From rural Fermanagh to Formula One fast lane - how Bernie Collins blazed a trail for women everywhere
The rise of the convent-educated woman through the ranks of Formula One as a design engineer before moving to television puts her in an extraordinary position
Bernie Collins isn’t just one of the faces of Sky Sports, she is one of the most extraordinary Irish people in modern sport.
The rise and rise of the Fermanagh-born, all girls convent-educated woman through the ranks of Formula One as a design engineer before moving to television puts her in an extraordinary position.
In the commentary box, she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to gearbox, transmission, tyres, pitstops and analytics.
And the petrolheads out there know it.
Collins’ passion is for the car and it shows, having served her time as an engineer with McLaren (2009-15), starting as performance and senior strategy engineer and graduating eventually to head of race strategy at Force India/Aston Martin (2015-22)
She proved a major force behind Force India, with Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg as their front-line duo, finishing fourth in the 2016 and 2017 formula One Constructors’ Championship.
Another high point came with their only F1 victory, for Perez, at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain in 2020.
Moving to F1 TV as an analyst in 2023, it took just a year for Sky Sports to come calling, by which time her book ‘How To Win A Grand Prix: From Pitlane To Podium — The Inside Track’ was on the shelves.
Instead of being another book about the need for speed, it’s a deep dive into the sport — the pit lane, the car, the dynamics and all the analytics involved.
It’s been perceived as one of the most insightful and accessible books ever written about the sport.
So how did Collins go from the small village of Maguiresbridge in Fermanagh to being one of the most respected voices in F1 right now.
“I did engineering because I enjoyed it, I enjoy maths and physics,” says Collins.
“And even though we’ve got a lot of good motorsport in Ireland — there’s a lot of rallying and a lot of bikes, etc — I was never went into any of that when I was younger.
“So I never really thought about getting into the sport.
“But I think there’s more roles opening up in Formula One now that you can do.
“It is not just about race directors and drivers.”
Collins will be on duty for Sky Sports this weekend in Monaco at the iconic race around the famous street circuit.
Offaly driver Alex Dunne Alex Dunne claimed his maiden pole position in Formula 2 there yesterday after setting the fastest time in qualifying.
Hopes are rising that Dunne can make the jump to F1 in the near future and bridge a gap going back to Eddie Irvine for an Irish driver on the starting grid.
But behind the scenes there is already a growing Irish influence.
Formula One is a fully fledged industry in itself and they advertise looking for the best.
“The more that you dig into it there’s a lot of Irish in the middle of the action,” says Collins.
“I’ve come to the front at the minute because I’m on TV and people are aware of me or whatever but, obviously, I worked in the area for 10 years before that.”
“I thought the engineering side of it when I started, there was going to be solely me but there’s a lot of Irish in the pit lane in a variety of roles.
“I think that we’ve got some really good universities here that do really good degrees.
“There’s a lot more publication of not just engineering roles, but of marketing, legal, HR is showing up too, you know, everything that any company needs, that an F1 team needs.
“So I think there’s more of an awareness that you can go into it.
“I went to an all girls convent in Fermanagh, Mount Lourdes Grammar School.
“And no one was publicising engineering with regard to getting into it and I think that attitude is changing.
“I think hopefully someone like me on TV is showing that it is possible to do a career with it and be successful at it.”
In this, Collin’s progress, such a good story, has changed perceptions — Formula One is not the closed shop it was once seen as.
“I think it started with a really good feature last year about my story and, I guess before that you didn’t really see much about working F1,” says Collins.
“I think the TV then only used to show the drivers and when you were never going to be a driver, you used just to work away, it was your job.
“Then when I did my book, I remember I did a book signing in Fermanagh, actually I did two, and the number of young girls that came to that was incredible.
“I would say 80 per cent of the people there were young girls under 25 and it was great to see.
“So the support from home has been incredible, they love hearing the racing stories connected to Irish stories and it’s been great to sort of be picked to do that — to show that side of it, show the engineering side of it.”