In 2021, Simon Chautemps ended his 14-year F1 career. But, through his consultancy firm JSC7, he is still heavily involved in the world of racing. The Frenchman, in fact, lends his services both to the transalpine team Sainteloc for the transition to single-seaters and to the German race data supplier Paceteq. Furthermore, he is involved in public conferences on leadership.
He has also shared his technical knowledge with F1 viewers, starting with French broadcaster Canal+ in 2022. And, following a trial in Brazil last year with F1 TV, he was recently confirmed for further appearances in 2024, including the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last week.
“I always wanted to create my own motorsport consultancy,” he explains to Motorsport.com Simon Chautemps about his career change.
Julien Simon-Chautemps with F1 TV presenters Laura Winter and Ariana Bravo.
Photo by: Julien Simon-Chautemps
“I had family in the UK, so I was commuting back and forth to Switzerland. And then the team also wanted to make changes, so it happened and a new chapter began.”
In his role, JSC – as he is called in the paddock – must distill the processes that teams go through during a grand prix weekend into clear and concise language for spectators, making the job not much different from that of a racing engineer. competition.
“There are many parallels between communicating with the driver and the team and expressing what you want to say on TV. On TV, the challenge is to explain very technical issues in a way that casual viewers can understand.”
“F1 TV has a huge database of images and videos, and the team is fantastic, so I'm really enjoying my time with them. The learning curve is steep, but the support I've had from Canal+ and F1 TV has been priceless and I am very grateful for the opportunity I have been given.”
Julien Simon-Chautemps
Photo by: Alpine
Engineering, communication, resilience
“You don't need to be an expert in a particular field, but obviously you need to have technical knowledge. A strong understanding is needed in many areas, because you have to talk to those responsible for the engines, aerodynamics, tires, mechanics, battery and so on.”
“The most important quality is the ability to communicate. For me, a great engineer is a great communicator, because there is often a lot of stress and you have to make the right decisions and often some crucial decisions in a very short period of time.”
“It's not always easy, but often a bad decision is better than no decision at all. Many people completely freeze under stress and are not even able to function. There are tense moments on the radio, when the pilot makes himself heard. If someone yells at you on the radio, you still have to operate and direct the mechanics and engineers and tell them what to do.”
“And the other point is resilience. You don't have to let mistakes or bad results get you down. You just have to dust yourself off and focus on the next race. You have to be quite stubborn, because you're always looking for improvements to make the car better.”
Kimi Raikkonen with his Alfa Romeo race engineer Julien Simon-Chautemps
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
Spend Valentine's Day with Marcus Ericsson
Human capabilities are the main theme, as all drivers operate differently and race engineers must quickly discover what makes them tick.
“Kimi wasn't a person to give driving advice to. But he's someone who tells you: 'Look, the car is doing this': 'Listen, the car is doing this, I'm not going to change my driving, but if you improve the car , I'm going to go faster.' And when you did that, he immediately went faster, which was very gratifying,” he says Simon Chautemps.
“On the other hand, there is a guy like Romain who was an extremely fast driver, especially in qualifying. Some pilots need more information via radio, others less, but it's part of your job to be able to read them, understand what they need and what they want, so you can get the best out of them. Sometimes that fits and sometimes it doesn't.”
“I remember inviting Marcus to my house because he was a little down in the dumps, he was alone,” she recalls Simon Chautemps . “I forgot it was Valentine's Day, but luckily my wife saw the funny side of it! So, we all spent Valentine's Day together in my apartment…”
Julien Simon-Chautemps on engineer Marcus Ericsson: “You have to be their friend and listen to them when they have a problem.”
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
“You have to create this bond and convince them: ‘Listen, we know we have this problem, but we're here to do this job and you can do it.’ You have to communicate, you have to be their friend and listen to them when they have a problem.”
“Kimi could have been a great engineer”
Working with the mercurial Raikkonen for three years was probably the most challenging time but, although the taciturn Finn had an image of being a difficult person to work with, this reputation couldn't be further from the truth, he says Simon Chautemps .
“He seemed like an iceman and difficult to talk to, but I remember Kimi calling me one Sunday to talk to me about how we could improve the development of some elements,” he recalls.
“If that's not commitment, I don't know what is. From a technical point of view, he's incredibly knowledgeable and knows what needs to change to get the most out of the car. He could have been a great race engineer and he really enjoyed trying to improve the car. “.
“Kimi could have been a great race engineer himself and had a lot of fun trying to improve the car.”
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
“He was there because he loved racing. Everything else was a bother to him; the marketing, the communications, talking to sponsors and the media, I'm sure it wasn't his favorite thing to do in the world.”
The praise ofSimon Chautemps towards the Finn does not mean that there were no moments of tension between the two. A tense moment occurred in the 2020 Tuscan GP at Mugello, when Raikkonen became frustrated during a red flag, and again when he was given a five-second penalty for crossing the pit entry line.
“At Mugello we had three red flags in a row and I think it was the first time we had a red flag in the race for a long time – we were a bit rusty on that,” he recalls.
“The cars were lining up in the pitlane and then we had to go back with all the pit equipment and Kimi shouted: 'Where are the tyrewarmers, you have to bring the tyrewarmers!'. From that moment we had a procedure in place where we were literally the first to have the tire warmers ready after a red flag…”.
Julien Simon-Chautemps
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
And then I told him he had a five-second penalty and he yelled, “For what?” I remember coming home and seeing a message from Kimi saying, 'Sorry, maybe I was a little hard on you, so I apologize for that.'”
“There were a lot of fun communications like that. The only thing I can say is that I always had fun working with Kimi and this is something I will remember for a lifetime.”
But it is not only the famous victory of the world champion “I know what to do” in the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP, with which Simon Chautemps he worked as his performance engineer, representing a moment of satisfaction.
As anyone who works in this world knows well, it is rare for more than one or two teams to compete for the top step. That's why it's crucial to set your expectations accordingly and find motivation in achieving what's possible each race weekend, rather than feeling frustrated at not having the fastest car.
“The podium in Spa with Romain [Grosjean] in 2015, while the team was facing enormous financial difficulties, or the first points obtained with Jolyon and Marcus were moments of great pride”, he concludes.
Julien Simon-Chautemps
Photo by: Lotus F1 Team
“You can't always win, so you have to set your own level of expectations and find happiness in achieving your goals. If you can't win, you have to try to get a podium. If you can't get on the podium, you have to score points. If you can't score points, you try to get ahead of your main rivals.”
“You must always try to achieve the best you can, never give up and be a team player, encouraging those around you to reach their maximum potential for the good of the team.
“That's how you stay motivated in F1. And that's also what I love about F1: it's the lessons we can all learn and that I try to instill in my children too.”
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