Mercedes looks to the future with its young engineers

At Mercedes’ HQ in Brackley, graduates and placement students play important roles throughout the engineering department – but particularly in the race support room which provides real-time information to the team at the track over a race weekend.

“The race support room is an extension of the track office; we replicate some of the jobs that are going on trackside,” explains Dom Riefstahl, Race Support Team Leader and Test Engineer. “Our young engineers watch all of the Sky footage, listening to other teams’ radio, monitoring the feedback – everything they can see, spot and hear from other teams to help us manage our strategy.”

A constant thirst for self-improvement is something Mercedes share with one of their official partners. Thanks to Bose, we had the chance to speak to three young engineers from the race support room about their roles at Mercedes and what it means to them to be part of a record-breaking Formula 1 team. This is their race: these youngsters must tackle challenges under intense pressure in a fast-paced environment.

This video was brought to you in partnership with Bose

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-AMG F1

Photo by: Bose

Bose special feature

Photo by: Bose

“I’ve loved F1 since I was a kid, I’ve always watched the races with my brother and my dad,” Emma Corfield told us. “I was really drawn, not only to the excitement of the racing, but also to the challenge of the technical aspect of the sport as well.”

Tom Sutton was really attracted to the fast-paced development in Formula 1. He now analyses data to find ways to improve both car and driver performance and develops software applications used by the team on track and at the factory.

Alongside studying for a Mathematics degree at Bath University, Abbey O’Dwyer works on placement with the Mercedes team as a software integration tester. “Everyone seems to be united, to work together so well,” she enthused. “There’s no finger pointing – we all win together, we all lose together, and that’s what I really like about Mercedes.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1

Photo by: Bose

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-AMG F1

Photo by: Bose

Technical Director James Allison explained why bringing young graduates and placement students into the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team is so important. “Instead of having an autocratic, top-down decision making structure, we try instead to get people to buy into the fact that we’re a team, and that being a team is going to make a big difference as to whether we’re winning or losing grands prix – and to trust them to work on parts of the car much earlier than some other teams would.”

‘Do more, be more, feel more’ is a mantra shared by both Bose and Mercedes – and it’s clear that these young engineers are on a quest to drive innovation in the future.

This video was brought to you in partnership with Bose. Product featured is the new Headphones 700, discover more at bose.co.uk