Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
David Dicker, Rodin Cars’ founder and CEO, was happy to stay out of the limelight at Bahrain as Zane Maloney took two Formula 2 wins for Rodin Motorsport.
Less than 10 months after Dicker gained control of Trevor Carlin’s eponymous racing team in January 2023 by becoming its majority shareholder, Carlin – who was director and acting team principal – left the outfit. His departure was confirmed when the team rebranded to Rodin Motorsport this January.
Dicker, who made his fortune in computer technology distribution in Australia and New Zealand, explained: “I would have been perfectly happy to carry on with the initial arrangement but, for reasons I can’t really go into, it just wasn’t possible”.
“We just had to make a change,” he told Formula Scout, describing it as “unfortunate and stupid” to end up in that situation.
Rodin’s squads across seven series have, says Dicker, continued to operate normally after the exit of Carlin and wife Stephanie who was deputy team principal.
“All the key people are still in the team, so we haven’t really had any issues there. We’re probably looking to get a general manager, so the race guys can just concentrate on the racing and we can get someone that runs the business side, but outside of that it’s really been pretty good.”
While race results were strong in recent years, the same cannot be said of the team’s finances. According to publicly available financial statements, the racing company lost £2.1 million in the 14 months to December 2022.
Going forward, Dicker seeks to “find that balance” between the needs of the sporting and commercial sides.
“You need a commercial guy to run the business because the technical side of it doesn’t care about money in the same sense, but it needs money, and you need a money guy to look at that. The racing guys will always say ‘we need this, we’ve got to have that’. It’s all fair but you’ve got to pay for it. You’re always going to be constrained no matter how much money you got, because you could always spend a bit more. Just ask the government!”
Dicker wants Rodin Motorsport to expand, but the FIA rejected its bid to enter Formula 1 with a New Zealand headquarters and guaranteed seat for a female driver.
“If the opportunities are there, you should do it,” he says. “We’d certainly be real keen to do Formula Regional European Championship next year, when they get a new car.”
There is also a potential “opportunity with Rodin Cars to build a GT2 racecar”.
“If we did that, then we’d run it with a factory team. That’s something we could do in not-too-distant future and then longer term there’s the World Endurance Championship which could be interesting.”
But in the short term, the focus is on winning: “It’s a race team. It’s what you’re trying to do. It’d be nice to make a profit while doing it if you can. But our number one focus is just to try to win.”