Infiniti Reveals Winners Of “dream” F1 Job

Infiniti has revealed that a British engineering student is amongst the winners of its global talent search initiative for the career opportunity of a lifetime with Formula One team, Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

Following a global campaign, resulting in a three-day world final event in the UK -which saw 12 hopefuls competing for victory in the Infiniti Performance Engineering Academy – William Priest from Chesham, Buckinghamshire along with two others from the USA were announced as the winners.

The 23 year-old was judged by a panel of senior engineering personnel from Infiniti and the race team, led by F1 car designer and chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who was recently revealed to be taking a broader role on other special Red Bull Technology projects. 

Joining William will be Eric LaRoche (25) from Hamilton Square, New Jersey, USA, and Jason Zide (21) from Laguna Beach, California.

Along with a lucrative 12-month engineering work placement with the team beginning in September, the three winners will receive accommodation in the UK, an Infiniti company car and full salary.

In all, the victors were selected from over 1,500 entrants across 100 top engineering universities worldwide, with the final consisting of a series of challenges over three days relating to road car and racing car engineering, split between Infiniti’s Technical Center in Cranfield, UK and at Infiniti Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes, UK.

These included practical design tasks, written exams, intense interviews and complex group exercises to test their technical ability, teamwork skills and performance under pressure. In one task, they received a first-hand insight into the role of a race engineer, working alongside four-time World Champion and Infiniti’s director of performance, Sebastian Vettel, in the team’s simulator.

Commenting on winning the process and on his future role, William said: ‘I am absolutely ecstatic to have made the final three and it still hasn’t sunk in that the F1 team’s workshop will be my office for the next 12 months. Starting my new placement is going to be my biggest challenge yet but I’ll be doing everything possible to do the best job I can and hopefully lay the foundations of my dream career in Formula One.’

Andreas Sigl, global director, Infiniti Formula One, added: ‘William impressed us all throughout the process, especially given the stiff competition he had from the other candidates. He demonstrated not just a natural aptitude for engineering and an excellent work ethic, but also a real understanding of the benefits Formula One can bring road car technologies and the potential for even great technical crossover in the future. We’re delighted to have given William the opportunity to realize his dream and will working closely with him as he settles into their new role.’

Commenting on the conclusion of the process, Adrian Newey added: ‘It’s an incredible achievement for the winners to have made it through this process and I was extremely impressed with the caliber of all 12 of the finalists. It’s a credit to Infiniti for providing this unique platform to find the very best up-and-coming engineers looking to break into the ultra-competitive world of Formula One. For the winners though, the work really begins now, and we look forward to bringing them into the team in September.’