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Chapter 6Turn Headwinds into Tailwinds: Positioning your team to adapt to the external environment

“When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”

– Warren Buffett

We're jumping back to 2011 and a very rainy Montreal in Canada. It's the day of the Canadian Grand Prix and, after 40 of the 70 laps, Jenson Button is in last place. By this stage of the race, the safety car has been on the track three times and there has been a two-hour suspension due to the rain.

Button has collided with McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton and, on lap 37, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. At the restart after the third outing for the safety car on lap 40, Button is in an unenviable position at the back of the pack. However, his team made one crucial decision earlier in the race: he was the first leading driver to switch from wet to intermediate tyres.

As the conditions improve, and Button is moving up the pack as other drivers pit, his team again takes a bold decision to switch from intermediate to dry-weather slick tyres. Button still has a lot to do as he enters the final six laps of the race, despite having made it back to the leading group. He's in fourth, with Schumacher, Webber, and Vettel still ahead of him.

On lap 65, Button overtakes both Schumacher and Webber to jump to second place, with Vettel now in his sights. As the cars zoom around the track on the next ...