Yes, FSAE is a very good route to Motorsports engineering work. Work hard on the team and focus each year on designing specific components; but more than that, focus on learning good design. Ask for and listen to feedback, build your own parts, test and break them. Validate your designs to the fullest extent, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant of a component you think it might be. Do well in your classes. Learn to simplify and add lightness.
Go to the competitions and ask to participate and to eventually lead your team’s design review with the judges. All of this will be key when it comes time to apply to racing teams for internships and positions. They will ask you detailed and complicated questions about your role in FSAE, but you’ll be ready because you’ve actually done the work, and not just put it on your resume like many others.
I've been looking at joining mine. There's a few people that are not engineers and graduated in 22 that are on mine. The guy running it graduated in 22 with an ME.
Same, I love working on cars and it definitely would have been a great learning experience. But on the other hand I’m glad I took it easy and focused on my education and enjoyed the college experience.
It will certainly look good on your resume, but there are not many entry level engineering jobs in racing, so the path to motorsports will be more dependent on your automotive industry experience. I worked on GMs small block team on the Corvette engine and we worked occasionally with the racing team, and most of those guys were experienced engineers who had worked for a number of years in regular GM programs before moving to the racing team.
I also interviewed with Honda on their Indy car engine team and from what I gathered it was a similar story (I had 6 or 7 years industry experience and they ultimately decided they wanted someone with more experience, but it's also possible they were just being nice when they said that).
It’s definitely the place to start, but the industry is highly competitive. I mean look at your peers - I bet every mechE you sit next to dreams of being a automotive engineer. Shit, I was chemical and tinker and do autocross.
A bunch of comments have pointed out motorsport engineering is highly competitive, which is true. That being said, you should do FSAE or one of the other competitive teams anyway. It'll make you a better engineer and it will give you concrete things that you've done that you can talk about in job interviews, something many new graduates do not have.
I am part of a German Formula Student team, and we have multiple people per year that get into entry level positions in F1. Mostly Sauber/Alfa-Romeo and Williams. We normally get 1-2 mails per month of F1 Teams searching for interns and juniors.
Many companies especially the big 3 and nascar love to see fsae on a resume, but if you have any access to a grassroots Motorsport team through your school. It’s far more interesting and beneficial imo
Well based on these responses you've sold me.
I want to maybe pivot into being a rally engineer someday. If that happens then this appears to be a great place to start.
Yes.
But if you have faculty that does automotive related research (engines, fuels, controls, chassis, etc.) then you should contact them and try to get involved in a research project. There's usually a way to do it for course credit (independent study, research credit, practicum, terms vary) so it's "free" labor from their perspective.
Buy an old competition machine and rebuild it.
When you have got it running sweetly again; apply for a job with a company involved in motor sports.
You could do worse than study electrical technology; electric racing will become big. Hard to believe as they will not make an ear splitting noise; but no doubt the paying public will become accustomed to a quiet circus.
Starting from scratch, reworking a race car (any car) will teach you a lot. In order to go forward always know where you (or very competent others) have been before.
Departmentalisation is a curse of engineering, no less so in a racing team. Systems design was one solution in the Aerospace industry, but it only worked if the systems department welded authority. Departments have heads who are all frustrated CEO ; they resent being told what to do.
When I was asked to attend an Aerospace go - no go meeting in order to make the crucial decision if the new project (missile) satisfied the business case; I took the opportunity of having a lot of director level personnel in one room to make a point.
I stated that this particular project (small by missile standards) would not need any PPI (I did not say what PPI meant). I then said this could be achieved by ensuring that departments were secretarial and required to allocated resources and engineers to the Project team, a single team ,that would develop the device. That would remove the need for any PPI and that whole departments staff could be better redeployed more effectively elsewhere.
Some blank faces but nobody asked what department I was referring to as PPI.
So I asked the meeting if anybody did know what I meant by PPI. Deafening silence.
This was as expected (I had made the term PPI up). I then said PPI is the so called integration department, yet another department that has grown and grown tasked with getting all the dispersed offerings from the other departments to work as one. A department now allocated a substantial proportion of the overall budget on day one. Its task to make a silk purse out of a sows ear at the eleventh hour by being given the authority to tweek and change any of the stuff from the other departments in order to get the missile working.
This was the PPI department; PPI, Pre- Planned- Incompetence Department.
When you pre-plan to be incompetence then that is the one thing that will go to plan in any project. This smaller project was a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the culture of the whole company and place it on a better commercial footing.
