Capricorn Risk

MEET CAPRICORN RISKS NEW HEAD OF SALES LES MCGREGOR

For Les McGregor, joining Capricorn Risk Services after 30 years working in the Australian insurance industry felt like coming home. “I used to deal with Capricorn a long time ago, back in about 2000,” he said.

“I was working for a company who used to assist with the insurance for Capricorn back then. In those days it was just the automotive division, so I worked fairly closely with them in providing members with insurance.

“Then I was also working closely with the Area Managers, as understanding the benefits of Capricorn I was keen to promote the cooperative.”

Fast-forward a couple of decades and Capricorn has its own, well-established, mutual protection arm in Capricorn Risk Services, and Les, as our new head of sales, is in charge of Capricorn Risk’s field team of nearly 40 people.

It was an opportunity he jumped at. “For me, it was going back to probably the days that I enjoyed the most — which was working, dealing in the motor trade industry,” he said.

“I enjoyed being out on the road, going into workshops and talking with mechanics and panel beaters and auto-electricians. You’re dealing with good people, hard-working people, and I really enjoyed being able to help them out and make sure they had the adequate protection.”

As restrictions ease, Les is looking forward to getting out onto the road.

“It’s unfortunate that with COVID at the moment I haven't been able to go out and see too many Members,” he said. "Our field teams love being face-to-face with Members and I cannot wait to join them.

Despite lockdowns and restrictions, Les said he was proud of the service the Capricorn Risk Services field team has been able to provide to Members during the pandemic.

“The way our leaders and account managers have been able to get on with their jobs in tough times — not being able to see Members, but making phone calls and trying to help the Members out as much as possible — that’s really pleasing to see,” he said. “They really care about the Members.”

Les, who has worked in the insurance and protection industry in Australia since the age of 18, said the fact Capricorn Risk Services is a mutual makes a big difference to the way it engages with Members and the service provided.

“Nearly all insurance companies in Australia are actually pulling back and winding down their field force,” he said. “We’re actually looking to grow ours. We’ve received feedback from Members that it’s important that we’ve got people seeing them face-toface.”

“It’s part of what makes it a great place to work — because we’re going out and seeing Members, building relationships with them, helping them and, I suppose, helping them grow their businesses, too.”

Contact Capricorn Risk Services 1800 007 022 I info@capricornrisk.com I capricornrisk.com

The inside story of Brawn GP is an incredible read for any motor racing fan, outlining how “ a disastrous situation was completely turned around through sheer determination... “

by Paul Marinelli

SURVIVE. DRIVE. WIN.

FROM DISASTER TO WORLD DOMINATION.

If you are a fan of true sporting success stories, here is one that has to be read to be believed. Survive. Drive. Win is the story of how a Formula One team had lost its multimillion dollar income lifeline following the 2008 season and was faced with trying to locate a new owner or investors, with extremely limited time during the onset of the Global Financial Crisis.

Unable to attract a new owner, the fledgling but determined management team decided to take a massive risk to save the team by way of a management buy-out. Despite the odds being stacked heavily against them, this team beat the world’s best Grand Prix teams and drivers to become the 2009 Formula One Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Champions, laying the foundations of success that would result in a mega-team dominating the sport of Formula One motor racing to this day.

The book is written by Nick Fry, leader of the management team that managed to do the seemingly impossible – and in amazing style. The highly experienced motorsport executive spent over three decades with Ford Europe before taking the CEO helm at the world’s largest motorsport based engineering company, Prodrive. He followed this with the CEO role for the factory entered BAR Honda Formula One team, Honda’s official factory team, which then became the far leaner but extremely potent Brawn GP Team in 2009.

The book outlines how the Global Financial Crisis caused Japanese automotive giant Honda to announce the company’s immediate withdrawal from Formula One just as the team was engaged in its detailed engineering preparations for the 2009 season. This news was delivered without prior warning, leaving some 700 members of staff and management personnel in limbo until a new owner or another solution could be found to continue competing.

Fry’s unrelenting pursuit of one of Formula One’s most talented engineers, Ross Brawn, saw him disturb the legendary Formula One engineer while on a worldwide “fishing sabbatical” after a multi-season run of success with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.

How Fry convinced Brawn to get onboard, to the total dismay of the Italian team, was his first of many major coups in saving and enabling this Formula One team to reach the highest of motorsport highs from the most disastrous of starting points.

The team was purchased from Honda for the princely sum of 1£, with the new team management taking on all of the team’s liabilities, staffing and engineering, using the state-of-the-art facilities that Honda had invested millions of pounds in over their several years in Formula One. In a show of support for the new management, Honda agreed to provide limited funding to keep the team racing, but This meant that the team had to be run extremely lean and sadly the headcount was drastically reduced to the bare minimum required to enable the team to function. This meant 40 staff at the races instead of 140 as it was previously under Honda’s ownership. Each factory department had to lean out its costs, with Brawn and Fry flying the budget airline EasyJet to the European races.

The book recounts funny experiences on those EasyJet flights after winning Grand Prix races, with F1 fans unable to believe that the triumphant team owners were sitting with them, celebrating in the cheapest seats on the plane. Cost cutting was so dramatic that any expense over 75£ required management approval!

