F1 news: Exclusive interview with trailblazing data engineer and motorsport protégé Nida Anis
Young trailblazer Nida Anis is making headlines in the world of motorsport while working as a technical coordinator and data engineer on the grid.
Despite being just 20 years old, Anis has already contributed to race- and championship-winning teams across an impressive range of series, including GB4, the FIA Formula 4 Indian Championship, the FIA Formula Regional Middle East Championship, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, GT World Challenge Asia, the FIA Motorsport Games, SRO Japan Cup, Super Taikyu, and more.
Recognized by Hairpin Media Magazine as one of the nine Asian women accelerating change in motorsport, Nida is rewriting history.
Her story is proof that perseverance, relentlessness, and determination can open doors in the most inaccessible of places – and that no dream is ever out of reach.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Disha S. Charan delves into an in-depth, unfiltered conversation with the motorsport protégé.
Q. Hi Nida. To kick things off, let’s start with the basics – how do you introduce yourself when someone asks what you do and share how you first found yourself drawn into the world of motorsport?
Nida Anis: My name is Nida Anis. I’m 20 years old. I’m a freelance motorsport data engineer, and I also act in certain capacities as a team technical coordinator.
I worked for race- and championship-winning teams in series including, but not limited to, GB4, the FIA Formula 4 Indian Championship, the FIA Formula Regional Middle East Championship, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, GT World Challenge Asia, the FIA Motorsport Games, SRO Japan Cup, Super Taikyu.
Most recently, I did a weekend in Thailand Super Series, and I’m about to do a project involving Toyota 86s at the MSF, the Malaysian Speed Festival. But I’ve also worked in plenty of other series as well, so that’s not exhaustive.
My role mainly entails looking at the data that’s been acquired from the race cars, you know, identifying, okay, is the car reliable? Are all the sensors working properly? Are there any mechanical issues that might arise? It also involves sometimes analysing driver performance data.
For example, in GT, you’ll usually have an amateur driver or a bronze driver alongside your professional driver, your silver, gold, your platinum. And it’s about overlaying the data traces and seeing, okay, how do I make your bronze driver faster?
Because more often than not, that’s the limiting factor in terms of lap time. In a race, you’ll lose the most time with your bronze driver, so you want to work as much as possible to coach them and improve the driving.
I’ve also been involved in data management, so creating data directories, setting up procedure sheets, making custom software tools using Python, VBA, Streamlit, and other frameworks and also assisting with general technical coordination inquiries as well.
The role is quite big and there’s a lot of scope. What I do depends on what team I work with and what the requirements of the championship is.
So a bit about me beyond motorsport – I’d say one of the things that I enjoy the most is travelling. I’ve been on 294 flights so far, so soon I’ll be on my big 300th flight, which is really cool. I’ve been to over 37 countries. I love travelling, I love meeting people, especially solo travellers. I like having conversations, sharing stories.
I really enjoy reading as well. So as part of my four A-levels when I was in my final years of school, I actually picked English as one of my A-level choices. I did drop it, but I do regret that decision. And I think that’s actually helped me become a more well-rounded engineer.
I’m also quite heavily involved in motorsport media. So currently I’m the co-founder of Asian Motorsport. It’s a news website that’s dedicated to covering motorsport in Asia and providing you with regular updates.
And in the past, I’ve been involved in projects such as feeder series, carbon culture, done a little bit of photography work as well, built websites for racing drivers. So, yeah, I do enjoy a bit of media work as well.
Beyond work, I really enjoy music. I have been playing the piano or electronic keyboard or some form thereof since I was five years old. And to me, you know, I still try to practise as much as possible. Obviously, with the travel, it’s very hard as, you know, you can’t really pack a piano with you on a plane.
But I really do enjoy it. I’ve had a lot of fun, you know, just practising. It’s good stress relief. And, you know, it’s a skill that it’s really nice to show off every once in a while. At the moment, I also have a travel-sized electric guitar that I’m trying to get the hang of, which is quite a fun challenge. But I’m looking forward to it.
So one more thing beyond motorsport, I am currently also training for a half marathon to raise funds for a charity called Survivor Space. Survivor Space is a charity that’s really helped me.
It’s a charity that’s dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual violence. And, you know, they’ve been an incredibly, incredibly helpful charity. And, you know, I’ve been really fortunate to have access to the support that I’ve received.
