“It’s not speed that you can’t control.”

Slow down and accelerate your thinking
Acceleration and braking business strategies learned from F1

“It’s not the speed you can’t control.” “To win, you must first finish.”
“The real protagonist of the race is the ‘variable.’”
“Failure is not the end of growth, it is the essence of growth.”

This simple truth from F1 is the most realistic warning and advice for leaders living in today's uncertain times.
"F1 Leadership" is a book that translates insights gleaned from the extremes of motorsports into the language of management and organization.
As the CEO of a major corporation and president of the Korea Automobile Racing Association, the author learned firsthand the balance between speed and data, risk and collaboration, and control and leadership.
The leadership he speaks of is not the art of going faster, but the art of control that allows one to finish without wavering even in a crisis, and the wisdom that sustains speed.
《F1 Leadership》 presents a new leadership standard for today's managers: "control over acceleration, balance over speed."

Throughout the book, vivid F1 field cases are presented along with specific management cases from domestic and foreign companies.
Alonso withdraws due to brake overheating, while the McLaren team manages to finish the race.
From WeWork, which collapsed due to unchecked expansion, to Coupang and Siemens, which turned crisis into opportunity through data.
The author emphasizes that “the essence of leadership is not the ability to achieve speed, but the ability to maintain that speed safely.”

“The secret to winning in car racing isn’t how much more you can press the accelerator on a flat course.
“How little you brake on the difficult course ultimately determines whether you win or lose.”
These are the words that Ryu Si-won said to me during the F1 Korea Grand Prix demonstration race held at Yeongam KIC on October 14, 2011.
It touched me more deeply than any other management book.
The realization that braking is more important than acceleration, that "control over speed" is the key, has cracked the familiar view of business and has become a catalyst for change.

--- p.8, from “Prologue: At first, I was just running fast”

“Victory belongs to the driver who makes the fewest mistakes.”
These words from seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher capture the essence of F1 perfectly.
Simply being fast isn't enough to win.
Speed ​​only becomes competitive when it is 'controllable'.
In F1 racing, the symbol of 'high-speed racing', the first thing that catches the eye is the monstrous engine output, but the real secret to completing the race safely and ultimately achieving victory is the brakes.

--- p.23, from “Chapter 1: What Cannot Be Controlled Is Not Speed”

Coupang's case demonstrates how the balance between growth and control can be achieved in practice.
Aggressive investment creates a competitive advantage, while ensuring liquidity to withstand the pace, transparent financial management, and proactive scenario review of operational risks are also essential.
Timing financing, adjusting the pace of investment, and securing emergency liquidity are all linked to the judgment of "when to accelerate and when to brake."
Coupang has proven this judgment through capital markets and internal systems, and as a result, it has been able to maintain balance while accelerating its growth.

Another thing to note is the organic combination of operations, strategy, and finance.
Investments in logistics and customer service are not just cost items, but tangible results in customer loyalty and repeat purchases, which in turn lead to stable sales and cash flow.
At the same time, real-time data enables early detection of risk indicators (e.g., logistics bottlenecks, rising returns, and cost spikes) and enables immediate responses.
Ultimately, you can generate speed on your own, but what ensures that you can safely reach your destination is a robust "brake system" (liquidity backup, governance, and crisis response processes).
--- p.31, from “Chapter 1: What Cannot Be Controlled Is Not Speed”

Aspiration alone does not complete the challenge.
If you drop out or give up during the race, your passion will just evaporate.
Aspirations are only meaningful when there is a solid safety net to support them.
Before rushing headfirst into a new opportunity, we must establish verification points at each stage and make decisions based on data.
Just like the runoff zone on an F1 circuit, businesses need "breakpoints" where decisions can be made based on the diverse perspectives of stakeholders and objective data.
Above all, companies should practice emergency plans.
Just as a team must be resilient to adverse weather, collisions, and the deployment of a safety car, it is important to have scenarios and alternative strategies to prepare for unexpected events.

