Essential to all sports, adrenaline helps athletes to push themselves to new limits. This reaches a truly intense level in F1, amplified by a combination of extreme speed, ever-present risk and fierce competition. Adrenaline works on a physiological level and for a racing driver it helps them face the challenges on every lap, in every corner and during every overtaking move. It can also fuel the motivation of those who have maybe moved on from sitting in the cockpit or on the pitwall and now steer a Formula 1 team, chasing the same goal as the drivers, namely winning. This is why Pirelli, the exclusive tyre supplier to Formula 1, has made Adrenaline the focus of its latest Box Box Box vodcast, in which host Tom Clarkson talks to leading F1 personalities, Christian Horner, Laurent Mekies, and Nico Hulkenberg on the topic.
Among other subjects, Horner, Red Bull Racing team principal, discusses what makes Max Verstappen such a formidable racer after the Dutchman clinched F1’s world championship title for a fourth consecutive season, praising his “mental strength” and “resilience at the key moments.” The Box Box Box vodcast runs over six episodes on a different theme each time (Speed, Education, Dedication, Time, Adrenaline, Challenge). It is available on YouTube and on Spotify. It will conclude for 2025 with its sixth and final episode, online on 3 December, with Valtteri Bottas, Gunther Steiner, and Rebecca Lee, the official starter for the Formula 1 Grands Prix.
“I love racing and I love competing,” reveals Horner. “I am by nature a competitive person and love team spirit and F1 is the greatest team sport in the world. We have a phenomenal team and I am privileged to lead it. I think it is precisely this sense of unity and being part of a group that sees us competing against these highly regarded opponents. I mean to say we are a subsidiary of an energy drinks company and we’re taking on Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, McLaren, all these major brands. But it’s the feeling of competition that still gets the passion burning.”
The Racing Bulls team principal, Laurent Mekies, reckons there are many different jobs that get the adrenaline pumping. “There are all the people who have a direct impact on what happens on track, the mechanics who do the pit stops, the race engineers who must respond to their drivers in a matter of a second, the guys who have to make the call for a pit stop. I’ve been lucky enough to have done some of these jobs in the past and they are incredible.” Mekies describes his current role as Team Principal as a case of “ensuring the other guys, the clever ones, have what they need to do their job. It’s not, nor has it probably ever been, a one-man show where someone says ‘we should do this now’ because the right people and the right structures are in place for that.”
Nico Hulkenberg knows exactly what is the most adrenaline-charged moment for a racing driver: “On a qualifying lap, your heart is in your mouth and you still feel it on your cool down lap when your heart rate is still high. You’re thinking about the next attempt after a quick stop in the pits. The start of a race is always very intense, the only moment you feel really active you know, my breathing is a little faster and my heart rate has increased because it is so intense.”
A new challenge awaits Nico next year, as he joins Sauber which will then become the official Audi team. The German is aware that, with 225 Formula 1 Grand Prix starts, his experience is a useful asset. “I think experience helps and is vital, you need to have speed and consistency. Teams want performance, they want points, they want results… When it comes to team building, car development, set-up work, it’s something I own, I have a big toolbox because I’ve been around for a while and that’s definitely something of an advantage compared to some other drivers, rookies or those with not much experience. And in our line of work, an unusual thing is that there’s not a lot of testing. Usually, it’s straight into a race weekend, with not a lot of time to practice and in a way, that works in favour of the older more experienced drivers.”
