How I Got into Formula 1

I am often asked how, 25 years ago, I got involved with Formula 1.

After three years delivering an intensive action learning program for senior leaders at Ford Motor Company, I was asked to join a faculty team assembled by UK law firm, Freshfield Bruckhaus Derringer. We were tasked to design and deliver a workshop using Formula 1 as the theme for teaching business acumen to their lawyers.

At Ford, I developed a deep knowledge about car manufacturing but learned little about motor racing. Luckily, for this assignment, I was partnered with Professor Mark Jenkins and Richard West, experts in the sport and business of Formula 1.

In the simulation we designed, I role-played the Vice President of Strategy for Volkswagen, one of the only car manufacturers not in F1 at the time. The participants were divided into cross-functional, cross-cultural teams and told they were now management consultants rather than lawyers.

Their mission: develop a business plan advising VW how to enter Formula 1 under the Audi brand. They did desk research, used Richard and Mark as expert advisors, and organized meetings with me to ascertain VW’s needs and concerns.

After two-days of intensive interaction and teambuilding exercises, including the Pit Stop Challenge changing tires on a Formula 1 car – each team reported its recommendations to us and a senior partner from the firm. 

We delivered the program 50 times over three years, covering more than 1200 of the firm’s lawyers, most often at the WilliamsF1 conference center in Grove, UK. 

The summer after the program concluded, Richard and Mark visited our summerhouse outside Helsinki with their wives. Late into a sunlit Finnish night, after barbecue and wine, we agreed to combine our experiences and knowledge to write what became the first edition of “Performance at the Limit, Business Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing,” published in 2005.