Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Intro.
[00:00:06] Mark Boudreau: You're listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast.
Hey, it's Mark from Motorsport Prospects and welcome to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. This is where you we dive into the world of motorsport with the people who live and breathe it. From driver coaches and sponsorship experts to team owners, pro drivers and more. You'll hear real stories, practical advice and insights you can actually use, whether you're just starting out or already chasing success on the track.
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Many people have struggled to find reliable guidance, so I created most work prospects simply to help them make informed decisions. The professionals I feature on this podcast represent the kind of trust that people are looking for. So if you work with drivers or racing teams, building trust is really one of the most important things you can do.
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Let's get started.
My guest today is Dan Wells. Dan is a driver turned entrepreneur and founder of Simulation and Driver Performance Center, Drivers Lab, DW Driver Management and multiple championship winning Lamborghini race team DW Evans GT which is helping develop talent and run high performance programs from simulator to circuit. Welcome to the Motorsport Prospects. Dan, thanks a lot for being on the show.
[00:02:18] Dan Wells: Thanks very much Mark. Great to be here.
[00:02:22] Mark Boudreau: So everybody I ask on the podcast, it's one simple question and it often turns out to be not so simple and that's this.
Based on your experience and expertise as a motorsport professional, what would be the one most important piece of advice you could offer a current or aspiring race driver?
[00:02:43] Dan Wells: That's a very good question, Mark.
Yeah, I mean in terms of advice, I'd say the, the first thing that sort of hits me is about thinking long term.
You know, it's very easy when you're a young driver and you know, you're very much in that sort of short term thinking mode, you know, so if you're like a driver from let's say you don't have much money, you're thinking about how to get the next 10 grand to be able to, you know, do that cart race, do that car race, whatever it is.
And you know, if you're, you know, still you are racing but you, you know, you, you might think, okay, I need to make everything happen now. Even at the expense of something six months or a year or five years down the line.
And so this is where I would say, you know, planning, thinking long term, even if you are in that situation when you're starting out, that very beginning. And I remember when, when I started racing I only came into the sport as at the age of 18, so I was very late to, to the industry, late to racing. But you know, so I had a huge amount to catch up on and you know, all of that knowledge base, you know, you know what you know, you don't know what you don't know and you have to find out all of these points. And so I remember being very sort of, let's say short term sort of thinking like I had my grand plan, you know, I had like nine A4 pieces of paper on the wall as to what I was going to do and everything which I've sort of built to this point which you know, I still have somewhere sor. With all the tapes that are holding it together, you know, so I had that long term plan but a lot of my, my key decisions were based on short termism.
And this is where, you know, if you take a, take a moment, take a step back and this is where, you know, having good advice, you know, people who do listen to this podcast, who do, you know, go to the right people, you know, you told me before we started, you know the show like, you know, Ross Bentley was, was, was a recent guest, you know, like his Speed Secrets books. The first thing I tell people when they're getting the motorsport is read these books. There is more information in these six books, these six volumes than you could ever hope to have.
And it's amazing the number of people who don't actually do that. You know, it doesn't take that much time and you know, in an industry as we know, which is so expensive and so grueling for, you know, the athletes, the families, the sponsors, you know, the teams, everyone, you know, a little bit of information, I say a little bit, there's a lot of information in there, but it doesn't take much time but to be able to give yourself a much larger, let's say window of operation, you know, to be able to to be a professional, because, you know, motorsport is small and life is long.
[00:05:22] Mark Boudreau: Right.
[00:05:22] Dan Wells: And decisions which you make or, you know, how you act in a certain way within the industry, you know, that will, that will get remembered. And, you know, you always want to be remembered when, when your opportunity, when your name comes up for a seat or when something comes up, it's like, oh, no, that, that guy's a proper professional. No, he's, he's good. You know, we like him for this reason, you know, and so that's, that would probably be. Yeah, the first thing that sort of comes comes across my mind.
[00:05:49] Mark Boudreau: Yeah, actually, that's a, That's a great point, because you're right. And you know what? It's not just in racing. We tend to always look at kind of the next week, the next day, then, you know, the, the, the, the next race. And we're not always kind of looking at the big picture and where we want to fit in.
And also, I think if you look at that big picture, you'll probably. The. There might be opportunities that if you're too short term, that you're. You might be missing out on because you don't have that bigger picture.
[00:06:21] Dan Wells: No, exactly. I mean, it's.
If you. Whenever I start to work with a driver, for example, you know, in driver's lab, I'm seeing a lot of drivers coming in. You know, driver's lab is a, you know, driver development facility with, you know, simulator. We train the drivers in the simulator. And so I'm seeing, you know, 12, 13 drivers a day coming in. And, And I say to them, I said, you know, what's. What's the end goal?
