INTERVIEW: Managing McLaren’s future stars through F1 Academy and beyond

Carlin worked her way up through various positions, primarily in communications and on the commercial side, prior to taking on deputy team principal duties with the race teams, and then stepping up to become team principal of the F1 Academy outfit, and with Lewis Hamilton's Team X44 in Extreme E.

"One of the great things about junior motorsport, and the smaller teams, is that they focus on all of the same concepts and principles and activities that the bigger teams do with just far fewer people," Carlin said. "You have to become quite multi-skilled.

"On the commercial side, that was doing the driver contracts, helping to sign the drivers, looking at the driver market, liaising with the driver managers. That then just gradually grew into more of a team management perspective, working alongside Trevor and helping him. In a junior team, once you get to a certain level, you have to be across everything.

"One of the things that I always liked doing was working with particularly younger engineers, helping them get the best out of their environment. When you have a junior race team that's in multiple categories, people can be quite siloed into those categories. 

"But actually, there might be lots of things that the F2 team can tell the F3 team and the F1 Academy team, and they're all on the same package. You don't have to be a race engineer necessarily to see that, but bringing together that collaborative space for people to share information and talk to each other in a really helpful and collaborative way was something I enjoyed."

Carlin's passion for the all-female F1 Academy meant it was a "no-brainer" decision to add the series to the race team's junior roster, and for her to become its team principal because "of the people behind it".

There are still many who deride the fact there is a segregated series for women in motorsport, with F1 Academy formed after its predecessor, the W Series, went bankrupt.

Carlin though is adamant that F1 Academy is worthy of its place on the motorsport calendar, providing a platform and an opportunity to place female racers in a spotlight they would never otherwise encounter.

"F1 Academy wasn't something that came left field, that came from nowhere," said Carlin. "It came from a group of people who run championships at the highest level, and with the backing of F1.

"When Susie Wolff became involved, she's been an incredible advocate for females in motorsport, from a driving point of view, team management point of view, and everything that she's been exposed to. All of the people in it are serious motor people who know what they're doing.

"Even before Susie's involvement, it was a great thing for us to be involved in, a sensible option, with a car everybody's familiar with. There was nothing in there that was a poor decision. All the right ingredients to make something great.

"But you can't deny that there is an issue with representation in motorsport. Whether you agree with the concept of a segregated championship or not, it's a great window to promote female talent. It's an accelerator and an enabler of that. It's not pretending to be something that it isn't."

Nor does Carlin set great store in being a female team principal of an all-female race team. There is naturally pride in such an achievement, and the upside in knowing her journey to such a position may motivate others to follow in her footsteps, but it goes far deeper for her personally.

"There are two sides to that thought process," Carlin explained. "I've been asked that question quite a lot, being the first female team principal, Extreme E, F3 and stuff. I really appreciate that and enjoy it from the perspective that if there's anybody out there who sees it and thinks, 'It's possible', then that's a positive for me.

"On the flip side, without taking away any positivity it can bring, it's not something that motivates me. I don't think of myself as a woman doing a good job. I just think of myself as wanting to do a good job. I'm pleased for the benefit it might bring in terms of visibility, but it's not a motivating factor for me.

"I'm thankful to say that I've not had a great deal of resistance. Nor have I had many people, where I've walked into a conversation, and they've said, 'Oh, can we talk to somebody else who might be a man?'

"I haven't faced much of that. It's not something that I felt that I've had to overcome. I just want to be good at what I do. If the side effect of that is that it gives visibility to encourage more women and girls to do it, then that's great."

In 2023 the team, then known as Rodin Carlin after David Dicker, CEO of New Zealand car manufacturer Rodin Cars bought an 80 per cent stake in January that year, had Jess Edgar and Abbi Pulling on its books.

Pulling enjoyed seven trips to the podium, but fell short of a race victory that came Edgar's way in the final round in the United States. Carlin describes that triumph as one of her proudest moments.

By that stage, Carlin knew she was heading to McLaren, but not before she laid the groundwork for 2024, a year which saw Pulling dominate F1 Academy, winning nine of the 14 races, as well as finishing on the podium on five other occasions. In tandem, Pulling competed in the British F4 Championship, winning the second of the three races at Biggin Hill.

"With Abbi, I made sure that pretty much the last thing I did before I left the team was put in place her programme for the following year, making sure that for '24 she had everything she needed and the staff to support her," said Carlin.

"When I moved to McLaren we stayed in touch. Obviously, at that point, I was working with Bianca Bustamante so she was my focus, but there was always a little soft spot for Abbi and what she was achieving.

