James Heard

So I'm James Heard. I'm currently in London and I am a race engineer.

So for me, my job's kind of two parts.

One of it's back at the factory, preparing to go racing. And part of it is being trackside at races. So I spend most of my time when I'm back at the factory trying to prepare, either myself, my team, or my driver to go racing.

And when I'm trackside, I'm there for effectively the go-between my driver and the team to try and get the best result that we can.

So a typical day for me probably looks like being at a racetrack with single-seaters, specifically F4 cars, going around and trying to get the best time that we can, improving in everything we can in terms of making sure our driver is quick, making sure our car is quick, and making sure as a team we run effectively and efficiently.

So I work in part with my driver who is a single seater driver, more specifically British F4. So I work with him just to try and make sure we're getting the best out of any day that we can.

I also work very closely with my mechanics on my car in order to make sure that they know what's going on, the car's prepped and any changes that need to be made have been made. Also work closely with the other engineers on other cars as well as the team manager.

The best thing about my job, I would say, is the variability of it. There is never one day, you'll never have two days that are the same. There's always something different, a new challenge, something new and exciting.

The hardest part of my job is the long days and the long times away. It's not uncommon for my job to mean that you're working 12 to 14 hours a day while you're away. And racing being what it is means it's relatively relentless. So I'll often be away at a track every week or at least every other week.

So my journey in order to get to where I am today started back at school. I always had an interest in sciences, more specifically physics, and I always loved cars growing up.

o from there, I then went on to college to get a BTEC in engineering. And then from there, I went on to university to study mechanical engineering, which I completed back in 2023.

And then from there, I moved into my first job as an engineer and from there progressed up to where I am.

Actually, I mean, I use the fundamentals of what I learned at school. Every day, there's maths, physics, there's just understanding people. It's all important skills that lay the basis for what you eventually end up specialising in. So it's really important to make sure you've got those skills good and in line.

For me, the job itself pushes technology, it pushes people to the limits in order to find what you can to go above the normal. On top of that, being motorsport, it brings its own set of fans. So it's not untypical for us to have 30 to 40,000 people watch us go race on any given weekend.

So it has an impact on people. It's something that they remember, but on the other side, you get the aspect of you pushing the boundaries of technology.

So a moment I'll never forget is last year I was racing at Brands Hatch and we were at this point losing the team's championship by about two points. And two of our drivers got a very, very good start off the line.

And what followed was probably the most nervous 25 minutes of my life where we finished one, two on that track in order to bring home the team's championship by one and a half points.

I think the advice I wish I had when I was younger is to believe in yourself.

There's plenty of people who will tell you that it's not possible or you can't do it, but you have to take a step back and say, is it not possible or have they not tried?

Believe in yourself, believe in your abilities and work hard to get what you want because if you work hard enough, you can do it.