It’s been quite a while since my last posts on this site but as I am about to start recruiting again for some new faces in my team I had a few things on my mind which I wanted to put out there. Recruiting for me is so important and I really want the best candidates. It is such a pleasure to find an enthusiastic and knowledgeable newcomer who can join our company and build themselves up into a rounded and high performing F1 team employee. As you might expect, front running F1 teams generally get a large amount of job applications over the course of a year and for every position advertised but finding the right person is not always that easy…
It may surprise you however to learn that many teams struggle to fill their vacancies with what they consider to be quality applicants. The teams are well aware that the quality of their racing car and therefore their results on track are almost entirely dependent on the quality of their staff. If they make the wrong decision in recruitment then they will be hampering themselves in their quest to win races and championships intense future.
The quantity of applicants for any given job doesn’t always follow the quality of those applicants of course. In F1 this is especially so. When I am recruiting unfortunately I spend a great deal of my time filtering through low quality applicants who either have no relevant qualifications or have generally misunderstood the requirements of the role itself. Of course I want to recruit the best person available and for every successful candidate there are going to be a great many disappointed applicants but the point I am making here is that the vast majority of those applications have been made on little more than a wing and a prayer. It’s a bit like if I applied to be the prime minister of the UK but had never studied politics, been a member of a local political group or member of Parliament and only decided I wanted to get involved in politics a few days ago. There’s a small chance I might get elected because people thought I deserved a chance but it’s not going to happen in any realistic sense.
F1 is not quite the same of course but it’s important to realise that the overall quality of applications is actually very low and not entirely different to the example above. The quantity of competition is high but the quality of that competition is lower than you might at first expect.
Typically people who have been watching F1 on television for a few years and who think they could do a good job at changing wheels or designing a new front wing decide to apply for a job at one of the teams. They don’t give it much more thought than that and so should not be surprised when they don’t get an interview! You’d be amazed at just how many applications we get where armchair enthusiasts outline how they are going to design our next car with some vastly imaginative aerodynamic devices (totally illegal of course) or have a secret way to add 200 horsepower to our engine for next season and so we give them a chance to prove themselves by giving them the job. Thanks for taking your time to apply but…
Why is this important for you? Well apart from advising you not to make fantasy like claims in job applications to F1 teams it is also hopefully somewhat encouraging that you can make a better candidate than the vast majority without having to be the next Adrian Newey. In actual fact you don’t need to be hugely well prepared to get yourself well towards the top of that large pile of applicants. YOU can get a job in F1 by being better prepared and approaching it in the right way. It is perfectly realistic and I’m encouraging you to do it!
Taking that a step further and following some of our key advice on qualifications and getting actively involved in motorsport can propel you further still and put you in a very strong position for that elusive first F1 job. Once you know what you are aiming for and how to get it, F1 comes quickly into reach and you can be sharing the office with the greatest designers, team bosses and drivers in the sport before you know it!
When I said that F1 teams need well prepared candidates like you I really meant it ! We are desperate for good people like YOU with strong ambitions and the clear focus to succeed in racing.
JobinF1 exists mainly to prepare you and guide you on how to get right to the top. Just by following some simple steps, breaking from the crowd and channeling your studies and extra curricular activities into a motorsport focus can set yourself far apart from the also-rans and no-hopers. Our mission is to create top quality F1 engineers, mechanics and employees. Just finding this website and reading this post has put you on the startline. No matter where you are at on your F1 journey there we can help you reach your goals and fulfil the potential you know that you have.
Understanding what a recruiter or a team is looking for is enormously important and it’s something I’ve tried to emphasise in this blog many times. The best candidates are not necessarily the ones who have been working in motorsport the longest or have worked in F1 before. In fact I’ll be honest and say there are a great many average or poor quality applicants already working for other teams and I am very wary of recruiting people purely on the basis that they are already in Formula 1. I’ve been bitten by that before! If I see a well prepared candidate who can demonstrate that they have the skills we are looking for then I’d be happy to take them on my team. There is no reason why that person should not be you.
Hopefully you see that this is all good news and encouraging for those not yet working in racing or in F1. Many people tell me that F1 is a closed community and impossible to break into from the outside but that simply isn’t true. By channeling your energies into the right activities and building up a knowledge and understanding of what goes on in a real Formula 1 team you can be ready to meet the challenge set for you and make your dreams a full time career.
We’d LOVE to be part of your journey. Download our new Trackmap to start pushing towards the front of the career grid today.