Formula 1 Career Planning - Is Uni of Brighton good for Automotive Engineering?

I am in grade 10 in Canada and I want to have a career in Formula 1. I have done a ton of research on the sport, I love to watch the races but I mostly love the technical part of the sport the most. I have a bit of a bizarre and expensive plan. I want to go to the UK and study Automotive Engineering at The University of Brighton and take my placement year at the McLaren Technology Centre. I'm planning on taking Physical Science, Physics, Chemistry, all the maths my school offers, Graphic Design, Small Motors, and any other related classes that could help get me into this school. I did the research on this school and I know that I need to pass grade 12 English, Maths, Chemistry, and Physics. I also know how much money each year would cost, and the basic classes I would be taking.

I'm not sure if The University of Brighton is a good school for Automotive Engineering and I'm not sure if my plan is too unrealistic. I really want to work in Formula 1 and I will try and do almost anything to help my chances of getting into the sport.
If anyone has any suggestions of what high school classes I should be taking, or what else I can do to make this plan easier I would appreciate it!!

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 1

EauRouge7105

Motorsport Engineering at Brookes would be a lot better option to make it into F1. If you checkout LinkedIn, all F1 team employ a lot of graudates from Brookes. I'm headed there as well

Reply 2

jaydahill749

Original post by EauRouge7105

Motorsport Engineering at Brookes would be a lot better option to make it into F1. If you checkout LinkedIn, all F1 team employ a lot of graudates from Brookes. I'm headed there as well

Thank you so much for this information, it helps a lot!!!!

Reply 3

sillygoose117

Hi! I've done a placement at McLaren and am currently applying for graduate roles across multiple teams. At Mclaren, the majority of staff was from Bath, Southampton, Oxford Brooks, and Oxbridge (Cambridge/Oxford). Loughborough and Warwick are also really common. If grades are an issue, then look into the foundation years (Southampton, Bath, probably more unis). If you don't want to do a foundation year, then Oxford brooks have lower grade intake and also Coventry Uni do a good motorsport undergrad and I've met a handful of people who have done that.

If you are moving to the UK solely to get into F1, I would really dissuade you from going to Brighton. The teams tend to hire from the universities they are familiar with. It may not be fair but it's unfortunately the case. It doesn't mean that it is impossible to get a placement at McLaren as a Brighton student, but you'd be creating more barriers for yourself.

Final point, you could do your undergrad at any uni and then follow up with a specialised masters from Cranfield University in Motorsport Engineering. It looks like a fantastic program with reasonable intake requirements and lots of people make it into multiple teams.

I truly wish you the best of luck!

Reply 4

Coventry University Student Ambassadors

Official Rep

Original post by jaydahill749

I am in grade 10 in Canada and I want to have a career in Formula 1. I have done a ton of research on the sport, I love to watch the races but I mostly love the technical part of the sport the most. I have a bit of a bizarre and expensive plan. I want to go to the UK and study Automotive Engineering at The University of Brighton and take my placement year at the McLaren Technology Centre. I'm planning on taking Physical Science, Physics, Chemistry, all the maths my school offers, Graphic Design, Small Motors, and any other related classes that could help get me into this school. I did the research on this school and I know that I need to pass grade 12 English, Maths, Chemistry, and Physics. I also know how much money each year would cost, and the basic classes I would be taking.
I'm not sure if The University of Brighton is a good school for Automotive Engineering and I'm not sure if my plan is too unrealistic. I really want to work in Formula 1 and I will try and do almost anything to help my chances of getting into the sport.
If anyone has any suggestions of what high school classes I should be taking, or what else I can do to make this plan easier I would appreciate it!!

Hi there,

I would also recommend looking at places that help their students get into F1 during their studies as well as the universities that have a good hiring rate once you've graduated.

There's definitely lots of different universities that offer great hands on Formula One experience but as I go to Coventry university and regularly interact with some of the formula student ambassadors here at Coventry university and their work in the laboratories and machine shop I'd really recommend having a look at some of our programmes as well.
Is a link to some of their work and the course specifications:

https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/colleges-and-schools/engineering-environment-and-science/computing-mathematics-data-science/aicoventry/imeche-formula-student-ai-fsai/

hope this is useful
amber
Coventry university student ambassador