In Brazil how does technology enhance entertainment and sport?

So I'm really honored, excited to be joined by our next guest here on TGI at Futurecom Sao Paulo twenty twenty two. He's a former racing driver. He's a TV commentator. He'll be speaking on the main stage about how technology is affecting motorsport. So I'd like to welcome to the great endorser today, mister Max Wilson. Thanks very much, Matthew, for having me here. It's a pleasure. It's an honor to be with you here today, and let's talk about technology and motorsport. Well, know, I mean, I'm really excited about this because we've never spoken about motorsport specifically before on this show. We've spoken about baseball, soccer, cricket, some other sports, but we've never got into motorsport. So I think this is gonna be really exciting. But before we get going, just staying on the theme of technology. What is an innovation in technology or a product or something that touches your life personally that's been quite what's so impactful to you over the last twelve months? In my life, my personal life? Of course, you know, mobile phones, you know, it's on the connectivity is one thing so important now for everyone nowadays. For family, like, I got a son and it's always good to find out where he is or be in touch with him anytime we want. Yeah. And it's good for us that technology has advanced so much in the last few years as far as, you connectivities and then the quality of the technology of today. And for sure for me is the connectivity, of course. Particularly in the last couple of years of the pandemic. Definitely. You know, seeing my son having, you know, online lessons, you know, because he couldn't go to school or nobody could go to school. And the kids, you know, kept in touch online as well. So during this very hard period that we know we all came across, technology and connectivity was really a big played a big role in our world today. Excellent. Excellent. And for our listeners around the world, can you give them just a one minute elevator pitch or one minute elevator bio on your history today, Matt? Because it's pretty fascinating. Thanks. Thanks, Matthew. First and foremost, I apologize for my English. It's a bit little bit rusty. Perfect. Perfect. It's been a while since I haven't talked that much. Spent a lot of time living in English. Exactly. But Thank you. But actually, I'm a racing car driver myself and I started go karting when I was ten years old. And I came across all the series over in Brazil, all the categories over here in Brazil from go karting to from a four, from a three. And then I went and moved to to Europe. My goal, my dream back then was to get in f one, become a f one racing car driver. And I got as far as test driver for Williams Grand Prix, a British team, a very very big one. And I was very proud to get that far. And when I got to Williams, Williams was the running champion back back in the day, it was nineteen ninety seven. And from there, I I moved to America, also racing. I did some IndyCar racing back in the States. That was in two thousand one. And then from there, I ended up in Australia. Down under. So it was a long trip, but it was a great experience to live in Australia, not only because of the race and motor sport, but Australia is a beautiful country. And then after twelve years on the road, I decided to come back home and came back to Brazil to be close to my family, parents, friends. And as much as I have done a lot of a lot of friends throughout these years, know, in the place I lived in, But it was good to be back home and here I am today. And today, I'm still doing some racing. I'm a director in the Porsche Cup Brazil. It's a series that we have here in Brazil. And also, working the broadcast of the f one, you know, commentator as as a commentator as well. Excellent. Excellent. Now I know you're gonna be speaking on the main stage in a moment, and we can get into some of the details. But I think and we spoke about it before, Max. Technology and data is having a significant impact on motorsport, specifically Formula one. Just give our listeners a sort of what it's doing, how it's enhancing the sport, and the sort of data you're to improve the efficiencies. As you mentioned, Matthew, you know, sport and technology, they've been walking hand to hand for decades now. And even sports like cricket or soccer, sports that we don't even know that the technology is involved, but it is. And especially when in a sport where you have a machine on board of it, like a race car or motorbike or something, technology became even more important because it helps a lot of drivers, talking about motorsport, but also about the machines, about the cars. So talking about the drivers first, motorsport is a kind of unique sport in a way that first off, you don't have a coach. Normally, you don't have a motor like a racing car driver coach. Right. You know, the guy, sort of the drivers try the error and they'll make things right and wrong and then he finds out it's There's a lot of instinct involved. Exactly. Yeah. So techno technology mainly on the data acquisition thing, part of it, is change the sport big time because in a racetrack, if you're