F1 Careers - What Are My Chances In 2022?

F1 Careers Research 2021 - What Are My Chances Of a Career In Formula 1?

It is safe to say that the UK is a global hub for Formula 1 & motorsport in general. Mercedes, Red Bull, Williams, McLaren and Racing Point are all based in Britain, and even overseas teams such as Haas and Renault have bases here too. Of course, the engines come from all over the world, but the vehicles and the engineering tend to be British.

In the UK, we also have specialist universities which support the future development of the sport. So, with such a vast heritage of Formula One, it is no surprise that us Brits love the idea of working in motorsport.

At Accu, as we supply many teams with components, and support many student teams via sponsorship deals, we wanted to take a closer look at statistics on Formula 1 careers in 2021… so our young engineers can properly appreciate their chances of finding their dream job.

Demand For F1 Engineering Jobs:

F1 jobs have always been deemed as one of the most sought-after engineering career paths. 

Trend data shows that 5,600 British people were actively looking for F1 jobs in June 2021 [1] – compared to 3,000 in July 2016 – indicating an 86% increase in interest in five years.

The official F1 jobs page [2] currently acquires 40,000 views per month [3] with just nine engineering jobs currently (July 2021) being advertised, meaning that there are potentially 4,444+ interested candidates per job.

By comparison, the BT’s engineering jobs page gets 1,300 views per month, and at the time of research, there were 20 available engineering roles – 65 candidates per role.

Airbus’ careers page receives 1,600 hits per month, with 369 available engineering roles – 4.3 candidates per role.

F1 vs the most in demand jobs in the UK, 2021

When we look at job availability in the F1 versus to other roles in the UK, it offers a clear picture of how scarce careers in the F1 really are. 

Let’s look at some ‘common’ career paths:

• There are 0.1 people actively looking for sales jobs per role being advertised on Indeed [5]. To look at it another way, that’s almost 7 available roles per person.  
• There are 0.17 people for every chef role – almost 6 roles per person. 
• There are 6.7 jobs for every one person looking for finance roles.

This generally means that, for these sectors, there is a skills shortage, and employees are in high demand. This is also true for the engineering sector as a whole – with almost 3.5 roles available per person.

By stark contrast, demand for engineering jobs specific to the F1 completely outstrips the availability of roles, with an average of 488 people per role.

Interest in F1 jobs by country

F1 jobs are not just in demand from British engineers, but engineers from around the globe too [5].

The majority (45%) of visitors to the F1 careers page are British, followed by United States (9.9%), India (9.5%), Brazil (5.2%) and then Canada (4.44%).

Formula 1 jobs by gender 

53% of British men consider themselves a fan of the F1, compared to 40% of women [6]. 

Interestingly, this ratio (40% of fans being women) reflects what is happening in the F1 management team. In fact, Formula 1 is doing a good job when it comes to gender equality. 38% of the Formula One Management’s 569 employees are female [7].

How much do F1 engineers earn?

Research suggests that starting salaries for graduates in F1 are actually pretty good and comparable with other engineering sectors. There is no pay structure in most teams and policies vary, but the average graduate engineer or one with only a year or so of work experience would earn somewhere between £20,000 and £30,000 depending on the position and their qualifications.

A typical starting salary for engineering graduates in non-F1 roles is around the £26,000-£29,000 mark, meaning that engineers starting out their careers within the F1 may initially earn less than their peers. 

However, junior engineers – just one jump up from a graduate – can earn more than £48,000 with just a few years' experience. Senior race engineers earn £60,000 to £109,000 and the role of technical director will bring in £450,000+ per year.

References

[1] According to Keywords Everywhere data 

[2] https://careers.formula1corporate.com/

[3] All monthly view data is according to SimilarWeb data – see all volumes in Table 1 below.

[4] Data was acquired by dividing Keywords Everywhere data for searches (e.g. ‘Engineering jobs’ by the number of active roles on https://uk.indeed.com/. See all data in table 2 below.

[5] According to SimilarWeb

[6] Data from Statista

[7] The Women Who Power Formula 1 

Table 1 - Engineering Employer Data 2021

 

Table 2 - UK Job Statistics 2021

 

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