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Very special episode today because we got the actors and the director from Senna, the new Netflix series that's coming out. We'll talk to them a little bit later in the show. But Tim, there's been a lot of news in the last week. The news cycle continues. We want to start with some great news, which is the Monaco Grand Prix, which could have been up in the air. There was talk about that in Spa in Belgium and a few other tracks being maybe rotated through the calendar year to year. The Monaco Grand Prix will return, 2026 to 2031, and it will be held on the first June weekend of every year, first full June weekend. And it will take it out of conflict with the Indianapolis 500, which race fans just have hated for years. So, Tim, the fact that we're finally getting the separation between these two races is great. Here's the thing that I want to know, though. We get the details. It's great Monaco is going to be back. How do we make... Is there any provisions to make Monaco a better race?

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Adam, it's difficult because you and I have been over it, and you and I actually did pretty much a whole podcast on this. So I'm like, how can they change the track? And there's not really much they can do. You can't do it. It really isn't. The only thing they can really do is make the car smaller. That's it. And by the way that the regulation looks for 2026, I mean, the cars are going to be a bit smaller, but not that much. So we're We're still going to be running into the same thing where it's qualifying on Saturday is going to be what you really want to tune in for. And then the race on Sunday, it's still going to be a bit of a procession, depending on weather and all that stuff, red flags, et cetera. But still, I mean, impossible to pull off a pass now with the size of the cars. So it doesn't make sense at this moment. But look, I get why you'd want to keep it on the calendar. It's a crown jewel race. It's a crown jewel event to see a Formula One car going around The city streets of Monaco is a pretty incredible- Special.

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It's a pretty incredible thing to watch. Watch these guys pilot an F1 car around there. It's incredible. And then obviously, there's the spectacle of it, too, which, again, is amazing. So I don't know. We'll see what else can be done. I don't really think there can be much else done with the tracks. But yeah, I'm glad it's actually back on the calendar, Adam, just because it's such a classic race.

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Yes.

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That's what it is. We look at things like the Winter Classic now, right? And it's like, I couldn't imagine an NHL season without a Winter Classic. Yeah.

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Or it's the Super Bowl. It's the World Series. There's something about that track. There's magic there.

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Yeah, exactly. And so I'm glad it's sticking around. Glad it's back on. We'll be back on the calendar. We'll remain there until 2031. That sounds like a pretty big deal feel like it sounded like it wasn't a small feat because they've been at each other going back and forth for quite a while, Adam, to try and.

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Yeah. I think there's a huge disparity between what the races say, Saudi Arabia or an Abu Dhabi or a Bahrain, what they're paying versus what Monaco was paying for the rights to have it. I think Monaco was in the 20 million. And I think if you look at Jetta, it's 200 million or whatever it is. It's a crazy number.

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I was just going to say it's a huge number.

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Yeah, it's a huge number, but it is a huge difference. Maybe it's 100 million, but it's still a huge.

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There is a difference. There's definitely a difference between the two. No question about it. And I think Monaco is getting a bit of a sweet deal for a long time. As for the financials, I don't know what the exact numbers are, but I can bet that they would be now in alignment with what most races are now paying to have F1 show up and put on the show and stuff like So I could imagine they're now on the same playing field as a lot of the other Grand Prix, which is good. I mean, that just shows you that Formula One, I think as a sport, as a brand, has really solidified itself as something that's not going anywhere anytime soon, but something that's also now starting to be mainstream, right? It is. When we look at what F1 is doing with their F1 '75 show that they're doing in February at the O2 Arena. I mean, that's huge. This is starting to remind me of NBA Media Day or beginning of whatever sports season event that hypes up the fans. It gets the fans closer to Formula One as well, especially during a downtime in the season.

