Interview with Laurent Dupin, editor-in-chief of F1 on Canal Plus

Hello Laurent. Are you planning to add any new approaches to how you approach drivers and interview them?

I haven’t really thought about it. Over the years, what is easy for the entire Canal team is that, apart from Hamilton and Alonso, we have seen them all start. So for them, Canal has become very important. We try to have closeness without having complicity. That is to say, if they make a mistake or if there is a slightly particular or disturbing theme for them, we do not hesitate to mention it.

I also like to have a touch of humor, almost bordering on teasing, such as congratulating a driver who may have spun out. It’s just about finding the right balance so as not to offend them or have it backfire on us. Sometimes, you have to feel it out, which is easier to do with the French and Leclerc than with Alonso, for example, who can be very sensitive. When he was at Alpine, he complained about the reliability. I told him that he had finished in the points for ten races. But at his next retirement, he reminded me by saying, “So, I don’t have a reliability issue?” I thought to myself, “Wow, he remembers that I said that to him three weeks ago!” So, you have to know how to adapt according to each person’s character.

For 2024, have you set specific goals such as a number of interviews per Grand Prix or having a Ferrari driver at Monza or Alonso in Spain?

We have all the drivers for interviews after qualifying and after the race. After that, we try to schedule the one-to-one meetings. For Alonso in Barcelona, he is so in demand for his home Grand Prix that it’s not where he most feels like opening up, between his numerous interviews and sponsor appearances. If we catch him at the end of the day after eight hours of answering questions, it’s not ideal. It’s better to have him in Baku where he has a lot less demands to have more time with him and more sincerity. At some Grand Prix, drivers have back-to-back interviews. We try to catch them when they are mentally at their freshest.

For Ferrari, we already have several documentary projects with them, so we are trying to put things in place. In terms of coverage, we have only gone up to the fourth Grand Prix for now because we want to first see how it evolves. We already know that we will have each driver from the top six teams at least once. That means 12 drivers out of 24 dates so we will have to be skillful because drivers like Verstappen, Hamilton, or Alonso, we only have them once for a quarter of an hour. So we need to try to aim right.

Do you already know your schedule for this year? On which events will you be moving and how do you choose who goes where?

We know the schedule. Personally, I do almost all of them, 19 out of 24 Grand Prix. When I am not on site, I am an editor in Paris. We plan our schedule with Margot Laffite because one of us always has to be on site. We are often together. In these cases, she is the main presenter and I am the interviewer. And when she is not there, I host La Grille and I am with either Pauline Sanzey, Charlotte Gabas, or Manon David.

There are some must-attend Grand Prix such as the first one, the last one and Monaco where Margot and I have to be. Then, we don’t want to do two consecutive race weekends outside Europe. For example, I won’t go to Brazil and she won’t go to Mexico. For the Baku-Singapore sequence, I’ll do Baku, she’ll do Singapore. For the end-of-year triple races, I’ll do Las Vegas and not Qatar, and it will be the opposite for her.

You have been attending the F1 coverage on Canal since the beginning in 2013. With all the excitement surrounding Formula 1, especially related to the Netflix effect, do you feel that the atmosphere has changed at the Grand Prix?

Completely. Already, there are more people because there is traffic jams every day to get to the racetracks. Even for the free practice Fridays, the grandstands are full at most of the Grand Prix. We must be happy about it and set the alarm a little earlier.

By contrast, we did all the Grand Prix races in 2020 and 2021 almost behind closed doors, where we could leave at the last moment. And since 2022, when we find ourselves with a hundred thousand people per day, we had to get used to it. We also noticed the rejuvenation and feminization of the audience. The audience is noisier with chants like « Charles! Charles! Lewis! Lewis! » whereas before, it was more of an audience of connoisseurs, a little more middle-aged, who were happy to see the drivers but without shouting. Today, the stands scream during the drivers’ parade or when they arrive on the grid. It’s really becoming a three-day celebration.

What is your view on the Las Vegas Grand Prix that made its debut on the calendar in 2023?

When one imagines Las Vegas, we think of people in swimsuits on rooftops during foam parties. However, in November at night, it was five degrees. So it caught everyone off guard to feel cold. And then the first practice session went wrong, the various delays, Verstappen’s criticisms, … Finally, the race was great, and even the most skeptical drivers ended up saying that the track was quite nice, so everything turned out well.

Afterwards, the stands were not full so I think there is room for improvement for the public by converting the inhabitants of Las Vegas who have seen the Grand Prix as a constraint. A bit like the Monégasques who leave Monaco during the Grand Prix week, with the rails everywhere and the roads closed. There may be work to be done with the locals. It was still a pretty incredible event from a visual point of view especially.

After ten years in F1, do you have any anecdotes to tell us about a driver? Or comments that you did not broadcast because they were too controversial, such as criticizing a team boss?

We are looking for sincere pilots! Back when Pierre Gasly was in GP2, in Budapest, we managed to invite him to a party, whereas today it would be completely the opposite. He only had Red Bull t-shirts and we lent him a shirt to go. It’s fun to think about it in hindsight because he was so young back then, and now he’s the star going to parties while we no longer get in.

I also like the proximity of Charles Leclerc who is really one of the most polite. He says hello to the whole technical team, he stops to exchange a few words. I don’t know if it’s noticeable on air, but Leclerc, Gasly, Ocon have this recognition because we were talking about them when they were still very young.

For anecdotes, it is often in the preparation before the one-on-one interviews. Even with Hamilton, whose guilty pleasure is stealing candies from the Mercedes motorhome. These are the little moments of closeness that are not always there because the drivers are often very surrounded, by a press officer, a physio, or even the manager. This was not the case for previous generations when the drivers were alone without a team around them.

Do you already have interviews scheduled for the first Grand Prix of the season?

We will probably have Charles Leclerc for the first race. But we do not plan too long term because Canal is now well established in the paddock and if we ask for a driver, we know we will have one in the next three Grand Prix. There are also habits formed by the teams, such as for the Monaco Grand Prix, we are the national broadcaster so we have priority. We can also have him for races where there is a weaker national broadcaster, as was the case in Qatar last year.

You were talking about Leclerc’s politeness and kindness. Do you think that means things will go well with Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025?

From what I understand, Leclerc is delighted to have Hamilton coming to Ferrari. I have also noticed in recent years a change in Hamilton’s attitude. At one point, he was quite isolated in the paddock or during parades, and after Covid, he has gotten closer to the younger drivers, whom he looks upon kindly. I find him much more open towards other drivers and less focused on creating conflict. In fact, with Russell, a young and ambitious driver who joined his team, there were no issues. Now, he is arriving at Leclerc’s team, so I think, until they bump into each other (laughs), it will go well.