How to dominate in Formula 1

All the views are of my own and do not represent my previous employer.

A charismatic leader that can sell a vision and give the team autonomy in their jobs to do the best they can, sounds simple but rarely executed in the sport. For me, most teams have the charismatic leader, but struggle to generate a culture of not being afraid to fail and coming up with bold ideas. Of course a big budget helps, I can't ignore that fact!!!

Innovation and creativity will come from autonomy in the job and less of someone looking over their shoulder telling them to push harder. In my career I was given this freedom and autonomy to improve. With never having a fear of making a mistake, being bold was encouraged with one aim: be better than your counterpart in every other team.

For some teams the aim of dominating a championship may never come to fruition, it is up to leaders of the team to manage these expectations and motivate accordingly. However, I believe there is hope for these teams. Brawn's success in 2009 shows that discovering one game changer no matter the budget can help a team defy all odds and go on to win a championship. To get to this point, a team needs to build its staff towards a goal of winning championships. For example offering a bonus for finishing in the top 3 of the championship when it is obviously something out of reach, makes no sense. A lot of teams may opt for a bonus based on total team points scored. As improvements are made over each season, they can move towards a more dominant approach to the bonus system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CksQlCmf88&t=74s

One of the big issues in the sport is the unfortunate short term approach brought to each team. Rarely focused on the next 2-5 years, its all about the current season. When I joined Mercedes, there was a plan for 2014 to be the biggest opportunity to the team, thankfully Daimler remained patient and were able to see the incredible benefits of this approach. I hope this example may be seen in other teams in the midfield like Renault, HAAS and Racing Point for example. Both teams have the potential to battle at the top if the right approach is taken.

Hiring the best and rewarding them accordingly is a great approach. I worked alongside a surprisingly young work force in my time at Mercedes. Both the graduate program and internships gave a platform for the best of the best in academia to come in and show the F1 world what they can do. Retention of staff is the biggest challenge to stay dominant, with the carrot being dangled from other teams, it can be a tough offer to refuse. To keep this competitive advantage, staff must be rewarded and sold the vision of the future each season.

There is no one way to dominate, but with an approach using some of the above techniques is definitely a start.