Daniel Vidal's NMA Experience
Students come to the National Motorsport Academy from all over the world, each with their own goals and motivations. What never gets old is seeing those ambitions turn into real results, both on and off the track.
Daniel Vidal, a student from Belgium, is a perfect example of the kind of driven, focused individuals we love working with at NMA. While completing his MSc, Daniel balanced the demands of postgraduate study with a full racing programme, making the most of every opportunity put in front of him.
2025 was an exceptional one for Daniel. Competing with Motorsport98, he enjoyed a hugely successful season, culminating in winning the Michelin Le Mans Cup. Achieving that level of success alongside completing his MSc is no small feat, and it speaks volumes about his commitment, work ethic, and passion for motorsport.
Daniel’s journey captures exactly what we aim to support at NMA: students who are ready to push themselves and turn ambition into achievement.
Without further a-do, let’s hand over to Daniel….
What first drew you into motorsport?
My father was a mechanic, and I grew up surrounded by cars all the time. Living in Belgium, we used to spectate races at Spa and Zolder, as well as Rally events in the Ardennes forests.
I vividly remember the first time we arrived at Circuit Zolder in 2006, when I was 11, right on time for the race start of the Eurocup Renault Mégane Trophy. These naturally aspirated V6 silhouette cars made an incredible noise, and when 30 of them screamed past, I wasn’t sure whether I felt fear or pure joy, but I was hooked immediately.
I also remember looking up in admiration at the mechanics and engineers in the paddock. I never even considered what it would be like to stand where they stood. It seemed so far-fetched and unattainable. Little did I know…
What inspired you to take the MSc Advanced Motorsport Engineering, and how did you hope it would shape your career?
During my Bachelor’s degree in Automotive Engineering, I met people who worked at a racing team near me. I got in touch with them and volunteered to help during the 24 Hours of Zolder in 2018. I started out cleaning wheels, as most people do, and slowly built the confidence within the team to take on more demanding tasks.
We mainly raced in the Belcar Endurance Championship and the Nürburgring Endurance Series (VLN back then) with a BMW E90 325i, M235i, and an M4 GT4. It’s where I gained my first real hands-on experience, and I am still very grateful for it. I kept a good relationship with the team owner, who happens to be a BMW Motorsport engineer, and we still cross paths regularly on track today.
I continued working as a mechanic but decided that I wanted to achieve more and better understand the theory behind what I was doing. I used to make setup changes based on intuition and driver feedback without being concerned about data. I knew how changes in toe or ride height would affect handling purely from rules of thumb and past experience, but never with numbers. A whole new world opened up when I started to understand data logging and analysis tools.
The more I thought I understood, the more I realised there was much, much, much more to learn. And this curiosity ultimately led me to sign up for the NMA’s MSc Advanced Motorsport Engineering in 2023.
How did you find the experience of studying online with NMA while balancing work or other commitments?
It worked really well for me. As a freelance mechanic, I was involved in a few different championships with multiple teams, so I had to plan school around work. Since the course is divided into modules with clear due dates, it was easy to plan ahead and estimate how much time I could allocate to racing and to school for each module.
How did the tutor support at NMA help you during your studies, and were there any tutors who particularly influenced your learning or career direction?
The tutors were generally helpful and easy to reach through the VLS platform. However, I must give credit to Tim Mullis for the guidance he provided when I was deciding on a good dissertation topic.
I found it easy to come up with a ton of ideas based on what I liked or knew well, but none of these ideas really addressed an existing problem. That’s when we spoke about the LMP3 cars Tim works with, how critical the motion ratios of the third elements are to ground clearance, and how little insight there is as to what the third elements are doing while on track. A few weeks later, I was 3D-scanning one.
An added bonus was that I met Tim regularly on track, since he was racing in the ELMS, which takes place on the same weekends as the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Were there particular modules, projects, or technical areas from the MSc that proved especially valuable in your professional work?
