Innovation at Blazing Speeds: Motorsport and AI with Mark Preston, Motorsport Director at Lola Cars

11/09/2025 55 min

Listen "Innovation at Blazing Speeds: Motorsport and AI with Mark Preston, Motorsport Director at Lola Cars"

Episode Synopsis

In this episode of Strategy Unscripted, Mark Preston — Director of Technology Integration at Oxa, Motorsport Director at Lola Cars, former F1 Technical Director at McLaren, Super Aguri, and Arrows, and the most successful Team Principal in Formula E history.Mark shares practical lessons on leading high-performance teams, balancing short-term delivery with long-term strategy, and applying motorsport discipline to complex industries. Drawing on an Oxford MBA and three decades at the frontier of racing and autonomy, he reframes leadership as an evidence-led operating system.We explore how to:✅ Embed knowledge and standards so organisations stop “oscillating” and compound capability✅ Balance exploration vs. exploitation with timeboxing, sprints, and clear release cadences✅ Use clusters, marginal gains, and reliability systems to move KPIs on a positive gradient✅ Apply scenario planning and Pareto thinking to allocate scarce resources under shifting rules🎧 Senior leaders in complex, distributed businesses will find practical, transferable models for execution at scale — from premortems to post-race learning loops — and foresight on where AI, simulation, and autonomy reshape advantage.Tune in for a rich conversation on how to navigate complexity, align global teams, and stay laser-focused on customer value in a world of constant change.#StrategyInAction #StrategyUnscripted #OXA #LolaCars

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