United States GP: Friday Press Conference - Part 2

23/10/2021
NEWS STORY

Today's press conference with Jost Capito and Guenther Steiner.

Both of your teams have close ties to the US, so after two years away, how good is it to be back racing here and how important is it to be back?
Guenther Steiner: Obviously being back here after having missed out last year, it's very nice. It's a good place. It's very important for the fans. There is a big appetite at the moment in the United states for Formula 1 and we can see that it is almost a full house. Over the whole weekend almost 400,000 people expected, which is a big number if you think about it. It's fantastic to be back. I think the race track they prepared it, as well, pretty good for us coming back here. It's very nice to be back here and it's good for me because I live in America, so no jet lag!

Jost Capito: I was here the last time in 2016, five years ago but it's the first time for the new owners of Williams. I know it's just a year since they got into Williams and it's very important for them, so we have 400 guests over the weekend here and all their companies are invited, so it will be big for us. As Guenther said, Formula 1 is in a moment, there is a big hype in the US and I think Netflix, with Drive to Survive, has a big part of this. And same with the full house, as Guenther also said, nearly 400,000 over the three days is absolutely fantastic and what we see already today on a Friday, I'm not sure when I have ever seen this kind of crowd for a Friday and it's absolutely fantastic to see. I hope Formula 1 will do a good show over the weekend and it will get even more important and better.

Now Jost, let's stay with you because while we're talking all things American, big news this morning, you've just signed an American driver to your academy, Logan Sergeant. Just talk us through why you've done that?
JC: Yeah, we're looking... and you know we have the academy and we have to restructure the academy and we want to do more with the drivers and we were looking at what are the upcoming talents and Logan, for sure, is one who is not signed up by any other manufacturer and I think we've signed him up for talent, not for being American, so as he's American, we have American owners and there is no American driver in Formula 1, it's a perfect fit, especially for us and we expect him to really move on fast and getting involved in the team and I'm absolutely convinced he has a great future.

What's the programme going to be? Are we going to see him doing some FP1s next year, maybe?
JC: I can't say that yet because we're still in the final stages to get this all agreed and sorted out but we will have a good programme for him.

And Jost, while we're talking drivers, you've also spoken highly about Mick Schumacher recently. Just tell us a little bit more? Is he part of your plans for the future, maybe?
JC: Yeah, I was asked what I thought about Mick and maybe because I'm German and he's German. And I think he's going a great job, as Guenther can confirm, he's a great job as a rookie, he gets better and better. I think he's very confident. I think he's working hard as well, that's what I believe, he's a nice guy and I was asked if he was good enough to be in a winning team. I said definitely, he has, for sure, in the future, he should have the chance to be in a car that can win. Maybe next year, you already have a car that can win. And then the media said, yeah, I'm open door for Williams and I'm very happy and so honoured that the media think if I'm talking about a winning car, they mean the Williams.

Let's talk about this weekend. How competitive are you going to be here, this weekend, at COTA?
JC: I don't know yet, it's too early to say. Especially as George has to start from the back, so...

Tell us about the decision to change his power unit?
JC: I think we've seen that many teams have had to change the power unit and we are by far not the first. So we've seen this coming, that it has to be done so this is now here.

Guenther, can we start by talking about Mick; his Q2 performance in Turkey? Have you seen him take a step forward recently? Are you confident that he can repeat that kind of pace here this weekend?
GS: I've seen that he developed pretty well. He just, as I would say, it's difficult to show when you have a car like ours at the moment, like we've got this year, it's difficult to show to the public what he can do, but when the opportunity came in Turkey, he took it and he showed what he can do. But it's not only the driving, I see the whole picture of the driver. It's not only how fast can he be on a lap, also how handles the situation, to put himself in the position to take advance of a situation. That's what he did in Turkey. It was unstable conditions with the weather, with the track surface and at the right time, he did the right thing with the team together, but how they worked together, it shows that he always stays calm, there was never a moment of panic, it was just everything was... he was ready for it, you know, and being ready in a situation like this means that he will be ready when you've got a better car in any situation, in my opinion. For sure, there will be mistakes be made but he really stepped up in Turkey to get into Q2, because he took... they took together the right decision at the right time and that made me very happy. I was more happy how they did that than the actual lap, how it was, because I know the limitations of the car, so just to take that opportunity was fantastic for the whole team and they can all be proud of it.

