At the F One racing in Abu Dhabi 2012 the toast of the
show was Kimi Raikkonen, not just for his on-track
performance and his win, but for his radio transmissions
back to the team, and not just because it was great
entertainment and classic Kimi.
Remember he said quote, "Just leave me alone.
I know what I'm doing." And "Yes, yes, yes.
I'm doing all the tires.
You don't have to remind me every second."
No Kimi was awesome because those Kimi
words had greater meaning.
Actually, life-lessons meaning about managing your talent and
leadership.
And I'm going to translate it all for you
today on "Shake Down".
Hey, who knew?
In addition to English and a bit of Italian and three years
of failed high school French, I also speak Kimi.
So come back and I'll tell you what I want you to learn from
the words of Kimi Raikkonen.
Oh my god, life lessons from Kimi Raikkonen?
Who the fuck am I?
Oprah?
[CAR ENGINES]
Kimi Raikkonen kicked butt in Abu Dhabi.
He managed the race, the complexity of the Lotus F One
car managing the cur settings, break ballance, car balance,
differential controls, and most importantly tire
management through the stims.
Are when it really counted, those safety car restarts,
getting the tires up to temperature and
working right away.
And he held back Alonso at the end--
Alonso a master of the tire game too.
Kimi's bite backs to the Lotus race engineer were the
features of the race broadcast, post-race media,
and internet chatter.
And some of the press wrote about Kimi as the arc angel
against robot drivers.
Others comment about Kimi just being a pure athlete versus
all the data management of science pushed on a sportsman
in every sport.
F One two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen sided with
Kimi's actions saying focus versus distraction justified
the radio bark bites.
Mika quotes, "It happened many times me too.
The team constantly repeats the same thing.
And F One goes so fast that your concentration has to be
100%, otherwise you lose control of the car."
Mika continued, quote, "At some point it starts to bug
you when they yap about the same thing all the time.
Mika also said, and I understand this, when victory
is close the team has enormous pressure.
The team wants to ensure the driver
understands the messages.
But to me Kimi Raikkonen going off on the radio was neither
about focus, nor going all Spartacus versus robotics, or
a rage against the machines and technology.
No, to me --and here comes my lesson of the day--
Kimi Raikkonen was making a statement about number one,
respect for talent.
Those around great talent trusting the abilities of the
quality talent that they picked for the job.
And second--
Kimi was fighting back the oh too common flaw of
organizations and leaders --bad
organizations and leaders--
over managing the workers.
Let me repeat the Leo lesson.
Respect talent and let them do their jobs by not over
managing and controlling everything.
It's a racing lesson.
It's a life lesson.
It's a Kimi lesson.
Does Kimi deserved to be treated as elite talent?
Well Kimi was the original fedl--
young guy rising quickly to F One.
But Kimi even more so.
He raised only a small bit before his F One debut, only
23 races in really lower level cars like Formula Ford and
Formula Reno.
He won over half the races he entered and stepped right up
to F One with Red Bull Sauber in 2001.
But by 2002 he was a McLaren F One guy.
In 2003 and 2005 he fought for the championship, and really
against McLaren reliability that may have cost him the top
spot each of those years.
In 2007 he became a Ferrari guy, and got the job done to
become F One world champion.
At the end of the day in racing no matter what
percentages is assigned to a technology and the Adrian
Neweys that make cars go fast, the team still has to hand it
to the driver --the racer--
to make it perform.
And the racer as such is the focal point, the leader of the
process of racing the car.
And the racer needs to inspire the team, the crew, the boys
back in the shop as Louis Hamilton always says to be
confident and to have faith in their driver.
So the driver needs to be hyper-confident, an ego some
may call it.
Now in American football the quarterback is the guy that
runs the offense.
He enters the huddle before each play cool to the pressure
and expressing his confidence that we can get this done if
you stick with me.
And the players follow because they know they
can trust their leader.
A coach or a boss that over manages undermines the talent,
intended or not creates confusion, crisis, lost
motivation, and takes the talent out of
the performance equation.
So Kimi Raikkonen to me was telling his team, hey, leave
me alone because I got this.
I have the talent, knowledge, and experience.
And you don't need to remind me every second.
Don't ever manage.
I know what I'm doing.
And he did.
So here at Drive I do the motor sports.
I have a few years of experience in the sport.
And I've been accused of being a bit of an ego myself, too
confident if you will.
But I was a racer.
I'm a business guy that's got to sell to C level execs and
motivate teams to get [BLEEP]
done.
Well here at drive, my message to you is simple.
Drive may have Harris testing the delta wing, track side may
shoot car prime, somebody someday may interview an F One
team manager or a driver without me and please enjoy,
but know this--
I'm pretty comfortable in my motor sport presentation of
the facts, their accuracy, and the experience
I share with you.
Too arrogant?
I don't care, because to quote Kimi, "I know what I'm doing.
[GUITAR MUSIC]