And, you know, they'll say, oh, Formula one World Champion. Or they'll say, oh, they want to win Le Mans. Or they'll just say, oh, they just want to be a professional. Professional driver. You know, lots of different things.
And then I sort of. I take a four piece of paper and, you know, I put at the end here, I say, okay, this is your goal and this is us here. You know, oh, are you, Are you doing everything that you need to get there? Are you on the right trajectory or are we missing some bits? And they always go, oh, yeah, no, probably not. You know, they all say. And it's like, well, so what are those things which you're not doing now in order to, you know, are you operating at that level? If, you know, they often say. I say, who's the best driver in the world? They say, max. I said, okay, are you operating at the level Right now, to be able to, on course in 5 years, 7 years, 10 years to be, to be at that level. And they go, no.
And so this is where, you know, living in the present is great 100%. You need to live in the present, but you do need to zoom out and go, okay, what's, what's the end goal? What's the sort of point here? And, and this is where, you know, the planning something which is often.
Yeah, so so many people take for granted is planning, you know, whether that's planning in terms of management.
You know, I once secured a seat for a driver which was about a year and a half, two years in advance, you know, in terms of putting the right sort of the groundwork together and, and the choices of the previous team and who and the engineer and, you know, all these sorts of things to be able to get that was that desired result. So, you know, from the outside you go, oh, that driver got a seat in the champion team. And oh, that was just because they had money or just because they had this or like. Well, no, actually there was a lot of smaller calculations and, and decisions and, and meetings and things which happened to be able to achieve that effect. And so, you know, so many, so many parents I see, you know, they sort of, they'll talk and they'll talk and then they, they rock up, you know, an event with a team who maybe they're not the best team, they don't have the best engineer, maybe they're not going to get the best, you know, the best dampers or whatever, any of these sorts of things within the team is. And that's where, you know, having that, that global view as to, and not being stuck in the trenches because it's so difficult. You know, I had one driver who came into the facility first.
He was about 14 and a half, 15 and great kid, really great kid.
But we're now two and a. Two and a half years past and he's still in carts and he's well past Formula age. And it's like, you know, they're so stuck in that, you know, the now which is, yeah, he's winning, but it's like what he should do because he's two, three years older than the rest of the competition.
But, you know, if, if they just zoom out to this point rather than staying here, zoom out to here and go, oh, actually, yeah, no, we're probably not on target given the state of dame was Formula 4 or, you know, whatever as the next step. So it's not an easy thing to Be able to balance and to manage in terms of a driver's career, which
[00:09:41] Mark Boudreau: is, which is key I think, which is what motorsport Prospects is all about, is finding the right people giving you the right advice. Because like you said, you know, people don't know what they don't know and if they don't work with the right people that will help them build that long term plan.
Well, to be perfectly honest, they're, they're probably doing well. There's two things they're ending up doing. They're spending a lot of money for no real return and there's a good chance that that young driver will get so frustrated and either will quit the sport or the parents will run out of money and basically that we've lost yet another driver.
So you mentioned Driver's Lab. Just maybe let everybody know a little bit about, about what Driver's Lab is all about and what you, what you guys do.
[00:10:31] Dan Wells: Yeah, so Driver's Lab primarily is a driver development facility. So you know, we look after drivers coming from carts into Formula 4, for example. We have a lot of, you know, development programs for them to be able to transition into Formula 4 in the most, let's say cost effective and easiest way for them to, to go into, you know, Whether it's Italian F4, British F4, these sorts of things.
But we also work with, you know, drivers in GTS and prototypes. You know, we work with crowdstrike racing. They were, they're actually our first clients in 2024 when they won the Asian Le Mans Championship in, in that year, you know, they all came in and did their preparation so effectively, you know, a single seater chassis simulated with a full projection with pro sim braking and all of the peripherals which are all from, from top level and simulation. You know, you have to, if you're teaching things, you know, driving wise, you have to make sure it's accurate. So, so it operates at the level is exceptionally, exceptionally high end but gives us the ability to develop drivers. But not just that we do the cognitive development.
We also have the physical training and the nutrition, everything, everything which you would, would want to sort of drive the development, you know, an athlete development really. So you know, Driver's Lab sits independently. You know, we work with, you know, all road management, we work with pro racing drivers, we work with Iron Links, we work with absolute, we work with Dragon Racing, we work with, you know, some of the best management companies and teams in the sport and that stands independently. You know, I also have my own, you know, driver management business which is very much Specialized and focused on young drivers, you know, F4, formula regional, GB3, these sorts of areas.
And then of course, also the race team. So very, let's say, used to wearing, let's say, different hats, right? But. But seeing things from a driver, from a team owner's perspective, from a manager's perspective, you know, the training side, there's lots of different things within my sport, which is what I love about it. You know, I love. I love winning. Like, I'm exceptionally competitive and, you know, I. I love nothing more than, you know, I took one kid from two and a half, three seconds off the pace to winning a title, winning a race within seven months and winning a title within a year and a half on a Formula one weekend.
