Latest news with #ForceIndia
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
From rural Fermanagh to Formula One fast lane - how Bernie Collins blazed a trail for women everywhere
Bernie Collins isn't just one of the faces of Sky Sports, she is one of the most extraordinary Irish people in modern day sport. The rise and rise of the Fermanagh-born, all girls convent-educated woman through the ranks of Formula One as a design engineer before moving to television puts her in an extraordinary position. She is the one in the commentary box who knows what she is talking about when it comes to gearbox, transmission, tyres, pitstops and analytics. READ MORE: What channel is Isle of Man TT on? TV and live stream info for 2025 event READ MORE: Live GAA on TV this weekend with 13 Championship games set to be screened And the petrolheads out there - following years of commentators going 'wow, yeh', 'great, yeh', 'fast, yeh' - know it. Collins' passion is for the car and it shows, having served her time time an an engineer with McLaren (2009-15), starting as performance and senior strategy engineer and graduating eventually to head of race strategy at Force India/Aston Martin (2015-22) She proved a major force behind Force India, with Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg as their front-line duo, finishing fourth in the 2016 and 2017 formula One Constructors' Championship. While another high point came with their only F1 victory, for Perez, at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain in 2020. Moving to F1 TV as an analyst in 2023, it took just a year for Sky Sports to come calling, by which time her book 'How To Win A Grand Prix, from pitlane to podium - the inside track' was on the shelves. Less about go-faster stripes and 'wow, petrol, yeh, driver, wow' but a deeper dive into the background, the pitlane, the car, the dynamics and the analytics it has been perceived as one of the most intelligent and accessible books ever written about the sport. 'I did engineering because I enjoyed it, I enjoy maths and physics,' says Collins who grew up near the village of Maguiresbridge in Fermanagh. 'And even though we've got a lot of good motor sport in Ireland, there's a lot of rallying and a lot of bikes, etc, I was never went to any of that when I was younger so I never really thought about getting into sport,. 'But I think there's more roles opening up in Formula One now that you can do, it is not just about Race Directors and drivers but the more that you dig into it, there's a lot of Irish in the middle of the action in various roles. 'Like I came to the front at the minute because I'm on TV and people are aware of me or whatever but, obviously, I worked in the area for 10 years before that so my family knew and stuff but not so much people in Ireland.' The greening of the pitland is continuing she says, Formula One fully fledged industry and they advertise looking for the best. 'I thought the engineering side of it when I started, there was going to be solely me but actually everyone has been really friendly. 'There's a lot of Irish in the pit lane in a variety of roles and I think that we've got some really good universities here that do really good degrees. 'There's a lot more publication of not just engineering roles, but of marketing, legal, HR is showing up too, you know, everything that any company needs, that an F1 team needs. So I think there's more of an awareness that you can go into it. 'I went to an all girls convent in Fermanagh, Mount Lourdes Grammar School, right. 'And no one was publicising engineering with regard to getting into it and and I think that attitude is changing and, you know, I think hopefully someone like me on TV is showing that it is possible to do a career with it and be successful at it.' In this Collin's progress, such a good story, has perked perceptions - Formula One is not the closed shop it was once accepted as. 'I think it started with a really good feature last year about my story and, I guess, when it was screened it was grand but before that you didn't really see much about working F1. 'I think the TV then only used to show the drivers and when you were never going to be a driver, you used just to work away, it was your job. 'Then when I did my book, I remember I did a book signing in Fermanagh, actually I did two, and the number of young girls that came to that was incredible. I would say 80 percent of the people there were young girls under 25 and it was great to see. 'So the support from home has been incredible, they love hearing the racing stories connected to Irish stories and the support has been fantastic from home and it's been great to sort of be picked to do that, to show that side of it, show the engineering side of it." Having left her job working on strategy for Aston Martin, Bernie says she was happy to take her foot off the pedal a bit in order to make more time for family and friends and work for Sky Sports. 'You end up missing a lot of real life, weddings, birthdays or whatever it might be. 'That's fundamentally why I left my role. I love doing strategy and I enjoyed working for Aston Martin but I didn't want to commit 23 weekends a year that I had no option to have off. 'There's very few jobs where you can't take a week off at some point in the year when you need to, so it just got to the point where I thought that was enough. 'Working with Sky, I do have that greater flexibility so having that extra freedom makes quite a big difference."
Daily Mail
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I lived my F1 dream but the sport wasn't awash with cash like it is now, says PAUL DI RESTA... Sometimes teams couldn't even pay for hotels!