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And so I think all of these different things are just really letting people know that Formula One is It's not just a one thing anymore, right, Adam? Because after George V, everybody's like, Oh, yeah, well, we'll see how long this lasts. But it's still lasting and it's still going up, and the team's valuations are still going up, and countries want Formula One to now come to their country to race. They're now having bidding wars as to where are they going next? Are they going to start flipping and rotating races out during the European season because there's so much that people want them to come to their country. So it's starting to become a really, really, really big deal. So to get Monaco locked in for this long is a pretty big story.

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And the economic impact on these particular instances. There are different... I mean, Obviously, when the race was in Russia, yes, there's an economic impact. But there are questions about some of these regimes and some of these places that they drive, and where you're not getting a ton of fans out because not a lot of people either can afford it or allow it or or whatever. There are political issues there. Formula One's position on that has always been, Listen, we believe this sport can bring people together. It's not our job to tell people what should be happening in their countries and that thing. So we've seen those stickier issues that they've skated their way through. But there is no denying the economic impact of a Formula One race coming to a particular spot. And I'm going to liken it to Taylor Swift, who's about to do six shows here in Toronto starting tonight. And they say that Taylor Swift last summer through the United States, saved them from a recession because of the economic impact of her showing up in every city. And I think you can liken Taylor Swift to the Formula One thing, right?

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You have an event that's that big coming once. It's going to create a huge boost for local businesses, sponsorship deals, restaurants, everything you think of. And so it makes a ton of sense for these cities and these countries to pay for them and bring that in.

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Yeah, 100 %, Adam. I mean, if you take a look at Las Vegas, you can even use them as a good blueprint as to how much it actually brings into the economy for the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year. People were a little like, I don't know how this is going to work, right? It's a big spend and don't really know if it's worth it. And then when it's all said and done, Vegas also hosted the Super Bowl last year as well. And it turns out the Formula One weekend brought in way more money than the Super Bowl did when they were there. And I'm not trying to compare sports. I'm basically saying that you have an appetite for a particular event that's going to bring in people from all around the world, where with the Super Bowl, it's a little like you're going to get your American fan base, you're going to get your American sponsors who are going to be bringing in, activating, having people there on the ground, having in the booths, having people buying hospitality suites. Where with Formula One, you have fans coming in, getting general admission tickets. They're sitting in the grandstands.

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They're just there to see the Formula One race and then leave. So they're there for three, four days spending money. I remember going into one of the casinos. Actually, it was one of the big ones, and they were taking me around the poker tables, and they were $10,000 buy-ins. And they were like, We're all All of those tables, and there were like 30 tables, all reserved for the next three days that the Grand Prix was in town. Wow. 24 hours. Wow. Every table.

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That's crazy. That's great. $10,000 buy. Can you imagine? Oh, my God. Now, coupled this with some interesting news out of Formula One, the guy that ran the races, Tim, was let go, fired, resigned. There seems to be some fog around this. I don't fully understand the role. I need you to explain the role and then why this is a big deal because that did make a lot of news.

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Absolutely. So, yeah, Niels Vittich, who is the Race Director, or was the Race Director, I should say, he was... The FIA had told me that he stepped down. That's what they had told me when I had messaged them. But later, I went to find out that Christian Monath, who is actually... He's really plugged in with the FIA, a very good journalist as well. He had reported that Niels Vittich didn't step down. He was fired. Now, the FIA is usually pretty good at providing transparency. It just takes them a while for some reason to always get to us. So we'll find out more on what actually really happened when we get to Vegas next week. But Niels Wittich, he's essentially your head referee during the races. He's also one of the guys who makes sure that the tracks are homologated. They're also up to code. He makes sure that the racing is going to be safe. The drivers will be safe. He's the one who will call out a red flag during an event. If a big crash has happened, So he's like your head referee in a way. And very important figure. Very hard to lose someone like that.

