Bernadette Collins | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1986 or 1987 (age 38–39)[1] Maguiresbridge, Northern Ireland |
| Alma mater | Queen's University Belfast |
| Occupations | Strategy engineer,Television presenter |
| Years active | 2009 – present |
| Employer | Sky Sports F1 |
Bernadette "Bernie" Collins is a Northern Irish engineer who is theFormula One strategy analyst forSky Sports andF1TV and former F1strategy engineer.
Born inNorthern Ireland, she began her career as a trainee withMcLaren after graduating fromQueen's University Belfast in 2009 eventually becoming a performance engineer and became the leader in that role full-time in 2014, working with2009 World ChampionJenson Button. She joinedForce India in 2015 as a performance and strategy engineer toNico Hülkenberg and laterSergio Pérez. She would remain with the team in the same role as it becameRacing Point following its purchase byLawrence Stroll in 2018 and it's later rebrand toAston Martin in 2021. She would leave the team at the end of the 2021 F1 season, becoming a pundit and race strategy analyst for Sky Sports and F1TV's F1 coverage.
Collins was an ambassador for theUnited Kingdom government's "Make it in Great Britain" campaign in 2012, and featured onForbes 2016 list of30 Under 30 list for Manufacturing & Industry in Europe.
Collins was born around 1986/1987.[2] She is from the village ofMaguiresbridge inCounty Fermanagh,Northern Ireland,[3][4] and attended Tattygar Primary School outsideEnniskillen.[5] Collins's father works in a garage but not as a mechanic. She described herself as a partial "tom-boy" because she built and dismantled farmyard machinery with her father.[2] Although she did not intend to be employed within motor racing,[6] Collins was undecided on her future career during a period of five years at the all-girls Roman CatholicMount Lourdes Grammar School.[2][3][7][8] Eventually, she chose to enrol on amechanical engineering course at theQueen's University Belfast because she liked mathematics and physics.[4][9] Collins was one of three female students in a class of 30.[2] Her interest in motor racing emerged in her final two years at university when she was part of the annualFormula Student programme that is organised by theInstitution of Mechanical Engineers where universities design, test, construct, and drive small-scaleformula style racing cars.[6][10][11]
Following her completion of the Formula Student programme,[6] but before she graduated in 2009,[12] Collins applied for a graduate trainee programme with theMcLarenFormula One racing team after seeing it advertised through the university's mechanical engineering department.[4][13] She was initially skeptical about securing the traineeship but took advantage of an opportunity to visit theMcLaren Technology Centre. Then, after completing a series of online assessments and tests, Collins secured a place on the programme in 2009.[4] Her position entailed her rotating departments every three months to gain knowledge on each role and inter-team requirements.[6] During her graduate year, Collins transferred into McLaren's design department and worked primarily on thetransmissions of their vehicles.[6] She also volunteered as an engineer atGP3 Series race weekends in order to broaden her experience.[6][11]
Collins received an offer to work part-time for the McLaren GT sports car racing team and undertook support for its factory operation to manage itsgreenhouse gas emissions, an area in which she desired to work.[6] In 2012, she was promoted to the role of aperformance engineer,[4] making her first trackside appearance at that season'sGerman Grand Prix.[5] That June, Collins was named as theUnited Kingdom government's Make it in Great Britain's 30 Under 30 list and she consequently became an ambassador for the campaign.[14][15] She worked as a race engineer for theUnited Autosports GT team in 2013.[7] When McLaren's primary performance engineer was absent on paternity leave in late 2013, Collins was temporarily assigned to the position for theIndian andAbu Dhabi Grands Prix and was later handed the job full-time for the2014 season. She worked with2009 World ChampionJenson Button and the two had a good working relationship.[4]
In May 2015, Collins left McLaren to joinForce India as a performance and senior strategy engineer to driverNico Hülkenberg as part of her objective of becoming anoperations engineer.[16] That season, she helped the team claim a podium withSergio Pérez at the2015 Russian Grand Prix, a fourth-place finish in theConstructors' Championship in2016 and Pérez's maiden victory at the2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.[17][5] Collins was featured byForbes in their30 Under 30 list for Manufacturing & Industry in Europe.[1] She worked at the same team, which underwent a name change toAston Martin, as head of race strategy from 2020 until she left the team following the2022 Hungarian Grand Prix.[18][19] Collins cited the exhaustion of an increasing race calendar as the main reason for her leaving Aston Martin.[5][8]
In 2022, she joinedF1 TV as an analyst.[20] The following year, Collins joinedSky Sports on theircoverage of Formula One from that year'sSaudi Arabian Grand Prix,[21] to analyse race strategy over select race weekends and provided commentary and conducted a gridwalk.[22][23] Collins received an honorary degree "for her contribution to sport" from Queen's University Belfast in 2023.[20][23] She is the co-author with the journalist Maurice Hamilton of the 2024 bookHow to Win a Grand Prix: From Pit Lane to Podium.[18]
Collins is engaged to the former mechanic Ryan McGarva.[18]
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