After missing the first two pre-2009 season tests, the new team, known as Brawn GP, brought their new, plain white liveried cars to the third and final pre-season test day with drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. They were equipped with Mercedes-Benz customer engines and managed to blitz the entire Formula One field’s lap times by over 1.5 seconds!

The car had been developed throughout 2008 by the Honda factory team and required modification to cater for the new MercedesBenz power unit, but in an engineering feat of perfection — mainly centred around Brawn’s ingenious rear double diffuser concept, the cars were instantly very fast.

Then it was on to Melbourne for the opening Grand Prix of the 2009 season, with limited spares and a small team full of hope, backing up their testing pace with pole position and the Grand Prix win for Button and second place to his teammate Barrichello. It was a 1,2 Brawn GP debut that sent the rest of the field into a tailspin, with protests against the car’s design submitted by the big three (Ferrari, McLaren and Williams) which were all ultimately unsuccessful.

A further six Grand Prix victories and five podiums followed as the Brawn GP juggernaut amazed the Formula One world. By the final race of the 17 round season, Jenson Button and Brawn GP were the 2009 Formula One World Champions, taking the cherished Driver’s and Manufacturer’s titles in one massive fairytale fell swoop. (Rubens Barrichello finished third in the title chase). The team was then sold to Mercedes-Benz and the rest is Formula One domination history that continues to this day.

The inside story of Brawn GP is an incredible read for any motor racing fan, outlining how a disastrous situation was completely turned around through sheer determination, the right people and a heap of luck. Survive. Drive. Win by Nick Fry is available in Australia and New Zealand from Allen & Unwin Book Publishers.

CITROËN’S PROMISES ‘LE VOYAGE IN E-COMFORT’

Citroën, the French automaker, has given us some classic designs over its century in business.

Think of the sleek and imposing Traction-Avant of the interwar years, the sporty SM of the 1970s, and the bug-like 2CV that captivates children and adults alike whenever we see one pootling along the road.

With a track record like that, their latest concept car releases are possibly a little less… iconic. Let’s take a closer look at one of them — the Citroën 19_19 Concept.

Citroën promises the 19_19 will be “le voyage in e-comfort”.

While the 30-inch tyres don’t immediately scream “this ride is going to be comfortable”, Citroën says the comfort is provided by an innovation — a fully glazed, suspended cabin which sits on a modified version of Citroën’s Progressive Hydraulic Cushions suspension system. It’s so smooth Citroën has promoted the 19_19 as “a living room on wheels”. (Which might also explain the safety-defying passenger seat, which is quite literally a chaise longue like you’d see in a posh city apartment, and the marble magazine rack. No, really: it has a marble magazine rack.) But are we really interested in comfort? No-one who sees a Lamborghini Gallardo zipping past them on the freeway thinks “yeah, but those seats have absolutely no lumbar support”. We want something beautiful — and powerful.

How does the 19_19 stack up?

Well, unlike the Traction-Avant and the SM, the 19_19 doesn’t really have the most drool-worthy appearance. Apparently, the design is based, in part, on an egg and on a long-defunct Citroënmade helicopter.

Let’s get to the power.

The 19_19 is powered by an all-electric drivetrain, and Citroën says it accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in five seconds and reaches a top speed of 200 km/h. Driven by 100 kWh batteries, the 4WD drivetrain comprises two motors (one at the front, one at the rear) and develops torque of 800 Nm and power of 340 kW. Citroën says the vehicle has a range of 800 km — which would make this ugly duckling more practical for long distance travel than many electric vehicles.

Compare that to the Tesla Model 3, currently available. Tesla says the Model 3 hits 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds, has a top speed of 261 km/h and has an estimated range of 657 km. The big difference, really, is that the Tesla might just be a more practical option for a family trip to Coles than a car with a chaise longue.

OK, so we’re giving the 19_19 a well-mannered hard time because of its over-the-top design. Obviously, it’s important for car manufacturers, like Citroën, to have the space to be creative and try new things with concept cars. And no-one really expects to see the 19_19 — complete with chaise longue and marble magazine rack — sweeping around the Great Ocean Road in the near future. Concept cars are the place for manufacturers to try out all their kooky ideas.

But another Citroën concept car, the Ami, is on its way. It’s a reprise of an old Citroën name, but it’s being marketed as the heir to the 2CV. When the Ami concept was launched in 2019, it looked a bit like a particularly robust vacuum cleaner — especially with the charge cord hanging out of it. Yet it received rave reviews. Now that car (technically a quadricycle) is about to hit the streets of Paris and… it still looks like a vacuum cleaner. So, sometimes, taking a risk pays off — and the public falls in love with a kooky concept.

Most likely, the 19_19 isn’t a future ride at all. It’s an experiment. An idea. A concept. Perhaps we’re not meant to drool over it, like the old SM? Maybe it’s meant to bring a smile to our faces when we see it, like the old 2CV and the new Ami? Not every idea can be a classic. Whatever the future holds for the 19_19 and its marble magazine rack, good on Citroën for pushing the limits.