From "The Emirates Evening Post"
The 56th Formula 1 season is only a month away – the season’s opener takes place in Melbourne on 6th March and the teams are well into testing of their new cars. As is now customarily the case the “off season” has been reported as having been characterised by an unseemly struggle for power at the top of the sport. I have been watching F1 for almost as long as it has been in existence and have become deeply sceptical of such reports. This is not because such struggles don’t take place, but because, in modern times, the sport’s supremo Bernie Ecclestone always emerges in charge – and usually unscathed. Like any serious global sport Formula 1 is a business as well as a series of competitive events - and a world scale business at that. Bernie is a single-minded leader, not as autocratic as some would think, but nevertheless a man who knows that the commercial fundamentals of the sport have to be right if it is to succeed.
I have been fortunate to have been fairly close to two great Formula 1 teams over the years (McLaren and Ferrari) and I can certainly say from my own experience that it is true that many businesses could usefully learn some lessons from them – although they are completely different from each other. McLaren is a team with a single-minded, almost obsessive, leader at its helm in Ron Dennis. Dennis has been in charge at McLaren for twenty-five years during which time the F1 drivers championship has been won nine times with four different drivers (Lauda, Senna, Prost and Hakkinen). The last win was in 1999 and whilst Dennis has experienced similar fallow periods before, you can be sure that he will be determined that the failure of 2004 is not repeated this year. Last year the best McLaren driver (Raikkonen) finished only seventh in the championship and drivers from BAR and Renault (as well as Ferrari and Williams) finished above him. This will not have pleased Ron! This year Raikkonen is joined in the team by Juan Pablo Montoya and if the new McLaren car can perform well from the start either of them has the natural talent to be world champion.
Standing in the way of McLaren and all the other aspirant champion teams is, of course, the formidable Ferrari team and the extraordinary Michael Schumacher. Since the passing of Enzo Ferrari in 1988 there has never been a single individual at the helm – Ferrari is much more of a complete team than McLaren or Williams. Whilst the drive for success is just as great I have always been impressed that Ferrari’s recent imperative has been to assemble a team of all the talents. The team’s overall director is the quiet and rather undemonstrative Frenchman Jean Todt and he acknowledges that the team’s success is attributable (in particular) to the partnership he has with Technical Director Ross Brawn and, of course, Schumacher ( it is remarkable that team as nationalistic as Ferrari none of these three is Italian)
One of the most fascinating things to watch in F1 in 2005 will be to see whether the success of BAR and Renault and the comparative decline of McLaren and Williams will continue. If we look at championship wins over the past twenty years the successful teams are McLaren (8 wins) Williams and Ferrari (5 each) with only Benetton (in 1994 and 1995) breaking their dominance. Benetton’s driver was, of course, the young Michael Schumacher. Predicting outcomes in sport is a hazardous game but I have a feeling that we will see Ferrari continue their success this year - but that the gap with McLaren will have been narrowed a lot. I would be surprised if Williams (who have yet even to confirm their second driver behind Mark Webber) mounts a serious challenge. I would expect the real challenge to Schumacher will come from his team mate Rubens Barrichello, the two McLaren drivers, Jensen Button of BAR and Renault’s brilliant Fernando Alonso. It could be a very exciting year and let’s concentrate on the sport and try and ignore the political and power dances at the top if we can!
I have been fortunate to have been fairly close to two great Formula 1 teams over the years (McLaren and Ferrari) and I can certainly say from my own experience that it is true that many businesses could usefully learn some lessons from them – although they are completely different from each other. McLaren is a team with a single-minded, almost obsessive, leader at its helm in Ron Dennis. Dennis has been in charge at McLaren for twenty-five years during which time the F1 drivers championship has been won nine times with four different drivers (Lauda, Senna, Prost and Hakkinen). The last win was in 1999 and whilst Dennis has experienced similar fallow periods before, you can be sure that he will be determined that the failure of 2004 is not repeated this year. Last year the best McLaren driver (Raikkonen) finished only seventh in the championship and drivers from BAR and Renault (as well as Ferrari and Williams) finished above him. This will not have pleased Ron! This year Raikkonen is joined in the team by Juan Pablo Montoya and if the new McLaren car can perform well from the start either of them has the natural talent to be world champion.
Standing in the way of McLaren and all the other aspirant champion teams is, of course, the formidable Ferrari team and the extraordinary Michael Schumacher. Since the passing of Enzo Ferrari in 1988 there has never been a single individual at the helm – Ferrari is much more of a complete team than McLaren or Williams. Whilst the drive for success is just as great I have always been impressed that Ferrari’s recent imperative has been to assemble a team of all the talents. The team’s overall director is the quiet and rather undemonstrative Frenchman Jean Todt and he acknowledges that the team’s success is attributable (in particular) to the partnership he has with Technical Director Ross Brawn and, of course, Schumacher ( it is remarkable that team as nationalistic as Ferrari none of these three is Italian)
One of the most fascinating things to watch in F1 in 2005 will be to see whether the success of BAR and Renault and the comparative decline of McLaren and Williams will continue. If we look at championship wins over the past twenty years the successful teams are McLaren (8 wins) Williams and Ferrari (5 each) with only Benetton (in 1994 and 1995) breaking their dominance. Benetton’s driver was, of course, the young Michael Schumacher. Predicting outcomes in sport is a hazardous game but I have a feeling that we will see Ferrari continue their success this year - but that the gap with McLaren will have been narrowed a lot. I would be surprised if Williams (who have yet even to confirm their second driver behind Mark Webber) mounts a serious challenge. I would expect the real challenge to Schumacher will come from his team mate Rubens Barrichello, the two McLaren drivers, Jensen Button of BAR and Renault’s brilliant Fernando Alonso. It could be a very exciting year and let’s concentrate on the sport and try and ignore the political and power dances at the top if we can!
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