I believe that the sum of all the modules helped me develop a more holistic understanding of motorsport engineering, whether trackside or from a development standpoint.
A very broad range of topics was covered, from CFD and multiphysics simulations to driver coaching and team management. Some will undoubtedly be more applicable than others depending on the chosen profession, but having an understanding of all aspects of racing can only be beneficial.
For me personally, the dissertation proved to be very valuable. Following my discussion with Tim, I started searching for a Ligier LMP3 to 3D-scan and perform a kinematic analysis on. While contacting teams abroad that possessed an older JSP320, I spotted photos of a new JSP325 during winter testing at Circuit Zolder. I put on my detective hat and managed to get hold of the owner’s phone number. To my delight, they were very welcoming and invited me to their workshop a few days later.
After 3D-scanning the car and testing at Paul Ricard, they offered me a position as a mechanic for the rest of the season in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, which I accepted with open arms!
Moving onto 2025... Can you describe your role within Motorsport 98 and what a typical race weekend looked like for you this season?
Motorsport 98 may be one of the smallest teams in the Le Mans Cup paddock, but what they lack in size they more than make up for in talent and experience. The team owner, who also fills the AM seat in the PRO/AM lineup, has competed in everything from GT1, GT2, GT3, and GT4 to Group C, Euro NASCAR, and now LMP3.
To the best of my knowledge, the team’s technical manager has worked on virtually every closed-roof race car imaginable, and personally trained the first mechanic to meet those same standards.
My own role was primarily as a mechanic, with occasional stints driving the truck to the circuit, all while working on a dissertation examining how third elements influence ground clearance and drivability.
A typical race weekend began at the workshop, completing the car’s final assembly after service and loading it into the truck. After traveling to the track, we set up the tent and trailer in the paddock before following the standard Le Mans Cup schedule: testing, FP1, the Bronze test, FP2, qualifying, and finally the Saturday race, clearing the stage for ELMS on Sunday.
Looking back at the 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup, what were some of the highlights or key moments in your journey to becoming LMP3 Pro/Am Champions?
This season has been the biggest underdog story I have ever been part of. After a turn-one incident during round one in Barcelona, the comeback to end the season on the top spot feels incredibly rewarding!
Spa was truly special. We were third in the standings with 29 points to catch the lead when starting the weekend and left second with 4 points to the lead. Not only was it a win on home soil, it was also a confirmation that the title was achievable.
Standing in the pit lane during our race in front of the WEC cars being prepared for their 24-hour race at Le Mans, and realising that the small boy who looked up at the mechanics in Zolder in 2006 would never have believed it if someone had told him what lay ahead felt truly incredible.
What have you learned most from this season (technically or personally) that you’ll carry into future work?
What I’ve learned most this season is that motorsport is an endless learning curve, in the best possible way. The more I grow technically, the more I discover new areas I want to master. This year taught me that expertise in motorsport isn’t a destination, it’s a constant evolution. Every challenge highlighted new things I want to learn, new tools I want to refine, and new perspectives to explore. I’ve realised how much I enjoy that process, and it’s a mindset I want to carry forward: stay curious, stay humble, and keep pushing to grow.
Now you've completed your MSc, and the 2025 season, what are your goals for the next stage of your career, and where would you like to see yourself in the motorsport world over the coming years?
Now that I’ve completed my MSc and the 2025 season, my goal is to continue growing as a motorsport engineer. In the coming years, I want to deepen my understanding of vehicle dynamics, data analysis, and setup development, and become someone a team can fully rely on in high-pressure environments.
At the same time, I want to keep expanding my practical skill set, welding, fabrication, and composites, so I can materialise the concepts I develop in the virtual world. I’ve learned that combining strong theoretical knowledge with hands-on capability is not only complementary, but essential to becoming a more effective and well-rounded engineer.
I look forward to the challenges that the 2026 season will bring.
A big BIG thank you to Daniel for sharing his experience with us. You can stay up-to-date on his journey over on his social media:
