Cool Jobs - Will Joseph, McLaren Engineer

Hello folks and the very warmest of welcome to your very own Yoto Daily with me, Jake. It is Tuesday the 27th of January and it is a pleasure to see your ears. Thank you for stopping by and oh my have we got a fun episode for you today because we are back with a bang with another episode of Cool Jobs. This is the feature where we talk to people who you guessed it have cool jobs and for this episode I was lucky enough to be invited to the McLaren Technology Centre by Will Joseph. People call me Will. That's right the race engineer for recently crowned S1 Champion Lando Norris, the voice in his ear through all the twists and turns of a Formula 1 season. Here he is talking about the moment that they won. If you've heard my voice talk to Lando and tell him I think obviously he knew but I tell him and my voice cracks because actually the emotion is incredibly strong and I think all those sort of years of effort and pain and hard work come through in that moment. What a moment that final checkered flag the relief and the joy of finally winning but as Will mentions that moment only comes after years of effort and hard work and the evidence of all those years of hard work and previous wins was definitely on show when I was shown around the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking in Surrey. There are shelves and shelves and shelves of trophies. Trophies from iconic Formula 1 race circuits across the world from Monaco to Silverstone to Suzuka in Japan. While I was there in fact there were three people proudly polishing some of the trophies. So many trophies they need to employ people to keep them shiny. Then of course there are the cars, so many magnificent machines were on show, cars driven by legends like Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton, Mika Hackenon and of course Lando Norris which brings me back to Will. I wanted to know where all this began for him, I wanted to know how did he become a race engineer. Oh Lego, familiar to many of you listening out there I'm sure. That was like many of us, Will's first experience of building things. But Will didn't always want to be an engineer. I actually wanted to be a pilot, I wanted to join the RAF and be a fast jet pilot. Sadly he found this wasn't going to be a possibility for him. He encountered a little bit of a hurdle to that first dream. Unfortunately I developed bad eyesight as some of us do and that put a halt to things. And then I think when I realised I couldn't be a pilot I said okay well I'm going to design and build planes rather than fly them which led me to engineering. Will describe there how his eyesight became a hurdle to him becoming a pilot. But he didn't let that stop him from knockelling down, working hard and focusing on his love of making things, of designing and engineering vehicles. A great example of not being able to follow your dream but leaning into something else that you love to do. Maybe something you want to do doesn't work out but you go again and you find another passion to follow. Will went on to tell me that he feels really confident in some parts of his job. I'm very good at maths, I'm very good at looking at squiggly lines and data. But there are other parts of his job he finds more challenging. Hard bit is dealing with the person that is the driver. They are human beings after all and the sort of psychology element of my job is probably the hardest bit. So we'll confine the communication element speaking to the drivers a little more challenging. Will is after all the voice in Formula One Champion Lando Norris's head guiding him through every single race. That must also bring a lot of pressure. You have to almost forget the pressure element to it. There's the bit that the public here which is when I talk on the radio to Lando and sometimes you have to be aware that millions of people are listening and will judge you. And then other times you have to forget that millions of people are listening and will judge you and just do your own thing. Millions of people listening into your conversations. Wow, imagine all those people watching and listening when you're trying to do your job. I love the responsibility. I love the fact that every time the car leaves the garage and is on track, then I'm responsible. I have to communicate with Lando which I love and I sort of get to orchestrate a group of people around that took all there to achieve one thing which is to make that car go around the track as fast as possible. And go around the track as fast as possible is exactly what Will, Lando and the whole McLaren team did last season because, well, they won and I asked Will what that felt like. If you've heard my voice talk to Lando and tell him, I think obviously he knew but I tell him and my voice cracks because actually the emotion is incredibly strong and I think all the sort of years of effort and pain and hard work come through in that moment. And it took a few days I think to really reflect on the achievement we've made and like I say, how much effort not just by me but by everyone went into Lando and McLaren's achievement. And yeah, you then become emotional and you watch back and you watch videos and you see other people's joy and celebration and I think that's when it really hits you, how massive and how big a deal it was. I love that. I love that it hit Will properly when he saw other people's joy and celebrations. How do you become the best? What does it take to win? How do you get to the very top? To win I think it takes a lot of hard work. It takes a true, whatever it takes attitude. It is hard work and teamwork. You don't win through one individual's brilliance. You win through the whole team coming together and playing their part. Hard work and teamwork. It's not of course just Will and Lando behind a winning team. Formula 1 is a thousand person team trying to get those two cars around the track for those two drivers and without almost every single person in that team you don't get that achievement. I treat it like an onion, there is the driver and then there's the immediate team around the driver of which I am one and then there's the next level of people and the next and the next. You know everyone is involved in that in that team work and we sort of had this conversation with Lando and he said I do it for the thousand people and that's a real good motivator. It's the team that we do it for, not our own benefit. The team is like an onion, I love that. And finally I wanted to know what piece of advice Will would give to anyone out there who likes building things and who also might one day want to become an engineer. Explore things, you know don't be afraid to build it and build it wrong and take it apart and do it again, you know keep on learning, maths is very important in engineering and so using your Lego and your toys to develop your maths I think is really important. But yeah I think at that kind of age just don't be afraid to do things, make mistakes and learn from that and do it better the second time round or the third. Ah such an important bit of advice there I think don't be afraid to make mistakes, don't be afraid to have a go at whatever you want to have a go at. We all make mistakes all the time. All of us the important thing to do is learn from them and try again. Thank you so much to Will for his time and hopefully he has inspired one or two budding engineers listening out there. And thank you out there listener for tuning into your to daily today on Tuesday the 27th of January 2026 and if today is your birthday yes happy happy happy birthday to you I hope you have a truly special day I really do I hope your birthday is as special as you are and you my friend are very special indeed happy birthday. Then just before we go it's time for me to give you clue number two in my what am I riddle quiz that we're running all week a clue each day from Monday to Friday can you work out what it is I am describing. Okay yesterday's clue was I can be full or empty. I can be full or empty Tuesday's clue today is I am very useful. I'm very useful this could be lots of things couldn't it I can be full or empty I can be very useful I am very useful what am I describing have you got any guesses so far full or empty very useful what am I tuning tomorrow my friends for clue number three and an episode of five fantastic facts I'll see you then bye for now. [BLANK_AUDIO]