Let's talk about F1 in America. Austin and Miami are on the calendar of course in 2022 with talk of a third race in the future as well. As the only American team on the grid, how can you leverage that increased profile of Formula 1 on this side of the pond?
GS: I think we neglected that a little bit, in the beginning when we came in, because Formula 1 grew very quickly in the last two years, I would say. In the beginning, when we started it was a lot smaller and now it seems... why we didn't see that coming? I didn't have a crystal ball telling me but obviously we think this interest, we need to put more emphasis on it to attract sponsors, to get involved more with people from America and I think, as Jost says, there needs to come an American driver, give him a chance... in a good position to do that which is fantastic, which will be the next thing which will happen, an American driver in F1, so we just need to now focus a little bit more on the United States and do a better job than we did before, but I wouldn't say we did a bad job, it was just that the market wasn't there and now there is a market here, there is a big demand for Formula 1 so hopefully we can get a little bit of something out of it.

And there's a lot of speculation surrounding Michael Andretti potentially involved with a team. Would you welcome the arrival of the Andretti name in the sport?
GS: Yeah, as you said, there's a lot of speculation. I don't know any more than you, I guess, so I have no issue with... if Andretti brings in an investor which brings another American team to the grid, I'm fine with that.

Questions From The Floor

(Scott Mitchell - The Race) To both please. Given the situation that F1 finds itself in, the growth of the championship, budget cap, fairer financial distribution amongst the teams, everything that's going on; has there been a better time to own an F1 team than now and do you agree with Toto Wolff's suggestion that F1's on the verge of every team on the grid being a profit-making team?
JC: Yeah. I don't know if there haven't been better times because I haven't been in Formula 1 all the time, since Formula 1 exists, but I think when you look at the recent times, I think with the cost-cap situation, with the various races, with the new races, Formula 1 has a great opportunity and if they take to it right and the teams do it right, I think there is a good chance for the teams to be profitable in the future.

GS: What Jost said is completely right. I think there is, in the history which I know, in which I was involved in racing, I think this is the best time and I would agree with Toto that if you do a good job here, the aim of our business should be to make a profit, that is why you do business and I think there was never a better time than now to do this and also the value of a team, there is never a higher value than now for a team. I see it positive and I would just say that Liberty Media, since they took over, they really pushed hard the business aspect because they know a profitable business is here to stay, because a business which is losing money after a while, I always say, you run out of money or you run out of passion, one of the two, so then you stop and then you get into this... the teams not being worth a lot of money but I think it's a very good time, at the moment for all the teams.

(Christian Nimmervoll - motorsport.com) Jost, there's a lot of talk about 23 races in next year's calendar being a bit of a stretch for people and their families involved. I do remember that Cyril Abiteboul suggested, a couple of years ago, that probably doing less races would be worth considering, in terms of people not looking worn out and exhausted on TV and creating more exclusivity for individual events and creating more promoter fees from individual events by the rules of the market. Do you think that that's an approach worth considering or does Formula 1 need to grab the opportunity that is there at the moment with both hands, with as many events as possible? And Guenther, if you want to add something, but I think I've heard you on this before.
JC: Yeah, I think Formula 1 has to grab the opportunities with both hands and it doesn't mean as many races as possible. I think they could have 40/50 races and for sure that's a bit too much but when you say that 23 races and compared to the races before, we have to see that when I've been in Formula 1 before there were 40 tests and there was part of a test team but also part of the race team went to the various tests and there was no curfew and the guys worked 24/7 and I am convinced, Formula 1, at that time, to work in Formula 1 was harder than it is now.

GS: I think Jost ganged up with Franz Tost, saying 40 races a year!

Check out our Friday gallery from COTA, here.

(Dieter Rencken - Racing Lines) To both team principals; If we have a look at the Middle East, at the moment, this year, we have four races in a radius of about 1,000kms, in Europe it's eight races within a 1,000kms. The North American continent, this year, will have three races within probably 5,000km radius. What do you believe is the right level of events within the entire northern American continent and where should they be, please?
GS: Phew, that's a question, Dieter, to give a number to what is the right event. I think you shouldn't take this season and last year's season where we had this event... more events in some places than others because of the pandemic but in a non-pandemic year I think for sure, North America can have up to five races in total.

