Q&A;: Leena Gade, legendary race engineer

"Never doubt the Gade".

So says a truism forged in the most prestigious race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There, Britain's Leena Gade shepherded Audi to three victories in the French classic, becoming the first woman to win Le Mans as a race engineer.

While drivers work in stints and are encouraged to sleep, engineers must be on deck for the entire race, directing the strategy and technical elements of the world's most complex race cars. Working non-stop for up to 40 hours - including preparation and debriefing time - Gade's role at Audi required her to coach drivers through seemingly impossible situations, make vital setup changes to the car, and shape strategic decisions that can turn the tide of a major race.

Having won Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship with star drivers Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, Gade left her post at Audi to join Bentley's racing program, where she will help direct the manufacturer's efforts in the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour.

A pair of Bentley Continental GT3s will take on the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour. Photo: Daniel Kalisz Photographer

Q: Bentley has a strong investment in the Bathurst 12 Hour, sending out a pair of cars staffed by professional drivers. How important is Australia's big GT race?

A: The exposure that Bentley received by going racing in Bathurst for the last couple of years has been immense. I watched some of the race last year, and it was amazing. There are certain races in the world that are really special, and I think Bathurst falls into that. This year I get the chance to go, which is something I'm quite excited about. 

Q: You've moved over to the Continental GT3 program after years calling the shots for Audi's lead race car. What does the job involve?  

A: My role over here is as the motorsport project manager. I wanted to get out of race engineering, I felt that the skills I'd developed there, I needed to use them in a different capacity. Even just learning the other side of motorsport because as an engineer you can develop tunnel vision - you're only looking after one car.

My main role at them moment is working with ABT Sportsline - they are looking after three of our cars, and the main project at the moment is the Nurburgring 24 hours, which is absolutely huge in Germany. It's managing really all of that, there's a lot of different technical areas we're looking at. 

It's a pretty challenging world... quite an intense project in a short period of time. 

Q: Bentley has enjoyed a decent amount of success on the track, will we see that come across to its road cars?

A: There is already a crossover, whether it comes from some of the components that are shared between the GT3 car and the road car, or the qualities of the Continental car as a whole. 

There's a natural progression that what you're getting on the race track is what you're getting on the road. We're going to see much more crossover in the future for customers and race fans... where what they see on track is something they can see on the road. 

Q: Audi shut down its Le Mans and WEC program a few months after you left, and Bentley snapped up one of its key drivers in Oliver Jarvis. What does he bring to the team? 

A: It's great to have him on board. Ollie is a great guy, I've known him for 10 years, including racing with him in 2013. He's incredibly thorough and very professional. He's going to bring a lot of endurance experience from what he's done with Audi. He was so competitive last year in the number eight car. They should have really won the championship. 

Q: Bentley has a lot of history at Le Mans, featuring strongly in the early years before returning to take an important outright victory in 2013. Will Bentley go back to Le Mans with a GT car?

A: We would want to win outright at Le Mans, which at present with the way the prototype regulations are, is not a possibility.

The GT class has now got a world championship - it's no longer just a world championship for prototype teams, which is a step in the right direction. You never know. 

But for now there is unfinished business at Spa and unfinished business at the Nurburgring (major 24 Hour races for GT cars).

Q: Your last race at Le Mans brought an incredible finish that saw Toyota robbed of victory with one lap to go. Did you feel for them?

A: It's the kind of thing that Hollywood would write. On the pit wall there was three of us on our pit stand, and it was a sickening feeling - you could almost hear it resonating down pit lane. Everyone was in complete shock that this was actually happening. 

You couldn't have made it any worse and the guys in the number eight [Audi] felt incredibly difficult about standing on the podium.

Q: Race fans got an inside look at your work with Audi's second "Truth in 24" documentary, that featured a win against the odds ahead of Peugeot in 2011. You scored your first win at Le Mans after the other two Audi's suffered devastating losses, what was it like watching that film?

A: The race I had on the pit wall was completely different from the race that everyone around me was seeing. My impression of the race was something completely different - I felt it was under control, but it looked like it could fall apart at any moment!

Q: How do you go about making the big calls that can make or break a race?

A: There's always a right and a wrong time to come into the pits. That's when you can make up time. For example, if a driver isn't confident in wet conditions on slick tyres, you weigh up a pit stop versus the amount of time lost on track. Some of that is a little bit of experience, some of that is a conviction that everything is going to be ok - if the driver doesn't have confidence they look to you.

The next part of it is how fast you can get the pit stop done. 

When it rains at some point you're always going to be on the wrong tyre. You just have to manage it. 

Q: You're on the record as having considered a career in Formula 1, does that still hold appeal?

A: I was thinking about Formula 1 at the weekend actually. I'm not that fussed about it any more - they do way too many races for my liking. 

There is some attraction to F1. Everyone sees that and they believe it's the pinnacle of everything to do with motorsport.

But I've had so many challenges in my career, because the teams are smaller and because the complexity of the team is much less - I've managed to experience everything from being a strategist to a race engineer to developing tyres. 

I wouldn't give any of that back now just to say I've done Formula 1.

Q: You're a real advocate for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in schools, Do you feel like there are young people ready to pick up the baton in engineering?

A: STEM has become more popular pretty much worldwide - programs like The Big Bang Theory have made it cool to be a geek. When I was at school, I was at a girls school and there were only three of us doing physics I think that's changed a lot. 

Inadvertently, having had so much success in motorsport, I've had a lot of people come up to me saying "I want to do what you do". It's something anyone can do irrespective of their background and irrespective of whether they are male or female. 

Q: Speaking of advocacy, you're an ambassador for the FIA Women in Motor Sport commission - what does that entail?

A: The women's commission really started up because of Michelle Mouton (a retired rally driver) and a number of her colleagues in the UK. Trying to get more women into rallying and road racing, she came to various women who had jumped through various hoops and they found there wasn't a support network for helping women drive race cars. 

Now it encompasses not just drivers, but officials - and that goes from marshals and scrutineers all the way up to race directors - and engineers are a part of it. 

It was around about 2012 when they asked me to come to one of our meetings, to help show people what we can do in motorsport. 

Q: Have you found it difficult to make your way in a predominantly male profession?

A: I've never felt like an outsider, ever. Motorsport is quite a unique career to take up, at the end of the day, with the amount of travelling that you do, you've got a lifestyle change that you make.

There's not too many people who want to spend their weekends working just to make a race car go around a track. You have to have a different attitude. 

If you go in there wanting to be part of a team, offering your talents and services to them, you'll automatically get accepted. I've never once had any issue with a person because of the fact that I'm a female. 

It can be a bit daunting when you walk into a meeting room or a team and there's not a single other woman there.  

It's never been a problem for me.