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He's been doing the job now for a while. It's a tough job, Adam. They're traveling a lot, and they're going to different parts of the world. They're on flights all the time. I don't know how these guys have family lives because it's like they're always traveling. They're always on the road. They're always doing stuff. But they have a new guy now who's going to step up. He is from Formula 2, so he's basically like the head referee of Formula 2 and Formula 3 who's going to step up and take the position in an intern fashion. Not too sure if this person will remain for next year as well. There are others who could probably step in. The guys from WEC, they do a great job. One of the lead guys from WEC has done Formula One before, so there's that as well. It's definitely a tough loss because you also lose the A bit of the consistency with how things are done, not necessarily the stewardship. I mean, the stewardship is a totally different thing, and that's something we've gotten into before on here, the ones who hand out the penalties and who's under investigation and all that stuff.

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That's a different story. But yeah, it's a big person to lose, Adam. And it's interesting with the- Timing's interesting. Timing's interesting. Timing's interesting. And that's the timing of it, too, because I think some of these guys are saying that the writing was on the wall back at the US Grand Prix that he was gone. I don't know what happened at the US Grand Prix.

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I mean, Tim, you were on the ground at the US Grand Prix.

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I don't think it has anything to do with literally anything that happened there.

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It was just that was the whatever that was. It was the culmination of probably a bunch of events leading up to it. Yeah, who knows?

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And it could be that they may want to move in a different direction of how they want to do things. They may want to swap out Race Directors, which they tried to do a few years ago after they let Michael Massey go. And so there's a number of different things that could be at play. But like I said, we'll learn more as to what happened, why it happened as As Vegas gets closer.

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Got it. Okay.

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All right. There's been a lot of stuff coming down the pipeline, too. I don't know. Right.

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Well, it has been a busy work week. Obviously, I don't even know if we've talked about Gabriel Bortolato getting the job at Sauber.

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Adam, I haven't seen you in weeks.

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I know.

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If it's- This thing right here.

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I know.

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It's gross. What you got going on?

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So Moveember is one of our partners on the Steve Dangle podcast, so somebody had to grow a mustache. People were like, Oh, grow it to here, right? Like right to the edge of your mouth. And I was like, No, I want to go a little longer. I want to go... If I'm doing this, we're going Tom Selleck. And my wife keeps going like... She's like, When does the Tom Selleck part happened. So the mustache is not great at the moment. But what I've heard is that when you grow them, it does actually take three months for them to grow in properly.

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She's like, You lied to me, Adam. There is no Tom Selleck here.

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I sold her on the promise of that, and that's how we got married, and now she stuck, right? We'll see. I might actually keep it just to see what it looks like fully grown in. If I keep it through Christmas, then I'll always have a Christmas where I had a goofy mustache and my daughter can make fun of me for it when she's older and that thing. But I don't know.

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We got to get it to spiral up.

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We got to get it to-Well, listen, I'm not opposed to 18th century British general. No, not at all. Just, yeah, just wax those ends. So let's talk a little bit about that Salver move, Tim, since we're on the conversation here. Bortolato in, Botas, probably to Mercedes. They were posting pictures about them. I think that deal is basically done if it hasn't been announced. Let's start with Bortolato. Why did Salber at the last minute go, You know what? Let's take a chance on the rookie.

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Whatever the deal was that they worked out with McLaren, I think they're finally able to get that across the line during Brazil Grand Prix weekend, because that's where I think it got firmed up, was around that time, probably on the Sunday. So McLaren letting him walk away with no ties by the sounds of it. That's a huge deal, right, Adam? Because we had discussed that it's like, Andrea Stella didn't want to just let him walk away. He didn't want to let him just go and leave for Salber and not have any ties back to McLaren saying, If we have problems with Piastri or Norris, we've got this other guy who's been training down at Salber. We can bring him up and put him in. So they can't do that now. He's gone. He is now a fully part of the Sauber-Audi deal, whatever they've worked out. And that's Alonso's guy, right? This is Fernando Alonso's guy, and Fernando Alonso was adamant that he was going to get him into Formula One, and he did. He's there. And that's part of Alonso's management team. I want to call it a new management team, but I would say a part of Fernando Alonso's management team.

