Challenges are the topic for the sixth and final episode of “Box Box Box,” Pirelli’s vodcast all about the world of Formula 1

Every moment in Formula 1 is a challenge. If one wants to make a difference in this sport one has to excel. The challenge is not just in winning, but in providing others with the wherewithal to do their job, or in managing some aspect of a Grand Prix in the best possible way. Of course, the most appealing challenge is going for the win and giving us his personal take on this in the sixth and final episode of “Box Box Box” is Valtteri Bottas who, this coming weekend could be about to bid farewell to the sport he has loved the most since he was a child.

Apart from Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’s Finnish driver, Tom Clarkson also talks about challenges and many other topics besides with Rebecca Lee, the first woman to be the official starter for the Grands Prix and Günther Steiner who took on the challenge of building up a Formula 1 team from scratch and running it for almost a decade, without major support from a car manufacturer.

In his 12 years in Formula 1, Bottas has experienced the highs and lows, racing for privateer teams such as Williams and Sauber with plenty of success in between, including ten wins, 20 pole positions and 67 podium finishes, as well as contributing to five Constructors’ titles with Mercedes. He is well aware of the biggest challenge every team member faces: “if everyone give 98% and we are talking of hundreds of people, it is not enough. You have to give 100% every day. I saw that in my previous team, when we were almost totally dominant, the hunger and the mentality was something different. It’s a very strong thing, because in the end, this sport is about human performance. It’s the people who design the cars, build them and prepare them, so it’s about getting the most out of the people.”
Valtteri is well aware that the role of a driver is also important outside the cockpit when it comes to motivating the team. “I try and keep my spirits up as much as possible. So my job is to make sure people are motivated and that starts with me being motivated and giving my all every time I’m in the car.”

Rebecca Lee’s challenge is a vital one: ensuring that the start of a Grand Prix goes off without a hitch. After a sequence of checks carried out with the track marshals, it’s time for the key moment when she turns on and switches off the start lights. “I look at the marshals, I look at the cars and of course at my electronic system. I see the man at the back of the grid with the green flag. I press the start button and those five famous red lights come on for the five second countdown and then, when I deem it the right time, I start the race. It’s a completely manual procedure. I am the one who decides when to turn off the lights. Before doing so, I obviously have to make sure the grid is completely clear and that there are no dangers or risks. I make sure everything is in order and then we start.” Rebecca has also had to deal with another challenge, that of making her mark in the still male dominated world of Formula 1, although she seems to have taken it in her stride. “I feel the environment in the paddock is very diverse. I feel quite lucky. Of course it is predominantly a male environment, but I never have to fight because of that, on the contrary I believe a job is obtained on merit. I have always had support when I have asked for it. If a woman or anyone else wants a job in the paddock, they can get it by working hard.”

Günther Steiner has run his career at a thousand miles an hour, taking in rallying, NASCAR and Formula 1, becoming one of the most popular and best known characters in the sport, partly down to his extremely engaging and exuberant personality. Currently he is taking a break, touring the world talking about his motorsport life, in particular his time with Haas, the team he led up until January. It was his idea to establish an American team, back at the start of the last decade, when coming into Formula 1 seemed destined for failure, as illustrated by the struggle of newly created teams such as Virgin, Caterham and HRT, as well as more established operations such as Sauber and Jordan. “I said to myself, I’m certainly not smarter than them, I don’t have more money than them. Why should I be successful when all these people are struggling? At the time, they hadn’t failed yet, but they were struggling. So I thought we have to think differently. And that’s how the idea of working closely with Ferrari was born.” That led to working with Dallara, the creation of an operational facility in England and then of course a headquarters in America. The jigsaw puzzle worked well and, at a most difficult moment for the sport, even delivered a slight operational advantage. “When Covid arrived, everyone was worried, ‘we are doing meetings on Zoom or Teams, it won’t work,’ but we had already been doing that for four or five years, because that was how we were organised.”
With almost 40 years in motorsport under his belt, the lessons learned are clear: “never stop learning and taking the next step. You must never stand still and be complacent and say “this is how we did it five years ago,’ because in no time at all you will be out of the sport as it moves so quickly. You must always try something new. That’s my goal, to always try. It’s not always easy because it moves so fast and of course at a certain point, you find a comfort zone and you say to yourself it’s quite cosy, so we try and stop everything around us. You cannot do that, you have to follow what’s happening.”

“Box Box Box” runs over six episodes, each one on a specific topic (Speed, Education, Dedication, Time, Adrenaline, Challenge) hosted by Tom Clarkson one of the best known journalists and presenters, who has worked in Formula 1 for almost 30 years, featuring key players in the sport. The five previous episodes featured Max Verstappen, Nikolas Tombazis, Andrea Stella, Bruno Michel, Oliver Bearman, Ian Holmes, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, Mario Isola, Charles Leclerc, Stefano Domenicali, Michael Schmidt, Alex Albon, Christian Horner, Laurent Mekies and Nico Hulkenberg and can be found on YouTube and on Spotify.