October 31, 2025 • 35 mins
Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley—better known as "F1 Elvis"—joins us to talk about his brand new book Pit Lane Lessons: What F1 Can Teach You About Work and Life.
In this episode, Marc reveals the surprising origin story behind his legendary nickname, takes us inside McLaren's obsessive culture of excellence during the championship-winning years, and explains how those pit-lane principles translate into business success today. We discuss the delicate balance between obsessive attention to detail and maintaining team morale, the parallels between McLaren's 2007 and 2024 seasons, and what it was really like working alongside Lewis Hamilton during his first championship run.
Marc also shares his moment of clarity that launched his second career, why he thinks Lando Norris might win the 2024 championship (and why he'd rather be in Max Verstappen's seat), and what makes Austin, Texas, one of the best fan experiences in Formula 1.
Whether you're an F1 fanatic or a business leader looking for competitive advantages, this conversation is packed with insights from someone who's lived in both worlds at the highest level.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vincenzo (00:00):
Welcome back to the Business of Speed podcast. I'm
(00:02):
Vincenzo Landino. Today's guestis someone who doesn't even need
an introduction, but I'm goingto give him one for those of you
that may not know who he is. Heworked for the McLaren team from
2000 to 2009 under legendary RonDennis. He worked with drivers
like Fernando Alonso, KimiRaikkonen, Mika Haakonen, Lewis
(00:23):
Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton, who won hisfirst championship in 2008, this
guest was on the team workingwith Lewis directly. He is now a
two time author. His second bookcame out the day we recorded
this episode. He works withbrands all over the world,
(00:44):
companies that want to maketheir teams better using Formula
One strategies. The guest I'mtalking about is none other than
Mark Priestley, AKA F1 Elvis.
I hope you enjoy thisconversation.
Lali (00:57):
Hi. Welcome, Mark.
Marc (00:58):
Hi. Nice to be here.
Vincenzo (01:00):
To the show, Mark. Really glad to have you here.
Exciting day for you today.
Marc (01:05):
It is. It is the day that my brand new book, Pit Lane
Lessons, finally comes out. SoI'm very excited, really
intrigued to find out whatpeople think, but just generally
excited because it's been a longprocess. You sit with a book for
a long, long time while you'rewriting it, and you're just
desperate for everyone else tosee it. So finally today's that
day.
Vincenzo (01:23):
Yes. And this is your second too. So I mean, you've
you've done this before and youyou chose to go back to doing it
again.
Marc (01:28):
Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what? I've done these we all do
this so many times with lots ofthings in our life. I've done
the same with houses.
We've done up houses over andover again. I get to the end of
every one. I said, I'm neverdoing that again. And then you
go and do another one. So yes,it was the same with the book.
I said, I'm never writinganother book because it was,
it's a tough process. It's hard.But here I am, I did it. It's
taken three years, so it reallywas hard. But you know,
(01:52):
sometimes the hardest things wedo in life are often the best
when they, when they finallymaterialize.
Vincenzo (01:57):
Yeah. Already with some, a good word of wisdom
there. Right?
Lali (02:01):
There's a saying that everyone has one book in them.
Like, but you had two in you sofar. So let's see. Maybe there's
a there's a trifecta somehow inthere.
Vincenzo (02:10):
Although there'll a there'll be a third.
Lali (02:13):
When
Vincenzo (02:14):
you get to when you get to the next phase of this, I
think, pit lane lessons, you'lllearn even more about lessons
about the lessons. Right?
Marc (02:21):
Who knows? You know, never say never.
Lali (02:25):
Let's Mark, I'm ask you something.
Vincenzo (02:26):
Oh, go ahead, Bowie.
Lali (02:27):
Since since I followed you I've been following you for a
very long time, and your yourhandle has always been f one
Elvis. So I'm very curious. Iasked Vincenzo that about that.
He had no idea where it cameabout.
Vincenzo (02:39):
So
Lali (02:39):
I wanna I wanna know that's did you give yourself
that nickname? Did somebody giveyou I understand the Priestley
Presley thing. Yeah. But whatelse is what else is behind
that?
Marc (02:48):
No. That's kind of it. And it wasn't me, but it was a long
time ago. So when I was atschool and I'm talking like 10
years old, there were a fewpeople, my actual name's Mark,
and there were quite a few marksin the class. And so some bright
spark at school realized thatPriestley sounded a little bit
like Presley and came up withElvis and you know it stuck and
(03:09):
it stuck to such a level that Ithink most people I went through
ten years working in the FormulaOne pit lane I don't think many
people know that my actualname's Mark.
They all just call me Elvis.Even my own wife only ever calls
me Elvis. So it's only my mom.
Lali (03:23):
I thought you were Elvis for a long time.
Marc (03:25):
It's only my mom that still calls me Mark.
Lali (03:28):
There you go.
Vincenzo (03:29):
I I contemplated saying is do I put f one Elvis
in the invitation when I invitedyou to the podcast? Said, but I
don't wanna like, I don't wannabecause I know you've been using
the Mark Priestley account onInstagram.
Marc (03:42):
Started a second account. F one f one Elvis has always
been my Instagram handle. ButYeah. With this this this book
and and a lot of the stuff thatI do around the book, I I work
with a lot of businesses withthe same kind of topics, and it
was a little bit separated froma lot of the other that the real
Formula One racing stuff and thecar show that I host and those
kind of things. They're slightlydifferent audiences.
(04:04):
So I thought I'd start aseparate Instagram account just
to keep it really specific. Soif you're into this kind of
stuff, it's my mark underscorepriestly account, which is the
one for you.
Vincenzo (04:15):
I mean, I love the business side of things, but I
know Lolly's got more, sportingquestions before we go, go into
that.
Lali (04:21):
Well, I just have a few for instance, like you're,
you've spoken a lot about howin, during your McLaren days,
there was like an extremeobsession with detail, right?
Obsessive attention. And nowyou, you, you talk a lot with
business people and you're,you're a public speaker. Do you
think that obsessive attentionto detail equals competitive
(04:42):
advantage always? Or do somepeople in businesses perhaps
thrive in that environment andothers don't in that level of
obsessive that, McLaren had?
Marc (04:54):
Yeah, and it really was obsessive and you know the first
book goes into quite some depthabout how obsessive it was. I
don't think any rule in life orbusiness is a sort of one rule
for everybody because everybodyis a little bit different. Being
obsessive about details in acompetitive world, and that's
business or sports or anythingelse, as long as you're focused
(05:15):
on the right details, and that'sthe key here, that I think does
or can at least translate into acompetitive advantage. What I
think a lot of people get wrongis either they focus on these
finer glitzy glamorous details,the bits that everyone wants to
plaster across Instagram, butforget about the basics. And
actually that's, there's a lotof lessons in the book and
(05:37):
McLaren have been guilty of thisin the past and I talk about
that quite honestly.
If you don't get the basicdetails right, there is no point
in focusing obsessively on thesefiner details. But if you do get
the basics, lay your foundationsand then you start honing down
and understanding which detailswill matter in the world you're
operating in and then becomingobsessive. Yeah, absolutely. If
(05:59):
you could be more obsessiveabout those details than your
competitors, I think it cantranslate into an advantage.
Lali (06:04):
But do you think that's why perhaps you also lived the
extreme at McLaren? There wasthis obsessive attention to
detail. They were dictating whatyou ate for breakfast, but at
the same time, there was a lotof pranking and a lot of fun
being had. Do you think thatbecause it was so strict, you
guys really needed to let loose?Was there a correlation there?
Marc (06:25):
A 100%. Yeah, I think, you know, all life is about some
kind of balance. And we had, wedid have obsessive attention to
detail. It stemmed to give somecontext it stemmed from Ron
Dennis who was the CEO ofMcLaren when I first joined the
team who I mean I'd never knownanybody in my life to be as
obsessive about details as he isstill today. But the problem is,
(06:50):
you know, that was him andthere's a thousand people
working at McLaren, they're notall Ron Dennis and so we all
have various levels of attentionto detail or obsessiveness or
whatever.
Our characters are all differentso we can't all be expected and
I think this was, if we'rehonest, I think this was
something of a mistake to someextent or something that could
have been done better in the RonDennis days. We're not all, we
(07:13):
can't all operate under thatexact same, you know, set of
parameters. I tried and I cameout of McLaren after ten years
with a far more obsessive sortof characteristic around detail
than I went in and I genuinelybelieve that's helped me in all
the things I've done since, butI never got to the Ron Dennis
level. You know Ron Dennis hasthe gravel on his driveway
washed at regular intervals soit's clean. I'm never going to
(07:36):
get there because that doesn'tmatter to me but I am obsessive
about the things that I thinkmatter to me, which will be
different than the things thatsomeone else thinks matter.