So with Survivor Space, I’m running a half marathon. I’m aiming to raise about £350 as I think it’s a cause that gets overlooked. And yet it can make a huge difference to the lives of women. So, yeah, that’s something I’m also very, very passionate about.
Discover the story behind Nida’s half-marathon fundraiser here and contribute towards making a difference.
Aside from that, yeah, I enjoy reading. I enjoy writing. I used to write a lot of fiction. So I’m trying to get back into that. I also run a tutoring business. So I tutor children privately online. I’ve been doing that for about five years now. I used to start in person, but obviously with the travel now, with motorsport, it’s all online.
I usually have a few clients from Hong Kong who have moved from Hong Kong to the UK and need help with English as a second language. Again, it’s a fun challenge. It keeps me on my toes and it’s really nice.
You know, you work with the same clients for two years, three years, and you develop a really strong rapport with them. You get to see them grow and develop and actually get to put their skills into practice, which is really, really fun to see. So that’s also something else I do in my spare time. But, yeah, I like to keep very busy.
I’m running a lot of projects at the moment. But to me, a busy day is better than a day not spent well. So, yeah, hopefully you liked that introduction. And now I’ll get into the questions.
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Q. Breaking into motorsport can be challenging for anyone – and for women, the path hasn’t always been as open. What first sparked your love for the sport, and how did being a young Asian woman shape those first steps?
NA: That’s a good question. I guess this is the part where I tell you that I only really got into motorsport recently. I certainly did not grow up around cars. I was the first person in my immediate family to get a driver’s license.
My father was born with a genetic condition called Usher syndrome, which means you are born fully deaf and you progressively lose your eyesight, so at the moment he is partially blind. My mother never really learned how to drive.
We lived in London, or at least I used to live fully in London before traveling back and forth across the world and splitting time between London and Bangkok. I never really grew up around cars, and even up until I was eight, nine or ten, I used to always get car sick in other people’s cars because I was just not used to them at all.
I grew up instead with a very strong passion for computers and for coding. I remember as a child I had access to lots of laptops. I would go into settings and change them, or try to code my own programs. More often than not, I would break things, but I learned by breaking things.
I remember messing around with a few Linux distributions as a kid, installing them on these laptops and trying to figure out how they worked. I remember learning how to code my own video games on Scratch as a kid in primary school, which led me to discover Python and other programming languages as I got older.
I loved trying to solve difficult problems – I guess that’s why I liked cybersecurity so much in school, as you really had to think hard and put yourself in the mind of the other side. And there’s nothing like the rush of finally getting your code to work after you’ve been struggling for hours.
My family noticed from a very young age that I was very interested in computers and in coding, so they supported that. It was only when I was sixteen that I became aware of motorsport.
At the time, in December 2020 and January 2021, I was following the sailing championship called the America’s Cup. For many people who might not know what it is, the America’s Cup is probably the Formula One of yacht racing.
You have yachts with attachments on each side called hydrofoils. These hydrofoils work like plane wings in that they generate lift forces that push the hull of the boat out of the water, reducing drag and allowing these boats to sail fully sail-powered at around fifty knots, which is very fast for a sailboat.
I was captivated by the America’s Cup and I remember thinking, I want to do this, I want to do this. But being in London and just coming into the second COVID lockdown, there were not many opportunities to get involved and gain hands-on experience with these projects.
Around that time, a very close friend of mine introduced me to Formula One. I think she had watched Drive to Survive, and she said, Nida, I think you would love Formula One cars. I said, What is a Formula One?
But I listened to her advice and watched the first race of the season. Even today, I have never watched a complete episode of Drive to Survive, except maybe the one where Günther Steiner is complaining about smashed doors. But I watched the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix and I was hooked.
I was fascinated by the engineering that goes into the cars, the software that is used, the communication, and the teamwork. I followed that weekend very closely and thought, this is really cool.
I began following other motorsport series as well such as the World Endurance Championship, which had just started their hypercar class, World Rally, and MotoGP. I was captivated by the diversity of thoughts and ideas and the amount of engineering behind the scenes. I felt like I had to be part of this world.
I bought a lot of books, as I usually do as someone who enjoys reading, which probably annoyed my family a little, but it worked out in the long run. I started searching online for advice on how to get into motorsport and gain experience.