like sitting in the pit pit wall, for example, watching what's going on, you can only see so much. Racetrack is huge. It's a different environment from like a soccer field or tennis court, for example. So the data acquisition that comes through a software that the car produces it, you know, helps the driver understand, okay, when I'm gaining time, where I'm losing time, when I'm braking too late and, you know, make a couple of turns in the corner, or when I'm braking too early and lose a little bit of time. So technology played a big role as far as drivers evolution kind of it. And that's the reason why, for example, if you take the great drivers from back in the eighties, for example, comparing to a driver which were not that great, there was a big gap between them. Right. Like, Deryton Senna that is a Brazilian, you know, hero here in Brazil and comparing him to some of his teammates, sometimes not qualifying left. There were two, three seconds gap between them. His head and shoulders above. Above everyone. Yeah. And the reason why that happened was nobody knew why he was that fast because they didn't have a way to understand what he was doing. Nobody knew where he was breaking, what which gear he was using in each corner sort of thing. And through the data acquisition, all that information was provided to all the drivers that was on the same team with him. So therefore, the driver could compare what he was doing to what Seno was doing, for example. And therefore, he could elevate his game big time through this information. Now, I've just come up with a something that I think is quite profound, if I don't mind saying so myself. But whenever in this industry, we always talk about the digitalization of something. The digitalization of music or music Yeah. The digitalization of books, the digitalization of TV. But what you're describing is the digitalization of instinct. Exactly. That that's That's a pretty accurate in a way to put it. It's a you know, you can see in a computer what that guy was doing by instinct. Exactly what you just mentioned. And that's something that changed the sport because, you know, racing is difficult to understand what's the driver's doing if you don't have that. If you watch a tennis match for instance, you can see with your eye what's going on, which grade did the player, you know, hold the record record or what, you know, sort of stroke he was doing in that ball or that particular point. Racing, you cannot do that, especially racing cars. Because motorbikes, for example, you can see the rider on top of the bike. Yeah. A car, you are inside, you know, cockpit. Yeah. So you cannot really see much at all. Yeah. So that, you know, played a big role as far as, you know, evolution of the drivers and you mentioned your your example is perfect. So it's leveled the playing ground for the Big time. Right. Has it done anything for the really good drivers? Obviously, it's helped them put in their machines. It's helped them become more efficient. But are they are they pro or are they against? You you know, for the great drivers, it still helped a little bit because as much as you're talented, for example, it's very it's nearly impossible to become perfect. So the great drivers were very close to perfection, but they never get there. There is no way to get there. But for this particular group of people, the great drivers, they help, you know, technology helped to fine tune the little bits here and there to get better again, to improve a little bit more. For the drivers that were not that great, technology as far as that is concerned helped quite a bit more, which in a way hurt the great drivers. Is in a way like, imagine in soccer, you're a big fan of soccer. If your Liverpool, you know, is showing everybody what you're doing or, you know, another team, Every single player you're training or everything, all that information you're giving to your rival. That is in a way a little bit unfair, but it's part of the game. It's part of the the way things run today. So but it helped both drivers, you know, but mainly level the playing field. And have the rule makers of, say, Formula One stepped in to put any limits on the data you can use? Or are they is it just less a fair, just go for it? Or if they identified maybe that gives an unfair advantage, maybe are they starting to change the rule book slightly a little bit? A little bit. They did a little bit because not as much as the data. The data is too pretty wide open what it can, you know, gather as information. Yeah. But also the technology was on wasn't only about data. It was about some parts of the cars and softwares. For example, one thing that everybody knows because the road cars got it today, traction control. Yeah. For example, traction control for road cars is mainly for safety. For racing, it's more about performance. So it's something that back in the day, f one had traction control. And and then the organization got to a point where, oh, that was a little bit too much because the machine or the technology is making the job or work that the driver should be doing with his own foot in the throttle kind of thing. So there was a point where it was a little bit