Stefano Domenicali of F1: ‘You can’t do anything alone; you must have a good team

Formula One boss Stefano Domenicali’s management style isn’t exactly a private matter.

Netflix’s behind-the-scenes documentary series Formula 1: Drive to survive it has imparted to millions the sensitivity of dealing with racing drivers, their team managers, owners and billionaire sponsors, as well as the heads of state and royalty involved in motorsport’s elite motor racing series.

In the final season, Domenicali’s leadership was tested in a meeting of team bosses, including Toto Wolff, boss of Mercedes, and Christian Horner, his counterpart at Red Bull. The perennial rivals are locked in arguing over new automotive design regulations, and as tempers fray, Domenicali steps in to defuse the situation. The discussion will continue “in the right way” with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the sport’s governing body, he told the assembly of team managers.

Reflecting on the incident at F1 HQ in London, Domenicali says getting to know the team managers on a personal level was important to how he handled the situation. “This kind of thing you learn to handle the more things you see [them] it is happening the more you understand people. Each of us is different, so you have to respect that.

Domenicali claims to have “zero ego” and “never” cries. “That’s the beauty of it, take one less ego.”

As a former Ferrari crew chief, he knows the pressures facing the likes of Horner and Wolff, from managing championship-winning drivers like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, to motivating engineers and aerodynamicists to build the best cars.

Formula One is expanding rapidly. US owner Liberty Media, which acquired F1 in an $8 billion deal in 2016, has redesigned the sport’s economics: it shares revenue more fairly between teams, introduced spending caps on the development of cars to increase competition and has transformed the way he interacts with fans on social media.

A Miami Heat basketball net hanging on the wall across from Domenicali’s desk is a keepsake after last year’s addition of a Grand Prix in the US city. F1 will race in Las Vegas this November for the first time in four decades.

Annual revenue increased 20% to over $2.5 billion in 2022 due to higher fees paid by race promoters, increased media rights, sponsorship and participation in the Paddock Club’s hospitality business.

But despite all efforts to boost engagement, the sport has lacked excitement at the front of the grid. Verstappen has won 15 of 22 races in 2022. His Red Bull team have more than double the points of their closest rivals this season.

For fans attracted by Drive to survive, Red Bull’s dominance threatens F1’s ability to keep their attention? speaking to Financial Times conference on the future of the car in London last week, Domenicali said he would ‘totally disagree’ that F1 has prioritized entertainment over sport itself.

“This year we have to tell the truth: Red Bull has done a better job than the others, that’s a fact. But I would be reckless to say that the championship is over. “We cannot intervene on the performance of the teams. I’m sure what we’ve done in terms of financial regulations will help minimize the gap from a technical point of view.”

Meanwhile, some ex-employees and others who know him say Domenicali is a bit “old school”: he prefers staff to be physically present in the office and travel to the races. It’s a busy schedule: The season runs from March to November and expanded to 23 races this season by double-digit teens in the 1990s.

At F1 HQ, where the meeting rooms are named after legendary racing personalities like Juan Manuel Fangio – but also give a nod to Hamilton’s vegan bulldog, Roscoe – the chief executive is relaxed about the pressure. “How much does a demanding job weigh if you like it and are motivated to do it? Zero,” he says.

“We’re in luck . . . It’s hard work, yes, but look around, we’re in an entertainment business. He adds that if the people creating the entertainment aren’t happy, ‘there’s a problem.’” So, if you want to be here, you have to dedicate yourself completely to work, with the right enthusiasm”.

The Italian says his approach is to treat people equally, whether they’re presidents or his gardener. “It’s my style, take it or leave it. I am not able to have a mask in front of me”.

“People who aren’t smart believe there is only one way to grow the business you are in charge of. I have shown that I can be the same here, in this chair, and if you come with me on vacation with my family, with my friends. . . I don’t change.

Born in Imola, home of the circuit where Brazilian three-time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna died in a fatal crash in 1994, Domenicali began his career at Scuderia Ferrari and later watched German driver Michael Schumacher dominate the championship in the early 2000s.

“I learned the fact that you can’t do anything by yourself; you have to have a good team, the strongest team ever, actually,” he says of his time at Ferrari.

In 2014, he sat out three races into the season after Ferrari’s track performance slumped. “I’m not afraid to take responsibility when I think it’s right to do certain things,” he says. “I started the job after university, so you can imagine it wasn’t easy, but you have to be rational.”

He worked at Volkswagen’s Audi marque – where the diesel emissions scandal hampered a potential F1 entry – and then joined Lamborghini.

As F1 chief executive, he helped convince Audi to return in time for 2026, when new power units come into play, which will be more efficient and use more sustainable fuel.

A greater test of his persuasive abilities came in March 2022 ahead of the second Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. When a Houthi missile strike hit a Saudi Aramco oil storage facility during race buildup, smoke billowing into the air was visible from the circuit. Frightened, the riders debated whether to race or not.

“Seeing such an amazing, dark mushroom of smoke 12 miles from where you are is emotionally quite strong,” says Domenicali.

The stakes were high. Despite criticism from human rights groups, Saudi Arabia has become a major market for F1, crucial to Liberty Media’s expansion in the Middle East. State-owned Saudi Aramco is among the global partners of F1, the top tier of sponsorship in the sport, while teams such as Aston Martin and McLaren rely on Saudi sponsors.

What was already “a difficult moment” was amplified by social media, says Domenicali. The race went ahead after night meetings with the riders in which Domenicali conveyed assurances from the local authorities and explained the safety measures in place.

“If you follow the emotion, you will most likely go in the wrong direction,” she says. “Leading by example means I was there. If I was the first to be concerned, I’m not stupid enough to walk away from there. . . and say, “I go and you stay.” Everyone understood and trusted us.”

More recently, expansion in Saudi Arabia has led to speculation that the oil-rich Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund would be keen to acquire F1.

A Bloomberg News report in January that F1 had attracted interest for a takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund prompted a firm response from FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. He tweeted that the governing body was being “cautious” about the “allegedly inflated price tag” of $20 billion, including debt, and warned that any suitor should bring more than “just a lot of cash.”

F1 and Liberty Media have agreed not to respond publicly, but in a letter to the FIA ​​president which was leaked to the media, they warned his comments “crossed the bounds of both the FIA’s mandate and its contractual rights” and that the FIA “could be liable” if the president’s tweets “damage the value of Liberty Media.”

Ben Sulayem subsequently stepped back from day-to-day involvement in F1.

“If you want to do something, you don’t have to shout or announce,” Domenicali says of his attempt to settle the matter privately, “and do what’s in the best interest of the company you’re in charge of, as simple as that. Everyone is different, but this is me.