Christian Horner: How reflection wins races (E58)

Jake Humphrey (0:01)

We're back, can you believe it? Welcome along to Series 5 of The High Performance Podcast. We've missed you while you've been away for the past few weeks, but welcome to a brand new series, a whole range of amazing new guests. And you may already know that we've actually launched something called The High Performance Circle. This is us creating a community of high performance podcast listeners and people with a high performance mindset. And on there, we're giving you exclusive high performance podcast episodes that you won't hear elsewhere, short boosts of inspiration, keynote speeches, newsletters, and so much more. So before we get into this week's first episode of the new series, I would love you just to go to the highperformancepodcast.com, enter your email address, and you will receive an invite for The High Performance Circle. That's the highperformancepodcast.com.

Enter your email address, receive your invite. You'll then be in the circle and you will be open to a whole new world of exclusive and brilliant content from the team behind The High Performance Podcast.

Right, here's what's in store today.

Christian Horner (1:06)

There's no room for egos here. You know, it's all about team. It's all about working for each other and not just as an individual. And I think that that's made this team, it's one of the strengths that it's had, is that sense of team, that sense of collectiveness, that we're all judged every two weeks on a Sunday afternoon.

And every department needs to be working in harmony for the car to achieve that finish line in first position.

Jake Humphrey (1:41)

Welcome to one of the most elite environments in the UK. Look, from the outside, the building we're in looks like another industrial unit on another sprawling industrial estate. Yet inside, the longest running team principal in Formula One is driving on a team who are relentlessly high performance. And this is the stat that gets me right.

307 races, 187 podiums, which means that this Formula One team in one of the world's most competitive environments have sprayed champagne at over 60% of the races they've competed in, which is stunning. So, where does their CEO's drive come from? How did he convince the team to make him the youngest ever Formula One boss at the time? And 16 years later, what has he learned from relentless commitment to winning that can enrich your life? It's a pleasure to welcome one of the most impressive individuals I've ever seen operating or had the pleasure to work with.

Christian Horner, OBE, thanks for being with us.

Christian Horner (2:34)

Great to see you.

Jake Humphrey (2:35)

Long time since we shared a Formula One paddock, but I saw even then the high performance approach that you take to life. So could you explain to us what high performance represents to you?

Christian Horner (2:47)

High performance is everything that we do. Obviously, ultimately, it is the car, but generating and focusing your performance into all aspects that contribute that is everything that we're about. So it's getting the most out of people, being the best that you can be, focusing on understanding where your weaknesses are, understanding where your strengths are.

And yeah, it just encompasses all aspects of competition and life in many respects.

Jake Humphrey (3:15)

So where do you focus more than in this team? Do you focus more on your strengths or do you focus more on your weaknesses?

Christian Horner (3:21)

I suppose you have to focus on your weaknesses because I think that by understanding where your weaknesses are, it only adds to your strengths. And I think even with a race that you win, there's things that you can do better. There's always something that you can improve. You're always learning. Life is a journey at the end of the day. And a motor race is a two-hour snapshot of that. And there's always something that you can learn, that you can improve, that you can do better. And then you carry that knowledge, that know-how into the future events.

Damian Hughes (3:56)

So can I take, like that phrase you use there, Christian, that life is a journey. Can I take you back to the journey that you went on before you joined Formula One? Because reading your biography was really fascinating. You seem to throw yourself into a, moving towards a goal and then work out how to get there along the way. So you had almost that burn-the-boats attitude of, you know, I'll commit to something and then I'll find out a way of doing it, whether it was you going into Formula 3000 or becoming a driver yourself.

Would you tell us a little bit more about that approach to life?