unbalanced like the traction control example or the active suspension that, you know, the car could ride in the perfect ride height from comparing to the road because it was all controlled electronically. So back in the day, there were times where they overcame a little bit where the balance point was. But I think today's pretty spot on and they got back to where the driver, which is the athlete, is still, excuse me, makes the difference not as much as the technology. And those learnings, that sort of data loop that comes from, say, the the car itself Yeah. That improves, say, the efficiency of the engine, Do they feed that back into the consumer world to improve regular consumer cars? Definitely. Most of the things that you take from the motorsport industry, you can apply in road car. You know, for example, throttle took for for a long time now, this is controlled by fly by wire. It's a wire that electronically control the controls the throttle. So ABS system, traction control, they all started in motorsport and then the industry, the road car industry, they put them on their road cars because mainly again about safety. But some of the manufacturers, they also have sports car. So some of the technology they apply also in sports cars, which are road cars, but, you know, they can still use it. So for example, one thing today that we got in f one, for example, is a DRS, which is a drag reduction system, which, you know, the rear rear wing of the car gets in a lower angle so the car can go faster on a straight line. Yeah. Something that the road cars, the sports cars today, they have this technology as well, for example. Or the pedal shifts, you change the gears a lot faster than manually. So a lot of things from the motorsport, mainly f one is the biggest, you know, laboratory as far as producing things that translate to world cars few years later. And what do you think is next for f one? Because one of the things that we talk about is this propulsion of digital adoption. Technology is moving faster than ever. Things are changing so quickly. What's on the horizon as far as what technology can do for f one moving forward? I mean, time will tell. Like, if you think back twenty years ago, there were a lot of things that are used today that we never imagined that we're gonna use. For instance, for example, when the race cars started at first, they were HVAC gear changes, and then they became sequential, you know, also manually, which was a big step. And now it's a paddle shifter. So I'm not too sure what's gonna happen in furious time. But I think, you know, one thing though, f one or motorsport in general, they can never forget that it's a sport. You can never go too far with technology. There is a sweet spot that, you know, as I mentioned before, back in the day, sometimes they they went over it. But I think, you know, as far as they got the balance right, which I think today they do, I think, you know, technology and sport can walk hand to hand. But what the future holds, one thing for sure is electrical engines, which in f one they have already their hybrid system cars. They have a combustion engine. They also have electric engine. The new rule changes for twenty twenty six excuse me. Get some water. Excuse me. For twenty twenty six, more electrical power is gonna be available for the f one cars. So sustainable fuels as well for the combustion engine. So there are lot of things that's still in evolution and the time will tell what's gonna how far we're gonna go. Well, I'm I'm that leads me nicely into something I wanted to discuss is, obviously, electric cars, EVs are hot right now. It's a big talking game. That's even before we talk about autonomous Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Same thing. But do you think the combustion engine will be replaced by electric cars in f one eventually? Not in the near future because, for instance, in twenty twenty six, the f one has already made the rules from twenty twenty six onwards, which is still have a combustion engine in the system. The big the the battery the electrical engine is gonna be bigger, but the combustion engine is gonna be there again. But in the other hand, they're gonna go to a sustainable fuel system or fuel source. So to to not have as much as many pollution in the environment. So but I think for the next at least ten, fifteen years, combustion engine in f one is gonna be still there. Well, that's what lends itself to the atmosphere, the sound. The sound. The smell. Yeah. The of the that's what it's all about. Exactly. It wouldn't be the same if it went. I don't think, you know, combustion engine I don't think it's gonna be ever away. A lot of people believe that, you know, electric car is gonna take over the world kind of thing. I'm not too sure that it's gonna happen. Some some manufacturers actually, they're gonna go full electric within the next five years. But I think combustion engine is gonna be still around for a long time. I think the only thing that they're really looking at big time, which is very important, is to have a combustion engine system that is not as aggressive towards the nature as nowadays, you know. And that has a lot to do with the fuel