F1 Explains: How Press Officers tell the story

I drive my bus in a busy city. That's why road safety is so important to me. I know that I must slow down and be extra careful when I make a wide turn. Buses need more room than cars. Everyone can help keep our road safe. Next time you're driving, remember to give buses plenty of time and space to finish turning before driving ahead. Let's all plan to share the road safely. Learn how at www.sharetheroadsafely.gov [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Let's park the new level of the minus 50 percent of my life. [Music] No, no, thanks, my boy. Learn how at www.sharetheroadsafely.gov. [Music] Can F1 drivers speak to the world's media after a race? [Music] Kimi Antonelli, Grand Prix winner, first Italian to win a Grand Prix in 20 years. How do you put all of that into words? Yammer, I'm speedy list will be fair. There's always someone standing next to them. They're wearing team kits. They're usually pointing a phone at their driver. They're possibly holding a water bottle. You've probably seen these people on TV. Colleen from South Africa is one of many who has told us she has. She asks, "Who are they? And why are they there?" We have had so many questions about these people. So let's get the answers. This is F1 Explains. [Music] Hello everyone, welcome along. I'm Christian Hugh Gill and this is the official Formula 1 podcast which answers your questions about F1, not just what happens on the racetrack, but off it as well. You can send us questions about anything within reason please. And we will find the right person to answer them. And we love how fascinated you are with every aspect of Formula 1. This is my fourth season doing this podcast now and the detail you guys go into never fails to amaze me. Those details include the people you see standing next to the drivers when they're speaking to the likes of Lawrence Barretto on F1 TV. Other reporters are available. The drivers are usually saying something insightful like it's a long race or we have work to do or looking generally across if they've had a bad session. You know, we need more pace, that sort of thing. And standing beside them, listening closely is a team press or communications person. It is a very interesting job done by very interesting people. And we shall now meet someone who has done it. Sophie Og was F1 Communications Director at McLaren. Prior to that, she was head of F1 Communications at Williams. She has stood next to drivers in interviews hundreds of times. But Sophie Og, there is a lot more to it than that, isn't there? Welcome to F1 Explained. There is indeed. And thank you for having me. It's a good to be here. It's an utter pleasure and I would like to start this interview with a story. And I was a young presenter and reporter at a radio station in the UK working for the BBC. And I was tasked with finding fun cool stories about young people. And being a Formula 1 fan, when Formula 1 was just starting a bit of a rise in popularity, I thought, hang on a minute, this sport that I love so much is fundamentally young people doing cool stuff. So I said, we shall try and get an interview with a Formula 1 driver ahead of the start of the new season. My boss has said to me, great, go for it. I went on to the internet. I went on to the Williams website. I wrote an email and said, does this new exciting talent called George Russell? Would he be interested in coming to speak to us on the BBC? And I got an email from Sophie Og saying, come to Williams and talk to him. And Sophie, we've known each other now for around about a decade. Can you believe? I know. I know. It's a long time ago. I remember looking back at those photos and we all look quite fresh-faced, including George. Including George. Yeah, but that's what we do. We're here to facilitate. We're here to help you guys tell the story. So that's exactly what it's all about. Right, let's just start with a bit of a broad brush strokes before we dig into some listener questions. Sophie, if you could really concisely summarise the role, what is it? Oh, that's a very good question. You know what? It's the thing that everyone loves about it is that it is actually really difficult to summarise what you do in communications in a very simple sentence. I mean, essentially you are taking what's happening in the team and you are translating it into the external world for the fans. I mean, that is literally the job. The job is to make sure that people know what's going on in a nutshell. But how that happens is, you know, from being a trackside, from reacting to things, for organising interviews, for helping manage the drivers, helping manage the team principles. I mean, there's so much we could literally be here for hours in terms of what goes into that, you know, working with the partners, working with everybody within the team. And as the event, the non-event, everything that's going on, but essentially the role is, we know what's going on inside the team and it's our job to help facilitate that information and getting out to all the fans and everyone that wants to know what's going on. Now, the most visible part of your role I would say is, as we've just said, in the media pen. For those brand new to Formula One, every single F1 pad at Casamedia Pen is where the drivers come to be interviewed. The team principles as well, actually, various points in the race weekend. And at every point, stood next to the drivers, you see a press officer, a