Summary

(2:16) Memories of Niki Lauda

• Niki’s brush with death and his unexpected return to racing

• Creating the Lauda Air and Niki airlines

• His strong personality

• Niki’s role in Mercedes’s success

(4:46) Mark’s early days at Motor Sport magazine

• The challenges of his sheltered childhood

• Why he started in advertising

• His love of writing

• Recounting early racing journalism assignments

(8:11) Ayrton Senna

• His intensity of focus and religious beliefs

• What made him different

• Why he is perceived as the god of racing and serves as a benchmark to all other drivers

(9:41) Working with Eddie Jordan’s F1 team

• Their first meeting

• Being approached by Eddie as he attempted to recruit Eddie Irvine

• Mark’s different roles in communication, media, marketing, sponsorship and management

(11:31) The team’s crazy antics

• ‘Eddie is bonkers, there’s no question, but in a lovely way’

• His old-school habits and his maverick approach

• How the team took ‘Irishness’ and turned it into a brand value

• Attracting other teams with their hospitality and willingness to party

• The harder aspects of working with Eddie

(14:06) Criticism of the Jordan team

• How ‘begrugery’ affected their level of recognition

• Paul Kimmage’s article about him in the Independent

• Looking at the big picture: Eddie was successful businessman who led a successful team

• Separating the man himself from his accomplishments

• The tempering effects of time on the media’s perception of him

(17:06) Eddie’s financial investment in the team

• How this affected the rest of the team

• His family’s participation in the financial risk and burden

(18:31) The team’s heyday

• Eddie as an empowering boss

• ‘We didn’t realize how good a team we were’

• Why they didn’t go further than they did

• A politically incorrect marketing joke played on Eddie

(23:16) Great leaders

• What they have in common: their single-mindedness and work ethic

• The appeal of Eddie’s maverick approach

• The cult of personality

• Leadership characteristics of Frank Williams (founder of Williams) and Ron Dennis (from McLaren)

• Examples of McLaren’s impressive branding and attention to detail

(26:31) Michael Schumacher

• His start at Jordan

• How he was perceived by those around him

• One of Mark’s career highlights: being with Michael when he tested a Formula One car for the first time

(28:53) Rivalry within teams

• The odds of drivers running into each other

• The rivalry between 2 Red Bull drivers: Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen

• Daniel’s decision to leave and go to Renault

• Why Honda and Red Bull seemed like a good match

(32:31) Sponsorship

• The loss of tobacco and banking sponsorship

• How the business model has changed

• The disproportionally high budgets of the top teams

• How technology has changed the sport

(36:18) New social media channels

• Imagining former drivers using social media

• Mark’s current media collaborations and involvement with drivers

• What Mark misses and doesn’t miss about the work

(39:10) Looking back at the 2019 season

• Max Verstappen’s performance in the Austrian Grand Prix

• Mercedes’s high performance

• Lewis Hamilton’s skill and the varying attitudes towards him: ‘He’s got the magic formula’

• The importance of pursuing other interests outside of racing

• One to watch: Charles Leclerc

• How video games have made racing more democratic and accessible

• Predictions for Lewis Hamilton’s racing future and comparisons with Michael Schumacher

• Leadership issues in the Williams team

(49:04) Pit change-over

• How to achieve such high-speed efficiency

• How teams become successful: practice

(51:56) Liberty Media’s purchase of Formula One

• Problems with past leadership

• The advantage of having a media and entertainment company take over F1

• The ‘Americanization’ of the sport

• Eliminating ‘grid girls’ and the backlash that followed

• Women in racing

(56:56) Waning interest in racing

• Our changing media consumption habits

• The public’s desire for unpredictability

• Predictions for the digital future of the sport

• The popularity of the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’

• The potential death of live broadcast sporting events

• New possible formats for watching sports

• The advantage of Ferrari and Mercedes’s refusal to participate in the Netflix show: lesser teams getting more air time

• Another highlight of the show: Guenther Steiner of Haas

(1:02:46) Takeaways for business

• Mark’s book ‘The Business of Winning’

• How to build a high-performance team

• ‘When we put our minds to things we can do them far faster than we expect’

• How F1 teaches respect for deadlines

• F1’s use of technology and how it has helped with risk management

• Decreasing workplace fatalities

• Why Formula 1 is a good model for business

(1:09:00) Mark’s future plans

• His monthly column for F1 Racing magazine

• Broadcasting, radio, podcasting with Mika H’kkinen

• Working with the young driver James Roe