Axios Live: What Formula One and big business can teach us about winning
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Photographers Alexander Shelkoplyas and Toby Yeo for Axio
MONACO — Winning an F1™ race and running a giant company require the same thing: picking the best people, according to race-expert panelists at an Axios Live and The Race Media event.
Why it matters: Formula One™ used to just be about fast cars. Now it's become an ultimate training ground, as business leaders launch partnerships to learn how the elite racing teams handle pressure and build winning cultures.
- "The pattern recognition of what it takes to be excellent is exactly the same," said Harvey Schwartz, CEO of the Carlyle Group.
Axios' Sara Fischer and The Race Media's Darren Cox moderated conversations with Schwartz, Oracle Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies, Ford Motor Company global head of racing Mark Rushbrook, and F1™ analyst and Oracle Red Bull Racing ambassador David Coulthard. The June 5 event was sponsored by the Carlyle Group.
Catch up quick: The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest investment firms, and four-time world champion Oracle Red Bull Racing spoke publicly about their partnership for the first time.
What they're saying: Sports and businesses share a key characteristic, Mekies and Schwartz said — they rely on input from people within the organization to gain a competitive edge.
- "Fundamentally, we are a data business with an incredibly crucial layer of human intelligence on top," Mekies said.
- "It's a people business," Schwartz said. "Which is clearly why this partnership with Laurent works."
- Coulthard said racing teaches you how to look closely at your mistakes so you can fix them and get better.
By the numbers: Mekies said it takes 2,000 people to build and race two Formula One™ cars. Schwartz said F1™ now has over 800 million fans worldwide.
- Ford came back to F1™ after 22 years away because the sport "is very popular right now, and it appears it's going to be strong for a long time," Rushbrook said.
The bottom line: Schwartz predicted Red Bull will win the Drivers' and Constructors' championships for the next five years — and said that's why the Carlyle Group wanted in.