media manager, like yourself. So we have had, honestly, Sophie, so many questions on this in the years we've been doing F1 Explained. So Paul from the Philippines, Colleen from South Africa, among many, who've said, when you're stood next to a driver in the media pen, you're often seen holding phones or dictaphones when they're being interviewed. Why do you record those interviews and what's done with them afterwards? It is generally the question I get asked the most as well, because I think it's that visible role, isn't it? But it's very much the tip of the iceberg, what you see there. So yes, you record everything that the drivers say. And the main reason for that is just for an accuracy point of view. So if something comes out in the press following that race, you can kind of trace back exactly when the driver said it. And if they actually said it because a lot of the time stuff gets taken out of context. And so it's kind of a bit of protection from that point of view, so that we have the facts that if we need to go to a media outlet and we need to kind of have the conversation about this isn't really representing what was said, we have the facts available. And we know exactly what was said. So that's that's kind of the baseline of why you would record it. But then on top of that, you know, you've sort of spoken to the drivers before about things that they're going to get asked. So you're kind of listening to hear what's what's being said. You are reacting in the moment as well. So it sometimes looks like we're kind of just stood there doing nothing, but actually there's a lot going on in your brain at that point, because you're not only trying to figure out who you need to speak to next, who you haven't spoken to, what broadcasters are currently live, who's not live, you know, where the story's going. Are there any questions that are coming out that you hadn't anticipated, are there things being asked of the drivers where maybe they weren't aware, I mean, they've just been in the cockpit usually for however long. So there's sometimes things that get asked that they haven't they haven't watched back or they haven't been made aware of. So you kind of give them a little bit of context if needed. And then yeah, you kind of just you're sort of supporting them through that moment so that they don't have to think too much. They're kind of just focus on what they're trying to say and you just kind of help guide them if needed. But then you have that backup of you record everything. I mean, you record everything because then you've always got a reference. And a lot of the time that just sits in the archives and you don't ever have to use it again. And that's a good thing. In fact, it's because it means everything's being reported fairly well, yeah, and it should be said shouldn't it that if your driver's doing an interview with anyone canal police the BBC. You won't have access to the BBC canal police's system where that interview goes. And it might not immediately go on social media or the tele or the radio. So you can't necessarily see it and that's something I didn't realize at first. So where we see each other so fees at a race weekend. Just talk us through what a typical race weekend looks like for a press officer again. I'm aware this describing a whole weekend of your job could take some time. So again, I feel free to somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So in a nutshell, I mean, it's extremely fast pace. And that's again what a lot of people love about it. But there is a huge amount of structure around it. So you will always kind of do the same sort of preparation in terms of processes going into the race weekend before you even get onto the ground, you know, you're looking ahead to what interviews you're doing, what stories are happening, you know, what you need to be managing. And then when you get there, media day, obviously, first thing you do, which is a, which is a first day, which is a first. Thursday, some races it's a Wednesday like Vegas for example, but like most times it's on a typically it's on a Thursday And there you're just setting the scene for the weekend you're you know responding to anything that's happened previously anything that's happened in between races But you're setting the scene for this weekend ahead And then when you get into Friday, you know the track running starts and It is it is very structured in terms of you know the drivers would be on track they'll have appearances They've got media that they need to do they need to speak about everything after they've done it Essentially, you know they go on track they then come and talk about it's the media and there's a very sort of structured way in which that happens but equally that's where it's also Kind of exciting because you don't know what's gonna happen so you're you're always having to react to what happens But until it happens you you know you don't know what you don't know what you're gonna be dealing with so Now I'm aware that we've only got to Thursday and my question was Describe your typical race weekend. We'll come back to the rest of the weekend But a bit Olivia is one of the people who's been in touch on f1 explain to f1.com and Olivia says there's always been a media day during a race weekend And what happens on it now you've been touching upon what happens on it? They're so fee because as well as the structured stuff that you mentioned like the media pen Which is always always happens on