DAVID COULTHARD MBE: MOTIVATION, THE METAVERSE, AND MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Despite a stellar Formula 1 career, David Coulthard MBE tells Tabler that his business ventures – which span events, television and recently the metaverse – have been his real life challenge

David Marshall Coulthard MBE (born 27 March 1971) is a British former racing driver from Scotland (competing 1994-2008). His first season at Williams saw him succeeding the late Ayrton Senna. In his 15 seasons of Formula 1 he took 13 Grand Prix victories and 62 podium finishes. He was runner-up in the 2001 championship, driving for McLaren.

Coulthard later turned presenter, commentator, journalist and businessman. He co-founded television production company Whisper TV as well as Velocity Experience in 2017 with Guy Horner: a motorsportsfocused events agency that delivers live event productions for the likes of Formula 1, W Series, Extreme E amongst other motorsport brands. In 2019, he was elected president of the British Racing Drivers' Club (owner of Silverstone Circuit).

Was forging a career in business part of your plan early on?

I knew at 14 I’d be a Formula 1 driver, and that after that I’d work in television, and I knew that because my dad told me so. I was watching the BBC greats from an early age talking Formula 1: James Hunt, Murray Walker, for example. My father, who was a Scottish karting champion, was always looking ahead, and told me that I should move to Monaco when I get out of F1 as I’d only have a ten-year career as a driver.

How did you get into the world of events and television?

I knew that television could be done better, and my broadcasting company Whisper was born out of that desire. Meanwhile, I’d been going to events all my life. Some were good, some were average, and I was motivated to do things better, with a motorsport focus in mind – which is how Velocity was born. Initially I was looking to handle events as a division of Whisper, but I realised we were television people, not events and that wouldn’t be a good route.

I knew (Velocity Experience’s parent company) TBA Group director Guy Horner through his brother ex-driver Christian Horner OBE. So I knew of TBA’s work in events and we decided to partner and focus on motorsports and start Velocity.

TV and motorsport were the world that I lived in throughout my life. I did some filming recently and it was everything I hate about the process: too many faffers, inefficient and costly for the client. It reminded me of my approach to not just improving television, but business.

At Velocity we’re like an F1 team, but for events. Our client services director Camilla Hessey has an F1 background, with over 15 years’ experience in global activation programme management for organisations including Williams F1 and Red Bull. We’re all hands on deck at all times. No one says “it’s not my role”, it’s all of our role to deliver to the client.

As I know from my family business’ background running a 107-year-old transport company, the business kept growing because we focused on the client first. In the end, delivery is about understanding client needs and demands, nothing is off the radar. It’s about time and focus.

Keeping up with innovation is also vital, but at the same time, at Velocity, we’re bringing experiences with real value and resonance. It's about working with the right people, and a perfect example of this is TBA Group’s recent partnership with Virtual Brand Group (VBG) to offer our clients the opportunity to extend their experience beyond the physical and into the metaverse. It’s about broadening the options for fan zone experiences and it’s going to be fascinating to see Velocity’s brand experiences with VBG in the future, thanks to this incredible partnership.

Your father was a big influence on you, how do you motivate others?

I recently did a talk in Berlin for an investment firm, and mentioned how sport teaches us the continual pursuit of marginal gains. But ultimately people can quote as many cliches as they like, but you also have to get on and actually do it.

It’s about being useful. In my Whisper role in Montreal, as well as my management duties, I'll happily put the kettle on and make tea for everyone. While they’re busy creating things using video and design software, I realise I can’t do those aspects.

I’ve come to realise, in business, you can have a group of intelligent individuals, but that’s not a team. You need people who will be able to get on with a job in hand and support each other.

I was at McLaren for nine seasons. The car wasn’t as competitive, which meant I had to dig deep, and my teammates did too, but I just cannot take it overly seriously today. It was only sport, but I was being paid millions to do it. Today I find business much more rewarding. F1 was the most important thing in my life, it had my full focus and no matter what team you have, you have to overcome things yourself. You have psychologists around you, but it all stops with the individual when it comes to the role of actually driving the car itself.

Do you pass these lessons on to your son?

It’s about work ethic, I tell my son – who is involved in karting – we can’t drive the car for you. How you deal with disappointment, and position the kart is up to him. He still needs to go out and do it.

You either have the commitment or you don’t, and that’s regardless of the era you’re in. You can always train harder, that’s just the reality.