So that's what I mean. The rightdetails for you, obsess about
those if you believe they'regoing to make a difference, and
then they will.
Vincenzo (07:53):
What I was going to ask you about who do you think
the most obsessive person iscurrently in Formula One, but
Marc (08:01):
I mean,
Vincenzo (08:02):
I mean, Ron, Ron is the most obsessive. It sounds
like, is there anybodycomparable, like just below Ron
or a second place? Like, Andwhat does that look like for the
people around them?
Marc (08:13):
Yeah. That's an interesting one. I think only
only if you really work veryclosely with someone do you
understand to that level. Butwhat I do know is that David
Coulthard, you may remember adriver, he was with us at the
team back in the day, stillpresents and operates in and
around Formula One to quite alarge degree. And maybe this
came from Ron because he workedunder Ron for a long time, but
(08:35):
he is also incredibly obsessiveabout detail.
And I had him on my own podcasta little while ago and he just
reiterated just how his genuinebelief is that if anything
matters to you then everythingshould matter And that's the way
he goes through life. So heobsesses about the way he packs
his suitcase to go to a race,know, obsesses about the way his
(08:57):
office is is clean and tidy,even if he's not there. You
know, those details to himreflect in everything else that
he does. And I kind of get thatto some extent. And I and I
believe that is true for a lotof, for a lot of people.
But it's just about how far youwant to take those things
depending on whether you thinkthey'll make a difference in
your world. So I don't know themodern sort of crop of drivers.
(09:20):
I don't know. I think Lewis isquite obsessive about detail,
but again, only the details thatmatter. I don't think anyone
with Ron Dennis, for me itseemed like every detail
mattered, like there was nothingthat he wasn't obsessive about.
For me the much more healthy wayto look at this and I think what
most people in my sphere of lifedo is they obsess about the
(09:42):
things that you know areimportant to them and maybe just
relax a little bit on having thegravel on your driveway washed
every now and again.
Lali (09:50):
When you were at McLaren, it's been documented, you've
spoken about this extensively,how close you became to Kimmy,
like actual proper friends.Yeah. You went to his house, you
met his friends, etcetera. Atthat time, was that common? Were
other mechanics very close totheir drivers?
And is that common still today?
Marc (10:10):
You definitely form a real bond, particularly in the car
crews around a driver and thathappens to various extents up
and down the pit lane. But I dothink the relationship we had at
McLaren at that time with Kimmyand with a group of guys we had
was particularly special. Idon't see many people, many
mechanics or engineers going onholiday with their drivers at
the end of the season. So Ithink that was special. We had a
(10:33):
genuine bond.
We all kind of came togetheraround the same time when he
joined McLaren, so that car crewformed at the same time. I was
joining McLaren at a verysimilar era. So we kind of grew
together as a group and thatbonded us incredibly tightly
together. We were similar ages,we had very similar interests
both at the track but also awayfrom that as well. And his
(10:54):
friends and my friends you knowbecame a great group of friends
together so it was a veryspecial time and genuinely think
because of that, that was alarge part of why we were
successful as a group.
You know having that bond andhaving this inherent desire that
we would have done anything foreach other has to translate into
(11:15):
in this competitive world ofFormula One has to translate
into amazing teamwork, greatfight and determination and
that's exactly what got usthrough a lot of really tough
periods at times.
Vincenzo (11:27):
I want to talk I want to ask a lesson about failure or
if you can give us a lessonabout failure. You know, you go
from failure 2007 to thenwinning the very next year. What
what can you glean from that?What type of advice would you
give? And I'm sure you do thisregularly from the stage into
organizations, and they'reprobably asking you about, you
(11:48):
know, winning through failure.
What, what do you, what's thebiggest lesson you can give?
Like if you had to give onepiece of advice about adversity
and sticking, you know,continuing on so that you can
find that success, what wouldthat be?
Marc (12:02):
Yeah, it's really interesting. There's a whole
chapter in the book on this, ondealing with failure. Actually I
use exactly that example as alarge part of it. So 2007 for us
should have been the best year,right? We had two great drivers
in Lewis Hamilton and FernandoVallon, so we had a great car,
great team, we were winningraces left, right and centre.
Should have been a dream but itwas a nightmare and it was a
(12:24):
nightmare because so many thingswent wrong And at the end of
that season I'd moved into amore senior role in the team.
Part of the role that came upfor me was to try and understand
where it all went wrong. Sothere were some very obvious
things like the two drivers fellout with each other it's very
public, this is no secret Theyended up hating each other. That
(12:44):
destroyed the internal dynamicbecause the groups of people
around those drivers ended upfalling out as well. That
destroyed the teamwork elementinside.
And then there was a spy gatedrama going on in the
background, this big industrialespionage. 2007, by the way,
would make a great movie. But,you know, my job
Vincenzo (13:02):
Idea. Maybe maybe maybe David Coulthard can
produce it.
Marc (13:05):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. My job that year wasn't just to
identify those surface levelthings because they were quite
obvious.
It was to go really deep. Andthis is what Formula One teams
do very well. And this is wherethis this sort of lesson comes
in is that the deeper you'reable to go into a failure, and
that's hard, right? Because at2007, it was an awful year and
most people in our team,including me, just wanted to
(13:28):
forget it. We were all of thisopinion that well, we know
what's gone wrong.
Let's put that behind us andwe'll just move forward. That's
the obvious way to to go aboutit. But Formula one teams and
particularly our team at thattime didn't think that way. We
collectively decided we weregoing to delve really deeply and
sort of forensically analyze ourmistakes and the things that we
(13:49):
had got wrong, which is reallyuncomfortable because the people
that made some of those mistakeshad to be front and center in
that investigation and have itlaid bare in front of their
peers, know, and openly discussit and try and find what was at
the heart of it. The key todealing with failure in the best
way in my opinion is to go asdeep as you can.
(14:09):
So yes, the two drivers fellout. Okay, so ask yourself why?
Go another level deeper. Why didthey fall out? Well, maybe there
was some sort of discrepancyabout Fernando Alonso was the
world champion, Lewis was arookie.
Maybe they had differentexpectations, know, and and they
didn't match up when Lewissuddenly became a very worthy
championship contender. MaybeFernando got upset and vice
(14:29):
versa. All true. Then askyourself why again and keep
going deeper and deeper intomore and more levels of why
these things happen. And what weuncovered was all the way back,
like a year before Fernando evenjoined our team, he was a world
champion at Renault at the timewhen Ron Dennis approached him
and asked him to drive.
There was never a conversationthat happened about who, you
(14:52):
know, was we was there gonna bea number one or number two
driver? Yeah. We had Fernando,the king of Formula one at the
time, the world champion, and wehad this young rookie in Lewis.
Everyone assumed Lewis was gonnajust learn the ropes from this
guy who was a a double worldchampion by the time he got to
us, but it was never talkedabout. There was no
communication around that.
There was nothing to say, youknow, as we go through the
(15:14):
season, preferential treatmentor development will swing in the
favor of Fernando. It was justassumed that way. Fernando
assumed it. I suspect even Lewisassumed it in the beginning
because he didn't have theexpectations of challenging for
a title. The team certainlydidn't have any expectations of
that.
So the assumption was there, butno communication to back that
up. So when reality didn't matchexpectation after just a few
(15:38):
races and Lewis was very much onpar with Fernando, we, the team,
never had a policy of having anumber one and number two
driver. We were never gonnachange that, but it was always
just assumed that that would bethe obvious scenario. So if you
really uncover that failure,probably a lack of clear and
concise communication a yearbefore any of this even happened
(15:58):
was was probably one of thethings that was at the fault
there. So you take from that.
Well, okay. So moving forward,clear and concise communication
has to be a key part of avoidingthese things in the future. And
then from that very knownbaseline that you've uncovered,
you build your way back up to aa set of parameters that meant
in 2008, we did win the worldtitle. And I say in the book
(16:21):
here, I'm a 100% sure we wouldnot have won that world title in
2008 without the failure of2007. And because of what we did
in the winter between those twoseasons, uncovering what went
wrong.
Lali (16:33):
I have a quick follow-up because I don't think I've heard
you speak of this, forgive me ifyou have. How much did it sting
to have Kimi win the Februarywith Ferrari after you'd been
working with him so closely? Hewas such a good mate, he leaves
you and boom, he gets hischampionship.
Marc (16:51):
Yeah. It stung just internally our team. It stung
because we had we'd failedmassively. We had everything
there to win the title. All thepieces of the puzzle were there,
and yet we'd failed.
