Javier Bermejo is a mechanical engineer with decades of experience in the world of motorsport. He began his career with the UPCT Racing Team, then completed an internship at Mercedes-Benz before moving on to Oxford Brookes Racing.
After working for Bridgestone, Prema and Applus+ IDIADA, he contributed to three World Championships at Red Bull Racing (two drivers' and one constructors'). He is currently involved in the Sauber-Audi project, as well as founding - together with Alex Burg - Racetrack Dynamics, a course that aims to bring aspiring engineers closer to Formula 1.
The FormulaWebMagazine.com staff had the pleasure and honour of asking him some questions: here's the full interview.
FP: "Hello Javier, thank you for being here with us. Let's start from the beginning of your career".
JB: "Yes, of course. I was always deeply fascinated by vehicle dynamics, by everything that makes a car handle, feel, the balance that the car undergoes through a corner, all the physics, all the forces and moments like this... It was always like rocket science to me.
"I wanted to really understand what was causing a car to feel how it felt, so I started to love suspension geometry design and I started to get into formal student projects.Then, sooner than later, it became my obsession. It became my baby. Every time that I had a bit of spare time, I would put it into that. I dedicated all my time and energy into it, into reading technical papers, thesis, books, whatever. I was very hungry for knowledge.
"At some point, I made a start. Of course the beginnings were more humble. I started doing internships here and there, then road passenger cars design for different OEMs. And then the opportunity of Formula One came up after, but as I always say... I mean, for sure it was the target, but not the only one.
"I was more focused on learning what makes a car handle the way it does, so the target just moved as I was moving in my progress in my career. I was learning more, all the physics, all the details, all the technicalities.
"Formula One it's interesting, it's the final call, it pushes engineering to the limit. But to me, it was always more about vehicle dynamics than it is Formula One. I like Formula One because I apply vehicle dynamics to the actual absolute limit, but I've been always been more passionate about the science of the car that actually about what category we're applying it into".
FP: "Thank you for being so thorough, Javier. Can you explain how difficult is it in modern Formula One to maximise every thousandth of a second? And how difficult is it when a new upgrade is introduced on the car? Because we've seen many teams struggle with bringing upgrades and then not finding correlation. What's your role in that? How do you try to solve it as a performance engineer?"
JB: "So first thing first, as you mentioned, Formula One is an extremely competitive sport. It's an engineering competition rather than a sport competition. Winning happens by very, very fine margins.
"You can find examples of six, seven drivers... I remember at Monza, in 2024, six or seven drivers were within two tenths of a second [in qualifying, e.n.]. In this sport, everything is defined by small margins.
"Every upgrade brings something, even if they are not turning the car upside down. In order to test things on the track, in order to capture these subtle differences, you need to make sure your two cars are to align as possible mechanically. You need to have a very strong process, a very structured and logical process to capture all these little things. And it's always a challenge, it's always a challenge to try to see what you were predicting is actually behaving as it should be in the track, because the track is the ultimate test: nothing is more real than a track.
"You have different layers from simulation, to wind tunnel testing to the track, with actual simulation being the most controllable and the less realistic. In the middle there is wind tunnel testing, which is a step down in controllability, controllability and a step down also in realism.
"Then we've got the track, which is the real thing. But there are so many things... There is temperature variation, there is wind, there is road irregularities, there is bouncing induced in the car that is creating this hysteretic effect on the aerodynamics of the car. So it gets really difficult to try to tackle all these little things, that's why having a very strong department like aerodynamics performance department, that has the right tools to do that.
"Of course, as I said, both cars need to start very aligned mechanically and that makes you able to be knowing if that difference that you're seeing in the car comes purely from that upgrade, for the only difference that you have across the cars, rather than anything else.
"As a performance engineer, as I was saying, it's not one of my main duties. Of course, it's something that you need to have on the table to see how these upgrades are working. I need to have an overall picture, you know, about the performance of the car. And then there is a dedicated team, which works extensively to produce all these tools, all the methodologies.
"I mean, a car has hundreds of sensors, if not thousands. There are so many things that you can adjust mechanically and electronically in your car. You can play with anti-roll bars, tows, camber, temperatures, suspension geometries, pressures. You can change the differential settings in entry, mid, exit, high speed. You can change the power unit, the harvest and deployment strategies. I mean, if you think of it like it's a very complicated problem.
"Just because you have a package that works and a car that is fine, that is fast, it doesn't mean that you can sleep on your laurels. Because the other teams are pushing for the last hundred seconds, just because you have something that is good, it doesn't mean that it's the absolute best that you can have. And there's always competition with others.
"You can never settle for what is good. So I think that's what makes this sport challenging, tiring, and rather relentless it's the continuous chasing of perfection".
FP: "Brilliant. So, how is it to cope with emotions when you have a great weekend or a bad weekend? Like, how do you cope with these 'ups and downs'?"
JB: "This year is becoming really emotional because, of course, we're building a lot of momentum in the team. Sauber-Audi, they're doing great.
"Everybody's pushing a lot. We're starting to score points consistently and... You know, I was winning a lot with Red Bull, but at some point, you normalise it, you take it for granted.
"It doesn't ignite you the same way as fighting for points does, because you know where you come from and where you are at the moment. During the races, when you see the cars start fighting for points and they are climbing up positions, they go to P9, P8, P7, with a P5 in Barcelona, overtaking a Ferrari... We are seeing the best results that we have achieved for a number of years [also with a podium at the British Grand Prix, e.n.].
