Sky Sports F1's Bernie Collins: Who is she?

How did she get into motorsport? 

Collins' interest in motorsport began late on, whilst she was studying mechanical engineering at Queen's University Belfast. She took the course only because she liked mathematics and engineering, and took part in the annual Formula Student programme. This is a program where universities design, test, construct and drive small-scale formula-style racing cars. 

After completing the programme but before she graduated in 2009, Collins applied for the graduate trainee programme with McLaren and then started her Formula 1 career. 

What were her roles within F1? 

Collins started off at McLaren working with the GT sports car racing team part-time. In 2012, she was promoted to the role of performance engineer, before coming a race engineer for the United Autosports GT Team in 2013. She temporarily took on the role of primary performance engineer for McLaren in late 2013 for the Indian and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and was then handed the job full-time for the 2014 season. During that year, she worked closely with 2009 world champion Jenson Button. 

In May 2015, she left the Woking team to join Force India, as their performance and senior strategy engineer to Nico Hulkenberg. During the season, she helped the team claim a podium with Sergio Perez at the 2015 Russian Grand Prix and secured fourth in the constructors' championship in 2016. 

She stayed with the team, becoming head of race strategy in 2020, where she remained until 2022. 

What does she do currently? 

After leaving Aston Martin, Collins joined F1 TV as an analyst in 2022, and in 2023 she joined the Sky Sports F1 team. She has already done two races with Sky Sports this season in Saudi Arabia and Japan and will do another eight races, including Belgium, Netherlands and Azerbaijan. 

She will also do articles for F1.com on some race weekends, breaking down the team's strategies.