F1R: Have you learned from – for example – the partnership between Shell and Ferrari, with their trackside lab?

GDA: I think there is greater integration in the team and the back-end side of the company. Also we have two people, not one, working here [trackside] full time. I think Shell is operating in a very professional way, doing an excellent job for Ferrari, but we believe that we’re doing a better job for Mercedes over the past few years. It’s very important for us to be keeping the game up and recognising that our competitors have the same objective as us.

We believe we have the right approach, competences, and the right formula to win in this space.

F1R: How significant has the investment in that side of the programme been to elevate you into this position?

GDA: Yes, it’s not just about presentation. It means having a programme and of course that means money as well. To give you an idea, over the past three years we have nearly quadrupled our Research and Develpment spending. We opened a new R&D centre in Turin five months ago and we invested more than €60million in this venture. It’s a state-of-the-art facility where we test both conventional and unconventional solutions to the current and future mobility challenges.

We’re only the tenth-largest lubricants business in the world. We’re growing fast, though there’s some way to go before we reach the top five, but for sure we’re the company that has invested more as a percentage of revenues. That’s because technology is a key differentiator, and a key enabler for us to find solutions to meet customer requirements.

F1R: You’ve recently announced a global recruitment campaign for a new trackside fluid engineer. What are your ambitions for that?

GDA: We view it as a rare and exciting opportunity for new engineering talent to find a different way in to this world. And it’s a really cool job! You can find the entry criteria on our Linkedin page.