A Great Story from the Infiniti Engineering Academy!
We talked about the Infiniti Engineering Academy earlier in June.
For those of you who missed the piece, the Academy is a project that Infiniti created last year to find some of the world’s most talented young engineers and to bring them into the fold.
Infiniti looks for young talent everywhere: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe, China, Dubai and Hong Kong.
The Canadian contest took place last week, on July 27 and 28, 2016. Engineering students or graduates applied online, and the 10 most interesting candidates were invited to Montreal for the competition.
The winner of the Canadian contest was offered a six-month contract at Renault’s F1 section and six months at Infiniti in England.
The events were very diverse. The young people were divided into two teams and told to build a miniature car capable of going about 15 metres using very limited materials. What’s more, the car had to be hybrid, meaning that it had to use two of the four modes of propulsion chosen by the judges.
The students also had to take a theory test, be interviewed in front of journalists (an event in which we participated), and design a fictional factory to evaluate their reasoning skills.
The judges tabulated the results and, more importantly, they noted the ability of the candidates to adapt and work within a team.
A great story
After these two days, the lone Francophone in the group, Gatineau’s own Félix Lamy, emerged victorious.
This young man moved me. I had the pleasure of speaking with him and was struck by two things. The first was when he said, in an interview with the media, that he knew that Formula 1 is a tough environment where everyone stabs each other in the back to get ahead.
He was the only candidate who demonstrated this insight, the only one who didn’t paint a picture of an ideal world where everyone holds your hand.
Then, he shared his story, which I learned more about later, when speaking with him at meal time.
Beginning in CEGEP (college), knowing that he wanted to work for an auto racing team, he contacted a various outfits involved in competitions to offer his services. He ended up being offered the chance to clean tires in the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC).
In university, he took part in Formula SAE, an international competition for engineering students, who are challenged to design a car according to certain rules. He devoted all his time to his studies and to his passion for motorsport, putting his social life on the backburner. Going to Europe for a year, leaving his friends, girlfriend and his family behind: that was a sacrifice he was ready to make.
When the judges called him to the front to award him the grand prize, he couldn’t contain his emotion. He spoke about taking steps forward and that this was just another one on his journey. But then he admitted, with a shaky voice, that the news about his win hadn’t really sunk in.
His expression was one of humble recognition. He showed that working hard and believing in your dreams can take you a long way. It’s only the beginning of his career, but if he manages to keep up his work ethic and his strength, I would not be at all surprised to one day see him as the head of an F1 team.
Congratulations, Félix, and good luck in Europe!