Tips to Launch a Career as an Engineer in Motorsport

For this post, I’d like to take the opportunity to reach out and put forth my advice for aspiring engineers, especially those seeking to get into motorsport. 

The price of winning is always the reduction, if not the elimination of playtime.  However, since racing is basically playing any way you want to look at it (real people make their livings by doing something that they hate), we can't bitch too much. 

Carroll Smith

I will let you know now that this post is absolutely massive.  I worked on this for over two months, and it’s quite detailed.  It is also far from perfect.  I’ve organized my thoughts into fifteen sections that I feel are most pertinent.  Ideas do naturally overlap the sections of course.

1. Drive
2. In it for the Money or for the Passion?
3. Go Beyond the Classroom
4. Focus on Fundamentals
5. Fail Successfully
6. Communicate Effectively
7. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
8. Ask Questions
9. Get Organized, Manage Time, and Keep Documentation
10. Fabricate
11. Lead, Follow, Teach, Collaborate
12. Know What You Don't Know
13. Create Your Own Opportunity
14. Consider the Long Term Big Picture
15. Have a Life!

Although my experience of how I’ve gone through getting a dream career off of the ground is not at all the only way to do so, I do feel that my advice can help others.  I do not claim that what I say in the following words are empirical truths; they simply reflect my experience and how I got to where I am today, and I’m certainly still working on a lot of them.  I’m sure there will be some of you who have experienced the opposite and others who plain disagree.

The Academy in Monaco

Ahead of one of the most prestigious races on the calendar, I thought I'd send out a quick post!  It's been a while, and I've been working hard on a long post about my recommendations for becoming a successful engineer in motorsport.  Look for that to publish tomorrow!  For now, be on the lookout for some cool things coming out of Monaco.

First, the Infiniti Performance Engineering Academy branding is on the car in Monaco!  Check it out, pretty neat.

Fellow IPEA winner Jason Zide is also trackside in Monaco to talk about some of his experiences with the Academy.  It's safe to say he's probably enjoying the experience.  See if you can catch a glimpse of him at the Energy Station!

Don't forget the academy applications close this coming Wednesday, May 27!

See more and apply here: http://academy.infiniti.com/

Also, we've had a few new videos come out!

A Day in the Life of an IPEA Winner:

The Opportunity of a Lifetime:

Daniel Ricciardo Talks Engineering Academy:

Monaco is one of the most anticipated and prestigious races on the calendar.  Set on the backdrop of the spectacular Côte d'Azur (French Riviera) and immense wealth, the beauty of the principality of

Testing and the Leadup to Melbourne

So let’s get back to talking about F1, shall we?

Years ago, testing of F1 cars was able to be conducted at will and throughout the season at locations of the team’s choosing.   In 2008, in an effort to control the ever-apparent issue of costs, the Formula One governing body set regulations that limited constructors to 30,000km of testing per season (the equivalent of nearly 6,500 laps of Circuit de Catalunya, or 150 hours of constant testing at an average race pace).  Then in 2009, this was cut in half to 15,000km, with in-season testing banned.  Long gone are the days of pick-your-own-circuit shake downs and test running.

Circuito de Jerez in Spain, site of the first preseason F1 test in 2015

Nowadays, in preparation for the season, there are three test sessions with two more later in the season following the Spanish and Austrian Grands Prix.  All are controlled by the FIA.  The first of the three pre-season tests was held at Jerez in Spain this year, and the following two tests are held in Barcelona at Circuit de Catalunya. Each team’s drivers are generally allowed to test drive for two days of the four days for each of the preseason tests.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, site of the second and third preseason F1 tests of 2015

Last year in testing, the RB10 didn’t fare very well, along with cars from other teams as they struggled to get the new V6 turbo engines to be both powerful and reliable.  The RB10 would pretty much set itself ablaze at will, and we completed only roughly 1060 miles, compared to Mercedes’ 3090 or Williams’ 3040.  Given that start to RB10, the car ended up rather successful, being the only team to beat Mercedes in 2014.