To live out your dream is the ultimate goal. Even for the few who achieve it, however, the dream sometimes doesn't last long enough. Paul Di Resta knows this first hand. The Scot took the conventional racing route through karting, stepping up through Formula Renault, Formula Three, and DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) with Mercedes. Then came the breakthrough as he found a place within the McLaren testing team and, ultimately, Force India at Formula One level in 2010. Di Resta seemingly had everything he could have asked for. He took part in testing for that first season, then signed a deal to become a main driver in 2011, securing points in his debut race at the Australian Grand Prix and picking up points in several more races that season. Life was good. After two more consistent if not spectacular seasons, including a fourth-placed finish in Bahrain, Di Resta received the news that Force India would not be retaining him for the 2014 season. The dream had come to an abrupt end. These days Di Resta spends his weekends racing in the FIA's World Endurance Championship 'It's all about opportunity, says a now 39-year-old Di Resta. 'It depends if you can get there. There came a point where I became too old, people didn't really look at you. You don't want age to be a thing, but it is. 'With F1, you have to be right time, right place. There was a lot of difficulty at the time when I finished, going through the financial crisis, F1 wasn't in the shape it's in at the moment with sponsorship and budgets overflowing. 'I was there when it was absolutely critical that people supported it. There were times at some Grands Prix when some teams couldn't pay for hotels and whatever. 'So I probably hit it at the wrong time in that sense, that's what stopped the journey. There's the age thing, too, just getting a break. There's other people who didn't make it to Formula One who should have got there, and I keep saying that. 'I fulfilled that dream but at some point you have to move on and there's a life outside of that.' When one door closes, another opens. After returning to the DTM circuit and working for Sky Sports' F1 coverage for several years, Di Resta found his way into endurance racing, first at the Le Mans 24-hour race with United Autosports before settling in the FIA's World Endurance Championship from 2019 with Peugeot. He's been 'part of the furniture' there ever since. With victory in the 2020 LMP2, as well as consistent results over the course of his first season, Di Resta was ready to write the next chapter in his career. 'Endurance racing, I believe, is the next best thing (after Formula One),' says Di Resta. 'It was the best thing in terms of my family structure. I have kids, so staying Europe based, because I had options in the US to do Indy Car, there was an element of safety there, too. So this is next thing to Formula One that people look at. 'Obviously, I'd never focused on endurance racing, what with the F1 stuff. The DTM times, it was all individual, it was all about sprint racing. 'It just came up in a conversation with (United Autosports co-owner) Zak Brown at Spa. We met each other in the paddock in August 2017, he asked if I'd be interested in doing Daytona 24. So we said let's get it on, let's speak about it. 'From there, I joined United, went there and did that. Throughout that year, I did races with them, combined that a bit with DTM. It was nice to do a dual programme. At that point it was a bit more accepted. When I was you]nger, it wasn't really accepted that you could be with one manufacturer and branch off to another manufacturer and do two championships. 'I had firm Mercedes-Benz roots. They didn't have any endurance racing so naturally you couldn't do that. 'With doing LMP2, which wasn't manufacturer-tied, that's how this started. Then, when that came to an end, hypercar started to get momentum behind it. So I signed here late 2020, and I've been part of the furniture since.' Now into his sixth year with Peugeot, Di Resta is back driving at the top level in this type of racing. Successive ninth-placed finishes in Qatar and then Imola have given the Scot and his team the best start to the season they could have hoped for. Even if the man from Uphall in West Lothian believes the race is deserving of a more prestigious track. 'The hypercar is the top class, the biggest thing you want to race in,' he says. 'Fortunately, I managed to get in. I was at a decent age. I'd had friends who had been part of the Peugeot programme back in the 908 days, which were hugely successful, so I knew they were serious about racing. 'I think a French brand coming in to capitalise on Le Mans, which is the biggest goal of the season, that was part of what drove me to be here. 'You'd like to finish off the journey. At the moment, the success hasn't been where we'd like it to be for the effort that's gone in. But there's still time and dedication from every individual here. 'Honestly, ninth in Qatar is the reality of where we're at. I don't think we're better than that. Our competition has built a better, faster car and you've got to applaud them. 'I honestly think the championship is way above this track (Imola). I don't think it's a place we should be coming — it's too small. There's bigger and better tracks out there on the calendar. 'Of course, you can come here and enjoy the pasta, the pizza. But is it a world championship event for the likes of this? I don't think so. There are bolder, bigger tracks; Silverstone, Monza.' With racing blood in his veins, as a cousin of superstar drivers Dario and Marino Franchitti, Di Resta was always destined to find his way into the sport. As he lives out a new dream, he admits he could not have reached the heights he has achieved without the help, dedication and perseverance of his family. 'Growing up in a motorsport family, it was just the norm,' he admits. 'I was surrounded by it, but I wasn't asked the question if I wanted to do it, it was more when could I start? 'Very quickly the sense was there that you could drive your way forward. 'Watching what Dario had done, you could see how you could get to the top. The ambition was always strong. 'I had a good family network around me. The family kind of make the journey more than anyone in sport for kids. 'I think it's easily forgotten that it's a kid, but it's the dedication of the family who put the time in, the sacrifice, that pays off. 'You feel sorry for those that put that sacrifice in and don't achieve it. I always say that the dream has to become the family's before it can be the individual's.' In the case of Paul Di Resta, the dream continues.
