studying motorsport at university

[redadair85]

hey guys im looking to persue a career in motorsport.From a very early age i have been very keen in formula one and ferrari i have applied to tresham national college for motorsport directly through them. I have missed the deadline for universitys but can still apply up to the 30th of this month if i still want a good chance of getting a placement. My Question is do the motorsports courses at uni only specialize in racing cars? as im also keen on rallying and dont yet what career path i would choose? is anyone studying at now on a motorsport course? forgot to add i've also applied at sheffield hallam to do a foundation then top up in mechanical engineering.

thanks for any replys
nath

[Peat]

The final option sounds good. The problem with motorsport as a vocation, is that it is constantly in a state of peaks and troughs employment wise. There are lots of talented engineers fighting over every vacancy.

At least with a solid base in mech eng, you can get work in other areas in the hard times.

[redadair85]

yea what i thought aswell, can always do a motorsport degree after as the mechanical engineering is 2 years

[awrb]

I'm doing a degree in mech eng at the moment, and i think that's the right way to go. Motorsport companies don't care if the word motorsport is in the qualification, and after contacting a number of companies myself when I was making this decision a few years back, all said they'd prefer mech eng. You get to choose what to do for certain assignments, and motorsport based projects are always possible.

[MGDavid]

see your PMs

[Dave Brand]

I'd endorse the comments about doing a mechanical engineering degree - it will, I think, give you a better grounding in engineering than a motor sport degree &, more importantly, make you more employable outside motor sport.

Sheffield Hallam seems to be a good university for engineering. The company I worked for took a lot of students on placements; the Sheffield Hallam students stood out as the best of the bunch.

[HairyDJ]

Possibly not the most perfect of benchmarks, but take a look at the various UK based teams in the annual Formula Student event (held at Silverstone).
http://www.formulastudent.com

The event is a great opportunity to demonstrate practical skills, but even better as a networking & CV exchange opportunity. Some very influential players and major organisations show up.

Keeping it a bit on topic - from my days marshalling the events, many entrants could learn from the robust design & engineering needed for Rally & Rallycross.