Who is Maria Catarineu, the woman behind the Franco Colapinto phenomenon?

«It was three days without eating, without sleeping. Since it was announced that Franco would be part of the Williams team in La Liga, my life turned upside down.», describes the Spanish businesswoman, who created Bullet Sports Management together with her partner and partner Jamie Campbell-Walter , a former Scottish driver and British Grand Touring champion. The company is responsible for representing drivers internationally. They recruit talent and focus on medium and long-term professional development. It has six drivers in its team who were — or are being — trained almost from the ground up. In its ranks there is even Santino Panetta , a young 14-year-old Argentine driver.Colapinto is the first great success and dream come true,»the businesswoman assures.

Catarineu met Colapinto when she was working in the financial department of the Spanish racing team Drivex . “I knew nothing about the sport but they started taking me to the races and I got passionate about it. Motorsport is absolute magic,” she says. “My boss told me that a boy was coming to do a race in Navarra . He had no experience in cars. So I said: ‘Why don’t we do a few days of testing and then the race? ’ The answer was that the father wanted him to race no matter what,” she recalls. After some discussions, she tried to convince Aníbal (Franco’s father) to invest that money in tests. But it didn’t work. “I saw a humble boy with a notebook in which he took notes and in the race he destroyed them all,” she remembers. It was that day that she said to her current partner Campbell-Walter (who due to his experience was already working informally in the representation of drivers):»You have to help this child» On the other end of the phone he heard: «OK, but you quit your job and we’ll do it together.»

They created Bullet and its first driver was Colapinto. With the Drivex team , the Argentinean won the Spanish Formula 4 title in 2019 and began to write his great story in Europe. He finished third in the European Formula Renault in 2020, won in the Regional Formula in 2021 (cars equal to Formula 3) and in Formula 3 he was ninth (2022) and fourth (2023). Until his last race in Formula 2 this year, he was sixth in the championship with one victory and two second places.

What do you think is the strength that led Bullet, a 5-year-old commercial management company with six drivers, to reach Formula 1? 

One difference is that the drivers are part of our family. In Franco’s case, because of the distance from Argentina, he immediately came to live with us. So there is a mix of professional and personal aspects, but this cocktail of emotions gave results. Our drivers are like a family to each other. We have a chat where they encourage each other, congratulate each other and give each other a lot of support. Normally the drivers are quite individualistic, because at the end of the day they put on their helmet and go out to compete in their vehicle against others, but Bullet gives them the feeling that they can have a friend who is a driver.

Are you responsible for the agreements with the teams and do you charge a fee? 

We have six drivers, some of whom are already professionals and have their own teams. We negotiate with the team how much they will be paid, we negotiate their individual sponsors and we set the objectives. We have some who continue to invest and there are two components: sponsors and, at the very beginning, investment from the family. We put all the puzzle pieces in place to have the appropriate budget for each driver’s project.

How do you see the F1 business, after a few years in which it seemed to be weakening?

A few years ago it was an elite sport. Especially because physical access to the circuit is very expensive due to a question of supply and demand. Formula 1 — and Lewis Hamilton has asked for it — is analyzing how to make it more accessible to the general public. The good thing is that Netflix brought a lot of people together: it brought the drivers closer and it stopped being seen as something distant. In fact, today it has a record number of views. That is the way forward: closeness to the public.

And how does it work to get and secure a seat? 

There was a time when teams were perhaps in a more complicated financial situation and needed a driver to bring them new sponsorship contracts. Because the reality is that the Formula 1 budget is very high. Now, thanks to Liberty Media and what Netflix contributed in terms of views, the distribution of teams is based more on results than on the money that the drivers can bring in. As a result, the young driver academies — like the one at Williams, where Franco was a month ago, but also those of other teams — are gaining a lot of weight. They are becoming more serious in order to really look for talent. And that is where we come in.

But money talks…

Argentina has done everything for Franco and we are grateful to many people and companies who have made their contribution. But when Williams first saw Franco, we had almost no support. It was just his talent. There has been a change in Formula 1 where talent is increasingly important and that is very good for the sport.

What impact does having a driver in F1 have on Bullet?

It is a recognition of our work. It was something really very difficult, which also means the possibility of being attractive to more clients. The truth is that today I cannot think much about it. I would say that we want to continue maintaining the structure and the way of working that we have. But the future will tell, I don’t know now.

And how is your turnover going? 

So far, the same. I suppose there will be some changes in the future. But the Franco issue was, from day one, more of a personal than a professional matter.

From broker to entrepreneur

When she turned 18, Catarineu enrolled in a business program and took advantage of her free time during the summer to do an internship at a Spanish bank in London. That experience helped her understand where she wanted to take her career: she fell in love with the stock market . Upon her return, a family friend suggested she work with him at a bank for a month, until she returned to university. «The reality is that it wasn’t a month, it was 10 years,» recalls the businesswoman, who worked at the New York Stock Exchange for a Spanish bank in Madrid , where she traded.

