Autistic race car driver Ben Taylor on debut, in his first race out of karting, won the first round of the Australian F3 Championships in Sydney in 2021. In 2024, he’ll debut in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge, but this season will be different. This season he’s partnering with the largest autistic IT consulting business in the world and they’re planning to use autistic strengths to give him a winning edge.
Melbourne, Australia — Today marks the official launch of Ben Taylor’s auticon car. The launch was held at Porsche Centre Melbourne Motorsport’s dedicated motor racing facility in Collingwood. The facility is factory owned and one of the few Porsche owned racing facilities that exist outside of Germany.
At the car’s unveiling, it was revealed that auticon, a company that employs nearly 500 autistic people in 14 countries around the world will be helping to advance Ben’s driving through providing analytics support specifically looking at Ben’s on track data. The company will deploy its autistic data analysts and software engineers to build insights that will take Ben’s driving to the next level.
This strategy will bring a new way of thinking to motorsport. It will see autistic IT professionals using their strengths in coding and analysis supporting a highly focused and skilled autistic driver making the auticon car and Ben Taylor racing, a team with a difference.
At the age of 17, Ben was formally diagnosed as autistic with ADHD. He believes that this gives him unique strengths, helping his performance on the track. Ben wants to inspire people on the autism spectrum to have the courage to believe in their capabilities and find their strengths.
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“auticon is an organisation that focuses on the strengths of autistic people like me. As an IT professional services business, the team at auticon have adopted a saying, ‘autism is not a processing error, it’s a different operating system. Meaning autism is really a different way of thinking.”
“One of the more common traits of people on the spectrum is an ability to be hyper focused. In IT this helps with things like error detection and strengths in data analysis and coding. For me, I believe that my autism helps to keep me to be hyper focused on the intricate details of racing, such as timing stopping distances and corner speeds. It really enables my abilities as a high-performance athlete.
“Through this partnership I really want to start a conversation about the key strengths of autism, and I want to inspire others on the spectrum not to underestimate what they have to offer our community.
“I thank auticon for their support this season, and I’m really looking forward to what lies ahead.”
Managing Director and CEO of auticon Australia & New Zealand Bodo Mann was excited to get behind Ben. He discussed the partnership and opportunity for auticon’s skilled technologists.
“We’re looking forward to applying some fresh thinking to motorsport data analytics. The team have already identified some opportunities to enhance racing insights and really add value to Ben’s on track performance.”
“This partnership is a fantastic opportunity to showcase autistic strengths in action and we want to demonstrate the power of neurodiversity and how thinking differently can be a real asset. We believe that what is true in sport is true in business, and we plan to illustrate how embracing neurodiversity can offer a competitive advantage,” said Mr. Mann.
The racing team is not the only connection between auticon and Porsche, Bodo went on to talk about the organisations close affiliation to the German car maker.
“As auticon also began in Germany. As it happens one of the first investors in the company was the Porsche family and it fills us with great pride to know that we are now working alongside this great brand in such an important venture.”
