With a background working on the Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains and as a Team Lead at Oxford Brooke Racing, Tessa Waldron has now moved over to Fortescue - one of the world’s largest, lowest-cost iron ore producers that has recently joined forces with Formula E. Starting out as a Trackside HV Battery Technician, Tessa is now in the role of Motorsport Track Operations Engineer.
It’s Race Week! got the chance to speak with Tessa at the Formula E Season 12 Finale in London back in August and from that, we’re now able to put a spotlight on Tessa in the second part of our Formula E Spotlight Series.
How would you describe in a nutshell what you do with Fortescue?
“I’m an engineer for Fortiscue Zero Motorsport Advanced Engineering and that involves working trackside where we have to maintain our products that run in Formula E. I look after the pit boosts, which is the fast charger that runs in Formula E. We do things like health checks, overall unit maintenance to make sure all the teams are getting the best product possible for the race weekend.”
And over a race weekend what does that look like? Do you kind of keep testing stuff over the course of the weekend or is there a procedure?
“Yeah, so there’s things like they have to do a mandatory full power in FP1. This is a full power before the actual race event itself to make sure everything is working correctly. They then do what’s called a low power in FP2, again just to check everything’s working. Communications between the car and the pit boost and the pit boost and the cable just to make sure there’s nothing left to worry about before it gets to the race.”
So, a standout moment for you either from something you’ve observed or just from a moment within your role that you’ve particularly loved?
“So, I was a technician at the beginning of the season and I’ve moved into an engineering role. And Fortescue’s been really good that they push people, they allow people to grow and to move into those kinds of roles. You can start as a technician and move into an engineering role because the whole team supports you. You learn off the other engineers and everyone kind of teaches each other and it makes the team work so well. It gels together to fix issues, solve issues and make sure issues don’t happen in the first place.”
What is it about your role that you love so much?
“I enjoy being trackside because it’s so dynamic, it’s so different to an office environment. When you’re trackside every day is literally different. It can be hard to describe what you do day to day because it changes so much but that’s what I enjoy and it can just be such a range of things and it means you learn as well when every day is different. You have to be able to be dynamic and adapt to the situations that come.”
And what advice would you have for someone who’s seeing this kind of a role and would like to follow in your footsteps or at least try it out?
“I’d say go for it. I think motorsport is such a great environment to be a part of because everyone’s very like-minded. It’s tough, like it’s very difficult to get trackside in Formula E, F1, all the trackside sports. But if you keep pushing and keep putting in the effort and speaking to people, speaking to people. Like networking is the most important thing. Like we say in motorsport, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And it’s making sure you get those connections in and building those relationships.”
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Check back here on It’s Race Week! soon for more spotlights from the Formula E Season 12 Finale in London.