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Houston… That's why the promoters of
Formula E decided to organize their
events in the city centers. It's also
because hotels, restaurants, cultural
events, exhibitions, concerts, shopping
malls and other infrastructures are
already there, with the goal of
encouraging people to consume real and
virtual products that are shown at the
side of the event. Additional negative
components regarding the permanent
tracks are the travel costs, because given
the noise restrictions they are usually
pretty far away from the city center, and
the maintenance. For these reasons is
more convenient, for those who are
responsible for a balance and need to
pursuit a profit, to take a "light" and
temporary solution into consideration».
What kind of resume is required to
become a good team principal and/or
get an high-level management job in
motorsports?Which universities have
dedicated programs for that?
«Cranfield and Oxford Brookes in the UK
are the most demanding and serious
Universities to breed engineers with a
complete motor racing culture. Between
the others, and especially regarding the
technical part, we have to remember the
Purdue University in the USA, the
Politecnico di Torino, plus the universities
of Pisa and Modena-Reggio in Italy.
There are other roads to become a team
principal. Flavio Briatore started by
selling flats in Cuneo, while Jean Todt
spent several years as a rally navigator.
Frank Williams began by assembling and
managing old Formula 1 cars that he
bought from the other teams at the end of
the season. These figures are parts of a
romantic past though. If I had to give
some advice for hiring a future team
principal, I would suggest a very high-
grade soldier, a former surgeon or a
former skipper. Those are kinds of
professionals that can lead an
organization in an uncertain environment
and with limited resources. They are used
to rely on their staff's autonomy and
responsibility. Also, they developed a
vision that can be both short-sighted and
long-sighted according to the situation to
define the right strategy. The "extreme"
organizations, like the military, sports or
medicals ones, showcase the balance
between individual liberty and discipline.
That's because their members must
operate in some tough and unpredictable
conditions while staying in harmony and
keeping a very quick response time. In an
America's Cup regatta, the teammust
develop their tactics and strategy
according to the wind condition and to
their rivals. As a consequence, they have
to perform non-planned manouvers in full
harmony. A complex surgery, lasting
several hours, requires many different
roles and competences according to the
non-predictable situations that can
happen during the operation. There is no
time for meetings, discussions, e-mail and
so on. The anti-terrorism units are in
charge of conducting dangerous
interventions in case of terrorist attacks
or civil hostage situations, and every
single component is trained to operate
with the maximum level of discretion in
terms of autonomy in evaluating, decision
and action. On the other hand, they have
to respect their comrades' movements in
absolute harmony. In other words, these
organizations highlight the best possible
relationship between autonomy and
discipline. The rules are clear and, more
than that, they are internalized. There are
no doubts on the level of consensus, the
conflict management, the research of
compromise and the cognitive reserve».
Let's talk about money figures. What
is the cost of a season inmotor
racing? Let's try, for example, to draw
a career path from karting to F.1. How
expensive is tomanage a Formula 3 or
an IndyCar team?
«The cost of one race season for the driver
and team consists in everything the can
collect from their sponsor. In order to
prepare for the season, they spend all the
money they have without thinking about
any infrastructural investment or other
improvements. Just a handful of teams or
drivers outside F.1 can set-up a
sponsorship budget for the following three
seasons, or can afford constructor-level
and multi-year technical and commercial
resources. Everybody wants to win fast
and thenmove to the upper category. A
Formula Renault season can cost up to
300.000 euros. Formula 3 ranges from
400.000 to 800.000 euros depending on
the single championship. For the World
Series, we stay around 1 or 1.5 million
euros while the GP2 Series can cost up to
2 millions. Moving up the ladder, for an
IndyCar season we reach the 5-million
mark while in Nascar it's up to 25 millions
per year. And regarding Formula 1, the
range is from 100 to 400 million euros.
Given this data, it's pretty easy to define
the economic value of a championship.
You just have to multiply the budget for
the total number of entrants. Of course,
the figures we gave do not include the
income that the promoters receive for the
sale of the TV rights, from the promoters
of the single events and from the
Dictionary
Ingegnere / Engineer,
The Italianword "Ingegnere" comes
from "Ingegno", meaning intelligence,
brilliance: aman that excels in giving
weight to his ideas. In other words, is
able to think. Like Leonardo Da Vinci.
Engineer comes from the word
"Engine": a specialized technicianwho
is passionate about mechanisms. It's
like Benjamin Franklin, who invented
the lightning rod, the swimming fins,
the tachometer, and the bifocal
lenses. "Ingegnere" and "Engineer". A
classic case of misleading translation.
Checkered Flag
During the era of American
pioneering in theMidwest (1800)
they always organized a public
banquet after horse races (a recurring
element for us!). In order to inform
the people that themeal was ready
and that they needed to stop racing,
they used towave a checkered
tablecloth.
Sponsor
From the Latinword "sponsor" (in
Italian “Sponsale”), somebodywho
warrants the economic side of a
wedding contract (spondeomeans
"solemn commitment, warrant").
People started to use this word in the
modernway starting from the early
30's, when the sponsor paid the
artists so they could star in radio or
TV shows. A sponsor is somebodywho
uses their ownmoney towarrant the
quality and functionality of a
commercial activity..
