Interviews

Inside Embassy – Pablo Cangini

© Embassy Racing

With a brief interval in between Pablo Cangini has been with Embassy Racing since 2005. A Master in Automotive Engineering, Pablo has had different positions within the team that have provided him with a solid background for his current job. A native of Argentina, Pablo moved to the UK to complete his master studies and got almost immediately in touch with racing.

PLM- Pablo, when did you start at Embassy racing?

PC- I came into the team as data engineer when we were running the Porsche in the British GT championship. I did that whole year with Embassy and then was involved in their project with the Ascaris in 2006, but unfortunately, that did not go through in the end. As Embassy decided not to race I did that year at Scuderia Ecosse as race engineer.

PLM- But you did come back…

PC- I bumped into Jonathan (France) at the Silverstone FIA race and we started talking about 2007, and he told me he was looking at an LMP2 project. We were still in excellent terms, it was just the team not racing that had triggered the change so the decision to return was easy.

PLM- And now Embassy was onto prototypes.

PC- Exactly, we first tried the Pilbeam but we were not really convinced. At that point, Alastair (McQueen) brought Peter Elleray into the equation to do some revisions to the Pilbeam, but I think it was at this time the dream of being a constructor started to materialize. However, Jonathan purchased the Radical to see us through to the end of the season

PLM- Did the idea come out then?

PC- To be honest I think Jonathan had had this idea on his mind for a long time, even back in 2005, but the contact with Peter just accelerated the process. I was involved from the very beginning and have to say I have learned lots of things working at the wind tunnel with Peter. It’s just a shame that we were delayed in the actual construction by issues outside of our control. I honestly think there’s too much tolerance in the racing world with some providers; if a deadline is not met you should not just think “oh, well, this is always like this anyway”. You hear this too often in this industry and I believe we need to be more demanding about meeting commitments.

PLM- Having been there since the birth of the WF01, what’s the evaluation you make of the current state of the car?

PC- I tend to be more on the pessimistic side of things so if I compare us to Porsche or Zytek I think we are still at an early stage of development. We are continually investing and we already see the fruits of it: we have achieved a good level of reliability and we are focusing now on the car performance improvements. This is our challenge and we can succeed using an advanced quality cycle. I think being on the level of an LMP2 Zytek would be a good achievement.

PLM- Pablo, tell us a bit about your specific role in the team.

PC- My background is in Mechanical Engineering as I have a Masters degree in Automotive Engineering. I’ve had positions as Data Engineer and also Assistant Designer for a WTCC project. I started the year as Race Engineer but now I am back with the data crunching, as Performance Engineer. As head of the data department, I am the link between the data guys and the Race Engineer and I also work on redesign and analysis for both cars.

PLM- You work with both cars all the time, then?

PC- During race weekends I am focussed on car 45. At the workshop I am mostly busy with 45 but also get involved with the 46.

PLM- How does the weekend look like for you?

PC- We start by getting together with Alastair, Peter and Geoff to define an initial setup for both cars. Then each car will go its own way. My busiest moment is probably in between sessions when you have to download data, listen to the driver’s feedback and then work combining those. When the car is on the track you need to check telemetry to see if your changes work out, you need to draw conclusions quickly as you have limited time to get the laps in.

PLM- What do you do during the race?

PC- After qualifying it’s a bit more relaxed. You check your parameters and monitor telemetry. In between sessions you have to analyze gears, chassis, tyres…during the race you just control fuel, determine the length of a stint, etc. The key aspect during the race is giving the right amount of accurate useful data for the Race Engineer.

PLM- Pablo, what’s your task after the race?

PC- Depends a lot on how the weekend went! (laughs) I measure mostly the amount of unresolved issues. For example, at the Nürburgring the rear axis “bounced” quite a bit and we managed to fix it during practice. After the race we analyze the data to verify our solution was the right one. There’s always some pending affair from the weekend, what I call “answering with numbers” all things that were not 100% clear even if they were fixed. I have an engineering mind so I look for quantifying the solution in order to be able to use it again! Attaching “a number” to issues gives you a different feeling of security.

PLM- Do you enjoy that research?

PC- Actually quite some of my time is invested in understanding the “whys”. It’s much more fun than the administrative part of keeping up the mileage on the gears or the wheels… but that also has to be done properly!

PLM- We speak often about the drivers, how do you rate your relationship with them?

PC- They are great. For example, I was Warren’s (Hughes) Race Engineer at Interlagos and he’s the kind of driver that leads you into the root cause of the issue. Instead of saying “the car oversteers” he’ll tell you where he believes the issue lies: damping, tyre pressure etc…
There are still too many things you cannot see through data so feedback is fundamental. All four drivers we have are fantastic in that sense and it’s a huge advantage for the team.

PLM- You sound pretty satisfied.

PC- It’s a privilege to work with this sort of driver. Nothing against gentlemen drivers but it’s very different to work with them. You’d rather have a gentleman driver learn the track properly than trying to improve the setup with their feedback. In the first case you might win 0.8 seconds, in the second maybe 0.3…. Also the drivers we have, don’t have huge egos, despite the fact that they are very talented professionals with race wins and championships to their credit. They do not consider themselves “superstars” if you see what I mean. I’ve been in teams where drivers only have lunch with the team owner, here we’re all part of the same family. And on top of that they are extremely quick and excellent testers, what else could you ask?

PLM- How’s your relation with Peter Elleray and the design team?

PC- We have daily contact, Peter is 100% dedicated to this project so he’s the leader on the design area, he has the final word. He’s so involved that at the Nürburgring he was the Race Engineer 46 car! In this area you cannot stand still, you need to keep evolving the car. I think you need to keep the designer as close as you can- it would be suicidal to do otherwise. In the case of Peter he’s very open, and willing to explain the thought process about certain changes. As with all talented creative people, he does occasionally like to work a in isolation, but he will always answer all your questions… and the answers are always spot on!

Even when the English weather is not his favourite, Pablo Cangini feels clearly at home at Embassy Racing. Dedicated, thorough and in his own words “a bit fanatical”, Pablo is a fundamental linking in Embassy Racing closing the loop of quality feedback involving car behaviour, data and driving experience.