You know, I love that as a project.
Same time, you know, Isaac Hajar, he was a driver who, you know, I was fortunate enough to have in 20, 21 when his mother came to me being like, and I've got 80, €000, you know, what can I do? And I was like, well, not very much. But we managed to, you know, get him into Asian Formula 3, put his mechanics, you know, the right mechanics on the car, the right engineer, you know, work that together nicely with, with Evans Grand Prix. And then, you know, it worked nicely. And I spoke to Zach Brown at McLaren, I said, you need to sign this kid. You know, that was the first day I could see the kid was mustard. And of course, Paul picked him up and. And the rest is history.
[00:13:33] Mark Boudreau: Yeah.
Now, driver's lab is head. Is. Is based in Dubai.
[00:13:39] Dan Wells: Yeah, yeah, it's based just opposite turn 1 of Dubai Auto Drone. So the facility which we have there, you know, we're, you know, obviously very easy for Dubai and then also for. For Yas Marina Prep. So this is our busiest time of the year. You know, we, to be fair, we were really busy October, November, December. But then now we have Formula Regional this weekend, we have Formula 4. We have the Dubai 24 hours of which driver's lab is a partner with the Centec. 24 hours here. Okay, so we have logos on the back of every one of the cars in the Cravantex series. So that's always a cool, cool event.
And yeah, so it's the busiest time. And of course, a lot of the drivers coming in to do their prep. We end up doing sessions from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. We had some requests for 5am Even.
[00:14:25] Mark Boudreau: Oh, geez.
[00:14:26] Dan Wells: But again, this is where the preparation comes in. It never ceases to amaze me how, you know, Even yesterday I got a message, oh, Dan, can I get a simulator slot for, you know, today, like literally that day. And you know, I had to give away like the 9pm session or something because obviously we're fully booked. But you do, I do get to see who's organized and who's, let's say less organized. And there's one driver coach who, you know, he booked in about six weeks ago and you know, he was all ready, confirmed the dates, the times, everything. And you know, that's, that's a proper professional, you know. Okay. We, we still cater, you know, when as best as we can on the day. But, but yeah, it does give good insight as to who's on top of their game and who's maybe just slightly behind the eight ball.
[00:15:10] Mark Boudreau: Yeah. And ultimately, you know, every professional I ever talk to, every successful race driver I talk to or team principal, the ultimate. At the end of the day, it's always the same thing. It's a lot of work and you have to be willing to put in that work if you're going to be successful.
And I think sometimes people, and I think that's where that long termism is important, where people underestimate the amount of work involved in getting to and becoming a professional race driver. I mean it, it's just an incredible amount of work.
[00:15:42] Dan Wells: Yeah, no, you're, you're probably right, you know. Yeah. The number of drivers who I do see who have this goal or this aim and you know, I can think of some drivers who, yeah. You know, you give so much advice or time or, and this really is, it's energy, you know, and especially if you care, you know, there's, if you, if you care when you're competitive and you really want to help, you know, and, and, and they'll still, you know, maybe not take that advice on board or not work as hard and it's like. Well, the reason why we're, you know, we're here is because we've been there, been there, we've done it.
You know, we work with the best professionals in the sport. They've been there and done it. They've seen the best drivers, you know, they've seen the best, you know, the best of what there is. They're, they're very familiar with the global picture, yet they still don't work as hard. But that's, that's the thing when you're young. And you know what always impressed me with like Hajar, for example, you know, he was just, I mean he was exceptionally motivated, he was exceptionally Dedicated.
And there was. There was nothing which would stop him again to F1. Like, he would sit there and he was. He was obsessed by it, you know. Right.
And then you see some other drivers and they go, you know, oh, yeah, it'd be good to do this. Oh, you know, that's like. You've got your journeyman and then you've got your real sort of proper, you know, your Max Verstappens and your Hajars and your, you know, guys like this.
And so it's, you know, trying. Trying to actually get.
Get people to understand that, okay, you know, this is. This is not an easy spot. It's not an easy sport mentally. It's not an easy sport physically. There's a lot of things which need to come together for you to, you know, be in the sport for, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 years.
And, yeah, it's not. It's not. Not the work of the moment.
[00:17:30] Mark Boudreau: And, you know, you talk about mental. I mean, Hajar is a perfect example. His very first race, when he had that, you know, he crashed out on. On the. On the, you know, it wasn't even the first lap. It was the. The formation lap. And to be able to, you know, to be able to learn from that experience and then take that, and instead of it completely dominating your thinking and affecting your driving, you know, he literally took that as a lesson and turned around and turned that around. And, I mean, it shows what he does on the track now. So, you know, it takes. Yeah, I think it takes a certain dedicated person to take the down parts of. And look, there's a lot of times where things don't go well and to mentally be able to learn from that and build on that, as opposed to just saying, you know, this is terrible, and woe is me.
