Becoming Mercedes AMG F1’s designer is a dream come true for any motorsports engineer. However, bagging the job at a graduate level is surreal. Anyone would be overwhelmed if that were to happen to them. Gabriel Elias had the same reaction when he had cracked it while still pursuing his Masters at the Brookes University, Oxford.
The engineer from Florida had begun his motorsports journey with aspirations of being a pilot. However, the lack of funds forced his dreams into design and engineering. Nonetheless, he has been a part of the Mercedes design team for the past seven seasons, and he reveals that getting in was one of his toughest tests ever.
Mercedes is synonymous with excellence and perfection. Coming out every weekend, delivering speed parallel to no other team, takes effort. Besides that, it also takes knowledge and skill to maintain that consistency for seven years. To keep a hold on that, they can only afford the best in the class engineers and designers.
Gabriel reveals that he had to go through a tedious procedure to get in, even at a student level. He added that it was the toughest interview he ever had. Considering his fact that he had already been interviewed at a ton of other teams, his story is proof that getting into Mercedes is not easy.
“I was a nervous wreck. I spent two weeks preparing for it”
“To this day, that the hardest interview I’ve ever done in my life, by far. I’ve interviewed at Ferrari; I’ve interviewed at most of the teams on the grid, but that was by far the most difficult,” recalled Elias.
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Mercedes- a temple for effort and perfection
Silver Arrows continue to dominate F1 since the era of hybrid engines. The Germans have perfected their art in the field and year after year, they keep producing the best car in the field. What we fans observe is those beasts speeding down the tracks under a skilled pilot. What we miss is the idea, from inception to reality.
The AMG Powertrains from this year were the best from Mercedes in this entire decade. The car was faster than almost every competitor and it was also equipped with DAS. The efforts from the team to keep providing an edge to the pilots over the others require them to be elite to perform at the zenith.
“After going through it and then working there for a couple of years, though, you could start to see why the pecking order on the grid is the way it is.
“The effort that Mercedes put into things making sure it hired the right candidates, even for a graduate-level job, really does show up on the track, ” concluded Elias. Well, he has passed his time with the team and helped them win. As he moves back to his native land, Florida, his story will inspire a million others.
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The post Ex-F1 Designer Reveals Mercedes ‘the Most Difficult’ to Join Compared to Other Teams appeared first on EssentiallySports.
