Today the Ferrari F1 Engineering Academy, a program for the development of young engineers, is in its seventh year and can already look back on a success story.
The Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow initiative aims to select, evaluate and train the best students from several of the most prestigious universities in Italy and the rest of the world with the aim of joining Scuderia.
Who are you? Five were selected for the academic year 2021/2022: two young women and three young men of different nationalities, all from universities in England and Italy.
Irene Vittori Antisari is Italian and comes from MUNER, the Motorvehicle University of Emilia Romagna, while Nuria Catells is Spanish and has a Masters degree from Oxford Brookes University, which is where British student Craig Davidson is from and who will join the group in a year some Weeks.
The other two young engineers are Edoardo Barbieri, a graduate of Imperial College London, and Oliviero Agnelli, Turin Polytechnic.
The selection. The five were selected from 497 candidates and had to go through several selection phases in which the number was gradually reduced. 72 of them made it through the first stage based on technical and recruitment tests and questions related to Ferrari values.
39 of them then met for a discussion with the company’s HR department. This reduced the number to 19, who then tackled another group evaluation before the ten best met with the responsible GES managers. In this last stage the five were selected and today they start their adventure with Scuderia Ferrari.
How does it work. 80% of their time, the participants of the F1 Engineering Academy work in departments that correspond to their specialist area, while the remaining 20% work together on joint projects. The young engineers are divided into two macro groups, one with the Power Unit Area, the other with the Chassis Area.
Each participant works with their team on an assigned task and can count on the help of two specially assigned tutors when working in groups. At the end of their six-month academy time until the end of March 2022, the young people have to present the projects they have developed to the team. It is an important moment that over a hundred GES employees attended last year.
Before. As mentioned earlier, the Ferrari F1 Engineering Academy is a program that allows the company to host some of the most promising young engineers from around the world.
Since the program began, over 40 students have joined Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow. Among them, from America, Steven Petrik, who is now the performance engineer of Carlos Sainz, and the Scot Calum MacDonald, the Spaniard’s driver-trainer.
Like on a campus. The company also ensures that the academy’s students are fully immersed in life in Maranello. The Human Resources department ensures that the young engineers are involved in various activities, each with their own tutor and a person in the department as a reference person.
In addition, non-Italians can take Italian lessons and are supported in integrating into the company and experiencing Italian culture.
They also form a team when it comes to living, as they are all housed in the same dormitory, so that they can spend time together in team building.
Good luck everyone! (Press release)
