F1TV has added a new engineering figure to its lineup with the arrival of former Formula 1 engineer, Julien Simon-Chautemps. The Frenchman discusses his career change and time spent alongside Kimi Raikkonen: according to him, the Finn could have been a good track engineer.
In 2021, Simon-Chautemps closed his 14-year career in F1. However, through his consulting firm JSC7, he remains heavily involved in the racing world. Indeed, the Frenchman provides services to both the French team Sainteloc for the transition to single-seaters and the German race data provider Paceteq. Additionally, he is involved in public leadership conferences.
He has also shared his technical knowledge with F1 viewers, starting with the French broadcaster Canal+ in 2022. And, after a trial in Brazil last year with F1 TV, he was recently confirmed for further appearances in 2024, including last week’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“I always wanted to create my own consulting firm in the motorsport sector,” Simon-Chautemps explains to Motorsport.com about his career change. “I worked almost 15 years trackside in F1. Then Kimi decided to retire around September 2021. I don’t want to say it was a triggering cause, but it was an important part, and then, besides that, I lived in Switzerland with Sauber for five years with COVID-19 in the middle.”
“I had a family in the UK, so I commuted back and forth from Switzerland. And then also the team wanted to make changes, so it happened, and a new chapter began.”
In his role, JSC – as he’s known in the paddock – must distill the processes teams face during a Grand Prix weekend into clear and concise language for viewers, making the task not much different from that of a race engineer.
“There are many parallels between communicating with the driver and the team and expressing what you want to say on TV. On TV, the challenge is to explain very technical issues in an understandable way for casual viewers. F1 TV has a huge database of images and videos, and the team is fantastic, so I’m really enjoying my time with them. The learning curve is steep, but the support I’ve had from Canal+ and F1 TV has been invaluable, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.”
Engineering, communication, resilience
In addition to Kimi Raikkonen, Simon-Chautemps has worked as a track engineer at Renault and Alfa Romeo for drivers like Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean, and Jolyon Palmer. He identifies three main pillars that a good F1 race engineer must master.
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“You don’t need to be an expert in a particular field, but of course, you need technical knowledge. A strong understanding in many areas is required because you have to speak with engine, aerodynamics, tire, mechanical, battery, and so on chiefs. The most important quality is the ability to communicate. For me, a great engineer is a great communicator because there’s often a lot of stress and you have to make the right decisions and often some crucial decisions in a very short period. It’s not always easy, but often a wrong decision is better than no decision. Many people completely freeze under stress and are not even able to operate. There are tense moments on the radio, when the driver makes himself heard. If someone yells at you on the radio, you still have to operate and direct the mechanics and engineers and tell them what to do.”
“And the other point is resilience. You must not be discouraged by mistakes or bad results. You just have to dust yourself off and focus on the next race. You have to be quite stubborn because you’re always looking for improvements to make the car better.”
Spending Valentine’s Day with Marcus Ericsson
Human capabilities are the main theme, as all drivers operate differently, and race engineers must quickly discover what triggers them.
“Kimi wasn’t someone to give driving advice to. But he’s someone who tells you: ‘Listen, the car is doing this’: ‘Listen, the car is doing that, I won’t change my driving, but if you improve the car, I’ll go faster.’ And when you did that, he immediately went faster, which was very rewarding,” Simon-Chautemps recounts. On the other hand, there’s a guy like Romain who was an extremely fast driver, especially in qualifying. Some drivers need more information via radio, others less, but it’s part of your job to be able to read them, understand what they need and want, so you can get the best out of them. Sometimes it matches and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Race engineers also tend to have a bond of trust, and when their driver is going through a tough period, this bond becomes even more crucial, as was the case when Ericsson went through a tough time alongside prodigy Charles Leclerc at Alfa Romeo Sauber.
“I remember inviting Marcus to my house because he was feeling a bit down, he was alone,” Simon-Chautemps recalls. “I had forgotten it was Valentine’s Day, but luckily my wife saw the funny side of it! So, we spent Valentine’s Day together in my apartment…”.
“You have to create this bond and convince them: ‘Listen, we know we have this problem, but we’re here to do this job and you can do it.’ You have to communicate, you have to be their friend and listen to them when they have a problem.”
“Kimi could have been a great engineer”
Working with the mercurial Kimi Raikkonen for three years was probably the most challenging period but, although the taciturn Finn had the image of being a difficult person to work with, this reputation couldn’t be further from the truth, says Simon-Chautemps.
“He played the role of the ice man and of someone who is difficult to talk to, but I remember Kimi called me one Sunday to talk about how we could improve the development of some elements,” he recalls. If that’s not commitment, I don’t know what is. From a technical point of view, he’s incredibly prepared and knows what needs to be changed to get the most out of the car. He could have been a great track engineer and he really enjoyed trying to improve the car.”
“He was there because he loved racing. Everything else for him was a nuisance; marketing, communication, talking to sponsors and the media, I’m sure it wasn’t his favorite thing to do in the world. Kimi was extremely talented and probably could have won many more world championships but, like Max Verstappen, he’s not someone who looks at the stats and says ‘could have, would have, should have’. He was here to race and he enjoyed it.”
Simon-Chautemps’ praise for the Finn doesn’t mean there weren’t moments of tension between the two. One tense moment occurred at the 2020 Tuscan GP at Mugello, when Kimi Raikkonen felt frustrated during a red flag, and again when he was handed a five-second penalty for crossing the pit entry line.
“At Mugello, we had three consecutive red flags, and I believe it was the first time we had a red flag in a race for a long time: we were a bit rusty on this,” he recalls. The cars were lining up in the pitlane, and then we had to go back with all the pit equipment, and Kimi shouted, ‘Where are the tire warmers, you should bring the tire warmers!’. From that moment, we implemented a procedure so that we were literally the first to have the tire warmers ready after a red flag… And then I told him he had a five-second penalty, and he yelled, ‘For what?’. I remember coming home and seeing a message from Kimi saying, ‘Sorry, maybe I was a bit tough on you, so I apologize for that.’ There have been many funny communications like this. The only thing I can say is that I always enjoyed working with Kimi, and that’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
But it’s not just the famous “I know what I’m doing” world champion victory in the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP, with which Simon-Chautemps worked as his performance engineer, that represents a moment of satisfaction. As those who work in this world know well, it’s rare for more than one or two teams to compete for the top step. That’s why it’s essential to set expectations accordingly and find motivation in achieving what is possible in every race weekend, rather than feeling frustrated for not having the fastest car.
“The podium at Spa with Romain [Grosjean] in 2015, while the team was facing huge financial difficulties, or the first points scored with Jolyon and Marcus were moments of great pride,” he concludes.
“You can’t always win, so you have to set your level of expectations and find happiness in achieving your goals. If you can’t win, you try to get on the podium. If you can’t get on the podium, you aim for points. If you can’t score points, you try to beat your main rivals. You always have to try to do the best you can, never get discouraged, and play as a team, encouraging those around you to reach their full potential for the good of the team. That’s how you stay motivated in F1. And that’s also what I love about F1: these are lessons we can all learn and that I try to instill in my children.”
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