a Thursday and then it always happens as well after free Practice too on a Friday, doesn't it? but also that's when a lot of Special requests I guess are dealt with and and content is gathered because if I'm sat at home watching f1 tv Or sky sports coverage a lot of that content might have been gathered On a Thursday and an interview with a driver that's happening before a qualifying session as part of a television package Might have been gathered on a Thursday, right? Yeah Exactly. It's the calm. It's the calmest day of the weekend You know, it's the day that you have the most control over because you you know You don't know what's gonna happen the following days once you get on track You know if there's been an incident in the garage you might not be able to get in the garage for a bit because the team are busy so Thursday You you know exactly how that day is going to unfold and you can do additional interviews You have additional time with the drivers you can do partner requests broadcast media You can do different things off track. Maybe you know around the circuit because you know you can go and walk the track And a lot of it's kind of a preparation day as well You know the drivers use it to talk to their engineers and to kind of get themselves ready for the weekend So it's a really useful day like it's been a thing for as long as I can remember I mean we've you've always I mean it obviously makes sense. You're setting the scene for the weekend But it's it's a useful day to get as much as you can as much of that content done So that when they do get into the sort of sharp end of the weekend They can focus more on on the actual job at hand and all those nice things that you can kind of see on TV I had of qualifying in the race, you know, you've kind of got them in the bag again Olivia you asked as there always been a media day and this is one of the very few times on F1 explains as I say season four now I can't remember ever saying this we don't actually know Olivia me producer Chris who is an Oracle of F1 knowledge and so if you all got our heads together and we've all been looking as Did media day ever like formally started? We don't think it did as far as we can work out It's sort of just organically started to happen that is F1 got more popular the media got bigger as weekends got elongated stuff started to happen on a Thursday in it around 15 years or so ago just started to happen but again So if I grew up watching F1 in the 90s, I can remember them talking about doing interviews on the Thursday So it just started to happen I guess but listen everyone explains at f1.com if you know better than us we'll happily Yeah, so there's no yeah We have no I mean it's it's always been a thing and I think there's always been it it's been in some form Yes, I think it obviously became more formalized Because of the you know amount of teams amount of drivers and amount of media because the media has obviously grown over the years and The output of that media as well, you know You've not just got newspapers printing things on a Monday morning looking back at the race weekend You now have stuff that's going out literally as it happens Hot cast Yeah, exactly so It's definitely it's definitely becoming more structured day in the last sort of decade hasn't it but I think there's always been some form of media day as such just in different guys It's absolutely now Let's just take a step back because we were describing what a typical race weekend looks like we sort of covered off media day quite well So if he talk us through what happens with your job when cars are on track because I'm guessing that can be a very Different job, you know you you worked at McLaren When they were winning races and championships you also worked at McLaren in some really tough times How do you respond to what happens on track and how does that change your job? Yeah, it's It's a different talent depending on how things pan out on the circuit But you're I mean you're constantly you've got information coming in from all angles So you can see what's happening on track You can hear what the media are saying You can see what the media are saying and how they're reacting to things You also can hear the engineers so you have a bit more context as to how things are playing out and what's gonna happen? So you're always kind of formulating in your brain How this is gonna play out and what you might need to do in terms of what the media are gonna want to know the information that they're gonna need and And then making sure that everyone is aligned at the right moment. So you know everything really kicks in In a race for example, everything kicks in you know at the end of that race and at the end of that race You need to have known everything that's gone on anything that could be potentially controversial Anything that the driver's gonna need to know anything that you need to relate to the team principal and vice versa because You know when you see kind of Combs people almost you know having to have these little conversations with the drivers before they do media Like it's not like there's anything sinister going on It's genuinely they don't have the context that even you as a fan have got watching the race You know they haven't seen this all play out they they have their experience of it from Sitting in their car and what they saw happens so And then they're about to go on the world's media and be asked to talk about it So you know imagine you throwing