Bernie Collins rules the F1 pit wall as lead strategist. Lone woman calling shots that powered team podiums like Pérez’s 2020 Sakhir win. 📸 @msportbywomen & @bernie.collins.1 via Instagram.
By Gina Hill | Alaska Headline Living | March 16, 2026
Bernie Collins has blazed a trail in Formula 1 as one of its pioneering female engineers and strategists. Her journey from a small Irish village to the high-octane world of global racing makes her a perfect Women’s History Month icon for American audiences.
Humble Beginnings
Bernadette “Bernie” Collins grew up in Maguiresbridge, a tiny town in Northern Ireland’s Fermanagh County. Think wide-open fields like America’s heartland. She attended Tattygar Primary School near Enniskillen and an all-girls Catholic school.
Sparks flew early with her love for fixing things, leading to a mechanical engineering degree from Queen’s University Belfast in 2009, where she captained the Formula Student race team. That grit propelled her into motorsport’s male-dominated arena, much like trailblazers in U.S. sports.
Racing Up the Ranks
Collins landed McLaren’s graduate program in 2009, mastering suspension and gearboxes before track duty with their GT3 squad. By 2014 she engineered for Jenson Button, the 2009 F1 champ, thriving in the spotlight.
Switching to Force India (now Aston Martin) in 2015, she strategized for Nico Hülkenberg, powering podiums like Sergio Pérez’s 2015 Russia thriller and 2020 Sakhir stunner, plus a top-four team finish in 2016.
Pit Wall Powerhouse
Collins rose to head race strategy at Aston Martin through 2022, calling audibles on tires, pits, crashes, and rain amid roaring crowds. She owned the pressure: striding past the garage post-tough calls, fueled by race-altering impact.
Accolades followed, Forbes 30 Under 30 and UK engineering ambassador, proving smarts trump stereotypes.
Broadcasting Star Today
From 2022-2023 onward, Collins demystifies F1 tactics for Sky Sports and F1TV viewers worldwide, her cool-headed breakdowns a fan favorite.
She’s penned How to Win a Grand Prix: From Pit Lane to Podium with journalist Maurice Hamilton, a gripping memoir revealing the high-stakes split-second decisions behind podium triumphs like Pérez’s Sakhir win, insider pit wall pressure, and strategy secrets that turn data chaos into race victories. Through keynotes, she inspires women engineers to chase dreams in male-dominated fields, sharing how passion trumped skepticism on her improbable rise.
Barriers Shattered
Collins routinely stood as the sole woman on F1 pit walls, a testosterone-fueled nerve center where snap decisions dictate million-dollar outcomes, defying a sport where women hold less than 20% of technical roles.
She tackled overt skepticism and isolation, from graduate program doubts to garage scrutiny, proving female insight matches any man’s in high-stakes engineering. Now a broadcaster and speaker, she mentors young women engineers, earning Forbes 30 Under 30 nods and smashing the myth that passion can’t conquer gender biases in racing’s boys’ club.
Her story, from Irish classrooms to desert podiums, echoes U.S. pioneers like Becky Hammon who was the first female assistant coach in the NBA and Kim Ng who was the general manager of the Maimi Marlins Baseball team, showing hustle shatters glass ceilings. Timely fuel for Women’s History Month.
