Williams, along with Haymarket Specialist Media/AUTOSPORT, developed a new award program that champions engineering students with a passion for motorsport. The award, called the “Engineer of the Future Award,” selects the strongest and most passionate candidate from a select handful of the most prestigious engineering universities in the UK. Even though the title of “engineer of the future” would be enough, the award is much more than just a piece of paper and a title.

It seems as though this is yet another method in which Williams F1 is attempting to improve the team in the long-run. If you have been living under a rock for the last year and haven’t noticed the complete turnaround from the Williams team this season, it is summarized in this infographic. The team has done a tremendous job in bringing the Williams name back into the top tier of Formula One teams, and they have put in a lot of effort to do so. This new award appears to be a continuation of this attempt; the winner of the award will be recruited (after graduation) by the team. To be sure that the incoming engineers will be of the highest quality, Williams will provide a series of questions and require a personal statement from every candidate. The team hopes that this will allow for the candidates to reveal their intellectual potential for the team as well as their passion for motorsport. The current engineers at Williams will work with these award winners to develop and find their specialties. According to Williams, this is not the only program that they have for up-and-coming engineers.

These programs are an ingenious way to develop the team into the Formula One engineering superpower that it once was.  With these programs, Williams is also supporting the education of the younger generation while also giving young engineers the chance to achieve their dream of working for a Formula One team. While these aspects are great for the team’s public image, this move is more than just a philanthropic gesture. By recruiting the top engineering students, Williams would be padding their engineering team with young minds that can help approach problems in innovate ways. This would likely be achieved at a fraction of what it would cost to hire some current engineers such as, say, Adrian Newey.

The aforementioned Adrian Newey has been voicing his concerns about the education of young drivers lately, and although Williams’s new award is not directed toward drivers, it is reassuring to see bodies within Formula One  emphasizing the importance of education. Even if the motive behind the initiative is a slightly selfish one, the award will hopefully bring an exciting future of technical innovations from a team that is already climbing the ranks back to the top of Formula One.

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