The ambitions of any Formula 1 engineering project are always geared towards moving the team involved further up the grid.
The Komatsu-Williams Engineering Academy is no different and has similar long-term aspirations – but a whole lot more besides.
The programme was launched on Thursday, with the aim of attracting new and previously untapped talent.
A launch event was staged on the rooftop of the team’s motorhome at the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, which included a visit from Alex Albon – fresh from qualifying ninth in Monza.
Williams team principal James Vowles was also present and addressed the guests to set out in detail what the Academy means to both the team and him personally.
“Engineering is a huge domain across many disciplines. I really look forward to seeing this academy grow and take off, I have seen the plans and I am excited by what it will produce, I think it will work hand and hand with what we are doing within Williams, it is a natural fit,” he said.
“I myself, about 30 years ago, entered a similar mechanism, I was a graduate entering Formula 1 and F1 30 years ago didn’t have any idea what to do with graduates whatsoever.
“It really struck me that I wanted to make sure we provide opportunity for future generations, invest in future generations because they are the ones who will become our leaders in time to come.
“It is an incredibly important part of what Williams is today and what Williams will be in the next five to 10 years, this investment shows immediately that the Williams journey is not one about short-cutting, it is the one about putting foundations in place with the graduates of the future.”
With work experience, apprenticeships, placements and graduate schemes on offer, Komatsu and Williams’ joint venture is setting them out as leaders of such projects.
“The Engineering Academy has been running for a number of years and the principle behind it really is finding the next generation of high-potential talent from a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) perspective,” explains Williams Chief HR Officer, Ann Perrins.
“From a global perspective, we look to engage quite a wide range of students, working with ‘F1 in Schools’ and we will take 10 students onto the programme each year. We look to invest in this year-on-year and the principles are that we find great talent, help them to develop and give them a really fantastic experience.”
What sits at the heart of the launch is Williams multi-year partnership with Komatsu, which was announced in February as a “statement moment” for the team.
While Komatsu’s logo now sits proudly on the cars of Albon and Franco Colapinto, for Perrins the relationship runs far deeper.
“Komatsu is a relatively new partner for us, but straight away we were really aligned on some of these key opportunities to work together,” she said.
“The main thing to say is that with these really important partnerships like Komatsu, it is much more than the stickers on the car. It's making sure that we really bring great value to the partnership.”
F1 in Schools is an important factor for the academy and provides the potential candidates to join the scheme.
An international STEM competition, it challenges students from over 40 countries to design and race miniature F1 cars using computer-aided design software.
Those who are successful will take part in the world finals, this year hosted in Saudi Arabia, to then potentially progress into the Komatsu-Williams Engineering Academy.
“F1 in Schools is a really perfect partnership for this,” said Perrins.
“They are a not-for-profit organisation; they work globally to identify talent all around the world to come into motorsport in the future.
“They have a fantastic competition and really, we're joining up with that competition and meeting their finalist students in Saudi Arabia. Then they apply to be part of the academy and go through the assessment centre.
“We've had a number of success stories and in fact, recently, three of the most recent cohort took our industrial placement year, so they came and worked with Williams for a year and from that, two of those have now joined our graduate programme.
“Once they're into the programme, they will have a mentor to work with them on a quarterly basis. So, they'll have access to them. We have a specific e-learning platform, and there's lots of really great F1 content that really appeals to people that we've been running for a number of years.
“Then one thing that they also get, which is brilliant, is they get to compete for some of the other early careers offers that we have.”
Alongside F1 in Schools, the academy also presents an opportunity for those from less traditional engineering backgrounds to find their footing within the industry.
That is an aspect of the project that excites Komatsu, as their Vice President of Global Brand Transformation, Todd Connolly, explained ahead of the launch event in Monza.
“Diversity is a huge focus in our industry and in Komatsu, particularly. Historically, it's been more male-dominated careers in our industry and it's absolutely our focus, right up to the most senior levels in the organisation, to grow gender diversity,” he said.
“This program also widens the talent pool geographically – Komatsu has more than 64,000 team members globally, so this program will open up opportunities to people all around the world. Aptitude shouldn’t be limited by geographical location
“When we started talking to Williams and found that they have a very similar focus and very much a shared ambition around developing talent, the synergy just felt right. The two organisations, Williams and Komatsu, have shared values and a shared focus on the development of people.”
With Komatsu having been a technical partner of the Willams F1 team during the 1990s, this was a chance to come together again in a completely different capacity.
“Our goal is to create value together with Williams. The previous partnership was, at the time, about developing technologies. The partnership we have now is about developing people and also raising awareness of STEM careers in our sector,” said Connolly.
“The participants through the Engineering Academy are going to make for amazing, high potential, high performance candidates at the end of their educational journey - we'll have to find a way to share them between us and Williams!”
Potentially unearthing the engineering stars of tomorrow from across the world – and across all of society – would no doubt one day benefit Williams and their results on the track.
Perrins and Connolly, however, feel the Komatsu-Williams Engineering Academy has far wider aims.
“It's broader than that, I would say,” said Perrins.
“From a brand perspective, for Williams and Komatsu, it has this really great reach and partnering with ‘F1 in Schools’. It just helps bring motorsport as a career into a wide community of students.
“But then obviously, for the ones who are successful in getting onto the programme, it's a really important way that we invest in their development from an early career perspective.”
“There's nothing more satisfying than seeing someone come out of a programme and being at what we expect to really be the apex of their chosen field,” adds Connolly.
“So definitely, our hopes are that talents flows not just into Formula 1, but also into the heavy industrial sector as well because we're going to need more and more people in engineering and technical roles in our space, to facilitate the next 100 years of growth, just as our first 100 years of growth was driven by our people.”
One thing that is for certain is the pathways to such positions become much more open with the newly launched Komatsu-Williams Engineering Academy and the work the partnership is putting in to make it a success.
