NEW TIMES NEW TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT MIAMI RACE WEEK 2022 GUIDE MIAMI RACE WEEK 2022 GUIDE May 5-11, 2022 May 5-11, 2022 6 6 ALEX ALBON What’s the worst thing you have to do in training? Interval training. Running up hills is the worst. Try it. It’s not fun. It really makes me want to throw up. If you had to get a tattoo, what would you get and why? I don’t have any tattoos. I don’t know what I would get. It would have to be something fun. Maybe a line drawing of a dog? Scratch that, a cat. Yes, definitely a cat. Do you collect anything? I don’t. I guess if I had to say I collect anything then it’s a very basic thing, photography. I enjoy taking pictures. If you could have any other job in the world outside of sports, what job would you want? I’d like to be an architect. I feel like I have a creative side, so I wouldn’t mind doing that kind of stuff. You’re in the Formula 1 drivers’ briefing—are you a complainer, a peacemaker or a fence-sitter? Definitely a fence-sitter. There are a lot of talkers in the drivers’ briefings, and generally I just want it to be over with as quickly as possible. hough Drive to Survive is hugely entertaining, it is, for me, still a documentary about Formula 1. We’re getting behind the scenes and showing people a side of the sport they haven’t seen before. There are very heightened moments of drama, but people also want to see how drivers remain as elite athletes, their hopes and dreams, their vulnerabilities. Sport is normally so polished and so shiny. Getting to that point relies on access. Williams’ new recruit has an artistic side, a sense of humor and an acute fear of rats. Pick one of these F1 eras to race in and tell us why: the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s or ’90s? I think the ’90s, because it was much safer than previous eras. I think those F1 cars were still not that safe, but better than what had come before. Also, [I’d choose the ’90s] because the cars were getting towards the aero side, which is more interesting. Plus, the money was good in the ’90s. You’re taking a road trip. What car are you driving, where are you going and who’s beside you? If it’s a really long road trip, then I’d take an SUV. I have a Mercedes GLE, so something like that would be good. But if we’re talking about a shorter distance, I would take a Singer Porsche. In terms of location, we’re off to Highway 1 on the West Coast. I’ll take my girlfriend, if she wants to come. How do you think your colleagues would describe you, in three words? Relaxed but serious. So when I’m relaxed, I’m relaxed, and when I’m serious, I’m serious. Apart from that, funny, I would say. RACE MIAMI WEEK Have you ever seen a ghost? I don’t think so, but there is this crazy story from my childhood. We lived in a really old house—it was built in the 1500s or early 1600s. I have four siblings, and there is this story that we used to play with this [imaginary] guy called Tom. And he had the white hair and was very old. Apparently all of us mentioned this when we were like 3 or 4 years old. It turns out there was a guy called Tom who had actually died in that house. He got beheaded. I guess that qualifies. Tell us one thing you’re afraid of and why. I don’t like rats. When I go running around Milton Keynes there are sometimes rats around the lake. That freaks me out. I don’t really like heights either—hiking and things like that. Not fun. I don’t mind going up in small planes though; I trust technology more than my own feet! DRIVEN TO DELIGHT T In any documentary, it’s a trust exercise. I think F1 and the teams see the benefi ts of doing it because Formula 1 is competing with other sports to get eyeballs. They need a young audience to become hooked for the next 20 or 30 years. The reality is that if you’re running a Formula 1 team, the last thing you want is another fi lm crew. And now the Netfl ix cameras are in there. Fortunately, we don’t want to fi lm the same stuff as In his own words, the man behind everyone else. We have different priorities and different emphasis. I think the teams trust us to bring that emphasis out in a positive and truthful way. Drive to Survive is not really a petrol-head show in the sense that we don’t get into tire changes. We can’t fi lm with every team at every race. We’ve just got to try to be in the right place at the right time. Fortunately, the teams have become much more responsive and nimble. We may not be with Ferrari one weekend, but if it blows up at Ferrari, they’ll say: “Right, come in, come in,” and we’ll try to catch that moment. Anticipating those moments gets easier because it’s a confined paddock— the same teams week in, week out. They all know each other, so there are lots of dynamics you can riff on because they’ve all worked for each other or been screwed over by each other. It’s very gossipy. discusses the show’s access, drama and huge success. Making a documentary that brings out all those stories is a creative process, and we have to make editorial decisions. It’s not always easy, and I understand why people get upset by certain decisions. But we have to edit a 35-minute episode. We’re pretty secure in where we’re coming from; we’ve got a pretty legitimate philosophy. At the end of the day, it’s about characters. And luckily, there are some really great characters in the paddock, drivers who have a bit of Ayrton Senna and a bit of Michael Schumacher about them. Our job is making those people, when they take their helmets off, totally relatable. I don’t know how many people were aware of Lando Norris before the series, but now he’s a teenage heartthrob and a fan favorite on Netfl ix. Now, people go, “Shit, that’s pretty hardcore. Would I let ILLUSTRATION BY JONNY RUZZO my son in a car going 250 miles an hour?” It’s fascinating and rewarding that I get calls from friends in Los Angeles saying, “My 18-year-old daughter’s watching Drive to Survive, and now she watches the races. She didn’t even know that Formula 1 existed.” If you’re running Liberty Media, that’s exactly what you want to hear. — J U S T I N H Y N E S PIT S T O P D r ie t v o S ur v ie v J A M E S G A Y - RE E S PHOTO COURTESY OF FORMULA 1
