Insights & Articles
Reflections on leadership, innovation, and high-performance teams from 30+ years in elite motorsport. From Formula 1 and Formula E strategy to autonomous vehicles and the future of mobility — exploring how racing principles translate to business excellence.
-
Navigating Speed, Strategy & Innovation in Motorsport and Beyond
Mark Preston shares his extensive career in motorsport and mobility innovation, detailing his engineering roles at Arrows and McLaren, founding Super Aguri F1, and successes in Formula E. He discusses leadership, strategic clarity, and the application of AI in autonomous vehicles, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and high-performance teams. Continue reading →
-
Why is the Foxconn announcement so interesting?
Like many young engineers, I wanted to build my own road car. I began to plan out how much it would cost, where I would buy parts, what would I use as a donor vehicle, how would I manufacture the bodywork and especially and most importantly: what engine would I use?! I didn’t just want…
-
Race to the future
A year from now, climate negotiators representing countries worldwide will be in Paris. They hope to finalise international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change. Success will depend heavily on economic policy, and the new technologies to usher in a carbon light world. “Unlike treaties of the past, the Paris agreement needs…
-
Betting on Electric
I have re-posted my Blog article from Huffington Post here to add a few more comments after speaking at a few more events recently. I was very interested in how many students at Oxford and Cambridge were interested in our vision for the future, what did we think would happen next, how will it effect…
-
Oxford Consortium Wins TSB Integrated Transportation Call
Technology Strategy Board: Integrated Transport – In Field Solutions Project: Oxford Transport Laboratory Benefiting people and business The benefits of creating smarter, connected cities are clear – increased economic growth and better visitor experience whilst reducing environmental impact. Funded by the Technology Strategy Board, Oxford is embarking on an ambitious project to improve the experience…
-
Super Aguri Formula E Tokyo Launch
It is good to be back in the forefront of motorsports with the Super Aguri team again. We are very much looking forward to the challenges that Formula E is going to throw at us. Being at the forefront of motorsports technology and developing the technology of the future is exciting. We believe that there…
-
Formula E – Car Launch
Momentum is everything in motor racing and the unveiling of the new Formula E race car at the Frankfurt Motor Show shows this exciting series is beginning to gather some serious pace. By all reports electric vehicles (EVs) have been all the rage at the event further indicating the motor industry’s preference to develop eco-friendly…
-
“Designing a new BEV: all I can predict is that I will be wrong!”
I was talking to a Programme Manager for a future battery electric vehicle (BEV) and the only thing she knew for certain was whatever she designed would be wrong! It’s difficult predicting the future and it seems that predicting the right way to go in the electrification of vehicles is an art not a science. “If…
-
Formtech E1 – Lightweight Concepts for Future EV’s – Future Car Body 2012 Bad Neuheim
I presented Formtech’s lightweight concept at the recent Future Car Body last week in Bad Neuheim in Germany. An interesting event looking at lightweight concepts of the future. The presentation looked at concepts that were developed during the creation of the Formtech E1 EV research concept vehicle. We approached the development from the ground up…
-
Formtech launches the E1 research concept EV
Formtech created a vision of EV when they launched the E1 atFrankfurt’s IAA Motorshow in September. The research study provides the base for a number of concepts in lightweighting technology using composites, high-end materials and machining. Formtech’s EV started out as a concept for the companies CEO Franz Hilmer, “I wanted to develop a car…
-
Megacities and EV’s
I recently looked into what it would take to own a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt/Ampera in a city. I live in the centre of Oxford in the UK and have a membership of a car sharing organisation (Commonwheels) which has a number of cars just nearby. I have done a lot of research into…
-
Randomness and Excitement – Part II
As a follow on to my blog last year where I discussed how randomness drives excitement in F1, the first few races of 2011 certainly provided some interesting racing with KERs, DRS and Pirelli providing a set of variables that the teams have not yet completely mastered. However as I was watching the German GP recently I…
-
Visit to Autodromo do Algarve
I had a visit to the Autodromo do Algarve, Portugal, in between Christmas and New Year to say hello to Paulo Pinheiro and the team and see what new things the circuit has introduced since I was here for the A1GP race earlier in 2010. Although I have know the team at the Autodromo since…