The year after, I moved schools and chose to do my Extended Project Qualification on the efficacy of safety measures in motorcycle racing. It was a 5000-word essay, and I really enjoyed it.
From that, I had the opportunity to get a scholarship place on the Motor Vehicle University of Emilia Romagna’s two-week summer programme for high school students. That program was in partnership with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati, and Dallara.
We visited all four factories, and I remember walking around and thinking, this is amazing. I saw the Ferrari engine assembly lines and cars being built in front of me. At Lamborghini, we walked through the Urus assembly lines, which were also incredible.
We had hands-on workshops and university seminars, which were very valuable. That programme was open to twenty students from around the world, and I was fortunate to receive a scholarship that reduced the cost to only €500.
After that programme, I decided that this was truly a career I could pursue. I made many friends there and it ignited a spark that had been burning for quite some time. After completing that project and programme, I was fortunate enough to work at the Silverstone Classic Esports stand, which I enjoyed greatly.
At that event, I met a racing driver who gave me his sponsorship deck. When I asked if he had a website, he said no, so I offered to build one for him. Through that I was able to go trackside and see his team working behind the scenes.
One of the races I attended was the Walter Hayes Trophy, where I met a man who still works with me today and owns a Formula Ford single-seater racing team. I asked for work experience with that team, having researched and prepared beforehand, and I stayed persistent.
My interest in motorsport, from age 16 to 18, kept growing, but it was only after I attended the two-week programme with MUNER that I realised I could actually do it. In 2023, I had my first proper engineering role, running a car in the GB4 Championship, which then led to the many opportunities I now have.
I do not see myself differently because I am a woman, or because I am young, or because I am Asian. I try to perceive myself the same as everyone else. I have often been one of the only women in paddocks, or the only woman in a technical role within a paddock or team, but I try to put that aside.
At the beginning, it was slightly daunting, but I focus on what I can control. I can control my performance, my attitude, and my actions. I can control whether I choose to help others when they need it. I focus on that and block the rest as noise.
When I first told my parents about my plan to work in GB4 and travel with a race team while also doing my A-levels, they wondered what I was doing. But they eventually understood and supported me, and I maintain a very close relationship with them because they have been so supportive and helpful.
They understand now how much I am enjoying this. Even though I entered motorsport comparatively recently, unlike others who grew up watching Formula One or karting before moving into engineering, I have not seen any major difference in my opportunities.
In fact, I have had many opportunities to connect with other women in engineering. That is why I run programmes in India, such as working with the United Motorsports Academy to create a Motorsport Data Fundamentals course for entry-level data engineers, because I want to give back. I think that is the most important thing any of us can do.
Q. Motorsport can look glamorous from the outside, but data engineering is about relentless precision and problem-solving under pressure. What’s a moment in your career that perfectly captures both the thrill and the grind of this work?
NA: That is a really great question. I think I will loop back to earlier this year when I was doing the Fuji 24 Hours. That was a very challenging race for many reasons.
The start was delayed by one hour, so it became a 23-hour race. The conditions changed constantly, from being quite dry to suddenly having heavy rain that delayed the start, then running in damp conditions, then switching to dry tyres, and eventually running at night.
There are a lot of different variables involved in an endurance race of any length but especially a 24-hour race, and even more so when you are working with six drivers as we were at Fuji.
I remember very clearly that there were many setbacks. We had several incidents that ultimately took us out of contention, so it became a battle of survival until the final hour. The focus was simply to get to the end and secure a finish.
With six drivers over 24 hours, plus the five hours of preparation beforehand, you are awake and concentrating for over 40 hours straight. It was draining and exhausting, but also incredibly rewarding.
Even though we did not get the results we deserved or show our full pace, I felt proud to have finished the race under such difficult weather and track conditions. At the end, when the chequered flag fell, I felt an enormous sense of relief.
At Fuji, the winning car does a small parade down the pit lane before going into parc fermé, and I remember watching our car come down after everything that had happened. It was a powerful moment.
I had maybe one 10-minute nap in the entire event, and it demanded constant focus, problem solving, tough decisions, managing six different drivers, printing out data sheets, and keeping on top of stint timing. It was very tough, but I look back on that race with pride because of what we achieved, and I learned a lot from the experience.
