You have been a motor­sport fan since you were little. Which series do you like most?

I enjoy most motor racing. I’ve been to Daytona 500 multiple times, went to other tracks here and there. My first Formula One race was in the 70s at Watkins Glen. Of course, I was a very young boy then. Since that time, Formula One is prob­ably my friends’ and my favorite to watch. That’s why we have been to six races already. To expe­ri­ence a race right at the track makes you appre­ciate it in a whole other way when you watch it on TV back home. As soon as you have done this once, you will be hooked.

Seeing ebm-papst fans at work in the garage of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motor­sport made Michael Pinard proud.

What is partic­u­larly fasci­nating about Formula One for you?

It is the ulti­mate motor racing: it is the pinnacle. This is true for the engi­neering that is involved, the cars and the people who work there. The cars are the fastest on the planet when it comes to this type of racing and the amount of G Force they can pull into corners and when slowing down or accel­er­ating is above all.

I have an engi­neering back­ground, so I can really appre­ciate all the effort that is put into the aero­dy­namics, motor and chassis of those cars. Every season, every race it is about pushing the car to the absolute limit of what is possible today.

What did you think when you first heard of the part­ner­ship between ebm-papst and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motor­sport?

I was excited, very excited. I thought: ‘Wow they are actu­ally using our fans to cool down some of the car systems as they sit in idle in the garage or on the side in the pit lane and they use our prod­ucts to cool the garage or the pit wall.’ This year, I went to the Cana­dian Grand Prix with some friends.

Being in the garage was a wonderful expe­ri­ence. And to see our fan there made me proud.

Michael Pinard, produc­tion planner at ebm-papst Inc.

We managed to get to the pit lane and were walking past the garage of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motor­sport when I saw our fan running on the car in the garage. I told a team member that I was working for ebm-papst and he invited me into the garage for a quick stop. We had a chat, I took a picture of our fan and got out again. Being in the garage was a wonderful expe­ri­ence. And to see our fan there made me proud.