Irishman Patrick Harding on life inside F1 as Alex Albon's performance coach

Irish performance coach Patrick Harding tells how he went from rugby physio to Formula 1, working with Williams driver Alex Albon

Patrick Harding with Williams Racing driver Alex Albon. He has been working with Albon for seven years now. File picture

Despite having no interest in motor sports growing up, Patrick Harding now works as an F1 performance coach — a job that came “out of the blue” for the Laois native.

“It wasn’t a sport that I watched or particularly followed. I got recommended to some people as a physio, did four rounds of interviews and didn't really know what the job was for until the last round,” he said.

When it came to deciding on a career, he thought sports would be the perfect fit.

After getting a degree in physiotherapy, he worked as a chartered physio in professional rugby in Australia. He then moved to London, where he worked with Team GB before the London 2012 Olympics. The team won 29 gold, 17 silver, and 19 bronze medals.

“After 2012, I was offered a lead role as the physio for the British canoeing Olympic team for the Rio 2016 cycle, that was my first real full-time role embedded in professional sport,” he says.

Looking for “a bit of change”, he moved to Arsenal for two seasons. During that time, he got a master’s degree in strength and conditioning, adding another string to his bow.

After a couple of seasons at Arsenal, I started to work with some individual athletes. I just started to really enjoy working with individuals over squad-based sports.

Over the years, he has worked with Irish boxers Michael Conlan and Kurt Walker, as well as with professional golfer Lily Muni He. Now, he is in year seven of working with F1 driver Alex Albon, who competes under the Thai flag for Williams.

“I have a phenomenal relationship with Alex and he just keeps getting better and better. So certainly the motorsport journey is a journey that I'm on at the minute. But I won't be in it for the rest of my life, that’s for sure.” 

Harding says a "performance coach" is a term to encompass a collective skill set.

“Performance coach for me is just putting that skill set around individual athletes to help support them to develop both technically and tactically from a performance point of view, but help them to develop as individuals,” he explains.

Patrick Harding and Alex Albon. Harding said: 'I have a phenomenal relationship with Alex and he just keeps getting better and better. So certainly the motorsport journey is a journey that I'm on at the minute.' File picture

In his eyes, a happy athlete is a good athlete.

“It’s about helping them to understand not just the physical components of their sport, but also what makes them successful as an individual, inside and outside sport, that’s my philosophy.” 

At the moment, Harding is making sure Albon is ready for the start of the season.

“We are on summer break now, but we did a five-day training camp in Monaco where we worked pretty hard and then this week he's on holidays.” 

For the Laois native, who is on about “100 flights a year”, sacrifice is part of the deal.

“Those athletes sacrifice a lot. Any F1 driver's family has made sacrifices for that driver to get there. I've been with Alex for seven seasons now, and I've travelled for 30 to 35 weeks of those years, that’s a choice that I've made.

The sacrifice for me is being away from family, missing birthdays and weddings, all of those connections that you've got with your loved ones. But because I'm connected to that journey Alex is on, I'm willing to make that sacrifice. 

Part of the reason Albon and Patrick “get on so well”, is because they are both introverts by nature. In between races, he makes sure they both mind their mental health.

“I've already gotten a really good understanding of what I need in between race weekends, there are really intense environments. It's emotionally draining.” 

For the performance coach, every day starts at 5am with his Fox Red Labrador, Rua.

“I thought Rua was the perfect name. It's easy to shout in the park, although, when you tell people in London his name, you do get a little bit of a strange look back. I'm not sure how many people understand the context of the name,” he laughs.

Harding works as the performance lead for the Williams’ Young Drivers Academy, and also teaches in DCU.

Often, people wishing to work in F1 reach out to him, asking advice on how to get their foot in the door.

Patrick Harding observes Albon from the Williams team garage. File picture

“If you are looking for a job at this level of professional sport, whatever contract you sign from an hour's point of view is useless. The reality is that it’s 24/7 if you want to be at this elite level, that's what you're signing up for,” he said.

“If that's the problem for you or people around you, it's never gonna work.” It’s also about putting one’s ego aside, he said.

“These individuals are doing something absolutely extraordinary, something that I could never do, and 99.9% of the population couldn't do.

They're the special one. You are just lucky enough that at one point in their career, they've asked you to come on board and to support them to do what they're doing.

Harding said he hasn’t had to apply for a job in 10 years.

“I've never had the mind of ‘I really wanna work in that sport’. I think when you become so focused on one thing, you tend to miss the opportunities on the periphery.

“You've gotta start at the bottom and put the hours in. You've gotta accept the pay is gonna be rubbish and you're not always gonna have the right kind of environment for you to develop in. But that's where you gain your experience and that's where you gain your confidence,” he says.

One wonders if he would ever work with fellow Irishman, Alex Dunne, who hails from Offaly and competes for McLaren.

“You're putting me in a difficult position there because Luke Browning, who's in our academy, is in direct competition with Alex this year,” he laughs.

“He's done an amazing job. I’ve not worked with him in the past, but clearly, he's on a good journey. He seems to have good people around him. His dad is heavily involved, it’s really lovely when you see a strong connection between a driver and family.” 

Moving back to Ireland is always something at the back of Harding’s mind.

I'm very proud to be Irish and of the culture that we've got around Irish sport.

The challenge is, in his eyes, the level of professional sport in Ireland.

“The investment in Olympic sports in Ireland has a long way to go. I think just from an opportunity's point of view, it can be a little bit limited,” he says.

Even though big GAA games are now being televised, he says it’s important to support games at grassroots levels.

“You see GAA games on Sky Sports now, these are generating big revenues. The flip of that is, to support and develop games at grassroots levels, with hundreds of clubs around the country, is an expensive business.

“Whether that’s formal structures, physical nutrition, support education or financially, that’s not really for me to determine, but I do think players who are giving up so much of their time deserve to be looked after in the right way.” 

And despite doing them often, Harding says interviews make him uncomfortable. He sees them as a challenge.

“I believe that if there's something that is uncomfortable for you, then it's important to lean into that. One of the things I say to Alex is, get comfortable being uncomfortable. And if I'm going to say that to my athletes, then that's something that I have to practice myself.”