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I believe this is probably his first driver that he's gotten into F1. And so he must notice, recognize something in Bordeletto that's really special and that he deserves to be there. And I'm excited to see what he can I mean, look how many rookies we're going to have on the scenes next season.

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It's going to be really exciting. Is it five now?

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We got a lot, dude. And who knows what's going to happen with Jack doing now? I mean, there's been reports coming out that Jack doing may not even get onto the grid. They may plop in Franco Colapinto in his place. Again, that is a rumor, but it's out there floating around. So I mean, who the heck knows?

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Yeah. Well, it's wild. So the rumor with Colapinto is that it's the transfer fee, which is a soccer term, but it really would be a transfer fee, basically to buy him out of Williams, you're looking at 20 million pounds. And not $20 million, $20 million. And Alpine is willing to pay it. Apparently, Red Bull are not sure, maybe, but are very interested in the driver. And I'll be honest with you, the 20 million pounds that they pay for him if they end up doing it will probably It's going to be worth it in the standings because it's probably cost them much more than 20 million pounds to be finishing potentially third rather than second or first, right? Sure.

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It's a lot, though. That is a lot.

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It's a lot of money.

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I don't see the value just yet. No. I mean, look, the kid's incredible. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Franco Calapinto is not good. I'm just saying 20 million pounds. You're talking probably almost 40 million Canadian. Yeah. Usd. What? 35 million, probably? I mean, we're now talking like, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc. We're up the ladder right now. You know what I mean? So I don't know if that's Williams just being setting that bar very high so no one will pay it. You know what I mean? If someone comes in, Christian Horner goes over to James Valls and is like, We want Franco Calapinto. And James is like, Great, that's going to be 35 million USD. Just setting them. Maybe that's what it is. I don't know. That's why I'm just like, That number just seems really It's crazy high. It's really high. Hey, look, I think Franco Calapinto deserves to be on the grid next season, wherever it may be. I would feel bad for Jack doing if it ends in him not being at Alpine. I really would. This is a guy who's worked really hard to get there and to get the opportunity to be able to get on the grid for an F1 season.

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He's sacrificed a lot, that guy. I would feel really bad for Jack, for sure. But at the same time, Red Bull's got... It's a revolving door over there right now. Oh, yeah. It's like, Okay, where can Calipinto fit in over I think he has a better shot of fitting in at Red Bull than he does anywhere else, to be honest with you.

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I agree.

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If I'm James Valls, I'm not letting him go.

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No. And why would you? You might lose Carlos signs within a year or two, so keep him. The other thing I'd say is Liam Lawson bringing the attitude I've actually really, really enjoyed. Obviously, the middle finger to Sergio Perez was perhaps a little over the line, but I did It's like that he called out McLaren for saying, Listen, this is a New Zealand team. What do you mean? We don't care that you're based... Why are you playing the British National Anthem? It's McLaren. It's a sandpiper. It's a New Zealand team. What did you What do you think of the National Anthem controversy, Tim?

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Yeah, I didn't... Honestly, Adam, I didn't really pay attention to it because I was just like, Oh, that's funny. And then I just moved on. I mean, you've been sending us in the group chat. Hilarious, though. Liam Lawson memes in videos in the last two weeks.

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I love how brash he is. I love a young brash driver. It reminds me of... Like, Lewis Hamilton was like that. He was F U to everybody, right? When he came in.

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He wasn't dropping like birds everywhere.

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No, he was not. He was pretty respectable.

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He was just, he's going to let everybody know he was there. And I respect that. And hey, look, I mean, whatever works for Liam Lawson, right? It's all entertainment for me at the end of the day. As long as he's out there doing the job getting things done and kicking ass. I mean, that's great. This is all just gravy on the back end of things. But no, I think he's showing himself to deserve a seat for next season, Adam. He really has. He just got parachuted in at the last minute. And man, just kicking things off the way he did at the US Grand Prix. And then Mexico as well. Did well in Brazil in torrental downpour like when he could. It just I mean, yeah, he deserves to be on the grid for next season. So let's see what happens with him. But I highly doubt Red Bull doesn't bring him back. I think he's back in a Red Bull machine in some capacity. Either it's just Racing Bulls or it's with the big team.