So that's done. But if weweren't gonna win it, I
obviously I absolutely wasreally happy for Kimmy and I
remember at the you know, onthat Sunday night in Brazil, it
(17:12):
was a disastrous day of coursefor us at McLaren, but I
remember going to the postseason party and right at the
end of the party I hadn't seenKimmy at all all evening and I
saw him just across the otherside of this event, this venue,
and he was just happened to beon his own and I literally just
ran across and he sort of got upfor his chair and we just had
this enormous embrace becauseyou know I know how hard he'd
(17:33):
been desperately trying to winthat as well. I'd have loved it
if we could have done it withhim, that would have been the
dream, but if that wasn't to bethe case I was so happy for him
genuinely that very quickly thesort of negative emotion of our
disastrous season, which we'dseen coming for a while, so it
wasn't like it all happened onthe last day, very quickly
switched into real, you know,joy to see my mate suddenly
(17:56):
achieve a childhood dream.
Vincenzo (17:58):
Yeah. And we'll put a nice bow on this before we get
in, we kind of segue into thenext, questions. You say this in
the book and I skimmed throughsome sections and this one stuck
out to me. You said never let afailure go to waste. Of course,
you won't extract the true valuefrom all your experiments if you
don't take the time to analyzewhat happened and what you can
do different in the future.
(18:19):
And you said the trick is to tryand take a moment of calm to
zoom out. Failures tend to comewith emotion attached. If we
didn't care about the result, itwouldn't affect us. But if we do
care, then it matters and we'regoing and we're often all in and
emotions and all. And so I justthought that was a it was an
interesting just because of whatyou were talking about, you can
fail, but you have to learn fromit in order to get better.
(18:41):
Right. And to then win. I thinkthat was
Marc (18:44):
And the hardest part of that is that emotion, you know,
when it happens to us on apersonal level, the failure does
come with emotion. And whenemotion comes into these
equations, we get angry, we getsad, you know, and those
emotions cloud everything. Andall you want to do is either
lash out if you're angry or ifyou're sad you want to sort of
hide away, but those things alldetract from actually analyzing
(19:08):
the failure and taking themoment to learn. Formula one
teams are very good at, youknow, parking the emotion. It
still happens.
We're not emotionless beings ata Formula one team, but we have
a moment where we we we kind ofdefine an end point. Ron Dennis
was always very good at tellingus this. He'd say if we had a
disastrous race on a Sunday forexample, we'd do our post race
(19:30):
debrief of course on a Sundayevening, we'd pack up and on a
Monday morning he said for himpersonally he always used to say
by the time his slippers landedin his or his feet landed in his
slippers by the side of the bedon a Monday morning, What
happened yesterday was doneemotionally and then it was all
about moving forward in thissort of pragmatic way to learn
(19:50):
what we could do better nexttime. I still remember that all
of the time today. I still amaffected by emotion when things
go wrong for me, but prettyquickly I can define an end
point.
It might be the next morningafter a good night's sleep. It
might be something like brushingmy teeth or whatever. Define a
moment where after that moment Ipark the emotion and we look at
(20:10):
what we can learn and havingthat as a sort of skill in your
locker, I think is hugelyvaluable.
Lali (20:16):
I love that because having the favored living rent free in
your head is not going to allowyou to get quickly to your next
success.
Marc (20:23):
Love it.
Lali (20:24):
Actually pick a point. You can sulk until there. After that
point, you're done. We'removing.
Vincenzo (20:29):
Yeah. We tend to dwell and then it's, and then you
oftentimes paralyze yourself.Right? You, you don't, you don't
move forward. So that'sabsolutely excellent point.
We talked about Kimmy, so onelast it's not really about
Kimmy, but Kimmy was a partyanimal. We all know that.
Legendary, off the track.Today's environment, so let's
(20:51):
switch gears to today a littlebit, and I know you're looking
at it maybe from a differentlens now, but do you think it's
just gotten a little tooprofessional buttoned up tight?
At least I don't see it from theoutside that these guys are
party animals or they're I mean,yeah, they let loose, but
oftentimes, you know, you Yeah,they're on the yacht with their
(21:13):
girlfriend or they're, you know,they're, they're cruising Monaco
in their, their cars, you don'treally see them partying.
And in a world where we're sotied, our phones are everywhere,
right? It's probably easier toget noticed and spotted in film
doing all these things. Youreally, at least I don't don't
seem to see it as much. Do youthink that that's just do you
(21:35):
think it's gone away? Do youthink something's changed?
Have we lost something? Have welost that edge to f one? What
what is it?
Marc (21:42):
It's definitely changed and, you know, I often I often
sort of think back and reflectand say, may have got the sweet
spot in Formula one, right?Because a) it was a period of
time when the sport was awashwith money. So the tobacco
sponsored era where budgets weresort of $400,000,000 a year and
more, and there was more moneythan you could dream up ways of
(22:05):
spending. And a lot of that wenton parties, which was great. But
the other side of that was therewas no such thing as social
media and mobile phones when Ifirst started and you can it
doesn't take a genius to workout how that changes everything
in terms of what you can dopublicly and get away with or,
you know, not be under the samescrutiny and spotlight.
But also the sport has movedinto a more, you know, serious
(22:28):
if you like, business likecorporate world where we've got
blue chip brands sponsoringteams. You're not just
representing your Formula Oneteam, all of the huge brands
that are associated with theteam. You're representing them
when you've got that shirt onand you're at an event. So
that's definitely changed. Buthaving said all of that, I can
tell you for sure that a lot ofthese guys still manage to have
(22:50):
a good party every now andagain.
It hasn't got so bad that theseguys are not just sort of
rushing back to a library tocatch up the latest textbooks of
an evening list. They do manageto have some fun as well.
They're not
Lali (23:04):
robots, thankfully.
Vincenzo (23:05):
Yeah, you talk about how F1's changed social media.
It's a content machine, Now wehave this, it's just
everything's content. I mean,we're making a podcast. You have
a podcast. You have books aboutit.
There's, there's so much morecontent around F1. Forget about
all the content that teamsproduce, brands produce, the
series itself produces. Do youthink that what Netflix, the
(23:31):
whole drive to survive, LibertyMedia purchasing, do you think
that that's helped or hinderedthe authenticity of the sport?
Marc (23:41):
Well, the authenticity, it depends from which perspective
you look at because the theNetflix show, I think, is an
amazing thing. It's obviouslybeen a roaring success in the
level that it's brought in ahuge number of new fans, new
more eyeballs onto the sport,that grows an audience, which
means you grow sponsorshipopportunities and branding and
(24:02):
the whole thing is growing at anastronomical rate. The
authenticity aspect of that, ifyou watch the Netflix show, I
mean, I can tell you, I'm sureyou can figure it out. It's not
all authentic. You know, they'reconstructing a narrative because
it's entertainment and that'sfine because it is an
entertainment show and it'sworking.
The authenticity side of things,I don't think you're gonna get
(24:23):
from Netflix, but you can get itfrom other places. So there are
lots of personalities and peoplefrom within the sport that now
have the freedom to broadcast,you know, their careers and and
parts of their weekend on ontheir own social channels. There
are a lot of the majorbroadcasters that do a very,
very good job of covering theauthentic side of the sport. So
Netflix, I don't think hasnecessarily tweaked the
(24:47):
authenticity piece in favor ofbeing authentic, but it's done
another job, an important job,and it's doing it very, very
well. So I think you can haveboth.
Vincenzo (24:55):
Yeah. Lolly and I grew up in an era where you couldn't
find another Formula One fan.Yeah. You know, in your,
Lali (25:04):
in We were the only ones, weird kids at school. We were
like, hi, if you were like,Lunatics, what are you watching
on television?
Vincenzo (25:11):
So now it's, you see it everywhere. It's almost, you
can't walk into, you know, I'llwalk down the street and I'll
see someone with a Red Bullshirt on or a McLaren shirt and
you're Well, it's great.Actually follow?
Marc (25:24):
And then but and especially in The US. Right? So
in The US, which has always beena really difficult market for
the for Formula one to to crack,Netflix has done a huge part,
has played a huge role in thatas well as bringing the great
races that we have there, thethree events which are all
fantastic events on thecalendar. Liberty Media who've
taken over the commercial rightshave done a wonderful job of
(25:45):
pushing into that zone. And Ican see it from, you know, my
own career in terms of all thecorporate work that I do and
working with companies.
