Bernie Collins - making it from Fermanagh to Formula 1

From a small school in Fermanagh to Formula 1 is quite a journey, but it is one that Bernie Collins has made.

She grew up in Maguiresbridge and went to Tattygar Primary School outside Enniskillen.

By her mid-20s she was the performance engineer for world champion driver Jenson Button with the top McLaren Formula 1 team.

Yet despite her career path, she was not a big racing fan as a child.

"I guess when I was at school I didn't really think about motorsport as a career," she told BBC News NI.

"But I was really interested in how things worked, taking them apart to figure out what was going on inside - that type of thing."

"The motorsport aspect came much later."

'Choose subjects you enjoy'

Did she ever take apart anything as a child that got her in trouble?

"I don't remember getting in trouble but I'm sure if you asked my parents there's a very different answer to that!" she laughed.

After primary school, she then went on to Mount Lourdes Grammar School in Enniskillen then to Queen's University in Belfast.

Many more boys in Northern Ireland pursue study in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects than girls.

Ms Collins told BBC News NI that studying and pursuing a career in engineering "didn't feel that ground-breaking".

"I guess nobody really told me that I couldn't do it or shouldn't do it so it just felt like the right thing for me," she said.

"My advice is always to choose subjects that you enjoy.

"I chose Maths and Physics as they were subjects that I enjoyed and with those then went on to get a career I enjoyed."

While an engineering student at Queen's University she got involved in a the Formula Student competition to build a racing car.

That helped her land a job with McLaren - one of the top Formula 1 teams - after applying to them as a graduate in 2009.

By 2012, she was trackside with the team at the German Grand Prix at the famous Hockenheim circuit.

Two years later she became the performance engineer for Jenson Button, who had won the Formula 1 world championship in 2009.

"Jenson was the perfect introduction for me because Jenson really knew what he wanted from the car," she said.

"He was really great to work with and I did gain from his experience.

"The really good drivers - the ones that tend to do well over many years - they understand how a set-up change affects the car.

"They have this whole host of experience to build on."

Bernie Collins with Jonathan Wheatley of Great Britain and Oracle Red Bull Racing during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore

After McLaren, Bernie Collins moved to the Force India team as a performance and strategy engineer, and race strategist.

Force India later changed to become the Racing Point team then the Aston Martin team.

"You're trying to decide for any given weekend, for any given race, what's the fastest tyres to run, which order you do your pit stops so that bit's pretty straight-forward," she said.

"Generally the difficulty is reacting quickly to events around you - be that safety cars or weather conditions.

"You're trying to get the best possible finish position for both of your cars, not just one of your cars.

"There's a lot of management of information that comes to you and trying to make a quick decision with it."

One of the high points of her career was Sergio Perez's win for Racing Point in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain.

Ms Collins has now written a book based on her experiences alongside the Northern Irish Formula 1 journalist Maurice Hamilton.

"Hopefully it brings some of that insight, hopefully people enjoy it," she said.

But she also writes of the pressure and stress of working in Formula 1.

"With more races, I was feeling more tired towards the end of the year and even at the start of the year not so excited to get travelling again," she said.

"The end of the 2021 year we did three races in a row - which I think was Brazil, Qatar, Mexico - and just by the last race I was physically exhausted, struggling with sleep because of jet lag, struggling to be awake during the day."

"I just got to the point of thinking why? Something needs to give."

'Explaining the race'

There has been an increase in the number of Formula 1 races in recent years with 24 taking place all round the world in 2024.

And Bernie Collins said that raised the risk of burnout among drivers and team members.

"A number of teams now allow mechanics to take two or three races off," she said.

"It doesn't sound like a lot but actually that makes a big difference."

"I would have stayed if I could have done less races or missed a few but there wasn't that option."

"I think over the next few years F1 are going to have to look at how they retain the best people."

Though she is no longer working directly with a team, though, Bernie Collins is still involved in Formula 1.

She joined Sky Sports as their F1 analyst, giving expert opinion on every race broadcast and explaining what is happening to viewers.

"Even when I've been on the pit wall I guess I spent a lot of time explaining the race afterwards to people at home or friends," she said.

"I've had to really work over the years on communication to make sure I'm understood and I guess that's shining through now on the broadcast side."