--- p.42, from “Chapter 2: The Power of Speed ​​That Breaks the Balance”

F1's tire strategy demonstrates that performance is guaranteed when resource allocation, risk management, and execution capabilities work together as a trinity.
A good strategy designs opportunities, but it is precise execution and rigorous testing that make those opportunities a reality.
As in the Ferrari case, a small omission in simulation verification can lead to a failure in the undercut defense, and as in the Alaska Airlines case, a minor omission in the record can lead to a major accident.
Conversely, as in the case of Siemens, when data, processes, and culture are integrated, stable performance can be achieved even in uncertain times.

Verification is the foundation of trust.
No matter how much technology advances, sustainability is impossible without standardized procedures and a verification culture.
More important than speed is the ability to finish.
Focusing on short-term results increases risk, but sound operations ensure long-term performance.
Therefore, what a company should pursue is not a 'fast strategy', but the power of operation to implement the strategy without wavering.
--- p.51, from “Chapter 3: Strategies for Making Slow Cars Faster”

The beginning and the end require different tasks.
At the starting point, you must overcome the fear of new challenges, and at the end, you must see through the final task with exhausted energy.
Even after the project ends, the 'fuel for the future' left behind becomes the driving force behind the next plan.
Just as a car that has crossed the finish line returns to the pits to refuel and then gets back on the track, companies must also prepare for the next round through strategic reserves and recovery.

--- p.73, from “Chapter 6: The Finish Line Is Not the End”

Winning in F1 is not achieved by the driver alone.
Just as a pit crew's training and teamwork can make a 0.1-second difference, a company's success hinges on its unseen back-office capabilities.
E-Mart transformed its operations with ERP integration and AI forecasting, leading to sales growth.
What's noteworthy here is that back-office digitization and data-driven operations are no longer simply about cost savings; they've become strategic assets that drive customer experience and revenue.
For a company to simultaneously pursue speed and sophistication, comprehensive investment in systems, governance, partner management, and organizational culture must come first.

--- p.86-87, from “Chapter 7: The Art of Two Seconds That Determines Victory or Defeat”

At that time, Satya Nadella, who took office as CEO, decided that changing people and organizational culture was more urgent than technology.
He championed a "learning organization" and fostered a culture that embraced mistakes as learning opportunities.
We eliminated the relative evaluation system that ranked achievements and promoted a hackathon culture that encouraged free experimentation and collaboration.
The biggest goal was to restore an atmosphere of trust and challenge among employees.
His message, “The enemy we must fight is not our competitors, but ourselves from yesterday,” restored the trust and motivation of his employees.
--- p.94, from “Chapter 8: Sonny Hayes’ Leadership: Choosing Growth Over Success”

Organizations must ensure that autonomy does not lead to irresponsibility by clearly linking performance and accountability.
Spotify links team and individual performance to product outcome metrics like user experience, streaming numbers, and retention, and institutionalizes accountability through regular reviews and transparent data.
What's interesting about this is the culture that recognizes 'what we learned from failure' as an important achievement.
By not evaluating people solely on whether they succeed or fail, organizations encourage more experimentation and, as a result, accumulate more learning.
--- p.114, from “Chapter 10: The Power of Autonomous Decision-making”

At the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull lost the title by sticking to a data-driven tire strategy and ignoring the driver's intuition.
At the time, Max Verstappen was maintaining a steady lead and had a good chance of winning if he just maintained his existing strategy.
However, the team went ahead with a somewhat unconventional strategy of pitting earlier than expected and choosing hard tires.
Although the basis was simulation data on tire wear and track temperature, in actual driving the performance degradation of the hard tires was much more severe than expected.
As a result, Verstappen lost the flow of the race.
After the game, there was internal reflection within the team that “we were so focused on data analysis that we ignored the driver’s intuitive feedback.”
This was a classic case of the 'curse of the expert', where complex knowledge obscures simple facts.
--- p.145-146, from “Chapter 14: The Expert’s Curse that Comes to Outstanding Leaders”

The South Korean archery team is a proven model of how people-centered leadership, combined with institutional design, can enable organizations to continuously grow and achieve repeatable results.
Corporations and public organizations should learn from this model the "courage to relinquish authority" and the "wisdom to systematize service."
The case of Korean archery is ultimately a story about 'organizational philosophy' rather than 'the art of winning.'
Leadership that focuses on people and structures their growth is effective in any field.
Servant leadership is the most sophisticated system for transforming individual achievement into organizational culture.

