It constantly amazes me that every week I wonder if I will have enough content for the Motorsport Prospects Weekly Debrief and every week I end up only posting a portion of what I have curated from around the world in my attempt to keep each week’s Debrief at a manageable level. This week is no exception and as always, there is some great stuff that drivers can use. So here we go!
New on Motorsport Prospects This Week
This week I kicked things off with Part 1 of my Sustainable Motorsport Round-Up. Much like the Weekly Debrief, in my attempts to keep things to a reasonable length I often cannot post all that I need to post. Instead of waiting two weeks for another Sustainable Motorsport Round-Up I decided to divide this edition up into two parts. Part 1 ran this week and part 2, where we look at where F1 is going with their new engine will be published on the 26th of July.
In the Motorsport Prospects Marketplace this week is an absolutely gorgeous 1969 Lotus F2 car that was tested by none other than Graham Hill! Awesome and still available. Click here to get in touch with the seller, Boutsen Classic Cars. Yes, it is the Boutsen of Thierry Boutsen fame.
Driver Development News, Tips & Techniques
How Not to Crash
In a masterful set of timing considering what happened in the recent British Grand Prix, Safe is Fast released their newest video “How to Stay Out of Crashes.” In the video, five Champion Drivers from top racing series around the world explain the key to racing wheel-to-wheel without crashing: “Know who you’re racing against.” You can watch it below.
Practical Fitness & Nutrition for Racing Drivers
Your Data Driven has a great interview with Simon Hayes on Practical Fitness And Nutrition Tips For Racing Drivers that is full of practical advice. Look for more from Simon on Motorsport Prospects in the near future as we are working on something that will benefit all race drivers.
It’s All in the Mindset
Mindset is key to a racing driver both before and during a race. In a recent Weekly Debrief I mentioned some tips to deal with pressure and stress and this week I have more. None other than Daniel Ricciardo discusses his approach in I still get nervous…here’s how I use it to my advantage.
Speaking of mindset, here is a great read on the “Mindset of Champions.” From Ignition Human Performance have a look at “The Mindset of Champions” Blog Part 1 – What we learnt from our evening with Sir Jackie Stewart OBE and Damon Hill OBE
Here is another nugget from Sir Jackie Stewart that was part of why he was so successful on the track.
“The whole business of driving a racing car to its absolute limit against a man in close proximity is to embarrass him, to demoralize him, to get onto a piece of track that he wants but can’t use because you’re on it. It’s terribly important to demoralize the opposition. You’ve got to get them thinking that they’re competing against you, rather than vice versa, so that they accept your pace as the pace of the race.”
Playboy Interview: Jackie Stewart June, 1972
Using Simulators to Prepare for the Track
The use of sims to prepare for racing is pretty much standard practice now. If you are not convinced, have a look at these two articles:
- Hamilton helped by unprecedented F1 sim session on Friday
- Keating credits trackside simulator for Monza pole
With that in mind, check out the newest simulator from Dynisma.
Finally, how does a sim compare with “real life”? That’s what Richard Baxter discusses and demonstrates in Comparing Sim Racing vs Motorsport in “real life.”
A Review of Some Driver Development Programs
In the last week there has been some interesting driver development news, views and a video that you might want to check out. They look at the increase of road courses in NASCAR and how the Trans Am Series could be the perfect development pathway for that series, how SRO GT America is becoming perfect for gentleman drivers and thoughts on the HPD GT3 Academy from two drivers who are part of the program.
- With Road Courses In NASCAR’s Future, Trans Am’s TA2 Series Could Blossom Into Hot Spot For Driver Development
- SRO GT America finds its niche for gentleman drivers
The Future is now
The brain is an amazing thing and Nissan has launched a brain function development program to enhance racing driver performance. Have a look:
The Business of Being a Race Driver
Sponsorship Acquisition Resources
In the last few Weekly Debriefs I have been mentioning the resources that Ikoniqa has been releasing that drivers can use in their sponsorship acquisition projects. Now they have released some new resources which I will let them explain.
