Race engineer

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title: "Race engineer" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["engineering-occupations", "motorsport-people"] description: "Position in motorsport" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_engineer" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Position in motorsport ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox Occupation"]

Field	Value
name	Race Engineer
type	Profession
activity_sector	Applied sciences
competencies	Aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics, systems engineering, applied mathematics, management skills
formation	Engineering education
employment_field	Motorsport
::

| name = Race Engineer | type = Profession | activity_sector = Applied sciences | competencies = Aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics, systems engineering, applied mathematics, management skills | formation = Engineering education | employment_field = Motorsport ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Rob_Smedley_Canada_2010.png" caption="[[Scuderia Ferrari]] race engineer [[Rob Smedley]] at the [[Formula 1]] [[2010 Canadian Grand Prix]]."] ::

A race engineer is a motorsport team member who analyses data to achieve the best performance from the vehicle and driver. The race engineer communicates with the team's data analyst, mechanics, and driver, both between and during races. Off the race track, the race engineer analyses historical data to determine the initial set-up for the next race event or test. The race engineer's duties also include hands-on management of the vehicle mechanics, organization of the testing schedule, and assurance of compliance with regulations. The race engineer seeks to make these activities occur as seamlessly as possible for the driver. Race engineers almost always have an academic degree in engineering or a related field.

A good race engineer must have good people skills. To be effective, the race engineer must have a good working relationship with not only the driver but also the rest of the team, both at and away from the track. Many times the race engineer is also "the face" of the team for the media; this is especially true during the race while the driver is inaccessible. This makes the race engineer's media skills a priority.

History

The role of the race engineer on racing teams has grown in importance since the adoption of on-board sensors that collect performance data. The race engineer's job is to evaluate the vehicle's performance gathered from both telemetry and the driver's feedback. The race engineer then seeks to improve performance with regard to the driver's desires by adjusting suspension, engine calibrations, aerodynamics, and other variables which affect the vehicle's performance on the race track.

Travel

Race engineers tend to travel extensively, especially during the racing season of their motorsport teams. At the highest level of professional motorsports, international travel is common. Offseason travel for race engineers is usually for testing, training, and visiting vendors.

References

References

1. Meet Andrea Stella. http://fakeferrarinews.wordpress.com/the-ferrari-team-profile/meet-andrea-stella
2. "It's Story Time (Powered by CubeCart)".
3. The role of the F1 race engineer http://www.f1technical.net/features/3645
4. link. (2012-07-11)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::