The Motorsport Prospects Weekly Debrief for November 29, 2021 – The Race Driver as Entrepreneur and More

This week on the Motorsport Prospects Weekly Debrief I feature actionable things that you can do to help with your social media marketing in the off-season, approaching your sponsorship search as an entrepreneur, a new driver development program and series in the UK, testing opportunities for the new GB4 car and more.

Driver Development News, Tips & Techniques

• Autosport has published “an insightful look into the way a top-level driver thinks” according to respected driver coach Peter Krause called Hamilton: I want to be the “purest” of F1 drivers.

• The FIA have indicated that they may promote W Series winners to Formula 3 so as Jalopnike rightly says they can “actually move forward with their careers.”

• Alongside announcing Rokit as the new title sponsor of British F4 (see Series News below), ROKiT has also launched the Racing Star programme which will include two fully funded 2023 seats using a very innovative sim racing scheme.

• Staying in the UK, Elite Motorsport’s Eddie Eves predicts that the new GB4 series is going to “hit the sweet spot” in terms of popularity and budget.

• In further GB4 news, the car has been tested at the Bedford Autodrome and and is being made available to any team considering entering the championship in 2022.

• The four finalists of the FIA Girls on Track Rising Stars program have hit a pivotal stage in their evaluation at the Ferrari Driver Academy Scouting camp in Italy.

• Hitech’s Oliver Oakes has explained to Formula Scout that the challenge of F3 for rookies is ‘underestimated’ and that has to be taken into account in developing their racecraft.

• Safe is Fast has just published a great video called Get a Grip: How to Drive at the Limit which you can watch below.

• Finally, the Garage Heroes in Training podcast has a great interview with Paul Gerrard that is well worth listening to. You can listen to the interview here.

The Business of Being a Race Driver

• Megan Ligner has some excellent advice on 10 Essential Social Media Content Ideas for the Off-Season.

• Motorsport is expensive but Peter Mucke is quite frank: “the chances for drivers to progress up single-seaters are so remote it makes more sense now to go straight into sportscar racing.” It is for this reason that Mucke Motorsport is leaving single-seaters and focusing on GT racing as the single-seater stalwart explains his reasons and why he feels the budgets for F4 in Europe are unsustainable. He hopes his actions will trigger change.

• Speaking of budgets and in case you missed it on last week’s Debrief, Enzo Mucci explains that The Key To Really Getting Motorsport Sponsorship – Be The Entrepreneur.

• Further to Enzo’s point, the Financial Times has a great (paywalled) article on Daniel Ricciardo’s entrepreneurial flair with Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo is finding new business opportunities outside the racetrack.

• Finally, Sports Dimension has an excellent article aimed at businesses considering motorsport sponsorship with Simplifying the Motorsports Sponsorship Formula.

Series News

• The F4 British Championship certified by FIA has launched their 2022 car as well as unveiling ROKiT as the series title partner.

• The UK has also launched a new national Formula Ford series called United Formula Ford that is set to take to the track in 2022.

• The UK has launched yet another new series with the BMW 1 Series Supercup. According to the BRSCC: “Based on the popular BMW F20/F21 1.6 Turbo model, the new car and race series will appeal to drivers attracted to racing in a tightly controlled single make series based on a modern and sophisticated rear wheel drive BMW.”

• In the United States the SCCA has refocused their road racing programs amongst management changes.

• BMW has announced that the test programme for the next generation BMW M4 GT4 is set to get underway.

• Ligier have announced that their will be a more than 250k Euro prize fund for the 2022 Ligier European Series.

Esports & Sim Racing

• Windows Central looks at the best PCs for sim racing in 2021.

• Why do people watch eSports? Ronen Ainbinder explains.

Business of Motorsport

• The full schedule of speakers has been released for the the 2nd Annual Online Race Industry Week that will be held, Nov 29 – Dec 3, 2021 and it is impressive.

• Ferrari has been sponsored by Phillip Morris since 1997 but the rumors are that the relationship could be about to end. Race Fans explains Why Ferrari has little to fear from the possible loss of its biggest F1 sponsor.

• Also with F1, Drive Sports Marketing explains why Formula 1 and tech brands are the perfect duo.

• Sport Business explains why Nascar is racing at full speed to establish a significant presence in the metaverse.

• It seems that every week a crypto company is investing significant funds into a sports property but as Giles Morgan explains, the collapse of Barcelona and Man City’s crypto deals is a lesson for the sports industry.

From the Motorsport Prospects Archives

If you have not had the chance to check out and support these motorsport-related charities than I urge you to do so. They are part of the Motorsport Prospects mission to showcase and support motorsport-related charities from around the world.

The Last Lap

• The weekend ended with the sad news that Sir Frank Williams has passed away. Icon. Legend. Determined. All the words apply and more. Than you for the memories Sir Frank! You will be missed.

• I mentioned on last week’s Debrief the passing of Bob Bondurant. Road & Track explains why he was more than a legendary driver.

• Porsche Road and Race has an excellent look at the the rise of the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR Turbo.

• Watch the first episode of ‘A Prince Down Under’, the first episode on Prince Jefri Ibrahim’s adventures in Australia with Triple Eight Race Engineering below.

That’s it for this week. Stay safe and I will see you at the track!