The sponsorship model has been in use in some form or another almost since Formula 1’s inception, and as imperfect as it is, it’s safe.

But is it really safer in the long-term?

Arguably not, because not doing anything is itself a choice, without the benefit of having a say in the potential consequences.

Ulimately, if anything derails Racing’s Second Revolution it won’t be technical factors, since everything we’ve talked about so far rests on well-known business fundamentals.

In this fifth and final installment of the Racing’s Second Revolution series, we’ll cover the aspect of any great change initiative that is never talked about directly until it’s too late, yet has the potential to derail new ideas from the start: resistance.

The main risk is nothing more complex than skepticism.

This article addresses that head-on, and while the feeling is always the same, there could be multiple reasons behind that doubt.

Here we’ll lay out nine likely objections that executives, series managers, and investors will raise when confronted with the idea of moving beyond sponsorship, and of course we’ll explain how each can be addressed with a reliance on facts rather than gut feel.