So, you can take certain things away from testing as clear indicators, and there’s other things to take with a grain of salt.   Lap times are one of those things to take as the latter, especially in the earlier tests.  Remember, it’s a shake down and validation for all teams.  Thus, a majority of the testing is not run at full race pace.  Nor are they all running on the same tires!  Reliability, aero mapping, tire testing, pit practice, driver ergonomics, and various simulation validation runs are a few of the myriad of bullet items for testing.  Race simulations, which come later in the preseason testing, along with some of the faster times, are certainly important factors to consider.

This year, I’m on the inside.  Seeing what it takes to produce a car and push design to the absolute limit is nothing short of incredible.

Preseason testing is like an awakening.  Rumors for who will drive for which team have long died out, and teams have been working tirelessly to get their cars to the track.  It is a show, an emergence of the latest and greatest from each team.  The reveals for the vehicles draw as much attention as anything during the season, and the liveries are unveiled.  And boy, did we have an amazing one in store for testing.

Camo Bull!

This dazzle livery, dubbed Camo Bull, was an amazing take on what has become popular for road car

Work Hard, Play Hard

Greetings from Abu Dhabi!  (Well sort of.  I wrote this and meant to post earlier!)  I arrived here Sunday and have been granted an incredible opportunity to work with our junior driver development in GP2, one of the main feeder series for Formula 1.  I’ll be spending a total of three full days at the Yas Marina Circuit here, performing and helping to manage some preseason testing and data analysis.  The challenges of testing and attempting to prove myself trackside have been a lot of fun so far!

Beautiful Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE

To reiterate from my last post for those of you who weren’t really part of the application audience, I’ve really enjoyed my tasking at Infiniti Red Bull Racing thus far. The past two months have been exceptionally engaging. I’ve never had such an awesome blend of challenging and fun projects. In addition to working on some nice open-ended mechanical design, I’ve been able to work with aerodynamic map data and aero test planning, test virtual components on the simulator, characterize suspension geometry and perform simple kinematic analysis, create a new vehicle model for simulation, and participate in the support of the race engineering and strategy teams. I have thoroughly enjoyed the variety of work and the challenges that have come with it. There is so much to learn!

Red Bull F1 Simulator

Adrian showed up for some of our simulator running.  The honor of working alongside the legend is indescribable.  We were able to interact and converse for a bit, and getting to know him, he’s a really nice guy.  So to sum up, these past couple of months have been spectacular!

The lead up to the first test was a very busy time at the factory, to put it mildly.  This has meant some long hours at the office for everybody and some people even eating all three meals there.  But we’ll have to wait on this…more on the F1 side in my next post.

Even with enjoying the work, long hours are long hours.  In the spirit of “work hard, play hard,” this

Welcome to the 2015 IPEA

If you asked me a year ago where I’d be today, there’s no way I would have even thought to suggest living in the United Kingdom and working in Formula One.
 

 

When I found out about the Infiniti Performance Engineering Academy late last March, I knew I had to apply.  It seemed like a perfect fit: a unique and high profile program allowing a full year of experience in Formula One and highlighting the technical and people exchange between road cars and race cars.  Despite my enthusiasm and confidence in my abilities, I never thought I’d get past the first stage, let alone win.  But this was my shot, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make something of myself and my passions.  I’m glad I didn’t let the opportunity pass me by, as it seems to have worked out quite brilliantly.  Mental!

Meeting the legend.

 

I’ve really enjoyed my tasking at Infiniti Red Bull Racing thus far.  The past two months have been exceptionally engaging.  I’ve never had such an awesome blend of challenging and fun projects.  In addition to working on some nice open-ended mechanical design, I’ve been able to work with aerodynamic map data and aero test planning, test virtual components on the simulator, characterize suspension geometry and perform simple kinematic analysis, create a new vehicle model for simulation, and participate in the support of the race engineering and strategy teams.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the variety of work and the challenges that have come with it.  There is so much to learn!

 

Being a part of this prestigious culture is pure excitement and thrill.  Above all, it is a huge honor to work alongside incredible talent and to truly feel like part of the team.

With the launch of the academy this year, I feel it to be my duty to encourage anybody who has a passion for motorsports, for automotive technology, and for being pushed to the absolute limit to apply to the academy.

