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LEO PARENTE: Let's add more to the 2012 US
Grand Prix F1 story.
And a JF Musial interview with Christian Horner, team
principal at Red Bull Racing.
But first, in the US, the early TV ratings for the Speed
TV broadcast of the Austin US GP were revealed.
And the numbers said about 500,000 viewers tuned into the
cable broadcast.
The biggest F1 audience of the year in the US, said Speed TV.
Five times the crowd that went to the track.
But really, the same audience levels
as an IndyCar broadcast.
But next year, F1 in the US moves to NBC Sports for the
next four years.
100 hours of F1 programming in 2013.
With the announcing team of Leigh Diffey, of IndyCar,
Grand Am, and American Le Mans experience, leading the US F1
broadcasters you know--
David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.
No word on Will Buxton yet or the actual NBC programming
plan slash format.
But four F1 races will be on the network NBC.
The other 16 on the NBC Sports Network, the cable channel.
And the 2013 Austin F1 race will be on network TV.
So now let's see what happens.
Oh, and last Monday, I told and showed
you how I'm an idiot.
Well four days later, I get to show you why I, Leo Parente,
am an idiot again.
See, near the end of the US F1 debrief show, that 38-minute
video-- yeah I know, what was I thinking?
I included the audio of an interview that JF Musial,
Drive's CEO and executive producer got with Christian
Horner, the Red Bull Racing team principal, and Andreas
Sigl, Infinity director of F1 partnerships.
But I parked the interview near the end of the show, and
that interview was a big deal.
So I was, am an idiot to have buried the lead, as they say
in journalism school.
Really, Leo?
30 minutes of me to get to the good stuff?
You may have missed it or passed out before we got to
Horner and Andreas.
Thanks to JF this is the first time an F1 team principal had
ever been on record for Drive.
And Andreas Sigl and Infinity are doing game-breaking things
with the Infinity-RBR collaboration.
I can't be an idiot and downplay all that.
So when we come back, we'll go back to the
Horner, Sigl, JF interview.
More of the interview than we shared the first time.
And this time we'll break down, dissect, and impart
perspective on the importance of everything JF got from
messieurs Horner and Sigl.
CHRISTIAN HORNER: What's great with the way they've
constructed this circuit is you see the cars at their
best, high-speed corners, [INAUDIBLE].
You know, previous circuits have either been makeshift or
adapted, like in Indy and so on.
Whereas this one is specifically designed to
showcase Formula One cars.
LEO PARENTE: So on our Google Hangout during the Austin
race, a viewer asked about the differences from an F1 track
to US road courses.
Now F1 regulations control a lot of the design as to safety
and runoff areas because of the 5G cornering, high-G
braking, 200 mile an hour top speeds of an F1 car.
And looking at the runoff areas of many of the US
tracks, like Road America, Laguna Seca, et cetera, et
cetera, you can see the differences.
US tracks are getting better.
They are safe for our cars.
But they're really not up to F1 standards.
That said, from a racing standpoint most US tracks do
not flow like an F1 circuit with high speed corners.
Yes, Road Atlanta has its S's, but most US tracks are point
and shoot to the straight away, to the next corner,
point and shoot to the next corner.
Now F1 designer Hermann Tilke loves his long straights to
hairpins, which US tracks really have not embraced.
And that may be another difference.
And you heard how Christian Horner voiced his opinion that
the Indy F1 track and many of the other older US GP venues
in some of the other nine cities, like Long Beach,
Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas, were just not good
homes for US F1.
But the Circuit of the Americas not just looks
proper, it races right as well.
And Christian alluded to that.
And we saw it in the racing.
Multiple passing opportunities, and not just
because of the lower grip, harder tires, and a green
track of year one.
No.
It's the configuration.
And I bet with more grip will come more
bravery in more corners.
Getting ready for a new track like the Circuit of the
Americas prompted JF Musial to ask about simulations.
JF MUSIAL: How accurate is the simulation now, and what can't
you get from it?
CHRISTIAN HORNER: Well, I mean what we lacked on the
simulation here, is because they weren't
made with the curbs.
So the drivers got to drive the track without the curbs.
But we put our best guess in and they don't
seem too far away.
So you learn a huge amount from simulation.
Also in the run up to the weekend technically, you can
look at different setups and so on.