--- p.160, from “Chapter 15: From Controlling Leadership to Servant Leadership”

Undercutting is a racing strategy that involves making a pit stop before your opponents, installing newer tires, and using that advantage to get ahead of them.
The highlight of the 2024 British Grand Prix was Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton's daring undercut tactic in unpredictable weather and the dramatic comeback victory that followed.
About halfway through the race, when the rain was intermittent, Hamilton decided with his team to pit before the other drivers.
The early pit stop, a beat early, was an aggressive move to change the flow of the race beyond a simple tire change.

--- p.175, from “Chapter 17: One Key Strategy to Attack the Kingpin”

CJ ENM's content enhancement strategy is not just a success story, but a practical guide to seizing the key positions.
To secure a kingpin (core asset), simply investing in one area is not enough.
Content truly has the power to transform the market when it strengthens production capabilities, precisely analyzes demand and consumption patterns with data, and designs channels that can immediately connect these insights to distribution.
While preemptive investments entail initial costs and risks, the structural advantages secured through these comprehensive investments can fundamentally change the competitive landscape.
At the same time, any strategy must be accompanied by a recovery design that assumes the possibility of failure.

--- p.183, from “Chapter 17: One Key Strategy to Attack the Kingpin”

Dick Fosbury's flop clearly shows how small institutional changes can change the very paradigm of the game.
He didn't stop at just accepting the fact that mats were being introduced, but asked, "Why do I have to jump forward or sideways?" and boldly experimented with new backward-leaning movements, redefining the standard.
This one line of question and one action soon became a revolution.
Fosbury's case, McLaren's wing reinforcement, Teledoc's regulatory response, and Hanwha Ocean's acquisition of the Philadelphia shipyard all convey a common message.
It is the first to detect subtle changes in regulations and the environment, interpret them not as simple signals but as clues for strategic transformation, and reallocate organizational capabilities.
--- p.194-195, from “Chapter 18: Why Did Fosbury Turn His Back?”

“Is victory exclusive to those who reach the finish line faster?” This is the simplest yet most powerful question posed by EcoRally.
Eco Rally, which changed the rules of racing to focus on fuel efficiency and efficiency, answered 'no' to this question.
A small shift in philosophy soon led to a shift in behavior, and as a result, we were forced to reexamine our practices that had been focused solely on speed and immediate results, using different criteria.
What the Eco Rally showed was not just that the rules of motorsports had changed, but that what counts as achievements fundamentally changed the design and everyday judgment of an organization.

Apple has reorganized its entire product design, supply chain, and operations around eco-friendliness, establishing indicators such as "carbon emissions" and "resource circularity" as key performance indicators.
Yuhan Corporation institutionalized its entrepreneurial spirit, clearly defining its corporate purpose as public health and social contribution, and as a result, placed values ​​beyond profit at the center of its business operations.
In both cases, changing the definition of performance changed how the organization allocated resources, directed innovation, and collaborated with external parties.

--- p.226, from “Chapter 21: Eco Rally, a Replacement for the Myth of Speed”

Customer experience is not a matter of scale.
Just as Zappos became a global icon in the limited shoe category, Musinsa has established itself as a unique brand by providing overwhelming experiential value within the fashion segment.
The key is to treat customers not simply as consumers, but as co-designers of culture and experiences.

Ultimately, the path shown by Musinsa contains a message that resonates with all vertical companies.
By meticulously designing customer experiences within narrow but deep categories and creating an ecosystem that connects customers and brands, companies gain power beyond scale.
Musinsa started out as a community, but has now established itself as a leader in the domestic fashion market.
It is not simply the success of an online shopping mall, but the result of elevating customer experience into a culture.

--- p.262, from “Chapter 24: We Design Your Experience”

We are each running our own circuit.
For some, it might be work, for others, home, and for others, a book.
Direction is as important as speed.
Sometimes you have to pace yourself, sometimes you have to go all out, and most of all, I hope you don't fear failure.
Failure is not something that stops us, but rather a signal that leads us to better choices, decisions, and actions.

--- p.276-277, from “Epilogue: No Success Can Be Achieved Alone”