 

This year features new opportunities, given the groundwork laid over the last year.  The successful candidates will not only work at the Infiniti Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes, but they will also spend four months at Infiniti in Cranfield connecting the dots between road and track.  Five candidates will be chosen this year!

The highlight of the application this year is a 90-second video answering: “Why do you deserve this opportunity of a lifetime?”

My advice for applicants is to be yourself, and take your time in making a quality video in terms of its content.  This is your chance to really show who you are.  You have the floor for a minute and a half to tell some of the best engineers in the world why you deserve to be here.  Answering a “why” question isn’t easy.  Beyond what you bring to the table, what do you hope to learn?  Why do you want to learn it here?  What is your ambition, and how does this opportunity speak to that?

These are only my personal suggestions.  See more at the application site.  How you answer is completely up to you, but however you do it, make it count!  The application window closes on May 22.

There’s a lot more to being successful in this competition than your knowledge or maybe that you’ve worked in a Formula Student team.  So in an upcoming post, I will advise and provide suggestions for how to become a successful engineer, whether that be in the motorsport/automotive industries or elsewhere, based on my own experiences and understandings.  Keep an eye out or subscribe to the blog!

Also, I’d like to take the opportunity to answer questions in a future blog post.  I’m more than happy to help out as I feel appropriate!  So do not hesitate to leave your questions or feedback in a comment below.

 

Apply for the 2015 Infiniti Performance Engineering Academy

 

On behalf of Jason, Will, and myself, good luck to all applicants!

New Years Road Trip to the Continent!

Back in Milton Keynes with all of my precious gifts and American beer intact, the first thing I had to do after work on Monday was hang up this beauty.

'Murica

This was another gift from my parents.  It’s funny, the things you want when you move abroad!  Your move, Will.  I expect a Union Jack to be painted on the ceiling or something.

I worked on Tuesday as well, and then Hope flew in on Wednesday morning!  We decided to spend New Year’s together and to finally get some proper traveling in.  After recovering from the flight in, we exchanged gifts.  Mostly we gave each other some food and clothing items, little luxuries, deciding that more money should go to traveling.  To me, nothing beats the experiences you gain from traveling.  After gifts, we went out to London late to watch the fireworks from Primrose Hill.  We made it with six minutes to spare!

Amazing firework display in London, viewed with a fun crowd from Primrose Hill

No Place Like Home

Well, it’s been a while!  I got caught up in the holiday and took some time off, being a bit lazy at getting back to this.  I suppose you could call it the off-season for my writing.  But it’s definitely been an exciting time as of late!

Jumping back for a moment to the week of Christmas, I flew home to be with my family for a week.  I've really missed them.  Being abroad can be hard like that, especially because I hadn’t expected to see most of my family for at least a year.  As I begin to pay back student loans and put money into savings, I don’t have the extra cash to fly back to the United States, even for Christmas.  So, Santa was very generous to gift that!

Jason was also nice enough to drop me off at Milton Keynes Central in the wee morning hours on Sunday, and I took the train to the Tube to the airport.  When I got to Heathrow, it was mayhem.  Since the luggage conveyors were not working, everything had to be handled manually (aka slowly), causing the line to stack up throughout the departures terminal.  Despite getting there a few hours early, passengers for my flight and other earlier US Airways flights had to be escorted to the front of the line to get luggage checked in on time and make the planes.  Though uncertain and somewhat stressful, I did make my flight.

Dad waiting at arrivals in Philly

When I arrived in Philadelphia many hours later, my first news was that my luggage, containing all of my gifts for my family, was left behind in London.  Same story with at least 30 more passengers.  My parents waited for me at arrivals, and we shared some warm embraces.  To continue the happiness, we went straight to the luggage claims office and waited in line for about an hour to give details on where to deliver my luggage.  I was estimated to receive the luggage by the next day (Monday) or Tuesday.  Luckily, I had all of the really important stuff I needed for the next few days with me, so this wasn’t as troubling as it could have been.  Finally we went home, and my mom cooked a really nice meal of chicken marsala while we caught up.  It felt great to be home!

Heading Home for the Holidays!