"It's good to see all of the female drivers develop, especially those you've worked with. It's just a proud moment to see them be able to do that."

The "incredible opportunity' to join McLaren, however, was naturally one she could not pass up. Although she concedes it was "super hard to leave", she also felt it was "a good time to make the change". 

"It was seeing what I could do in a different space," she explained. "The chance to be able to report directly into Andrea (Stella) and work quite closely with him and some of the other leaders, you don't get opportunities like that very often. It was one not to turn down."

Part of Carlin's role at McLaren is overseeing the driver development programme. In F1 Academy last year, that was Bustamante. This year it has been Ella Lloyd, who has also dovetailed her campaign with British F4.

Bustamante’s exit at the end of 2024, as her mandatory two years in F1 Academy had run their course, allowed Carlin to sign Lloyd, a driver she concedes was on her radar after a test during her time at Rodin Carlin.

At the time of signing Lloyd, Carlin saw her as "a great raw talent, with a really good attitude. She's very calm. When you talk to her, when she's in the car, out of the car, you feel like she's really processing what you're saying.

"There's no ego, no side to her. She's just there, and she's super hardworking as well. When we took her on, we knew it was going to be a big challenge for her."

That has proven to be the case, particularly in British F4, given the difference in car, tyres and even climate, with the often warmer global climes of the F1 Academy races a stark contrast to the cooler conditions for the British circuits.

"When you're at the start of your career, flip-flopping between those two is tricky at first," said Carlin. "I think it hampered her early F1 Academy performances, but in the long term, for sure, it's going to make her a better driver.

"That's what we need to be aware of, that you're not just a flash in the pan, in and out [of F1 Academy], you try and win it and tick the box. We are here to develop the best female driver that we can.

"That approach for her to do this first year with British F4 as a combined package was a good one, and it's now starting to come to fruition. It takes much more to intimidate her. You should always feel challenged, but not intimidated. She's now across that line.

"We've really built that foundation in her to be resilient to change, to be a bit more flexible and to be able to adapt a lot quicker. That's been a big part of what we've worked on with her this year. She's also worked on her physical fitness and things like that."

Off track is another story for the F1 Academy drivers. Their profiles are considerable due to the spotlight of being on a global stage, with all races televised and on the same weekends as F1. The contrast to British F4 could not be more different, providing another area of management for Carlin to negotiate with Lloyd.

"What's fantastic about F1 Academy is the profile it gives the drivers," said Carlin. "That profile is needed because this is not a space that's had that level of attention before. It needs that magnifying glass on it.

"Of course, the flip side of that is we have essentially F4-level drivers with almost F1 levels of attention. It's unprecedented. Some of these drivers, even working with Bianca last year, they've got higher profiles than some of the F1 drivers at the back of the grid.

"Susie's always been really clear that these drivers need to stand on their own two feet once they come out of F1 Academy, and the profile helps because they need to be able to progress.

"What we do really well at McLaren is that we're really mindful of the pressures that are placed on the drivers and counterbalancing that by letting them know what our expectations are.

"It's about making sure they're not feeling any pressure that's going to affect their performance on track, affect them mentally, or make the experience of being a McLaren driver a negative one. That's a bit of a path to carefully tread, but I think we do it pretty well, and we're very aware of it."

It means that year two for Lloyd will be far easier to navigate, although she will likely go into it as the favourite for the title. Ahead of the final round in Las Vegas next month, she lies a superb third following a win in Jeddah and four other podiums.

The two drivers ahead of her — and who are vying for the title — Mercedes' Doriane Pin and Ferrari's Maya Weug, are both in their second years and will leave F1 Academy at the end of the campaign. Unlike Lloyd, neither has competed in another series this year.

The all-round experience Lloyd is acquiring will stand her in good stead when she has to stand on her own two feet at the end of next year.

"The depth of her talent now is much greater," said Carlin. "We can't have somebody who can eke out a championship challenge in F1 Academy. We want to develop a driver who can be resilient and go on to do GB3, F3, F2, or whatever.

"She's been involved in a broad spectrum of experiences. Being on the support package of the BTCC is very different. Personally, I love it, and it exactly demonstrates a point.

"There aren't millions of sponsors around Ella at a BTCC event. If she were just doing that, how many people would know who she was, and how many sponsors would be interested in looking at the rest of her career? Would her opportunities be less than they are in F1 Academy? Yes, they would. Would it be due to her talent? No, it wouldn't.

"That's why F1 Academy is so important as that enabler. It's not about falsely promoting talent that's not there. It's not about forcing something that shouldn't happen. It's about creating opportunity and visibility of an unrepresented part of the sport at the moment."

Images courtesy of Getty Images.