There are certain realities to any role, whether in sport of business. The Formula 1 season runs from March until September, so anyone looking to work in this industry must be prepared to commit their time during this period, just like a professional Olympian must focus intently around and during the period of their competition.

Round Table is deeply involved in charitable pursuits, as you know. Tell us about your third sector work?

I’m an ambassador for Wings For Life: a spinal research foundation. My opportunity came from the founder of Williams, quadriplegic Frank Williams. I spent a lot of time with him seeing first-hand the amount of resources it took to support his life, but fortunately he had the financial capability to afford this.

I can now announce a new initiative, >= More Than Equal, which is run by myself and Czech philanthropist Karel Komarek. We’re creating a platform to encourage girls around the ages of six, seven and eight years old to get into F1 and develop the key skills for success so by the time they reach their teenage years, they have the talent to go far. We hope to encourage, more young girls who will go on to become women in racing. It’s about skill though, and you must be more talented than Lewis or Max, but there must be equal opportunity.

We have a number of key people in everything from fitness, driver coaching, and psychology to sponsorship and talent spotters and we’re purely not for profit. My drive in all this is that boys don’t need any more help in motor racing. My sister, Lynsay, who passed away, had the talent at a young age and missed the opportunity because of me. I say ‘because of me’ because back then the whole family was focused on me because I was signed by Jackie Stewart and became the Williams test driver and it meant our family was always focussed on my success instead of supporting her, and I’ve always regretted that. This initiative devotes my time, money and effort to try and put a smile on the face of people like my sister in future.

The more women we have as professionals in motorsport, the better. Look at the results of

[all-female single-seater racing championship] W Series so far. We have Naomi Schiff working in broadcasting as a direct result of W, and Alice Power working with Channel 4. Elsewhere Jess Hopkins is an ambassador for Aston Martin.

Velocity has been working with W Series down the years too, delivering the new touring structure for its hospitality for guests, drivers and their teams.

It’s been great supporting women in F1, and we certainly put our money where our mouth is, but there have been critics.

Michael Masi didn’t support W and said it was ‘discrimination’. I said: “You continue to do what you do and, like the boys, if they are not good enough, they won’t get chosen.”

Are there any bugbears in F1 that you’d like to see change?

F1 inevitably lays down technical regulations, which through creative energy or good luck some will exploit better than others. It’s now Mercedes, and before that McLaren, before that Williams. Motor racing has taught me that you can be successful in any industry if you have the right group of people.

F1 is trying to engage differently nowadays. The ‘Netflix effect’ has helped. When Liberty took over, they looked to drive down the age of the average fan, and looked at how to bring the teams together to be more sustainable and cost effective. The Concorde Agreement [which dictates the terms by which the teams compete in races] distributed finances better, bringing in a cost cap not available in the past. It made the paddock a lot more accessible and improved fan engagement.

F1 must remain the fastest form of close circuit racing. The public want the best. People want good and close racing, but don’t want to see domination. We need a meritocracy, but it needs to be accessible.

What I would change, however, is tyre manufacturer domination. We have chassis competition, fuel competition, driver competition and yet we have a single tyre manufacturer. I admire Pirelli, but it takes away one element of variability. They can already write the press release about winning the tyre crown today.

When I was in the business you had circuits that suit Bridgestone, Michelin etc, but right now we can predict a lot because the basics of the competition is decided, but tyre competition would change that. It would increase costs for tyre manufacturers, but that would push innovation and with limited testing you wouldn’t drive up the competition for teams.

For the much-anticipated Formula 1 British Grand Prix, the Velocity Experience team delivered a huge variety of fan, guest and sponsor experiences at Silverstone Circuits Ltd.

The agency created a multi-purpose hospitality experience on the front lawn of the Aston Martin F1 Team factory, and hosted seven different events across three days connecting fans, sponsors, partners and drivers.

For MATCH Hospitality AG and The BRDC, Velocity curated each of the hospitality spaces with a full entertainment programme containing a mix of driver appearances, interviews and music. Each of the programmes was designed to provide guests with the ultimate on-track experience.

Over in the Support Paddock, partners, guests, teams, and drivers immersed themselves in the world of W Series.

Alongside Velocity’s European WHQ, the agency had a full hospitality offering where guests could relax in front of the big screen, take a photo in front of the podium with championship trophy, or jump on the simulators and set their fastest lap of Silverstone Circuit.

The atmosphere at Silverstone was unbeatable and what a race to end a fantastic weekend!