Last weekend, a surprise delivery came in the mail from my parents.  Inside were some awesome gifts for all three of us!  My mom made some personalized Christmas stockings with candy and New Jersey lottery tickets, and the best part of the candy was some Jersey shore saltwater taffy.  There were also some ornamental stockings and three Santa hats.  We were all very excited to receive that, and that got us in the holiday mood, which has continued through the week.  And, if I wasn’t already missing home, I am now!

Plus two more for the other lads!

Wrapping Up

As I said in my last post, Seb is off to Ferrari.  But before leaving completely, the team had one last hurrah for him at the factory.  You can see the great guy that Vettel is when he lets his guard down.  as speeches were delivered from Adrian and Christian, his emotions were clearly visible.

Christian joking with Seb at his final factory visit

A couple of awesome videos celebrating his years with Infiniti Red Bull Racing and as a part of the young driver program were played, and it reminded us of his fantastic journey with the team and of the passion we all have for motorsport.  It’s hard to not fall in love with moments captured in images like this one:

Seb bows to his car after winning the 2013 Indian Grand Prix and sealing his third championship

Seb was also presented with a gift basket full of cheeky Italian-esque gifts, including pasta, a red Speedo, an espresso cup, and a typical Italian puff jacket.  One last gift was a statue of a bull commemorating his four world championships.

End of the First F1 Season and a 6-Legged Thanksgiving

The weekend following Hope’s visit, it was time for the last grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi.  A culturally rich city that’s also on the top of my list to visit, Abu Dhabi and the Yas Marina circuit hosts the second of two races during the F1 calendar that are held under the lights.

With Vettel about to depart to Ferrari, the team at the track hosted a warm welcome for him as he arrived to the garage.

Danke Seb has been the theme for his departure from the team.  The team as a whole has lots of great memories with Seb at the wheel, and I'm honored to have been able to work with him!

Hope's First Visit

Now to the personal side of my life for a bit.  My girlfriend, Hope, visited for the first time the week before Thanksgiving.  She lives in Michigan, where we had met in the early summer of 2013.  At the time, I had been interning for SRT Motorsports at the Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills.  I decided to go back to CrossFit, something I had started in 2012, and I found CrossFit Bloomfield, a box relatively close to my hotel with better reviews than others in the surrounding area.  Hope was a coach there, and we immediately got along and built up a good friendship.  We joke about who asked who out first, but we both know it was her ;)

Hope and I met here, at CrossFit Bloomfield

We both love it!

Oh, and she is also a professional massage therapist.  Winning.

Catching up!

Wow, it’s been a bit too long!  I’ve slacked off a bit lately, as it’s been hard to get myself to sit down and write, so I apologize for that.  Time to catch up on November!

Actually, let’s go back to the end of October.  On Halloween Friday, I had race ops support with the team at the factory for the US Grand Prix.  Of course Friday was just the first two practice sessions, but it was great to see the buzzing atmosphere in Austin, Texas.  That’s definitely on the top of my list of cities to get to at some point, as well as to go see the wonderful Circuit of the Americas racetrack. 

How much more American can you get??

The following morning, Will, Jason and I headed out to do a little Halloween party shopping.  The three of us had decided to host a Halloween party at our flat Saturday evening with a bunch of people from Infiniti Red Bull Racing and some other friends.  We ended up at a warehouse with an upstairs office for what seemed to be custom-tailored costumes.  Weird.  Will made friends with this skeleton.

Will's new best friend!

Beer, Cliffs, and Working at IRBR

It’s an incredible feeling when you are actually excited to go to work.  I think it’s then that you realize you’ve found a career that fits your passions perfectly.  Of course, we need distractions too, so life doesn’t become single faceted and you lose yourself in your work.  Come Thursday, a bunch of us from work went to the Concrete Pint Beer Festival.  It really was a bit weird in that it was hosted in what seemed like a union hall, but there were 110+ kegs of amazing local ale and cider.

Kegs on kegs on kegs!

