Adam Brice is a motorsport tyre technician who is getting towards the top of his profession and sport. A passionate motorsport fan all his life, Adam worked tirelessly to get to where he is today, most recently working in both the BTCC and helping his team to a podium in the last round of the ELMS at Portimão circuit in Portugal. Adam has achieved all this while battling autism and ADHD throughout his life. He has used his position to keep fighting against discrimination and promoting inclusivity both in day-to-day life and, more importantly to him, within motorsport. Adam is proof that a neurodivergent label is not only something to fight against but also something to harness to reach the top level of a profession. Adam showcases this not only through his work ethic and dedication to his profession but also through his activism and raising awareness of neurodivergence in motorsport through his joint social media pages under the banner “Frontiere Motorsport”, a channel run alongside a friend, part of the management team at Three Sisters Circuit in Wigan, Mike Lawrenson.
Adam Brice is one of the very few people who can call his passion and hobby his job, a tyre technician for multiple high-level international motorsport teams, using years of experience and passion every working day to progress in a hugely intense and physical role in the often loud, intense and challenging race paddocks of BTCC. “We lift about one and a half tons every weekend in terms of moving the tyres around.” However, according to Adam, getting to this position was not a straightforward path, with discrimination and challenges often lurking in the background, “I remember, we got so far into the discussion and then I mentioned that I was autistic and suddenly there wasn’t a role available,“ and having to overcome discrimination through hard work, dedication and often not letting people define who you are “A lot of the time I didn’t mention that I had autism and ADHD until later on when I was seated. I’d rather let someone judge me based on my ability rather than put a label on me.”
Adam has always wanted to “prove to people you deserve to be there and take up every opportunity that comes up. Yes. I’m in. I don’t care what it is, I’m doing it.”
Having faced these difficulties in breaking into motorsport and often struggling to fit in, Adam and close friend Mike Lawrenson set up a motorsport community page, “Frontiere Motorsport,” with one very clear ethos: it’s not about your background or the labels that get put on you. It’s purely about how you feel about motorsport. And if you have a love for motorsport, there’s no reason why you should take no for an answer. With Mike echoing this ethos when asked why they established Frontiere Motorsport, “But yeah, you know, I used to always get seen at face value, and you never got that chance to show your worth, kind of. And again, that was that, that was kind of evident to both Brice and me, early on in our kind of motorsport journey, when people didn’t want anything to do with us.”
The illuminating advocacy work that Adam and Mike are creating through Frontiere Motorsport is part of a bigger push to increase diversity in motorsport. The industry still has a lot of work to do to accommodate the needs of neurodiverse staff and make the work environment more inclusive. “I still feel like it’s very, there are things in place where it’s like, it’s a workplace that should make a reasonable adjustment for you in that scenario. I never really looked into it for how, how that would affect the world of motorsport because it’s very difficult in a high-pressure, time-sensitive environment to, to then turn around and go, I need extra time, I need less pressure because it’s like, yeah, it doesn’t work like that”. Adam still believes despite these boundaries, neurodivergent team members like himself can bring great value to race teams. “Yeah, I think it can have an effect because there are positives to it. Obviously, we see things differently. In the way we interpret instructions and certain dilemmas, we can think of different ways that other people possibly would”. This belief in his own value and ability to push boundaries has set Adam apart in his field and led to opportunities that most people with a passion for motorsport can only dream of.
“ I’m at a point now where I can happily say it openly and out loud and go, look, I’ve done it. I’d like to be able to say that I can show others that I can be part of something I really enjoy doing. If I can raise awareness for it and acceptance for it as I go along, then it’s a win-win.” Instead of using labels to define him, Adam Brice has used his unique perspective on the world to advance his career and inspire others to do the same, including lifelong friend Mike.
“So I mean, for somebody who has been denied the opportunity to do simple motorsport events at such a young age, like the point of your journey, he’s done really well. That’s why we’re kind of so passionate about this message because we’ve only got to where we are because we’ve pushed through those boundaries.”
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