If you follow Formula One, the names Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovaleinen will be very familiar to you. They are to Martin Steyn as well, since he raced against them in the highly competitive Formula Renault series in his early 20s.
Martin, IMG’s VE lead responsible for T6 quality, was born with racing in his DNA. He grew up in S. Africa, in a family devoted to motorsports, with both parents having participated in rallying professionally and actually rallying for Ford at one point.
His racing career, which preceded his move to Ford, spanned 20 years, beginning at the young age of 5, at which he competed and won regional championships in Moto X. At 10, he switched to karting and continued to excel, winning two South African championships before the age of 18.
He also competed internationally, securing a 7th overall position in the World Championships in Italy at just 14 years old. He won first overall production and class championship with AMG in 2000 at the age of 21. That was followed by a year abroad competing in the highly competitive Formula Renault series against well-known names like Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.
“I am not involved in motorsport anymore but enjoy spending time on my mountain bike racing whenever the opportunity presents itself,” he said. “The racing spirit and competitiveness is still very strong, something I hope I can carry over into my daughters as they grow older.”
And even though he’s not in a race car, he avidly follows several motorsports series, including Formula 1, Moto GP and the World Rally Championship as well as Mountain Bike XCO (cross-country Olympic) and the Cyclo-Cross World Cup.
After starting at Ford in 2006, he has been stationed in multiple countries, including China, South Africa and Australia, where he currently resides. He also enjoys exploring the outdoors through overlanding, camping, and engaging in 4x4 adventures.
As the quality lead for T6, he tries to do the right thing the right way and encourage others to do so. That advice came from his father, who was one of his great inspirations.
“I am one of the few that have been involved from the early engineering phases right through to final production – working not only in Australia but also Thailand and South Africa,” Martin said. “Seeing where Ranger came from in the early 2000s and where it is now, I take great pride in being part of a team that has made Ranger and Everest such a success story.”
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