A huge percentage of what I donow is in The States. I spend a
lot of time in The US and itused to be that one out of 10
events I did was in The US. Andwhen I got there, no one really
knew what I was talking about.You know, you're looking at a
(26:06):
face of sort of room full ofblank faces to some extent. It's
the opposite now.
I have I've got people who, youknow, not only know me, but
certainly know a lot about thesport, who are really intrigued
and interested to have me comeand speak to them. From a
personal career perspective,that's been great because I now
have a lot more work coming fromthat side of the world. I think
(26:27):
it's wonderful that the sport isnow pushing into different
markets, and there are stilluntapped markets around this
planet which we're about tostart breaking into. So this
sport is nowhere near done interms of its growth. Yeah.
Vincenzo (26:43):
Three last questions in the in the for you. Just
three. You because I do wannatalk about the consultancy
piece. Well, not really talkabout it, but you went from a
mechanic. You're now this mediapersonality, but you also
consult and you speak.
What was that transition likefor you going from in the garage
to now out there?
Lali (27:03):
Yeah, because you're thinking about it while you were
at the garage, so what'sCertainly your thoughts about
Marc (27:08):
didn't think about it going in this direction
necessarily, but just towardsthe end of my ten years at
McLaren and I said earlier on,we won the world title with
Lewis in my final or a yearbefore I left. That was an
amazing opportunity for me and Idid appreciate it. It made a
difference for my future, whichI always thought there was going
(27:31):
to be a future outside ofFormula One. Wasn't sure what it
would look like, but I wasn'tgoing to stay in Formula One
forever. I'm just the sort ofperson that always needs
reinventing and a new challenge.
That's just part of mycharacter. So there was always
gonna be life after f one.Winning a world title with Lewis
changed the value that I couldoffer to people or even just the
perception of that value. Right?Because now in what I do, being
(27:53):
a Formula one world titlewinning mechanic is just
genuinely better than just beinga Formula One mechanic.
It might not sound that muchdifferent, but the truth is it
does. It gives me an awful lotmore authenticity in this kind
of work that I do because I'velived it, I've done it, I've
been there and I've ticked thebox of being part of a team
that's beaten the rest in theworld, the best in the world.
(28:16):
And that elevates you to acertain level of status just as
it does for a driver who doesthe same kind of thing. It's the
same in my world. It's exactlythe same.
So that was a catapult for mewhere we won that title and I
thought, right, this is it. Thisis the moment. I've got my
springboard. I'm gonna go and dosomething. And it actually
started with the media side ofthings.
It started reporting, first ofall writing on Formula One, then
(28:39):
the BBC here in The UK gave methe opportunity to come and be a
pit lane reporter for the radio.And you know ironically all
these years later I now am backwith the BBC commentating on the
sport for them on the radio forthe same network so that's
really nice. But that media, alittle dip into the media with
the BBC which was just a trialweekend I remember it being
(29:01):
first of all, gave me a littlewindow into this idea. The media
side of the Formula One paddockby the way is completely
different to the pit lane whereI'd spent all of my previous ten
years. So I'd been to theseraces forever, but I just hopped
over the paddock to the otherside and it's like a whole new
world.
So that really was a newadventure for me and I remember
(29:21):
coming home after that Sundaynight, it was the British Grand
Prix, being a pit lane reporterfor the BBC and on the way home
I called my wife and I said I'vejust found my new career! And it
was that kind of clear, know,was that clear that this was
going to be amazing. I had valueto offer because people were you
know, my insight was from theinside of a team as opposed to
(29:42):
from the outside. And I and Ithink the career I've had
started with broadcasting andI'm still doing it, but it's
evolved into this value that Ihave from this internal
perspective, which I appreciateis a privileged position. It's
changed my life for the better,and I'm now on a mission to try
and help it to change otherpeople who don't necessarily
have the same opportunity that Ihad.
Vincenzo (30:06):
We're grateful for that moment of clarity that you
had for sure.
Lali (30:10):
I'm going to wrap it up with two questions that are just
like, first thing that comes toyour head. Of all the tracks
you've ever visited personally,which one do you think offers
the best fan experience?
Marc (30:22):
Oh. Do you know what? I'd say Austin is right up there.
It's one of my favorite racerace events of the year, and I
know it is for for anyone whogoes to visit. And it's partly
because the Americans havereally embraced, this event.
America does an incredible jobof putting on a show anyway and
if you combine that with FormulaOne at a great racetrack that
(30:45):
almost always delivers a reallyinteresting or exciting Grand
Prix, and a city which is justweird and wonderful at all
times, you combine thoseelements and I think it's
wonderful. What Formula One hasdone today under Liberty is
they've done a lot more of this.They bring races to destinations
that make a great weekend evenoutside of the racetrack. So if
(31:09):
you're a fan, you now want totake your family, your kids, you
want to take friends not just towatch the race, but to go and
have an amazing weekend. AndAustin for me is one of the
great places that does that.
Vincenzo (31:20):
If only there was an event that handed out that
award, Lolly.
Lali (31:23):
If only there were. And who is going to win the world
drivers championship? Go.
Marc (31:29):
Oh, nice, easy one. Yeah. Well, okay, two quick answers to
this. One, I think Lando isprobably going to win it. That's
how the form looks right now.
He's also now got the positionin championship race, right?
He's leading albeit by a smallmargin, but he's on form, which
is key. The play and I askedthis on my social media, my my
Instagram the other day, whoseseat would you rather be in
(31:51):
right now? I think I'd like tobe in Max's seat. And the reason
I say that is because, you know,Max has now got a car that can
compete at a lot of weekends.
It didn't work out that waynecessarily in Mexico City. It
didn't didn't suit the track.His car didn't suit the track,
but it will at some of theseupcoming races. So he's got a
good car that's competitive, butit doesn't have the pressure
(32:11):
that the two McLaren guys areunder. They're gonna be fighting
each other.
Those two, neither of them everwon a world championship, yet
they've dreamt of it since theywere kids. It's the one thing
that's been a lifelong goal, andthe only person for them that's
really standing in the way of itis the guy on the other side of
the garage. I talked about thefailures we had in 2007 at
McLaren. There are so manysimilarities in 2025 at McLaren.
(32:35):
Right?
Two drivers, full circle, twodrivers, both going for the
title. Yes. Max could well be athreat, and I think he will be a
threat at some stages, butreally the opposition for each
of those two McLaren drivers istheir teammate. And when you
take a teammate and turn theminto an enemy, well, that's what
happened in 2007. Right?
So that's a real challenge forMcLaren to understand how to
(32:58):
manage that relationship. Sofar, yeah, you know, they seem
relatively friendly. But whenthis gets down to the real
business end and we are talkingabout fine margins determining
whether you're a world championor not, and bear in mind, in
2026, everything changes inFormula one. This opportunity
could be it. This could be yourshot.
So everything's on the line, andit will be the single most
(33:21):
important thing to each of thosetwo drivers. Max is kinda
sitting there with a great biggrin in his face going, I can
get in amongst this and havesome fun here because he doesn't
have the pressure or theexpectations. So what I can say,
it's gonna be a fascinating endto the season. I'm definitely
here for it, and I and I cannotwait to see which way it plays
out.
Vincenzo (33:40):
Mark, thank you for your time today. Awesome stuff.
Your book, Pit Lane Lessons,What F1 Can Teach You About Work
and Life is out today,everywhere, and in The US soon,
but we do have it on Kindle andaudiobook for The United States.
Tell us tell the audience wherethey can connect with you, find
you, how they can work with you.
Marc (34:02):
Yeah. So, so Instagram or LinkedIn are the two places
generally that I operate online.So you can find me, I've
mentioned f1elvis ormarkpriestly. Those are the
Instagram and it's markpriestlyon LinkedIn. But yeah, you can
find me all over.
You'll find me on YouTube aswell. A quick Google find out
what I do. But yeah, thank youguys. I appreciate you having me
(34:24):
on because this book, as I said,it's been a labor of love. This
is my life's work today.
It's trying to help people toget the opportunities that I
know I've been very fortunate tohave through working with
amazing people, an amazing teamat McLaren in an amazing
environment of Formula One. It'schanged my life. I've spent the
last ten years helping to changethe fortunes of some of the
(34:47):
world's biggest companiessuccessfully in many, many
cases. And so I know it's proventhat this model that this book
is full of, all of the lessonsit's full of, can help you if
you want to achieve something,if you want to change something
in your life, this is the bookthat can help you do it. So I'd
love it if you go and buy it,download it and listen to it.
I've also got the audio bookthat I recorded myself. Very
(35:10):
grateful to anyone who goes andgets that, I'd love to know what
you think. So drop me a message.