yourself into an interview and you're gonna be asked about something that you've actually not really seen so So you're kind of this is all going on in your head in terms of the preparation you need to do There's also now the element of social media so from a cons perspective, you know You're constantly talking to your social teams because they're also Talking about the race as it unfolds and you need to make sure that they're not putting something out there that is inaccurate because they don't always have the same information and context as you do in cons So you have to kind of make sure there's a lot of moving parts Aligned and at speed and also you're not talking to your social team I because I know that's where we've spoken during a race where if something I don't know for example a Driver has broken down and people are speculating as to why that's sometimes where somebody like me covering the race might Drop you a text and go You know, well what happened to your drive and you said oh no, it's an electrical issue Etc. So you're constantly talking and just before we go for a break so if you you mentioned there that you know It's not about sort of telling the drivers not to say this not to say that but I guess there has to be an element of Protecting these drivers that the immediacy of media in Formula 1 is is is quite amazing You know you can step out of the car and immediately in the pit lane be grabbed by a journalist by a presenter I sometimes feel find myself saying look don't forget drivers have come out of an unbelievably high-pressure situation with a Drenlin pumping there must be times where you have to sort of say to them. Okay, you know They might be furious if that if an incident happened They might be gutted if they've lost out on a race They might be full of euphoric highs and the emotions are going the other way They might I'm guessing there must be moments where you have to sort of say them. Okay, let's take a step because we don't want to be saying something that you're going to regret at this point Yeah, it's up. I mean they're human and emotions run high like you say either way good or bad and You yeah, you you do have a duty to protect them in that situation and They yeah, if something has happened that hasn't gone their way on track I can say they the the pressure of that situation It's kind of on you to get them to just step away and go okay Let's just just talk to me about what happened talk to me about what you want to say and then and then let's work out The best way for you to articulate your point and I think it's helping them in those moments because essentially you know You want them to be the best version of themselves. You don't want to tell them what to say you don't want to say Just don't talk about this. You know, they have to acknowledge reality if something's happened You know getting them standing front ever a journalist and just pretend it didn't also doesn't reflect well on them So yeah, I think there's there's definitely an element of protection but also just helping Again, give them that context give them that understanding and also just just have a minute because sometimes sometimes all it takes is you just need to decompress for a minute And then you can kind of go okay, I can see the bigger picture now and then it kind of better for everyone because the media also then get a Better answer and a better response and so if you mentioned earlier that part of your job is dealing with As you called them partners but sponsors or advertisers to the team that's something we take very seriously in the world of podcasting as well So we'll pause now for some messages ja comoput po Agr rem geçendoisisiin sisällä, antaa toimimme pu spotoa epäkeinen48 liittessää hienoorin paist плат. Tännellä ei t Zelinnin. 밑ellä ainakin on tähän. eyed kirjiotään suosiaan tuolla voisi tubea. Nähdään väärvää Abrahamalaisgiggles. ree preventing亮set on. брä filter єkä olen ashamedotaan oike suosiaan ---. ja onko se, että se on. Kun hänly katoa, on helpompi keskittyä ollennaiseen. Siihen, mikä vie minua eteenpäin. Kun markkinat heiluvat, Nordea private bankingin asiantuntemus ja omasioitus johtajani, tuovat selkeyttä koinan keskelle. Siksi valitsemkuun paniin, joka vie minut askeleen edelle. Nordea pistefi kalta private banking. จะ såStopingi johdalla. Ei tarvitse Millaisin tehtyöottö. Tehdiffin tälläinen, millaan Swomen kuil Relaxia toti—— Okei,width sofi-og. Ehkä oppalta on kpezwire. Ja deciding gorilla. offerings. Onlyman tekevät - milvil senteystä. Maailman tekemää revelett예ками Useini slide Detko Sick你有es parsi mitta hänen rakennun tarpeen näin clawa suomalaniolatosaszeichnä גםly on. 