Engineer Salaries in F1

[Mr Pointy]

markbigears said:

Based at Biggin Hill. This isn’t an F1 team but the TV world feed Production base. I used to work for them, Formula One Management, years ago as a freelancer. They paid their staff badly then, looks like nothings changed. As freelancers we would usually stay in the same hotels as the drivers, for example in Malaysia, we’d all be in the Pan Pacific hotel, the staff would be in a complex commonly know as “Tenko”
Good times.

Once upon a time it was all done out of tiny portakabin, or Bernies' OB truck for the European races.

[markbigears]

I was there when they had the huge OB unit, largest in the world back then, 1999-2002

[Mr Pointy]

markbigears said:

I was there when they had the huge OB unit, largest in the world back then, 1999-2002

If you mean Bakersville (more of a village than an OB) there was a "normal" OB unit before that.

[markbigears]

Ah yes Bakersville … good ole Eddie. Did you work for FOM?

[Chamon_Lee]

LittleBigPlanet said:

HardtopManual said:

Glass door salary estimates are, in my experience, wildly inaccurate

I'll counter this to say, in my profession (financial services), they are very accurate (+/- 5%).

I have found them to be quite accurate too

[ChocolateFrog]

Mr Pointy said:

Evanivitch said:

F1 salaries aren't great, but you do get a "travel the world" all expenses paid if you're track team, and the bonuses are very good if you're in a winning team. Not been much of that shared around recently.

It's also very high pressure work, with somewhat a 24/7 mentality depending on how your development is doing and state of your cars at the end of the weekend.

I worked with someone who was quite senior in a smaller team and was trackside (and on TV occasionally). He came to us for a quieter life. On finding out it was more chaotic with us, they went to an engine supplier instead.

If by "travel the world all expenses paid" you mean economy flights, drive to hotel, drive to circuit, eat in hospitality, drive back to hotel, rinse & repeat for four days, economy flight home, prep for next race then yes I suppose you get that. When Australia was the final race at least we managed to get a free holiday at the end - not so much use now it's Abu Dhabi.

Sounds great for a single guy (or girl) fresh out of uni.

Doing that job as a senior and with a family for under £50k. Sounds pretty grim.

[marine boy]

Interested to know if people think the below is 'crap money' for engineering roles but these are up to date ie this week salary ranges UK F1 teams offer,

£30-40k Junior Design Engineer
£45-55 Design Engineer
£60-80 Senior Design Engineer

Many Seniors with a technical specialist skill set or an area of design where there is a shortage of suitably qualified people will be on +£80k and 3yr contracts

For teams serious about being competitive, expected working hours will be 45-50 most of the year, 50-55 during the new car build design period ie Sept to 1st test/race and in extreme circumstances or if at all 7-days a week

Notice periods are between 3 to 12 months, usually UK holiday allowance with extra days accrued after +3yrs of employment, free gym, subsidised canteen and some bigger teams will offer additional benefits such as pension contributions, health care and lease car deals

Ferrari, Sauber and probably Haas pay above UK going rates, they need to to entice UK staff away from UK teams and to offset higher living costs

[Sandpit Steve]

marine boy said:

Interested to know if people think the below is 'crap money' for engineering roles but these are up to date ie this week salary ranges UK F1 teams offer,

£30-40k Junior Design Engineer
£45-55 Design Engineer
£60-80 Senior Design Engineer

Many Seniors with a technical specialist skill set or an area of design where there is a shortage of suitably qualified people will be on +£80k and 3yr contracts

For teams serious about being competitive, expected working hours will be 45-50 most of the year, 50-55 during the new car build design period ie Sept to 1st test/race and in extreme circumstances or if at all 7-days a week

Notice periods are between 3 to 12 months, usually UK holiday allowance with extra days accrued after +3yrs of employment, free gym, subsidised canteen and some bigger teams will offer additional benefits such as pension contributions, health care and lease car deals

Ferrari, Sauber and probably Haas pay above UK going rates, they need to to entice UK staff away from UK teams and to offset higher living costs

Those seem pretty reasonable salaries, especially in the context of the cost cap that means they can’t throw money at people except for three technical employees and the drivers.

I’m not sure anyone goes into F1 thinking it’ll be a 9-5 job, nor that it will necessarily pay the same as Rolls-Royce or Airbus, but they do know it looks really good on your CV if you stick it for a few years.

I’m sure for many of those in F1 it’s a way of life, much more exciting and varied work than spending three or four years designing an aeroplane or a turbine, and you get to watch on the result of your work on TV every other weekend.

[skwdenyer]

marine boy said:

Interested to know if people think the below is 'crap money' for engineering roles but these are up to date ie this week salary ranges UK F1 teams offer,

£30-40k Junior Design Engineer
£45-55 Design Engineer
£60-80 Senior Design Engineer

Many Seniors with a technical specialist skill set or an area of design where there is a shortage of suitably qualified people will be on +£80k and 3yr contracts

For teams serious about being competitive, expected working hours will be 45-50 most of the year, 50-55 during the new car build design period ie Sept to 1st test/race and in extreme circumstances or if at all 7-days a week

Notice periods are between 3 to 12 months, usually UK holiday allowance with extra days accrued after +3yrs of employment, free gym, subsidised canteen and some bigger teams will offer additional benefits such as pension contributions, health care and lease car deals

Ferrari, Sauber and probably Haas pay above UK going rates, they need to to entice UK staff away from UK teams and to offset higher living costs

Years ago I taught undergraduate engineers. Very very bright undergraduate engineers. Not one of the good ones went into engineering - they all moved straight to finance, where the pay was considerably better.