Vincenzo (35:16):
Thank you much. Is definitely a book that we will
be handing to all of our clientsat Business of Speed for sure. I
mean, it is the perfect, perfectopportunity for people to
understand right from within thegarage and actually we'll
probably just have to bring youon board.
Marc (35:30):
Right. Great.
Lali (35:32):
It's so good. It's so good to see you. So good to chat.
Thank you so much.
Vincenzo (35:35):
Mark, we'll
Lali (35:35):
see you
Vincenzo (35:36):
guys. Thanks. Bye bye.
Welcome back to the Business of Speed podcast. I'm
(00:02):
Vincenzo Landino. Today's guestis someone who doesn't even need
an introduction, but I'm goingto give him one for those of you
that may not know who he is. Heworked for the McLaren team from
2000 to 2009 under legendary RonDennis. He worked with drivers
like Fernando Alonso, KimiRaikkonen, Mika Haakonen, Lewis
(00:23):
Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton, who won hisfirst championship in 2008, this
guest was on the team workingwith Lewis directly. He is now a
two time author. His second bookcame out the day we recorded
this episode. He works withbrands all over the world,
(00:44):
companies that want to maketheir teams better using Formula
One strategies. The guest I'mtalking about is none other than
Mark Priestley, AKA F1 Elvis.
I hope you enjoy thisconversation.
Lali (00:57):
Hi. Welcome, Mark.
Marc (00:58):
Hi. Nice to be here.
Vincenzo (01:00):
To the show, Mark. Really glad to have you here.
Exciting day for you today.
Marc (01:05):
It is. It is the day that my brand new book, Pit Lane
Lessons, finally comes out. SoI'm very excited, really
intrigued to find out whatpeople think, but just generally
excited because it's been a longprocess. You sit with a book for
a long, long time while you'rewriting it, and you're just
desperate for everyone else tosee it. So finally today's that
day.
Vincenzo (01:23):
Yes. And this is your second too. So I mean, you've
you've done this before and youyou chose to go back to doing it
again.
Marc (01:28):
Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what? I've done these we all do
this so many times with lots ofthings in our life. I've done
the same with houses.
We've done up houses over andover again. I get to the end of
every one. I said, I'm neverdoing that again. And then you
go and do another one. So yes,it was the same with the book.
I said, I'm never writinganother book because it was,
it's a tough process. It's hard.But here I am, I did it. It's
taken three years, so it reallywas hard. But you know,
(01:52):
sometimes the hardest things wedo in life are often the best
when they, when they finallymaterialize.
Vincenzo (01:57):
Yeah. Already with some, a good word of wisdom
there. Right?
Lali (02:01):
There's a saying that everyone has one book in them.
Like, but you had two in you sofar. So let's see. Maybe there's
a there's a trifecta somehow inthere.
Vincenzo (02:10):
Although there'll a there'll be a third.
Lali (02:13):
When
Vincenzo (02:14):
you get to when you get to the next phase of this, I
think, pit lane lessons, you'lllearn even more about lessons
about the lessons. Right?
Marc (02:21):
Who knows? You know, never say never.
Lali (02:25):
Let's Mark, I'm ask you something.
Vincenzo (02:26):
Oh, go ahead, Bowie.
Lali (02:27):
Since since I followed you I've been following you for a
very long time, and your yourhandle has always been f one
Elvis. So I'm very curious. Iasked Vincenzo that about that.
He had no idea where it cameabout.
Vincenzo (02:39):
So
Lali (02:39):
I wanna I wanna know that's did you give yourself
that nickname? Did somebody giveyou I understand the Priestley
Presley thing. Yeah. But whatelse is what else is behind
that?
Marc (02:48):
No. That's kind of it. And it wasn't me, but it was a long
time ago. So when I was atschool and I'm talking like 10
years old, there were a fewpeople, my actual name's Mark,
and there were quite a few marksin the class. And so some bright
spark at school realized thatPriestley sounded a little bit
like Presley and came up withElvis and you know it stuck and
(03:09):
it stuck to such a level that Ithink most people I went through
ten years working in the FormulaOne pit lane I don't think many
people know that my actualname's Mark.
They all just call me Elvis.Even my own wife only ever calls
me Elvis. So it's only my mom.
Lali (03:23):
I thought you were Elvis for a long time.
Marc (03:25):
It's only my mom that still calls me Mark.
Lali (03:28):
There you go.
Vincenzo (03:29):
I I contemplated saying is do I put f one Elvis
in the invitation when I invitedyou to the podcast? Said, but I
don't wanna like, I don't wannabecause I know you've been using
the Mark Priestley account onInstagram.
Marc (03:42):
Started a second account. F one f one Elvis has always
been my Instagram handle. ButYeah. With this this this book
and and a lot of the stuff thatI do around the book, I I work
with a lot of businesses withthe same kind of topics, and it
was a little bit separated froma lot of the other that the real
Formula One racing stuff and thecar show that I host and those
kind of things. They're slightlydifferent audiences.
(04:04):
So I thought I'd start aseparate Instagram account just
to keep it really specific. Soif you're into this kind of
stuff, it's my mark underscorepriestly account, which is the
one for you.
Vincenzo (04:15):
I mean, I love the business side of things, but I
know Lolly's got more, sportingquestions before we go, go into
that.
Lali (04:21):
Well, I just have a few for instance, like you're,
you've spoken a lot about howin, during your McLaren days,
there was like an extremeobsession with detail, right?
Obsessive attention. And nowyou, you, you talk a lot with
business people and you're,you're a public speaker. Do you
think that obsessive attentionto detail equals competitive
(04:42):
advantage always? Or do somepeople in businesses perhaps
thrive in that environment andothers don't in that level of
obsessive that, McLaren had?
Marc (04:54):
Yeah, and it really was obsessive and you know the first
book goes into quite some depthabout how obsessive it was. I
don't think any rule in life orbusiness is a sort of one rule
for everybody because everybodyis a little bit different. Being
obsessive about details in acompetitive world, and that's
business or sports or anythingelse, as long as you're focused
(05:15):
on the right details, and that'sthe key here, that I think does
or can at least translate into acompetitive advantage. What I
think a lot of people get wrongis either they focus on these
finer glitzy glamorous details,the bits that everyone wants to
plaster across Instagram, butforget about the basics. And
actually that's, there's a lotof lessons in the book and
(05:37):
McLaren have been guilty of thisin the past and I talk about
that quite honestly.
If you don't get the basicdetails right, there is no point
in focusing obsessively on thesefiner details. But if you do get
the basics, lay your foundationsand then you start honing down
and understanding which detailswill matter in the world you're
operating in and then becomingobsessive. Yeah, absolutely. If
(05:59):
you could be more obsessiveabout those details than your
competitors, I think it cantranslate into an advantage.
Lali (06:04):
But do you think that's why perhaps you also lived the
extreme at McLaren? There wasthis obsessive attention to
detail. They were dictating whatyou ate for breakfast, but at
the same time, there was a lotof pranking and a lot of fun
being had. Do you think thatbecause it was so strict, you
guys really needed to let loose?Was there a correlation there?
Marc (06:25):
A 100%. Yeah, I think, you know, all life is about some
kind of balance. And we had, wedid have obsessive attention to
detail. It stemmed to give somecontext it stemmed from Ron
Dennis who was the CEO ofMcLaren when I first joined the
team who I mean I'd never knownanybody in my life to be as
obsessive about details as he isstill today. But the problem is,
(06:50):
you know, that was him andthere's a thousand people
working at McLaren, they're notall Ron Dennis and so we all
have various levels of attentionto detail or obsessiveness or
whatever.
Our characters are all differentso we can't all be expected and
I think this was, if we'rehonest, I think this was
something of a mistake to someextent or something that could
have been done better in the RonDennis days. We're not all, we
(07:13):
can't all operate under thatexact same, you know, set of
parameters. I tried and I cameout of McLaren after ten years
with a far more obsessive sortof characteristic around detail
than I went in and I genuinelybelieve that's helped me in all
the things I've done since, butI never got to the Ron Dennis
level. You know Ron Dennis hasthe gravel on his driveway
washed at regular intervals soit's clean. I'm never going to
(07:36):
get there because that doesn'tmatter to me but I am obsessive
about the things that I thinkmatter to me, which will be
different than the things thatsomeone else thinks matter.
So that's what I mean. The rightdetails for you, obsess about
those if you believe they'regoing to make a difference, and
then they will.
Vincenzo (07:53):
What I was going to ask you about who do you think
the most obsessive person iscurrently in Formula One, but
Marc (08:01):
I mean,
Vincenzo (08:02):
I mean, Ron, Ron is the most obsessive. It sounds
like, is there anybodycomparable, like just below Ron
or a second place? Like, Andwhat does that look like for the
people around them?
