INTERVIEW: What it takes to train the next generation of racing drivers

Harrington is now in her eighth season with the Formula 1 team, working initially with the race team on pit-stop performance, playing a part in the sub two-second tyre changes the team became renowned for.

She also worked with the junior driver programme, as well as privately with the W Series before being asked to take on her current role when Red Bull joined forces with F1 Academy.

For a team like Red Bull, its associations with F1 Academy and Campos Racing, one of the teams involved in helping to develop the series’ drivers, goes far beyond its livery adorning a car akin to those used in Formula 4.

As for Harrington, her role has also expanded. "Day-to-day, it ends up being quite a lot of different things," she said. "In the past, my line of work has been, as we like to call them in motorsport, a performance coach, overseeing anything classified as off-track development.

"I very much bring that skill set to the table, but as a programme manager, I see it as 'What can we do to maximise a driver's performance?'. That could be liaising with the sim team, making sure there's a fluid line of communication between Red Bull and Campos in terms of the development pathway, or goal setting with the drivers to ensure that we've got performance markers in place."

Track side, Harrington works closely with Campos Racing team manager Gabriela Parra, with the over-riding aim "to ensure we're maximising an environment for drivers to perform."

The F1 Academy calendar may not appear intense, with just 14 races spread over seven weekends in China, Jeddah, Miami, Montréal, Zandvoort, Singapore and Las Vegas, but the preparatory work for the trio of drivers on the Red Bull programme — Chloe Chambers, Alisha Palmowski and Rafaela Ferreira — is taxing.

"It's a hard Championship," said Harrington. "The car time is less, we're running on very physical tracks that have very little run-off, are street circuits, and you can't test that. It runs in parallel to what we deliver from the junior driver programme, and we very much see it as a 360 approach to performance.

"What happens on track is such a small component of being a racing driver. In that aspect, what we do away from track is substantially different from just being in a sponsor car. All the girls train hard. They will have undergone physiological assessments to see where they are developmentally, but also to help plan and programme the next steps of their development.

"We do a lot of education, and there's a lot to be gained off track in terms of both mental and physical approach, whether that's education around nutrition, sleep, recovery, providing jet lag programmes where appropriate. Going to Shanghai and America, you can't be at your best if you're rocking up with jet lag. In Singapore, we provide cooling strategies. Some of the girls are doing heat acclimation programmes before going there.”

"It's quite comprehensive in the way that we approach it because we see that, ultimately, to succeed as a driver — and that's across the board, male or female — you need to have those things in place."

The benefit for Chambers, Palmowski and Ferreira is their days are mapped out for them, be it on track, or at home, given they live in different places. Alongside visits to the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes for simulator work, there is comprehensive planning and review meetings.

"People think that racing drivers go home and don't do anything, but there's a lot of homework that they do and a lot of training," said Harrington.

"When they're not at the factory, there's a user remote platform for training. They get all the videos of the exercises that they need to do, and they get a programme that tracks all their data.

"We also run a live calendar, so they might have sim, they might have some media duties, or they might be doing sim at Campos or testing. They put all of that into their calendar. Yes, it's pretty programmed out for them.

"We've made a lot of progress, but I also think there's room to further the programme. But, watching the way Alisha, Chloe, and Rafa are forming the relationship that they have this year and push each other is exactly where you want to be with a development program."

Chambers, who represented Haas last year before being taken on by Red Bull for this season, is in her second and final year in F1 Academy before having to move on.

The highly regarded Palmowski is "tracking all of her performance metrics that we set out for her," according to Harrington, and is likely to be retained for next season.

Whilst Palmowski is a long shot for the title, trailing Doriane Pin by 56 points, Chambers lies second in the standings, 20 points adrift with three rounds remaining. The prize for the F1 Academy Champion is a step up the motorsport ladder. Abbi Pulling is competing in GB3 this year after her title triumph last season.

As to the next steps for the likes of Palmowski and particularly Chambers, Harrington said: "We are absolutely behind developing drivers, helping them and enabling them to progress. Chloe's shown maturity, and really made good progress. We will explore different options for Chloe, and we are in discussions with her team, looking at the best pathway.

"There are different avenues because, to be clear, single-seaters isn't the only one, so there are discussions around that with Chloe, with some of that guided by where the driver's passion lies.”

"Alisha is also definitely capable of moving up the motorsport ladder. I'd really like to see both of them progress beyond F1 Academy."

As to whether either has what it takes to reach F1, there remains many hurdles ahead. Harrington, though, sees no reason why a woman cannot one day reach motorsport's top tier. Given her background, she recognises the area that is vital for that glass ceiling to eventually be broken.  

"The driver needs to be there for the right reasons," said Harrington. "One of the biggest things with females at the moment, and why we're doing what we're doing, is that a lot of drivers are coming through but are not physically prepared.

"There is no reason, from what we're seeing with the data, that they can't meet the capacity that is demanded of them in single-seaters.

"That physical journey is going to be a longer one if the cars stay the way they are, so we can't expect somebody to enter F1 at 17 as a female, but there's nothing out there to say a female can't make it to F1."

Images courtesy of Getty Images.