Welcome to the Fast Lane | F1 Talent Management with Luke Francis

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Getting his start in Motorsports

#1. What was the first moment that you can remember discovering motorsports?

I've always been into cars.... Really, my family have always been into cars. Not necessarily motorsport, but cars in general. No one in my family really even watched motorsports at all, but one day I went to Brands Hatch - a circuit in Kent, outside of London. I was there for a track day during a GT race.

It was the first sports car or racing series experience of any kind that I had up to that point. Honestly, I thought it was really cool! I ended up watching that series for about two months. Of course, simultaneously, without watching any Formula 1, I knew who Lewis Hamilton was. I knew the big names, but I'd never seen a race. So, I decided to try a Grand Prix.

It was the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix, and from that point on, I watched every single race for about 3 years. I literally didn't stop until I was on a flight during a race and physically couldn't watch it. I got hooked and the rest is history.

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#2. When did you decide that this is where you wanted to build your career? 

About a year after I watched that first race, I started an Instagram account called The Racing Pilot posting news.

It was literally a hobby because none of my family cared about F1, so I wanted to create content and find a community online.

It was truly just a hobby, but there were moments in the next few years after that, where I realized that it's truly possible to work in F1. It's not truly the 'ringed off' community that you can't break into.

At the same time, I went to Brands Hatch with some driver managers for Ginetta rounds (sports car racing), and I spent the day with them. It gave me a taste for what it's like to 'work on-site'.

Then, I chose to do the same thing and go to F1 testing in 2020 in Spain as a fan, BUT during testing in Spain you could see inside the Paddock. You can literally walk along the pit building and look in, so I was watching unit operations and team members moving around... and the 'bug' was slowly building for not just the love of the sport, but the love of the industry itself.

What really set me on this path though is a bit of a weird one:

I watched The Last Dance, the basketball documentary with Michael Jordan. That taught me that you CAN work in a sport in that competitive environment and have that real team camaraderie with not just players but the 'backroom' staff as well... everyone, really.

I realized that Formula 1 is by far the best sport for that because you have two drivers and THOUSANDS of 'backroom' staff, so you can live that life of a competitive sportsperson, but doing a different role within a team.

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Luke's Current Role

#3. What was your first role and the first step you took towards becoming an F1 talent manager?

This goes in two different directions:

Content Creation

First, I had been a content creator for 6 years (Instagram in 2018 and YouTube in 2020). I built that for years and operated it as a business. I was making the content, but I was also doing the finances, accounting, logistics, and account management of the 'wider business'.

Talent Management at WTF Talent

On the other hand, my first 'proper' role is really the one I'm in now. A Talent manager for WTF Talent. We're a content creator agency specifically in Formula 1.

I did a university placement year which is your 3rd year of University - going into a job in the industry you're studying. So, if you study engineering for years 1 and 2, you would go do an engineering job. Then, you go back to university for that final, 4th year.

So, I did my placement with WTF Talent or The Race Media (wider umbrella company). I reached out to Glenn Freeman, Editor in Chief of The Race, who I knew through some work I did with them in 2020.

They didn't even offer placements at the time, but they were open to it, so I joined as a social media intern. Just as I joined The Race, the talent business (WTF Talent) was founded, and I dove straight into that. I'm now all talent and haven't touched socials in a good 9 months.

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#4. What does a standard day look like for you?

Day-to-day goes like this:

Account management for the roster for the talent company. I work under my boss, Tim Silvey, the Head of Talent. He manages the sales and proposals to clients, and I primarily focus on account management - making sure campaigns with clients are going well. Essentially, I make sure that creators are getting content in on time, fitting their briefs that the client wants to hit, budget tracking, communication with talent, bringing in new creators, searching socials and finding creators to reach out to... everything talent-focused.

I do quite a bit of sales on the side as well - meeting with clients etc... My day-to-day truly is a LOT of account management, both with clients and talent.

Author's Note: Tim Silvey has recently been promoted to Commercial Director of The Race Media! Luke has taken over all talent management responsibilities!

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‍#5. What are the most rewarding and the most challenging parts of talent management in F1?

Rewarding 

There are two elements.

First, the feeling of getting a campaign signed off and a 'deal done'. After working for weeks or months trying to get a brand to sign and contracting talent for a paid campaign, its a really good feeling. Getting that over the line is brilliant.

On the other hand, one really fun part of the job is telling the talent and letting them know that they're working on the campaign, earning a certain amount, going to a certain race, or doing a really cool experience. Seeing their reaction is really rewarding.

I think it's because content creation hasn't been around for that long in Formula 1. We're bringing campaigns for creators who have never seen any money at all from content creation. It's purely a hobby for them, so some of them are completely ecstatic and the smiles are so wide.

It's really nice to do that and be able to provide that for creators. Selfishly, I definitely find being at races, myself, to be so rewarding. All I want to do when I get home is to be back on a plane, going to another race. It's the feeling of being in that atmosphere, in that world.

Challenging

The talent business is a new business... it's frankly a startup. Staying visible to people and making sure that they know what we do and why we can help them is so important. There can be a perception that we make brands' lives harder because it's another step to reach the creator.

