Speaking by radio to André Lotterer, during the Le Mans 24-hour race he won on Sunday, was Leena Gade – the first female race engineer to win the event. It is Gade's job to monitor every aspect of the race – including the tyre pressure, fuel level, temperature, and the weather – and guide "her" car (No 2 Audi) over the finish line. "I was so happy," she says. "It was unbelievable."
Le Mans is gruelling and two of Audi's cars crashed during the race – "I saw a big cloud of dust on my driver's screen and I thought, 'that looks like one of ours'. It was exceptionally scary." .
Gade, 35, had wanted to be a motorsport engineer since she saw Formula One on TV aged 13. She and her younger sister, Teena (also a race engineer), were hooked.
Gade insists working in such a male-dominated world has never been a problem. "I worry if I get something wrong, is everybody going to think it's because I'm a woman?" she says. "Being female makes me quite visible, and the last thing I want is for that reputation to precede me, so I have to be very good at what I do. You have to be a bit laddish and join in the banter, and everyone has to be tough-skinned because it can be stressful, but the guys all treat me the same as anyone else." Her only experience of sexism, she says, was when she was 17 and trying to get work with a Formula Three team, "and I was told 'mechanicing isn't for girls'. I just thought: I'm going to prove you wrong."
