Q&A: Breaking Down ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Partnership with Craft 1861

ROKiT Venturi Racing Team Principal, Jérôme D’Ambrosio, and Craft 1861 Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Eric Lujan, discuss a new groundbreaking partnership in the world of motorsport.

‍Q: What inspired Craft 1861’s partnership with ROKiT Venturi Racing?‍

Eric: “Craft 1861 has been involved in motorsport since 2019 and after a groundbreaking partnership in IndyCar, we started to research other avenues within different series to expand our portfolio. In that process, Formula E came to the forefront and ROKiT Venturi Racing immediately stood out to us. As a team, Venturi has a real commitment to social change and sustainability – they use their platform in motorsport to do good in the world. Very quickly it became clear that we share a really similar ethos and mission and for that reason, it was a match made in heaven.”‍

Q: Jérôme, from your perspective, what makes Craft 1861 such a natural fit within the ROKiT Venturi Racing family?‍

Jérôme: “In all of our partnerships, we always search for shared values and explore how we can work together in a mutually beneficial way for the future. As a team, we believe in the wellbeing of our people and we believe that we need to give every individual the opportunity to extract their full potential. From my perspective, wellness is intrinsically linked to performance so when Craft 1861 – a field leader in wellness – showed very similar values to ourselves, it didn’t take very long at all to understand that we wanted to work together. It was a natural fit from the very beginning and I’m very excited to work together in the future, especially in our three-phase monitoring programme.”‍

Q: What is Craft 1861’s monitoring programme and how will it be approached with the team?‍

Eric: “At Craft 1861 we use the term ‘test, measure and refine’ and this approach is one that we’re going to be using with ROKiT Venturi Racing. Phase One in this process is about gathering a lot of specific data points from three main areas: Pain, sleep and stress. We monitor all three of these markers by looking at people’s pain levels, the stress they have and how much sleep they are getting which, in a global series, is quite little because of jet lag. Phase Two happens simultaneously and this is when we start to build wellness protocols for each individual person. This comes down to basic things that we can all relate to such as if we got enough sleep, how we can feel relaxed for longer or how we can minimise the pain that we’re experiencing. The final phase is refinement which is where we can develop bespoke products that are needed, based on exactly what we’re determining from the team. At the moment we’re initiating Phase One and Phase Two – monitoring and providing everyone within the team organisation with products to test. From there, we can move into the third phase by finding the perfect product to help team members and then, as a result, enhance ROKiT Venturi Racing’s performance.”‍

Q: Why does a motor racing team need an Official Wellness Partner?‍

Jérôme: “Motorsport is a team effort and the pressures and stress that we all face each weekend are extremely high. In order to improve performance in such a highly competitive environment, it is crucial to not only understand the demands that we face but also understand that the whole team experiences the same thing. In this sport, the drivers only the tip of the iceberg and behind the scenes, we have mechanics, engineers and a commercial team that are integral to our achievements. Every team member, regardless of their responsibilities or job description, has a key role in our on-track success and if we want to improve the team’s performance, we need to ensure that all of our employees are supported. Taking care of our people enables them to have the right balance to deal with the stress and the challenges that motorsport can bring. That’s important on a personal level, it allows our employees to operate at their best and, in turn, it allows us to maintain our performance in a sustainable way. When we first spoke, Craft 1861 immediately understood that behind every athlete there is a whole team and that everyone needs to perform. For a partnership to be successful, we need to share the same values and understand one another and I know that Craft 1861 will be integral to our success in the future as our Official Wellness Partner.”