In reality, our job is literally to make their lives as easy as possible. We cover communication, campaign reporting... we do all of it for them. So, on the brand side the challenge is trying to communicate

On the creator side, its keeping campaigns going. Formula 1 is seasonal - there are times where there's no business at all. Months can go by with nothing happening OR we get 12 campaigns in 1 month and it's extremely intense. Managing expectations with talent and helping them see us as a reliable income source cna be difficult because we technically cannot guarantee campaigns.

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#6. What are the top 3 qualities that have helped you succeed in the F1 talent space?

Passion

Passion is the main one. Passion for Formula 1, but essentially the passion for any subject you work in. You need to just love what you're doing and love what you're working for.

Not just passion for the job but passion to keep learning and progressing. It's a cycle once you push for certain opportunities in one space, you get motivation from that opportunity and push for other things. It's a snowball effect.

Proactivity

Don't wait for things to fall into your lap - you need to go and get it.

The hardest thing about getting a job is that everyone has a degree, good grades, etc... it's the people that go out of their way to find something else that sets them apart.

For example, I went to Bath University and worked on the school's racing team on the marketing side of things. That's not an experience everyone has, and of course my socials and Youtube Channel as well.

Then, once you have the job, don't let your manager just give you tasks and that's all you do. Create your own tasks, don't just tick the box. Work on efficiencies, test new things, find something cool to do that could help the business.

Be Multifaceted

Having many skills, whether something like being able to create logos, edit videos, do spreadsheets or presentations very well are useful. This ties into proactivity but on the other hand, jump into sales meetings or speak to clients to gain skills in that area. In my case, being a jack of all trades works very well.

I've never been specialized to anything really. I did a management degree at uni, which is quite a general degree. So, with YouTube, I learned how to do spreadsheets, edit videos, do the accounts for the company, write scripts, copywriting, and social media skills in general.

Often times you simply develop these skills by doing more.

I think why it's worked so well with talent specifically - because I came into that job with a lot of different skills in different areas, rather than being amazing at spreadsheets for example. I was able to just pick and choose and do a bit of everything and help everywhere.

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Luke's Advice

#7. If you could go back and change anything about your path to where you are today, what would that be? 

This goes back to passion for me. Make sure you're always enjoying what you're doing. Find new things that you can find an interest in.

When I was making videos for the YouTube channel, I was doing a lot of current affairs content. For example, talking about why Lando Norris was chosen for McLaren back in 2019.

I didn't get bored of it per-se, but I got bored of the monotony of making videos about the same things every week. Sometimes the news goes against you and the video is useless, but then I learned a little bit about the business side of Formula 1 and that became a new passion. In reflection, that's in the primary driver for me is just loving what you're doing and taking stock of it.

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#8. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to follow in your footsteps what would that be?

Again, I would say, be multifaceted. A talent manager needs to be able to balance a lot of things, whether its campaigns, people, numbers, etc...

When I started the job, there were so many campaigns going on at once and it was so hard to focus on one, get that done, and move to the next. As a talent manager, you can have 10 campaigns going with different creators, different budgets, different timelines, and it could be quite a lot to manage.

Being able to focus on a task and do it to the best of your abilities without getting distracted and then being organized, is both key to being successful but also why you need to be good at many things.

On that note - be organized and good at admin. Know where things are and don't waste time scrolling through your downloads on your computer because you didn't save it into a folder.

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Luke's Favorites

#9. What is your favorite race/ event/ moment that you’ve had in your career thus-far?

 It would be an event. I had the pleasure of going to Mexico Formula E, Portland Formula E, and Austin for the F1 Grand Prix, but out of those, it would probably be Mexico. Even though Austin was unbelievable, amazing city, amazing culture, everything.  

Mexico was the first flyaway race that I worked at, ever, and it was just such a terrifying thing to look forward to in terms of the anticipation for it.

It was, quite daunting, but once I was there, it was just incredible. Working with Formula E is so great. They're so awesome. They love creators.

I went with James Coker, the man himself, and helped him make content and formulate. It's so great to both work but also go to dinner with creators, network, and all the fun stuff.

When I landed back in the UK, it felt like I had dreamt it all...

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#10. Your career path is completely unchartered in the motorsports space - what is your end goal/ mountaintop? What one ‘win’ would make you think to yourself, “I made it”?

I don't really have that mindset of a goal, a job, or a certain experience. I've had various moments this year where I've looked back and said,

"Holy sh*t, how am I doing this? This is so incredible."

It should happen a lot through your career!

For me it's more about having the right values, knowing what you're doing day-to-day and constantly feeling switched on and energized. You have, as I was saying, proactivity, passion to learn - and as long as you do that consistently and don't lose motivation, I think usually you exceed whatever goal you have anyway.

Obviously there's things like running Formula One, which obviously would be pretty cool, pretty unlikely at the same time. I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can day in, day out to see what could happen.

In the past 18 months, I've certainly exceeded my expectations of what I was expecting from my placement year, from the job, everything.

So, I've had proof that the mindset of sticking to your values and not having a "once I get to this point I've made it" mentality works. It's more important to have little moments throughout your career, but always look forward. Almost never be satisfied.

It's like a gold medal at the Olympics. Once you win it, it's what now? So you want to always have things to look forward to and push towards.

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