I'm very excited for 2022 to see the new cars out on the track.
Under the new regulations, we have a new driver, George
Russell, alongside Lewis, this is going to be an exciting
partnership. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing that.
From our point of view, this is a very interesting time because
we had the advantage last year of a carryover car, which helped
us financially. And now in 2022, we've had to develop this new
car under cost cap, which in 2022, is $140 million. So from a
financial perspective, there has been a lot of certainty and a
lot of control over the total. But how we've spent the money or
how we will spend the money is the most important thing,
really excited to see the new cars on track, it gives us a
real opportunity to improve our performance and work our way
further up the grid. Got all new technical regulations, we've got
bigger tires, and the whole sort of structure and philosophy of
the cars is going to change. So hopefully it gets more
competitive racing. And yeah, hopefully it can lead to greater
success for us in terms of our on track performance. So the
finance team has had to be fully involved with this process
almost from the outset, because it takes a long time to build a
new car for the new season with these new regulations. It's been
a very costly exercise, as there's been a lot of brand new
components for the car, and everything's from scratch
effectively. So there's no opportunity to reuse any parts
from prior years. So we've been fully involved, we've had to
work on this from a budgeting perspective, a lot of input on
that, to really sort of nail down how we can operate
throughout the year.
I have two dimensions to manage, the normal dimension, shall we
call it the business dimension, but also this regulatory
dimension. And we have to think about things on two basis, we
have to think about making sure we're completely compliant to
the regulations in every way that we're managing to the
limits of the cost cap. But also that we're managing our
business, which are two slightly different things.
The cap has put a ceiling on how much a team can spend. And by
doing that, the intention is to really level the playing field
and increase the competitiveness within the championship. For
that for a team like Haas who previously operated under the
cap, we haven't had to change our business model too much,
we're happy to continue as we are, whereas other teams are
having to make some changes. And for that, I think it's a real
opportunity for us to improve our competitiveness and
hopefully work our way up the grid.
We've transformed our business and in transforming our
business, we've had to bring in like a commercial arm, for
example. We've had to look at tax in a different way. So we've
had to expand the finance environment, to serve the
organisation and to be appropriate. So there's there's
been a lot of growth in capacity. And we've had to put
underlying processes in place to deal with that as well.
I hope my career is a good example that accountants can
work in some very exciting industries. I didn't start off
in a in a Formula 1 team, I started in an accountancy
practice in a small practice when I left school, and I think
that, yeah, things have evolved. And as I've learned and gain new
experiences from every opportunity that I've gone
through, it led me to here. And I get to be part of an
organisation in an industry that I really enjoy and am very
passionate about.
So I got into Formula 1 in 2018. But I joined Mercedes back in
2002. And I pursued my finance career within Mercedes in the UK
for the national sales company, in various brands in an
operational role, and then moved to the Middle East for a period
as the CFO there. And that gave me a lot of knowledge about the
OEM, the manufacturer and the organisation. And then in 2018,
the opportunity came to join the Formula 1 team,
the advice I'd give to anyone who wants to get into an
industry they're passionate about is to really not be
disheartened if it doesn't happen straight away. I think
keep going. Learn gain every sort of valuable experience you
can, whether that be audit, financial reporting taxes, and
FPNA. All of those skills are very transferable. So if you're
able to keep developing, keep learning. When the time is
right, I'm sure you'll be able to transfer into an industry you
enjoy. Coolest thing I've seen whilst working at Haas, I have
to say is I went to the test the tyre tests that happened in
Silverstone in July and got to see Mick Schumacher run in his
father's first Formula 1 car it was the Jordan in the 7up livery
I think it was just quite a cool moment to be that close to able
to just watch it as a fan. You know, it's just been very
interesting. Other than that, on a day to day basis, we can have
pitstop practice happening downstairs. So in amongst
journals and taxes and things like that you can always pop
down and watch the pit stops, which is a really cool thing to
do.
The coolest thing that's happened with me and the team is
very easy thing to decide on. That is the Bahrain podium first
race 2021 where we won the race and I was asked to had the
honour and the privilege of representing the team on the
podium when Lewis had won the race. This was pretty cool.
getting soaked in Champagne, it was an experience on live TV in
front of all the fans and on behalf of our team, my proudest
moment, and I think it was pretty cool