And as you gather data, your simulation
only becomes stronger.
It's a compromise.
We've got the slowest straight-line speed of any of
the cars, but we're carrying quite a lot of downforce to go
through the corners quicker.
So we're hoping by the time we get to the straight we're a
couple of cars lengths ahead.
So they don't manage to get into the DRS zone.
LEO PARENTE: Getting your visuals, your reference
points, and muscle memories set for a new racetrack are
the obvious assists sim driving will give a racer.
But the team can run different setups, experiment with
different contingencies, and acquire for itself three major
assets for the race from simulation--
getting the racecar set up for the track, having the
knowledge to understand exactly what changes on the
car to make as conditions change, and time management.
The sim data makes the team work more efficiently,
effectively, with less waste of the most critical resource
of a race weekend.
No, not the catering--
time.
Now you heard how Christian talked about the
setup up for the RB8.
Well he actually seemed to confirm the race strategy for
Red Bull Racing as well.
Seems they load the cars with downforce for the corners more
than the competition, and use that handling to break away
from the one second DRS window.
And it's worked most of the time this year, and probably
why Red Bull got so pissy about Karthikeyan in the
Austin S's.
Because that back marker not just negated Vettel's lead, he
f'd up the whole RBR strategy.
Time now to listen to Christian Horner as he talked
about how important the US market is to F1.
CHRISTIAN HORNER: It's very important for us.
It's our biggest ever race in terms of hospitality wise.
I think they'll be more viewers here.
There's more interest in this race than any
other on the calendar.
And that's because we're racing in Texas
for the first time.
And I think it's part of the excitement of
being back in the US.
And obviously, with a track that's been built, it's a
great layout.
And you can see the amount of ex-drivers there are here and
celebrities that I don't know the names of.
It's great to see the amount of interest.
JF MUSIAL: What does Formula One have to do to guarantee a
successful future here?
CHRISTIAN HORNER: We've got to put on a good show.
We've got to, for sure, engage with the American public.
And it's great to see a big turn out here all three days.
From what I understand, it pretty much sold out.
And it's important we put a great show on so the people
see Formula One at its best.
LEO PARENTE: I must say, the show is one thing.
But there needs to be a sustained commitment to
communicate the F1 experience year round.
NFL American football figured that out, and
it's part of our culture.
It happens in Europe with F1 and your football.
And I think F1 leadership recognizes that this is the
commitment to the US that needs to happen.
The sell-out rant about [INAUDIBLE] is starting to
show some cracks to the story.
Race one was a success at the US GP.
But will the crowds be back or grow in 2013 and '14.
You know, the Baltimore Grand Prix, the IndyCar ALMS street
race was promoted as the over-the-top best in year one.
But year two, while it was good, it did not grow.
In fact, there was a bit less attendance and vibe.
This is a tough business.
And in America , we don't make decisions by need.
It's by want.
And F1 needs to make more people, more than 100,000,
want to go to a race, and more than 500,000 want to tune in
to TV or the internet.
Now, we pick up with JF and Horner as they talk about how
the Red Bull team is motivated, their passion, and
the personality of the team and how it all
kind of works together.
CHRISTIAN HORNER: You're going to have clear objectives,
clear targets.
And you've got to encourage creativity.
You've got to back individuals, not to be afraid
to talk out constructively, and work as a team.
And of course you've got lots of different disciplines, lots
of different departments within a Formula One team that
range from research and design, aerodynamics,
logistics, production--
yeah, absolutely--
material science, simulation, to the
operational side, track side.
And so you've got so many elements.
But you've got to work as one unit.
And it's the biggest team sport in the world.
We're always looking to push the boundaries, to be
creative, to test ourselves.
And I think our spirit, our approach, is different to the
other teams.
And we're not as corporately driven, perhaps, as some of
the other teams.
There's more freedom in the way we express ourselves and
that comes through into creative design as well.
You know?
The guys play their music loud.
And they'll be there later than any team
last night, for sure.
As they are at every Grand Prix.
But nobody moans, nobody complains.
They get on with their job, and they enjoy their job, and
they do it to the best of their ability.
And nobody wants to let the other guys down.
And that's the true essence of being a team.
LEO PARENTE: There's really nothing I can add to all that.
