The role of an F1 race engineer is a varied one, covering everything from helping with set-up, communicating with different parts of a team, and of course speaking to the driver.
To find out more about what a race engineer does and what it takes to become one, we spoke to Julien Simon-Chautemps – a former race engineer who worked with Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado and more in his 14 years in F1. He now runs JSC7 Engineering LTD.
What was your role?
My role as Race Engineer in F1 was very wide-ranging and varied. Mainly my job consisted of using all the information provided by all the specialised engineers (Performance, Aero, Tyre, System, Power Unit, Gearbox and Electronic), analysing them and then ultimately filtering them to make the car quicker. This obviously also included communicating the necessary information to the driver and also ensuring I took his feedback on board.
What were your main responsibilities and jobs?
Obviously, my main responsibilities were being the link between the driver and the team, communicating clearly and effectively information between the engineers and driver to get the most out of the car. I have over 21 years’ experience in race team operations, operating procedures, vehicle science and performance, lap time simulation, data analysis, high level reporting, knowledge of F1 Sporting & Technical regulations.
How did you become a race engineer?
I graduated from the IPSA as an Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineer in 2002 and then started my journey to reach Formula 1. I worked in various categories from Rally, Formula Renault, F3, GP2 before finally arriving in F1 in 2007 when I joined Toyota F1 team as Performance Engineer for Jarno Trulli. I genuinely gained so much experience and knowledge through working in all these categories and especially working for Prema Racing gave me a solid foundation.
I continued working as Performance Engineer for Trulli in Lotus Racing, before moving to the Lotus F1 Team where…
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