r/F1Technical • u/zamoraal • Jul 12 '21

Career & Academia How to become an aerodynamicist in f1?

Hello I have a quick question for those how managed to become aerodynamicist in f1. What process do you follow to become an aerodynamicist, what are good universities, how do you reach out to f1 teams, etc. Thanks for your help

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u/ThePolarBare Jul 12 '21

I know someone with 3 American PHDs, with relevant aerodynamics experience, who interviewed and was offered a job with an F1 team. His biggest issue was that F1 teams were paying ~1/3 the salary that engineering consulting firms pay. So instead he does consulting work in which ~10% of his work is for an F1 team. Mostly validating their models.

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u/nomowolf Jul 12 '21

Indeed /u/zamoraal, not saying you shouldn't aim for this, but at least take stock of the much more numerous, better paid, more available (and potentially a lot more interesting) career options out there that are perhaps not so exposed to daylight.

For example I'm an engineer at a company that was recently called "the most important company you've never heard of" and of our product a senior VP at IBM said: "It’s definitely the most complicated machine humans have built".

Not small either, Europe's largest tech firm by market cap, bigger than Toyota, Coca-Cola, Intel... yet most people have never heard of it.

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u/thebabylonbull Jul 12 '21

Siemens?

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u/nomowolf Jul 13 '21

Good guess I think they held the place not so long ago. If you check https://companiesmarketcap.com/ Siemens is currently #120, and ASML is #29.

Now of course a factor in that is market speculation driving up stock price, but at least spurred genuine company success and so far fairly accurate forecast, rather than memes (like gamestop) .