And it was cheap!  The venue was an interesting choice, but the beer and company were great, and so we spent a couple of hours there.  I “sampled” the following:

• Totty Pot by Cheddar Ales, a dark porter
• Jack Spaniels by Gun Dog Ales, a blonde ale
• Fuggle-Dee-Dum by Goddards, a red ale
• Fendland Farmhouse Saison by Nene Valley, a saison (obviously)
• Biggus Dickus by Nobby's, a golden ale

More kegs...Gleb, Sam and Will having a very interesting conversation

Yeah those names are all a bit ridiculous.  Nonetheless, the beers were all excellent, especially the porter and the saison.  I’ll have to road trip to some of these breweries over the next year!

Another roadtrip in the Q50!

Speaking of road trips, Christoph joined Jason and I last weekend for a day trip to the White Cliffs of Dover.  These weekend trips are getting to be a lot of fun, so I think we’ll keep them up!  The cliffs are amazing.  Ideally, we’d view them from up close as we take a ferry across the English Channel to France, but we were pleasantly surprised at the spectacular views from above.  Thanks to Jason for a lot of these pictures.

Career Roots

I want to go back to my career roots for a moment.  One thing I forgot to mention in my last blog post was about SRT Motorsports, where I had interned during the summer of 2013.  After an amazing season in USCR, for which the final race of the season was a couple of weeks ago (the same weekend as the F1 Japanese Grand Prix), SRT Motorsports took home the constructor’s championship for the GTLM category.  Kuno Wittmer won the driver’s championship, followed by Jon Bomarito.  Mark Goosens and Dominik Farnbacher got 4^th and 5^th respectively, so 4 of the top 5 drivers were the main Viper drivers.  Really remarkable.  So a huge congratulations to them!

Kuno at the Tudor USCR Night of Champions
Photo credit: Amanda Zileski

Working with the guys at SRT Motorsports and Riley Technologies was an amazing honor, and along with my time in Formula SAE, was no doubt something that helped launch me to the incredible opportunity I have today.  Thank you to Gary Johnson, Matt Bejnarowicz, Dick Winkles, Bill Riley, Ralph Gilles, and all of the great people of both Riley and SRT for helping me learn so much about what it takes to be successful in motorsport and beyond.

My first experience shadowing race engineers, at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Toronto, July 2013
Trackside with Ralph Gilles and Dick Winkles

  

My mentors Gary Johnson and Matt Bejnarowicz with SRT crew member Jim Menego at the Night of Champions
Photo credit: Jim Menego 

Unfortunately, following that weekend, Chrysler announced they would discontinue the Viper racing program.  It’s definitely sad to see the program go, especially considering what it means to me on a

IPEA Extended Cut Videos

Infiniti and Infiniti-Red Bull Racing have put together some awesome videos on each of our backgrounds!  I'm really thrilled to be able to share these with everybody.  Thanks to everybody for their support...it means everything!  Enjoy!

Special thanks to Crossfit Hamilton, Terps Racing, and the University of Maryland Department of Mechanical Engineering for helping with my portion of the filming!

My video:




Jason's video:




Will's video:

Big Rocks and a Pub

After getting back from Japan, we were hungry, so Will led Jason and I to our first experience at the UK staple, Nandos.  It’s no Sardi’s, but I’ll admit it’s pretty good food.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea.  Sauces on sauces.

When the weekend came, Will went to London while Jason and I hung out and watched college football on Saturday.  Seeing Maryland play, even if Ohio State did a number on us, was awesome.  It felt like home for a bit, and Jason and I went outside to toss a football around the courtyard.  Our skills were clearly lacking, but whatever.

On Sunday, we woke up early to watch the Japanese Grand Prix.  Both drivers were doing reasonably well, but that wasn’t important.  For those who don’t stay up to date on F1 news, Jules Bianchi, driver for Marussia, had a terrible accident around lap 44.  There had been a torrential downpour prior to the race, and rain continued to fall during the race.   After Adrian Sutil spun off the track, a yellow flag came out, and marshals worked to remove Sutil’s car from the track using the standard tractor.  Though he had slowed down, Bianchi went off the track at the exact same spot, and he crashed into the back of the tractor, sending it a foot into the air.  Absolutely horrific.  You can search for more details, but Bianchi is in very critical condition with a major head injury.  Along with the rest of the F1 community, we’re all hoping for his recovery and sending prayers and thoughts to him and his family.  #ForzaJules

The RB10 nose and Ricciardo's helmet, showing support for Jules

As I’d imagine most people reading this know, Sebastian also has announced that he will leave Infiniti-Red Bull Racing at the end of the year.  It’s a melancholic feeling once you’re part of the team to have your four-time world champion driver leave, but as we are new to the team, it’s hard to

Nihon!

