“Experience is valuable. It’s what will make you stand out against other applicants. Gaining that initial experience during my placement year is what set me up for my career, so I’m a strong advocate for being proactive and gaining as much experience as you can.”
With a 13-year career at AP Racing under his belt so far, Oliver now works as a F1 race engineer. But looking back more than decade, where did it all begin? And what has he enjoyed the most?
Oliver’s relationship with AP Racing began during his motorsport engineering degree. While studying at Coventry University, Oliver successfully applied to undertake an industrial placement year and found himself working in the road car design department in 2009.
In August 2010, Oliver returned to the road car design department working on initial concepts and designs for a variety of car parts. Following three years in this role, an opportunity to move into a more customer facing role became available. While still within the road car department, the new position moved away from the design aspect of his previous role, and focused more heavily on a customer facing project management, technical and trackside support with OE customers.
This role offered Oliver a unique opportunity to see a number of projects through from start to end - having designed the parts in his previous role, but getting to take it testing in his new role. While it also came with a steep learning curve, the position enabled Oliver to work with a series of high-profile customers and absorb a wealth of knowledge from his AP Racing colleagues.
It was during this time that Oliver recalls the project he’s most proud of - his first of, what would become, many big projects. The project? The Bugatti Chiron front caliper. As a young engineer, Oliver worked on the part from initial concept through to final design, when the transition to a more customer facing role, enabled him to follow the project through manufacturing and production, and even to testing in Europe – where he was fortunate to test drive the car.
13
Years at AP Racing
Then a colleague retirement, at the end of 2015, saw Oliver move into the race side of the technical sales department. At the time, this included overseeing the F1 customers but has since progressed to include MotoGP and Australian V8 Supercars, along with a number of other high-end race customers.
When asked about his position, Oliver said: “One of the best things about working in my role is the variety that I am afforded. I started in an office role more than a decade ago, but I always knew I wanted to move into a more dynamic role, where I could travel and work alongside our customers.
“The skills difference is also a huge positive. We’re quite a small department, so from an office perspective we get to experience all aspects of the process, including project management, sorting costings and timings, and the technical liaison between AP Racing and the customer. Then trackside, we’re talking to engineers and key figures within the race teams, ensuring they know that we’re on hand should they need us – it’s a high pressure environment, but it’s something that gets easier over time.”