Often in motorsport, indeed any sport actually, positivity comes from challenging times and situations.
This is very much true regarding the formation of growing motorsport engineering consultancy RaceOn GmbH. When Mercedes EQ announced its withdrawal from Formula E in August 2021 but had already committed to moving staff from Germany to the UK, an idea started to form and grow in the mind of one of its most competitive and motivated engineers.
That man is Franco Chiocchetti.
With 25 years of trackside engineering experience, he’s the driving force behind a new way of doing racing engineering that has proved to be an exceptional benefit to teams, not only in Formula E, but across most of professional motorsport in recent years.
The Italian who grew up in South Africa, has tasted success at various levels of motorsport. Most notably he was an intrinsic part of the Abt Audi DTM team that won races and titles and the ABT Schaeffler Audi Formula E team with which he was Technical Director and engineered Lucas di Grassi to an unforgettable 2016-17 title.
RaceOn specialises in a wide variety of useful engineering services that covers performance, systems (including high voltage), simulator development, tyre performance and modelling, and of course race engineering. It has an enviable record of success with its team members in Formula E, DTM, WEC, IMSA, Dakar, WTCC, Moto GP, F3 and F4 among many other series and championships.
What Chiocchetti has built with RaceOn GmbH was, on one hand, a simple platform of consultancy and guaranteed professional excellence. On the other, it was an engineering community that fast-tracks some of the top professional engineers to organisations without the complexities of weighing up exactly what they were getting on the human resource side.
Despite what many believe, motorsport is not 100% about the technology. Yes, it is a vital part of the mix within on-track success itself, but so too is the human properties of a team. The mindset, the drive and ambition, the understanding of the greater good of the team and the dedication of working together for success is just as important.
When Chiocchetti realised there were a couple of other engineers who were not prepared to move to the UK in 2021, an old idea he had took hold and RaceOn was born.
“I just never had the opportunity or the chance to do it before 2021,” he says.
“Spending decades working with factory motorsport and good OEMs there was always this situation where having freelancers, because of the IP protection, could be tricky.
“As a freelancer works for you today but might work for the competition tomorrow, by law you cannot restrict that, at least not in Germany, so I hit on this idea.
“Giving the teams the option to work with high level consultants with the freedom of a freelancer but the security of an employee seemed like a sensible way to go. And that’s effectively the concept that we have, which is having our employees employed at RaceOn with long notice periods and consulting out to teams.”
Blending Experience with Integration
The initial focus for RaceOn was purely on the creme de la crème of engineering talent. Top level people who would integrate in teams quickly and make a difference fast and positively.
That philosophy soon also developed in to a junior programme as well, because according to Chiocchetti “there is demand for that in the market, not everyone can afford to pay the top level engineers.”
Yet, the common trait across the board at RaceOn is that there is always a full integration of their consultants to the teams they work with. That is a vital heartbeat throughout the company.
“We want our team members to be integrated in the teams they’re working for, absolutely,” adds Chiocchetti.
“So ideally you shouldn’t even notice the difference. That’s important because we need emotions to do the work that we do. That’s why the people who do motorsport, do motorsport!
“It’s because of the emotions, the highs and the lows. If you don’t feel part of the team, you don’t have those strong emotions so it is self-defeating.
“Additionally, although we build long relationships, we are also tailor making packages to suit each individual customer as every customers needs are different. For example, some want remote working, others are only interested in factory based employees and we offer all solutions.”
Part and parcel of that is a happy workforce: one that has full commitment to the fight ahead while also having a great work/life balance suited to the new generation of engineers. This is something that Chiocchetti holds close to his heart in the way RaceOn is run and how it will grow in the future.
Elite, Neat and Discreet!
Many companies have Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) based on number of staff growth, or turnover and many other metrics. That’s not RaceOn’s goal.
Its growth is fully dependent on finding the right people, interviewing three to four engineers a week, almost every week. These methods are part of the company’s DNA and put an emphasis on gauging reactions to pressure. It means it can focus on how the potential team members really tick in difficult scenarios.
“We want to put people under pressure, we want to see how they handle the pressure,” says Chiocchetti.
“We want to question people to make sure that they understand the first principles of the actions they’re taking. And we want to try to squeeze out the personality of the people. That’s important.”
So, it’s all about quality at RaceOn; employing people that they feel can make a difference to a team and have the potential to grow in their careers is fundamental.
Frankly there are many average engineers on the market place in motorsport, some attracted by a perceived glamour in the sport and Chiocchetti is clear that’s “not what we’re looking for.“ The engineers taken on by RaceOn have many core attributes, including excellent technical attributes, high levels of attention to detail and professional discretion.
“We’re really looking for the niche, the top couple of percent of specialists in their field,” continues Chiocchetti. “Motorsport has excellence at its heart so if we can maximise our philosophy of having a combination of top level engineers and then the next generation of top engineers who are nurtured by RaceOn then we will continue to set ourselves apart.
“If we achieve these two goals of customer and employee satisfaction then we’ve achieved what we’re looking for. The other point is just building a cool bunch of people who really enjoy what they do, that they are passionate about what they’re doing.
“And most important of all, offering employees what they want as well as being able to offer customers a better service with differences from what is regularly offered.
“We believe that we have several strategic and practical attributes that set us apart.”
What are those attributes? Well, you’ll just have to have a deeper dive in to RaceOn to find out!
