Macau is also a great event, although it’s a logistical nightmare. The freight goes out by air and comes back by boat. We do our last race of the British F3 season and then we have around six weeks to put about eight tonnes of equipment into pack horses which we have specially built for the journey to Macau. About four weeks before the race, I have to go up to the airport with the hazardous material, such as brake cleaner, batteries, gas bottles etc, which has to be dealt with separately.
Once the cars and equipment arrive in Macau, it’s collected and taken to the garages for us, we won’t see it until we arrive at the circuit. Macau requires a lot of organisation, but we have list upon list of everything that needs to be sent out and where everything goes. The most difficult part is getting things coordinated at the right time. Of course the environment in Macau is a little different to what we’re used to. Because it’s so hot we go through crates and crates of water, which I also have to organise. There’s quite often more to do at Macau as it is such as tight street circuit and crashes and broken cars are more common than at other circuits. That in turn creates more work for the team.
Is there a particular highlight that stands out from your time at Carlin?
In three seasons at Carlin, one memory that stands out was winning the championship with Alvaro Parente. We’d won the championship at the Nürburgring, and that in itself was fantastic. Then we raced at Mondello, and I remember listening to the engineer and driver on the radio. Parente didn’t have a particularly good race and he came into the pits, and his engineer said to him over the radio, “right go out and try for the lap record”, and he went back out, and he got it! And that to me was awesome that he was able to respond so directly to his engineer.
Are there any downsides to your job?
The hours can be quite long, but it’s part of the job. You know what you’re getting into when you start in motorsport. People watching the race on TV for an hour might not realise what goes on behind the scenes. The fact is that four 18 or 16 hour days will go into preparing for a race weekend. You know when you come into motor racing that it will involve long hours and lots of weekend – that’s just the nature of it.
And how about the good things?
There are plenty of positives to the job. In Bucharest, where we finished one-two, one of the best sights was Sam Bird’s mechanic; when Sam crossed the line he was in pieces. It was just so good, because the guy had worked so hard to help Sam get that result. When you see how hard the mechanics are working and when the driver comes across the line and you see the look on the mechanics face – that’s what it’s all about. As a team, you share in each others experiences, and everyone takes enjoyment from a race win, no matter which of the team’s cars crosses the line first.
