Leadership on the starting grid

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How a focus on strategic leadership is helping this Formula 1 team’s title hopes

When Alpine F1 Team driver, Esteban Ocon, notched up his maiden victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix last year, it was a major milestone for a team that had last graced the podium in 2013, under the Lotus brand.

At the time, the media focused on Ocon’s brilliant driving, and support by a team-mate, Fernando Alonso, who held off Lewis Hamilton to enable his colleague to take the chequered flag.

However behind the headlines, is an organisation that has undergone a significant transformation, with a new CEO, changes in the management team and new structures. Against this backdrop, the UK arm of Alpine agreed that strengthening the leadership capabilities of its senior managers was a priority.

A long heritage

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There have been Formula 1 teams based at Enstone, in rural Oxfordshire existing under various guises since the 1980s, including Benetton and Lotus. The team has enjoyed considerable success - such as two Driver and Constructors’ world titles in 2005 and 2006, Kimi Raikkonen’s 2013 win in Australia and winning the 1995 Championship.

In 2016, it was bought by the Renault group to become world championship contenders. Competing first as Renault F1 Team, it was relaunched in 2021 under a revived Alpine brand.

The Enstone team is responsible for the chassis side of the organisation, while the engine side of the team is based in Viry-Chatillon, near Paris.  

A period of growth

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Since Renault took the reins, it has ploughed significant investment into the buildings and infrastructure at Enstone. This has included the engineering office looking after chassis design element of the F1 cars, the operations room which ensures communications between the different parts of Alpine on race weekends, and a state of the art wind tunnel enabling the design, development and aerodynamic understanding of an F1 car.

At the same time, the business has expanded the team from 450 in 2016, to over 800 people by 2022. Various individuals within the business have also been promoted to senior management positions.

As a result, it was felt that there was a requirement for stronger strategic leadership skills within the organisation.

We felt that there was a need for a proper understanding of how to lead people - not just from a fundamental base level.

Alastair Pemberton

Head of Talent, Alpine F1 Team

Cross-functional skills building

'We felt that there was a need for a proper understanding of how to lead people - not just from a fundamental base level, such as how to do an appraisal,' explains Alastair Pemberton, Head of Talent at the Alpine F1 Team. 'We wanted our middle and senior managers to have more skills at a strategic level, such as how to lead complexity and change. These are all areas we are living and breathing every day.'

In 2021, the team sent 24 staff to Oxford Saïd’s Executive Leadership Programme, while two more attended Oxford’s Strategic Innovation Programme.

'We deliberately chose a cross-section of people from different functions,' says Alastair. 'They were identified as being suitable for further development and to support our succession plan.' The intent was to harness that group afterwards to work on specific projects across the business to enhance our leadership capability.'

'We also saw this as a retention tool: to show our people that we were investing in them and that they have significant potential. Saying that we were sending them to one of the top business schools in the world helped.'

With the world in the throes of Covid-19, the fact that the programme was entirely online was also a huge advantage.

'There’s a massive appeal in being able to do it in your own time,' says Alastair. 'Everyone in our team is extraordinarily busy. Being able to log onto this at any time, in any country, allowing them to be involved in a course that kept them ‘safe’ in times of uncertainty.'

Healthy challenge

An immediate impact of the programme is a re-evaluation of how company values are put into practice.

'Every team has a goal of being world champion,' says Alastair. 'Where Formula 1 tends to fall into a trap is spelling out how?’

Nearly every person who came out of the Oxford programme asked the same question: what’s our vision? As a result, we have been working with the group to look at how our vision translates into how we work with and treat our people.

We’ve now got a group of people who are challenging our technical directors and our senior managers. This has been extraordinarily healthy for the business.'

Their experience of the programme has also shone a light on organisational development.

'Whilst other management courses focus on how to manage individuals, this looked at how to bring a team together, look at a company as a whole and collaborate with others,' continues Alastair. 'That a head of an engineering function is now talking to me about improving competencies, is a huge win.'

The programme has and continues to have a positive impact on my day-to-day work life. I have used it in many situations, from understanding motivators to decision-making and de-biasing.

Chris Richards

Head of Engineering Quality, Alpine F1 Team

Individual impact

Participants who went on the programme report that it has been hugely beneficial for both their own and their team’s development.

Asked how he is using the programmes in his work, Jorge Belenguer, Software Engineering Manager, replied: 'One of the most prominent examples has been the definition of the culture of the team I lead. This allowed us to share a common vision based on our experience as a group. It was great to learn the tools to define the guiding philosophy and the core values properly.'

Peter Marshall, Head of Composite Design, agrees. 'As a relatively young leader, the programme has increased my capacity for understanding the frame that my followers work in, and how best to extract performance as a group by communicating in a fashion that is suited to how they view our business and their part in it.'

'The programme has and continues to have a positive impact on my day-to-day work life,' concludes Chris Richards, Head of Engineering Quality. 'I have used it in many situations, from understanding motivators to decision-making and de-biasing.'

A long-term investment

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'This pool of people is now significantly engaged in the team, probably more than they were before. They feel valued,' concludes Alastair. 

'People are more inclined to have conversations on how to make things better from a company perspective. Even in busy periods - for instance, when we’ve been building a new car - they have been making time to engage with shaping our values and they see the importance of getting this right.'

'This is just the start of our leadership development journey at Alpine F1, and the Oxford programme has been a fantastic foundation for both the individuals and the whole organisation.'

Prepare for an ever-changing and uncertain future

Find out more about the programmes Alpine F1 has sent participants on:

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