A photo of Shell fuel technicians working the in their lab at the 2010 Spanish F1 Grand Prix.
© Getty Images for Shell
Formula Racing

7 of the most specialised jobs in motorsport

Drivers, engineers and mechanics take all the plaudits but there are other important roles behind the scenes in motorsport, especially in the super-specialised world of racing science.
By Eddy Lawrence
5 min readPublished on
The most visible and celebrated jobs in motorsport belong to its drivers, engineers, and grease monkeys. But the racing world depends on a vast array of specialist skills, including experts from some surprising branches of science. Here are seven of motorsport's most specialised scientific roles.

Fuel chemist

The engine designers get all the glory, but fuel chemists are the Thanos of motorsports engineering, bringing balance to all things.
Their job is to fine tune the chemical composition of go-juice, optimising octane levels to match the individual characteristics of the vehicle, correcting for its weight, acceleration, and of course the unique architecture of its engine. A perfectly tailored fuel can add 40bhp to a Formula One car.
The role also includes the development of new additives, which have to be in compliance with the rules of each sport. As a result, fuel chemists sometimes have to find creative ways around legislation.
A photo of a sign for a fuel and oil stop at Red Bull Romaniacs in Sibiu, Romania, in July 2018.

Fuel stop

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Aerodynamicist

At its most basic level, aerodynamics ensure the front end of vehicles slice through Earth's gloopy atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. But it's a field that encourages micro-specialisation; members of an F1 aerodynamics team will be assigned a single component – from the front wing to the radiator inlet or brake cooling duct – to work out how it can be improved with either imperceptibly tiny, or wholly radical, changes in its shape.
The aerodynamics team need to work closely with the telemetry crew (see below) and fluid dynamicists (see further below) to turn their feedback into physical reality. Their new creations are then tested by making 40 per cent scale models, which means aerodynamicists basically get paid for playing with giant carbon-fibre Airfix kits.

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Telemetry modeller

Telemetry is about collecting and collating data on the activity of every component, analysing its interactions, and finding innovative new ways to exploit its behaviour.
It's a trickle-down science initially developed for testing military jets which involves fitting test cars with an endless array of sensors to monitor what each part is doing and how it responds to extreme conditions.
The role attracts specialists in complex systems science – an emerging branch of research which aims to make sense of systems with multiple inputs, from a hurricane to an economy.
Endurance racing, F1, and MotoGP offer arguably the most exciting career in this field, as experts interpret live wireless feedback to enable pit crews and team strategists to make critical split-second decisions.
A photo of Thomas Morgenstern checking the telemetry of an F1 Red Bull Racing car in 2012.

Thomas Morgenstern performs a telemetry check

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Materials scientist

We're living in a material world, and it's studied by materials scientists. In motor racing, their job is to develop new materials or find new ways to wring more out of existing ones by monitoring their performance under the stresses of a race.
At the sexy end of this role, this means inventing new carbon-fibre composites for F1 cars. But materials science is every bit as important in NASCAR, where the cutting-edge Dow Materials Engineering Center work with the Richard Childress Racing team.
In a sport where cars must conform to one of only 30 permitted body shapes and the chassis has to be made of steel, even the choice of material for wires and welds can confer a genuine competitive advantage.

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Lubricant specialist

Aside from having a job title that looks great on business cards, lubricant specialists are the protectors of valuable, fragile parts which are put under extreme stress and constant friction.
Lubricants need both a viscosity that puts mayonnaise to shame and thermal stability which can cope with massive, rapid temperature changes in engines that produce up to 1,750kW of heat per minute.
Lubricant research also provides practical applications for nanotechnology, with some competition-grade lubes infused with electron-microscopic nano-diamonds. As well as maximising resistance to heat and friction, a blob of this makes a cost-effective engagement ring for motorsports fans.

Surface finishing

Getting a smooth finish on motor components isn't exactly rocket science, but it's pretty close – and uses a lot of the same technology.
Reducing the friction coefficient of both internal and external parts is a lot more complex than buffing on a bit of Turtle Wax. Welcome to the high-tech world of superfinishing, which produces components with a surface roughness as low as 0.02Ra. To put that esoteric measurement in context, that's more than twice as slick as the Teflon NASA uses for heat shielding.
Superfinishing vastly reduces wear from grinding and friction heat – essential for parts whose extreme operating environment means a long life is simply making it to the end of a race.
A photo of Marc Marquez racing at the 2018 British MotoGP at Silverstone.

Marc Márquez tears up the track at Silverstone

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Fluid dynamicist

If you want to save money on expensive wind-tunnel experiments, computational fluid dynamics is your new best friend. Despite the slightly misleading name, fluid dynamics covers the study of gaseous interference – specifically the way air circulates around the car.
One of their key responsibilities is increasing downforce to keep the car on terra firma. This is particularly important in sidecar racing, where teams are basically sitting on top of a frustrated wing.
Eva Hakansson, the world's fastest female motorcycle rider, is currently bidding to top 300mph (483kph) in an experimental sidecar and fluid dynamics are only thing that will make that a land speed record instead of a very average flight speed.
A photo of participants in action at a sidecar race in Spielberg, Austria, in 2011.

Fluid dynamics are super important in sidecar racing

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