Any particular areas? Tracks? Cities?
GS: No, I wouldn't go... I don't know who is out there, who wants a race and so on so I couldn't, but for me North American is not so many places, but five, I think, is fine.

JC: I think Formula 1 has to go where the market is but also Formula 1 lives through TV, I don't think it's that important where the races are, it's more important how the communication is, how the broadcast is and how interesting the races are. But I agree with Guenther, so three to five races in North America and then in South America coming to this so in North and South America could end up in being five to seven races and I think that is fine. Also the races in the Middle East are fine. And as Guenther said, you can't have this year and last year as a normal year because race locations had to be done because of the pandemic situation, where we had, in a couple of places, two races one after the other. This is not a normal situation but I think Formula 1 has done an outstanding job last year in getting this number of races, getting 17 races in the calendar where most every other sporting event were cancelled and we did an absolutely outstanding job and this year, again, if we get the 22 races in the box it's fantastic.

(Ian Parkes - New York Times) Guenther, Max Verstappen, this week, was quite outspoken against the Netflix Drive to Survive series. He said 'that they fake a lot of stuff' and he has decided not to take part in any interviews this year. As someone who has figured quite prominently in this series, to say the least, I just wondered how you felt the way you've been portrayed in this series over the past couple of seasons and whether you feel any more could be done, perhaps, overall, with regards to Netflix?
GS: I've said a few times I haven't watched it Ian and that's the truth, so I don't know how I portray in it so I don't have an opinion on that, but I would have an opinion if Max doesn't want to take part in it, it is his decision and I would critique that. It's free to participate or not and he decided not to so we shouldn't get an opinion or be opinionated about it. And if he feels he wasn't portrayed right, it's his full right not to take part in it . Obviously the fans are missing out of seeing Max because I think he's a first of all a good driver and he's a character, he's a personality but if he doesn't want to take part that's part of his life but to answer your primary question, how I feel about that, I don't really know.

(Scott Mitchell - The Race) Guenther, I guess last year particularly, maybe the start of this year, one of the main issues for the team has been the lack of performance on the engine side. We've seen the step Ferrari has made, especially with the upgraded hybrid system they've had on the car the last couple of races and I know you haven't got access to that this year but with what you know about what they're planning for next year, what you're seeing on track with this new hybrid system, how much of a step are you expecting from the new Ferrari power unit in 2022?
GS: I think we chose not take the hybrid system because even that step would have not helped us, not done a lot for us but I see a positive, because obviously this would be the hybrid system, a system for next year which we should really look forward for it. They have done a lot of work on the ICE as well. I was with Gene Haas in Maranello before Monza and they showed us what they have done. How good it is always difficult to say. It's the same with the car. Even if their engine is good and the other engines are super good, they are still behind so I think they put the right amount of effort in to make a better engine and next year they have to be equal to all the other engines out there or hopefully even better.

(Dieter Rencken - Racing Lines) Guenther you say you were in Maranello with Gene Haas around Monza time. I'm sure you went to Ferrari but I'm also pretty sure you went to go and have a look at your design and engineering office and manufacturing facility for your new car for next year etc. Are you now in a position to give us an idea of how much of that car for next year will be Dallara and how much of it will be Ferrari? The Ferrari-run consultancy that you've got under contract.
GS: It's neither Ferrari nor Dallara, it's a Haas car, Dieter. I've explained that a few times. We've got people working at Ferrari which are all employed by Haas and they are not managed or run by Ferrari because that's also legally or by the regulations not allowed to do and at Dallara, we still have got about 30 people working exclusively for us and then sometimes we round them up when you get to the end of the year or the beginning of next year, when the work load is getting high, we throw in more people and that's the advantage of Dallara, they've got good people there and you just can go into the resources and you don't have to hire people for the full year. I would say about 30 Haas people at Dallara, it's about 70/80 Haas people at the Maranello office.

Check out our Friday gallery from COTA, here.

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Published: 23/10/2021
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