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Career Spotlight: Meet Neus Santamaría, Deputy Race Director at F1 ACADEMY
With battles happening up and down the field, there is always something for Neus Santamaría to keep an eye on. As the Deputy Race Director for F1 ACADEMY, she’s part of the team responsible for managing the race processes and safety operations across the weekend and making those tough calls in the interests of all involved.
In the latest addition to our Career Spotlight series, we chatted with Santamaría to find out more about her journey to the role, how she deals with unforeseen challenges and why you should take advantage of any chances to broaden your motorsport horizons.
WHAT DOES AN TYPICAL DAY AT WORK LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?
“It usually varies. In the day, we’re doing the sessions that we have on track, but usually we’re probably the first ones here in the morning and the last ones to leave at night! The day is pretty busy with all of our sessions in Race Control, meetings with the team managers and the drivers in between because we always try after each session to talk with everyone and see where we can improve and how we can help the drivers and teams. It’s a busy, long day.
“It’s completely different (during race weekend) because in the end, when we are on track, we are fully focused on the sessions that we are doing. We try not to plan ahead because every single day it's completely different — the weather is going to be different, so the sessions are really different from each other and race weekend to race weekend.
“When we are not on track, we are preparing for the next event or even for the next season, so reviewing regulations, seeing procedures, things that went wrong or that went right on the previous weekend to see how we can evolve and change things.”
WHAT IS THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING A RACE DIRECTOR?
“The journey to be a Race Director, it’s really different from country to country. It always depends on your ASN. For most of the ASNs, first you need to be a marshal. You need to have a bit of training, it’s usually one to probably two years of training on the basic stuff. So you can either do that on track or in Race Control.
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“Then from there, you learn the basics of the sport and you can progress into being a Race Director. You can progress into being a Steward as well. You always need to go first into the national level to understand how racing works, what are the basics and from there, jump into an international level and to look at categories like F1 ACADEMY.”
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
“The best piece of advice that I’ve been given and it’s one of the ones that I always give to everyone is that you always need to say yes to all of the opportunities that you have in motorsport. I think motorsport is an industry in which you meet a lot of people.
“You get a lot of opportunities just by meeting these people and then getting these chances. I think you need to always try to say yes as much as possible so you can see different championships, different ways of working and different places.”
WHAT’S THE MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR JOB?
“I believe the most rewarding part of my job is the contacts that you have. Meeting all of the people, knowing all of the paddock and being able to exchange ideas and ways of doing things. In the end, our job would not exist if the drivers were not on track and if the marshals were not on track. I think it’s really important to communicate with everyone, to get to know everyone and understand how everyone works to see what the best way is that we can improve their experience and their racing.”
WHAT’S THE TOUGHEST ASPECT OF YOUR ROLE OR A CHALLENGE THAT PEOPLE MIGHT NOT EXPECT?
“When we have weather like it is here in Zandvoort. You never know if it’s going to rain or if it’s going to be sunny. All of the drivers want to be on track, they want to be racing, same for the teams and the fans. It’s always challenging when we need to be the ones deciding if we have to cancel sessions or even if we have to be cancelling races — like we had to do in Miami because of the weather.
“It’s something that’s not in our power to decide if the weather is good or bad, but in the end, it has to come from Race Control the decision of if it’s safe or not to be on track. That’s always challenging because it gets into everyone’s opinions.”
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILLS YOU NEED?
“The main key skill that you need to have in a sport like this is communication because in the end, we’re dealing with a lot of people. It’s not only the drivers or the teams, but also us within the Sporting team, Operations and Comms because we need to be all one and everyone think in the same direction to be able to work together.”
ANY CAREER HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR?
“Highlighting something really specific in my career is complicated. The first race that I did as a Race Director, that’s probably one of my highlights. I believe the first race that I did as a Race Director was in Barcelona, so it was my home race that was being in charge (of) and I was really young. I was the youngest doing it, so I think that’s probably the highlight. In the end, racing at home is always a highlight.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF ABOUT EMBARKING ON A CAREER IN MOTORSPORT?
“The advice that I would give to young girls is to try it, to be here, to go around paddocks because I think it's the experience that I didn't have when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I always thought this could not be my job and it was impossible to get into a paddock and to be working in a paddock like in F1 ACADEMY. You need to try it, not be shy and go into the paddocks, ask people around and try to pursue the job that you want to have.”