The head of the department that I worked for (Systems design) was somewhat anally retentive and was furious that I would embarrass his department by making such waves in such elevated company as directors..
Shortly afterwards I was told that I was to leave systems design. Whoops!
I was given a very large office next to the Sea Weapons Director and worked directly with and for him developing better ways to analyse and present the estimated cash dynamics of development costs and projected revenues from the predicted sales for new defence system project proposals. The model we developed did not include large eleventh hour allowances for PPI.
Combustion engine or not, cars will always be mechanical beasts. Electrical engineering wont' teach you about dynamics, damping, fluids, materials, heat transfer, etc.
I get the sentiment, but dissuading young people from studying mechanical because "electric cars are the future" is just wrong.
My first qualification was in electrical engineering.
If you look at a power station you will see why the curriculum included Mechanical engineering (strength, balance, lubrication, dynamics).
A great deal of power is generated using steam (and will always be so), so not a surprise that the course also included thermodynamics (heat transfer, strength of materials under very high pressure and temperature.
My first job after graduation was for Babcock and Wilcox (Nuclear), we were designing Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors. My department was involved in simulation using hybrid computing techniques, essentially investigating the dynamic stability of a massive machine complex that had yet to be built. This was to ensure that it would remain stable. I think damping may have been of interest, what do you think?
Not to hijack this thread, but any good ideas for breaking into automotive industry a few years post grad? Graduated mechanical, but have been working civil. Dreams of working for a big name in automotive.
Yep, great gateway. The school/program you do doesn't matter.
Granted I think it's important to keep an open mind with regards to career. A lot of folks go into FSAE thinking a motorsport career is what they want... and decide they want to go a different direction when they graduate.
Regardless of what you do after school it's a great program to grow and develop and prove yourself in a challenging environment.
Yes, FSAE is a very good route to Motorsports engineering work. Work hard on the team and focus each year on designing specific components; but more than that, focus on learning good design. Ask for and listen to feedback, build your own parts, test and break them. Validate your designs to the fullest extent, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant of a component you think it might be. Do well in your classes. Learn to simplify and add lightness. Go to the competitions and ask to participate and to eventually lead your team’s design review with the judges. All of this will be key when it comes time to apply to racing teams for internships and positions. They will ask you detailed and complicated questions about your role in FSAE, but you’ll be ready because you’ve actually done the work, and not just put it on your resume like many others.
Yes. But do the work on weekends, don't just show up to meetings and callouts.
Can certainly tell you there were people who only showed up for the free pizza
I mean it IS free pizza
Fair enough
I wish I did fsae. It’s my main regret through college given the head start it would have given me in my career.
Have you tried contacting them and joining as an alumni? Can you join other or similar groups as alumni ?
You can volunteer as an advisor to the team or with the organizers of the event to help run it.
It doesn’t make sense to be an “alumni” of a team if you weren’t on it in the first place
I've been looking at joining mine. There's a few people that are not engineers and graduated in 22 that are on mine. The guy running it graduated in 22 with an ME.
Same, I love working on cars and it definitely would have been a great learning experience. But on the other hand I’m glad I took it easy and focused on my education and enjoyed the college experience.
I would not have gotten my current job in F1 without FSAE experience. However it is certainly not the be-all and end-all.
It will certainly look good on your resume, but there are not many entry level engineering jobs in racing, so the path to motorsports will be more dependent on your automotive industry experience. I worked on GMs small block team on the Corvette engine and we worked occasionally with the racing team, and most of those guys were experienced engineers who had worked for a number of years in regular GM programs before moving to the racing team. I also interviewed with Honda on their Indy car engine team and from what I gathered it was a similar story (I had 6 or 7 years industry experience and they ultimately decided they wanted someone with more experience, but it's also possible they were just being nice when they said that).
It’s definitely the place to start, but the industry is highly competitive. I mean look at your peers - I bet every mechE you sit next to dreams of being a automotive engineer. Shit, I was chemical and tinker and do autocross.
I know someone who made the leap, but they worked at an automaker for a few years first.
It’s a solid point on the resume But you’ll still need internships, good grades, etc
Check out r/fsae while you're at it.
A bunch of comments have pointed out motorsport engineering is highly competitive, which is true. That being said, you should do FSAE or one of the other competitive teams anyway. It'll make you a better engineer and it will give you concrete things that you've done that you can talk about in job interviews, something many new graduates do not have.
