Williams and Randstad have announced the students selected to join the Randstad Williams Engineering Academy’s “Class of 2016” – the second intake of students to join this innovative scheme that sees Williams and Randstad mentor students from across the world as they bid to secure a career as a Formula One engineer.

Nine students were selected from a pool of candidates competing in the 2016 F1 in Schools World Finals competition held in Austin, Texas from 16-18 October. F1 in Schools is a global not for profit STEM competition that sees students design, build and race miniature racing cars.

Following a series of written submissions and group exercises the students were informed of their selection at last night’s F1 in School’s World Finals Gala Dinner in Austin, with Williams’ Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds, and Randstad’s Chief Innovation Officer in the US, Graig Paglieri making the announcement. The Class of 2016 are based in five different countries and comprises;

Nathan Bryce, UK
Katelyn Chelberg, UK
Michael Chellappah, Sri Lanka
Youngil Ko, South Korea
Amy Martin, UK
James McDonagh, UK
Cora Morrow, UK
Ajinkya Sawant, US
Jesse Stevens, Australia

Year One of the programme sees the students complete a series of motorsport themed e-learning modules that have been developed by Williams in partnership with Cambridge University Press. Each student has a Williams engineer as a tutor to guide them through the e-learning activities and provide advice on a motorsport career. This is complemented by a number of practical experiences.

Academies designed to identify and train future racing drivers have existed in Formula One for a number of years, but this is the first scheme of its kind dedicated to identifying and supporting a new generation of Formula One engineering stars.

This is a competitive scheme, with each cohort of students gradually whittled down in numbers based on performance criteria. The goal is for successful graduates of the Academy to join Williams upon completion of their university studies.

The Academy officially began in September 2015 and the first intake of eleven students have now completed their first year, with eight students successfully making it through to Year Two which kicks off on 1 November.