We’re excited to now be a source for mock-ups by Yellow Images, a leading producer of high-quality Photoshop based mock-ups. Check out our Motorsport Resources page as we’ve added a all new section dedicated to the brand, featuring a curated set of motorsports themed mock-ups for teams and racers and use in their marketing materials, sponsorship proposals, info decks, social media, and more!
Ikoniqa
Full details can be found here.
What is B2B and Why is it Important?
Sponsorship is more than a mere sticker on a car or bike as I have mentioned before. It is about building a relationship. That relationship often also includes a B2B (Business to Business) component. Drive Sports Marketing explains the B2B concept here.
The Power of Your Story
Ikoniqa also talks about the importance and power of storytelling. In A Step Above Standard Motorsports Sponsorship Offerings – Story Telling they go into detail about how that would work. The power of a story well told is extremely effective to your brand. You can read my thoughts about this in The Power of your Story in the Search for Sponsorship.
Social Media Guidelines to Minimize Your Legal Exposure
One of the places you will be telling your story is on Social Media but please use caution! There are some great tips in Guidance For Athletes On Social Media Use And Reviewing Historic Posts over at LawInSport.
New Sponsorship Course Announced
Finally, Jess Shanahan better known as the Racing Mentor is releasing a brand new 90 day course called the Sponsorship Success Academy. Knowing the quality of her work and the success drivers have had utilizing her guidance, this is one course you should seriously check out. You can get full information and how to sign up here.
Series News
Sports Cars
Every week brings more news from the world of sportscars. It used to be you talked about IMSA or WEC or GT3 or some combination of two of them but it looks like we are moving towards a global convergence which will make things interesting in a few years. I am not going to trot out the “Golden Age of Sportscars” theme just yet but things are heading in the right direction.
Both Ferrari and Audi made some recent GT3 announcements for 2022 and 2023. Audi announced their upgraded R8 LMS GT3 for 2022 and Ferrari announced that their 296 model will be the base for their next GT3 car in 2023. Meanwhile, Lexus has made their feelings known on the new GT3-based GTD Pro class. Toyota Racing Development President and general manager David Wilson was quite clear on what he felt IMSA should do. From the article in Sportscar 365:
“What we think is most important is that whatever direction IMSA takes this GT consolidation that we don’t compromise that and still have a healthy GT category.
Wilson said it was his understanding the replacement of GTLM with GTD Pro was an effort to simplify the class structure, with the only difference to GTD being the mandatory use of a Bronze or Silver-rated driver in each lineup and GTD Pro having no restrictions.
“We’re fans of trying to keep this as simple as possible,” he said. “We try to look at this from a fan’s perspective.
Sportscar 365 July 21, 2021
Meanwhile, team owners and drivers are still trying to digest the news that LMP2 regs have been extending for another year. According to the FIA’s Director of Sport and Touring Cars Marek Nawarecki “(he) suggested that the delay in rolling out next-gen LMP2 will give teams and other involved parties the necessary time to prepare for the category’s refresh, rather than hitting them with high costs next year in time for a 2023 uptake of new machinery.”
Finally, things are heating up in the world of Hypercars with Ferrari revealing both the basic configuration of their Hypercar challenger and the fact that they want to race in America, which makes sense since America is Ferrari’s largest market. Peugeot on the other hand is evaluating their IMSA options since they do not sell cars in America. Since they are part of the Stellantis Group, one option is to race in the States as Dodge utilizing the “spine of the 9X8 racer but no decision has been made and probably won’t be for awhile.
While Ferrari and Peugeot will have the option to race in IMSA, smaller “boutique” manufacturers like Glickenhaus may not as “OEM participation in LMDh requires a road car production of 2,500 units per year and also forging an automotive brand partnership with IMSA should it compete in the WeatherTech Championship.” While I understand their reasons why, the fan in me thinks that any manufacturer that is willing to put their money behind building a Hypercar should be allowed to race it on both sides of the pond, especially as Glickenhaus is a true blue American brand, not merely a re-badge of some giant manufacturer. Time will tell how this all plays out.