沈ä toppingsotaan Julia Johannesen. Veivä ainakin hyöänänä taasi tapu. Eli tämmösi kijkensää Luffλη自由― jaавайolint on muri我的htyä mostrara Morninghhhh pl allit! Nämä vaike mind doorsis jos pitäähopon. Katen kaikista päädan siitä. Kiiballit on niin tunneista. K then pelti perin pers erroituutЖia arvaani ja se on tullut. Sitten on tullut, että se on tullut. Se on tullut, että se on tullut. Ja, se on tullut, että se on tullut. Rion, jotenkin on tullut, että se on tullut. Rion senttään semmoinen tullut. Ja se on tullut, että se on tullut. Rion saa, että se on tullut, että se on tullut. on 5000 perojaista mukavaa. Vaatте kowitzvästi teitä t Bronzemiosella maaynuskottuiop survive takas. Onko tuedsiębiorcinnan huont�edell Contact? Ja наб99a maka he referred toller mutta hela Gysti secrets ja случае West降ワinsa tansartat ja totarta onko tuota onko tuota? Tämä on kylmääntä. Tämä on kylmääntä. Tämä on kylmääntä. Rainsas, miten on tullut joukkoja? Ja mitä on kylmääntä. Tämä on kylmääntä. ja seuraavaksi. The one thing I always say to people is, don't wait for things to come to you, make them happen because that's kind of how I started. I literally just picked up the phone and said, "Can I just come and be around it?" And then from then just works up. And it is, it's all about the people, it's all about the connections you make, but you don't have to have them to start with. You create them, you make them, you reach out to people, you start being visible, you kind of show them what you could do before you almost have the job. It's always that age-al-saying, isn't it? It's like, sort of do the job that you want, not the job that you've got, and kind of keep just showing people that it's something that you've got a passion for. And be prepared to work hard as well. I think that's a lot. It's an easy thing to say, but I think it is, everyone's so accessible now. You can get in touch with people so much easier. I mean, I had newspaper clippings on my walls. I'd have liked anything I saw in the newspaper trying to track down. I've letters from F1 teams that I wrote to when I was 17, 18, because the only contact I had for them was a postal address. Now, just reach out and get experience and just start doing stuff, just start getting experience in the role that you want to do, but also in the industry itself. And it doesn't necessarily need to be Formula One. I think a lot of people fixates on, it has to start with Formula One. There are so much made to spot out there. I mean, I did 10 years of junior Formula international racing, single-seaters, full touring girls, all sorts of stuff. And a lot of those contacts are still people that I talk to now or they're journalists that cover F1. So just kind of look at all the avenues in. And don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it, because that's the big one. There's excellent advice. You remind me, actually, of Laura Winter on this podcast last season. And Sophie, who said exactly the same about other forms of motorsport, or other sports, you know, you can get experience in other sports and look, remove across. And Sophie, it's what I've got a lot to thank you for, because I say go back nearly 10 years now. I think you were one of the first, but I was the same. You know, my story, I had no motorsport connections whatsoever. And I, again, was firing off emails to Formula One teams as a young journalist saying, I want to cover Formula One. And so, for you, I think the first to come back to me. So thanks, mate. Appreciate it. You're very welcome. And it's the one thing I always say as well. And the biggest piece of advice that I've got given is it's really important to celebrate everyone else's success. And you want to see other people do well, you know. And responding to you is a case in point of fact, you know, it helped you, but celebrating other people's success doesn't limit your own success. And I think that's one thing in this sport that people need to remember, because essentially it is a team sport and we all need each other. And it's better if we all work together. So, and that example is exactly why, you know. It's lovely words, I feel, lovely words. And right, two questions to end on Sophie. The first one is a slightly cruel one. But I think you'll understand why I ask it. Now, I, as I said, can vouch personally for the fact that you like your drivers to be open, you like your drivers to be honest. There must be times, though, where there are things that you don't want to be in the public realm, maybe at all, or maybe quite yet. Are there ever examples of that where you are having to say to people that we don't want people to find out about this just yet? And how do you deal with that? Yeah, and that comes back to relationships, isn't it? It's about people in the sport. It's really important, especially with the media. It's important to have respect. And I think I've always worked on the basis that, you know, I respect everybody is doing their own job. You know, media want to get stories out there, but equally, you all need each other. And it's those relationships that you lean on in those moments. And it's the same thing that I always say about, you know, media want access when you're doing well. But if you give them the same access when you're doing well, that you give them when you're not doing well, you kind of hope then that they'll still talk about you if you're not doing well. As much as, you know, you will kind of help them out when you're in a situation where actually you've got, you've kind of got more to offer them. And I think, yeah, it's genuinely the relationships. And I have, I've had so many conversations over the years where media will, I mean, it's a, the paddock is one of those environments where things don't stay quite for long. Things are known. Old people love a gossip. Everybody loves the other gossip. And it is, it's almost impossible to, we always say it's impossible to announce anything new. But I think where you have those respectful relationships with the media, you know, the journalists will come to you and they'll say, look, we've got the story. We know this is happening or we know this is going on. And then again, it's, sorry, that was the cat jumping up. I'm actually going to leave this in the edit, so if you were saying beforehand, my