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Q. You’ve worked trackside in Japan, Thailand, and the UK. How does operating in different motorsport cultures shape the way you think and make engineering decisions?
NA: You are right to say that I have worked trackside in Japan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom, but I have also worked trackside in India, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, China, Spain, and Italy. So there have been many different countries.
How does operating in different motorsport cultures shape the way I think and make engineering decisions? I have seen very big differences in team cultures.
An Italian team will be very different from a Japanese team, a Japanese team will be very different from a Thai team, a Thai team will be very different from a British team, and a British team will be very different from an Australian team.
But I find that the best cultures are the ones where everyone works together regardless of their background or nationality, where people find common ground.
In motorsport this is often easier than in other industries, because you are with a team of anywhere from five people to as many as thirty, and you are suddenly eating together, staying in the same hotels, travelling together, working together, and going to the track and returning at roughly the same times.
You are placed in that environment, a pressure cooker, for anywhere from four to seven days, and sometimes for months at a time. The longest I worked continuously was around two months in India, followed by a short break, and then another two months in the United Arab Emirates.
It is an environment where you have to work together, and if you do not, you will not achieve the results you want. There are cultural differences to consider. For example, working with a Japanese team means you may need to speak to people in slightly different ways.
But in motorsport you are connected by one singular purpose, which is to win. Everyone wants to win, and when everyone knows that and works together to achieve that goal, it makes the process of decision making, whether on the engineering side, the set-up side, or in terms of working with mechanics, much easier.
I really enjoy having had the opportunity, especially at a young age, to work with Malaysian teams, Australian teams, Japanese teams, European teams, Italian teams, Indian teams, and Thai teams. You gain huge insight into what different people are like, how they work, how they operate, and the best way to build rapport and trust.
That experience has helped me become a more well-rounded engineer because you develop the soft skills required to work in a multicultural environment. At the end of the day, we are here to race, we are here to win, and we are here to be competitive, and I think that is the common language that unites us all.
Q. You have built a voice in motorsport media alongside your engineering work. Do you see storytelling as a way to open more doors for women, especially women of colour, in motorsport?
NA: I think yes, even within the motorsport media landscape, which is a key reason why I founded Asian Motorsport alongside Josh Evans. The motivation behind creating it was clear.
If you want news about Formula One or IndyCar, you can go to Crash.net, Motorsport.com, Autosport, or websites like The Race, and you can listen to podcasts. That is fine.
But if you want to follow a local series in Malaysia such as the Toyota Vios Cup, which is a national series with more than thirty cars and very close racing, or if you want to follow the Thailand Super Series, there is virtually no content available, not even on the championship’s own website.
If you are Thai, it may appear on your social media feed, but in terms of English-language coverage of motorsport in Asia, especially for countries that are not regularly spotlighted in the media, there is little to no content because people do not know where to look.
I believe storytelling is important. Everyone in motorsport has a story about how they got there, why they chose the industry, and why they love racing. Motorsport is not an industry where you meet the typical type of person. Everyone I have met in motorsport has had a unique and vibrant personality.
It is encouraging to see the rise of content creation in motorsport, and I think there could be more focus on producing content around series beyond Formula One, especially more local racing.
For example, creators like Sarah Shahdin in Malaysia travel to Sepang, watch races, capture videos of people working at the track, build relationships with drivers and staff, and tell the stories of Malaysians and Asians in motorsport. I think that is a very good thing.
Motorsport needs to focus on a more local scope, because at the end of the day, every racer has a story, every championship has a story, every engineer, every mechanic, every person in motorsport has a story and a narrative. Yet these stories are often not told or given the spotlight they deserve.
Storytelling can open more doors for everyone, not only for women and not only for women of color, but for everyone. The more we tell stories and share experiences, the more we can put ourselves in the shoes of others – we can imagine what it is like to be a data engineer, a mechanic, a crew member, or a driver competing in a relatively local karting series.
Many people may not even know a series exists, but once it is shared, they can support it, and supporting it can open doors for others. I really enjoy the storytelling aspect of media, and that is what drew me to writing in the first place and why I continue to do it today.
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Q. Laura Müller recently became F1’s first full-time female race engineer. When you see milestones like that, do they feel like personal victories too?
