Britain’s Leena Gade - aged 35, from South Harrow near London – became the first female race engineer to win the Le Mans 24 Hours which earned Audi a 10th victory in the French sportscar endurance classic.
Gade commented: “I’m responsible for the final decisions on the racecar. If a part moves, changes temperature or changes pressure, I’m logging it. A snapshot of our computer screens could show hundreds of channels at one time.”
“The collected information is then used by me to give instructions over the radio to the driver to help him maintain tires or maximize the engine performance, for example.”
“In addition to looking after all functions of the car, we have to manage the tire allocation, fuel stops, driver time in the car while keeping an eye on the weather. This information is used to make strategy decisions on when to pit for fuel and which variant of tire to use.”
“I’m the main contact to the driver. The driver-engineer psychology has to be strong and trust plays a vital part in gaining performance. A driver performs better knowing his or her engineer is in control of the crew, the car and race which means they can focus on their driving. One miscalculation or decision that is waivered over can be the difference between winning or losing the race. And at Le Mans, that just isn’t an option.”
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