Toto, it's great to see you
You're a fantastic example of mixing
business and sport together
because you started from a sporting
background behind the wheel and now
you've moved into the business side
was that was the plan?
No it wasn't the
plan when I was a
teenager I dreamt of a great career in
Formula One
and I had a quite a hard landing
on that dream and went into business and
became an entrepreneur
and did that for fifteen years and then
somehow through the
investment side of things I came back to
Formula One
Obviously money's a huge part of Formula One and
sponsorship
is a huge part that, how do you get those
sponsorships and how do you maintain
good relationships
I think it's like in any other spots you
know in Formula One
people often say you're very limited, you
can use on track
pictures besides the racing weekend
but I would say that it's 
like everywhere else. Social media
is growing at a great pace in Formula
One for our team and
for Formula One itself nevertheless
monetization is still
is still a problem and its not only the
case for Formula One but it's for any other
business you'll be having 
wide audiences but no one is
no one is willing to pay for it and I
guess that's gonna change in the next
couple of years
the model could be shifting from
what we see as traditional TV today to
more into the digital world
I guess home we're not yet there.
This
season we've seen lots of changes
surrounding the regulations and
Mercedes have obviously done very well with
that
Some other teams, not so, do you think
there needs to be a limitation on how
much
it can change from season to season and
do you think there should be sort of
some sort of capping with the cost of
that?
 I think that
Formula one is the pinnacle of motorsport
this is not Indycar
and it's not GP2 - We don't want to have
standardized cars but standardized parts
Mercedes is in Formula One not only
because it's a great branding exercise
but also because
it's the pinnacle of innovation it's the
World Championship between
drivers but it's also the world
championship between engineers
and what we are doing in Formula One today with our race car
is flowing back into into Road cars
now coming back to your question of cost
yes I think there should be
some kind of mechanism which limits
spending in Formula One
Whether it is through a cost cap or whether
it is by
an intelligent way of reducing costs
through the regulations
you know I don't care a lot as long as we understand
that we shouldn't maintain the
up
the upward spiral of escalating costs
but
all being intelligent and and trying to
narrow the gap between the smaller teams
and the larger ones
Going back to your statement about
it being more relevant to road cars
and the innovations that come from F1
Do you think that's why we're going to see
more manufacturers
for example Honda returning? 
Honda is
a good example
Honda have been coming back to Formula
One because of the new regulations
because of those very novel and fantastic new engine regulations
and I think it's just the beginning we
had a phase
before 2010 where lots of the OEM's
exited the sport, BMW
Toyota, Honda, Renault. Mercedes 
were the only ones
having the stamina and understanding
that it could take a couple of years
until you're successful and I guess with
the return of Honda now
We're two, let's say three, manufacturers in
the business with Ferrari
and I guess it's just a matter of times
where other
car manufacturers are going to come
back 
So if we could just
round things up by getting your
thoughts of the future of F1
and what changes may come about when
Bernie Ecclestone steps down?
You know first of all a lot of credit must
be given to
to Bernie Ecclestone he has built an
empire forty years ago
Formula One was a bunch of teams going
racing
and nowadays the world's number one
sport
he was the first one in realizing that TV
could have a major impact on sports
and was the first one to monetize that
and today Formula One is a very
successful company
and whatever happens next will be the
next episode in Formula One
I think that definitely the digital
world is gonna play an important role
like with any other sports but I'm very happy how
Formula One is today
Great thank you
very much great chatting to you today
Thank you very much