NA: I guess it is great to see more representation on the grid across the paddock. For me, I am very focused on my own career path and my own journey. So I will see news about Laura Müller being a race engineer, and that is really cool. And it is another role model that I look up to.
But at the end of the day as well, I have to remind myself that these people can do it, so I need to focus on how I can get up to that level.
I recently had the pleasure of talking to Hannah Schmitz about race strategy at a Red Bull Racing International Women in Engineering Day event. And she was very articulate, very smart, she knows what she is doing, where she is coming from, how she is going to talk about a particular situation or approach to a certain race.
And it is great to be able to see more role models for women and for underrepresented groups in the motorsport industry. At the end of the day, though, I always evaluate my own career and I think, OK, what could I do better, what am I able to do better.
And I try to focus on that as much as possible because I know there is also an element of trying not to compare yourself too much to other people, because when you compare yourself too much to other people, you can lose track of what you have actually achieved.
I always used to judge myself because I am quite tomboyish. I do not usually wear makeup, or I wear very little makeup. I do not usually do my nails. I used to have very short hair for a long time. And I used to always compare myself to other women.
I studied in two all girls schools and I found it really difficult because I was studying alongside people who more closely matched the normal image or the traditional stereotypical image of what a girl should look like. And I thought, I am not that, I am tomboyish and rebellious, I am quite outspoken, and I kept judging myself for it and comparing myself to other women.
Then I realised it is like focusing on your own race in a race meeting or focusing on your own journey. I realised that just because other people do it does not mean you have to match them exactly.
I still have my hair dyed blue for this reason, actually. I have blue highlights in my black hair because I like it, and it is one of the things that I have done because it is not very conventional, but I do it because it is a sign of my individuality.
I think it is great to see increasing representation in motorsport. At the same time, I have to stay focused on not comparing myself to others and reminding myself that they can do it and I can do it too, but I do not have to be a copy of them. And just recognising that is enough.
Q. For an industry that’s still working towards gender-parity, what’s the subtlest barrier you’ve faced, not overt sexism but the quiet assumptions, and how did you push through it?
NA: I get a lot of questions about how I am surviving or how I am thriving in a ‘male-dominated’ industry, and my answer to these questions is always why are you using the term ‘male-dominated’.
The reason I ask this is because I know plenty of women, female engineering students especially, who are exceptionally talented, perhaps some even more so than myself. I look at their achievements and I think, what have I been doing, and they are interested in motorsport, but I have seen female engineering students choose not to pursue a career in motorsport because they feel that motorsport is too ‘male-dominated’.
I feel like part of the problem is actually continuing to refer to motorsport as ‘male-dominated’ when in actual fact, in a general paddock, I would say now the gender balance that I typically see is like a 70:30 split, where it is 70% men and 30% women.
Granted, the majority of these women are in non-technical roles, but there is nothing wrong with that. I want to say this as a disclaimer: it is good to have more women in the paddock overall regardless of whether they are in technical or non-technical roles.
I think there is a big focus on pushing women into engineering, which is great and I am actually a very big supporter of that, but I do not think it should come at the expense of saying women should do engineering instead of coordination or logistics work or a more managerial role, because the two can coexist.
You can be a really good female team coordinator and you can also have a really good female engineer. The two go hand in hand. I just wanted to say that, yes, the majority of these women are not in technical roles, but you still have a 70% to 30% split in the paddock overall.
I feel like the term ‘male-dominated’ reinforces the idea that motorsport is just 99% men, which to me does not feel true. Yes, there are definitely more men than women, but I try to avoid using the term ‘male-dominated’ because it implies that being a woman in motorsport is some huge exception, and that is not necessarily true.
I have met lots of great female engineers, lots of great female mechanics, lots of great female hospitality staff, lots of great female team coordinators, and so I am loath to use the term ‘male-dominated’.
That being said, yes, I have faced challenges, but what I try to do is focus on what I can control. I have mentioned this earlier, but the biggest thing that I have learned in the past three years of doing motorsport is to focus on what I can control, what I can do, what factors are within my control, and how I can best use them to do the best I can in a given situation.
Sometimes, especially in environments where I might be new or where people might not know me, I try to just put my head down, I try to focus on my work, and I try to show through actions and not through words that I can do what I do. More often than not, people are very supportive.
