Inside Formula 1: Business. Lifestyle. Power.
Brian Sims
Brian Sims is one of international sports most experienced and successful sponsorship acquisition exponents, originally for his own professional racing career, before acquiring the ground-breaking multi-million-pound deals that brought FedEx, Marconi and Gillette into F1 for the first time. He then became the Commercial Director of the Benetton F1 Team, until its sale in 2001 to Renault.
Brian was s the Founder in 1994 of the prestigious Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) and is now one of just 4 Honorary Life Members of the Association. In 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Birmingham City University, recognising his outstanding contribution to the UK motorsport industry.
On behalf of the World Academy of Sport, Brian has run many training courses on sponsorship acquisition for World Rugby, the International Cricket Council, Bahrain Olympic Committee and other global sports associations, as well as for the BRDC, Porsche and Ford.
In recent years, Brian has been in high demand as a Guest Speaker, talking about his fascinating 47-year career in motorsport, whilst his current on-line mentoring services on the topic of sponsorship acquisition are proving extremely popular.
His highly acclaimed autobiography entitled “You Don’t Have To be a Champion to be a Winner!” was recently published in paperback.
His website is: www.brian-sims.com
Are we brave enough for a new approach?
I can’t recall a time when there was more criticism of Formula 1 than there is now. Everyone I speak to seems to have their own opinion of what’s going wrong, but only a handful of people seem able to…
Money, Egos & Speed: Voices from the past
In March, I was invited to the launch of the Beaulieu Heritage Museum’s new motorsport exhibition. Spring is a great time to drive through the New Forest and so I gladly accepted the chance to once again visit what has…
The career path that works
I’m often asked why I decided to set up the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), way back in 1994. There were, in fact, many reasons and in the January 2014 edition of the Paddock magazine, I outlined them in some detail.…
Thanks for the memories!
If asked to describe how good or bad a racing driver I’d been, I think I’d fall back on that rather overworked school report phraseology: “He made good use of what little talent he possessed, but with more application could…
Money, Egos & Speed: The tide is turning
The tide is turning: I recently watched a most enjoyable programme on the Sky F1 channel. It was Brunswick Film’s “Review of the 1971 F1 World Championship” and what amazing memories it brought back, watching so many famous names battling…
Money, Egos & Speed – Focused strategies
In last year’s October edition of the Paddock magazine, I described what an amazing event the Goodwood Revival has become. Living literally a few hundred meters from the boundary fence of the Goodwood circuit, it was no hardship to head…
Money, Egos & Speed – In need for a revival
If there’s one annual motorsport event that I would be really upset to miss, it’s the Goodwood Revival. This year we were blessed with amazing weather, some superb flying displays which included the last two Lancaster bombers still capable of…
Asteroid on its way
We’ve reached the point where a significant number of racing drivers will be looking at their bank balances and realising that they’re not going to get through to the end of the season. The coffers are empty! In most cases,…
An inside job
On the 1st of July, I attended the MIA Summer Reception at the House of Lords. As you can imagine, it was a special event for me, being the 20th Anniversary of the business organisation that I founded, with a…
RIP Kyalami?
On the 24th July 2014, the famous Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa will come under the hammer at an auction run by Johannesburg’s High Street Auction Company. No reserve has been placed on the sale. When I first…