[Ken_Code]

skwdenyer said:

Years ago I taught undergraduate engineers. Very very bright undergraduate engineers. Not one of the good ones went into engineering - they all moved straight to finance, where the pay was considerably better.

We start graduates on not short of £100,000 at my bank, and want exactly the sort of people who’d be brilliant engineers.

[PinkHouse]

Ken_Code said:

skwdenyer said:

Years ago I taught undergraduate engineers. Very very bright undergraduate engineers. Not one of the good ones went into engineering - they all moved straight to finance, where the pay was considerably better.

We start graduates on not short of £100,000 at my bank, and want exactly the sort of people who’d be brilliant engineers.

I studied Mech Eng and went into finance too. Hopefully I'll be able to start my own club racing team at some point once I've quit the rat race

[Ken_Code]

PinkHouse said:

I studied Mech Eng and went into finance too. Hopefully I'll be able to start my own club racing team at some point once I've quit the rat race

It’s an issue, given that we do need good engineers doing engineering, but you can’t blame people for picking an enjoyable, interesting job that pays so well.

[skwdenyer]

Ken_Code said:

PinkHouse said:

I studied Mech Eng and went into finance too. Hopefully I'll be able to start my own club racing team at some point once I've quit the rat race

It’s an issue, given that we do need good engineers doing engineering, but you can’t blame people for picking an enjoyable, interesting job that pays so well.

When I graduated, I consider applying to Reynard who at the time were well-regarded as a way into motorsport. They were offering £12k pa, vs the £20k pa I got for simply moving into academic research. At the time banking was paying around £35k IIRC.

[DeejRC]

Racing teams “race”. Generally for sts n giggles. Because #Racers.
Racing manufacturers build race cars to race. They flog st, so they are at least trying to turn a profit. Which means they could always afford to pay ppl. As opposed to racing teams who didn’t and weren’t trying to flog anything to make a profit, so had little to none excess cash to pay ppl.
That has relatively changed with the BIG influx of commercial cash over the last decade and suddenly there is a “product” to flog. Merc F1 Head of Qual was a £60k job 10yrs ago, but I was on 3x that whoring myself out in Switzerland, so it was a no brainer.
I’m also vaguely amused that someone is referencing RR or Airbus. Trust me, those chaps are still trying to get ppl in at £35-40/hr on contracts, or £50k perm for snr.
In respect of the job the OP referenced and as it appears to be a Sys Architect role, not just an electronics engineering role, then it’s a £100k+ job or £90-100/hr for a contractor.

[skwdenyer]

DeejRC said:

Racing teams “race”. Generally for sts n giggles. Because #Racers.
Racing manufacturers build race cars to race. They flog st, so they are at least trying to turn a profit. Which means they could always afford to pay ppl. As opposed to racing teams who didn’t and weren’t trying to flog anything to make a profit, so had little to none excess cash to pay ppl.
That has relatively changed with the BIG influx of commercial cash over the last decade and suddenly there is a “product” to flog. Merc F1 Head of Qual was a £60k job 10yrs ago, but I was on 3x that whoring myself out in Switzerland, so it was a no brainer.
I’m also vaguely amused that someone is referencing RR or Airbus. Trust me, those chaps are still trying to get ppl in at £35-40/hr on contracts, or £50k perm for snr.
In respect of the job the OP referenced and as it appears to be a Sys Architect role, not just an electronics engineering role, then it’s a £100k+ job or £90-100/hr for a contractor.

RR funded my post-grad research. There was no chance I’d have wanted a perm role in Derby on what they were offering.

[DeejRC]

The money in "traditional" large UK engineering or manufacturing companies - at the engineer level - has never come from salaries. The share save schemes and pension very much made up for it though, they were always very generous. That, of course, somewhat changed a few yrs ago. Strangely enough about the time that Gordon the Moron decided to mess pensions up...step forward that colossal cockwomble George Simpson. Who rather ruined share save schemes for many many many ppl in the UK industry. Anyway, the past is the past and somewhat a different topic.

[skwdenyer]

DeejRC said:

The money in "traditional" large UK engineering or manufacturing companies - at the engineer level - has never come from salaries. The share save schemes and pension very much made up for it though, they were always very generous. That, of course, somewhat changed a few yrs ago. Strangely enough about the time that Gordon the Moron decided to mess pensions up...step forward that colossal cockwomble George Simpson. Who rather ruined share save schemes for many many many ppl in the UK industry. Anyway, the past is the past and somewhat a different topic.

That was fine when they were jobs for life. Worker mobility, much more frequent reorganisations / layoffs & the non-zero chance of takeover made such structures undesirable long before the politicians mucked about.