I have made some great friends. I have taken the time to get to know everyone within a team, to gain that development and understanding, and it is just about proving to other people that you can – not to prove people wrong, but to prove to yourself that you can, and when you do that then people will begin to realise that you are capable of doing things.
I am very loath to use the term ‘male-dominated’ – I think that is not an accurate representation of where motorsport is at the moment. It is changing, it is evolving, and there are definitely a lot more women in the paddock in general.
To continually refer to it as ‘male-dominated’ reinforces the same narrative, so more female engineers or mechanics or support staff may think this is not for me. So just focusing on what I can control and focusing on my work has been the best way to prove to people that I can. I always try to show through actions and not words.
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Q. You co-founded Motorsport Staff to connect people with opportunities. Was there a time in your own career when you felt the industry’s doors were harder to open, and how did that influence your decision to start the platform?
NA: Yes, I agree. I think initially when I got started, the hardest part was knowing, OK, how do I get my foot in the door with a racing team?
I was really fortunate in that regard as I was working for a driver at the time, developing a website, developing a platform to follow his Formula Ford racing career, and his brother actually is an apprentice at Alpine Formula One team. He also used to be a kart racer.
When I started doing a weekend trackside with that team, I realised, OK, so I have got my foot in the door now, but how do I continue to find the next opportunity that will help me progress? At the time, there was very little advice.
Formula Careers is a great platform. I really enjoyed it, I really enjoyed using it, I really enjoyed what I learned from there, meeting Louise McGrath and Rachel McGrath virtually. I have not met them in person yet, but I really enjoyed using Formula Careers.
Beyond that, though, there was not really much support, especially for someone who at the time was not a university student. I was a high school student. I was looking for ways to get involved as I was preparing for university, and I did not really know where to go for support.
I did not know what a good motorsport CV looked like. I did not know what the requirements were, especially for roles that are not within Formula One but in the more freelance roles you get in GT3, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 4, Formula Regional, GT4 – where it is more freelance and you have to show, if you are working trackside, that you can adapt to those sorts of environments.
One of the reasons I started a platform called motorsport staff with Josh Evans was because I felt it was a good way to help other people, to allow race teams to view CVs of potential freelancers or potential people that could work for them.
Equally, it was also for people to view other people’s CVs. You can go onto the website and look at the CV database and actually click on different people’s CVs and see, OK, right, this is this person, this is the experience they have, they want to be and they are open to electrician roles.
So maybe you are 18 or 19 and you are thinking, I want to be an auto electrician. You can see that exemplar CV and you can get an understanding of what is required. That was a big decision, and I am working on a couple of apps and platforms as well with Josh to make people’s lives within motor racing a little bit easier and to try and help out where possible.
Because it is not just about finding career opportunities. It is things like even basic things, such as trying to figure out what races are on during a given weekend or how to get to particular circuits. At some circuits around the world, it is really difficult to know, OK, if you are traveling by public transport, what stop do I get off at, how do I get to each circuit.
So I am working on a database of that, working on a database of suppliers, and building the resources to just help other people out. I also do a lot with the United Motorsport Academy for that reason.
I have known Omkar for about three years now, and I really do believe in his mission to help students learn more about the world of motorsport. Omkar is great. I really admire what he is doing with the D&O Motorsport Workshop.
Being able to teach a course in India to a class of over 30 people was very daunting, but it was very rewarding in the end. Actually teaching, actually getting to give something back to other students, and helping them realise that these careers are possible was very fulfilling.
As a university student, I am around students a lot of the time, and I can see some of the struggles that they are facing. So from someone who does work within the industry, it is really useful to be able to help out where I can, to help develop, and to make things just a little bit easier for other people.
Q. With your work with Driven By Us, and FIA Girls on Track, you’re in the dual role of engineer and advocate. Have you ever found those roles in tension, and if so, how did you reconcile them?
NA: That’s a great question. I think, you know, I’m involved with Driven By Us, with FIA Girls on Track UK. I’d say most people have been very supportive. Obviously, I’m focused on being the best engineer that I can be.
So whenever I have engineering work, that always has to come first. And then when I get that engineering work done, then, OK, I focus on the advocacy work, the work with the UMA, the work Driven By Us, volunteering with F1 in schools teams and in local secondary schools, etc. I do that to give back.
