Seven Engineering Dream Jobs On Offer: Infiniti Launches 2018 Engineering Academy Including Trackside Finals At F1 Grands Prix With Renault Sport Formula One Team

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is aimed at highly driven students looking to venture into the vehicle engineering industry, where they will brush shoulders with some of the most experienced engineers within automotive and Formula 1™.

This new edition of the INFINITI Engineering Academy will also benefit from unprecedented access to Formula 1™ circuits during Grand Prix weeks, with six of the seven Academy Finals being held trackside (Canada, Silverstone for the Europe Final, Singapore for the Asia & Oceania Final, US, Mexico, and Abu Dhabi for the Middle East Final).

As a result, the INFINITI Engineering Academy finalists (10 per participating region) will be granted access to the Renault Sport Formula One™ Team’s pit lane, garage and motorhome areas on the Thursday before their local Formula 1™ Grand Prix, where they will carry out several challenges under the watchful eye of Bob Bell, Nico Hülkenberg, Carlos Sainz, and other members of Renault Sport Formula One™ Team.

Tommaso Volpe (Director Motorsport & Performance Projects, INFINITI Global), said: “Thanks to our Technical Partnership with Renault Sport Formula One Team, INFINITI is now an established active player in F1. The INFINITI Engineering Academy is one of our most successful projects and we are very proud of the impressive growth of this program year after year, both in terms of student applications and awareness. In 2018 we will offer again a once in a lifetime opportunity to seven young engineers from all over the world, confirming INFINITI’s commitment to talent and diversity.

“Furthermore, we’re incredibly pleased that this year the winners of the INFINITI Engineering Academy will be selected trackside during Grand Prix weeks - the perfect setting for engineers to compete for a place in this unique program.”

For the 2018 edition of the Academy, INFINITI has also partnered with Harvard University Professor Dr. Julia Minson, who specializes in decision science. Dr. Minson will work with the INFINITI Engineering Academy to conduct ground-breaking research into decision making in engineering, and how the very best engineers perform under pressure to make decisions when faced with vast amounts of complex data. The learnings from the research will then be incorporated by both the INFINITI engineering and motorsport teams to optimize their decision-making processes.

Dr. Minson and her team will also support INFINITI during the Engineering Academy recruitment process and assist the judges during the Finals to ensure that the best winners are selected. With increasing registration numbers year-on-year (the 2017 edition attracted over 12,000 registrations from 41 different countries - a near-threefold increase on the previous edition), competition to secure one of the seven places available globally is fiercer and the caliber of the candidates higher than ever.

“Attracting top new talent is crucial for success in Formula One, and the INFINITI Engineering Academy helps us do that”, said Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director, Renault Sport Racing. “It’s a fantastic initiative that takes recruitment in F1 to a whole new level, and brings new and diverse talent to the sport, which is crucial to its future development.

“The Academy Engineers that we have working with us at Enstone are a big asset to us as we continue to strengthen our technical resource. We look forward to recruiting the seven 2018 winners and expect the same great levels of talent we have seen in the previous ones”, added Abiteboul.

“With Formula 1 more relevant to the automotive industry than ever, INFINITI reaffirms its pledge to creating a cross-functional automotive-F1 platform for young engineers, who can boost their careers through this unique opportunity within the largest automotive corporation in the world, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance”, concluded Volpe.

The INFINITI Engineering Academy is INFINITI’s global search for some of the best young engineers in the world to work across automotive and Formula 1™, on a unique 12-month placement.

Now in its fifth successive year, the Academy provides a money-can’t-buy, life-changing career opportunity for seven world-class students to learn from veteran engineers and play an active role in INFINITI’s technical partnership with Renault Sport Formula One™ Team.

For the 2018 edition, seven global regions will participate (Asia & Oceania, Canada, China, Europe (including Russia), Mexico, Middle East and United States), each offering one of the seven places available.

From the applications received, which have grown exponentially with every new edition of the Academy, only the top 70 engineering students (the 10 best applicants of each region) will go through to one of the seven regional final events (one in each of the participating regions) to try and secure a place.

This one-of-a-kind global search for the world’s best up-and-coming engineers will provide each of the seven winners with a career opportunity of a lifetime, complete with travel, accommodation, access to an INFINITI company car, a salary and the possibility to work alongside world-leading engineers at the cutting edge of the automotive and motorsport industries.

Having launched the careers of previous winners, the INFINITI Engineering Academy is THE technical recruitment initiative in Formula 1™. One of its key pillars is exploring crossover opportunities and the sharing of technology between INFINITI road car and Renault Sport Formula One™ race car projects. With this added depth of knowledge transfer and the enhanced scope for collaboration that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance brings, the Academy will provide an unmatched range of experiences and opportunities to the seven 2018 winners.

For more information on the INFINITI Engineering Academy or to apply, please visit academy.infiniti.com

Credits: