A Reliability Engineer is one of those vital trackside roles, well understood within the confines of the F1 paddock, but perhaps its existence is lesser known outside of the travelling F1 circus. It’s always been a vital cog, linking trackside and factory operations, but the greater the calendar congestion, the more critical it becomes.
Abbie Robison is one of McLaren's Reliability Engineers, splitting her time between weeks working trackside and the race bays at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC).
“A reliability engineer, in a nutshell, is a problem-solver,” says Abbie. “It’s about dealing with any problem we have as quickly as possible, and ensuring the car stays on track – but there is also an element of thinking ahead. I like to break it down into the reactive element of dealing with issues as they appear, and then a proactive element of thinking about how to stop those issues from happening in the first place.”