Events
Tell us about your experience on the Student Schemes at Mercedes AMG HPP
I started my placement at Mercedes during the 2015 season and worked initially in ERS build. Whilst in build, my responsibility to the race pool was to build and test a specific part of the ERS module for every Mercedes powered car in the 2016 Formula One World Championship season. I worked with highly skilled build technicians who taught me to consider assembly during design which I still bear in mind in my current design role. Other responsibilities included helping to build development and test modules as well as helping improve the build department work flow with a case study on component tracking methods.
After 9 enjoyable months in ERS build, I moved to electrical product engineering. I mainly supported battery management system development and designing test equipment for F1 related projects. Being more closely involved in the engineering side of F1 let me experience other exciting areas including the track support office where we can monitor and quickly react to any issue arising while our cars are on track.
After completing my MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, I returned to Mercedes AMG HPP. This time round, I am part of the new and exciting Formula E team as an electrical product engineer. My responsibilities include testing sub-sections of our new power unit to ensure we are maximising efficiency wherever possible. I also help design parts of our control electronics which will be used in our first season of Formula E.
What have you learned so far during your time at Mercedes AMG HPP?
I’ve learnt a huge amount about designing mechanical parts for ease of assembly. This is something I’d never done at university as a studying electrical engineer. I’ve also learnt how to improve my communication with engineers and technicians from multi-disciplinary backgrounds.
I’ve learnt about all the other roles which an engineering background opens up for you, for example, performance engineering, race engineering or test engineering. These are all roles which use your technical background in such different ways but all to achieve our collective goal of winning races and world championships.
What have you enjoyed most from your time at Mercedes AMG HPP?
By far the most enjoyable part of being at Mercedes has been being able to experience so many departments and have such varying roles within them. I’ve also really enjoyed being relied on and responsible for such significant elements of our powertrain which is absolutely confidence inspiring and rewarding.
To top it off, knowing you played your part in winning a race or getting a podium finish with our power units is a pretty special feeling, let alone winning a world championship!
What advice would you give to this year’s FS Students?
Read the rules! This is by the far the most useful thing to do as it lets you understand where you can maximise performance and ensure you don’t need to make any huge modifications to get through scrutineering. I was part of Brunel Racing with Brunel University London, we performed well in 2018 when I was most involved, but we also had to remove all our aero as we were breaching a rule.
At Mercedes AMG HPP we scrutinise the rules to make sure our power units are legal AND they maximise performance.
Once again, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains are excited to be partners of this year's Formula Student event.
If you are attending this year and would like to find out more about their Graduate or Placement opportunities for 2020, please visit the Mercedes Marquee, or pre-arrange a time by contacting the team at students@mercedes-amg-hpp.com.