Author: Peter Goodman

“After 14 victories in the last 16 races, including a double at the Le Mans 24 Hours 2009 as part of the ILMC championship won by Peugeot two years running, in 2010 and 2011, the Brand has decided to close its 2012 endurance programme and will not be taking part in the next Le Mans 24 Hours.”

These words hit the press around 3.30pm on Wednesday 18 January.

The news was quite a shock to motorsports fans across the World but their shock was nothing compared to the shock suffered by my client and, to a lesser extent, by myself. Let me back up a bit.

Peugeot has an excellent history in Le Mans type racing and in the last few years they have been the quickest car. Last year they didn’t win Le Mans but they won just about everything else and, to the outsider, all looked great for the Team. There was no hint of a withdrawal.

I have quite a few motorsports clients, both drivers and teams. Some are multi millionaires, some are on the fast track to the glamour and riches of formula One but many are hard working talented drivers who don’t have wealthy or well connected parents or a manufacturer supporting them. One such client, let’s call him client A, has worked really hard against the odds for years, like Robert Bruce’s spider, and was on the cusp of achieving the top rung on the ladder when Wednesday’s news came in.

The timeline is really quite extraordinary. Client A’s manager contacted me last Sunday afternoon. Client A had finally made it after many years of slow progress up the sportscar ladder. A final test in the all conquering Peugeot 908 was to take place in Sebring, Florida. There was every chance that the test would lead to a race seat at Le Mans and possibly also in the new World Endurance Championship. At the very least it would give him a chance to impress one of the two top teams in endurance sportscar racing.

Then there was a delay. So often there is a delay in the world of motor racing. It seems to me that the cars are the only things that work efficiently. There is no shortage of speed but this is usually caused by the last minute panic caused by a failure to plan ahead, and so it was on this occasion!

It was Wednesday afternoon before things started moving. I received the contract at 2.18pm on 18 January. By this time client A had given up waiting for the contract and, being assured that the contract was on its way, he was in the air flying to Florida at his own expense. There was a requirement that he sign the contract upon his arrival. The contract was in French, which didn’t help, but by 3.28 I’d translated it, checked it and given my client’s manager a short and largely favourable report on the contract.

Ten minutes later the news came in! Without warning there’s no programme, no test, no sportscars, no contract, nothing – all terminated just a few hours after the contract was sent out. Extraordinary! Another ridiculous story for my autobiography.

Peter Goodman is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer.
Peter has particular niche, and many years experience, in sports law in which he once worked as a celebrity manager. He continues to advise a number of sporting celebrities and institutions. He has an international reputation in the field of motor sport, is quoted in the press and has spoken at a number of conferences on many different aspects of commercial law.

If you would like more information or advice relating to a specific matter, please do not hesitate to contact Peter Goodman on 01727 798061 or by email at peter.goodman@salaw.com.

© SA LAW 2012
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.

Author: Peter Goodman

On Friday 7 July it was time for my annual business trip to Silverstone for the Grand Prix and supporting races. The weekend always starts the same way. Before I can go to Silverstone I have to go elsewhere to collect my passes. Sometimes this can involve a trip as far north as Coventry but, on this occasion, I was lucky. My passes were in a hotel in Northampton, less than 20 miles from the circuit.

The journey, I’m very pleased to say,  was uneventful. I had a parking place inside the track. This is great in two ways, firstly it means that you can drive nearly the whole way to the Paddock and secondly you can feel very self important and smug, especially if the weather is bad. On the other hand, as many self important people discover each year, it can be a nightmare trying to leave the circuit.

Upon arrival I went to the GP2 hospitality complex and, to cut a long story short, spent most of the day there. The weather in Silverstone, on Friday 7 July was awful. Enough sunny intervals to encourage the unwary to venture out followed by a summer’s worth of sharp summer downpours. The TV screens showed many pictures of poor unfortunates, either with no umbrella or a demolished umbrella, bravely watching the cars, or were they boats, standing on one of Silverstone’s many uncovered grassy (muddy) banks.

