Zimbabwean born chemical engineer Stephanie Travers joins Formula One as a Trackside Fluid Engineer for Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 team after defeating 7 000 other applicants and going through a five-stage rigorous selection process.
Travers was born in Harare to Maria & Bertram Travers, she is the grand-daughter of Pat Travers the late Chairman of Arcadia United FC.
The University of Bradford Faculty of Engineering and Informatics website page celebrating “Women in Engineering” quotes Travers saying
My Dad and Grandad were engineers, so they were very proud when I chose to follow a family tradition, even though I’m the first to choose Chemical Engineering.
I was nervous about being the only female, but there were five other women on my course, plus loads more across the whole school. In fact, in the year below me, the ratio of men to women is almost 50:50, which is fantastic.
Travers was unveiled at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain by Eric Holthusen, director of technology for the Petronas Lubricants International Group.
The 24-year-old engineer will be mentored by fellow trackside fluid engineer Ahmad Nasri Mohd Shafie in providing five-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton with a comprehensive suite of fluid support services for his car.
PLI CEO Giuseppe D’Arrigo remarked
“We are very pleased to welcome Stephanie today as PETRONAS ‘new Trackside Fluid Engineer (PTFE),”
“Stephanie will travel with the team in all races to work at PETRONAS ‘laboratory on the track. Our engineers represent PETRONAS ‘technical excellence in Formula 1 and the company’s commitment to creating a pool of talent to bring our fluid technology from the race tracks to the road.
Stephanie Travers short biography
- Born in 1994 (Harare)
- Rosebery School (2008-12)
- BEng Chemical Engineering (University of Bradford, UK, 2001-16)
- MSc Chemical Engineering (Imperial College, UK, 2017)
- Asset Care Engineer at BASF (2017-2019)
- Project Manager at PolyGen (Oct-Nov 2017)
- TopShop Topman (June-Sept 2017)
News Agencies