F1 careers

[Zach978]

I'm currently an American high school student and am very interested in racing. I especially like F1, but also enjoy watching sports car racing like the American Le Mans Series, and Grand American Racing Series. I like the technology of these cars and would like to pursue a career as in engineer in this field. I was planning on getting a Mechanical Engineering degree, or possible an Aeronautic Engineering degree. I know with these degrees I'm in no way limited to the racing field, but are there many job opportunities in the field? My ultimate dream would be to be an engineer for an F1 team, is it likely that one can go from college to an F1 team? What about other racing, like ALMS or GrandAm?

Thanks,
Zach

[Sammie]

Hi,

I think it will be very difficult to get to F1 straight from college (university) without some sort of experience working in the industry and it also depends on what you want to do.

Nearly all the departments in F1 employ people with specialist skills, so it would be a good idea to get a degree and prehaps specialise in an area. I've been told that its very difficult to do Aerodynamics for an F1 team, for example, without doing a PhD, and I think this may be quite true. It's also good to build links with the industry ie, ask around for sponsorship and funding to help you, then if you're really good the team may take you on after your studies.

hope this helps.

[canadianfan]

i don't know much but my guess is to first find out which field you want to go into. I'm going into aerospace, then hopefully will work for lockeed or boeing then with some experience will go into f1. A few years designing fighter jets gotta look good. oh yeah, i checked out the lockheed site one day, and they said that with a phd, you get hired immediately. No nonsense about hiring if you only have some experience (its that vicious circle where you want to work to get experience but they won't hire you unless you have experience...)

[Sammie]

Hi,

Yep, I know what you mean about getting work experience. Aerospace engineering is can be extremely difficult, but it's also a great subject.

I'm not sure about designing new fighter and civil aircraft, because the process takes around 15-20 years and you don't get many people developing totally new aircraft. Usually it's a process of refinement.

Do you have any ideas to which University you want to go to?
I'm studying the above at Southampton and the course is excellent.

[mjstallard]

I've been through the difficulties of trying to find sponsorship for myself at uni, as a way to help me gain employment post uni...my ever so helpful careers officer at my college said "oh, I don't really know about sponsorship. I guess you should write to some companies."

I found myself receiving the "thanks, but no thanks" replies from everywhere I wrote to, which was pretty disenheartening, to say the least...however, upon visiting the Universities that I applied for, I felt a lot more confident of gaining sponsorship during the course itself - the Departments at the Universities are very good at this sort of thing...my top 2 choices (Bath and Loughborough) both offer a 2+1+2 year MEng scheme, in which they arrange a year in industry halfway through the course - of course, the company who takes you on for the year doesn't have to sponsor you, but it is apparently an excellent way to "get your foot in the door".

Although naturally, I can't say for sure until I get there, but I'd recommend checking out universities that offer good prospects for industrial experience during the course - from all accounts, it is invaluable in getting your first engineering job.

Now, I've just gotta get my A-Level exams out of the way. One month away, A grades in maths,physics and computing required, and I can tell you, I'm bloody terrified :-)

[THR]

NO!

the best way to get into engineering is to do an apprenticship.

it gets u experience, a job, money!! fun, beer, foot in the door. and a bloody good cv.
all this while gaining the same qualifications. part time.

its the best way, and employers love it to death! cos no one seems to do it the proper way anymore.

[AndyM]

I have spoken to many people, team managers and engineers, and its very difficult to get work placements at racing teams. I have tried for ages to get something, but got nowhere. One team manager suggested offering my services for free over the summer just to get stuff on my CV, and thats what I've done, and its landed me offers a number of top F3 teams.

Its a competitive industry out there, so you need to get as much experinec as you can to add stuff to your CV. Any teams I get in contact with seem impressed with my f1mech.com website which I do, and also doing some racing yourself is a great way of showing your commitment to working in the industry. You will find that many people who work in racing themselves either used to be or are drivers themselves, whether it be sprinting, hillclimbing or circuit racing. I know when I applied to Reynard it said that people who have some kind of racing experience will be favourable on the whole to those who don't. I learnt a lot about car set up and maintenance when I raced last year, and that was only in 2 races....

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Andy