Lead from the front

Good teamwork requires much more than just a strong leader

- LEENA GADE

Teamwork under pressure relies on individual skills, teamed with trust and respect. It needs leadership that is strong but fair and capable of making tough and sometimes unpopular choices. It also relies on each member of the team feeling valued enough to question and suggest solutions. In motorsport, the pressure comes from the need to act quickly and decisively, and the fact that you have an audience watching your every move.

In 2011, as a rookie race engineer at Audi Sport Team Joest, l was very much ‘thrown in at the deep end’. Convinced I was going to be fired, the first two races of the year were a disaster, and Sebring race day was an experience I will never forget. Within hours of the start, the catalogue of strategic errors, car damage, mistakes and penalties began, and carried on for another 12 hours, quickly putting the car out of contention.

The bulk of the race was run with almost non-existent telemetry, a problem that plagued the car all weekend, leaving the engineers blind. An early tyre compound change at night could help the sister car but, as this discussion was taking place between myself and the Michelin tyre engineer, the car started a 25th lap, one more than the fuel tank allowed. I’d asked my assistant to keep an eye on the car metrics whilst this discussion took place, but I hadn’t empowered him to grab my attention when it mattered. Add to that a sketchy fuel alarm and it was the perfect storm, and all my mistake.

Running on fumes