Career Spotlight: Meet Katie Denver, F1 ACADEMY’s Driver Development Lead

When it comes down to it, a driver’s performance is measured by the milliseconds. But how they extract that pace is as much about off-track efforts as it is on-track.

Here’s where the work of Katie Denver, F1 ACADEMY’s Driver Development Lead, comes in. Managing and directing driver development support across the 2024 grid, she gave us an insight into how she’s steering drivers to reach their full potential and funnel talent up the ranks.

“I look after the talent, development and performance programmes of the drivers,” Denver explains. “I’m making sure that they have absolutely everything that they need, so that when they get on track, they're fulfilling their potential and reaching their ultimate goals on track.”

How a driver optimises their performance is unique to them. Whilst some aspects of physical and mental training, as well as nutrition, are similar across the board, Denver’s role involves being in close contact with the drivers and their support networks to identify priority areas.

“The day-to-day in my role, it's really varied. It kind of depends on which areas we're focusing on, so it could be looking at periodisation of the training plans across the whole season — looking at where the pinch points are, where they need to recover, where they need to kind of ramp up their training in preparation for a race.

“But then, it could also be research and development. Motorsport is particularly under-researched when it comes to human performance. So, we need to fill that space and make sure that we are looking at what it really takes to succeed. To do that, we need to look into all areas of performance from a holistic perspective.

“Just being quick behind the wheel isn't enough in motorsport and we need to make sure that they have the skills and qualities that will help them through, not just their motorsport career, but their life as well.”

Unable to chase her dream of becoming a professional footballer growing up, Denver recognises how critical supporting development at an early stage of a driver’s career can be to their long-term success.

“I actually played football to quite a high level when I was younger,” she notes. “I really wanted to be a professional women's footballer, but at the time, there wasn't really that kind of visibility on the sport. With that in mind, of not being able to successfully kind of fulfil an athlete role myself, I wanted to go into a job where I was supporting other athletes.

“Working with F1 ACADEMY, it's a fantastic platform for female athletes and to be able to contribute to something that might mean that a young female driver – who maybe was in a similar position to me when I was hoping to play football – they can see that it is an option for them now, so it's really cool.”

Whilst not every driver will stand on the top step, for Denver it’s all about seeing each driver’s little wins grow into bigger personal achievements.

She notes: “The most rewarding part of the role is definitely seeing a driver that you've worked with for a long period of time succeed and reach their ambitions or even just some small milestones, and that you've helped to support them in some small way to reach their goals.”

Although qualifications can be the foundation to success in the motorsport, Denver believes that being hands-on and expanding your knowledge base are the top priorities to progress in the industry.

“The advice that I would give to a young person hoping to work in a role like mine is experience — experience, experience, experience,” she concludes. “There are so many people coming through sport and exercise science degrees and roles. But the thing that people look out for the most is what experience you've got. It kind of overrides everything else, so the more that you can get yourself immersed into an elite sport environment or particularly motorsport if you can.

“I think that's the way forward, making sure that you're able to evidence how that experience has shaped the way that you work. Also, if you have the opportunity to engage in research in human performance - it's so under researched in motorsport and, if you can be a trailblazer in that area, that will really put you in good stead to carve a career.”