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Okay. All right. Well, that makes sense. It makes complete sense.

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He's really showed well. I mean, you've watched him, Adam. What do you think?

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I mean, listen, I think it's going to come down to the one race where you did flip off Perez, you have to remember that they're fighting for 17th at that point. And for him to be down there, Red Bull has to look at that and go, okay, well, whatever the competition thing aside, you're at the back. Why are you at the back? And with Red Bull, too, they rarely give the driver the benefit of the doubt. They're not like, Oh, they're at the back because we made a bad strategy call. They're like, They're at the back because they suck. It doesn't matter what the strategy is. You need to win anyway. That's Red Bull, right? So I need Liam Lawson in the... I need him in the top 10 the last three races before I make that commitment. But it's pretty clear Sergio is done. And they got to move on. They got to move on. And so maybe he's a reserve driver. Maybe he's an ambassador like Ricardo, potentially. But I think that ship must have sailed.

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I I don't know. According to some reports, it doesn't sound like he's going anywhere for next season, and he's going to be there. And so no one has any idea at this moment what's going to happen. And I also don't think we're going to find anything out until we get to the end of December, probably.

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Right. You know what? The amazing thing about this, the Colapinto stuff, the Bortoletto stuff, the whatever, all of this is because Lewis Hamilton went to Ferrari. All of it. All of it, Tim. It's still playing out. We're almost a year later, Tim. It's crazy. It's amazing. It's amazing. Okay, so listen, we're going to be back next week with our usual schedule. We're going to do our Thursdays, and then we're going to have the show, or we're going to have, obviously, the race next week. And Tim, you will be there, which is exciting. And then on the Monday, we'll have our recap episode of the show. So for the last three races, that's what we're going to do, back to our normal race schedule. But for now, there's a series that Tim and I have been lucky enough through Netflix to watch already. It's Senna, and it's about Bruno Senna. I'm kidding. It's about Ayrton Senna. And it's about not just the driver, but what he means to Brazil, what he means to the rest of the world, Formula One in a day and time. You know what I mean? It was a real... That is a snapshot of what a lot of people, I think our dad's age, would call the golden age of Formula One.

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And I think we're living in the golden age of Formula One right now. But that was one of the definite peaks, right? Even my mom, who could care less about racing, watched the Airt and Senna documentary, the real one that they did, because of how big he was and how much of a force he was. And Tim, you You saw the series. What did you think?

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Well, we're going to do a review on that, right?

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Yeah, but I just want a quick one.

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Let's save it.

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No, no, no.

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You want to save it?

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Okay. I want to say I got a lot to say about it, so we'll save it till we do our reviews. So once Once Cena drops on Netflix, Adam and I will do a review of it.

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Okay. So you're going to see now some of the interviews and some of the things that we got to talk to them about, which is really cool. We had the opportunity to interview the director, so we'll talk to him first from Netflix's upcoming Cena series. Enjoy. First off, thank you so much for joining us. And you see the name Cena, and you look into this project as a director as a director, it seems like it's pretty intimidating because this is a person who is so representative of sport in so many different countries, Brazil, specifically, and Brazilians are passionate. Vicente, was it scary for you to take this on?

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It was, and it kept me awake for three years, and it still does. Senna means a lot to me. I grew up watching Senna. I was a teenager when he came, who he did become, and a young man when he passed. And he means a lot to me personally. And just like he means to me what he means to so many people all all over the world, but as a Brazilian, he means even more. There's no one quite like Senna in Brazil with the transversal reach that he has all over all kinds of walks of society. And it just sets the bar really, really high. It's a huge responsibility. It's a huge undertaking. It's something that I really had to, like Senna would say, give it 110 % to make sure I could ask for 100 % from everybody else. So, yeah, it's a great, great responsibility.

