Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and George The Poet raise a glass to the track’s unsung heroes in the whisky brand’s latest campaign.
Are you wondering why your friend isn’t calling you for those Sunday afternoon shopping trips anymore? It’s because they’re glued to F1, bby! We’re now seven instalments into Netflix’s compulsive-viewing documentary series Drive to Survive. It’s just weeks since the track action received the blockbuster treatment in F1: The Movie and months since LVMH announced a landmark 10-year partnership with the sport. The Grand Prix that your dad used to shuffle to the other room to watch alone all weekend have now become some of the coolest, most stylish, celebrity-laden sporting events around.
And few of its cast of superstars cause as much commotion when they step off the track as Ferrari Scuderia HP’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. However, in a new campaign – made with team sponsor Chivas Regal and the velvety lyrical flow of George The Poet – the drivers are transferring the celebrity treatment to the unsung heroes of the team: the pit crew. The highly-skilled group of specialists are tasked with everything from changing tyres to refuelling and fixing minor damage in a matter of seconds at mid-race pit stops. Without their clockwork synchronicity and collective dedication, any podium placements are off the cards. But such responsibility means they’re often the first to be piled on by fans and commentators when the team’s fortunes fall off course.
“I’d never really taken time to consider how much coordination and precision goes into what the pit crew do,” George The Poet tells Wonderland at the campaign’s launch event in Monza. “You see them every race, and you take for granted what they’re actually doing. You only really hear of them when it’s time for blame to be allocated.” The London-hailing poet, spoken word artist and podcast host’s lyrics are delivered by Lewis and Charles to narrate the campaign video, part of Chivas Regal’s “I Rise We Rise” platform, which celebrates the intertwinement of individual and collective wins. Working with the drivers proved a surreal reality for the 34-year-old who has been watching the sport since before he can remember. “Every Sunday when it was race weekend, my Dad would just be situated in front of the TV,” he says. “Me and my brothers would have a million questions for him, watching his emotions go up and down.”
The tenacity that the pit crew rely on is also something that feels close to home for George. His own story has seen him go from working-class origins in Northwest London to Cambridge University, a major label record deal as a rapper and latterly become one of the UK’s most powerful voices for social justice. “When Chivas Regal approached me about this, I knew I could talk about it from a deeply authentic place,” he explains. “The opportunity to show the human side of F1 and Ferrari – I was like, ‘This is a job that speaks to my heart.’”
The efforts of the pit crew are close to the heart of Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, too (he is their boss after all). Fred’s long been giving them props, so he’s just glad that, thanks to Chivas Regal, everyone else is catching on. “The job of the pit crew was the same three years ago or two years ago,” he tells us. “So I think the team will appreciate this campaign a lot. It’s not so often that we’re putting them on stage, and I think it’s the right thing to do.” Launching the world’s first luxury-blended Scotch whisky in 1909, Chivas Regal has continued to break boundaries both in its liquids and the cultural conversations it creates in the 115 years since. If there’s anyone with an eye for excellence and an ingenious way of documenting it, it’s them. “Now is not the right time [for a campaign like this],” Fred concludes. “It always was. It’s just nobody did it before.”
Head below to watch Chivas Regal’s “A Tribute to the Scuderia Ferrari HP Pit Crew” now…