THE PIT LANE SAFETY QUEEN REIGNING OVER THE ABU DHABI F1 GRAND PRIX
Andrea Skyring will be the first woman chief pit lane marshal at the Yas Marina race, writes Ann Marie McQueen
It may seem a leap from dinghy sailing to high-octane Formula One racing, but it has helped UAE resident Andrea Skyring switch gears into a dream job.
As Lewis Hamilton prepares to celebrate his fifth world championship crown at the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, fellow Briton Ms Skyring will be enjoying her own moment in the racing spotlight.
She will line up at the Yas Marina Circuit during the long F1 weekend as chief pit lane marshal, becoming the first woman to take on the key role at the Abu Dhabi race.
Ms Skyring will manage the busy pit lane area, ensuring the convoy of high-speed drivers keep to the rules and that everyone involved – from the competitors to the pit crews – is safe.
For modest Ms Skyring, her life in the fast lane – which also includes heading up business support for Dubai Expo 2020 – is a case of making the most of opportunities when they come.
“I’ve been very lucky with my career,” she tells The National.
“I’ve always ended up in the right place, at the right time, with the right job.”
She sure has. A throwaway comment aboard a boat in 2010 – about how she couldn’t indulge her love of dinghy sailing in the UAE – led to a suggestion that she satisfy her need for speed by signing up to volunteer at that year’s F1.
Up until that point, Ms Skyring had been merely another fan of the motorsport.
But she had not gone any further, thinking she did not have the means or the knowledge to truly get involved.
But once she found herself introduced to the world of volunteer race marshalling, she never looked back.
“You go along to the training session, you learn what the role is, you learn the rules and regulations, the safety aspects of it, and I became absolutely smitten,” she says.
“The pit-lane team is a very close family anyway, but you’re part of a bigger, 700-plus set of volunteer marshals, just an amazing bunch of people – all volunteers, all motorsport enthusiasts – all doing it because they love the sport.”
That first F1 race opened up a new world for the petrolhead.
Soon, she was applying to work at international races, as well as whatever she could do here in the UAE.
Since setting out in 2010 she has worked at 22 F1 races and her 23rd will be extra special.
After working her way up the ranks to deputy, Ms Skyring officially steps into her new role as chief pit lane marshal at her home grand prix.
When the starting lights flash green, she will oversee a team of 65 keen-eyed volunteers who have been training for this moment since spring.
Last year there were 34 nationalities represented on the team. Many flew to the UAE just to volunteer for the event, and Ms Skyring is not expecting a moment of rest.
Like the stars at the front of the grid, it will be full speed ahead.
There will be 12-hour working days and, if last year is any indication, an average of 35,000 steps walked during each one of them. “It’s a pretty hectic weekend,” she says.
But it all pays off, just to be in the middle of the action.
“It’s amazing, it’s electric,” she says. “This is the main event for us, this is what we all work ourselves up to do.”
Her team is primarily there for safety and secondly to observe, making sure the rules are kept.
“They don’t judge,” she says. “They just make reports that are sent to race control.”
Although some may still view motorsports as being male-dominated, Ms Skyring estimates that 30 per cent of her crew are women.
There is a female pit lane boss in the US, she says, and there is a growing number of women in the upper levels of F1 racing.
Claire Williams is the deputy team principal of the British Williams Formula One racing team. Susie Wolff, a test and development driver for the Williams Formula One squad, recently became the team principal of the Venturi Formula E team.
There is the Colombian driver Tatiana Calderon coming up through the ranks, Ms Skyring says, and Sophia Floersch, the German F3 driver who is recovering from a spinal injury sustained in a crash at last week’s Macau Grand Prix.
Ms Skyring has come a long way since that first year of volunteering, which, like all her F1 memories, she looks back on fondly.
“In those days it was the V8 engines and the whole place felt like there was an earthquake going on, because of the engines and the cars and the rumbling and everything else,” she said.
“The hardest part at first is trying to remember what you have to do, ‘what do I have to do if they stall?’
“‘If they crash? What do I do?’ You kind of have all this excited emotion inside of you.”
There is always the possibility of danger in the pit lane. Another lurking fear is making a mistake that eagle-eyed fans could seize on and ridicule across social media and marshalling blogs.
“There are other things that can go wrong, but hopefully the marshals are trained well enough to cope with any eventuality.”
And what about that longago lament for her love of the water-based hobby she was unable to pursue in the UAE?
“I don’t worry about sailing any more,” she says.
Making waves in the F1 world is more than enough.
It’s a pretty hectic weekend. It’s amazing, it’s electric. This is the main event for us, this is what we all work ourselves up to do ANDREA SKYRING Race marshal