Feature
Career Spotlight: Meet Lucy Gould, mechanic at Rodin Motorsport
Mechanics play a critical role throughout a race weekend, transforming cars from pieces stashed in crates into impressive racing machines.
From setup day to well after the final chequered flag has been flown, you’ll find Lucy Gould getting stuck into her role as the number two mechanic for Rodin Motorsport. Working for the team in both Spanish F4 and F1 ACADEMY, we caught up with Gould to find out more about her journey to the paddock.
“(My role) consists of assisting the number ones with the build of the cars and the prep for the race weekend. Also, doing fuel and helping out with the tyres,” she explains.
“I got the opportunity to have some work experience with Rodin whilst I was at the National College for Motorsport. I went and did a week there (at Rodin) in the October half-term and I got offered a job by Stephanie Carlin, which I accepted very, very quickly.”
With the aim of accelerating opportunities for hands-on experience in motorsport, this season saw F1 ACADEMY launch a female trainee scheme — the only series in the single-seater ladder to pioneer such a project.
The female trainee role allows teams to benefit from an additional member of operational staff, as long as they are female and have less than two years of experience, which Gould is part of.
She continues: “I had done my first year with Rodin Motorsport in Spanish F4 and the opportunity arose. F1 ACADEMY was partnering with F1 and going to all of these amazing locations on the support package.
“The female trainee role came up (…) and it’s just the opportunity for women wanting to get into the sport, in the mechanics or engineering side of it.”
Racing all over the world brings with it its own challenges and Gould recognises that overcoming any and all conditions thrown at them is vital to the team’s success.
READ MORE: Singapore Preview: Talking Points ahead of Round 5
“Adaptability is a good skill to have,” she notes. “You’re travelling all around the world, different time zones — different temperatures is a big one! Long hours, mainly unsociable hours. You end up becoming a family, even with the people in other teams throughout the paddock.”
Gould adds: “Anybody can do mechanics. You just have to be willing to put a lot of time and effort in and pick up the skills. Obviously, F1 ACADEMY is really cool, to be on the F1 package and we’ve gone to some really cool places so far this year.”
To carve out a career in motorsport isn’t easy and Gould understands all too well the dedication you have to put in to make your dreams a reality. Whilst her road to the F1 ACADEMY paddock wasn’t without its sacrifices, she believes that perseverance pays off in the end.
She concludes: “The biggest thing was that if you really enjoy it and it’s something that you’re passionate about, it’s so cliché, but don’t give up because you end up doing some really cool stuff like I’m doing now.
“I wouldn’t have had that opportunity if I hadn’t had been so invested — driving three and a half hours to college in the morning, staying in a hotel and going back the next day to then drive home. Emailing as many junior teams as I did to try and get some work experience, but that was super beneficial for me.
“Don’t give up, keep doing what you’re doing and don’t listen to people who say it’s not really achievable because it definitely is.”