Department of Engineering / News / Helen Makey has won a 6 month internship with Renault F1

Department of Engineering

Helen Makey has won a 6 month internship with Renault F1

Helen Makey has won a 6 month internship with Renault F1

Helen with the eight other candidates

Helen Makey a fourth year student in Mechanical Engineering has won a competition for a six month internship working at the Renault F1 factory and will join the F1 team for her placement in September. Helen is a team leader in the Formula Student competition and has a passion for karting and road rally events. Fittingly, her Masters project was in collaboration with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and dealt with moveable aerodynamics.

To win this competition is a dream come true. The chance to be part of the Renault Team is very special and provides me with an excellent opportunity to put my studies into practice in the dynamic world of Formula One. I’d like to thank Altran, Total and or course the Renault F1 Team for giving me this chance.

Helen Makey

The final of the 2009 Altran Engineering Academy (AEA) competition took place at the ING Renault F1 Team’s Technical Centre in Enstone, England. 22 year-old Helen crossed the finish line first with her project aimed at enhancing energy efficiency using moveable aerodynamics.

Following in the footsteps of her predecessors from the UK, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Brazil, Helen will commence her placement working in the Research and Development department of the Renault F1 Team under Dr. Robin Tuluie, the department head. Salary, accommodation and a Renault company car will be part of the well-earned prize offered by Altran, Total and ING Renault F1 Team.

After hearing her name called out as the winner, Helen said: “To win this competition is a dream come true. The chance to be part of the Renault Team is very special and provides me with an excellent opportunity to put my studies into practice in the dynamic world of Formula One. I’d like to thank Altran, Total and or course the Renault F1 Team for giving me this chance.”

The eight other candidates from Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland also impressed the jury.

After announcing the winner, Robin Tuluie confirmed his heartfelt support for the AEA: “After six years I continue to be impressed by the quality and the level of thought these young engineers bring to the competition. Their passion and ideas are inspiring and I am proud some of them will have the opportunity to fulfil their dream with Renault F1 Team.”

Philippe Girard from Total commented: “It has been inspiring to see the commitment of all participants. Young talent is essential to the science of energy and it is encouraging to know that we can count on such quality and enthusiasm for the future of our research.”

Founded in 2004, the Altran Engineering Academy is a unique initiative with a clear goal: giving young talent a chance. Formula One is a notoriously closed world where it is often extremely difficult for talented young engineers to get their break. In line with the ING Renault F1 Team’s commitment to open up Formula One at all levels, and underlining Altran’s commitment to engineering talent, the AEA was founded as a ‘star academy’ with the goal of giving young engineers the chance to prove themselves at the highest level. The result has been a runaway success, with more than 1,000 young engineers entering detailed technical projects in the competition since 2004. Helen Makey is the sixth winner of the AEA.

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.  All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.