Zak Brown

I didn't know Bernie before.

I knew Ron at McLaren before.

But that was kind of the extent.

of my Formula One relationships and walked me into Frank Williams, walked me into Luca De Montezemolo.

And, you know, he was a grinder.

If you want to be in Formula One, get to know those.

And there's a top five most powerful people in motorsports at the time.

And he walked me in everywhere, and he gave me a tremendous amount of credibility.

He gave me a lot of confidence.

I wouldn't have the confidence to go knock on the door of Luca De Montezemolo, and he walked me straight in through the front door.

So he helped me build the company, gave me, I think, a lot of credibility because everyone knew who he was.

And, yeah, he's sorely missed.

We lost him during COVID.

Maybe I had the confidence, but I didn't have the confidence.

have the ability right okay or there were the you know the phone number um so no you know well well well caught uh confidence i would have had but kind of access yeah how to get to them and um them taking my call you know even if i got luca's number you know i've i've made phone calls before where people have hung up on me and when you had john hogan next year no one was going to hang up the phone on you

Bernie was great.

I hit it off with Bernie right away.

I think Bernie saw someone who was a grinder and a dealmaker and a non-bullshitter.

And I hit it off with Bernie right away.

I mean, what he did is he's the godfather, the father of Formula One.