Simone Tintorid "The real track time from Friday to Sunday is only 10% of our job."

Simone Tintori began studying at Politecnico Di Milano Italy as a mechanical engineering major. After Simone got his degree at Politecnico Di Milano he moved to ​​Valencia to study motorsport engineering, a course developed by a collaboration between Campos (F2&F3 team) and La Florida university. In 2023, he completed an MBA (online course) at London School of Economics and Political Science.

His translation university  to motorsport began with an internship during Simone bachelor degree. Ombra Racing is 8 km far from his hometown and one day Simone decided to go there and personally asked If he could have done his thesis project with them. He to work side by side with another engineer and the team manager acquiring the team working method. This year marks his second year with the team.

Ombra racing celebrates 30Th year anniversary in 2023. "Nobody of its founders would tell you because they are humble, but I really believe It’s an iconic team for the Italian motorsport," Simone said. With Ombra raced in F3, Auto GP, GT3 and now in GT3 cup .

"Many great engineers, now in F1, Indycar, WEC and ELMS and GT World Challenge worked for this racing family and feel proud to enter in the workshop every morning," Simone said. "Next target It’s to be successful in Mobil 1 Porsche Super cup." "I’ll work hard to make this mine part of their winning history. "

"I would say that only a minor part of my bachelor courses was helpful, the part related to vehicle dynamics," Simone said. "My master was definitely more supportive for this working field."

"The real help come from your curiosity, passion and commitment," Simone said. "When you start this job, you already know that your competitors’ cars are managed from experienced engineers so you have to work more and be smarter than them If you want to have a little chance to win."

With landed a job as a race engineer with Ombra Racing he was grateful to find an opportunity, but he did the right steps to get the job.

"So, If you want to do this job you have to take your time to evaluate what is the best way to get it," Simone says. "Pick the right uni courses, work for free to get experiences in the right environment, create connections etc."

Its not always easy to pick the correct person to work with the team as a race engineer or any job. "You cannot understand if you are good or not If you don’t try and It require a bit of time to be ready to manage a car and a driver properly," Simone said.

  With a typical race week with  Ombra Racing starts off with the truck having to leave the workshop for the track. Typically the tracks leave on Tuesday/Wednesday for European races or Thursday for Italian races.“So, when you have this deadline It’s easy to understand that You have to start on Monday or from the previous week if you didn’t have another race,” Simone says. When deciding on the tires to be used, the team working with the tire guys to design the initial configuration of the automobiles based on data, past testing outcomes, and all anticipated information.

"You have to be fast because the amount of info you manage is huge and the time remaining to the deadline really little, Simone said."

After collection all the data and discussion tires for incoming race week the team travels to the circuit to built the tent/box on Thursday. "The real track time from Friday to Sunday is only 10% of our job," Simone Says. "Personally, the team is a family and we enjoy a lot our time together."

"We always play jokes and be positive and the drivers can feel it," Simone said.

As a racing engineer for Ombra Racing, a person is responsible for managing their vehicle on the track and contribute to the team's overall work plan. It means that during the race weekend, manages the driver on the track and the mechanic in the box to maximize the driver-car duo's potential while remaining fully connected with the other engineers and team manager to share information in order to improve performance by adapting the car setup to the current track situation.

"In the workshop we coordinate ourself with mechanics for the high-level maintenance of our cars on the mechanical side, scheduling the revision of parts and more detailed checks, and we directly take care of the electronics," Simone said. "In the meantime, we never stop to prepare race analysis, to check data and to evaluate our performance to improve it, even when you win."

With the amount of counts zero if the driver not finalize that. Every engineer in the team is really focus on taking care of the psychological side of each driver. "Our job is truly versatile and full of variables!," Simone said.

One of the favorite things about Simone job is "Anyone would answer victory and for sure It’s like this, but for me the best part is to share time with all the people into the team."Ombra has personally giving him so much under the human side and when he leave home to take a flight with the team that it is excited at the same time.

With the favorite thing about Ombra racing there is always going to be challenging things at any job. "The first one is to understand how your driver think and how to make him perform in the best way gaining his trust," Simone says.

"From my point of you, it’s absolutely crucial", Simone said. "Otherwise, you can win a race but not a championship."

"The second one is being able to keep the same level of performance and efficiency of your job increasing events, number of cars and changing people," Simone said. "The available time is always the same (the race day is always the next Sunday), so you have to be ready as well."

"It’s a real huge challenge that splits the field between really good teams from mediocre teams," Simone says.

With working with the team is important that the atmosphere while working with the team. With Ombra racing they have great connection between team manager, engineers and mechanics.

"There’s a hierarchical tree but everybody respects the role of the other ones," Simone says. "This is the key to have a great environment although the stress and the tiredness after so many races and testing days."

"Many times, mechanics gave me interesting points of view for my engineering purpose", Simone said "In Ombra We push all in the same direction and Everyone really take care of this aspect."

Something that Simone is grateful that he learn that the younger audience might find interesting and wants to become a race engineer. "I think that the biggest lesson that I’ve learned by the team is that there’s always a way to win the races and that way is in our mind," Simone said " If you are smarter, better prepared and you put more dedication there are no reasons why you cannot win races against more titled and richer teams even If It’s not easy."

"First of all, I would tell there are not jobs into professional sport that don’t hide hard work," Simone said."This is something that before being a professional you cannot totally realize."

"So, do this job only if you have a real passion for motorsport (not only for F1) because it’ll be demanding not only for your professional side but It’ll influence your family time and your relationships too," Simone says.

"From this comes my second advice: live with equilibrium," Simone said. "I take care of my free time: I try to train, share time with friends, cooking and listening music, going to exhibition etc."

"Being mentally and emotionally balanced makes the difference not only on the technical side but even being a solid reference point for your driver," Simone said. "Really few drivers can manage their emotions."

Experience you need to become a race engineer that Simone says that "Everybody shares more or less the same academic background, you come from different engineering courses."

"For me the fundamental things that you must have are: a great knowledge of vehicle dynamics, being versatile and calm, have strong passion for competing and love traveling," Simone said.

By: Lili Gomez