Formula 4 on the Formula 1 Grand Prix Ticket
As I mentioned a few weeks back, the new halo-shod F4 car will make its debut in the Formula 4 UAE championship and the series organizer has revealed that since the announcement that they will be de debuting the car at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, there has been a lot of interest from teams. “We’ve had interest from many of our current teams, new teams in Europe and we have a new team already locked in for the UAE as well. So far we have 15 entries in and while we are working with Yas Marina Circuit to have as many cars on the grid as possible, there will be a cap.” You can download the official entry form here.
Over in America, US F4 series organizers have announced that they will be racing at the United States Grand Prix in October. As an FIA category, I have always felt strongly that F4 should be given a slot on a Grand Prix weekend if there is a national or regional series in place. Not only that but Formula 1 should subsidize the race to ensure that all full time teams and drivers get the chance to race in front of a Grand Prix crowd. Add an FIA F4 Scholarship winner or two to the mix and it will at least give some visibility to a young driver. And yes, I made up the bit about the FIA F4 Scholarship but to me there should be just such a global scheme since it does not look like there will be an F4 World Cup. Either that or make the F4 race at the Motorsport Games open only to F4 Scholarship recipients. Food for thought.
The Business of Motorsport
All Talk but Where is the Walk?
One of the things that everybody complains about is the cost of racing. It is a regular and legitimate complaint and Ben Sulayem, who is running for FIA President agrees.
Ben Sulayem thinks that reducing costs at all levels of motorsport is essential if categories are going to thrive in the future – and the FIA can devote resources to achieving this.
Autosport July 15, 2021
But as they say, the devil is in the details and while he talks the good talk, he has not to my knowledge proposed any meaningful solutions to address the problem outside of “protecting regional championships” whatever that means. Motorsport will always be expensive, it is the nature of the sport but the costs to race at the karting and F4 levels are approaching ridiculous levels but nobody seems to be providing a cogent plan to address the problem. Hopefully he will announce something concrete soon.
The Business of Formula 1 and Indycar
A lot of positive news around Formula 1 and Indycar these days and that is important since as I like to say, a rising tide lifts all boats. This is especially true if high level motorsport sparks the interest of new fans and perhaps more importantly, new participants. Here is a snapshot at was has been happening over the last few weeks.
- F1’s British GP averages more than 1m viewers on ESPN
- Formula One TV Ratings Up Big Amid Liberty Media Turnaround
- Formula 1 Breaks Out New ‘Sprint’ Race Format
- Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali on the future of the sport
- IndyCar, NBC announce multi-year extension
We are Indian and Proud of It
Here is a great article on the Mahindra Formula E racing team and how they are embracing their Indian roots in order to increase participation in not just motorsport but all sports in India. Have a look at “We are not shy of our culture”: How Mahindra Racing is engaging with motorsport’s forgotten fanbase for more.
Why Spanish F4 is Booming
Running a development series is not easy. Add to that the fact that if you are not America, the UK, Italy Germany or France, your pool of potential teams and drivers may be slim. But the organizers of the Spanish F4 Championship have seen an increase in participation recently and they are actively making moves to ensure that their drivers have a place to go when they graduate. A very impressive turn in form. Perhaps there is a lesson there for all F4 series.
From the Motorsport Prospects Archives
I have mentioned the importance of branding many times on this site but if you don’t want to take my word for it, read The Importance of Branding for a Driver – In Conversation with Paul Coltman of ASGUK Ltd. for a professional view on why it is key for a driver.
The Last Lap
A few bits and bobs from the world of motorsport.
- International Court of Appeal upholds Corberi’s 15-year kart ban. I could not agree more with this decision. The incident is not only appalling but a pure demonstration of stupidity and a lack of sportsmanship. Enough said.
- Ferrari and Massimo Bottura Have Teamed Up to Revive the Marque’s Storied Restaurant. My mouth waters just reading this!
- Celebrity Charity Kart Race 2021. Taking place August 10, 2021 at the Whilton Mill Karting Track in the UK, this looks like an excellent event in support of the Brain Tumour Charity. You can enter a team here.
Finally, it wouldn’t be the Last Lap if there was no on-board footage so let’s go onboard at Indianapolis with Jason McCarthy in a Ferrari Challenge car.
Stay safe and see you at the track!
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.