Formula One motor racing is very much an international sport. Many of the leading formula one racing teams choose to base their operations in Britain, however. This is surprising because Britain no longer has a car manufacturing industry of any great significance. So why do the formula one team choose to work there? In part, the answer lies in the long tradition of mechanical engineering in British universities which continue to turn out highly-skilled graduates in the subject.
At Birmingham University, for example, the engineering department has specialised in preparing students for a career in the motor-racing industry. Students at the University have designed and built a single-seater racing car as part of their course. Each third-year student took sole responsibility for a section of the car, for example, the engine, bodywork or brakes, and the work was assessed as part of the student’s final degree mark. Even more exciting for the students is the fact that the team building the car also gets to race it against teams from other universities.
This October, Martin Corsham, the student responsible for the engine on last year’s course, is starting work as a trainee with one of the world’s leading formula one team. It is a dream job that makes every other mechanical engineering student in the country feel more than slightly envious. More significantly, is a job that 21-year-old Corsham is adamant (line 30) he would not have got without the hands-on experience he gained at Birmingham.
I‘ve worked on cars since I was a kid,‘ he says, but this was the first engine that I’d worked on completely on my own. I took what was basically a motorcycle engine and turned it into an engine for the racing car.’
Corsham is clearly a true obsessive. He worked on the engine for at least three hours a day throughout his final year at university. The project finally came to a head the day before the car’s official test run on April 22nd. Until that day, the engine had never actually run in the car itself. They eventually got it going at dawn after a desperate all-night session. ‘But what a night!’ Corsham says. ‘I don’t think I’ve got words to describe what it felt like, that feeling of great pride when it actually started. The most satisfying thing though was actually getting to drive the car. I was the first person who got the chance to drive the car with my engine in it, it was wonderful.’
Ian Stewart, who was responsible for the bodywork on the car, also found the whole experience very valuable, if a little frustrating. ‘It’s difficult relying on other people finalising their part before you can do yours,’ he remembers. Stewart spent his whole Christmas holidays producing a model of the bodywork at home. He returned to college to find a few crucial details on other parts of the car had been changed and he had to start again.
The idea for the racing car programme originally came from the students themselves. Reading about an annual competition for racing-car builders in Detroit, USA, students on the course decided that they too would be capable of designing and building their own car. The university was quick to see the value of the idea and gave its backing.
Last May, the team took the car they had built to Detroit. Although the team was new to the competition and had received relatively little funding compared to their rivals, their car impressed the judges. The university now plans to make the project a regular feature of the course. It (line 71) has proved very successful, not only as a practical demonstration of the student’s theoretical studies but also in allowing them to get their hands dirty and impress future employers.