I am always focused on, OK, what is supporting my career at the moment, which is engineering. When I do give back, I don’t think I’ve ever found these roles to be too much in tension, since when I’m engineering, I’m usually engineering at a racetrack and it’s just, OK, you’re there that weekend and you’re focused on what you’re doing.
As an advocate, I tend to support mainly at in-person events. So I don’t actually post that much. I do post sometimes about my advocacy on social media, but I tend to focus a lot more on, OK, what are the connections that I make in person?
Because, you know, what are the actions that we can actually do to make change within the industry and to actually have those types of discussions instead of speaking on social media? I find that to be a much more effective way of achieving change.
I definitely find it a way to, you know, sometimes I wouldn’t say these roles are in tension, but I’d say sometimes it’s just a lot easier to be able to have the right conversations at the right time with the right people, to go to events, to support the events in person.
And I tend to go to my engineering roles with a very similar mentality now. So that’s usually how I reconcile them. And I think I’ve done that over the past year. It’s just sort of, OK, yeah I do engineering, yeah I do all this other sort of volunteering support work.
But I try to make the actions happen in person and show through actions and not words, you know, try to support the engineering thing with actions and not words, but also try to advocate with actions and not words.
I think that’s the best way to approach any project, because the more time you spend talking about something, the less time you spend actually doing it.
Q. In your experience, what’s one myth about working in top-level motorsport that you wish more young women understood before they enter the field?
NA: I mean, I wouldn’t say I work in top-level motorsport, but in motorsport in general I would say that in general – and this doesn’t really just apply to young women, this applies to everyone – it’s not as glamorous as you think it is.
You spend a lot of time by yourself, you spend a lot of time away from your family, away from your friends. I’ve had difficult decisions that have had to be made with friendships and relationships just because I’ve been away for so long and it can be tough sometimes, you know.
I’ve spent lots of times in restaurants somewhere halfway across the world having dinner by myself and you kind of have to get used to your own company a lot. Like there’s a lot of travel and it can be quite a solitary occupation.
For someone who travels a lot like myself, I’ve adapted to it very well, but for most people, it’s a big culture shock from what they’re used to at home.
And, you know this, when I say working in motorsport I mean working trackside and motorsport is different if you’re working in a factory-based role.
But yeah, you know, it’s not as glamorous as you might think. Yes, being at a track is cool, but you’re also working very long hours, you know, you’re often staying up quite late at night, you’re travelling to the track, in the hotel, on the track, so it’s quite difficult although not impossible to find time for sightseeing, but you have to plan it around your race weekend.
But I think that’s just a good thing for everyone to understand, you know, if they do pursue a trackside role in motorsport, to understand the level of travel commitments required, understand the level of hours you do. You do need to be comfortable with your own company – that’s something that I’ve learned equally as well.
A myth about women in motorsport, I’d loop back to question six and I’d say it’s I don’t like the use of the term ‘male-dominated’ for the reasons I mentioned in my answering question six because actually, you know, definitely with the more international series that I’ve worked in, I’ve seen increasingly more and more women within paddocks.
Okay granted, a lot of these are not in technical roles but that doesn’t mean we should just call motorsport a blanket term of ‘male-dominated’, because by doing so you’re sort of implying that there aren’t really any women or that you’re not really willing to spotlight the female stories. So for sure I think that’s something else that I’d also mention.
Q. Imagine you’ve just joined a Formula 1 team tomorrow. Beyond pure performance gains, what’s the first cultural or operational change you’d want to influence?
NA: The best teams I work with are the ones who always have conversations over dinner. So, I mean, I would not be able to comment on Formula One as I don’t work in Formula One, but within the best teams that I work with, we do lots of team-building activities together.
You know, we’ve had dinners together, we’ve had drinks together, we’ve talked about our lives beyond work. That’s one of the major things you do to build rapport.
And it can be very easy within motorsport, as it’s such a highly competitive environment, to be fully focused and find yourself without any time to just get to know people and build trust. But that’s integral because it’s a team sport. You need to be able to do that.
So I think that’s sort of the first cultural operational change. And again, I don’t work in Formula One, I cannot comment, but just to get people talking more, things like coffee breaks together, things like lunches and dinners together, just to get talking to one another and to get to know one another.
Because it’s very easy, I guess, to put on a helmet or to put on a visor and think, OK, this is who I am when I’m working, this is the competitor or the engineer or the mechanic that I am. But actually, who are you beyond that? When you get to know people on a personal level, that’s when you start working better as a team.
