People

Janet Melia

From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Janet Melia joined Goodyear when she graduated from college with a degree in chemical engineering. At Goodyear trainee engineers are transferred through a series of departments in their early years, to learn about the company and to find out where best they fit into its enormous structure. They spend about one month on each assignment and then move on. Janet ended up in the racing department, not because she was particularly interested in the sport, but because she was an impatient engineer and wanted to see quick results from the tire compounds she helped to develop. She joined the Formula 1 engineering team as one of the four US-based Goodyear track engineers under Group Leader John Taube.

Away from the circuits, Janet had a second job, working as a compounder in Akron, Ohio: mixing all kinds of polymers, fillers, oils, sulfurs and accelerators in an effort to come up with a better product.

Janet switched to CART when Goodyear pulled out of F1 at the end of 1998.