After 5-6 hours in the hospitality area discussing international motorsport with the denizens of GP2 it was time to visit the F1 paddock.  It’s perhaps worth mentioning that GP2 is far more cosmopolitan than F1. In F1 nearly all of the teams are English, whereas GP2 is a good mix of British, French, Italian and German. This year Silverstone has a new F1 paddock (GP2 was in the old F1 paddock) and it seemed that most of the teams had new hospitality buildings, once called motor homes but now something out of a science fiction movie. It was the usual scene. A few lucky punters, who had somehow gained entry, showing their total lack of cool by walking up and down the Paddock looking for celebrities. Occasionally a race driver or a famous engineer would make an appearance, be mobbed by these people and retire back to their space craft swearing never to come out again. Incidentally, a word of advice from an experienced Paddock person – if you want to see somebody really famous like Rihanna or Nicole Scherzinger you have to be there early or stay really late. Autographs? Forget it!

Against this background I had a fairly tense meeting with a famous team owner and my client. It’s the usual thing. Brilliant young driver, experienced old team owner and a game of double bluff. Who will win? Watch for this blog next year.

Then followed brief but pleasant social visits to Williams, Force India and Red Bull catching up with longstanding colleagues and then it was time to get back to the car.

I finally got away just before 7pm and it was back to St Albans, not an easy journey. Firstly big queues out of the circuit – yes at 7pm on the Friday night, followed by fun and games through the road works on the M1.

The next day it was back to Silverstone for a non business day. I had only two tasks and both were pleasurable. Watching Paul di Resta in F1 qualifying and then watching the GP2 race. I had the usual dilemma – do you go early or late? Late is a big gamble but, in theory a great idea. As usual I didn’t have the nerve to go late and arrived at the circuit before 9.30.

Most of Saturday was like Friday all over again and like countless days spent as such places as Charlotte, Monaco, Monza, Indianapolis, Long Beach, Barcelona, Daytona and an endless list of seemingly exotic locations that are essentially the same place. One paddock is much the same as another and one hospitality area, once you’re inside, is much the same as the rest. The weather was a little better and there were more people about. Otherwise all looked exactly the same. The picture on the TV screen wasn’t great and at one point I got very excited when I thought that Alonso (Alo) was about to be eliminated in round one of qualifying when, in fact, it was Alguersuari (Alg).

Immediately after this came, for me, the highlight of the weekend. I had the right passes for a trip to the new pits at Silverstone and to be on the grid for the GP2 race. It’s great to be on the grid. You can get a good look at the cars and the drivers being prepared for the race plus that hopeful feeling that the eyes of the world are on you. Tiring quickly of the cars and drivers I noticed that there was an extremely attractive track marshal standing near my client’s car so I went up to her and said “It’s my first time on this grid.” “Yes”, she said “it’s everybody’s first time on this grid. It’s not been used before.” At this moment I felt elated and stupid at the same time. The various buzzers sounded and it was time to get off the grid before the race started and I walked back to my car watching the cars whiz by me as they did. I managed to leave the circuit by 4.30 and was rewarded with a swift journey home.

Sunday? I watched the race on TV like every other sensible person.

© SA LAW 2011
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.

Author: Peter Goodman

The Indy 500 is not well known in Europe but it should be. In most of the world it is perceived as the world’s number one motor race, ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix (held on the same day), the Daytona 500, the Le Mans 24 hours race and the Monte Carlo Rally. Indisputably it is the world’s largest single day sporting event. There are 250,000 seats outside the two and a half mile oval, many tens of thousands of seats inside the track and many large corporate boxes. It is also a race of great heritage, last week’s event was the 95th Indy 500. By contrast last weekend’s Monaco GP was “only” the 69th!

I have been lucky enough to watch the Indy 500 on four occasions; from the pits, the iconic Pagoda and from the hospitality suites. The atmosphere is incredible. The cars corner at more than 200 mph and average 230mph around the lap. Formula One cars never reach these speeds.

