M-Sport Member Spotlight​

Nicola Olley ​

​

Heading up our Electrical Department, Nicola is responsible for the smooth running of our electrical team. Organising and delegating workloads, arranging event support and maintaining stock levels – Nicola ensures quality work meets strict deadlines, and is also an expert harness builder herself.

​

How did you first came to M-Sport?

My Dad got a job up here when I was four. He worked for Ford at Boreham and Malcolm coaxed him up to Cumbria. So 29 years ago, he moved the whole family from Essex to Cockermouth. Of course it wasn’t M-Sport back then, it was Malcolm Wilson Motorsport, and the company was nowhere near as big as it is now. It was a really small team working out of Malcolm’s house at Threlkeld Lees. We used to go there a lot as kids. I can remember us riding on Malcolm’s quad bike and flying up and down the workshop on the trollies. It was a proper family atmosphere, and even though the company has grown a lot since then you can see that Malcolm wants to keep that same family atmosphere which is one of the nicest things about working here.

 

So how did you end up working for M-Sport?

I went self employed when I left school at 18. In the evenings I was actually cleaning Dovenby Hall, but during the day I was working for Fraser Vincent who had a lot of the electrical work from M-Sport. I worked for his business for five years, and he taught me the trade so to speak. We’d build looms for everything: Escort Cosworths, Subarus, and a lot for M-Sport. Then when Fraser decided on a career change, I approach John to see if there would be an opportunity for me at M-Sport as I enjoyed the work so much. I came in for a two day trial, got the job, and 11 years later I’m still here!

 

How did you get to be head of department?

When I started we were just building WRC cars – no Rally2s, no Bentleys, or anything like that. I was building looms right up until Rich Moffet (previous head of department) left, and it was at that point a decision was made to split the head of department role. I took over the manufacturing side of the department, and Simon Cook was responsible for on-event support. We were both fairly young and it was such a massive opportunity for us, and it worked really well.

Having two heads of department relieved a lot of the pressure and Simon and I worked it so that there was always one of us in the office. It helped that Simon and I got on so well, and I’m really proud when people say that electrical is such a welcoming environment to come in to – we worked really hard to make it like that, and I think we all work better because of it.

 

What’s the best thing about your job?

I love the work, and the attention to detail that comes with that. Being hands on when you’re given a kit to build and seeing it evolve from the crimping and stripping of the wire right through to the final details. And the aesthetics as well, it has to look good. We always say when you’re building your looms to make sure it’s like soldiers. Everything has to look the same and you have to keep your soldiers in line!

I like being busy too and getting involved in lots of different things. There’s always something different going on here and we’ve tried to run our department so that people get to have a go at everything.

And we’re all always learning! We do a lot of bouncing ideas off each other and working together to find new and more effective and efficient ways of doing things. We’re always discussing together how we can improve things and that’s vital for development – the development of ourselves as well as the products we’re producing.

 

How long did it take you to build a main loom for the Puma?

I think it took me 10 weeks to build the first main loom for the Puma. That’s just the main harness though, and doesn’t includes all the smaller looms that run off it. We worked out that there’s about a kilometre of electrical wiring in one Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1. So yeah, it’s a lot of work, a lot of intricate work – but it’s so rewarding. Especially when we see results like that one in Monte! But what really made that result so special was that everyone in the department volunteered to stay late and ensure the cars were ready. I didn’t have to ask them, they wanted to. And I feel like that result was testament to all that hard work and dedication – not just from my team here in electrical, but throughout the whole company.

 

Any advice for some of our new starters?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Take your time and if you’re ever in doubt, just ask. There are never any stupid questions and you’ll never be judged here. If we have to answer the same question twice, we’ll answer it twice. This is an environment for everyone to learn as well as progress. At the end of the day, we’re training the next generation of motorsport professionals – and we want you to be the best you can be.

​

​