cats come towards me whenever I'm talking and we've got right to the end of the podcast. And was that, was that a cat jumping off the desk? That was a cat jumping up onto the cupboard above me. So it may come down again before the end of the story. This one is Molly. Thanks, Molly. Molly, Molly's interrupted. So for you, was saying. Yes, I was saying, so yeah, you, journalists will get wind of things. And that's when you lead on those relationships. That's when your relationships really are the, the one thing that you need in this role in terms of that, that's sort of working, respectful relationship with the media because you can, you can sometimes offer something else to say, look, we'll give you this exclusive. If you hold this or you're just speaking to say, actually, there's a reason why we can't say this now. There's a reason why we want to say this at this point, work with us. We'll give you more if you kind of hold it and work with us. And then you'll kind of work with the journalists on what that story is and how those things come out. And sometimes it, you know, sometimes journalists will just write things and things will get leaked because they want that. But for the most part, the ones that you're going to be working with then have been in the sport for a long time and they understand it and they have that kind of mutual respect, you, you can find a way, a way through it. And it is tricky, but like I said, that's where, that's where it's really important to, to have that mutual respect. And it's very important in this role to be able to cope with the unexpected, including cats doing our chromatic moves at middle of answering questions, and he passed the test with flying colours, well done Molly. So hopefully this has been really interesting on to end with a fantastic question from Rachel from Cork in Ireland. Lovely part of the world. There won't be a stag do there once. Do excellent whiskey, which I enjoyed responsibly. Anyway, Rachel says, when the race podium finishes have sprayed the champagne, speaking of enjoying responsibly, and taken the photos, do they go straight to the press conference and media or do they get a chance to dry off or change? Great question. Yeah, really good question, and it depends how much you were expecting that podium as to how much preparation you will have in place. So yeah, that was Molly jumping down. That was Molly jumping down. Good, thank you Molly. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, so they do have an opportunity to change and they'll go back to the cool down room. So the cool down room, which you actually see on TV now, you see them sort of chatting away, they will have spare kits in there. They'll meet their driver trainers. So their driver trainers will basically take their kit and when they come off the podium, they can change because they'll probably be ridiculously sweaty and ridiculously sticky by that point. So it is nice to have a change of clothes. However, if you are potentially not expecting that podium and you haven't got into the process of doing that, then you may not have a change of clothes. And that's when you often see drivers that they weren't expecting to necessarily finish on the podium or they haven't had a podium for a while. When they do go to do media, they will still be very sticky and you can kind of tell because it's not very easy to hide it if they are kind of covered in champagne. But at that point, because it's something that's maybe not expected, they don't mind it because it's kind of just adds to the moment. Yes, for the most part, they are all very prepared. And this is where I learned that champagne absolutely stinks. It was doing an interview, stood next to you, Sophie. When I was interviewing Zach Brown, Zach had just been sprayed. I didn't realise that champagne once dried to a human. It gave his. It really has torn me down. And I told Zach on the television that he smelled and he laughed and didn't mind. Fortunately, he didn't mind. Yeah. And there's moments you don't tend to see where mine is. Absolutely. Sophie, thank you for this has been fantastic. Was somebody stood next to you holding a phone during this interview or was Molly the cat doing it perhaps? No, I feel like I should have had somebody here just for the moment. But no, I'm all good. Sophie, this has been brilliant. I think so many of our listeners have asked about this. I think this has been a real fascinating insight into some of the bits of Formula One. You don't normally get to see, which is exactly what we try and do on this podcast. So Sophie, you are one of Formula One's best humans. I really appreciate it coming on. I want to explain. Sophie, thank you. Thank you for having me. An absolute pleasure. Keep your questions coming. They can be about any aspect of Formula One. If you're more new to us, as I say, sometimes we do talk about the more on track stuff, but you can ask about any aspect of F1 on a off track. Just email as f1explaintof1.com. You can write your email in words or you can send us a voice note. Check out the latest episode of F1 Nation on this feed. Of course, Tom Clarkson and his guests have raised previews and raised debriefs. Don't forget our other official Formula One podcast, F1 Beyond the Grid for interviews with some of the biggest names. from in and around the sports. We are back with new episodes of F1 Explains every Friday. So until then, we'll say goodbye. Bye for now, see you next week. (upbeat music)