Available to book
Steve Durcan
Change Management
High Performance
Effective Leadership
Steve Durcan helps organisations build elite team performance and high-pressure decision-making cultures. A former RAF test pilot and performance consultant at McLaren Racing and Arsenal FC, Steve brings proven leadership and organisational resilience frameworks validated by back-to-back Formula 1 Constructors' World Championships.
Pilot
Military
Formula One
Motorsport
Business Consulting
Mindset
Inspirational
High Energy
Football
Steve Durcan spent over two decades flying and testing advanced fighter aircraft for the Royal Air Force before taking his expertise into Formula 1, where he helped McLaren win back-to-back Constructors' World Championships in 2024 and 2025.
Steve’s career spans more than two decades in the Royal Air Force, where he flew and tested advanced fighter aircraft in high-risk, high-stakes environments. As an experimental test pilot and instructor, he operated at the edge of performance, developing deep expertise in decision-making, communication, and risk management.
Steve joined McLaren Racing during a period of underperformance and played a key role in the team’s transformation into back-to-back Constructors’ World Champions. He led critical changes in communication systems, operational procedures, and leadership approaches, embedding a culture of clarity, accountability, and precision. Currently an Operational Performance Consultant at both McLaren and Arsenal Football Club, he founded X-1 to bring elite performance frameworks to organisations beyond sport.
Audiences leave with a clear framework for building team alignment under pressure, practical tools for restructuring how decisions are made and communicated during periods of change, and an honest account of what separates teams that perform consistently from those that plateau.
Book Steve to help your organisation align, execute, and perform at a consistently higher level.
Topics, sessions and talks
Navigating change by aligning strategy, leadership and culture to drive clarity, adaptability and sustained high performance.
The hidden architecture behind high-performance transformation. Learn how elite teams rewire communication, decision-making, and alignment to cut through the noise and turn underperformance into sustained competitive advantage.
How fighter pilots and championship-winning teams prepare, align, and deliver under pressure — embedding feedback, high standards, and relentless improvement to outperform the competition.
How to create clarity in complexity, make decisive calls under pressure, and build a culture that wins — consistently and by design.
In a world defined by AI and automation, the greatest competitive edge is still human. Discover how elite teams integrate technology with judgment, alignment, and decisive leadership to outperform in complex, rapidly changing environments.
often considered together
Susie Wolff
Gender Equality
Resilience
Diversity and Inclusion
Colin Maclachlan
Leadership Development
Team Building
High Performance
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email steve.durcan@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Steve's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Steve Durcan draws on case studies from his RAF test pilot career and his operational role at McLaren Racing to illustrate how high-performance teams restructure communication, decision-making, and alignment under pressure, delivering a framework audiences can apply directly to their own organisations.
Steve Durcan speaks on organisational change and transformation, operational excellence under pressure, and high-performance team alignment. He spent over two decades as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and experimental test pilot before joining McLaren Racing, where he contributed to back-to-back Constructors' World Championships in 2024 and 2025.
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