I'm Will Pope.

How I got here.

I trained as a sports therapist and spent my early years in football and rugby. Fulham FC, Weymouth FC, an internship with Newcastle Red Bulls. Then a long stretch in public and private MSK clinics, getting the injured general public back to full fitness and function. That work keeps you practical, because people just want to get on with their lives and you learn how to help them do that.

Motorsport came through karting. I started looking after young drivers at a previous performance clinic, from WSK Euro Series up to GB3. A driver's neck, forearms, trunk and eyes are under load for hours, in heat, with their life depending on the next decision, which makes it a sport in every way that matters, so that's how I coach it.

Then I started watching pit stops. Twenty people doing a repeated, loaded movement under pressure, dozens of times a weekend, and nobody breaking down the biomechanics. I film the stop, look at where the load goes through each role and adjust the choreography, which usually means faster stops and fewer injuries at the same time.

Sports vision runs through all of it. Drivers and crew are only as good as the information they take in, so I train the eyes and the reactions as deliberately as the body.

This season I'm with Invicta Racing in FIA Formula 2, Car Collection Motorsport in GT3 endurance racing, and Nielsen Racing in LMP2, in the European and Asian Le Mans Series and at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Before that, GT Cup with Innovation Racing and a one-off 12 Hours of Spa with Optimum Motorsport.

Qualifications

• MSc Sports and Exercise Rehabilitation
• BSc Sports Therapy
• Extended Diploma in Sport and Exercise Sciences

If you want to talk any of this through, email me. I read everything myself.