Dairy Farms to Dynos: How Isla Mackenzie Built Her Way Into Formula 1

Isla Mackenzie grew up on a dairy farm on the Isle of Lewis — and somehow found her way to the Formula 1 pit lane. In this episode, we trace every step of that journey, from stripping down project cars before she could legally drive, to running her own engine tuning business while still in school, to navigating a career path that looked nothing like the industry standard.Isla walks us through the HNC-to-Honours Degree route she took into engineering, why it shaped her thinking in ways a traditional path might not have, and what it actually took — technically and personally — to move from Technician to Systems Engineer inside one of the most demanding technical environments in sport.We get into what Dare to Be Different (now rebranded to FIA Women on Track) meant for her practically (not just symbolically), what it felt like to return to one of their events as a Williams employee, and the advice Susie Wolff gave her at a D2BD connect event in 2018 that she's never forgotten.Isla also breaks down what systems engineering actually means in the context of an F1 car, what race week prep looks like from the operations view, and what she thinks is the single most misunderstood thing about technical motorsport work.And she's honest — about whether the industry has genuinely changed since 2017, what diversity advocacy looks like from inside an F1 team, and what she wishes someone had told her before her first F1 job.If you love cars, engineering, motorsport, or you're trying to find your entry point into an industry that can feel impossible to break into — this one's for you.Be sure to join the newsletter to stay in the know! https://www.bedifferentialpodcast.com/