Formula 1: Life as a Race Engineer and Mechanic

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Formula 1: Life as a Race Engineer and Mechanic

All Photos - Toyota Motorsports GmbHCOLOGNE, GERMANY (Sept. 24, 2007) - The work of a race engineer at Panasonic Toyota Racing (PTR) is vital to the success of the team - and it is certainly never dull, as Francesco Nenci and Gianluca Pisanello are finding out. The two Italians provide an invaluable link between their respective drivers - Pisanello works with Jarno Trulli and Nenci works with Ralf Schumacher - and the engineers and mechanics working in the garage and paddock offices to give them the fastest possible car. Pisanello and Nenci are always at their respective driver's side, whether dissecting the latest data from a practice session or making make-or-break decisions via the radio during qualifying or the race. Without his race engineer, a driver's life would be even harder. Typically, a PRT race engineer spends around two-thirds of each year on the road, traveling to races and tests in the search of that vital fraction of a second that will catapult Trulli and Schumacher further up the grid.

Mechanics and Bridgestone engineers
at work

All that hard work can come down to a split-second decision, which is where a race engineer really shows his skill. In Formula 1, every split-second counts - even when it comes to communicating with drivers out of the car. Nenci, 38, has been a race engineer at Toyota since 2005, after joining the team in 2001. "You always have to somehow translate the mechanics of the car and the systems in a way that you can link them to the driver's sensations," he says. It is one thing making the right decision in times of pressure, but quite another to take an endless stream of data from engine, gearbox, suspension and aerodynamics and find the tiny adjustments necessary to turn a good car into a truly competitive car. "For sure, there is a lot of emotion and excitement, especially for me during qualifying," says Pisanello, 36, who joined Toyota in 2003. "But you have to be calm, cool, stay precise and transmit the calmness to the people you are working with." A race engineer is surrounded by data, with as many as four technical briefings a day during a Grand Prix weekend to discuss topics as diverse as tires, engines and fuel strategy. That continues away from the track as well, where Pisanello, Nenci and their colleagues dedicate their time to looking at all the data from previous sessions to formulate their attack on the next race. "Obviously back in Cologne (Team PTR Headquarters) after a race event or a test event, the first thing we have to make sure is we analyze everything we did and try to understand what we have done well and what we have done wrong, because sometimes not everything goes as planned," explains Nenci. "The continuous target is to be able to beat our competitors and get the car as quick as possible. So every morning my mind is already on the case, about what we have done and what we could do better."

To test and setup a racecar, engineers and mechanics rely on computers and other sophisticated equipment trackside, inside the mobile carriers, and back at the team's headquarters in Cologne, Germany.

As well as that enormous task, the race engineer is the first port of call should any abnormalities be diagnosed on their car following a race or test. For that, they rely on PTR's dedicated group of mechanic specialists, such as gearbox specialist Michael Kornprobst. It's his job to ensure whenever Schumacher arrives at a Grand Prix, his gearbox is in the best possible condition. "If I see any damage to the gearbox, I naturally have to tell the race engineer about it," Kornprobst says. "He then passes this on to the relevant engineers, who make the adjustment."

For some people, this job could be very stressful, but for mechanics such as Kornprobst, who has been at PTR since 2000, that kind of pressure is part of day-to-day life. "You have got to really concentrate on what you are doing, because with so many routines, it is not so easy to avoid forgetting something - but that's what your colleagues are for," he says. "They keep an eye out and give me a hand if anything goes wrong or if I don't do something right. We really do work as a team to make sure nothing goes wrong."

In Formula 1, for teams such as PRT, the success of the team depends on every team member completing his job to the best possible standard. But it also relies upon a special bond among the mechanics on the workshop floor, the race car driver and the race engineer. For example, Pisanello has enjoyed a close relationship with Trulli after stepping up to become his countryman's race engineer late last season.

"He does not behave like a superstar," Pisanello says of Trulli. "He likes simple things; he likes to stay with his friends. He doesn't like the spotlight, but the most important thing for me is that when he jumps into the car, he is extremely fast."

For a race engineer, there is nothing more important than that.

(Source: Toyota Motorsport GmbH)