Marc (08:13):
Yeah. That's an interesting one. I think only
only if you really work veryclosely with someone do you
understand to that level. Butwhat I do know is that David
Coulthard, you may remember adriver, he was with us at the
team back in the day, stillpresents and operates in and
around Formula One to quite alarge degree. And maybe this
came from Ron because he workedunder Ron for a long time, but
(08:35):
he is also incredibly obsessiveabout detail.
And I had him on my own podcasta little while ago and he just
reiterated just how his genuinebelief is that if anything
matters to you then everythingshould matter And that's the way
he goes through life. So heobsesses about the way he packs
his suitcase to go to a race,know, obsesses about the way his
(08:57):
office is is clean and tidy,even if he's not there. You
know, those details to himreflect in everything else that
he does. And I kind of get thatto some extent. And I and I
believe that is true for a lotof, for a lot of people.
But it's just about how far youwant to take those things
depending on whether you thinkthey'll make a difference in
your world. So I don't know themodern sort of crop of drivers.
(09:20):
I don't know. I think Lewis isquite obsessive about detail,
but again, only the details thatmatter. I don't think anyone
with Ron Dennis, for me itseemed like every detail
mattered, like there was nothingthat he wasn't obsessive about.
For me the much more healthy wayto look at this and I think what
most people in my sphere of lifedo is they obsess about the
(09:42):
things that you know areimportant to them and maybe just
relax a little bit on having thegravel on your driveway washed
every now and again.
Lali (09:50):
When you were at McLaren, it's been documented, you've
spoken about this extensively,how close you became to Kimmy,
like actual proper friends.Yeah. You went to his house, you
met his friends, etcetera. Atthat time, was that common? Were
other mechanics very close totheir drivers?
And is that common still today?
Marc (10:10):
You definitely form a real bond, particularly in the car
crews around a driver and thathappens to various extents up
and down the pit lane. But I dothink the relationship we had at
McLaren at that time with Kimmyand with a group of guys we had
was particularly special. Idon't see many people, many
mechanics or engineers going onholiday with their drivers at
the end of the season. So Ithink that was special. We had a
(10:33):
genuine bond.
We all kind of came togetheraround the same time when he
joined McLaren, so that car crewformed at the same time. I was
joining McLaren at a verysimilar era. So we kind of grew
together as a group and thatbonded us incredibly tightly
together. We were similar ages,we had very similar interests
both at the track but also awayfrom that as well. And his
(10:54):
friends and my friends you knowbecame a great group of friends
together so it was a veryspecial time and genuinely think
because of that, that was alarge part of why we were
successful as a group.
You know having that bond andhaving this inherent desire that
we would have done anything foreach other has to translate into
(11:15):
in this competitive world ofFormula One has to translate
into amazing teamwork, greatfight and determination and
that's exactly what got usthrough a lot of really tough
periods at times.
Vincenzo (11:27):
I want to talk I want to ask a lesson about failure or
if you can give us a lessonabout failure. You know, you go
from failure 2007 to thenwinning the very next year. What
what can you glean from that?What type of advice would you
give? And I'm sure you do thisregularly from the stage into
organizations, and they'reprobably asking you about, you
(11:48):
know, winning through failure.
What, what do you, what's thebiggest lesson you can give?
Like if you had to give onepiece of advice about adversity
and sticking, you know,continuing on so that you can
find that success, what wouldthat be?
Marc (12:02):
Yeah, it's really interesting. There's a whole
chapter in the book on this, ondealing with failure. Actually I
use exactly that example as alarge part of it. So 2007 for us
should have been the best year,right? We had two great drivers
in Lewis Hamilton and FernandoVallon, so we had a great car,
great team, we were winningraces left, right and centre.
Should have been a dream but itwas a nightmare and it was a
(12:24):
nightmare because so many thingswent wrong And at the end of
that season I'd moved into amore senior role in the team.
Part of the role that came upfor me was to try and understand
where it all went wrong. Sothere were some very obvious
things like the two drivers fellout with each other it's very
public, this is no secret Theyended up hating each other. That
(12:44):
destroyed the internal dynamicbecause the groups of people
around those drivers ended upfalling out as well. That
destroyed the teamwork elementinside.
And then there was a spy gatedrama going on in the
background, this big industrialespionage. 2007, by the way,
would make a great movie. But,you know, my job
Vincenzo (13:02):
Idea. Maybe maybe maybe David Coulthard can
produce it.
Marc (13:05):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. My job that year wasn't just to
identify those surface levelthings because they were quite
obvious.
It was to go really deep. Andthis is what Formula One teams
do very well. And this is wherethis this sort of lesson comes
in is that the deeper you'reable to go into a failure, and
that's hard, right? Because at2007, it was an awful year and
most people in our team,including me, just wanted to
(13:28):
forget it. We were all of thisopinion that well, we know
what's gone wrong.
Let's put that behind us andwe'll just move forward. That's
the obvious way to to go aboutit. But Formula one teams and
particularly our team at thattime didn't think that way. We
collectively decided we weregoing to delve really deeply and
sort of forensically analyze ourmistakes and the things that we
(13:49):
had got wrong, which is reallyuncomfortable because the people
that made some of those mistakeshad to be front and center in
that investigation and have itlaid bare in front of their
peers, know, and openly discussit and try and find what was at
the heart of it. The key todealing with failure in the best
way in my opinion is to go asdeep as you can.
(14:09):
So yes, the two drivers fellout. Okay, so ask yourself why?
Go another level deeper. Why didthey fall out? Well, maybe there
was some sort of discrepancyabout Fernando Alonso was the
world champion, Lewis was arookie.
Maybe they had differentexpectations, know, and and they
didn't match up when Lewissuddenly became a very worthy
championship contender. MaybeFernando got upset and vice
(14:29):
versa. All true. Then askyourself why again and keep
going deeper and deeper intomore and more levels of why
these things happen. And what weuncovered was all the way back,
like a year before Fernando evenjoined our team, he was a world
champion at Renault at the timewhen Ron Dennis approached him
and asked him to drive.
There was never a conversationthat happened about who, you
(14:52):
know, was we was there gonna bea number one or number two
driver? Yeah. We had Fernando,the king of Formula one at the
time, the world champion, and wehad this young rookie in Lewis.
Everyone assumed Lewis was gonnajust learn the ropes from this
guy who was a a double worldchampion by the time he got to
us, but it was never talkedabout. There was no
communication around that.
There was nothing to say, youknow, as we go through the
(15:14):
season, preferential treatmentor development will swing in the
favor of Fernando. It was justassumed that way. Fernando
assumed it. I suspect even Lewisassumed it in the beginning
because he didn't have theexpectations of challenging for
a title. The team certainlydidn't have any expectations of
that.
So the assumption was there, butno communication to back that
up. So when reality didn't matchexpectation after just a few
(15:38):
races and Lewis was very much onpar with Fernando, we, the team,
never had a policy of having anumber one and number two
driver. We were never gonnachange that, but it was always
just assumed that that would bethe obvious scenario. So if you
really uncover that failure,probably a lack of clear and
concise communication a yearbefore any of this even happened
(15:58):
was was probably one of thethings that was at the fault
there. So you take from that.
Well, okay. So moving forward,clear and concise communication
has to be a key part of avoidingthese things in the future. And
then from that very knownbaseline that you've uncovered,
you build your way back up to aa set of parameters that meant
in 2008, we did win the worldtitle. And I say in the book
(16:21):
here, I'm a 100% sure we wouldnot have won that world title in
2008 without the failure of2007. And because of what we did
in the winter between those twoseasons, uncovering what went
wrong.
Lali (16:33):
I have a quick follow-up because I don't think I've heard
you speak of this, forgive me ifyou have. How much did it sting
to have Kimi win the Februarywith Ferrari after you'd been
working with him so closely? Hewas such a good mate, he leaves
you and boom, he gets hischampionship.
Marc (16:51):
Yeah. It stung just internally our team. It stung
because we had we'd failedmassively. We had everything
there to win the title. All thepieces of the puzzle were there,
and yet we'd failed.
