Meet the Woman in Mission Control: Pippa Treacy on Life as an Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team Engineer

When we think of Formula 1, we tend to think of fast cars, adrenaline junkie drivers pushing the limits every race weekend in revolutionary feats of engineering, and the drama that can be created by a millisecond. How often do we really take the time to consider what goes on behind the scenes, and who is partly responsible for making sure that the drivers actually make it out onto the track?

Meet Pippa Treacy, one of Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team’s Tyre Performance Engineers. Pippa oversees tyre data across an F1 race weekend, assessing performance and degradation track by track. She aids the trackside strategy team in making the correct calls by analysing performance data to get the best understanding of how the tyres will interact with both the car and the circuit.

Pippa Treacy (right) pictured with an Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team car. Image Credit: Pippa Treacy

At just 27, Pippa has already worked for two F1 teams, starting out with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1Team after finishing her studies in mechanical engineering and completing a masters in motorsport engineering at Cranfield University. During her stint at Mercedes, she began focusing on coding, aiding her application to work at Aston Martin Aramco. She has now been with the Silverstone-based team for over three years. 

The AMR Technology Campus is thrumming with life after a busy weekend on track in Singapore. The trackside team are arriving back, and the energy in the factory is one of quiet determination. Colleagues are digging into performance data, and Pippa has already had a busy week when she sits down with Females in Motorsport. 

“I think you learn along the way what you like and what you dislike,” Pippa tells us. “When I started this role, I was in the performance optimisation group, which is more general performance engineering. You really learn by doing - trying different projects and picking up new skills along the way. Over time, I realised I was most interested in specialising in tyre performance engineering.

So, what does the build up to a race weekend typically look like for a Tyre Performance Engineer? A lot of Pippa’s work for a race weekend comes before the event, starting with characterising the circuit to gauge how the tyres will behave. 

“Different circuits have different characteristics,” she says. “Some circuits might be quite low speed, such as Monaco, with high steering input and frequent traction-limited corner exits. So the vehicle speed may be low but there can be relatively high instantaneous input energy into specific tyres. It’s quite different to Barcelona with a lot of long right-hand corners which can be penalising for the front left tyre. You'll build up a picture of what you expect the tyre to do at the circuit, you'll run your simulations, and produce that work to everyone.” 

This information goes to the pit wall, who can then work towards the most optimal tyre strategy. When the race weekend officially begins, Pippa focuses on how the tyres perform, whether it aligns with simulation work, and where issues could possibly arise. 

“As you move into the weekend, you need to maximise the learnings from Free Practice sessions,” she says. “You're performing a mix of high fuel running and performance running - performance running being a reflection of what qualifying might be like, high fuel running being a sample of what you think the race might be like. And analysing telemetry data and competitor GPS data to understand what you think will be the limitations in the race.

“Your tyres are the only point of contact with ground, so any setup change that the race engineer decide on will impact the overall thermal and mechanic degradation of the tyres. So, you're just going to have to manage that expectation. If the race engineers want to make a certain set up change in terms of optimising overall balance and load level of the car, that  will have a potential impact on the degradation level, so trying to manage that is important. So it’s just trying to liaise with other departments to give them the best picture of what our limitations are.” 

Pippa trackside with the team. Image Credit: Pippa Treacy

During on-track sessions, Pippa works from Mission Control at the AMRTC, the team's state-of-the-art hub based at Silverstone. Alongside other members of the engineering team, Pippa feeds back to the trackside personnel based on what she can see coming through in the data. Pippa currently works closely with Fernado Alonso’s side of the garage, but also works with team-mate Lance Stroll’s data too. 

Her role in the team is not limited to race weekends; Pippa also gets to work with junior drivers through F1 Evolution, where the team runs older model F1 cars. Through this, she helps junior drivers to understand how running is different in an F1 car compared to other single seater categories, and what the car demands. This has given Pippa insight into performance engineering across the broader spectrum, and has shown her how much work can go into managing drivers on track.

Despite changes to the industry, female engineers are not as visible as men, however Pippa knows that women can bring a more nuanced viewpoint than they are given credit for. Women make up approximately 30 per cent of the entire F1 workforce, but female engineers or technicians only make up an estimated 10-18 per cent across all roles in the sector, according to recent data from teams. Pippa doesn't believe women should be discouraged from working in motorsport by this, encouraging others who want to work in the industry to go for what they want. 

“When I first joined, I was so quiet and very reserved, and it didn't help because everyone is busy, so you have to make sure you're looking out for yourself and putting yourself forward for opportunities,” she says. “No point in doubting yourself, I think you have to be a bit louder in the room sometimes to get what you want.”