Hidden Formula 1 Players... 'Performance Engineer' [New Jobs]

Race Car Performance Measurement and Management Roles
Utilizing Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Knowledge
Exclusive to F1... Welcomed in IT and Automotive Industries

Editor's NoteWith super-aging and ultra-low birth rates, coupled with the advent of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) era, new changes are occurring in the world of jobs. We introduce the world of new professions, 'New Jobs,' which open paths for new challenges in working life or a second act in life.

The world's largest motorsport, Formula 1 (F1), is a racing competition where race cars compete at speeds of 300 to 400 km/h. The race cars, which look closer to airplanes than ordinary cars, are the epitome of precision mechanical engineering and aerodynamics.

The responsibility for maintaining these race cars and ensuring that the mechanical parts perform at their 'best condition' during the race lies with the 'crew.' They are equal team members who wear the same uniforms as the drivers who actually drive the vehicles. Among them, the 'performance engineer' is emerging as a new professional group.

Measuring Race Car Performance Where Every Second Counts

A Formula 1 car running on the track. Photo by Yonhap News

While the spotlight in F1 is on the race cars and drivers, the role of engineers is equally important. Each F1 team employs hundreds of specialized engineers who assemble and test new race cars for each annual F1 competition.

An F1 race car is a complex machine made up of 10,000 to 20,000 precision parts, each custom-made every year to comply with the special regulations set by the F1 organizers. It is the engineers' job to procure and assemble these parts one by one and test their performance. The professional group born from this process is the F1 'performance engineer.'

As the word 'performance' implies, this role involves measuring the 'performance' of the vehicle. It is not just simple parts testing. They also monitor whether the engine is operating at peak efficiency and whether there are any issues with the suspension while the race car is running on the track. To do this, sensors are directly attached to the race car parts to analyze and monitor internal vehicle data every second.

Their data analysis skills and ability to tune the machinery are directly linked to vehicle speed, making them key personnel in the fiercely competitive F1 races where first and second place are decided by differences of just one minute or second each year.

A Profession Unique to F1 Worldwide... Welcomed in IT and Aerospace Fields

Team members servicing an F1 car in under one second. Photo captured from the Red Bull official website.

The performance engineer role began with F1 mechanics but is now welcomed in other industries as well. Today, performance engineers are concentrated in the UK, the birthplace and 'global capital' of F1. According to the 'Motorsport Valley,' which represents this industry cluster, there are about 40,000 performance engineers in the UK, generating annual revenues exceeding 10 billion pounds (approximately 18 trillion KRW).

The expertise of performance engineers extends into aerospace engineering, IT, automotive, and telecommunications sectors. Experience designing powerful engines, suspensions, and steering wheels naturally connects to research and development (R&D) in automotive companies, and the aerodynamic know-how they have accumulated is reportedly useful in designing airplane wings and fuselages.

In particular, performance engineers have recently been active in IT and telecommunications. The real-time monitoring systems built by F1 teams to manage race cars can also be applied to data centers and cloud efficiency improvements.

Above all, the appeal of performance engineers lies in the fact that they are a 'newly emerging profession' that has just begun rapid growth. In the central region of the UK, where many F1 companies are clustered, there is an industrial complex known as 'Motorsport Valley.' Several universities located here offer various departments for F1 and performance engineers. Not only automotive engineering but also talents trained in basic sciences such as mathematics and physics receive good treatment in F1.

As F1's popularity spreads worldwide beyond advanced countries like the UK and the US, their salaries are rising steeply, comparable to those in IT fields. According to career specialist media such as 'Morson Talent,' the starting salary for performance engineers ranges from 45,000 to 65,000 pounds (approximately 8.19 million to 11.83 million KRW), and veteran engineers with several years of experience earn annual salaries exceeding 175,000 pounds (about 320 million KRW).