So that's done. But if weweren't gonna win it, I
obviously I absolutely wasreally happy for Kimmy and I
remember at the you know, onthat Sunday night in Brazil, it
(17:12):
was a disastrous day of coursefor us at McLaren, but I
remember going to the postseason party and right at the
end of the party I hadn't seenKimmy at all all evening and I
saw him just across the otherside of this event, this venue,
and he was just happened to beon his own and I literally just
ran across and he sort of got upfor his chair and we just had
this enormous embrace becauseyou know I know how hard he'd
(17:33):
been desperately trying to winthat as well. I'd have loved it
if we could have done it withhim, that would have been the
dream, but if that wasn't to bethe case I was so happy for him
genuinely that very quickly thesort of negative emotion of our
disastrous season, which we'dseen coming for a while, so it
wasn't like it all happened onthe last day, very quickly
switched into real, you know,joy to see my mate suddenly
(17:56):
achieve a childhood dream.
Vincenzo (17:58):
Yeah. And we'll put a nice bow on this before we get
in, we kind of segue into thenext, questions. You say this in
the book and I skimmed throughsome sections and this one stuck
out to me. You said never let afailure go to waste. Of course,
you won't extract the true valuefrom all your experiments if you
don't take the time to analyzewhat happened and what you can
do different in the future.
(18:19):
And you said the trick is to tryand take a moment of calm to
zoom out. Failures tend to comewith emotion attached. If we
didn't care about the result, itwouldn't affect us. But if we do
care, then it matters and we'regoing and we're often all in and
emotions and all. And so I justthought that was a it was an
interesting just because of whatyou were talking about, you can
fail, but you have to learn fromit in order to get better.
(18:41):
Right. And to then win. I thinkthat was
Marc (18:44):
And the hardest part of that is that emotion, you know,
when it happens to us on apersonal level, the failure does
come with emotion. And whenemotion comes into these
equations, we get angry, we getsad, you know, and those
emotions cloud everything. Andall you want to do is either
lash out if you're angry or ifyou're sad you want to sort of
hide away, but those things alldetract from actually analyzing
(19:08):
the failure and taking themoment to learn. Formula one
teams are very good at, youknow, parking the emotion. It
still happens.
We're not emotionless beings ata Formula one team, but we have
a moment where we we we kind ofdefine an end point. Ron Dennis
was always very good at tellingus this. He'd say if we had a
disastrous race on a Sunday forexample, we'd do our post race
(19:30):
debrief of course on a Sundayevening, we'd pack up and on a
Monday morning he said for himpersonally he always used to say
by the time his slippers landedin his or his feet landed in his
slippers by the side of the bedon a Monday morning, What
happened yesterday was doneemotionally and then it was all
about moving forward in thissort of pragmatic way to learn
(19:50):
what we could do better nexttime. I still remember that all
of the time today. I still amaffected by emotion when things
go wrong for me, but prettyquickly I can define an end
point.
It might be the next morningafter a good night's sleep. It
might be something like brushingmy teeth or whatever. Define a
moment where after that moment Ipark the emotion and we look at
(20:10):
what we can learn and havingthat as a sort of skill in your
locker, I think is hugelyvaluable.
Lali (20:16):
I love that because having the favored living rent free in
your head is not going to allowyou to get quickly to your next
success.
Marc (20:23):
Love it.
Lali (20:24):
Actually pick a point. You can sulk until there. After that
point, you're done. We'removing.
Vincenzo (20:29):
Yeah. We tend to dwell and then it's, and then you
oftentimes paralyze yourself.Right? You, you don't, you don't
move forward. So that'sabsolutely excellent point.
We talked about Kimmy, so onelast it's not really about
Kimmy, but Kimmy was a partyanimal. We all know that.
Legendary, off the track.Today's environment, so let's
(20:51):
switch gears to today a littlebit, and I know you're looking
at it maybe from a differentlens now, but do you think it's
just gotten a little tooprofessional buttoned up tight?
At least I don't see it from theoutside that these guys are
party animals or they're I mean,yeah, they let loose, but
oftentimes, you know, you Yeah,they're on the yacht with their
(21:13):
girlfriend or they're, you know,they're, they're cruising Monaco
in their, their cars, you don'treally see them partying.
And in a world where we're sotied, our phones are everywhere,
right? It's probably easier toget noticed and spotted in film
doing all these things. Youreally, at least I don't don't
seem to see it as much. Do youthink that that's just do you
(21:35):
think it's gone away? Do youthink something's changed?
Have we lost something? Have welost that edge to f one? What
what is it?
Marc (21:42):
It's definitely changed and, you know, I often I often
sort of think back and reflectand say, may have got the sweet
spot in Formula one, right?Because a) it was a period of
time when the sport was awashwith money. So the tobacco
sponsored era where budgets weresort of $400,000,000 a year and
more, and there was more moneythan you could dream up ways of
(22:05):
spending. And a lot of that wenton parties, which was great. But
the other side of that was therewas no such thing as social
media and mobile phones when Ifirst started and you can it
doesn't take a genius to workout how that changes everything
in terms of what you can dopublicly and get away with or,
you know, not be under the samescrutiny and spotlight.
But also the sport has movedinto a more, you know, serious
(22:28):
if you like, business likecorporate world where we've got
blue chip brands sponsoringteams. You're not just
representing your Formula Oneteam, all of the huge brands
that are associated with theteam. You're representing them
when you've got that shirt onand you're at an event. So
that's definitely changed. Buthaving said all of that, I can
tell you for sure that a lot ofthese guys still manage to have
(22:50):
a good party every now andagain.
It hasn't got so bad that theseguys are not just sort of
rushing back to a library tocatch up the latest textbooks of
an evening list. They do manageto have some fun as well.
They're not
Lali (23:04):
robots, thankfully.
Vincenzo (23:05):
Yeah, you talk about how F1's changed social media.
It's a content machine, Now wehave this, it's just
everything's content. I mean,we're making a podcast. You have
a podcast. You have books aboutit.
There's, there's so much morecontent around F1. Forget about
all the content that teamsproduce, brands produce, the
series itself produces. Do youthink that what Netflix, the
(23:31):
whole drive to survive, LibertyMedia purchasing, do you think
that that's helped or hinderedthe authenticity of the sport?
Marc (23:41):
Well, the authenticity, it depends from which perspective
you look at because the theNetflix show, I think, is an
amazing thing. It's obviouslybeen a roaring success in the
level that it's brought in ahuge number of new fans, new
more eyeballs onto the sport,that grows an audience, which
means you grow sponsorshipopportunities and branding and
(24:02):
the whole thing is growing at anastronomical rate. The
authenticity aspect of that, ifyou watch the Netflix show, I
mean, I can tell you, I'm sureyou can figure it out. It's not
all authentic. You know, they'reconstructing a narrative because
it's entertainment and that'sfine because it is an
entertainment show and it'sworking.
The authenticity side of things,I don't think you're gonna get
(24:23):
from Netflix, but you can get itfrom other places. So there are
lots of personalities and peoplefrom within the sport that now
have the freedom to broadcast,you know, their careers and and
parts of their weekend on ontheir own social channels. There
are a lot of the majorbroadcasters that do a very,
very good job of covering theauthentic side of the sport. So
Netflix, I don't think hasnecessarily tweaked the
(24:47):
authenticity piece in favor ofbeing authentic, but it's done
another job, an important job,and it's doing it very, very
well. So I think you can haveboth.
Vincenzo (24:55):
Yeah. Lolly and I grew up in an era where you couldn't
find another Formula One fan.Yeah. You know, in your,
Lali (25:04):
in We were the only ones, weird kids at school. We were
like, hi, if you were like,Lunatics, what are you watching
on television?
Vincenzo (25:11):
So now it's, you see it everywhere. It's almost, you
can't walk into, you know, I'llwalk down the street and I'll
see someone with a Red Bullshirt on or a McLaren shirt and
you're Well, it's great.Actually follow?
Marc (25:24):
And then but and especially in The US. Right? So
in The US, which has always beena really difficult market for
the for Formula one to to crack,Netflix has done a huge part,
has played a huge role in thatas well as bringing the great
races that we have there, thethree events which are all
fantastic events on thecalendar. Liberty Media who've
taken over the commercial rightshave done a wonderful job of
(25:45):
pushing into that zone. And Ican see it from, you know, my
own career in terms of all thecorporate work that I do and
working with companies.
A huge percentage of what I donow is in The States. I spend a
lot of time in The US and itused to be that one out of 10
events I did was in The US. Andwhen I got there, no one really
knew what I was talking about.You know, you're looking at a
(26:06):
face of sort of room full ofblank faces to some extent. It's
the opposite now.
I have I've got people who, youknow, not only know me, but
certainly know a lot about thesport, who are really intrigued
and interested to have me comeand speak to them. From a
personal career perspective,that's been great because I now
have a lot more work coming fromthat side of the world. I think
(26:27):
it's wonderful that the sport isnow pushing into different
markets, and there are stilluntapped markets around this
planet which we're about tostart breaking into. So this
sport is nowhere near done interms of its growth. Yeah.
