Tom Coronel: “Can it be faster and better? Then do it!”

3 November 2022 by Erik Rijpstra

Tom Coronel was a special guest at the well-attended ACE Automotive Career Day on 20 October. In his Meet & Greet Masterclass, the well-known racing driver and Automotive entrepreneur enthusiastically took students from HAN and Fontys into his uplifting story about entrepreneurship, early adopter behaviour, the advantage of being a twin with brother Tim and, of course, about the sizzling world of motorsport.

“If you like something you are going to spend more time on it.” This seems like a cliché, but according to Tom, it works. “You can make money from anything, but find something that is fun, where your passion lies. Otherwise, you’ll soon run into yourself. I myself am constantly on and just want to give my best. That every day! I may be 50 by now, but I feel more like 24.”

Dakar Rally

Many fingers crossed when asked by Tom who would like to drive the Dakar Rally. “Very nice, but don’t immediately think of money and that you probably won’t succeed. Instead, you have to feed that dream well with an inner drive. Draw up a plan, find good buddies and go for it. What have you got to lose? Challenge yourself!”

Tom’s race car is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago, only it has more stickers on it from sponsors. “The funny thing is that now I have to stop people, because they all want to go on the adventure with me.” He does desperately need the sponsors to pursue his hobby, but does not put money as the first requirement.

“The more of it you have, the more it slips through your fingers like sand. That’s why you should never think about money, it’s a means to an end. It is much more important that you can make success. Because when you are successful at whatever you do, you get the reward and that happens to be called money.” Success doesn’t come overnight, according to Tom, you shouldn’t gamble. “No, you have to come up with a good and appealing plan, otherwise you really won’t succeed.”

Watch the video of this master class:

Drugs and gaming

Tom also warned about the other temptations you may encounter along the way. “Don’t go seeking your happiness in drugs or gaming, because those substances actually turn you off slowly but surely, making it harder and harder for you to really go for it.”

Drive to win

Tom: “If you can do it faster and better, you have to do it better. With that, it doesn’t even matter what you do or how you live. In my world, it’s all about thousandths of a second and everywhere else, also that you can count on each other within the team. Only then can you make miles. If you look at motorsport, there can only be one winner, so there everyone is driven to be the fastest. Not just once, but time after time. You should see when Max Verstappen comes second, well then he immediately tries to find out with his team where it went wrong.”

Space trip

Tom likes to be fed new challenges. For instance, he would like to go on a space trip. For that, he has already invested many thousands of euros and spread the payment over several years. Especially also because he could not cough up the amount to go along (€100,000) right away. After he had already transferred several instalments, it turned out that the company to whom he had to transfer went bankrupt. “Yes, that’s not so nice at that moment. Still, I have been able to dream about the idea for several years, because one day that time will come when I will make the space trip. Only now it will take a little longer,” Tom jokes.

Source, video and photography: HAN, Erik Rijpstra

Also check out these postings posted about the ACE Career Day on han.automotive instagram:

The ACE Automotive Career Day 2022 was organised by Automotive Center of Expertise (ACE), in cooperation with the Automotive programmes of the HAN University of Applied Sciences and Fontys Universities of Applied Sciences. And of course also thanks to the participating companies, this business market was again a great success!