loading . . . 'Keep trying, grow your network and gain experience': How aspiring professionals can break into Formula 1. The Red Bull Racing RB8 is being prepared for the Heineken World Tour in Cape Town
PHOTO CREDIT: Slipstream SA/Junaid Samodien
Formula One is often described as the pinnacle of motorsport, where the difference between victory and defeat is often measured in thousandths of a second. Yet achieving those fine margins requires far more than the efforts of the 22 drivers on the grid.
Behind every lap lies the work of thousands, from engineers, strategists, and mechanics to marketing teams, event managers, and support staff, all working towards a single objective: winning.
Unlike many mainstream sports, success in Formula One cannot be attributed solely to superstar talent or the biggest budget. While exceptional drivers remain a critical ingredient, performance is shaped by a complex blend of engineering excellence, technological innovation, operational precision, and strategic execution.
Since its inception in 1950, the Formula 1 World Championship has evolved into a global technological battleground. Manufacturers such as Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, (Red Bull) Ford, (Aston Martin) Honda, and Cadillac have all invested heavily in the championship, applying expertise across everything from power unit development to chassis design in pursuit of a competitive edge.
If you thought Formula One was a small-scale operation, you would be widely off the mark. Like any motorsport discipline, a race car must be conceptualized, designed, manufactured, assembled, developed, and operated. That alone cannot be achieved by a handful of people - it requires hundreds, if not thousands.
The Red Bull Racing team united to celebrate their successes.
PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool
For some, Formula 1 may have a reputation as an exclusive sport reserved for elite drivers and engineers, however, many hopeful’s, truly don’t understand just how vast the Formula One ecosystem is, we spoke to Oscar Cooper, Event Manager for the Heritage Team at Red Bull Racing, who has shed some light on working within the industry, as well as offering some advice for aspiring team members.
“The ecosystem of Formula 1 is massive, right, there's so many different things, and I think the first thing also to say is of course, most people when they think of F1, they think of people working on the car – but there's so much more, you know, every single F1 team runs like a business anyway, right, so you still need IT technicians, you need people who work in finance, but of course people think of, you know, how do I get to the track? But, I think, often the roots into the sport are from the junior formulas or, you know, people who want to be mechanics and engineers. Certainly, mechanics will be going through the motions of, you know, maybe starting in lower-tier formulas, learning different racing series themselves as well, and then finding a way to join F1,” Cooper said.
Cooper is proof that you do not need to be holding a spanner in the garage to play a critical role. As Event Manager for the Heritage Team, he travels the world helping to plan and execute events that showcase the team's historic cars and legacy.
At Red Bull Racing, there is also a unique pathway through the Heritage Team itself, as he explains: “Specifically for Red Bull Racing, the heritage team we have offers a pathway. So, we use the heritage team as a learning platform – we have young mechanics coming in. The heritage team itself is made up of lots of mechanics who have loads of experience from being on the racing team, and they sort of come from that to go back to the heritage team to maybe learn different skills, upskill, and then go back to the race team. So, what we can do is, we can also then have new young mechanics join the team and learn in this heritage team environment, so learn with, you know, it's not the current car, but they're learning the skills on still a modern F1 car and then also understanding how the team operates, so that's quite special for us as well, is that we can use the heritage team to grow talent.”
Having experience is, in many ways, a form of currency within the motorsport industry. The combination of technical ability and cultural understanding can make all the difference when opportunities do arise.
Yet beyond qualifications and hands-on experience, Cooper highlights one quality above all else: ‘passion’.
“For what this sport is and for what it represents to so many people, having the passion really does count. I think you can do lots of jobs where you sort of feel, okay, yeah, it's just a day job, and that's not kind of, it might not be what I really want to do. I think people who really love being in the sport and stay in the sport are the ones that just have the passion, you know, it's an amazing industry to be a part of, but also it can be quite hard work, you are traveling a lot, you're doing 24 races, you're doing long weekends,” he said. “So, you know, you want to make sure also that you really want to be there and that you're really passionate about it, because then you're getting rewarded and you're working really hard to enjoy where you are. So yeah, I think that's probably something I would say, you speak to most people in F1, and they are, they're really passionate about where they are.”
Passion has long been a driving force behind success in Formula One. As Michael Schumacher famously said: “Once something is a passion, the motivation is there.”
Oscar Cooper, Event Manager for the Heritage Team at Red Bull Racing, explains how a Formula 1 car works.
PHOTO CREDIT: Slipstream SA/Junaid Samodien
For aspiring team members – particularly young South Africans watching from thousands of miles away – Cooper's message carries significant weight. The sport may not currently race in South Africa, or on the African continent for that matter, but South Africans are very much part of the grid.
One such example is Poelane Khutsoane, who works with Red Bull Racing as Country Marketing Lead – a powerful reminder that geography is not a barrier when ambition meets persistence.
The practical advice Cooper offers aspiring team members is simple yet powerful. “The first thing that I would say is just to keep trying. Keep knocking on doors. Look at the different pathways. Volunteer more. Gain experience. Work in different race series if you can,” he said.
Too often, he says, people focus only on Formula One and overlook the broader motorsport landscape.
“I think it's always the case, people see F1, and then they forget that there's so much other racing too, and there's lots of other ways you can continue to gain experience. Of course, F1 is the pinnacle, and it's the top end, and that's something that everybody can strive for. So yeah, continue to gain experience and grow your network and then keep working on it, keep trying,” he added.
What becomes obvious is that there are multiple pathways into Formula 1 – and every skill has value. Whether you're studying engineering, finance, media, hospitality, logistics, or IT, Formula One requires specialists in all of them.
Perhaps the most powerful takeaway from Oscar Cooper's words is that Formula 1 is not a closed shop reserved for a chosen few. It is a vast, complex, and global industry powered by people who refused to give up. So, if Formula One is your ultimate goal, remember the advice offered by those already working within the sport: keep trying, gain experience, and never stop learning.
As Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
So, our question to you is not whether you can reach Formula One – it’s how determined you are to achieve your dream?
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