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Q. Motorsport engineering can feel like a closed world, especially for those without family connections or obvious entry points. How did you find your way into a career in such an inaccessible space, and what helped you break through those first barriers?
NA: At no point in my early career journey did I think it wasn’t going to work out. I think since that spark of me being interested in motorsport was ignited after doing the two-week programme in Italy, I thought, you know what, I really, really think I can do this
And I don’t think at any point I thought this is impossible or I can’t do it. I never even thought for one second that giving up was a possibility.
I think it could have been so easy, you know, with the amount of calls and CVs and letters I sent out, to think, okay, so I give up, this is too difficult. But at no point did I think it wasn’t a possibility. So yeah, I think that sort of persistent attitude was really helpful.
Q. Your journey into motorsport hasn’t been a straightforward one, yet you’ve kept moving forward and building your career. What has kept you motivated during the toughest moments, and how has that shaped the way you see success today?
NA: I’d say focusing on yourself and trying not to compare yourself to other people. I always try to focus now on what I can control. Okay, what can I control? I can control my attitude, the way I behave towards other people, I can control how I perform as an engineer, I can control how thoroughly I am looking through this data.
I can control things that I can control, and I focus on that. When things get tough, I remind myself that these situations will pass.
It’s quite useful that motorsport is weekend-based because you always know there’s going to be a set amount of days left, so when things get tough you sort of remind yourself, okay, I can get through this, I can control what I want to control, and that sort of helps you become, I think, more stoic about the situation.
So I always look back and I remind myself, okay, yeah, I had some great race weekends, I had some tough race weekends, but I always try to remind myself that success is not linear. A lot of people think that success is just becoming better and better at what you do, but it’s not linear.
You’re going to have moments that are really good and then you’re going to have a big dip and some really tough moments, then you’ll go up and down and up and down. Success is not linear, and I think just trying to unburden yourself of the expectations helps.
It’s really easy to put expectations on yourself, but when you try to let those go, I think you become more relaxed and more able to perform.
So yeah, it’s not straightforward, but I focus on what I can control, I focus on myself, I try not to compare myself to other people, and I try to remind myself that even when things get tough, success isn’t linear and I just try to focus on what I can do better.
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Q. Mentorship clearly matters to you. Who in your journey served as that guiding force, and what impact did they have on your path?
NA: I’ve had many people who are supportive, and I think if I name people, it would probably be a disservice to the other people who I’ve maybe forgotten to name. But I’ve had many people, both men and women, support me and guide me, and they’ve all been really helpful.
Obviously, a lot of the current conversations and mentorship relationships that I have are now primarily online because of the travel that I do, but I regularly keep in touch with the people who have supported me a lot, both in my early career and today.
I regularly have meetings, I regularly sit down and discuss projects with them, talk about my career, talk about maybe an interview coming up that I want to prepare for, and it’s just good to draw on that network.
I think at this stage of my career, I wouldn’t really refer to it as mentorship, I prefer to see it as building a network of good people that you can lean on for advice and they can lean on you for advice, and you can work together to make everything better for both yourself and for them.
So I wouldn’t really pin it on one single mentor because it’s always felt like a broader group of people. I’d say it’s not really mentorship – it’s more of a network where we help each other.
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Q. For a young woman reading this who dreams of F1 but doubts she belongs, what’s the sentence you wish someone had told you at the start of your journey?
NA: This is advice we give to anyone, not just women – you can do anything you set your mind to.
No matter if your target is F1, if it’s MotoGP, if it’s World Endurance Championship, if it’s Rally, if you put your mind to something and really put your mind to something and think you’re never going to give up, you can achieve it.
And if you have that goal set in your mind, you will be able to achieve it. You can do anything you set your mind to, and you are more capable than you think you are.
It’s really easy to compare yourself to other people, but try to avoid drawing those comparisons. Focus on what you can control. Focus on your own pathway and your own progress.
And remember that progress and success are not linear, but don’t get discouraged by the tough moments because they will teach you a lesson that makes you stronger.
You can do anything you put your mind to, no matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, whether you’re a woman, whether you’re a man, whether you’re from a completely different country on the opposite side of the world.
If you put your mind to something and really put your mind to something, you can do it.
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