In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen - HIGHLIGHTS: Stefano Domenicali - CEO of Formula 1

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, everybody. Tune into this short version of the podcast, which we do every Friday. For the long version, tune in on Wednesdays. Hi, everybody. I'm Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Southern Wealth Fund. Today, I'm in really, really good company in the fast lane, actually, with the motorsport legend, Stefano Domenicali. Stefano is the president and CEO of Formula One. Great. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, Nicola, and thanks to all our fans and supporters, and above all, maybe new people that they don't have a clue who I am. That's great, so we can connect with them. Now, Stefano, first of

Starting point is 00:00:37 all, is Formula One a sport or a TV show? Well, it's definitely a sport, but of course, when you're talking about TV shows, I need to understand what you think as a TV show. Is it a negative approach or a positive comment? I would say what is definitely different from the past is F1 is listen what is all around the world. So, we definitely need to understand what are the ingredients to be relevant in the world of ice and entertainment. Because sport is a part of what I believe a bigger picture what an entertainment platform

Starting point is 00:01:12 should be. And we are definitely that. It is an entertainment platform where we have at the center, of course, the sporting challenge, the sporting fight on the track with the drivers who are for us the jewel of a sport and the cars Which represent the technological aspect of us, but today if one is not only about it Is about having people gathering together having people that have the chance to have fun enjoy and given the chance to other opportunity like business development for partners or having the chance for everyone to connect with what we can offer to make sure that in a sort of situation where you can choose a lot of things,

Starting point is 00:01:56 you can be attracted of our menu. And your menu is incredible just now. So how has the fan base changed? What's the fan base now? Well, the fan base has changed definitely in the last couple of years. The fan base has changed because before we were very avid fans, male 90%, quite old in terms of age. Of course, we are worldwide, so it has to be a sort of average of what we are talking about. Now we are getting younger and younger, which are much diverse population. New market, for example, we have 40% women, 60% men, 35 years of age. So we are getting in that landscape.

Starting point is 00:02:40 And as we said, different culture, different sensitivities, different approach to the sport, but we work common ground, you know, and that's where we need to make sure that everyone is sitting in. Is there a trade-off between entertainment factor and safety concerns in this sport? Well, safety has been always at the center. We don't want to jeopardize or to minimize at all over to the center. We don't want to jeopardize or to minimize at all the approach on safety. Safety remain as a sort of fundamental pillars of our sport that in any case, as is written in our passes, motorsport is definitely dangerous. But what I have to say that the turning moment of what has happened in the past has been the accident in 1994 when Senna and other drivers, Ratzenberger died in a very tragic event. From that moment, the FIA did an immisive step versus safety.

Starting point is 00:03:36 We need to recognize that because of course we had other tragedies later on, but very minimal. And our duty is not to give any kind of sort of excuses to that because that will stay always at the center. And by the way, safety doesn't mean that you can have have a proper championship in term of action, in term of drama on the track. That is different story, but that will not be, not negotiable. And what does it take to be a really fast driver? What's the mental capabilities, the

Starting point is 00:04:13 motoric? Well, I think that let's assume that today when you are in that arena of being a 4-1 driver, you're given for granted the fact that you are a very good professional, you are very well fit, you understand the needs of being an F1 driver. What makes the difference of really, in my opinion, of a pure championship is to be able to defragment the action that you are doing and the action of the car to maximize every single frame of the performance. So on your side, how to maximize,

Starting point is 00:04:49 we're talking about the gaps of millisecond. Can you imagine? It's nothing. So if you want to be the best, you need to slow down everything to try to see where you can improve and where you want for your car to be faster. That's the characteristic of the best driver.

Starting point is 00:05:03 Understanding that even if, no matter if you're running at 300 or maybe more kilometers per hour, you're able to have everything under control to maximize your performance, the performance of your team, the performance of your car. The drive to survive on Netflix, how important do you think that's been to developing? Very important. Very important. How did it come about? It came back, it came about from the fact that, you know, the people that were pretty really close in this position with the Chase-Carrie, you know, understanding the approach of having, you know, a different way to communicate with the people. They're coming from American approach.

Starting point is 00:05:42 And I would say try to survive with a perfect a perfect example that came also at the right time with COVID for people to have more time to digest and see these kind of things that enable us to open new markets to people that didn't have a clue who we were. And therefore, that was very beneficial for us to get into new dimension of fans. And it was good because it was opening the eyes to people that do not see us because, by the way, our drivers have gloves, overall, helmets, cars. You don't see them. So we were able to open the window to a different way of explaining our sport to new fans. So that was very important. Not only that, of course. Then we had

Starting point is 00:06:26 the new way of connecting with our fans through social media, much more open. I always used to say that we are very inclusive in our exclusive proposition. But then of course, we are not stopping what we want to do. I mean, we're going to launch the movie F1 this year. That's another way to be on a different landscape for fans. With Brad Pitt? Yes, correct. We're going to launch it in the middle of June. Do you have a role in it?

Starting point is 00:06:56 No, no, no, no, I'm not a role. Moving on to leadership. So running Formula One, is that, do you think that's the coolest job in Italy for an Italian to have? For sure it's something that there will be a lot of people queuing up out of the office to have it, but that's not my problem. My problem is to make sure that I take that as a big responsibility. I am very privileged.

Starting point is 00:07:23 I know that, I'm very proud of it, but it's not given for granted because it's a big job. And of course as an Italian that I was able to do, I would say almost 30 years, more than 30 years in the world of cars with Ferrari, then CEO of Lamborghini, then be here in 41. I know that it seems to be a sort of incredible story, but it is what it is. The only thing I can guarantee to you that I have not lose any second of my energy because I'm the first one in the office, I'm

Starting point is 00:07:56 the last to leave. I travel all around the world, so I don't feel that pain at all. So it's a privilege. What advantage did it give you to have been the sporting director of Ferrari? What kind of insights into... The advantage is that you know the mechanism that are related to the team approach, you know the ecosystem and therefore it's important. But at the end of the day, you need to be credible and reliable to be effective in this business. What does it take to be great people in the teams in Formula 1? Well, first of all, I start from a soft skill approach that has to be...

Starting point is 00:08:35 You have to have people that are able to manage pressure. The pressure in Formula 1, whatever is your level, is huge. Can you imagine? You know, normally you can say with respect to mechanic, mechanic during the course of the race has the responsibility of changing the tires in two seconds. This can give you the win or the lose of the race. At every single role, pressure management is very important. Then teamwork approach.

Starting point is 00:09:04 You need to understand alone alone you cannot win anything. You need to understand what is your position and your responsibility in a team that has to be very well structured. And then of course competences. Without that I would say it's not given for granted, but the world of O1 is very specific and you need to know the business very well.

Starting point is 00:09:22 No matter is your role. So these are the three elements which I believe are very relevant. And of course you need to know the business very well, no matter is your role. So these are the three elements which I believe are very relevant. And of course you need to love and you have the passion of this job, otherwise you will never do it. How important is speed? Not on the track, but speed as an organization? Well, speed is the essence of our job.

Starting point is 00:09:39 It's not only the reference that you win because you are the fastest. You win because as an organization you take the right decision in the minimum time that is required. Speed doesn't mean that you have to be frantic or active in your decision process making. Speed means that you need to take decision with the element that you need to make the decision, not to over-structure yourself in actually more information, more information to delay the process of a decision. So this is what I believe is the essence of speed.

In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen - HIGHLIGHTS: Stefano Domenicali - CEO of Formula 1

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