The pressures faced by a Racing Director

Motorsport embodies pressure, and in the ever-evolving world of Formula E, stress and working demands fuse together to form the ultimate high-stakes scenario.

Understanding stress and its impact can sometimes unlock performance, but truly uncovering its implications is vital to build a supportive and sustainable working environment.

April is Stress Awareness Month, and we’re taking the time to explore the difficulties we face in our day to day lives to gain a greater understanding and awareness of ourselves.

As Maserati MSG Racing’s Racing Director, Jérémy Colançon has to face pressure head-on every race weekend, and with performance resting on his shoulders, stress is just another part of his job.

Opening up about stress, Jérémy acknowledges that it can be easily passed on and spread, but to remain cool, calm, and collected, he explains that he has three methods to remain in control.

“To manage my stress, firstly, I prepare more,” he says. “I’m less stressed when the preparation for an event is correct, and that begins long before we go to the track.

“Knowing that we have followed a tried and tested process, and one that works, makes me calmer.

“Doing physical activity outside of work also massively helps me to regulate my stress levels. When I’m active and my heart is pumping, I feel better. It’s a small detail, but for me, it’s very important.

“And then finally, knowing that we’re working in the same direction as a team makes me less stressed.

“Being unified in that environment avoids confrontation, and while it’s natural to disagree on some things, sharing the same goal means we can move forward together while reducing the resistance we might face.”

Jérémy joined Maserati MSG Racing in Season 5 after a four-season spell at Renault e.dams, and has grown professionally in the team to become one of Formula E’s leading figures.

After first working as Felipe Massa’s Race Engineer, Jérémy became our Chief Engineer in Season 8 and now heads up our entire performance team in Season 9.

“My role has changed for this season, but because I have learned a lot from past experiences, I haven’t found the change stressful,” he explains.

“I started Formula E nine years ago, so I’ve seen everything, but my transition from Race Engineer to Chief Engineer, and now Racing Director has been very smooth and natural.

“The biggest difficulty instead has been switching from Gen2 to Gen3. New challenges and new changes naturally increase stress.

“We had a new car with new technology to learn about, we entered a new relationship with Stellantis, got a new Team Principal in James [Rossiter] and got a new Team Manager.

“For sure, that’s a lot of change. But in that scenario, respect is incredibly important. Respect encourages trust, and because we all respect and trust one another, I know we can win together.”

There’s no denying that Season 9 hasn’t been a difficult campaign so far, but in the face of disappointment and frustration at times, Jérémy believes that harnessing and learning from difficult experiences is crucial when becoming stronger.

“In terms of accountability for performance and results, I don’t feel more or less accountable now than I did when I was a Race Engineer,” he continues.

“I’ve always felt accountable for our performance, and there is something we can learn from every race, but we learn a lot more with the bad results. Season 6 was an excellent example of that.

“Season 6 was a big shock for the whole team, and the results were really bad, but looking back, I view that as a good thing.

“That’s because it was the starting point of building a great team. We went back to our base and step by step, we improved our procedures, created new processes and is put us in a competitive position for Seasons 7 and 8.

“Right now, in Season 9, we’re experiencing what we did in Season 6 and because of that, we’ll come back stronger.

“We are one team; we have one goal and I know we are capable of beating every single team in this championship.

“I can’t be more proud of the people around me, and I’m 100% confident that we will have great results by the end of the season.

“We just need to support one another and move forward together. Looking after each other is a big part of that and managing stress and pressure properly is essential.”