Jérôme Dadoumont, a passionate engineer

With a concentrated look, he is taking notes and has his ears open to listen to his driver, checking the car in detail all the time. Jérôme Dadoumont has been the track engineer for the DG Sport Competition French driver Aurélien Comte for two years.

Jérôme Dadoumont concentrates during the last race of the year in Macau

The work of an engineer is very important in races. Jérôme should analyse the feeling that the driver has in the car and translate it by technical terms in order to ask to the mechanics to apply the settings on the car. “It’s a complementary activity, I have another work and working here is only by passion. I like the race and the adrenaline that it provides,” he explained.

Before the race, the Belgian engineer can change the springs, shock absorber settings, but also the geometry, “by the opening or closing that wheels can have in a straight line with the relative to the axis of the car and the inclination of the wheels with the relative to the vertical.”

During the race, the engineer is given information like an accident, a safety car, a red flag and the presence of debris on the road. “I tried to give as less information as possible during the race to not deconcentrate the driver,” commented the DG Sport Competition engineer.

The trust between Jérôme and his driver Aurélien Comte is necessary, he told, “I should give him confidence about the settings I choose, and he should trust me to be sure that the car is safe and that he’s able to be fast and to take risk.”

His driver Aurélien Comte describes him as “reactive, dynamic and professional." He added, “We have quite the same philosophy and I’m happy to work with him.” If he has the opportunity, he wants to continue the collaboration with his engineer, Comte said.

It was a difficult weekend for Aurélien Comte, “We tried a new setting for the car, but I was not feeling good. We kept a setting that I know, and everything is better,” he confessed. The French driver finished 20th, 12th and 16th in the last three races.