"The thing is, you still have to stay calm, to stay focused because you're still performing, you're still providing support, you're still checking something on the car that is critical, you still need to finish the race.
"Basically you have this emotional roller coaster: you see the car racing, you see the finish line getting closer and closer... You see that you're really going to score points and positions and you get really emotional, like goosebumps and all that, but you need to stay focused. You need to stay sharp, stay calm, do what you're doing, monitoring what you're monitoring. Be on top of all the little things that need to be there because everything can go to trash very easily.
"So, yeah, emotions can run pretty high. Of course, it's also not the best feeling when you're pushing long hours on Monday, Tuesday, all the way to Sunday, we work basically every day... Weekends get really hectic, really long hours, crazy hours, and you see that this effort goes for no points. You need to manage a little bit that as well, but you know, it's a competition. It's in the nature of the sport. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
"But one thing is for granted: if you don't give your best, if you don't keep pushing, you're already giving up. So you need always to keep trying your best.
"I got the question a lot in 2023, I think when we [Red Bull, e.n.] got the most successful season of F1 history, we won 22 out of 23 races. People asked me after Singapore, the only race we didn't win, 'how was that race?' I mean, the morale was not great, but it was these races, when things didn't work, where I really thrived and enjoyed working, because that's when people actually get the best out of themselves.
"When they don't have the pace in free practice or even in quali, then they start to think out of the box. They start to question everything. They start to come up with 'is this really doing what we think? Do we really see this reflected in our models?' This ignites this mental state of always trying to come up with the answer.
"You need to fix the ca,r and it's beautiful. It's in the crisis when you learn and when you grow and, I mean, it sounds like a cliche, but it's actually the truth. I mean, when you win, you could be bad and you're still winning and you will not learn anything new, because you're winning. But it's when things don't work, when it's obvious that you have a problem or something you didn't understand or something that was wrong... That's where you really grow".
FP: "About that, Javier, how do you balance the performance-related decisions from driver to driver? How different is it to like set up the car or maximise the performance from one driver to another related to their driving style?"
JB: "Of course, there are always going to be differences between the drivers, despite the car being the same and all the things. It's really a matter of driver preference. Some drivers like... It's always the never-ending dilemma: 'do I want a rear that is stable and planted and makes me feel confident about sending my car at 280 kph around Copse in Silverstone, or do I want a strong front bite that makes my car quickly turn?'
"Essentially, there are a lot of driver preferences, but you can define two teams: team stability and team rotation or sharpness, if that makes sense. This applies to everything. It applies to pedal feeling, applies to steering wheel heaviness, applies to really everything.
"How this balance is achieved through the speed? Well, you can achieve different balance at 100 kph than at 200 kph. You know, it's not a flat line. You want to have a car that is more stable here and more rotation there".
FP: "Can you share with us two words about how excited you are for Audi's F1 project and just a swift presentation of your role in Racetrack Dynamics?"
JB: "I think the team Audi is so heavily invested into making this work. We feel it. The attention and care they're putting into the project, the support they're giving it... It's a very exciting project, as it was Toyota in its day or as it was Aston not long ago.
"It's an emerging project. There is already momentum that we're building. I mean everybody's very excited. I am very excited as well to be part of this, it's exciting. It's exciting because, if there is something better than winning, it is developing with a team and then achieving success.
"Winning is for sure the pinnacle. That's what has motivated many engineers in the past to make a change to pursue further goals.
"As for Racetrack Dynamics, my colleague Alex is of course skilled in vehicle dynamics and in engineering. He's quite good, that's why I always have this connection with him. But we try to do what we're best at.
"So Alex is obviously taking care of the things that he's naturally better at than me, like communication or social media, and I support him with the vehicle dynamics content. That's my strong point".
IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RACETRACK DYNAMICS PROJECT, DON'T MISS THE INTERVIEW WITH BOTH FOUNDERS - ALEX BURG AND JAVIER BERMEJO - COMING OUT JULY THE 20th.
FP: "Great, one last thing before I let you go: what would be your quick message to young students who might want to get into Formula 1?"
JB: "I mean, this one touches me very personally. One thing that I often say is I think there is no limit in life of what you can achieve; there is no limit if you set your life to do that. You just need to fully commit to it.
"It might not take 50% or 60% of your effort. It might take realistically 100% of your effort, but everything you have to do is to give all you have, because things happen.
"Someone needs to be the main character of a Hollywood movie. Someone needs to be the one that kicks the penalty in the Champions League final. Someone needs to drive a Ferrari or a Red Bull. Someone needs to be the technical director of one team, if you know what I mean. They all are normal people. The difference between them and people not achieving it is that they at some point they said 'I'm going to commit my full life into doing that and I'm not going to stop until I accomplish it'.
"It's just a matter of setting yourself to do that. I mean, Alex and I don't come from a privileged background. We come from very humble universities, very humble places, so if we made it to Formula One then everybody can do it. That's what we're trying to also always share with our students at the courses and with people that follow us".
FP: "What can I say, Javier. That was fantastic, thank you so much and good luck with the Sauber-Audi and Racetrack Dynamics projects".
JB: "Thank you Fabrizio, it was very nice".
Main cover photo www.linkedin.com
