Think Formula One and you think cars, noise, adrenaline. In the pit lane it's a macho environment of laptops, spanners and precision engineering. So it comes as very little surprise to learn that there are only a handful of women with serious roles in the paddock.

One of these is Dr Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari, who is responsible for the lubricants and fuels used in Ferrari's F1 cars.

And she's quite used to being the only girl in town, having studied an undergraduate degree in science and engineering at Sheffield University, before going on to conduct a PhD in combustion chemistry (while working for Shell).

'I don't really notice it any more, because I've always worked in male environments. I studied science and engineering. At university I was sponsored by British Steel which was probably even more of a boys' club than Formula One,' says Lilley.

Her philosophy is to view people as people and not judge them by age or gender. But the same philosophy hasn't always been held by new colleagues.

'I think perhaps the shock was more for the people who have to work with me because we're a very close-knit team on Formula One,' says Lilley. 'There's five or six of us from Shell at a lot of the races and we work in very small spaces. And for them suddenly having a woman thrust upon them was probably a bit of a shock.'

Not that her pit crew colleagues modified their behaviour to accommodate a woman in their ranks. 'You'd like to think they might, but absolutely not at all,' she admits.

'All of the Shell guys are brilliant to work with, and all of the Ferrari team have been incredibly welcoming, so I've never had any issues. In some respects being a girl helps because you do get your face recognised and I think my name got known a lot quicker than if I was a boy.

'But, at the end of the day, I'm here to do a technical job and you need to earn the respect of your colleagues. You need to work hard, and Ferrari don't see boy or girl when it comes to that. We all wear the same uniform.'

Lilley's career rise has been rapid – she is still in her early 30s – but just because she travels around the world for a major multinational, she hasn't needed to sacrifice her home life to accommodate her career. She continues to live in her home town of Chester and regularly visits the local zoo, where she sponsors her favourite animals, the otters.

'I love Chester to bits,' she says, 'I was born and bred there. My family have lived there for hundreds of years, so it's home to me.

So when she's not travelling around the world with the Ferrari team, she's based at Shell's UK Technology Centre, handily located in her home town.

'We actually have a lot of women at Shell, working in research and science who are involved in some of the latest technological developments. There are women involved all along the different processes of making Shell V-Power, including at the refinery, in the labs, and at the track.' (See 'Women in fuel' below)

Lisa's own job is to ensure that the fuel in Ferrari's car is precisely blended to achieve maximum performance without breaking the strict guidelines imposed by FIA, the sport's governing body.

'If we get a couple of warnings because we're borderline that's a good thing because it tells us that we're really pushing the limits of what we can do,' admits Lisa.

It's a highly technical job, but it doesn't stop her occasionally being mistaken for casual staff. 'In Australia this year, I went into the restaurant to get myself a coffee. The hospitality girls were on a break, and when I looked up and I had a queue of about 20 people waiting for me to make the coffee.

'So I did the first few and as I was chatting to them I said "Actually, I've got no problem making you coffee but perhaps you don't realise I'm actually Shell's Technology Manager?" and they all looked mortified. It was quite funny...'

WOMEN IN FUEL
Lisa Lilley is one of several women working in high profile positions at Shell. Others include...

Andrea Schütze (Fuel Formulation Scientist)
Andrea's team tests whether the molecule mix that worked in Ferrari's F1 engines will interact in the same way in normal car engines. If these tests are successful, the technology developed with Ferrari is transferred to the road fuel for everyday customers to use in their cars.

Mae Ascan (Implementation Fuels Scientist)
As a fuels scientist, Mae works in the Kuala Lumpur office of the Shell Research and Development Centre. She's responsible for creating the perfect mix of Shell V-Power for each market in Asia and Africa.

Anja de Rijk (Production Manager)
The first female production manager at Shell's German refinery, Anja is responsible for the process that turns 5.5 million tons of crude oil into Shell's V-Power premium fuels each year.

Sydney Kimball (Global Shell V-Power Marketing Manager)
Shell V-Power is produced in over 60 markets globally. Sydney is ultimately responsible for the global marketing of these premium fuels and liaison with Shell's technical partners, Ferrari and Ducati.