system or the fuel sources that are gonna be available in the future. They have talked about hydrogen hydrogen engines, you know, suppliers. Yeah. Yeah. Ethanol is a big, you know, industry as well. So you'll see what happens. Now another thing I wanted to talk about, and there's a picture on the wall that kind of illustrates it, but something I talked about yesterday is the metaverse. So you're a commentator. You have a great but for the spectator, how do you think technology is gonna change the experience they have whether watching the sport at home or indeed going to the racetrack to watch it. Because the example is, I can put on my headset at the racetrack and be anywhere on the track. Even on the race cars. Even in the race cars. Exactly. You know, you know, that's amazing. And it has all to do with the connectivity, which plays a big part of it. It can be in the racetrack or in your house and watching the race from the drivers sort of, you know, Exactly. And I think it's great because as many as much we can show people what, you know, we're doing inside the cars, I think it makes this sport more attractive and attract new people, new fans, you know, which is very good for for the industry of the motor sports. So that has been already that has been already happening. I think, you know, where we're gonna get as far as, you know, how much more information or how much how much more images we're gonna provide and technology gonna provide, I think, you know, it's gonna be amazing. But, you know, so far it's been unbelievable what technology has, you know, made for racing fans. And I'm even thinking to myself, how exciting would it be to witness Formula one as if you were sat in the car in real time Yeah. With full virtual reality. That's a whole different that's crazy. It's crazy. You're not that far ahead, you know, that because we have all their f one cars, they got onboard cameras. Today, there are cameras even inside helmets, you know, aligned with the eye sort of, you know, level of the racing car driver. So I think, you know, and we there are a lot more to come and they're gonna make sport even more interesting and gonna attract more people through technology. Now, we talked before as well, I think it's really interesting. United States, there's a there's a boom now Yeah. For f one I, Which will bring in a whole different audience Yeah. And a whole different thing. We we spoke about Austin, Texas from and obviously, Las Vegas. Sure. It's coming to Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. But the one thing I know when I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a couple of innovations, technical innovations that blew all minds really, didn't it? And I wasn't expecting it and I thought, Las Vegas is like becoming Silicon Valley number two. The the Tesla loop, the underground Elon Musk public transportation system of of electric cars that was very incredible. Then there was Halo car, this semi autonomous driverless service where you Must be scary. Yeah. At first Call the car, it comes, you and and and at first I was like, what's going on here? And then put some music on, and we're sitting along. I was after that. But where just from and and and this is a I don't know. Maybe a controversial question. But if people stop driving themselves twenty, thirty years from time, if they don't drive their own cars anymore, how would that affect Formula one? I mean, if someday we get to that point in the sport, I mean, we can get that far on the road, you know, but as far as sport is concerned, I think, you know, it has to have a limit for it. And as we just talked before, you know, every time the technology has gone a little bit too far, they have already stopped it. If you think about it, some of the technologies that we had thirty years ago, they stopped it thirty years ago and they never came back to the sport again. They came back to the road cars, for example, but to sport, they never came back because as much as every sport became a business, became an industry, but also always gonna have to have the heroes, the athletes, and you cannot never take take that apart. And I think, you know, and they shouldn't because it's sport. Sport is good for a lot of things. And I don't think, you know, in motorsport, they're gonna get too far as to that point where the drivers, they they are not important anymore. But in the other hand, there are already some series that they are they got driverless cars racing. Really? Yeah. And but it's a different sport. As you know, in the same way that you have simulator, you know, video game racing, f one racing. It's a different sport kind of thing. But the main one or the original one's still up and running. Know, the thing's gonna be like this forever. Well, I'll tell you what I think. And and you have obviously, it's your life. You have a love and a passion for driving. Definitely. I don't believe people all know, even if the technology exists, they'll give up driving in because it's something you enjoy doing. Yeah. If you're on the open road, if there's people the countryside, if you're at the driving is something people like to do. But I I think what autonomous cars will allow people to do is say, I'm gonna drive that leg of the journey, then I'm gonna let the machine take over for that leg. Yeah. Then Like an airplane. Yeah. Exactly. When I get into downtown London, I don't want the stress. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? So I'll hand over to the computer. But I don't think there's gonna be full autonomy anyway. I think Even if the technology allows it because it's too much fun to drive. Right? Or I think it's gonna be an option. You know, you can have a full autonomy or you can have halfway through it like in in the nation like about the one that you eroding, you know, in Vegas. Yeah. Or you can have it full on yourself like airplanes are. You know, airplanes you can go automatic pilots and then you can take control if you want again. Yes. You know, so I think, you know, you're gonna go to the same direction as airplanes as far as that is concerned. That's gonna be excellent. And you mentioned about, you know, Las Vegas about, you know, cars and everything. It's amazing how much f one grew in America in the last few years. And next year, you're gonna have three races in United States, plus one in Canada in Montreal. Yeah. And which is great, you know, because the most successful race as far as crowd is concerned was last year in Austin, Texas. Four hundred people over the weekend. Yeah. And sport in general is about culture as well. You mentioned cricket, which in England is a big sport. In Brazil, basically almost doesn't exist. And f one in in America never had been anything big. But in the last few years has gotten bigger and America is a very important market for for everything. You know, if you think about America as far as the land is concerned, it's almost as big as Europe altogether. Yeah. And as far as the population, I think the American population is like probably fifty percent of the whole Europe Europe's population. So it's a big market and America is really receiving f one very nicely and I think sports gonna go grow a lot more over there. And I think for the technology industry as well, you know, Formula One, I mean, we'll be at the Sao Paulo, the Brazilian In a few weeks time. Few weeks. And, you know, in my history, my career where I've worked at Vodafone and LG, we sponsor Ferrari when I was Yeah. A lot of the technology companies like to get involved in Formula One, whether it's Oracle and and and all the others now. Definitely. Because it's all about performance. You know? Why you have to have as performance as Vodafone or Oracle? We're gonna have to do the same with the race cars. And now we do in conjunction with, you know, some of these companies. So I think it has a lot to do f one and motorsport with technology. And what's your favorite Grand Prix in the world? I would say that my favorite one for, of course, is the Brazilian one, Interlagos, not only because it's in Brazil, but I grew up in Interlagos neighborhood. That's where I first drove a gold car. That's where I first drove a race car. So I got a really soft spot on me because of that. But also I like the races where Formula One is very popular or very big, like England for instance. You know, motorsport, England is the is the biggest place where for motorsport, Formula One or Formula Anything, that's where everything started. So I like the British Grand Prix as well because of the crowd is so passionate about racing, you know. So it's a very nice one as well. And so and who's your favorite? Who's who's your favorite for who's who's the best driver in the world as far as your concern like that? Today, whatever, it's think it's a very difficult question because it's very hard to compare drivers or athletes from different generations. Yeah. You know, for example, the amount of tech the the gain that technology brought to the racing car drivers, you know, it's very unfair to compare a guy that was racing without technology back in the seventies, for example, to a guy that has that much information from data or anything. So I think, you know, the best drivers were the the ones that, hey, they have done different or better than everybody else from their generation. Right. And on that matter, I think, you know, Ayrton Senna was one was one of the biggest ones, Schumacher as well, Hamilton. And today, got a guy which doesn't have the numbers of those guys that they just mentioned because he's still really young. But I think, you know, as far as talent and as far as quotation, he's gonna be one of the greatest, which is Max Verstappen. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, listen. I'm really looking forward to seeing you go on the Oh, appreciate it. Later on. We're gonna check that out. Do you have any closing comments for our listeners before we wrap it up today, Max? No. Just, you know, thank you once again for having me here. It's a it's a great experience to be sharing in our our world, which is motorsport with yours, which is technology, which you know we've been together for many years. Congrats for the podcast and they're gonna be a big supporter from now on and thanks once once again for having me here. No. It's been great. Thank you very much, Max. Appreciate it. Brilliant. Thank you.