afternoon while sitting on the terrace
at our family summer cottage, we decided
to write a book about what we
learned from the experience.
“Performance at the Limit, Business
Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing”
(PATL) was published by Cambridge
University Press in 2005. Two revised
editions followed in 2009 and 2016.
Also, in 2007 we made an 8-part series
with the BBC inspired by the book,
titled “Formula for Success.” PATL is
also available in Japanese, Turkish
and Mandarin Chinese.
Since its publication I have travelled
the globe teaching seminars and
speaking to audiences about the key
take-aways executives can learn from
F1 teams. Here are a few:
• Focus, Focus, Focus.
When Sir Frank Williams was running
the team that carries his name,
he would ask one question of
his colleagues when they requested
money for various projects, “Will it
make the car go faster?” I often ask
executives, “How focused are you
on your purpose? What question are
you asking when allocating scarce
resources?”
• Make quick decisions and
learn from the results.
Like all businesses, F1 teams must
Plan and Implement. But what they
These two US races are part of a
planned 23-race calendar from
March to November covering
22 countries on 5 continents.
It is surprising for many to
learn that Formula One has
the largest viewing audience
of an any annual
sport with over 400 million
unique views in 2020.
The average viewership of
each grand prix last year
was 88 million.
Towards a net-zero
carbon footprint
Formula 1 is the pinnacle of technology
in motorsports. Not only do F1
cars reach speeds of close to 250 mph
(=400 km/h), F1 innovations have
inspired many technological developments
in energy recovery systems,
navigation tools and composite materials
that have been adopted by the
road car and other industries.
An important initiative announced
by Formula 1 in 2019 is to have a netzero
carbon footprint by 2030. This
drive towards sustainability will cover
the Formula 1 cars and on-track
activity and the rest of the operations
as a sport.
My F1 journey
My journey into Formula 1 began
when I was hired by a major international
law firm based in London
and teamed with two experts, to design
a two-day seminar based on F1
with the goal of teaching business
acumen to their lawyers.
We created a behavioral
simulation where I roleplayed
the Vice President of
Volkswagen trying to determine
how we should enter
F1 under the Audi brand. The
lawyers were transformed
into business consultants
whose brief was to advise
me on how it should be done.
We ran the workshop fifty
times, most often at the Williams
F1 Conference Centre in the UK,
for 1200 of their lawyers. After three
years my collaborators visited Finland
to celebrate and on a warm summer
Ken Pasternak and Valtteri Bottas...
technically he is German, Finn’s have
included Keke’s son, Nico Rosberg
(2016) as well.
Other Finnish F1 drivers in recent
times include Valtteri Bottas, Heikki
Kovalainen, and Mika Salo. Relative
to its population, Finland is the
number one country in the world in
motorsports driver success. Just why,
no one is certain, but their podium
finishes always give Finns a reason
to celebrate.
Interest growing in the USA
The United States also has a long history
of Formula 1 racing. In fact, there
have been 70 F1 races in the US since
1950. The Circuit of the Americas (COTA)
a purpose-built track in Austin,
Texas is the location of the US Grand
Prix since 2012.
Interest in F1 is growing in the USA
and since Liberty Media purchased
the business for $4,6 billion in 2017
they have been looking to hold a second
race on American soil. That will
now happen with the announcement
that Miami will host an F1 Grand Prix
in the second quarter of 2022. It has
taken five years of planning, community
dialogue, and one change of
venue working closely with the city
of Miami on this ten-year agreement.
The track will be laid out around the
Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami
Dolphins football team.
... and Kimi Räikkönen.
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