(Part 1 of a two-part post. Read part 2 here.)
Three Firestone Indy Lights drivers said during their June stop at Iowa Speedway that although they came to America because of economics, their life in the minors has also included a crash course in marketing.
Drivers Gustavo Yacaman from Colombia and Martin Plowman and Pippa Mann from England all said a huge cost pothole in the European road to Formula 1 caused them to look for an American alternative.
Mann’s European road took her to the World Series by Renault 3.5 in 2008. From there the next European step is the F1 feeder series, GP2. But Mann found the price tag too formidable.
“The money to do GP2 is horrendous and huge,” said Mann. “There’s very little way that anyone can afford that. We’re not talking a bit of family money; we're talking serious family fortune, or someone who somehow manages to get commercial sponsorship at that level, which is hideously difficult to do. There's just no way you can make that step up; it’s just way, way too much money."
Mann said after looking at the numbers, Firestone Indy Lights, which is designed to be the top feeder series for IndyCar, became a much more viable option.
Yacaman’s progress took him through Formula 3 Spain, which is a level similar to World Series by Renault, but he also found the jump to GP2 cost prohibitive. He said the huge price tag of GP2 rides has been one of the reasons a wave of European drivers have been coming to America lately.
“To do GP2, it’s about 1.5 million Euros, which is $2 million US. You can run in IndyCar with a lower tier team for that amount of money,” said Yacaman. “That amount of money is almost impossible to find, so that's what brought us over here.”
Yacaman said friend-of-a-friend Juan Pablo Montoya also encouraged him to come to the U.S. “(Montoya) said, dude, there's nothing left in Europe. And Formula 1 is just a big nasty... how you describe it? He just said it wasn't worth it. He said come over here, so that's what we did.”
Marketing Class is in Session
Once in America, drivers quickly learned that not only is FIL a place to work on driving skills, but it’s also a place to develop another talent required in today’s racing world: marketing.
“I would say driving the car is about 5% of what we do,” said Plowman, a Formula 3 Euro alumnus, “and 95% of our time is spent in the board rooms or on the road talking to people and trying to find money.”
Part of that effort to attract money is creating marketing materials like “brand books,” which aim to give sponsors an idea of each driver’s brand. (More on driver brands here.) Then there are “hero cards” (the cards with photos and stats that fans get signed), Web sites (www.pippamann.com, www.martin-plowman.com and www.gustavoyacaman.com), Twitter pages (@pippamann, @plowey and @gustavo_yacaman), Facebook accounts and more.
Mann said even with what marketers call her “key differentiator” (being female in racing), she didn’t seem to get much traction in Europe. “That’s when I really started realizing how much more I had to learn about doing the whole marketing side,” she said.
Training yourself to be good with fans and potential sponsors is all part of the job, said Yacaman.
“I wouldn’t say it’s something I love to do, but it’s something that doesn’t kill me,” said Yacaman. “I’d rather go play soccer or just stay home and watch TV, but in order to race -- which is what I really love -- I have to do that (make appearances, meet with sponsors, etc.). And if that’s all I have to do to race, heck, I’ll do it. It’s no big deal.”
Merit-based Hiring? Wishful Thinking.
So what happened to the best driver gets the ride? If that ever did really exist, Plowman says it's not a fact of life in racing's minor leagues today.
"The glory days of when all the teams were fully funded and can pick drivers -- with the recession and the way the economy is -- we're a long way away from returning to those days," Plowman said. "Now we have to sell sponsors; we have to be the brand, so to speak. Results are important, but it's not the be-all and end-all. There's more to it than that."
Mann says it's "useless" lamenting that moving up to the next level is not as super-objective as giving drivers rides based on how they scored on some sort of driving SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test).
Driving, Marketing ... and Luck
"It's difficult. It's not just about any one thing in this day and age. Unfortunately it's not down to just on-track performance," said Mann. "Look at the situation of J.R. Hildebrand of last year. He’s an American driver, won the championship, obviously he’s very talented, and he doesn't have a ride in IndyCar. I know he has worked really, really hard to make things happen and is still working hard to make things happen, but it just goes to prove it's not all down to everything you do on track."
Other drivers have provided lessons on how strength with sponsors can overcome marginal on-track performances, Plowman said. "You can use Milka Duno as an example. We all know her relative talent on the track, but the fact is the sponsors love her. She's perfect for the brand and that's why they keep on paying her to race every year. She struggles in the car but she's great with sponsors."
FIL gives drivers experience in working on skills like getting positive media attention, “being presentable on TV” and building a fan base, which are just as important as championships, Mann said. And even after all that, she said, luck has to show up in the end.
“It’s no good being good at all that stuff if you don't end up in front of the right person at some point,” said Mann. “You have to be good on the track. You have to be just as good at everything off-track, and you have to be lucky. So it's this very tricky combination of factors that you're trying to put together."
Feeling the Pressure
The Firestone Indy Lights experience then is a one- or two-year run up the career launching ramp with fingers crossed that you’ll get to the next level. Plowman, who is in his second year of FIL, is feeling the pressure.
“I’ve been racing for 15 years and this year it’s make or break,” said Plowman, who turns 23 in October. “These last 15 years can be all in vain if things don't take flight. Fifteen years of training. No matter what came before me in these 15 years, it doesn't matter. This is it. This is the year when it has to all fall in place. So it's kind of scary when you think of it that way. It's not like the world's going to end if things don't happen this year, but I've got to try triple — four times, five times — harder than I ever have before if this is the year that's it going to happen.”
Mann, who turns 27 in August, said this likely her last year in FIL as well.
“We are working really, really hard on a lot of things right now,” she said. “If it comes up to the end of the year and none of those have happened, I will be extremely disappointed and I don't know what I'll actually be doing next year. However I'm at a place at the moment where I actually believe that those things are going to happen. Some of it is looking really, really good.”
At age 19, Yacaman said he doesn’t feel a similar pressure to make the leap, although successful 2010 Indy 500 entries by current FIL driver and fellow Colombian Sebastian Saavedra and recent FIL driver Mario Romancini have him thinking bigger.
“I still want to try the Indy 500 next year,” said Yacaman. “It's a really big event and to put your name up there with all those big guys would be really good. We’re trying to do that next year but if it doesn't happen it's not like it will break my heart, because I still have a lot of years in my career to make it happen. It's not worth doing something and barely qualifying or and even not qualifying.”
Virtually any FIL driver who wants to move up to IndyCar will face the challenge of helping find the money need to run a team, Mann said. "That's the bottom line. You can go home and cry about that, or you can say 'okay I have to work my butt off doing all this other stuff too because that's just as important as anything I do behind the wheel.' You have to learn to be a jack of all trades and preferably a master of the one that matters most."
In part 2, Pippa Mann talks about the thicker glass ceiling in Europe and the challenges that come with playing the “girl card.” Read it here.
So it sounds like the reason for the lack of Americans is most American racers who get that money are over in NASCAR, or maybe in World of Outlaws/Lucas Oil Dirt Late Models, where drivers can make money, instead of bringing it. To fix the driver issues in Indycar, probably the best thing to do is get the series back to drawing big TV ratings and having good sponors. Then getting tv and Sponors to Lights. THe problem is, though, is Indycar has to grow to get to having this...
I think the other thing that i find interesting is where are these drivers going to find sponsorships? I'd imagine most companies in America would a. want an American, or someone like kannan or Castroneves, who is already a known star, or even someone like Servia or Shecter, or b. get someone who races in televised races. So who's actually willing to sponsor a FIL team? They don't even get the attendance Indycar or ALMS gets.
Posted by: Dylan | June 28, 2010 at 12:16 PM