🏠︎ | Past Sessions | Strategic Thinking at Speed What Finance Can Learn from Formula 1
- Event: Finance Forum 25
- Date: 7 October 2025
- Speaker: Bernie Collins, Presenter and Former Head of Race Strategy, Sky Sports F1 and Aston Martin Formula One Team
- Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
Quick summary
This session explored how Formula 1 teams make high quality decisions under extreme time pressure, and what finance leaders can learn from that approach.
Drawing on her experience on the F1 pit wall, Bernie Collins showed that speed is not about instinct or heroics. It is built through preparation, alignment, trust in expertise, and disciplined review. In Formula 1, plans rarely survive first contact with reality, so teams design for disruption rather than perfection.
For finance leaders, the lesson is clear. Strategic thinking at speed depends less on individual brilliance and more on systems that support fast, informed judgement, especially when conditions change.
Strategy is not the plan, it is how you adapt
Bernie Collins began by reframing what strategy really means in Formula 1. While teams always start with a plan A, that plan is almost never executed exactly as written. External events, accidents, weather changes, and competitor actions constantly force teams off their intended path.
In eight seasons on the pit wall, Collins noted that she never ran a race exactly to plan. What differentiates strong strategists is not how well they design plan A, but how effectively they respond when the plan breaks.
For finance leaders, the parallel is familiar. Annual plans, budgets, and project roadmaps provide direction, but value is created in how teams react to what they did not expect. Strategy becomes an ongoing practice of adjustment, not a static document.
“I have never done exactly plan A in eight seasons on the pit wall.” Bernie Collins, Presenter and Former Head of Race Strategy, Sky Sports F1 and Aston Martin Formula One Team
Preparation enables speed under pressure
One of the clearest lessons from Formula 1 is the depth of preparation that sits behind every fast decision. Collins described how teams plan not only for the expected scenarios, but also for events that are unlikely but possible.
If something has ever happened before, teams assume it could happen again. That includes lap one crashes, safety cars, or sudden weather changes. Plans are created in advance so that when those situations arise, decisions are selected rather than invented.
During a race incident, teams may have around 40 seconds to assess the car, check data, and decide whether to pit. The speed does not come from rushing analysis, but from having pre built options ready to deploy.
For finance functions, this translates into thinking ahead about what could derail a plan. Supplier failures, system outages, regulatory shifts, or demand shocks should not require decisions from scratch. The more preparation done upfront, the faster and calmer the response when pressure hits.
Alignment before action prevents chaos later
Collins stressed that preparation is not only about scenarios, but also about alignment. Before every Formula 1 session, teams spend time briefing what they are trying to learn, what matters most, and what can be deprioritised if time is limited.
Problems arise when individuals enter a situation with different assumptions or unspoken expectations. In the heat of a race, those assumptions are rarely challenged, and teams can pull in different directions.
Debriefing is equally important. Formula 1 teams analyse races in detail, often spending longer reviewing events than the race itself lasted. Crucially, this happens whether the result was good or bad.
Winning does not end the questioning. The first question after success is still what could have been done better, and how the team ensures the outcome is repeatable.
For finance leaders, this reinforces the value of structured briefings and honest debriefs. Alignment before action, and learning after delivery, are essential to building consistent performance rather than one off success.
Do not stop at the first why
When things go wrong in Formula 1, Collins explained that teams are trained never to stop at the first explanation. Blaming an individual error might feel satisfying, but it does not improve the system.
If a decision was wrong, the real work is understanding why the system allowed that decision to happen. That might involve processes, tools, information flow, or role clarity. The goal is not fault finding, but prevention.
This discipline allows teams to extract maximum learning from each incident and to strengthen performance over time. The same approach applies in finance. When forecasts miss, controls fail, or projects slip, stopping at surface explanations limits improvement.
Better outcomes come from asking how the system can be redesigned so that the same mistake is harder to make next time.
Trust the experts, especially when time is tight
Another central theme was trust. On the pit wall, the person making the final decision is rarely the technical expert in every area. Aerodynamics, engine performance, and tyre behaviour are handled by specialists, often located remotely in mission control.
Fast decisions depend on knowing who the experts are and trusting their input. Asking for help is not a weakness, it is a leadership responsibility. Clear communication channels ensure the right information reaches the right person at the right time.
Collins also highlighted the importance of psychological safety. Junior team members are encouraged to speak up, partly because leaders openly acknowledge their own mistakes. When people believe their voice matters, decision quality improves.
In finance teams, similar dynamics apply. Speed and accuracy depend on trust in subject matter experts, clear escalation paths, and a culture where challenge is welcomed rather than feared.
Marginal gains are built through data and discipline
To illustrate how preparation, trust, and analysis come together, Collins used the example of an F1 pit stop. Over several years, teams reduced pit stop times significantly through incremental improvements.
The gains did not come from a single breakthrough. They came from collecting data, identifying small inefficiencies, and redesigning systems. Sensors replaced manual timing, automated signals replaced human reaction time, and processes were refined again and again.
Technology played a critical role, but it did not remove the need for people. Pit stops still require large crews working in perfect coordination. Technology raised the baseline, but performance still depended on training, practice, and teamwork.
For finance leaders exploring automation, AI, or digital tools, the lesson is grounded. Technology enables improvement, but only when paired with disciplined adoption and human capability.
What good looks like, practical actions for finance leaders
This session translates into several concrete actions for finance leaders who want to improve strategic thinking at speed.
Questions to ask before pressure hits- What events would genuinely disrupt our current plan
- Which responses can we pre design rather than improvise
- Are our teams aligned on what matters most if time becomes constrained
- Whether decisions slow down because information is unclear
- Whether people hesitate to speak up under pressure
- Whether expertise is being used, or overridden by hierarchy
- Treating strategy as a fixed plan rather than a living practice
- Stopping analysis at individual error rather than system design
- Assuming technology alone will create speed without process change
What good looks like in practice
High performing finance teams prepare for disruption, align before acting, and learn relentlessly from outcomes. They trust experts, design systems that support fast judgement, and use technology to remove friction rather than add complexity.
Conclusion, speed is a system, not a personality trait
The strongest insight from Formula 1 is that speed is engineered. It comes from preparation, alignment, trust, and learning, not from instinct or pressure tolerance.
For finance leaders, strategic thinking at speed is achievable when teams design for uncertainty, invest in decision quality, and treat every outcome as a source of learning. In that environment, finance moves beyond reporting and becomes a true partner in decision making.
Speakers
Presenter and Former Head of Race Strategy, Sky Sports F1 and Aston Martin Formula One Team. Mechanical engineer and former Formula 1 strategist, now translating high pressure decision making into lessons for leaders.