Except listen to how Christian moved the team from its Jaguar
F1 team roots and shortcomings to what RBR is today.
Now you all know that Red Bull Racing was the same team that
once was Jackie Stewart Grand Prix of 1997, and then Jaguar
Racing up till 2004.
CHRISTIAN HORNER: When the team was Jaguar, it didn't
really have an identity or a culture like that.
It was a different mentality.
And it was, well, we've got the seventh-biggest budget,
we'll be seventh in the championship.
And as soon as I arrived at the team, I looked to change
that philosophy, change that mentality.
And it's, guys, we're going for gold.
So forget budgets and whatever else, the fact that we've got
the seventh-biggest budget, we've just got to be smarter.
We've got to be smarter than the opposition, we've got to
invest prudently, and we've got to get the
right people involved.
And work as one group rather than saying, well, I've done
my bit, it's over to him now.
Adrian was a key recruitment for me.
Because he put the technical direction into the team.
But then it's like having a great
conductor but no orchestra.
You've got to have all the different instruments in the
right positions.
Adrian sets the tempo.
But there's a lot of different departments that are all
contributing, that have got
responsibilities for their areas.
So every time the car runs it's a prototype.
LEO PARENTE: As special as all that truly is, the
collaboration with Infinity helped take Red Bull Racing to
another level.
By now we know that the Red Bull-Infinity partnership is
more than just marketing.
It is technology access and resource sharing, not just for
F1, but for the Infinity road cars as well.
Sebastian Vettel and RBR third driver Sebastian Buemi are
doing development work on the new Infinity road cars.
And the race cars are running Nissan Infiniti battery
technology and energy systems.
And as you listen to Andreas Sigl in the question and
answer part, let your imagination run wild with
cross-technical possibilities as he shares his analogy of
Red Bull Racing and Infinity corporate.
CHRISTIAN HORNER: We have great interaction with
Infinity on the technical side.
So we do an awful lot of work with the guys from the Nissan
R&D side, looking at future technology one or two years
down the road, as well.
Which is something that previously
for us wasn't available.
JF MUSIAL: Yesterday you spoke about the relationship with
Nissan Infinity, in terms of developing the current system.
What other technology are you partnering on, looking in the
future for?
What is it that is really the focus now for next year?
CHRISTIAN HORNER: Well things like material science.
These guys are investing a huge amount into material
science and vehicle dynamics and simulation.
And they're all aspects that they have much longer lead
times that we do.
But obviously--
I think Nissan have 20,000 designers working in R&D?
ANDREAS SIGL: Yeah, we got about 600 people working
[INAUDIBLE].
We've got maybe 19,000 working around the world.
And the racecar's being built as a
prototype every two weeks.
We have an entire group that is 10, 15 years thinking out.
So they don't get their motivation from automotive
players, maybe they go to the zoo or somewhere.
They got to be out there thinking how do cars look like
and drive and what are materials like in
10 years from now.
So that's something we pretty much opened our toolbox.
We brought Christian and Adrian to [INAUDIBLE]
twice now.
Either themselves or the R&D team and
opened up our toolbox.
And you hear this.
And there's obvious stuff like lightweight materials.
And there's crazy stuff like we have a scratch-heal paint,
which is self healing, on our road cars.
I thought there would be no interest whatsoever, but
there's an interest in the Formula One team, even on
scratch-heal paint.
So there's many, many areas, if it's processes or
technologies, that we'd be happy to share.
And at the same time, learn.
Because we are a supertanker and they are a speedboat.
So it's good for us to learn something also.
JF MUSIAL: What did you find interesting, with the
scratch-free paint?
CHRISTIAN HORNER: A surface finish.
Surface finish.
So obviously the car's are aerodynamically very critical.
So surface finish is something that's very important to us.
LEO PARENTE: The Infinity scratch-heal paint is a
seemingly small, but very telling,
statement for both companies.
F1 is aero-dictated, and smooth surfacing has
performance benefits.
So a finish that smooths itself over from chips is
likely to pay racing dividends.
Sure.
But if both companies are thinking that deeply about the
details of their products and performance, we may find
ourselves *** after great Red Bull edition Infinity road
cars and fighting for Vettel's Red Bull Racing Infinity seat,
in real life or on the simulator.
[MUSIC PLAYING]