On to the big story of last week…a trip to Japan!  Actually, our trip was off to a great start as soon as we walked out of our flat in Milton Keynes.  We had a taxi waiting for us.  So, we proceeded to load our bags into the taxi outside after confirming the name under the booking with the driver.  A minute later we found out the destination for said taxi was to be Cranfield University rather than Heathrow Airport, and the booking name had been confused because the driver spoke very broken English.  We awkwardly grabbed our bags back out of the taxi.  Thankfully the intended taxi wasn’t hard to find, parked about 20 yards away.  We hopped in, made damn sure it was our actual ride, and made our way to the airport.

Getting ready to board at Heathrow!

The flight to Tokyo from London is 12 hours going, 12 and a half coming back.  So what did we do on the flight out?  Learned!  My girlfriend, Hope, studied abroad in Japan and retained a lot of the language and cultural knowledge she picked up while she was there.  Let me just say, there’s no better opportunity and character-building experience a college kid can have than to study abroad.  If you’re reading this and you’re a student, do it.  You can wait an extra semester or two to graduate if you need to!  It’s very unlikely that you’ll get such an easy chance to immerse yourself into a new culture while you’re at such a young age, and the experience is absolutely incredible and life changing.  Get out of your comfort zone and go study abroad!

Anyway, Hope generously took the time to record some video and audio clips of some basic Japanese words and phrases, along with emails about unique cultural norms.  These were an invaluable way to

Pistons and Props

On the Sunday before our trip to Japan, Jason, Will, Will’s friend Jess, and I all went to a regional cars and planes show called Pistons and Props in Sywell.  It is only in its second year as an annual show, but the cars and planes that arrive are really cool.  Races are run for all sorts of classes of cars, with barriers (by barriers, I mean hay bales) set up alongside the airport runway the event is held at to protect spectators.  Will's dad also joined us and hung out for the day, asking us questions about how our placements were going and the backgrounds of me and Jason.  He's a really genuine guy and has been involved in the automotive industry for a long time.

Among the attendees, some of my favorites were the following:

These six Ford GT40's

Morgan Three-Wheeler

Exploring!

On Saturday morning, Jack, Will, Jason and I relaxed and (re)watched Senna.  If you haven’t seen this movie documentary, you must do so now.  We’ve been setting up our laptops to play on the TV and using our awesome UE Boom Infiniti-Red Bull Racing edition Bluetooth speakers.

One of our UE Boom I-RBR edition speakers

These speakers are unbelievable.  You can use two of them in a stereo mode, and they make for awesome additions to our flat.  We got them when the three of us were in the Paddock Club at Silverstone as VIP guests during the British Grand Prix.

Paddock Club at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix in July

The First Week

Phenomenal.  That’s how I’d describe my first days in the design office.  I’ve been thrown right into the mix, which is where the biggest difference about working in the offices of Infiniti-Red Bull Racing compared to my previous experiences comes into play.  The amount of resources and speed and efficiency at which they operate is incredible.  Personnel, hardware, software, IT support, training…we are able to get anything we need to do our jobs nearly instantly.

I was tasked pretty much immediately, and my previous blog post mentions the type of work that I’m doing.  Being able to sink my teeth into projects so quickly is not something I’m used to.  It typically takes days to get software installed, for example.  The process side of things is just quicker here, and I’ve been able to hit the ground running.  The first week included sessions on the simulator with a younger driver, which is a lot of fun, as well as validation being immersed into the data acquisition and analytical software packages.  For me, this is extremely exciting.  I’m already using Matlab on a daily basis, looking at telemetry, and doing a bit of refresh training on NX (CAD software).  This computer work is all within the context of the cars and the simulator, meaning that my work results are tangible.  My deliverables will have measurable impact, which makes my job more stimulating than simply staring at a bunch of screens.

Working into the evening hours, #BecauseRacecar