Shell and Scuderia Ferrari

Title: Scuderia Ferrari Drivers Q & A

Duration: 13:56

Description:

Watch the exclusive interview with Ferrari F1 drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and Canadian YouTuber, Karl Conrad, to learn more about Shell’s Innovation Partnership with Scuderia Ferrari.

Shell V-Power NITRO+ Premium Gasoline is Shell’s most advance fuel ever, formulated with 4 levels of defense against gunk, wear, friction, and corrosion. It’s the only fuel used, trusted, and recommended by Scuderia Ferrari. 

Scuderia Ferrari Drivers Q & A Transcript

[Animated Sequence]

Tech YouTuber, Karl Conrad, sitting at his desk in his studio.

[Verbatim]

Karl: Hey guys what’s up its Karl and as many of you know I’m a huge Formula One fan.

[Animated Sequence]

Footage of race car on the track. Shows a close up of the Ferrari race car on the track.

[Animated Sequence]

Shows a shot of F1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz walking side by side on the racetrack in their Scuderia Ferrari racing gear.

[Animated Sequence]

Shows a close up of the Ferrari race car on the track.

[Text Displays]

Canadian Grand Prix

[Animated Sequence]

Tech YouTuber, Karl Conrad, sitting at his desk in his studio.

[Verbatim]

Karl: And although the Montreal Grand Prix was cancelled this year, I was still able to connect with both of the Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz by a video call through one of my partners Shell and that Shell Innovation Partnership with Ferrari is one of the most iconic and recognizable throughout the entire world in motorsports.

[Animated Sequence]

Close up of Shell V-Power logo.

[Animated Sequence]

Shot of F1 driver Charles Leclerc standing in between two Shell workers wearing red uniforms.

[Animated Sequence]

Shows a close up of Shell V-Power Nitro + Premium gasoline getting inserted into one of the F1 cars.

[Animated Sequence]

Shows a close up of F1 pump carrying Shell V-Power Nitro + Premium gasoline.

[Animated Sequence]

Shows a wide shot of Scuderia Ferrari car racing on the track.

[Animated Sequence]

Shows clip of Shell V-Power Nitro + Premium gasoline pump in a Shell gas station.

[Verbatim]

Karl: And Fun little fact 99% of the compounds found in the Shelby power race fuels that powers the F1 Scuderia Ferrari cars Is found in the Shell V-power nitro plus premium gasoline that you and I use to fill up our own vehicles.

[Animated Sequence]

Tech YouTuber, Karl Conrad, sitting at his desk in his studio.

[Verbatim]

Karl: That’s a pretty cool fact. I hope you guys enjoy this one, it was special.

[Animated Sequence]

The frame is a video call between Karl Conrad and F1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers are sitting side by side in the same room, wearing their F1 Scuderia Ferrari uniforms and face masks. The top left corner of the screen shows Tech YouTuber, Karl Conrad, sitting at his desk in his studio where he is asking the questions which the F1 drivers will be answering.

[Text Displays]

How is it racing with a new teammate?

[Verbatim]

Karl: I guess this question or the first one is for the both of you, how is it racing with a new teammate?

Charles: Awful, hahaha so bad.

Carlos: Especially if his name is Charles Leclerc.

Charles: No, no it’s going well. We have the same interests. We are playing chess, being very competitive. Yesterday I lost, I am quite angry.

Carlos: Good, thanks for admitting.

Charles: We play golf, everything is going well. We have all these interests that we share, on the other hand we are working together to try and have a better car and do better on track.

Carlos: Every F1 driver has different hobbies, different ways of working, different ways of approaching a team, even approaching a teammate. It’s been interesting working with Charles being one of the best drivers in the sport right now. It’s been cool and I’m looking forward to keeping growing together and pushing this team forward.

[Text Displays]

How is it racing with a new teammate?

[Verbatim]

Karl: Awesome, yeah that’s sweet. The next question I know F1 is just becoming so much more popular, and you know one of the big questions is that a lot of people are starting to get into sim racing whether that’s a simple video game or going for the full set up. A lot of people are asking how similar sitting in a simulator is to the real thing?

Carlos: As close as it can get but on a simulator. First, it is still a simulator. You guys need to think it is a virtual reality. Nothing can replace an F1 car. They are so quick, so fast. There is so much G force going on. Even the best simulator in the world that we are about to have this year (we are about to build one) will never be able to replicate an F1 G force or F1 feeling. Bu out of that a simulator in F1 is quite good. We are learning a lot before every race weekend. We are putting into practice a lot of test items, we try different tires, different wind. We can do whatever we want in a simulator. This allows us more time in the factory and better development.

Charles: Yeah, I agree. The most different part are the G forces. On a simulator, you don’t have the G force that you get in a F1 car, so to be as precise in a reality going through so much G Force makes it a lot more difficult. The simulator itself has grown so much and improved so much in the past few years. It’s definitely going to get closer and closer to reality, but you will never get the same feeling.

Karl: yeah, and correct me if I’m wrong my simulator is just the wheels, I’ve got the pedals, but I have no force pushing me side to side. I’m sure you guys have higher end simulators that maybe don’t have the same level of G force, but you do move around a bit inside.

Charles: In Ferrari yes, at home I don’t have a simulator like this. I have the same as you have. But in Ferrari it moves, and it moves quite a bit.

Carlos: Yes same, I must say, it is quite good the Ferrari one. Even the new one we are building is state of the art. It is a shame that we can’t make it public because it is part of our performance secret, but I wish I could have you guys because you would love it.

