Moving to a new team presents unexpected challenges that must be overcome before you can contribute to the goal of making a racecar go faster
Over the course of my career, I have had the good fortune of working with several teams. Some good, some not as good. There can be many reasons for moving between teams, from career advancement to the desire to work with another type of car. Other times it is a matter of necessity, whether it be because the team has lost its budget and is shutting down, or because someone else has decided that your time with the team has come to an end (is that a polite enough way to say you’ve been fired?).
All the above situations have presented themselves to me over the years, and in every case the challenges associated with finding a new job don’t go away completely when the ink has dried on the new contract. The next challenge that rears its head is figuring out how to work withthe new team. Regardless of how good you are at what you do, this is probably the most difficult part of the transition.
The first instance of me being metaphorically hit in the face with a truck by this occurred earlier in my career when I worked in Champ Car. I had left the massively successful Newman-Haas Racing team for the equally successful Forsythe Racing Team.
Communication is key
At Newman-Haas, I was the assistant race engineer on Sebastian Bourdais’ car, and was there for three out of four of Seb’s championship wins. The team was successful, I had lots of
