There must be a touch of boffin somewhere inside Chris Dyer, but presumably he leaves it behind when he changes out of his Ferrari uniform at the end of each day.
The law of stereotype dictates that race engineers are far more comfortable when surrounded by telemetry than when surrounded by people; a preference that could lead to some awkward silences in social situations.
But Dyer operates a little differently. For one thing, it's hard not to notice that when he talks about his job, he does so with an almost fan-like enthusiasm. His voice rises and falls, his eyes widen when he wants to emphasise a point, and his hands wave - a trick he may have picked up in his adopted home of Italy in lieu of the language, his skill at which he cheerfully describes as "rubbish".