Book review: Total Competition – Lessons in Strategy from Formula One by Ross Brawn and Adam Parr
Positives
Negatives
I was reading Ross Brawn’s recent comments on the ambitions for the new 2021 regulations. Recent F1 fans may not remember Ross Brawn but he is best known as the world champion winning principal of his own team, Brawn GP and before that technical director at Ferrari during the Schumacher glory years of 2000-2004 and similarly before that as the technical brains behind the Benetton-Schumacher world championships in 1994-95. In 2016, Adam Parr (former CEO of WilliamsF1) in collaboration with Ross Brawn released a book ‘Total Competition – Lessons in strategies from Formula One” which makes interesting reading now given Ross is now with the FIA, Liberty Media own F1 instead of Bernie Eccelstone, Mercedes have since chalked up 5 world championships and Red Bull are now have a work engine deal. These more recent developments take on more interesting relevance when you read the interview comments of Brawn and Parr when they penned their book back in 2016.
“Total Competition” is a slightly different style of F1 book – it partially attempts to be a career autobiography of Ross Brawn from his early Williams days, a talking heads interview script of F1 war stories between the 2009-2013 F1 seasons prior to Ross’ departure from the Mercedes team and also a business management book from the perspective of Adam Parr’s research into historic war strategists like Sun Tzu and Napoleon. By 2016, Brawn and Parr had both exited F1 not on their own terms and the book is some kind of introspection on how they ended up in their situation and management lessons on how they had to deal with the behind the scenes commercial deals and politics in F1.
I found the opening section on Ross Brawn’s career pretty compelling reading as I haven’t read any books on Ross Brawn. While Ross doesn’t attempt to burn any bridges – there’s a few jibes. No one is labelled as a back stabber but its all done with respect. If you’re a fan of F1 politics – you will get insights into Mercedes & Ferrari politics, Honda culture, Brawn GP formation, Bernie Ecclestone’s wheeling & dealing and other team boss personalities.
If you’re into management/leadership books – the chapters on rhythm, personal organisation, leadership offer a perspective of Brawn’s own management style and comparing his experiences with Falvio/Benneton days vs his Todt/Ferrari tenure. Its always interesting to understand individual traits and styles of successful managers.
Photo wise, there are 8 pages in the centre section of the book with photos of various moments in Ross’ team careers. Nothing you would not have seen online or in motorsport F1 magazines.
This book is not for every F1 fan. It will be most enjoyable for F1 fans with a professional work background that can relate to team management, cutting commercial deals and big corporate politics. The book itself is very much like a long format Q&A interview from a motorsport magazine with a dash of executive management philosophy and history thrown in. The focus is more on Ross Brawn as there is little relevation from Adam Parr other than his own journey & studying management theory in trying to understand why he got ejected from Williams.
Wow Factor/Money shot: Ross Brawn’s behind the scenes stories of Brawn & Mercedes management politics.
Suitable for: white collar F1-fans (and possibly Mercedes fans too).
Pretty interesting for Formula One fans, especially if you have been following the sport for decades (I haven’t). The authors want the book and its lessons to apply in other situations beyond F1 but it’s kind of up to the reader to figure out how. It’s a good book for what it is but I didn’t find it to be revolutionary.