Reece Gaj MEng Aerospace Engineering

Hi, I'm Reece Gaj and I studied MEng Aerospace Engineering within Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton.

My ambition was to work in F1 and it still is. The University of Southampton has an incredible number of students that work in the F1 industry and is one of the best universities in the world for aerospace engineering.

I started my undergraduate degree in September 2009 and lived in Glen Eyre Halls. After three years I achieved a 1st class BEng at which point I was accepted to do an industrial placement with Infiniti Red Bull Racing so I suspended my studies for a year so that I could complete my Masters afterwards.

During my time at Southampton, I have played waterpolo, have captained the engineering 1st XI football team and been Vice-President and Head of Sports for Southampton University Engineering Society (SUES) in 2012/13. I have also coached junior tennis at Portswood Lawn Tennis club in 2011/12 and been awarded an Academic Excellence Scholarship from University of Southampton for my Masters studies.

The course is a challenge; you have to work hard to achieve a good mark. But there is a wide range of careers that the mathematics and physics you learn from the University’s Aerospace engineering degree can be useful for, not only across the aerospace sector but fields like banking or accounting and computer science.

The ideal balance that the degree provides between workload and social life helps you prepare for life after university. Some degrees have very few lectures, some are saturated with lectures. Aerospace engineering I feel has a good balance.

My degree gave me the foundation of knowledge needed to work at Infiniti Red Bull Racing for 14 months alongside a famous Southampton graduate Adrian Newey, who is Chief Technical Officer for the team. I also got to work with other very talented Southampton graduates and was a part of two F1 World Championship winning seasons with Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

The degree structure has allowed me to be confident enough to have innovative ideas, but to also convey these well in a concise technical manner. The contacts that I have gained at the University and from my placement have also helped in getting my name known.

I worked for Infiniti Red Bull Racing within its Aerodynamics department for 14 months and was actively responsible for improving performance on the car in order to try and make our car the quickest and most reliable.

I am currently finishing off my MEng Aerospace Engineering degree and will be returning to Formula 1 full-time with Infiniti Red Bull Racing as an Aerodynamicist in the summer of 2014.