M-Sport Member Spotlight​

Chris McKay

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The IT department plays a crucial role at M-Sport, ensuring our technology runs smoothly both onsite and during events. IT Support Technician Chris McKay gives us an inside look at his day-to-day responsibilities.

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How long have you been with M-Sport, and how did you come to work here?

I started in December 2021 in the Travel Office, organising our WRC Test events for 6 months until I got the nod that our IT Manager was looking for someone to work in IT, which with my background was the perfect fit.​

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It is just you and the IT Manager in the IT department, how is that and does it get busy? What do you get up to on a day-to-day basis?

We’ve worked together for the last two years so we know each other quite well. Alistair looks after the IT infrastructure side to make sure we are running as smoothly as possible, whilst I handle the day-to-day operations, whether that is fixing a laptop every month, to unlocking staff’s account when you enter your password wrong too many times!

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Recently we’ve been able to get newer equipment into the company which is more reliable than previously, meaning we can be more proactive with problems instead of reactive. In the last year we have upgraded over 50 PC/Laptops to make sure downtime is as low as possible.​

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What type of skills do you need for your role?

You need to have a good technical understanding as well as good communication skills, knowing people is key when you’re going from one department to another in quick succession. Being able to understand and identify the cause of a problem is fundamental as it allows us to put in place steps to make sure it does not happen again.

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What is your favourite part about your job and what has been the most rewarding project that you have worked on?

Without a shadow of a doubt the best bit is getting to see each department and how they work, and the eventual call that something isn’t working and rocking up to find that turning it off and on resolves it (You’d be surprised how much this works). When the usual fix doesn’t work it does come down to problem solving, especially in a company where everything is time sensitive it’s important to be able to resolve the problem as fast as you can.

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The hardest Project will have been the Business Central upgrade, as with any project it’s never as smooth as you imagine, but to move the whole company onto a completely different system last winter was a big task, especially coming in over Christmas when everyone was enjoying mulled wine!​ With the most rewarding definitely showing the Travel Office the magic of the Undo button, they are yet to delete a schedule from the server since.

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What were you up to before you came here?

I previously worked at Red Bull Formula 1 team so already had a grasp of the high-speed nature of motorsport, but for someone that is rarely is on flat ground, Milton Keynes didn’t quite do it for me.

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Have you got any plans for the future and are there any new skills or areas you are looking to develop or explore?

I’d like to continue on from what I’ve been doing in learning more about our infrastructure so that I can continue to grow into the role and increase my knowledge.

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