Written by Matthew Atkinson 3rd Year Motorsport Engineering BEng (Hons) student.
Today, Formula 1 is as popular as it’s ever been and as a result, an increasing number of students aspire to build a career on the technical side of motorsport. With a growing number of placements, internships, and graduate schemes offered by top-level teams, the opportunities are abundant. The following article will cover my experience as a Motorsport Engineering student as I head into my final year of university following a yearlong placement at Aston Martin Formula One Team.
Autumn is now upon us, which means two things: the weather is taking a turn for the worse and Universities around the country are getting back into gear. You may be reading this as you prepare your UCAS form to apply to university. Maybe as a bright-eyed fresher excited to meet a whole host of like-minded people and eager to take the next steps of your educational journey. Or you may be like me: well into your current degree course and looking at the next stages or first steps of a career in your chosen field. Whether you are looking at a placement, graduate scheme or even hoping to take a year off entirely – I’m here to talk about how the future isn’t as daunting as it seems.
My first year of university started in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, there was still a lot of content to take on board that provided a good foundation for the remainder of my degree. As the course was taught online, it made it difficult to feel connected with my course and to motivate myself to attend lectures and do the work. Although your first year may not contribute to your final grade, do not underestimate its importance as there are lots of fundamentals that can make your life so much easier as you continue to study and boost your ability to solve complex problems just by having a decent grasp on these fundamentals.
Second year was a step up and one you should certainly be prepared for, on a typical sandwich course it’s time to start the difficult task of hunting for an industrial placement (should you want one). This also must be balanced with studying for tougher modules, more coursework, and exams – so a lot is being asked of you. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get a placement however, it won’t make or break your career and is no guarantee of anything in the years to come.
If your university supports a sandwich scheme, they will probably have set guidelines to ensure a position qualifies for your chosen degree – at Brookes for example this all revolved around it being applicable to the institution of Mechanical Engineers (iMechE) professional development scheme. On the contrary, some universities may require you to write a series of quarterly reports or one final report, but this varies all over.
As a Motorsport engineering student, the ideal placement will probably be for a Formula One team or other racing team at a high level. These opportunities may be advertised as part of an annual cycle of offerings from race teams but if there’s a specific discipline or team you want to work for, don’t be discouraged from trying to get in touch to find out if they can offer you the opportunity. There’s always going to be competition for the widely advertised jobs, so the latter option is certainly worth a try.
Many applicants may be disheartened that they don’t have the same level of experience in motorsport engineering as some people around them but that is nothing to worry about – this isn’t the only thing that employers look for. What they want is someone with a passion for what they’re doing, the ability to think logically, communicate well with others and to take feedback positively amongst other things. That being said, there are a number of opportunities you can take part in as a student such as Formula Student, and student motorsport challenge and there may be teams in your area willing to accept student volunteers. Formula Student is potentially the most well-known and tasks teams with designing and building their own race car to compete in the competition. Student motorsport challenge is a growing class with entrants from all over the country competing amongst a sixty-plus car field of Citroen C1s. You can always reach out to local motorsport teams asking for work experience too – it’s often unpaid but you’ll gain experience and acquire contacts in national and maybe even international motorsport.
From my own experience, Formula Student wasn’t for me, and I wanted to have more opportunities to get my hands dirty underneath the car, so to speak. Therefore, I worked on a voluntary basis with a student-led historic racing team. Not only did I get the chance to experience multiple race weekends and all of the pre/post-race procedures, I was also able to compete in road rallies and experience other events the Club organised. This was a brilliant talking point in my placement interview as well as my other rallying experience to convey just how much I enjoyed working in motorsport in any capacity. Experience or not, being able to talk passionately about your interests goes a long way in interviews and gives prospective employers an insight into who you are and where your motivation lies.
My year in the industry working for a Formula 1 team gave me a big confidence boost and allowed me to focus on one side of engineering whilst developing my interpersonal and general life skills in a fast-paced work environment. My role within the team was as a design engineer in aerodynamic development. This saw me designing parts for use in wind tunnel testing which meant I had to have a keen eye for detail and constantly find solutions to better our quality of testing or simply to work around new concepts. I primarily used CAD software to design my parts and to create component drawings which are skills used in the vast majority of the engineering industry. On a more general level, I developed skills as a motorsport engineer in project management, problem-solving, adapting to changing requirements and how to communicate effectively with colleagues. These are all transferable skills I will use as building blocks to build on through university and as I choose where I want to go with my career next.
To conclude, University is what you make of it, how you choose to tackle your course and how you choose to supplement your study. I missed out on extra experience during my first year, it was easy for me to say it was out of my control but that wasn’t the case as I reflect on this time and conclude that I could’ve done more to find something I could do within the restrictions at the time. Nonetheless, I found myself with a job offer, albeit late in the year, whilst still feeling slightly behind with having only experience with club motorsport and struggling to get in with a team that was better known in the country. Do not underestimate what you can achieve when you are pursuing a career path you are truly passionate about and commit yourself to trying to get there. Motorsport engineering is a fantastic and constantly changing sector with more and more opportunities for students and graduates alike.