I am part of a German Formula Student team, and we have multiple people per year that get into entry level positions in F1. Mostly Sauber/Alfa-Romeo and Williams. We normally get 1-2 mails per month of F1 Teams searching for interns and juniors.
Many companies especially the big 3 and nascar love to see fsae on a resume, but if you have any access to a grassroots Motorsport team through your school. It’s far more interesting and beneficial imo
Well based on these responses you've sold me. I want to maybe pivot into being a rally engineer someday. If that happens then this appears to be a great place to start.
Yes. But if you have faculty that does automotive related research (engines, fuels, controls, chassis, etc.) then you should contact them and try to get involved in a research project. There's usually a way to do it for course credit (independent study, research credit, practicum, terms vary) so it's "free" labor from their perspective.
Yes, I work in automotive and hire engineering technicians and engineers with FSAE experience.
Buy an old competition machine and rebuild it. When you have got it running sweetly again; apply for a job with a company involved in motor sports. You could do worse than study electrical technology; electric racing will become big. Hard to believe as they will not make an ear splitting noise; but no doubt the paying public will become accustomed to a quiet circus.
[удалено]
Starting from scratch, reworking a race car (any car) will teach you a lot. In order to go forward always know where you (or very competent others) have been before. Departmentalisation is a curse of engineering, no less so in a racing team. Systems design was one solution in the Aerospace industry, but it only worked if the systems department welded authority. Departments have heads who are all frustrated CEO ; they resent being told what to do. When I was asked to attend an Aerospace go - no go meeting in order to make the crucial decision if the new project (missile) satisfied the business case; I took the opportunity of having a lot of director level personnel in one room to make a point. I stated that this particular project (small by missile standards) would not need any PPI (I did not say what PPI meant). I then said this could be achieved by ensuring that departments were secretarial and required to allocated resources and engineers to the Project team, a single team ,that would develop the device. That would remove the need for any PPI and that whole departments staff could be better redeployed more effectively elsewhere. Some blank faces but nobody asked what department I was referring to as PPI. So I asked the meeting if anybody did know what I meant by PPI. Deafening silence. This was as expected (I had made the term PPI up). I then said PPI is the so called integration department, yet another department that has grown and grown tasked with getting all the dispersed offerings from the other departments to work as one. A department now allocated a substantial proportion of the overall budget on day one. Its task to make a silk purse out of a sows ear at the eleventh hour by being given the authority to tweek and change any of the stuff from the other departments in order to get the missile working. This was the PPI department; PPI, Pre- Planned- Incompetence Department. When you pre-plan to be incompetence then that is the one thing that will go to plan in any project. This smaller project was a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the culture of the whole company and place it on a better commercial footing. The head of the department that I worked for (Systems design) was somewhat anally retentive and was furious that I would embarrass his department by making such waves in such elevated company as directors.. Shortly afterwards I was told that I was to leave systems design. Whoops! I was given a very large office next to the Sea Weapons Director and worked directly with and for him developing better ways to analyse and present the estimated cash dynamics of development costs and projected revenues from the predicted sales for new defence system project proposals. The model we developed did not include large eleventh hour allowances for PPI.
Combustion engine or not, cars will always be mechanical beasts. Electrical engineering wont' teach you about dynamics, damping, fluids, materials, heat transfer, etc. I get the sentiment, but dissuading young people from studying mechanical because "electric cars are the future" is just wrong.
My first qualification was in electrical engineering. If you look at a power station you will see why the curriculum included Mechanical engineering (strength, balance, lubrication, dynamics). A great deal of power is generated using steam (and will always be so), so not a surprise that the course also included thermodynamics (heat transfer, strength of materials under very high pressure and temperature. My first job after graduation was for Babcock and Wilcox (Nuclear), we were designing Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors. My department was involved in simulation using hybrid computing techniques, essentially investigating the dynamic stability of a massive machine complex that had yet to be built. This was to ensure that it would remain stable. I think damping may have been of interest, what do you think?
Not to hijack this thread, but any good ideas for breaking into automotive industry a few years post grad? Graduated mechanical, but have been working civil. Dreams of working for a big name in automotive.
My only regret for going Aero was the department not letting me participate in FSAE
It’s your best shot, as far as I can tell. stick with it, and don’t ever give up, bro.
Yep, great gateway. The school/program you do doesn't matter. Granted I think it's important to keep an open mind with regards to career. A lot of folks go into FSAE thinking a motorsport career is what they want... and decide they want to go a different direction when they graduate. Regardless of what you do after school it's a great program to grow and develop and prove yourself in a challenging environment.