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First of all, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. I've gotten to watch the first four episodes of Senna. From myself, I was a professional racing driver, and the reason I got into racing was because watching Senna when I was a nine-year-old, he was everything to me as well. I I found the show was just incredible, and the attention to detail is also incredible. I just wanted to know how challenging it was to get the script exactly where you wanted it before you started shooting this.

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It was a huge challenge because there are lots of challenges, of parallel challenges in the show, like I said. There's the obvious challenges of getting every detail right, from the cars, to the period, to the music, to the set, the wardrobe, all of that. But there's also the greatest challenge of them all, which is doing Senate justice, is telling a story of the man to audiences that know him and that will come after you, if you got anything wrong, and to people who have never really... I mean, that know of him, but not really, don't really know the man, don't know his story, that know a little bit of the myth and of the hero, but not so much of what made him a hero. And that was really what we were after. I mean, as you guys know, better than anybody else, there are many extraordinary drivers in motor racing and in F1, but there's only ever really been one hero, and that is Senna. To understand why he is that guy, why he is that hero, and how he became this hero, not just in Brazil, but all over the world for people like you guys, like me, like people like today.

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I was talking to people from Romania, and Italy, and you name it, why he means so much, not just like a genius driver, but as a person. And to make that work inside the script, that was a huge, huge challenge. Probably an even bigger challenge than the technical challenges we faced, which were, of course, huge, numerous, and super complicated. And I think part of the answer is balancing the technical aspects of who he was as a driver the genius driver he was, with the emotional side. And those things always went hand in hand, no matter what his technical prowess might have been. And we know he was who he was. And the Honda engineers were always surprised to find out that he could figure out stuff about the engine that they couldn't with their own instruments. And stuff like that, and his blipping, and the way he drove, and how he went into the apex, et cetera, et cetera. But that went hand in hand with a very emotional man who wore his heart on his gloves, really. And that made him very special. And that is an aspect of him that even having watched all his race and documentaries and having read the books, you can only really get through to the audience through fiction because you're not bound by objectivity.

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You have the You have the ability to be subjective, to be to show him as a person and not just as a document, not just as a picture, not just as-A video game character. Yes, exactly. And so, yeah, that was probably the greatest challenge.

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I just thought... Sorry, Adam, to jump in. I just thought, even Adam, the attention to detail, even when you're showing the driving clips, even in the foot box, he's even doing the blipping of the throttle, which was signature to him. He was the only one who actually ever really did that. For me, I caught that, and I'm just like, Oh, wow, that's such an incredible attention to detail.

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No, absolutely. We We're very, very careful about every aspect. And I saw a clip of something else this weekend where the driver was taking his helmet off with his gloves on. We would never do that.

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Well, Vicente, we really appreciate your time. Honestly, I think we could talk to you for an hour, but we get what we get today, and you are fantastic. Congratulations on the series, and we wish you all the best going forward.

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Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on.

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Adam Wild and Tim Horeani of SDPN. I was so excited to be talking to Gabriel and Matt, Gabriel León, who's playing Ayrton Senna, Matt Mela, who is Alain Proust. Guys, we are so excited for this series. Have seen it. And I have to start with you, Gabriel, because you're playing somebody who's akin to a God in Brazil, but not just in Brazil, around the world. Formula One fans love this guy. When they approach you about this role, did you go, That might be too much. That's a little too intimidating for me. How did you feel about it?

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I mean, as an actor, it's the best one could get. And as a Brazilian actor, I just can't think of a better role, especially because our Netflix production is by far the biggest production ever in Brazilian history. So to me, it was an honor to play him. And as an actor, such an amazing, probably the biggest challenge of my career. And that's what we, actors, are always looking for. I love to change myself for the characters. I love to prep myself to create the smallest details and to change physically for the characters. And to be able to do that for Santa to tell such a great story based on such a great icon idol story was just amazing.