At one point in her career, working against the clock became exhausting and she decided to ask for a transfer to the European stock exchanges. «The move backfired because I ended up working on the European and New York stock exchanges,» she recalls, laughing. «My work schedule was from morning until late at night.» That pace stayed with her until she got married and became pregnant. It was difficult to reconcile the frenetic pace of the stock markets with family life.»My desire to be a mother was very strong and I felt that it was not compatible with so many hours of work and traveling around the world, so I gave it up completely.», he describes. At that time the decision did not weigh heavily on him, even though he was at the peak of his career and given the context of the financial markets it was a job in which he earned a lot of money. But he had no doubts when it came to closing that stage.

The possibility of having a better management of her schedules was found in the entrepreneurial world. But she did not develop something new, but decided to take up a business present in her family lineage. The Catarineu family began to create soaps with olive oil as a fundamental ingredient in 1810. French by origin, they fled the Revolution and took refuge in Spain. With them, they brought the formula for Marseille Soap . In 1900, they formed the company Hijos de Catarineu y Cía , which patented Castile Soap, a brand that quickly became the leader in the Spanish market.»I grew up hearing the story of how they had obtained the patent and how they had set up factories all over Spain», she recalls. In 1975, with the death of its president Juan Catarineu , the last factory that the company had in Aravaca (Madrid) was closed. His successors — María’s father and her uncle — did not continue the business and the company closed.

That same year, on August 13 in Madrid, María, Juan’s granddaughter, was born. In 2010, when she decided to take the plunge into the entrepreneurial world, she asked her father if she could take over the family business. «I found an opportunity. Skincare was booming and in full transformation towards natural ingredients,» she says. Using the same family recipe, more modern packaging and some vintage ingredients, she teamed up with Marta Gaytán de Ayala and designed a product with export in mind.

The receptivity of Japanese consumers was a boom. «The company was called Castile Soaps and the product, Katari , which in Japanese means communication and we want to transfer it to a way of life: communicate with your skin,» explains Catarineu, who ended up having more than 16 points of sale in Japan, Singapore and Korea. «When we arrived in the Dubai market , I was naive and we had a client who placed a large order and did not pay us.I refused to go into debt to continue running the business. I had three small children and I couldn’t put my family’s financial stability at risk.», he recalls, although he assures that since then he has been thinking about resuming the business. 

But that entrepreneurial setback did not discourage her and, leveraging her ties with Japan, she created Real Experience , which had an agreement with Real Madrid and brought Asian clients to live an experience that combined football, gastronomy and the charm of Madrid. «We did a very fun activity which was bringing groups to dinner at my house, with my three children. It was highly valued by the Japanese,» she recalls. But one day, in 2015, she decided to leave that company in response to the proposal that brought her closer to the world of motorsports, Drivex . 

What is it like to be a pilot manager?

There are different phases. First there is the design of the plan. When we take on a new driver, the first thing we ask them is what their goal is. At first, they all say the same thing, naturally: to get to Formula 1. Bear in mind that many of them are 15 years old. But then we analyse where we can go. That is the part that Jamie takes on, who has infinite experience and who knows how to say: «With the talent you have and what we can invest, the goal is this.» All the Bullet drivers have achieved their goals. Ferdinand Habsburg wanted to be world champion and he did it two years ago. Another wanted to win Le Mans; another wanted to be an academy driver. Thanks to Jamie’s talent in leading them on the right path, we see how each one is fulfilling their dreams. 

What is your role? 

I like being involved in the planning and negotiations. But I contribute a lot to the more human side. The driver is a human being and has to be focused on giving his best in the car. I have more responsibility there. I also have to put together the team that accompanies the driver. Right now, Franco is the one with the most complete team: nutritionist, sports psychologist, trainer, the person who manages his social media. We have the strength of having the right people and the best professionals so that he can dedicate himself to competing. I am the person who makes sure that everything is in place from above. Also, for example, Franco, who was 15, had to play because he was a child. Imagine the amount of stupid things we have done together to play. The younger ones have to have their childlike moments.

Do you feel that being a woman is a plus?  

Without a doubt. Even the mothers of the pilots often tell me that. I try to give them everything, to get close to them so that they don’t lack that figure that is often far away. I am not their mother, nor do I want to be one, but I do give them that protection and that feeling that I can solve everything they need. That diversity — between the male and female vision — is a differential and a distinctive point of Bullet. Some management companies perhaps lack that vision of humanizing the pilot so that they can give their best.

Are there many women in motorsport, behind the scenes?

Yes, but it is still very much underrepresented. Almost all women are in marketing, press and communication positions. A few years ago women began to slowly appear in mechanics and engineering positions. But for the moment they are the minority. We have a great role model in the former driver Susie Wolff, director of the F1 Academy exclusively for women. There are more and more female drivers, but they are few. The important thing is not to feel like a minority and to take advantage of our strengths. When it comes to negotiating, I have that feminine side that allows me to take whoever I have in front of me where I want to take them and achieve my goal.

What is the dynamic between husband and wife as partners? 

Jamie and I got married at the end of August. I always say that both he and I are important to the company. Neither of us is above the other. We share the journey, the failures and the achievements equally, because we understand that each of us contributes his own thing.

How do you see Franco for next year? 

We are here and I think anything can happen. I have the feeling that we are going to stay in Formula 1. Right now there is no free seat, but there wasn’t one a month ago either and the opportunity arose. Now we are working on Franco’s present, but at the same time I can’t deny that we are opening a lot of doors to stay in this place. The important thing is that Franco is ready for the opportunity.