Name: Sam Michael
Job Title: Technical Director, Williams F1
Qualifications: Mechanical Engineering degree from University of New South Wales
How did you get into F1: I had a friend who knew Peter Collins and Peter Wright who were running Team Lotus at the time. He introduced me to them, we spoke about work, and they said if I flew to England they would give me a job. I came as soon as I finished my university degree, at the end of 1993, and started work as a junior designer straight away then after about six months I started going to races and tests as a data engineer. I also spent a few years as a Race Engineer at Jordan before joining Williams in 2001.
What does the job involve: Ultimately, I am responsible for all technical aspects of our end product, the race car. The most visible part of this is taking charge of the car at the track, whether in testing or at the Grand Prix. However, equally as much effort is focused on the less visible process of the design and development of the car. In this process, I am assisted by a Chief Designer and a Chief Aerodynamicist and the lifecycle is now continuous – within a period of a month or two of a new car being launched, we begin the process of designing the race car for the following season, while simultaneously ensuring maximum effort is made in constantly improving and developing the current car.
Worst bit: The demand on your home life probably.
Qualifications required: A degree in either mechanical or aeronautical engineering.
Normal route into the job: It really helps if you have some practical experience before looking for jobs in F1. I would suggest people look for work in Formula ford or some other lower category while they are still at university to get that experience; just helping out at the races as a mechanic is a good start. There is no substitute for experience.
Salary package: A junior engineer in a middle ranking team could expect to start on around £30,000 whereas somebody like Adrian Newey is reputed to earn millions of pounds a year. It varies massively.