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Just to piggyback off that a little bit, question for Matt. In playing Alain Proust, who, I mean, now is obviously still with us. What were the challenges in trying to portray someone who obviously is still alive with us, but also at the same time is an icon in Formula One?

[00:33:57]

Yeah. Well, I think the biggest challenge was marrying that with the fact we're writing a drama series. We're not doing a documentary. We're not doing an impression of these. Gabby and I the whole time worked on trying to get the essence of these guys and not imitating them. But for me, personally, the biggest challenge was marrying all of the research I'd done on him and the fact that, of course, I was probably the only... For seven months, I had to be the only prost fan, and I was his biggest advocate, which obviously meant basically clashing on a daily basis with people. Obviously, people I like, so they weren't real clashes. But it was marrying that with what we've got in the script, which is obviously he is, in this instance, the antagonist, and he serves a very specific purpose in this script and in relation to the protagonist of the series that is that is center. So that was the biggest challenge. It was marrying up those two and learning when to keep my mouth shut. Sometimes you just got to shut up and say what's written in the script.

[00:35:13]

That's fair. We could all I learned something from that. Hey, Gabriel, I'm curious as a Brazilian yourself, what was your family's reaction when they found out what you were doing?

[00:35:24]

They just exploded in happiness. Because I'm from '93, so I wasn't even one year old when he died. But I grew up in a family of Sanchez fans, so I mean, my family, I'm really close to them, to my parents, to my brother. And they've always been so supportive with my career, and especially For me, for my parents, for my grandparents that really followed Santa. Used to wake really early in the morning to watch him race. Had that as a tradition, as a familiar tradition, just like probably all of Brazilian families. It was something else, I'd say. And so on for me. Not only, as I said before, because because of an amazing challenge it was, but also because it's always amazing to make the ones you love proud of you. So when I first told them I would play Santa, I could feel, I could see on their eyes how proud of me they were. And now, in a couple of weeks, my mom and dad will be with me here in São Paulo at the premiere, and I just can't wait to see their faces watching the series.

[00:37:05]

Yeah, it's an excellent series. I've already gotten through to episode 5, and it's fantastic. I mean, I was a professional driver back in the day, and Senna was a hero for me. He's the reason why I got involved in motorsports to begin with. And I felt just that both of you just did such a great job of recreating who both of these characters were, people Did you get a chance to do any racing at all? Did you jump in any simulators? It's a question for both. To experience what that world is like inside a race car?

[00:37:45]

Yeah, well, we did six weeks of prep, roughly, Gabby and I. We had a couple of the other actors come in and out for those six weeks. But for those whole six weeks, it was Gabby and I in Argentina doing I think we did three sessions a week, maybe two or three sessions a week, two hour sessions of just go karting. And we had our coach was a guy called Gustavo, who actually raced with Senna in karting in South American Formulas when they were younger. And so we just bombed it around the track, two hours, three times a week, and just tried to get faster and faster.

[00:38:28]

And then I think the intention was for us to research the feeling as close as possible, of course, to be a racing driver, to be a Formula One driver, to be as close to the ground as possible, and to overtake each other, and to have a good day driving, a bad day driving, to have a dry track or a wet track. So to feel all of the variations of being a racing driver, and to get used to use gloves and helmet.

[00:39:00]

We'll order things going. The stuff that as an actor, you wouldn't... Or as a person, you wouldn't think about until you've gotten into a car and you're like, Shit, I can't put my helmet on unless I've got my gloves off. Yeah, exactly. And random things like that that you wouldn't think about.

[00:39:11]

Yeah, just to feel more comfortable about it, to feel more- Where you look. Present. Yeah, exactly. It was funny.

