Mônica Bergamo: Guys struggle, we are there telling the story, says Mariana Becker

It was a “silly fall” skiing on a stormy day in Switzerland that took journalist Mariana Becker, 50, out of coverage of the first Formula 1 races of 2022 on Band. “People say I’m adventurous, but for me it’s kind of natural. My father was always like that: I didn’t have a bad time with him”, she says in an online conversation, from the European country, with the column.

A native of Porto Alegre, Mariana has been known by fans of the sport since 2008, when she became the reporter responsible for traveling the world to show the backstage of the sport at Globo. In 2021, with the change of transmission of races to Band, she also changed stations.

With more space, the new channel saw its popularity increase. Recovering from a fall that left her with a fractured ankle and torn ligaments, the journalist was not present at the Bahrain GP last Sunday. [20]stage for this year’s F1 season premiere.

“It’s pretty bad [ficar fora]. It’s like an athlete preparing for the Olympics and then there’s Covid and needs to stay at home”, compares her, who lives in Monaco with her husband, Jayme Brito, executive producer of F1 broadcasts on Band.

Even outside the report, Mariana caught the attention of viewers when she received a message from Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. “I hope she is well, send her my love,” he told reporter Felipe Kieling, who is replacing the journalist.

“I thought he was a sweetheart. Not only because he was worried, but also because he sent his regards,” he says. “In the end, girl, we’re all there together. Days and days, months and months, years and years,” he says. They also sympathized with journalist Danny Lowe, manager of Williams, and Gunther Steiner, team principal of Haas.

“Guys suffer, we’re there telling the story. The guys win, we’re there telling the story. The guys get sick, the guys recover, the guys sign a contract, they get fired. and we are together all the time”, he explains.

As much as she is not friends with the pilots, in the sense of going out together, Mariana says that there is a climate of empathy between them. “He who has a heart identifies with the other.”

The journalist remembers when the father of pilot Jenson Button died, and she sympathized with the professional. “After the interview, I held him up and said, ‘I’m sorry. I loved your dad, he was a really nice guy.’ Because we actually took a lot of flights together and he [John Button, que acompanhava o filho em diversas viagens] told me a lot of jokes, it was super fun”, he says.

Mariana says it is necessary, at times, to leave the professional protocol and show herself human. “I’ll always feel sorry when the guy gets screwed up, and I’ll be happy when he gets over it. It’s human, you can feel it.”

But having this attitude, she reinforces, does not prevent her from carrying out her work. “There is a relationship of empathy, but [o piloto] won’t stop cutting me if he needs to cut me, and I won’t stop asking him what I have to ask”, he stresses.

And it is she who is now going through a difficult time. In addition to the ankle fracture, Mariana lost her father two weeks ago. José Alberto Becker had Alzheimer’s. “It’s a hoot”, he gets emotional. “It’s a phase that, no matter how adult we are, at the moment you go back to being five years old and say: no, I don’t want to.”

It was with her father that the journalist, as a child, watched different sports competitions, such as Formula 1 races, sitting in her living room, holding hands. “A program so common between parents and children in Brazil”, she comments.

But the sport at that time was not a passion or a dream. It was only when she competed in the Sertões International Rally, in the early 2000s, that motor racing began to fascinate her. In 2008, already an experienced sports reporter at Globo, the opportunity arose to work with Formula 1. The broadcaster was looking for a female face for coverage. Mariana was the right name: she was available and liked to travel, in addition to speaking five languages.

The beginning, she recalls, was very difficult. “I studied like crazy and was super stressed the first few times. But there was a moment when I had to surrender. I couldn’t get there and fail. The Brazilian National Team and F1 were two of Globo’s most noble products”, he says.

“And I still had to face Galvão [Bueno]Register [Reginaldo Leme]those guys who were there 500 years ago [narrando e comentando as corridas], used to male reporters telling them what was happening on the track, and not with a girl who arrived and said: ‘So-and-so has a hydraulic problem’. And they’re like, ‘Oh, but is he really?’, he recalls, laughing. It wasn’t soft, no. But it was a great learning experience.”

Situations of machismo were common in her trajectory, reveals Mariana. Not harassment, she adds. “But I heard things like, ‘you’re a blonde with green eyes, of course he’s going to talk to you’. Then I thought: I’ve been working for a long time, working, studying, finding my way to interview people. it all boils down to ‘because I’m a blonde with green eyes’. That irritated me deeply”, he says.

“Or if you give big, important information, and the person says: ‘But who told you that? Where did you get it from?'”, he says. Over time, she says that she learned to deal with these situations, knowing when she should react and when it was better to ignore them.

A pioneer as a TV reporter in Formula 1 in Brazil, Mariana says she feels honored to be a reference for other young women who message her on social media asking for tips and advice. “What I always try is to ‘nail’ the female partnership. When we get together we have a louder voice”, she defends.

The journalist will turn 51 at the end of April. And she claims to have no problem getting old. She doesn’t make a point of hiding her gray hairs and also says she’s not bothered by comments she’s already received on social media from people advising her to apply Botox.

“Worrying about that would be a losing battle. I can do one thing or another [procedimentos estéticos], but I will never be 20 again. Never,” she emphasizes.

She points out that the TV universe has always valued the appearance of professionals. “But I think that’s changing,” she notes. As a reporter, Mariana says that she has not felt pressure because of her age so far, although she has heard prejudiced comments.

“A former boss of mine once said, ‘I was little and I already saw you on TV’ and added something to say it was time [de eu me aposentar]. I looked at it and thought: what a soft talk. I don’t hear this guy say anything to a crowd [profissionais homens] much older than me. Not to mention he’s my age,” she says.

“It’s atrocious stupidity to give up someone because the person is getting old. The woman, right, because the man is always nice”, he adds.

In 14 years in Formula 1, Mariana says she is currently experiencing the most pleasant moment of her career as she has more space in the Band to show everything she always wanted. “It’s like they give me more crayons to color.”

One of his great joys was the coverage of the São Paulo F1 GP last year. The Englishman Lewis Hamilton left the tenth position to win the Brazilian stage of the competition. With the exhibition of the test, Band came to lead the audience in São Paulo for an hour, beating Globo. “It was a great race and an almost flawless transmission, because perfect doesn’t exist,” she says.

For the journalist, even without Brazilians racing in Formula 1 in recent years, the country remains passionate about the sport that it learned to love by following “one generation after another of great drivers”, such as Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Rubinho Barrichello and Felipe Massa.

“Of course, if there’s a Brazilian, the audience will explode. But the public likes that there. And our role is to try to tell it in the best possible way.”

Mariana says she doesn’t usually make long-term plans, but at least for the next few years she wants to keep following the sport. Because of the ankle injury, she will be out of the on-site broadcast of this Sunday’s race (27), at the Saudi Arabian GP, ​​and the other two events, in Australia and Imola, both in April.

“What’s exciting about being a reporter is being able to get close to what’s happening. The person who makes the story, you go there and talk to them. It’s not anyone who’s telling you, it’s you who’s there. fascinating”, he concludes.