Most people look forward to the weekend to relax and do things that calm them down and give them happy moments. Among the many options available, most choose to watch football matches or as it has been established to be called the "king of sports".
Team sports offer moments that are forever etched in the mind and have won the hearts of millions of people around the world. But there are also individual sports, where a driver is the absolute star… Where entire teams or countries hang from the hands and feet of a driver. It's the magic world Form of Formula1.
Most Cypriots can enjoy this world on TV, while fewer managed to watch a match up close. Few have the opportunity to work in this magical world, to mingle with the great protagonists and to experience up close what is happening in a team.
One of the two Cypriots who not only worked in a team but also became a champion with her is Kyriakos Georgiou. A 27-year-old from Paralimni, who despite his young age worked in the aerodynamics department of RedBull which was a champion of manufacturers (2010-2013) and drivers with Bethel (2010-2013)
That's how the dream started…
Many children watch Formula 1 on their home TV and dream of one day seeing up close what is happening on a sport weekend. One of them is Kyriakos, who after completing his military service left to study in Manchester, to pursue his great love, computer science.
Three years of study, plus one year of work experience, was envisaged by the University of Manchester circle, for Kyriakos to get his coveted degree. When it came time to decide in which job he would do his internship, Kyriakos did not have much difficulty. He wanted to experience Formula 1 up close and applied to the RedBull team in the aerodynamics department.
"They have a number of students in the group. They are hired for a year and are from various fields. That year they got around twenty and I was the only one from the computer science department and I was working in the aerodynamics department. My role was system administrator for the team's aerodynamics department. "
This experience was a life dream for Kyriakos, which came true. A dream that he never believed would come true and he made sure to live every moment of it.
"Ever since I saw Formula1 with my uncle, I did not think I would ever work for a company like RedBull.
How about I work for the champion, because when I was working on the team, we were the champions. It was something that changed my life. Fulfilling one of my biggest dreams was something very important to me. "Formula 1 is not a normal job, it is a way of life."
The structure of Formula1 teams
Almost no one knows how the Formula1 teams work, but certainly the people who make them up are not the only ones we see through our television receivers every weekend. There are many invisible heroes behind the cameras.
The Red Bull team that Kyriakos worked for is based in Milton Kane, England and employs about seven hundred and fifty people, who are divided into two parts.
"One part is the headquarters that have a specific base, Milton Keynes and there are about seven hundred people working there, while it includes another fifty to sixty people who travel and follow the team to the games.
Their role is to set up the car and the facilities every time they go to the races, they are the second part of the team. But I was at the headquarters, my role was inside the factory ".
The technical characteristics in Formula1
Each team has its own factory and each F1 factory is divided into different sections, such as the construction, design department and others. These factories operate to produce the parts of the car, explains Kyriakos Georgiou.
"We are talking about millions of pieces. The only things we get ready are the engine, the wheels and the alloy wheels. The rest were made in the factory. Aerodynamics, wings, chassis, even the last screw is made in the factory. Why; Because you know you want accuracy "
The goal of each team, as he says, is to create the lightest car but also the most efficient and for this reason even the grams in each piece play a role.
"There are people working in the company whose job it is to observe the road, how smooth or hard it is. These play a role in the tires, in the suspensions and consequently in the behavior of the car ".
Pilots are simple and down to earth people
These pieces that are prepared with precision and passion by the employees in the team will be placed in the vehicle and from there on are left in the hands of the pilots of each team to complete the hard work done. These protagonists that we watch every week run at incredible speeds and fascinate the planet. They are the absolute stars in the sport, whom Kyriakos met up close.
"Many times they come to the headquarters to work on the simulators. And when we say simulators they are something like a playstation, but they are specialized and work for hours on them.
They go through the offices, we know them, while there are specific days for them to sign autographs for the employees and socialize with them. "When I started it was Sebastian Vettel with Mark Weber, then came Daniel Kiviat and Daniel Ricciardo and now Max Ferstappen."