Vincenzo (26:43):
Three last questions in the in the for you. Just
three. You because I do wannatalk about the consultancy
piece. Well, not really talkabout it, but you went from a
mechanic. You're now this mediapersonality, but you also
consult and you speak.
What was that transition likefor you going from in the garage
to now out there?
Lali (27:03):
Yeah, because you're thinking about it while you were
at the garage, so what'sCertainly your thoughts about
Marc (27:08):
didn't think about it going in this direction
necessarily, but just towardsthe end of my ten years at
McLaren and I said earlier on,we won the world title with
Lewis in my final or a yearbefore I left. That was an
amazing opportunity for me and Idid appreciate it. It made a
difference for my future, whichI always thought there was going
(27:31):
to be a future outside ofFormula One. Wasn't sure what it
would look like, but I wasn'tgoing to stay in Formula One
forever. I'm just the sort ofperson that always needs
reinventing and a new challenge.
That's just part of mycharacter. So there was always
gonna be life after f one.Winning a world title with Lewis
changed the value that I couldoffer to people or even just the
perception of that value. Right?Because now in what I do, being
(27:53):
a Formula one world titlewinning mechanic is just
genuinely better than just beinga Formula One mechanic.
It might not sound that muchdifferent, but the truth is it
does. It gives me an awful lotmore authenticity in this kind
of work that I do because I'velived it, I've done it, I've
been there and I've ticked thebox of being part of a team
that's beaten the rest in theworld, the best in the world.
(28:16):
And that elevates you to acertain level of status just as
it does for a driver who doesthe same kind of thing. It's the
same in my world. It's exactlythe same.
So that was a catapult for mewhere we won that title and I
thought, right, this is it. Thisis the moment. I've got my
springboard. I'm gonna go and dosomething. And it actually
started with the media side ofthings.
It started reporting, first ofall writing on Formula One, then
(28:39):
the BBC here in The UK gave methe opportunity to come and be a
pit lane reporter for the radio.And you know ironically all
these years later I now am backwith the BBC commentating on the
sport for them on the radio forthe same network so that's
really nice. But that media, alittle dip into the media with
the BBC which was just a trialweekend I remember it being
(29:01):
first of all, gave me a littlewindow into this idea. The media
side of the Formula One paddockby the way is completely
different to the pit lane whereI'd spent all of my previous ten
years. So I'd been to theseraces forever, but I just hopped
over the paddock to the otherside and it's like a whole new
world.
So that really was a newadventure for me and I remember
(29:21):
coming home after that Sundaynight, it was the British Grand
Prix, being a pit lane reporterfor the BBC and on the way home
I called my wife and I said I'vejust found my new career! And it
was that kind of clear, know,was that clear that this was
going to be amazing. I had valueto offer because people were you
know, my insight was from theinside of a team as opposed to
(29:42):
from the outside. And I and Ithink the career I've had
started with broadcasting andI'm still doing it, but it's
evolved into this value that Ihave from this internal
perspective, which I appreciateis a privileged position. It's
changed my life for the better,and I'm now on a mission to try
and help it to change otherpeople who don't necessarily
have the same opportunity that Ihad.
Vincenzo (30:06):
We're grateful for that moment of clarity that you
had for sure.
Lali (30:10):
I'm going to wrap it up with two questions that are just
like, first thing that comes toyour head. Of all the tracks
you've ever visited personally,which one do you think offers
the best fan experience?
Marc (30:22):
Oh. Do you know what? I'd say Austin is right up there.
It's one of my favorite racerace events of the year, and I
know it is for for anyone whogoes to visit. And it's partly
because the Americans havereally embraced, this event.
America does an incredible jobof putting on a show anyway and
if you combine that with FormulaOne at a great racetrack that
(30:45):
almost always delivers a reallyinteresting or exciting Grand
Prix, and a city which is justweird and wonderful at all
times, you combine thoseelements and I think it's
wonderful. What Formula One hasdone today under Liberty is
they've done a lot more of this.They bring races to destinations
that make a great weekend evenoutside of the racetrack. So if
(31:09):
you're a fan, you now want totake your family, your kids, you
want to take friends not just towatch the race, but to go and
have an amazing weekend. AndAustin for me is one of the
great places that does that.
Vincenzo (31:20):
If only there was an event that handed out that
award, Lolly.
Lali (31:23):
If only there were. And who is going to win the world
drivers championship? Go.
Marc (31:29):
Oh, nice, easy one. Yeah. Well, okay, two quick answers to
this. One, I think Lando isprobably going to win it. That's
how the form looks right now.
He's also now got the positionin championship race, right?
He's leading albeit by a smallmargin, but he's on form, which
is key. The play and I askedthis on my social media, my my
Instagram the other day, whoseseat would you rather be in
(31:51):
right now? I think I'd like tobe in Max's seat. And the reason
I say that is because, you know,Max has now got a car that can
compete at a lot of weekends.
It didn't work out that waynecessarily in Mexico City. It
didn't didn't suit the track.His car didn't suit the track,
but it will at some of theseupcoming races. So he's got a
good car that's competitive, butit doesn't have the pressure
(32:11):
that the two McLaren guys areunder. They're gonna be fighting
each other.
Those two, neither of them everwon a world championship, yet
they've dreamt of it since theywere kids. It's the one thing
that's been a lifelong goal, andthe only person for them that's
really standing in the way of itis the guy on the other side of
the garage. I talked about thefailures we had in 2007 at
McLaren. There are so manysimilarities in 2025 at McLaren.
(32:35):
Right?
Two drivers, full circle, twodrivers, both going for the
title. Yes. Max could well be athreat, and I think he will be a
threat at some stages, butreally the opposition for each
of those two McLaren drivers istheir teammate. And when you
take a teammate and turn theminto an enemy, well, that's what
happened in 2007. Right?
So that's a real challenge forMcLaren to understand how to
(32:58):
manage that relationship. Sofar, yeah, you know, they seem
relatively friendly. But whenthis gets down to the real
business end and we are talkingabout fine margins determining
whether you're a world championor not, and bear in mind, in
2026, everything changes inFormula one. This opportunity
could be it. This could be yourshot.
So everything's on the line, andit will be the single most
(33:21):
important thing to each of thosetwo drivers. Max is kinda
sitting there with a great biggrin in his face going, I can
get in amongst this and havesome fun here because he doesn't
have the pressure or theexpectations. So what I can say,
it's gonna be a fascinating endto the season. I'm definitely
here for it, and I and I cannotwait to see which way it plays
out.
Vincenzo (33:40):
Mark, thank you for your time today. Awesome stuff.
Your book, Pit Lane Lessons,What F1 Can Teach You About Work
and Life is out today,everywhere, and in The US soon,
but we do have it on Kindle andaudiobook for The United States.
Tell us tell the audience wherethey can connect with you, find
you, how they can work with you.
Marc (34:02):
Yeah. So, so Instagram or LinkedIn are the two places
generally that I operate online.So you can find me, I've
mentioned f1elvis ormarkpriestly. Those are the
Instagram and it's markpriestlyon LinkedIn. But yeah, you can
find me all over.
You'll find me on YouTube aswell. A quick Google find out
what I do. But yeah, thank youguys. I appreciate you having me
(34:24):
on because this book, as I said,it's been a labor of love. This
is my life's work today.
It's trying to help people toget the opportunities that I
know I've been very fortunate tohave through working with
amazing people, an amazing teamat McLaren in an amazing
environment of Formula One. It'schanged my life. I've spent the
last ten years helping to changethe fortunes of some of the
(34:47):
world's biggest companiessuccessfully in many, many
cases. And so I know it's proventhat this model that this book
is full of, all of the lessonsit's full of, can help you if
you want to achieve something,if you want to change something
in your life, this is the bookthat can help you do it. So I'd
love it if you go and buy it,download it and listen to it.
I've also got the audio bookthat I recorded myself. Very
(35:10):
grateful to anyone who goes andgets that, I'd love to know what
you think. So drop me a message.
Vincenzo (35:16):
Thank you much. Is definitely a book that we will
be handing to all of our clientsat Business of Speed for sure. I
mean, it is the perfect, perfectopportunity for people to
understand right from within thegarage and actually we'll
probably just have to bring youon board.
Marc (35:30):
Right. Great.
Lali (35:32):
It's so good. It's so good to see you. So good to chat.
Thank you so much.
Vincenzo (35:35):
Mark, we'll
Lali (35:35):
see you
Vincenzo (35:36):
guys. Thanks. Bye bye.
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