In last week’s race there were two SA Law clients. Dario Franchitti, who won last year and in 2007 and Dan Wheldon who won in 2005 and had been second in 2009 and 2010. Dario was hot favourite, being also the reigning IRL Champion but Dan was a complete outsider. Bizarrely he doesn’t even have a drive in this year’s IRL Championship. Imagine, if you can, a driver without a regular drive in Formula One taking part in the Monaco GP.

The race was gripping with its fair share of accidents on track and misfortunes in the pit lane. As with the Monaco GP it also had its element of tension as some cars struggled to stretch the fuel in their tanks over the last few laps. One by one these cars had to stop to refuel and so lost their chance of winning the race. Included in this group were Dario Franchitti and America’s darling, Danica Patrick.

Amazingly it looked as though American rookie Jay Hildebrand was going to win. Jay’s a young but not a particularly successful driver but his race engineer did by far the best job in the fuel conservation gamble. Jay was leading by 8 seconds (getting on for half a mile at those speeds) as he entered the last lap and by 5 seconds as he entered the last corner. Incredibly he lost control as he entered the home straight and crashed into the barriers sliding at high speed towards the chequered flag. As he did this only one car was close enough to overtake him, Dan Wheldon! What an amazing, and fortuitous victory, but perhaps after coming second two years in a row he deserved a bit of luck.

The only British drivers to win the Indy 500 are Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti, Jim Clark and Graham Hill.

Author: Peter Goodman

How long I’ve waited to write those words! On Wednesday 26 January Force India finally announced that Paul will race for them in Formula One in 2011.

For me, part of the unseen support group that surrounds every successful driver, it was the end of a long road – in two senses.

Paul is the cousin of Dario Franchitti, double Indy 500 Champion and a client of mine since 1991. in 2003 Dario told me that he had a cousin racing in Formula Renault and would I please make sure that his “legals” were in order and that he wasn’t stitched up.

Over the years I’ve worked with many drivers from the most famous in the history of the sport to those who are known only to their parents and some very sad petrol heads. I had no idea what to expect when I first saw Paul race. Was he the undeserving son of rich parents, the victim of a father obsessed with motorsport, or a genuine talent?

Paul was, and is, a charming young man but at that time he was very shy and the few races that I saw in 2003 did not go well for him. It also didn’t help that most of the races I was watching in those days were in glamorous places like Long Beach, Charlotte and Barcelona and I wasn’t too keen to return to circuits like Snetterton, Thruxton and Knockhill.

Paul then had two impressive years in Formula 3 winning the Euro Series title in the second year beating his German teammate Sebastien Vettel, now the reigning Formula One champion. Paul really needed to do GP2 the next year but he could not find the substantial financial backing required to participate. Fortunately he’d impressed Mercedes and they offered him employment in DTM, a title that Paul won in 2010 after finishing 5th, 2nd and 3rd in the other seasons.

Paul is a very talented driver but without the money to do GP2, or to pay for an F1 drive, it’s just about impossible to get into Formula One. So, how did he do it? First he impressed Mercedes in F3 and DTM and second he took on a manager whose job spec was simple – get Paul an F1 drive. The manager was Anthony Hamilton, father of Lewis. Anthony brought so many contacts and so much passion to his job that in December 2009 Paul signed a reserve driver contract with Force India, giving them an option to sign Paul as a race driver for 2011.

So it’s been a long road to get Paul to Formula One, but it’s also taken a long time to finalise the deal that was announced on 26 January. It’s been more than three months of negotiation and amending contracts to get the deal done. I read in the press that part of the reason for this is that Force India has had to strike a deal with Vitantonio Liuzzi. I know nothing of that but I do know that a great deal of specialist advice has been needed to  get Paul’s contract into its final shape.

All we need to do now is wish Paul, our third UK driver in F1 in 2011, a fast, reliable car and his fair share of good luck.

Peter Goodman is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer.
Peter has particular niche, and many years experience, in sports law in which he once worked as a celebrity manager. He continues to advise a number of sporting celebrities and institutions. He has an international reputation in the field of motor sport, is quoted in the press and has spoken at a number of conferences on many different aspects of commercial law.