AMBASSADOR SPOTLIGHT
Before deciding on a master’s thesis topic, it had never occurred to Stephane Wiesenfeld that working in Formula One could be an option. Then his thesis promotor spotted the race car wallpaper on his laptop ...
Today the MBA graduate enjoys the fast-paced life at Mercedes AMG Formula One Team as a project engineer for the R&D department.
“I was born from a Greek mother and a Belgian father and lived in Greece until I finished secondary school in the French system. As I wanted to continue studying in a more international environment, I looked for and English-taught programme. Like many 18-year-olds, I was not sure what I wanted to study or do in life. I was fond of cars but never expected they could be part of my job. Since I knew better what I did not want, I went for Business Administration: a general programme with plenty of options .”
"KU Leuven was an evident choice. My sister lived in Belgium and shared excellent feedback about the university. It also was an opportunity to connect with my dad’s side of the family and Belgian culture. At first I felt like a complete stranger but people are friendly and it became very much like home. Still, I feel lucky that I had family when I arrived. It made the change easier.”
Succeeding demands hard work
“More than cultural differences my biggest challenge was the switch from school to university. Belgian higher education is not the easiest. It is awesome that everyone gets the opportunity to start, but succeeding demands hard work. You need to find a way to process large amounts of diverse information that works for you. In my case reviewing classes and sorting out my notes soon after I had attended, worked well. I mainly focused on studying because I loved summers in Greece, so avoiding retakes or examinations in August was my objective. Business Administration is an intense programme, but it also teaches you resilience. If you put your head down and crack on, you are rewarded with plenty of opportunities.
“Of course, me and my friends went out as well and had good fun during our time at the Brussels campus in the city centre. Belgium’s proximity to other countries also makes budget-friendly city trips feasible. To pay for these holidays I had many student jobs. Due to the welcoming atmosphere and international student body, meeting new people on the Brussels campus was easy. Some of them remain close friends and stay in touch, despite relocating all over the world. It is awesome to see how all of us have evolved into very diverse careers and it makes sense taking our personalities into account. I believe the BA programme helped us find our way.”
Statistics and strategic management
“The curriculum contains a wealth of subjects. Every course puts you in a different situation and throughout a day you switch from one topic to another. It pushes you in various directions and you have to adapt. During the business projects, groups of students collaborated to solve real-world problems or worked with companies, mirroring professional environments. I still apply knowledge and thinking methods from our courses, such as statistical functions and frameworks. People management, including understanding and reading others, is also important for improving workplace relationships.”
“I was fond of cars but never expected they could be part of my job.”
“I had excellent teachers, interesting courses and felt supported at the faculty because you can directly address teaching staff to get help. Thinking about my favourite courses, my economic history professor springs to mind, as well as our sociology and management classes. The most useful ones today are certainly statistics and strategic management, which were far from my favourites. However, if you focus on and pass these subjects they tie in with the rest and become quite useful.”
Formula One
“Being able to integrate and flexibly apply that broad range of knowledge and skills, proved a massive benefit to me, especially in my current the job as a project engineer for the R&D department at Mercedes AMG Formula One Team.
“Only in my master's did I realise that working in Formula One could be an option and when I applied to Mercedes I was accepted to start a graduate programme in the UK. However, I was not in a situation where I could afford to move and I did not feel ready yet, so I declined… Instead I accepted a job offer as a consultant for Caractivity, a company that works for D’Ieteren Group, a major player in the Belgian automotive industry. Looking at strategic competitiveness and how to position different vehicles in the Belgian market was very interesting and varied. I would probably still be there if I had not landed my current job.
“After over 2 years at Caractivity I had gained enough experience and means to reconsider moving to the UK. I had never stopped wondering whether I had let a chance of a lifetime slip away and I tried my luck again with Mercedes. Thankfully I got a second chance.
“I have been living in the UK for almost three years now and work in the operational centre of the Mercedes factory in Brackley, where we create the Formula One car. All individual components that we manufacture need to pass safety and performance standards at our test facilities to make it to the car. As a project engineer my responsibility is that all R&D department activities, from concept to delivery to the car, happen on time to hit the race weekends. With over 20 races from March to December, it is a very dynamic job and not a single day is the same.”
The very last minute
“I constantly have to be on top of the latest information and maintain good relationships with all departments to coordinate. Whether it is design, engineering, manufacturing, planners, production or test facilities, I need to understand how they work. Last winter I kept track of 103 projects, not in detail obviously, but I could quickly tell you what was going on with each one that needed to be finished in order to deliver the car. The ins and out of a component are not my business, but I must understand how long it takes to engineer or produce one and what happens if we need to retest it. Also, which event do we need to target? The testing facility always pushes to give designers and engineers maximum time to create the best possible component, so we often get it at the very last minute before it needs to depart to the racetrack.
“I thrive in this fast-paced environment because it suits my personality 100%.”
“And obviously, we keep a close eye on our competitors. Every race weekend you see how you are doing compared to them, which is exciting even if I do not attend the races. My job ends when the plane leaves. After that, I just enjoy - or stress about what is going to happen next. I thrive in this fast-paced environment because it suits my personality 100%.
“Currently we are at an interesting phase since racing season is on, but we are also working on next year's car. So I am very much in the present when I am around the factory and at the same time six months ahead when I sit down at my desk. I am constantly switching throughout the day and I believe my studies have nurtured that skill.”
Thanks to the master’s thesis
“It finally dawned on me that working in Formula One could be an option, when I had to decide about the subject for my master's thesis. My professor asked what topics I had in mind and I talked about data and a bunch of random projects. When I opened up my laptop he saw my wallpaper of a Formula One car and asked about it. I explained that I was a massive fan. ‘Scrap all your ideas. That is your thesis subject’, he said and showered me with articles and thesis ideas about sports economics. They inspired me to analyse competitive balance of Formula One - strategic management, similar to what I do today, but on a different scale.
“I took articles about competitive balance in basketball and football and compared those indicators to Formula One. I was so captivated by the optimum balance in competition sports that writing my thesis did not even feel like studying! The professor helped me make the click that I could unite what I had studied with my personal passion. That master’s thesis would always be on my CV and could open up a possibility to get a job in Formula One, I realised. And it did in the end.
“As an ambassador I want to give back by supporting students who still need to discover what makes them tick. If you feel lost, focus on what you like. I believe the Business Administration programme can help you to grow and find your own path. It certainly helped me.“
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