There’s some interesting things happening with Formula 1 right now, and Scott Galloway wrote this week about how the sport is at an inflection point as it tries to build from the huge broadening of appeal that ‘Drive to Survive’ has given it (not least with women). As well as the obvious (fast cars, glamour, drama, exotic venues) the geek in me is fascinated by how a Formula One team actually works, and was interested enough to look into it. Sports that push men, women and technology to the edge of possibility can teach us a lot, and there’s some wonderfully fascinating lessons and stories for both transformation and marketing which I came across. I’ve picked out just three of my favourites.
Driving fast is not just about having the most powerful car
Let’s start with Ayrton Senna’s qualifying lap at the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix which has been called the greatest ever qualifying lap. Navigating the narrow, winding streets of Monte Carlo, Senna delivered a lap so extraordinary that it outpaced his teammate, Alain Prost, by a staggering 1.427 seconds – a margin unheard of between two top drivers in identical machines. Neil Oatley, the designer of the McClaren cars at the time, described how a ‘ghostly look’ came over Prost’s face when he saw Senna’s time, unable to comprehend how or where that lap had come from. Senna later described the experience as transcendent, feeling as though he was driving beyond his conscious capabilities: ‘Then, suddenly, I realised it was too much; I slowed down, drove back slowly to the pits and said to myself that I shouldn’t go out any more that day’.
Lesson: It’s not just the technology. It’s what you do with it that counts.
Data as the engine of performance
One of the most thrilling season finales F1 has ever seen happened at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In the final race of the season four drivers (Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel) had a shot at the championship, with Ferrari’s Alonso leading the standings. Red Bull’s Vettel needed a win and a miracle to claim the championship. When Ferrari pitted Alonso to cover Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Vettel’s team seized the moment. Data simulations had predicted that this move could trap Alonso in traffic behind slower cars, and Red Bull instructed Vettel to push at maximum pace, trusting their numbers. As the laps ticked down, Alonso struggled to overtake while Vettel surged ahead, executing a flawless race. Against all the odds, Vettel crossed the finish line first and in a dramatic twist claimed his maiden championship, becoming the youngest F1 champion in history.
In F1 the data isn’t just collected, it’s transformed into actionable insights that shape every decision. Teams deploy over 300 sensors on each car, generating up to 1.1 million data points per second during a race. This data is relayed in real-time to engineers, strategists, and drivers, allowing them to fine-tune performance and assess the impact of changes, even as the race unfolds.
Lesson: The real value in data comes from the ability to tie inputs to outputs and strategy. In F1 risk and reward are strategic, not emotional.
Continuous Improvement + transformational innovation
The fastest pit stop ever recorded was 1.80 seconds, conducted by the McLaren racing team for Lando Norris in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. Watching it is mesmerising. It’s almost like watching a ballet – every movement choreographed to perfection. But like ballet dancers, this dance is the result of countless hours of relentless practice, rigorous specialisation, and seamless coordination. Every movement is rehearsed hundreds of times a week to shave milliseconds off their time. Communication is so streamlined that many actions rely on non-verbal cues, ensuring synchronisation under extreme pressure.
This kaizen mindset infiltrates everything that every team does, from shaving milliseconds off a pit stop to tiny improvements in aerodynamics to trim tenths of a second off lap times, to debriefs to dissect every lap, every pit stop, and every decision. After losing the 2016 championship to Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton reviewed telemetry data from every single race of that season. He realised that he was over-aggressive in corners where smoother lines could save time. The following season, he changed his technique and won his fourth world title.
From continuous improvement to transformative innovation, and one of the most extraordinary stories in the sport’s history. When Honda announced they were withdrawing from F1 at the end of 2008 Ross Brawn, the team’s principal, refused to let the dream die. He orchestrated a management buyout with limited funding and rebranded it Brawn GP. The team had no development budget to speak of but against all odds, they made it to the grid for the 2009 season opener in Melbourne.
Despite the lack of budget, no sponsorship and no resources to do proper testing Brawn’s engineering team had quietly developed an ingenious ‘double diffuser’, an aerodynamic innovation that channeled airflow under the car more effectively, creating unprecedented levels of downforce while adhering to the letter of the new technical regulations. The result was a car that was shockingly fast straight out of the box.
At the Australian Grand Prix, the underdog team stunned the paddock when Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello locked out the front row in qualifying and secured a dominant 1-2 finish in the race. The world was astonished. Button went on to win six of the first seven races, building a championship lead that he was somehow able to hold on to despite every other team scrambling to copy the innovation.
That year Button clinched the Drivers’ Championship in Brazil and Brawn GP won the Constructors’ Championship after coming from nowhere.
Lesson: F1 teams don’t get stuck in optimisation. Bold ideas, executed with precision and belief, can realise even the most impossible of dreams.
Photo by Aman Pal on Unsplash, Image by Jose Mª Izquierdo Galiot
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