Racing CEOs make car companies better – Thank Frankel it’s Friday

Technically they are correct. But I don’t think someone committed to a risk-free private life would make a very good CEO of a car company. Nobody ever got anywhere without taking a risk and if you’re not prepared to take one yourself, you’re unlikely to do so on behalf of your 190,000 employees around the world.

I’ve not met Farley but one look at his Twitter page makes you warm to him. The picture is not him standing proudly by a Ford logo, but crouching proudly by the GT40. And his bio says ‘Mustang and racing fan’ first, and only thereafter ‘CEO @Ford’. A man with his priorities in the right order methinks.

Actually it doesn’t matter in practical terms whether a CEO races or not because there’s nothing he or she is likely to learn from their hobby that will help them in their daily working lives. However a CEO who chooses to race is also likely to be one who is passionate about cars and driving, and that is absolutely critical because it is that passion that finds its way into the product. Otherwise we’d all be driving around in automotive blobs as efficient as they are soulless.

So let’s celebrate car chiefs who get their overall on and get out there. Let’s remember that Enzo Ferrari won the Coppa Acerbo and did the Targa Florio five times between 1919-23, coming second on his second attempt. Let’s remember the man who brought his Bentley home in fourth place in the 1922 Tourist Trophy and who was named the ‘speediest’ of the three Bentley drivers. His name was W.O. Bentley and insurance concerns meant it would be his only ever outing as a works driver in one of his own cars.

Aston Martin founder Lionel Martin raced extensively, as did AC ‘Bert’ Bertelli who did Le Mans four times and won his class for Aston Martin and came fifth overall in 1931. And then there’s Colin Chapman. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you can actually see him racing in the Jack Brabham Trophy Race at Brands Hatch in 1971. It was a race for team managers, all armed with Ford Escport Mexicos and it turned into sufficiently massive battle between Chapman and only recently retired triple World Champion Brabham to be named as one of the BBC’s 100 greatest sporting moments. Chapman finally got past despite some driving by Black Jack worthy of a modern BTCC competitor and was streaking away into distance when his engine blew yards before the flag.

Company execs in the racing game these days include not just Farley but Andy Palmer recently departed from Aston Martin and with whom I shared a GT4 Vantage in the 2015 Silverstone 24 Hours and McLaren’s Mike Flewitt who has a Lotus Six, Elite and Elan and races them all with considerable vigour.

And who’s place is it to say that they should not? Racing improves the breed and it applies not just to the cars, but those responsible for their creation. Personally if I were the on the board of a sports or supercar company and was presented with two candidates to be my new CEO, similar on paper but one with a passion for racing and other a good head for numbers, I’d hire the racer every day of the week. Accountants are easy to find, company bosses happy to practice what they preach rather less so.

Jim Farley photo by Chris Ison, Enzo Ferrari image courtesy of Motorsport Images.