
So the teams that are struggling for money, they don’t have the opportunity to go to another team. For example Ferrari, Mercedes, it doesn’t matter who, and buy a car from a rival team and run it at the back of the grid on the shoestring budget. Formula One doesn’t work that way.
Although there has been somewhat a rewriting of the regulations that allows the teams to use certain components, common components, with different manufacturers. They still, nonetheless, have to design, manufacture, test and race a car of their own. And therefore this is the sport, will always be, providing we keep it written the way it is, and not change the DNA of the sport, Formula One will always be phenomenally expensive. Just because of that reason, alone.
And budget constraints in Formula One, it’s very difficult to implement. And my concern is that even if budget caps are introduced in Formula One, it’s an obvious point, really, to make. But it doesn’t matter what the budget is in any form of motor sport there will always be teams that have got more than that budget. And there will always be teams that are struggling to meet that budget?
If you keep reducing the budget, that will just entice teams that got even less budget to think that they can probably just about make it into F1. So at the moment we’ve got teams that say would be well‑funded GP2 teams, the next category down from F1, thinking we can just about make the jump into F1. And that’s what we’ve been saying with the likes of cage on and Marussia. And then the struggling to go into receivership. And that’s a tragedy.
If we were to drop the budget cap down even further, you’d get teams like from Formula 2 or Formula Renault thinking we can just about make the jump into F1. So to me the conundrum is, it’s kind of a Catch‑22, whatever budget constraints you put on the sport, there will always be the teams that have got the money and there will always be teams that haven’t quite got the money.
It’s a very, very difficult road that Formula One is on now because we don’t, I believe, we don’t want to destroy what Formula One is. We don’t want it to be a clone series. Where everybody is using the same car because we’ve already got it in the States, it’s Indy car. In European racing it’s GP2. If you like those sports, terrific, that’s wonderful. And they’re very exciting races to watch a lot of the times. But it’s not what Formula One has been and not what it will be in the future. I hope.
So the question of teams and budget, it’s not at straight forward ‑‑ I would say a lot of people from the outside would like to imagine it. It’s got to be given great consideration. It’s not that easy.
LEIGH DIFFEY: I think, there’s two ways of looking at this as David and Steve mentioned to this, there’s an issue that need to be addressed in Formula One. However, from what the fans see watching NBC, there will not be a great impact. Yes, on a track the size of Circle of the Americas, it might look a little bit less, but as far as the spectacle of what we see each and every week, the two teams forced into administration, don’t really feature in the broadcast, per say.
Leigh, first, could you first compare the U.S. Grand Prix to the others abroad in terms of the track and the atmosphere. And then next, for fans of motor sports in the U.S. that might not necessarily be specific F1 fans, what kind of aspects should they tune in for this weekend?
LEIGH DIFFEY: I think the first one in comparison to the other 18 events, and the other 18 events in 18 other countries, you know, are unique. But I think the big difference in many ways, and you can talk about race tracks and get caught up in the minutia of race tracts, but very much the events, wherever they are around the world are identified by the fans and the enthusiasm and the way the respective cities embrace those events.
And Austin, for a very young event and the people who have attend education over the past two years have just done a phenomenal job of creating that atmosphere. When you have the iconic and historic tracks like Silverstone in the UK and Monza and Spa, that have all the decades of history that the sports celebrates.
When you have people in Formula One for a long time saying we love Austin, we love Formula One, we love how the fans that attend love us. I think that’s something we can really be proud of in this country. Although we’ve got immense history in Formula One in the United States, we’re kind of restarting again, we’re hitting the restart button for our third year in Austin. I think that’s something to be very proud of and perhaps in a way, it sets us apart.
Because Monaco is very different. Everybody is looking at each other this Monaco as opposed to what’s going on. It’s the place to be seen rather than go to see the race.
Whereas people go to Austin because they know it’s a great city, the live music, they know the track is state‑of‑the‑art, America’s first purpose‑built Formula One track, there’s so many features to look forward to.
I think as far as to answer your second question, what we should be looking for this weekend, it is the story that has been Formula One 2014, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg. The team rivalry has gone to varying levels personally between these two. But what has been delivered on track has just been first class.
It’s been ‑‑ there has not been one element of it that has been manufactured. The emotion has been raw, it’s been real. The race has been fast and exciting. I’m not expecting anything different. Hamilton loves the track, he was the first winner of the Circuit of the Americas, and I think that’s the real feature point.
Yeah, there will be side stories, but that’s the main story and I think it’s going to be phenomenal once again, because there’s a world championship on the line.
STEVE MATCHETT: I think what’s also made the difference, picking up on Leigh’s point, with the Drivers’ Championship, now that Mercedes has locked up the Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes is more willing to give their two race drivers free rein to race each other hard. And no longer going to be in a position that if they do contact each other, and the drivers from the same team should absolutely not contact each other, let’s just say, but now that the Constructors’ Championship is locked up and Mercedes has won that, then now giving their drivers a little bit more freedom to take the fight to each other.
They know, and Mercedes know, that one of their two drivers is going to win the Drivers’ Championship. For a team in a ‑‑ historically if you were to ask a team who they want to win the race they’ll say I don’t mind which of our two drivers win the race, providing that the other driver finances second, meaning that getting maximum points towards the Constructors’ Championship. And now the fight will absolutely be under way for the Drivers’ Championship between Hamilton and Rosberg. And we’re going to see fireworks. There are no holds barred. It’s going to be fantastic stuff.
