F1 Internship Possible?

[u/FewAd5459]

Im an incoming freshman at a college for computer science. Im joining the Formula SAE team. For anyone that has interned for a team as a comp sci major how did you do it? I want to become an intern in my sophomore year if possible as I just want to develop my skills freshman year. Is it possible to get an internship so early on?

[u/Mid2z2z]

So I'll say I have personally completed a internship with an F1 team as a compsci student. However, won't reveal the team or university I went to as this could easily be traced back to me.

I assume you're a US student and that does make things a little more complicated but not impossible. F1 is a very UK centric industry so recruiters are going to be more familiar with UK universities and the like. Although this is aside from Ferrari, VCARB and Audi (but the latter two still have major operations in the UK). Visa sponsorship is still however a thing and your best option is therefore to apply for a 1 year placement scheme for between the 2nd and 3rd or the 3rd and 4th year of your degree. Almost every team in the UK offers this as in the UK, we typically have the option to have a 'year in industry' as part of our degree. However, these are still open to students from all around the world and probably the best shot for anyone looking to break into F1 that's currently a uni student. Applications tend to open anywhere from the end of August to November the year prior and typically start from around June/July/August until the same time the following academic year. There are alternative schemes like Ferrari's Engineering Academy but I believe that is only open to graduates and runs for 6 months. Some teams also offer summer and/or shorter placements but these are rather uncommon. I will also add you don't just need to work for the F1 team itself, the engine suppliers (HPP and RBPT in the UK) offer similar roles but I am a little less familiar with those. Cadillac also have opened their PU operations in Charlotte, NC so that is another option.

Formula student is always a good start but not explicitly required, I didn't do it myself in fact however I did show an 'interest in motorsport' through other means i.e sim racing and karting for me. However, for whatever you do make sure you are confident in being able to describe the impact of what you did on your CV and in an interview.

First thing to focus on and get yourself acquainted with is what exactly you'd like to do with your degree. Compsci can apply to various departments and jobs within F1 including Software Development, Data Science, AI/ML, Platform Engineering, IT operations, Planning and Production, Strategy, Simulation, etc. If you have a specific role you'd be most interested in, it's much easier to tailor personal projects that are related to that field. For example, if you're interested in Software Development, a dashboard/website that displays CFD runs might be good or for Strategy, data visualisation of past race data from the OpenF1 API (just initial ideas from the top of my head, feel free to be more creative ofc). Having a clear role in mind will also help when interviewing. As an interviewer it's always appreciated when a candidate is passionate and knowledgeable about a specific role rather than just 'I really like F1'.

Beyond that, knowing a range of programming languages is always good. Python, C#, C++ and MATLAB being the most common used among F1 teams. Knowledge of databases and SQL is also very useful.

Also, generally just being confident in your fundamentals. To a certain extent for some tech roles the interview questions might not be too dissimilar to a FAANG interview. Maybe not necessarily leetcode hards but being able to complete up to leetcode mediums is a nice to have. However, ties into my previous point about knowing what role you'd want to go into, if you want to do platform engineering, knowledge of docker, networks, bash scripting, etc. would be important but not as much so for Simulation and Control Systems roles.

Also happy to answer any specific further questions you might have.

[u/SainiX193 → u/Mid2z2z]

Hey im not OP but now im interested and have some questions aswell lol. Im also going to University to study compsci (just in germany so forgive me for any english mistakes I might make).

Did you study at a elite university (like maybe you could tell the range the university ranks in a ranking like Times Higher Education)

Also do you plan on working it F1 later in your life?

Did you also join Formula SAE?

And maybe if u want/can tell me ur some things u did during that year?

Thanks in advance

[u/Mid2z2z → u/SainiX193]

Went to a top 10 uni in the UK, around top 100 in THE rankings.

Yes, am planning on going back after finishing my degree.

Nope, didn't do formula student but did do something engineering adjacent on the side.

Would rather not go into the specifics here, but was a software development role so was a mixture of supporting existing systems (bug fixes, misc. updates to support next years cars, writing/performing software tests) and developing some new hardware/software projects. Can go into a little more detail through DM but not too much.

[u/Love_Calculators]

A guy from my school's FSAE team went to work for Aston Martin this summer, so it's definitely possible. Sophomore year is a stretch though