That's. That's the mental part of it, is I think people underestimate that as well.
[00:18:29] Dan Wells: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, it's always something which, you know, in terms of mindset, you know, we work with Enzo Moochie. You know, he's.
[00:18:37] Mark Boudreau: He's going to be on the show.
[00:18:39] Dan Wells: Oh, brilliant.
Yeah. I mean, he's brilliant. And it's funny, actually, so. But it's. It's great because the people you got on the show, the people who helped me when I came into the sport. So Enzo is the guy who inspired me at the very, very beginning that I could become a racing driver. Because when I was, you know, doing politics and economics at school, I was listening to the Enzo muchi volumes. What was it? I think he had six volumes as well, but CD discs. And, you know, I was listening to that and, you know, I applied a lot of what Enzo was saying and Enzo worked with his work with all of my drivers.
You know, he's, he's a superb, superb individual. But, yeah, the mindset, you know, just where do you place your focus? Where do you place your energy?
You know, and, and this, this applies to, you know, myself now in the role which, you know, I'm now retired as a driver, you know, retired with three titles and, and the last year. But, you know, how do I apply that now in my business? How do I apply it with my drivers? How do we, you know, apply it with the drivers at driver's lap, you know, also with, with my, you know, Lamborghini team, you know, in a role which is, you know, we won five titles in the last three years. But, you know, a lot of that, so much of that came down to the mental side, and not just of the drivers, but of the, you know, of myself, of the engineer, of the mechanics, you know, how they went about it. It's a huge, it's a huge part of it.
And if you don't have that grounding, let's say steady hand, you know, in your, in your vicinity as a driver or as a parent or something, it's very easy to get too, you know, and it all just becomes too much because there's too much emotion, there's too much money, there's too much risk, there's all of these things and it just needs that steady hand. Let's go.
It's okay. It's control.
So, yeah, that's, it's not easy.
[00:20:32] Mark Boudreau: Yeah, no, and that's, that's exactly what sets a professional apart from, you know, from somebody who's not.
So how do people find out more about Driver's Lab? Where did they go, you guys?
[00:20:45] Dan Wells: Yeah, Driver's Lab. You can find us on Instagram, drivers.lab. we have some quite, sometimes some funny, funny content on there. You can follow us, but we're also on the, on the website drivers-lab.com.
[00:20:55] Mark Boudreau: okay.
[00:20:56] Dan Wells: And yeah, personally, I'm Dan Wells racing on Instagram. You can find all of the different links, whether it's the Lamborghini team or the management company or Driver's Lab there. But everything motorsport and yeah, always happy to get on a call or to have a chat with someone who wants some guidance in motorsport.
[00:21:14] Mark Boudreau: Perfect. I'll post all those links in the show notes for anybody that wants to connect with Dan and see what he's up to now I have, I do have one final question and it's a fun one.
Favorite track? Current or historical? What would that be for you?
[00:21:31] Dan Wells: Macau Grand Prix.
[00:21:33] Mark Boudreau: Oh, really?
[00:21:34] Dan Wells: Yeah, the Macau circuit. Yeah, it's so I did Macau in 2013, 14 and 15.
And yeah, it's just such an amazing track because you've got the high speed, you know, with the Mandarin flat out corner, right hander, then you've got the mountain section, you've got the bumps. It's in Asia which, you know, it was only next door to me in Hong Kong. You know, I was living in Hong Kong for 13 years and it had such a, yeah, a really amazing feel, you know, to, to drive. I did it in Formula 3 against Max Verstappen and I remember Max overtaking me around the outside of that Mandarin bend, like flat out, like it's crazy.
But yeah. So I'd have to go with the, with the Macau circuit.
[00:22:18] Mark Boudreau: I love watching Macau every year and you know, you have the inevitable, especially with the, especially with the sports cars when one guy goes out in a corner and it's that concertina effect which sometimes is, is, is wild to watch. But that is a fun race and I've always told people, I've always recommended people to at least watch it.
Yeah, brilliant. Well, thanks so much Dan for being on the show. Really appreciate it. Like I said to everybody, I'll put all the links on the show notes.
Definitely check out Dan's content. There's always a lot of really interesting things, some, some great information that you might have missed.
Dan's got some really good stuff that'll help you out in your, in your journey in motorsport.
So that's it for this week. This is Mark from Motorsport Prospects reminding you to stay fast, stay focused and keep chasing that checkered flag.
Thanks for listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. For insights, advice and the latest news racers can use, visit motorsportprospects.com.