We know that some of you have started and of course with Alonso being the topic of discussion. We started off wondering if he was going to go to McLaren, and now we hear Mercedes. We’re even hearing a possible Audi involvement and a possible sabbatical. How much of this do you guys think is misdirection or possible misdirection, and how much is actual?
DAVID HOBBS: Well, firstly, I think Alonso has probably made a bit of a mistake in antagonizing Ferrari to the point where they have let him go. I mean he’s done a wonderful job with the last two years of Ferrari, scoring practically all the points on his own.
Obviously Ferrari made a change last year that they dumped Felipe Massa, and put Kimi Raikkonen, who won one world championship and he won that with Ferrari, back in the seat. And he can’t make the thing go, either.
And I have my doubts as to Sebastian Vettel’s ability without Adrian Newey behind pushing him on, because he hasn’t been able to come to grips with the new car. If you can’t come to grips with the new Red Bull which he has been driving for six years, I don’t know how he could come to grips with the Ferrari. They may have found they have backed themselves in a bit of a corner by letting Alonso go. He always maintains that cheery look. No, I know exactly what I’m doing. When you find out, you’ll all be thinking I’m glad we didn’t think of that first.
I find it hard to believe that he’s gone back to McLaren, unless Honda has made an absolute requisite of their supplying the power units to McLaren. Because, you know, he and Honda can’t be the best of pals, having lost a hundred million dollars.
It may be that he does take a year out. And of course all these Audi rumors are certainly terribly, terribly, exciting for Formula One, because we’ve lost Marussia and lost cage, but if we pick up Audi, oh, boy, that should be an incredible thing for the future.
Alonso, I don’t know where to go. They would have been better to keep him and Vettel, and dropped Raikkonen, but they didn’t. It’s going to be very interesting to see where he goes. At the moment his car looks a lot like Sebastian, which may be the way he’s going to go.
LEIGH DIFFEY: I couldn’t agree more with David. I think it’s a fascinating story. I’m going to have an opportunity to speak with the still relatively new Ferrari team principal, Marco Mattiacci this week, who knows how much I’ll be able it to get out of him, how much he’s willing to say.
But there have been rumors bouncing around that ‑‑ right from the word go, and he Alonso did not see eye‑to‑eye, it was very well known that Stefano Domenicali and Alonso got on. And Luca Di Montezemolo, the former president of Ferrari, he and Alonso got on extremely well. Whenever there’s a change in management, even when you’re a big a star as Fernando Alonso, perhaps things don’t always work well.
Even though we have two guys that drive Mercedes that are just braining them on the track this year, we’ve got a four time world champion, and exciting young guys, whenever you quiz anybody, the general consensus is Fernando is still the best driver on the grid.
So wherever he goes, whatever he does, will be exciting. It will be interesting. If he did go off and do a year with Audi before Audi came into Formula One, that would be phenomenal for sports cars and for Formula One. Wherever he goes, it’s going to be interesting.
Look, do we know right now? No, nobody knows, other than Fernando Alonso, and the people he’s speaking with. We don’t know this news was coming nor did Red Bull, the team that he’s won four world championships with. It’s one of those hang on and wait and we’ll find out. But it sure is exciting.
Can you imagine if Fernando Alonso won a Le Mans for Audi and jump into their Formula One car? What an incredible shot in the arm that would be for sports and Formula One, keeping everybody engaged the whole time. But probably too good to be true.
STEVE MATCHETT: Well, it certainly is. It’s fascinating for the sport and all the journalists and all the engineers in Formula One. And of course the audience, too, are all trying to piece together the little cryptic crews that Fernando Alonso keeps giving out. Words to the press in what he will be doing and what he will not be doing. It’s worth bearing in mind, and of course, again, this is all speculation, we don’t know. Ferrari hasn’t even announced that he, Alonso is going to be leaving the team. That makes me think one thing, in light of the fact that Marussi and case even have gone into administration, and if, if, if, those two teams are unable to make the grid next year in 2015, Bernie Ecclestone may well approach the teams on the idea of running a three car team. Bear in mind that Alonso has not actually said he’s leaving Ferrari, but he’d like to do everything he possibly can to help Ferrari, and how much he loves Ferrari, there’s no guarantee that he will be leaving Ferrari, and it may be that Scuderia Ferrari run three cars. And Alonso will go nowhere.
Now, I’m not suggesting that that was the original intent of Fernando Alonso, when Sebastian Vettel decided that he was going to leave Red Bull. And as far as we are aware, Sebastian Vettel has gone to Ferrari. It hasn’t been announced by the team or Sebastian Vettel, we only know that from words from Red Bull that Sebastian Vettel is going with Ferrari.
But it could well be that things haven’t worked out the way Alonso wanted with his quest to win more world championships, perhaps to get the Mercedes, perhaps to get the McLaren, we don’t know, he could well stay at Ferrari and run a third car.
The other scenario that has been put forward by some of our Twitter people. He’ll go to Haas. Because the new Haas team is going to use Ferrari running gear, engine, transmission. And that he will go there. But I don’t see that. One of the things he has been very clear about, he being Fernando Alonso is he wants to win more world championships. And he won’t want to go and set the team up and getting ready because obviously he has no hope of winning the world championships, next year, or even probably the year after that. I don’t think that’s the start of him at all.
CHRIS McCLOSKEY: Thank you everyone for joining us today. As a reminder, a replay and transcript of this call will be available later. The transcript will be available at NBCSportsGroupPressBox.com. Again, our coverage of the U.S. Grand Prix begins Friday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on NBCSN and don’t forget to turn into Lewis Hamilton on the Today Show Wednesday in the 8 a.m. hour. Thank you everyone. Take care.
