As Chivas Regal and Scuderia Ferrari HP come together to honour Formula One’s unsung heroes, we catch up with team principal Fred Vasseur and George the Poet in Monza
Formula One is a strange sport to witness IRL. Reaching speeds of over 200 mph, the cars fly past in less than a second, leaving a thunderous roar in their wake. Sixty seconds later, it all happens again – a cycle that repeats itself for over an hour whilst fans watch from giant screens along the track.
Unlike other sports, where attendees watch the whole thing unfold in front of them, the F1 is observed mostly through a screen. Even so, there’s something addictive about feeling the rumble of the engine in your gut – somehow, seeing the flash of race cars for less than a second makes the next minute of waiting worth it. It’s so addictive, in fact, that Formula One has become the world’s most popular annual sporting series, with a global fanbase of 827 million.
And it’s not just a dad sport either. Last month, it was announced that 43 per cent of F1 fans are under the age of 35, and female fans make up 42 per cent of the audience. Thanks to Netflix’s hit series Drive to Survive (think Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but make it racing car drivers), Gen Z are becoming increasingly invested in the drama and internal politics of the sport. As a 27-year-old style writer that hasn’t taken part in any sport since school myself, I didn’t expect to catch Formula One fever so easily. Yet here we are: seven seasons of Drive to Survive and a Charles Leclerc-signed cap later.
Last weekend, I witnessed my first race – the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, home turf for team Ferrari. The popular quote from British motorsport journalist Will Buxton summarises the experience best: “There are two religions in Italy: the Catholic church and Ferrari.” Almost 400 thousand attendees descended on Monza, made up mostly of the tifosi (Ferrari fans) covered head to toe in red, or in some cases, dressed as the pope.
As for the Ferrari drivers themselves, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc stepped onto the track in royal blue, moving away from the classic red in homage to Niki Lauda, who won his first championship in Monza 50 years ago. But whilst the tifosi cheered on the drivers and the drivers themselves paid tribute to Lauda, Chivas Regal turned its attention to the unsung heroes of the race.
As announced at the end of last year, the luxury whisky label is now an official brand partner of Scuderia Ferrari HP, so naturally, Chivas pulled out all the stops when unveiling its latest chapter in Monza. Tapping into the brand’s ethos, ‘I Rise We Rise’, at the heart of the campaign is a film tribute to the Scuderia Ferrari HP pit crew.
Scripted by George the Poet and delivered by Hamilton and Leclerc, the film emphasises the importance of those behind the scenes, with a specific focus on the pit crew – who can really make or break a race. “A very bad pit stop for us is more than 3.4 seconds,” says Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, through a thick French accent. To put that into context, the average pit stop time is around 2.5 seconds, with the world record standing at 1.80 seconds.
The key to a smooth stop? Endless practice, as Vasseur explains. “As long as we’ve done the maximum preparation before, this gives me confidence,” he says, before joking: “But I’m not always mega confident this season in front of [front-runners] McLaren.”
As well as the pit crew, Vasseur is keen to highlight the team strategist, Ravin Jain, as another often overlooked hero. “Last year we won the race in Monza because we made a strong decision to commit to one stop very early on in the race. We won due to the strategy and the strategist,” says Vasseur.
For George the Poet, the London-born spoken-word artist responsible for the campaign’s heartfelt message, it means a lot personally to have worked on the film. “I grew up with my dad shouting at the screen every Sunday religiously,” he explains. “Over time I started writing F1 poetry and eventually connected with Lewis [Hamilton] when he reached out to me.” He may not be a racing car driver, but George the Poet still has a metaphorical pit crew of his own: “My team principal is my wife, she’s the absolute number one, and my guys, my friends who are godfathers to my kids. They’ve always been people that pushed me creatively and generally in life.”
Unlike any other grand prix, it has become tradition in Monza for the tifosi to storm the track once the race is over. As soon as the chequered flag has flown, thousands of fans can be spotted clambering down from their seats, climbing over or pushing down the fencing, all to breathe the same air as the Ferrari drivers – whether they score a podium position or not. Undoubtedly, the passion of the tifosi is just as crucial to the success of Scuderia Ferrari HP as the pit crew. From the outside, it might look like a team of two, but if we learnt anything in Monza, it’s that team Ferrari’s numbers are closer to half a million.