Lord Drayson, president of the Motorsport Industry Association

As cars hurtled around the Road Atlanta race track at speeds of up to 200mph, Lord Paul Drayson was concerned with just one thing- achieving a decent time in the night qualifying practice at the 2008 Petit Le Mans. With a last look over his 007-numbered Aston Martin, Drayson was ready to get in the car when his phone started flashing with a call from the then prime minister, Gordon Brown.

The call was to invite Drayson back into government as minister of state for science and innovation. A year earlier he had left his position as defence procurement minister to pursue his dream of competing in the Le Mans 24-hour race. The prime minister, however, believed that the country had lost one of its most valuable politicians. Brown offered Drayson a position on the cabinet as science minister and agreed that he could continue racing.

It would be a tough post and Drayson knew it. The UK was heading into recession and long-term science and engineering funding were being threatened by hard-nosed politicians in favour of short-term gain. But for a man passionate about technology and addicted to the thrill of a new challenge, it was an opportunity too good to miss. ’The number-one difficulty was going into the financial crisis and maintaining investment in the science budget,’ he said. ’That was my biggest concern.’

Over the next few years, Drayson became admired in both political circles and in industry. Despite the controversy surrounding his large donations to the Labour Party, Drayson’s passion for engineering marked him out from his predecessors. He claims his experience in racing taught him how to balance risk and achievement, and his skill in creating a multi-million-pound company gave him a good understanding in the world of business. It seemed the UK had a science minister who knew what he was talking about.

’I guess I’m a combination of an engineer and a businessman who has spent a very interesting seven years in politics,’ said Drayson. ’There is definitely a need for more science and engineering expertise within government. It’s something the UK civil service needs to encourage more.’

Now that his role has been taken over by Tory science minister David Willetts, Drayson is keen that his hard work isn’t undone. He believes the government needs to provide a clear strategy on how it will grow Britain’s science and engineering base. In his view, resources should be allocated to areas where the UK already has a competitive advantage a move that some believe could threaten the breadth of the country’s disciplinary excellence.

’What I’d like to see from the government is more clarity,’ he said. ’They’ve focused a lot on austerity and where cuts can be made, but how can we deliver growth? We need a clear strategic view. The growth is going to come from those sectors that have potential and where the UK has a critical mass. So, if you look at motorsport, it’s an example of a sector where the UK leads the world.’

Motorsport is an area that Drayson remains keenly involved in as president of the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) and owner of racing team Drayson Racing. Last year the team pioneered the use of a second-generation bio-ethanol fuel and was the first to win a race in a car running entirely on recycled biomass. The group has recently secured a deal with Lola Cars to develop an all-electric prototype race car, the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV. It hopes to eventually race the car in the planned Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) electric-car championship in 2013.

’You have to remember that market shares change more dramatically during a recession in tough markets as they do in good markets. The opportunity for successful business people to do even better is greater, so [they should] seize the opportunity. Things change faster in these circumstances and often the weaker players will fall by the wayside because markets are tough and not growing. So that’s a chance for good businesses and good engineers to succeed.’

In his seven years as a politician, Drayson claims that he learnt one important lesson- people are only motivated to do things when they are offered a better alternative. That’s the job of an engineer he argues, ’I’m optimistic, but it will be the engineers, with some help from politicians, who will be the ones to achieve it.’