At every race, Monaghan pursues only one goal: The Englishman wants to provide Fernando Alonso with a perfect race car
Budapest, 24 August 2003: At the Hungarian Grand Prix Fernando Alonso celebrates the first victory of his still young Formula 1 career. At the same time, the Spaniard crowns himself the youngest Grand Prix winner of all time. Shortly after crossing the finish line, the Renaul driver raises his fist in the air with joy. At the same time, he praises his team over the radio: “Thank you. You are simply fantastic.” His race engineer Paul Monaghan does not hesitate to reply: “Well, you’re not bad for a racing driver either…”, he returns the compliments in an ironic way.
This scene proves how well Alonso and Monaghan get along. No wonder: although success on the race track requires the whole team, during a Grand Prix weekend the Spaniard and the Englishman spend most of their time together.
The 35-year-old Monaghan has already been working as a race engineer in the Renault team for four years. In 1990, he started his career at McLaren in the development department. From there, his path led him to the department for special projects before he changed to the “Equipe Jaune” in 2000. Already in the following season, Jenson was Button’s contact person for car set-up during the Grands Prix weekends. During the course of the season he was promoted to race engineer.
“From the beginning I was impressed by the unique atmosphere in the team,” Monaghan recalls. “The Renault guys have a special sense of humour. At the same time, they are highly focused at all times and have the necessary ambition. All in all, our way of working could serve as a model for all teams.”
Monaghan is convinced that the race engineers of the other teams envy him for being able to work with such a talented young driver as Alonso: “Fernando is certainly one of the best drivers in the field. He is very determined, has great self-confidence and can adapt to any situation in a flash. In addition, he is very adaptive and learns a lot from his experienced team-mate Jarno Trulli.”
The job of a race engineer can be described quite simply: Together with Alonso, Monghan tunes the Renault R24 to be as fast as possible. “In my job, absolute trust is the top priority,” says the Englishman. “Fernando knows he can rely one hundred per cent on any suggestion I make. I always listen to him very carefully and let his driving impressions flow into the tuning process.”
The Englishman is helped in this by his enormous wealth of experience: “Working on a new car is particularly demanding at the beginning of a season. Over the course of a year, the individual processes become more and more second nature. Sometimes a small gesture from Alonso is enough and Monaghan knows what to do. A big advantage, because in Formula 1 every second counts – even off the track. The rule changes introduced before the 2004 season significantly limit the teams’ options during the practice sessions.
It is therefore essential to determine the respective race set-up as quickly as possible. “At Renault, several team members share this important and responsible task,” describes Monaghan. “Rod Nelson is in charge of the chassis set-up, Pat Symonds works out the race strategy and Jonathan Wheatley is responsible for making sure the technology works perfectly. Many people have a decisive influence on Fernando’s success. It would be unfair to reduce everything to the cooperation between Fernando and me.”
Nevertheless, Monaghan occupies a special position: his job involves far more than responsibility for aerodynamic downforce or damper stiffness. He is also Fernando’s closest confidant at the track. “I look after my driver,” says Monaghan. “To him, I would never get hectic or nervous because that would interfere with his preparations. I’m kind of a calming influence. I have to be his biggest fan in a way. I am – and it doesn’t bother me one bit…”
Asking for Paul in the Renault team’s pits during a race weekend doesn’t make much sense. However, anyone searching for “pedals” will be led straight to Paul Monaghan. The Englishman earned his unusual nickname back in 1992, when he was still working at McLaren. “At almost every race, I had to readjust the pedals on Gerhard Berger’s car,” he recalls. “Within a very short time, I had lost my nickname in the team because of that. And what can I say: when I switched to Renault, my new name had been doing the rounds for a long time – everyone knew me as ‘Pedals’… “