[00:39:21]

Yeah, as hell. What a joke. Someone's like, By the way, dude, we're now going to pay you to go go karting. And also to You pop some champagne. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:32]

We have to get to pass pop some champagne.

[00:39:34]

Does it actually sting your eyes if you get it in your eyes?

[00:39:36]

Like crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it stinks afterwards as well.

[00:39:40]

Yeah, it does.

[00:39:41]

So I want to ask you guys, just for the both of you, they say for actors, one of the coolest roles that you can ever play is a villain. And one of you is the hero here, one of you is the villain. But I want to ask you both, do you think there will ever be a cooler role than playing a Formula One That's tough, man.

[00:40:01]

Yeah.

[00:40:01]

First of all, I don't... Are you telling me he's a hero?

[00:40:05]

Sorry, not a hero. Hero and antagonist, I guess, is a better- Yeah, antagonist. Is that better? That's the way we try to portray them.

[00:40:11]

Yeah, for sure.

[00:40:12]

Because I never portrayed them. I never portrayed him as a villain, ever, because I don't think he is. No. But of course, from Senna's point of view, he was... His rival. Like the enemy, yeah. His rival at the time. The one to be beaten. Exactly. So whatever you do, it is that. And I think that's probably, for me, playing an antagonist. I would certainly like to play actual villains moving forward because to me, those are always the most interesting ones because there's a reason people behave the way they do. It's never empty. This is not a villain, but it still was... It's interesting to find out what drives someone regardless of where they sit. And the best thing about playing a villain is that you don't ever have to play as a villain. You play the truth of what's there. You play there what is true to them, and the script usually does the rest. They don't know their villain. No, no one knows their villain. No villain knows they're a villain.

[00:41:11]

Yeah. But I definitely can't think of any cooler role than a racing driver, especially using those beautiful red overalls, McLaren's, and the helmets and all the thing. I think Formula One, back in the days, was so charming.

[00:41:29]

They were like We were rock stars back then. Even though no one actually looks good in racing overalls, even if you're quite built or in really good shape, you still look a little bit dodgy in the overalls, but it doesn't matter. You feel- When we were walking to the set, we were Always choosing, picking a song up. It was usually flexing the sun. We thought we were cool.

[00:41:51]

An epic song for us to be walking on the set.

[00:41:53]

We really thought we were cool, but we probably looked like assholes, but we thought we were cool.

[00:42:00]

That's awesome. Well, listen, guys, Tim, do you have any last quick question? Because we got to wrap here.

[00:42:06]

Yeah, just one quick one, guys. This isn't going to come out until after the series has already been launched and everything, but just wanted to get, what was your favorite part of this to film? Which, I guess, part of it was the most fun?

[00:42:20]

For me, it was definitely the whole sequence of 1991, 1991, the first time he won in Brazil. He was already a three-time world champion, and he had been trying to win Brazil for so long. And every time, something weird happened, and when he won, something really weird happened. His card broke. His gear got stuck on sixth gear, and then it started raining, the whole story. And then he passed out in the end of the race. He was devastated, destroyed, and he couldn't He couldn't even hold the trophy and put it up. So for me to shoot that whole sequence was really emotional and really physically I had to give my all to that whole sequence.

[00:43:22]

That's great. Well, gentlemen.

[00:43:24]

Mine were a huge sequence shot. Vicentia, our director, had a really really strong idea of style, I'm sure, because you guys saw it, those enormous tracking sequence shots, you really... There's nothing quite like it.

[00:43:42]

It feels like you're-It's almost like they were there.

[00:43:44]

Yeah, exactly.

[00:43:46]

Gentlemen, we really appreciate your time, and congratulations on the series. It's fantastic, and it's hardcore Formula One fans ourselves. It's so nice to see it represented well because it's really hard to pull that off. So well done, gentlemen, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.Thanks.

[00:44:01]

Guys.thank you, you too.

[00:44:02]

Take care.

[00:44:03]

Cheers.