NTT IndyCar Collection veteran Kate Gundlach shall be sitting in a brand new seat on an Arrow McLaren timing stand subsequent season, because the top-tier efficiency engineer on Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevy has accepted the supply to steer considered one of its entries as race engineer.
The supply was made to Gundlach heading into the 2024 season, however she declined, citing a need to spend yet another season within the understudy function subsequent to O’Ward’s race engineer Will Anderson.
With out fanfare, the staff and Gundlach additionally frolicked earlier within the yr with the roles reversed as they used the non-championship check and warmth races at The Thermal Membership to have her work as race engineer on the No. 5 with Anderson there to assist his teammate.
After finishing one other season with O’Ward that included three wins en path to fifth within the factors, Gundlach is able to helm one of many different automobiles—probably Nolan Siegel’s No. 6 Chevy—because the staff conducts a radical adjustment of its organizational chart.
“Once they first supplied me the function, it was a little bit of a shock and I felt I needed to do some very deep soul looking out to see if I used to be emotionally and bodily prepared for the function,” Gundlach advised RACER. “And my reply to them was that I wanted extra time, wanted extra time to get myself collectively mentally, and nonetheless felt like I had unfinished enterprise with Pato as a result of we’d been within the championship hunt practically yearly with him, and I simply wished yet another attempt to knock it out of the park.
“Because the season progressed, and as I did a whole lot of work mentally, it began to fall into place that, ‘Okay, I’m prepared for the subsequent problem.’ And as a lot as I am keen on Pato – he’s very particular to me, he’s the motive force that I’ve labored with the longest in my profession ever, and I really feel like we had a extremely shut bond and we talk very well – and as a lot as I hate to let that go, I really feel like I must step as much as develop extra. I really feel like I’m in a greater place to do this.”
Gundlach has developed a robust relationship with O’Ward throughout their time collectively, however will begin afresh with a special driver in her new function. Joe Skibinski/Motorsport Pictures
Gundlach rose to prominence at Chip Ganassi Racing, the place she was the assistant race engineer throughout Scott Dixon’s championship run in 2018 alongside knowledge engineer Danielle Shepherd. Gundlach left Ganassi to simply accept a promotion to efficiency engineer, and as her Arrow McLaren profession began to level in direction of shifting to the highest of her occupation, she modified her strategy, modified her working behavior, and started making ready for all times as a race engineer.
It’s like being a head coach in some ways; there’s a crew chief in control of the automobile’s mechanical high quality, a race strategist tasked with calling the precise performs, and a workers of assist engineers to contain, and as a first-time race engineer, Gundlach is aware of the success of this system — in each space when the automobile is on monitor and performing — is her duty, as everybody concerned with the entry studies to the race engineer.
“The race engineering function, I paid sharper consideration to it after the supply was placed on the desk; it takes much more delicate abilities than simply your fundamental data of car dynamics,” she mentioned. “You need to not solely make the automobile go sooner, however there’s lots of people to handle. Your relationship with the motive force turns into extra crucial, extra intimate. You must just be sure you’ve received a very good power together with your timing stand, that you’ve got very clear expectations of your individuals. I’ve discovered that there are issues that I don’t wish to take into consideration as a race engineer. I don’t wish to take into consideration something the efficiency engineer is doing. I would like that individual to be super-sharp and to maintain up and to offer me essentially the most one of the best data potential.
“That’s what I got here to the belief of at The Thermal Membership. I sat down and made this checklist of, ‘If I used to be a race engineer, what would I do otherwise from this perspective?’ After which I took that data again into being a efficiency engineer and tried to be a greater efficiency engineer for my race engineer, based mostly on what I want I’d have been extra clear about at Thermal, and what I wanted in that place. It’s the automobile construct. It’s the connection with the crew chief. It’s the relationships that you’ve got. You’re finally chargeable for all people’s efficiency right here and all people’s bonus examine on the finish of the season.”
Gundlach is a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails character when it’s time to compete; her background as a driver, automobile builder in faculty, and daughter of an novice racer means she’s seen and completed nearly every little thing within the sport. After which there’s her pleasant and interesting facet, which has made her one of many favourite individuals within the IndyCar paddock. Each points of Gundlach’s character shall be required because the boss of an Arrow McLaren entry.
“It’s lots heavier to hold, and additionally it is heavy to hold understanding that you’re the one one who’s going to decide,” she continued. “As a efficiency engineer, I all the time reply to the race engineer. The race engineer can inform me to pound sand if he doesn’t like the concept or no matter, however I’m the one making selections now. Within the second, I can’t go bounce something off of someone else. I’ve glorious teammates who I can work with, however on the subject of the warmth of the second, it’s on me, and that’s a degree of consciousness that I felt like I wanted to ensure I used to be ready to deal with.”
Previous to her Arrow McLaren transfer, Gundlach was a part of Scott Dixon’s championship-winning staff at Ganassi in 2018. Scott R LePage/Motorsport Pictures
Gundlach’s revered for her work as a racer and as one of many best advocates for inclusion within the sport. She’s in a relentless function of supporting the ladies who come into IndyCar as mechanics and engineers — on her staff or amongst Arrow McLaren’s rivals — and it’s solely becoming that after demonstrating excellence for a few years, she’s been acknowledged for these contributions and elevated to the best submit in her self-discipline.
Former colleague Shepherd and Indianapolis 500-winning engineer Angela Ashmore had been promoted to race engineering roles final season, and if they continue to be in these positions, IndyCar may make extra historical past with Gundlach changing into the third in 2025.
“It’s a delicate shift, nevertheless it’s a recognizable shift,” she mentioned. “You’re seeing extra ladies on timing stands, extra ladies are making use of for positions or reaching out and asking, ‘How do I get into this?’ We’ve employed Lizzie Todd within the programs engineer function. We’ve received Lindsey Falk, who got here in as a hybrid engineer. We now have a lady named Ellie Trine who got here on not too long ago, working in engineering, and naturally, you bought Grace Hackenberg on dampers and going over the wall. And it’s not simply right here. It’s rising in every single place.
“It’s attention-grabbing as a result of everyone seems to be coming in with new views, and now I’m really beginning to really feel previous right here! But it surely’s actually refreshing to see how a lot confidence these ladies are bringing with them into groups. That was one thing that I used to be missing after I received into it. It was very intimidating to stroll right into a constructing or a room and be the one lady there and really feel like everybody’s eyes had been simply hyper-focused on you and seeing the way you’re going to carry out, like, ‘Can you may you narrow it or not?’”
In Gundlach’s time, the sequence has gone from solely needing one hand to depend the variety of ladies working throughout all groups on pit lane to needing a spreadsheet to maintain up with the annual development of girls in IndyCar.
“And now I really feel like ladies can stroll in with extra confidence, and although they nonetheless must show themselves, identical to all people else right here, they simply have one much less hurdle to beat,” she mentioned. “They’re superb at carrying themselves. And I’m very proud of all of them. I feel that’s an enormous factor you can sit again and be like, ‘All proper, there’s progress right here.’ It’s a small shift, however I’m actually proud.”