[Text Displays]

A lot of us got a “lockdown pet”, do any of you have pets?

[Verbatim]

Karl: So, I know that the past year has been extremely difficult for a lot of us. Most of us are spending a lot of time inside. One of the biggest highlights of my year has been getting a dog, they call it a lockdown dog and I was wondering if you guys have any pets of your own.

Charles: I don’t. I would love to have a dog but for now I’m living in an apartment, and I am not often at home so I will probably wait a bit.

Carlos: I do have a nice dog it’s from a hunting breed so he’s crazy for birds and everything that moves around in the countryside. He runs a lot. He can run 30 miles in a day without getting tired, so I have to keep him active. Trying to keep him tired because he’s hyperactive. My mom has two little Maltese white ones. They are cute to have at home and they give good company. I prefer the bigger dogs.

Karl: My little dog, he just sleeps all day. He’s actually sleeping under the bed right now.

[Text Displays]

What sets the Shell and Scuderia Ferrari partnership apart in F1?

[Verbatim]

Karl: We’re going to switch to some Shell questions, obviously Shell is a big partner of Ferrari. So, Their Innovation partnership with Ferrari has been around now for about 70 years. What sets this partnership apart in F1?

Carlos: First of all, it’s been a long-term partnership which obviously helps as they’ve been working with each other pretty much since F1 started. We know each other very well; it makes the interaction easy and the integration easy. You see the Shell guys in the Shell lab we have at every circuit. They feel part of the team and are part of the team that travels to every race. On top of that, we have another 50 people back at headquarters working every day. I don’t know what the other teams do but I don’t think they have 50 people dedicated to fuel and oil developing in F1 which adds to a total of 21, 000 hours workload a year. So, you can see the dedication, a lot of commitment to the sport and to the Ferrari brand. We are enjoying working together.

Charles: Carlos said nearly everything to be honest. Shell is working with us to improve all the time the lubricants for customers around the world. And all these innovations that we have the chance to try in F1 are then brought to the road cars which makes it more interesting for us and them.

[Text Displays]

What is the biggest change in tech in F1?

[Verbatim]

Karl: Awesome! Another question I have is that my following is very into technology, what would you say is the biggest change in technology in F1 over the past few years?

Charles: For me it’s the hybrid technology. This has changed so much. And speaking of Shell, we have been working extremely closely together to improve and get along with these new technologies that are coming to F1. And thanks to them we managed to gain 25% in performances, it’s thanks to Shell. So, it is a powerful innovation partnership.

Karl: Carlos, anything to add there? What is your perspective over the past couple of years about tech?

Carlos: You guys know how important in F1 is a tenth of a second. I think in the last race I was out of Q3 by 6 thousandths of a second, which during the weekend turned out to be a bad qualification. But if we would have gone into Q3 with those 6 thousandths we would have been super happy. So, 6 thousandths are important, so you can expect that one tenth of a second which is 100 thousandths is super important for us. And as an example, is what Shell has been able to deliver this year, a tenth of a second per lap, for a 52-lap race, that’s 5.2 seconds of race time. So, you can imagine that’s a lot of lap time, a lot of performance. Every tenth you can give us from any of our partners, we will welcome it because there’s not many partners that bring us one tenth of a lap.

[Text Displays]

Do you use Shell V-Power Nitro + in your own daily cars?

[Verbatim]

Karl: The last question about Shell, you can be completely honest here. In your normal everyday life, do you guys use Shell V-power for your normal cars?

Charles: For me cars are so important in my life that I always try to take care of them like my baby. I know how much work there is in these Shell products so for me it’s very important to have the best product in my car. First off for performance because I like to have a nice car but also for reliability. There’s actually a Shell on the way to Maranello from Monaco so I try to stop there.

Carlos: For me, to be honest this wasn’t the case. I was going just for convenience, but this year I learned what goes into car fuel, I learned that 99% of the fuel that I use in F1 is 99% in road car fuel. So, now I try to stop in more Shell stations knowing that 99% of the fuel is F1 fuel.

Karl: And Charles, I know you mentioned on the way to Ferrari from Monaco, I don’t know if you recall this, Monton (city in France) I haven’t been back there because of COVID but hopefully I can visit soon and enjoy some of the nice weather.

[Text Displays]

Have you developed any cool skills or tips during lockdown?

[Verbatim]

Karl: I have one last question, we’re kind of running out of time. Are there any cool tips that you guys have for most of us living indoors, are there any cool tips that you guys have developed? And what are you looking forward to the most now that we’re all hopefully allowed to be back outside, soonish.

Charles: For me music. Whenever I get on the piano, 5 hours go by like that * snaps fingers. It was so quick. For me, music has been it. I just spent so much time doing music during lockdown. What I was missing the most was travelling and when everything opens up, I want to travel again.

Karl: And hopefully you guys will be back in Canada again for the Montreal Grand Prix, we’re all hoping for that.

Carlos: Hopefully we can go back to Montreal next year. I was going to talk about food since I started cooking a bit back at home, like a hamburger.

Charles: It looked good, but I never tasted it hahaha.

Carlos: But talking about hamburgers, food, and steak, in Montreal there are some good restaurants. I miss it. I remember going to good hamburger places in Montreal.

Karl: Yes, we all miss the travelling, we all miss seeing you guys in person but hopefully that will be soon again. I just want to thank you both again for taking the questions, wishing you all the best for the rest of the season and hopefully we can chat and try some of your food Carlos one of these days.

Carlos: Hahaha. Thanks Karl, see you.

Charles: Bye Karl, thank you.

Karl: Take care guys, bye!