WORK HORSE balance
Trackside data engineer who also runs Riviera PR
How I make it work: By being organised and thanks to the team at Swanmore Stud
The amateur dressage rider with a head for mathematics and data juggles two very different freelance roles while also campaigning her Westphalian mare, Donaulied.
My job...
I juggle two part-time jobs that are both largely full-time hours. I’m a freelance trackside data engineer and I spent the 2023 season working for Optimum Motorsport in the GT Open Championship and GT World Challenge Europe. A highlight of the season was winning the Gold Cup category at the word famous Spa 24-hour race. All in all, it was a great year for my team. That win was epic and it made the long hours of work over the race weekends totally worthwhile. This role has taken me to some amazing places, including Formula 1 races and all the iconic tracks around the world.
I also run Riviera PR, which is a sponsorship matchmaking service. We bring the right brands together with the right riders, and what sets us apart from other athlete management agencies is that we work with pro and amateur riders alike.
How I got here...
I chose motorsport as a career almost by luck. I was studying mathematics when I was watching F1 one afternoon. It dawned on me that what I was studying could be applied to this sport, plus I really love winning and the thought of victory at a world championships as part of my day job seemed unbelievable. I knew that I would never be able to do that as an individual. Motorsport, though, is a little like dressage — rather like riding for that extra mark, you’re always trying to find that extra tenth of a second.
I studied mathematics at Royal Holloway as an undergraduate and then took a master’s degree in aeronautics at Imperial College London. After I completed a year-long graduate scheme at McLaren, the company paid for me to take a part-time management master’s degree at Kingston University alongside working for them. That was intense, as fitting in work, a busy calendar of overseas racing, my studies and staying fit meant lots of late nights and early mornings, and certainly no weekends off.
By the age of 27 I had been working in the McLaren pit lane for several years and was promoted to senior track engineer in the team’s Special Operations Division. After running the test and development programme for the latest Hypercar at that time, I transitioned over to managing a team of seven people who were driving McLaren’s then cutting-edge £2m supercar — a fast and expensive limited edition track car produced for private buyers.
I have also taken my skills onto the water, working on the America’s Cup sailing competition, which was an amazing experience. However, one thing
