Lopez: Lando can adapt to all conditions

When Lando Norris took the podium for the first time at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, he emphasized that José Manuel Lopez, his performance engineer, was the key to his success.

In English, this position is called “performance engineer”, and it seems that no one is already trying to find a more or less adequate translation in other languages. You can try it, of course, and you’ll end up with something like an “efficiency engineer”, which sounds strange to say the least and not pleasant to the ear. So let’s do it like everyone else.

The collaboration between Lopez and Norris started right in the days of that weekend in Spielberg, and the very first experience turned out to be very successful. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper AS, 38-year-old Jose Manuel spoke about his work at McLaren and how it affects the driver’s results.

José Manuel López: “As a child I loved to play with my father and cousins ​​in board racing games produced by Scalextric, in addition there is a track in my hometown of Albacete, and in the 90s there were Superbike motorcycle races, truck racing and a round of Formula 3000. I think that’s where my passion for cars started.

I studied at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and did an internship with the Epsilon Euskaldi team that took part in Formula Renault 2.0 and the Renault World Series. Then it turned out that I was good at analyzing telemetry and interacting with the riders.

In 2011, I moved to the British Carlin team and started working in Formula 3 as a race engineer. At the time I thought I would stay in England for a few years, but I stayed for eleven! I had the chance to work with a lot of racers – with Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat, Antonio Giovinazzi, George Russell, Kevin Magnussen.

When the Haas team was formed in 2015, I passed all the interviews and became a performance engineer for Esteban Gutierrez. I was offered this particular position and I understood there would be no other option, so I had to accept. Then I worked with Kevin and in 2020 I moved to McLaren.

The race engineer is the main person in charge of preparing the car, and he interacts with a large group of people, he doesn’t have time to go into all the technical details. Therefore, a performance engineer communicates more closely with the racer when it is necessary to solve driving problems, to achieve a more efficient passage of certain corners, to improve the operation of the electronics, differential, brakes, etc. to adjust properly.

In addition, together with the rider you have to find the best approach to the tires to provide important basic information to the strategists of the team – this makes their job a little easier when choosing tactics. In some situations you have to be the communication center between different divisions of the racing team.

Preparation for the Grand Prix starts a week before the team based on the work on the simulator and the analysis of previous races. On Tuesday or Wednesday we fly to the track, on Thursday we take a walk along with the rider, after which the meetings start.

On Friday, the schedule tightens, training begins, during which it is important to carry out various types of checks and collect information to work with the institutions. When Lando returns to the pits, I talk to him, we look at telemetry and think about what improvements we want to achieve during the next race.

I also give him the information he needs when he works on the track, but in this case I do it through Will Joseph, Lando’s race engineer. We analyze many different nuances regarding steering – where you have to work more aggressively with the steering wheel, where you have to slow down later, where you have to let go of the throttle a little earlier to save the rubber.

Lando knows how to perceive all this information, he absorbs it like a sponge, and most importantly, he applies it correctly on the track, and he is not hindered by the pressure that invariably accompanies the race. He is incredibly talented and can adapt to all conditions, which is always what sets a good rider apart.

Kevin Magnussen also adapts very well to different conditions and always achieves the best possible results, although many others can only do this while driving fast cars.

I have worked with Carlos Sainz in Formula 3, he is one of those who show rigor and always dive into all the nuances, trying to add another tenth.

When we return to Lando, in qualifying he always squeezes everything out of the car, knows how to adapt to his reactions or imperfections, and his special gift manifests itself when it is necessary to master new steering techniques. I think this is an exceptional talent that complements his natural speed.”