#395 How Geniuses and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport

Founders

David Senra

Steve Jobs, Founders, James Dyson, Company Builders, Technology, Henry Ford, Elon Musk, Business Professional Biography, How I Built This, The History Of Entrepreneurship, Jim Clark, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurs, History, Founder, Business Autobiography, Jeff Bezos, Entrepreneur, Biography, Biographies Of Entrepreneurs, Biographies, Business, Business Biography

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Those on the margins often come to control the center. That maxim ties together the three remarkable people profiled in this episode: Colin Chapman, known as “the mad scientist of F1”, did more to influence F1 design than any other person in history. Bernie Ecclestone, known as “Supremo”, Bernie transformed Formula One from a disorganized, rag-tag, chaotic collection of racing teams, into the world’s premier motor racing series. He built the business of F1— and made billions for himself along the way. Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull, bought two Formula One teams and insisted on becoming the sport’s foremost disruptor. Determined to question every standard way of operating, Mateschitz’s unlimited ambition transformed his team of outsiders and mavericks into a dominant force, all while building one of the world’s most valuable private companies. All three were outsiders. All three thrived on taking risks. All three insisted on doing things their way. This episode is what I learned from reading The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport by Joshua Robinson and and Johnathan Clegg. ------ ⁠⁠Ramp⁠⁠ gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud ⁠⁠by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save time and money.⁠⁠ ----- Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta. Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort. ⁠⁠Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta⁠⁠. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off. ----- Join my free email newsletter to⁠⁠ get my top 10 highlights from every book⁠⁠ ----

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dietrich Matches the founder of Red Bull is one of my favorite founders I've ever read about. In fact, it's one of my favorite founder episodes. The first episode I made about it was one of my favorite founder episodes I've ever made. And he lived a truly singular life. And if you listen to the first episode I made about him, he spent his entire career working with the very best people that he can. Dietrich knew just like Steve Jobs knew, just like Jeff Bezos knew, that you always bet on talent.
0:21.6	In fact, one of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes is when he said a small team of A players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.
0:30.2	Jeff Bezos set the tone from his very first shareholder letter on the same exact idea, and he said that setting the bar high in our hiring has been and will continue to be the
0:39.1	single most important element of Amazon's success. You must build a team that pursues the
0:46.3	eight players. That's exactly what Dietrich Mesh just did. It's exactly what Ramp has done.
0:51.4	Ramp is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, and Ramp has the most
0:54.9	talented technical team in their industry. Becoming an engineer Ramp, it's nearly impossible.
0:59.7	In last 12 months, Ramp hired only 0.23% of the people that applied. This means when you use Ramp,
1:06.7	you now have top-tier technical talent and some of the best AI engineers working on your behalf 24-7 to automate and improve all of your business's financial operations.
1:16.8	And they do this on a single platform.
1:20.2	Many of the fastest growing and most innovative companies in the world are running their business on ramp.
1:25.7	Notion is an example of that.
1:27.3	And the CFO of Notion said this. People ask how we're using AI and finance, and I have a simple answer for them. We use RAMP. I run my business on RAMP and to do most of the other top founders and CEOs that I know. I hear from people that listen to this podcast every day that have switched to RAMP and rave about the quality of the product. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp.com to learn how they can help your business today. That is ramp.com. There's another tool and technology that I'm going to tell you about, and Ramp actually uses this tool as well. It is Vanta. I just told you how Ramp has the best technical talent in their industry and how
2:01.1	becoming an engineer at Ramp is nearly impossible, knowing that the team at Ramp trusts Vanta
2:05.9	was a huge positive signal. And when I talked to Vantas founder, Christina, it became obvious why
2:11.3	Ramp uses Vanta. Vanta helps your company prove that you are secure so more customers will use
2:17.3	your product or service.
2:18.6	You can think of it as an intelligent security assistant that helps your company pass
2:22.6	audits without tons of manual work. This is important because, number one, customers need to trust
2:27.7	you. If your company handles sensitive data, customers want to know it's safe. The certifications
2:32.7	that Vanta helps you get prove that you take security seriously.
2:36.4	Number two, Vanta helps you win deals and close contracts.
	...

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