Fuelling the progress of Oracle Red Bull Racing: Fiona McEwan on life as a Racing Technical Advisor

From performing chemical analyses to coordinating logistics, Fiona McEwan’s work with ExxonMobil as a Racing Technical Advisor plays a crucial part in the operations of Oracle Red Bull Racing, accelerating their progress in Formula 1.

When you think about chemistry, your first thought may not be of particularly exciting job opportunities – but it would be naïve to think that’s always the case.

When she decided to pursue a degree in Chemistry with Drug Discovery, Fiona’s expectations were not exactly of an exciting career path. After graduation, she took a job with ExxonMobil in an oil refinery, where she performed chemical analyses on commercial fuels and lubricants. ExxonMobil is the fuel supplier of Oracle Red Bull Racing and, four years ago, an opportunity came up to work trackside with the team. Fiona went for it, and the rest is history.

“I must admit, motorsport was never a dream of mine,” she tells Females in Motorsport. “But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it would be such a waste to miss out.”

Even though she has always had an interest in F1, since taking this job Fiona admits she now lives and breathes the sport. While she is only working trackside on half the races of the season, her weekends off still revolve around watching F1 (and sometimes, she admits, getting in touch with her colleagues trackside to know everything that’s going on).

Fiona McEwan in the Oracle Red Bull Racing garage analysing the cars' fuels and lubricants.

In her role as Racing Technical Advisor, Fiona works trackside to analyse the cars’ fuel and lubricants, and coordinates the logistics of their shipping. She is not just crucial to the team’s operations, but to their success: she not only makes sure that the cars run smoothly on track with her analytical chemistry work, but, with the planning and coordination of fuel shipping, that they race at all.

Thanks to a lab mobile unit that travels to the different race locations, the team is able to analyse several aspects of the fuel and oils, such as their density, viscosity, and chemical composition.

Every component of the car has to follow precise regulations, imposed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), and the fuel is no exception.

At the start of the weekend, all kegs of fuel are analysed before being handed to the team, checking that it meets the parameters set by the FIA. The chemical composition of the fuel is also tested after every transfer, to avoid possible contaminations that could result in a penalty for the team when FIA officials sample the fuel later in the weekend.

“In theory there should be no issues, but you have to be careful.” Fiona says. 

While fuel analyses are required by regulations, testing the lubricants is essential to check the “health” of the car (quite like a blood test!). All the oils - engine, gear box, and hydraulic - are thoroughly analysed: any anomalous friction or parameter outside the normal range could be an early warning sign of problems causing a mechanical failure on track, major or minor. But in a sport like F1, where it’s all about the smallest of margins, nothing is insignificant: even the slightest issue can make the difference between winning or losing.

Fiona McEwan with Yuki Tsunoda and Jamie Chadwick in the Oracle Red Bull Racing garage at the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

On the logistics side, Fiona’s role is to coordinate with DHL on the shipment of the supply of fuel and lubricants necessary for the race weekend to the different race locations. This is the part of the job that definitely can present the most challenges: the fuel and lubricants are shipped by sea freight, months before the grand prix, but unexpected issues can come up right before the race weekend.

“On a couple of occasions, the weekend before the Singapore Grand Prix the ship couldn’t dock because of the fog, and we had to fly out another batch of fuel and lubricants at the last minute,” she says. “At times we have had issues with strikes in the countries where the fuels were supposed to arrive. And, a couple of years ago, Mexico banned the import of all fuels just a few weeks before the race, but thankfully, ours was already there!

“It’s no one’s fault that these things happen, and it’s out of everyone’s hands. We need to find the best possible solution for the circumstances.”

Oracle Red Bull Racing is a team known not just for their strong mindset and for being consistently at the top, but also for their support for each other.

“I absolutely love being a part of Red Bull,” she says. “It really feels like one big family.”

As the only woman working in the garage when she started, she fit right into the team, and was almost surprised she did. She admits she was a bit apprehensive coming in: although her colleagues at the refinery she’d been working in were mostly men, it was “maybe not quite male-dominated to the extent that motorsport can be”.

“Thankfully my experience working with the team has been a very positive one,” she says, “but overall, from what I’ve heard from other women in the field, I know it’s not always the case.”

Fiona McEwan celebrating Oracle Red Bull Racing winning the Constructors' Championship at the 2022 United States Grand Prix.

Oracle Red Bull Racing has always been a top team, but in the past few years they’ve been often considered unbeatable. And when Fiona joined, in 2022, they really were unbeatable, collecting podium after podium, win after win, record after record.

“I feel how privileged I am to be working with Red Bull at this time,” she says. “There are people who will work in motorsport for years and probably will never experience the same number of wins or records that I have.”

Ultimately, even if this is not quite the career path Fiona envisioned for herself, she wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

“I was surprised how much I love this job,” she says, and not just because she’s become a super fan of the sport. In a fast-paced environment like F1, where everything moves so quickly, it’s crucial to know how to solve problems and do it fast, think on your toes, take the right decision at the right moment. And this is exactly the kind of environment where she thrives.

One may think that, after four seasons in the role, and so many records and wins, as well as three drivers’ and two constructors’ championships, race day would be just another day at the office for Fiona. But for her, the anticipation of the Sunday morning, that adrenaline rush, it never goes away, and it’s still the best part of the job.

 “I don’t think it will matter how many races I do,” she says, “I think I’ll still always feel that excitement watching the formation lap and waiting for the lights to go out.”

Visit the careers websites of ExxonMobil and Oracle Red Bull Racing to explore career opportunities.

All images courtesy of Fiona McEwan.