Kyriakos describes them as simple, low-key and down-to-earth people.
"Once I found Ricciardo who was in the parking lot and I do not remember anything he said to me and we started talking. I think he liked something about my bike, because I was going to work by bike and the conversation started from there ".
At the age of 23 I went with the team to Barcelona
Before the start of the new Formula 1 season, there is a trial period split into four weeks and teams send their cars to adapt to different tracks. At the age of 23, Kyriakos had the opportunity to experience the Red Bull trials in Barcelona up close. This was probably the best moment of his life.
"I was once sent with the team to Barcelona, just to see how the team works in the games but also what each of those fifty to sixty people do who go to all the countries every weekend. What I remember most characteristically is that I was dressed in Red Bull clothes and felt part of the team. An incredible feeling. "I saw Vettel driving, pushing, thinking, talking to others, trying to see what was wrong with making the car and making it better."
After this experience, Kyriakos completed his work week and returned to the University. After graduating, Red Bull offered him a chance to return to the team and eventually stayed on for another three years.
Technology in Formula1
Most people who watch Formula1 sport are more or less wondering whether the car does the pilot or the pilot the car. The truth is somewhere in the middle, as Kyriakos emphasizes.
"Cars pretty much have a lot in common, how fast a car can become compared to another, are those small elements of diversity that will make a team stand out. For example, Ferrari is looking for the secret in its engine to give it the lead. Red Bull stood out and became a champion from a place in aerodynamics, which was cleverly designed by the team's chief engineer, Andrian Newey. It was a very sophisticated system that one could not copy the way he did and oppose Red Bull. But apart from the car, when it is perfected and comes out, it is up to the drivers to take it and become champions ".
The idol and the Cypriot who is wronged
Referring to Andrian Newey, Kyriakos also remembered the right hand of the team's chief engineer, Peter Prodromou, who is, as his idol confesses.
"Panagiotis Prodromou was the right hand of Andrian Newey, the team's chief engineer. Mr. Prodromou was the director of the aerodynamics department and whatever decision he needed to make through the department went through his hand. When I joined the team I met him and I was very impressed because I did not meet someone else who is so passionate and gives 1000% to his work. You saw the impact in the whole department to make everyone more productive in their work. "It helped the team a lot to become champions."
On Sunday, returning to his second term at Red Bull, Peter Prodromou had left the team and gone to McLaren.
"It simply came to our notice then. "There was no one to push us to give something more."
As for Tio Ellinas, the Cypriot racer who competes in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Kyriakos considers that he is one of the drivers who are wronged, while he believes that he has a place in Formula1.
"Another thing I saw in Formula 1 is that there is a lot of talent. Guides you see and say they will succeed. One of them is our Greek Tio, whom I met and I consider to be a great talent as a driver. Just when you enter the world of Formula1 you see things from the background. That is, how difficult it is to get a place in the sport. "It's not just talent, like in football."
He also explains that in the world of Formula1 not only talent plays a role, but equally important is the funding that each driver has.
"Here you need a strong funding to secure this position in the teams. Funding often plays a bigger role than talent, as you see invalid drivers enter the world of Formula1, effectively redeeming their position instead of gaining it. I wish things were different and we saw Tio Ellinas in Formula1 ".
The flight
Although Kyriakos endured for a total of four years in the sport, he was looking for something new to change performances and see other countries. Today he works in Barcelona, the city where he made the trip with Red Bull for a trial, a few years ago.
"My decision to leave had nothing to do with work, because I loved work, I liked it very much. I just felt like I wanted a change. Also the fact that I was working in a small town that was designed for families made me turn to other cities, to see other places, different cultures and I decided to go to Barcelona. "I've been there for ten months and I'm working again as a system administrator at a web design company."
On whether he will return to Cyprus at some point, Kyriakos believes that he still needs some years abroad to gain more experience and then come to the island to work.