Taking on the opportunity of a gap year during my Master degree, I joined the team as an Industrial Placement in Vehicle Dynamics in 2017. While being a huge fan of motorsport from my young age, I didn’t have much idea what the field consisted of before applying to the placement. It was only after starting that I realised how many different areas there were, and how each contribute differently to the car (whether directly or indirectly). There are many competences to suit a whole range of people from all sorts of background.
Coming from Uni, a lot of my knowledge was theorical and the placement allowed me to link it to real life cases. I enjoyed the feeling of relevance when I could see how what I studied was being used in such advanced domains of application. The work in itself brought knowledge of its own, sometimes tough to conceive when studying. Working without necessarily knowing that a solution exits (especially with the misconception that a team like Mercedes knows most things, if not everything), getting to learn from people around you that are not all students or teachers (who are always willing to help, even on mundane questions!) but also having work environment responsibilities build up to that life experience. I feel very lucky to belong to this Team.
As part of my placement, my duties were twofold. The first was dealing with setup optimisation on suspensions which brought me very close to the general effort made to prepare the cars ahead of a race. The second was taking part in brake design. I was working in collaboration with different groups such as CFD, Dyno and Mechanical Design, providing performance numbers and making numerical models to help guide designs. One of my highlights was when I was asked to infer numbers for a concept design which turned out to be spot on and the concept was subsequently implemented in the following season yielding the predicted results!
I can only recommend the placement experience at Mercedes. Apart from the massive benefit of working at the pinnacle of motorsport and the very enjoyable atmosphere, the diversity of work within the company and the responsibility given allow you to have a clearer idea for a career path to follow.
