Project ACCESS opens F1 STEM pathways for underrepresented students at British GP

Fifteen first-time Grand Prix guests visited Red Bull Racing’s Silverstone garage through Driven By Us , Silverstone UTC and Girls on Track UK. Project ACCESS brought students and aspiring motorsport professionals to Silverstone for behind-the-scenes access with Red Bull Racing during the British Grand Prix Project ACCESS brought 15 first-time Grand Prix guests into the Formula 1 paddock at Silverstone last Friday, giving students and aspiring motorsport professionals from underrepresented groups direct access to Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology during the British Grand Prix weekend. The project involved three partner organizations: Driven By Us , Silverstone UTC and Girls on Track UK. Participants were given behind-the-scenes access to the Red Bull Racing campus, the Silverstone paddock, live garage operations, team radio, engineering conversations and career guidance during a working race weekend. Driven By Us describes itself as a community-driven organization working to empower aspiring leaders from ethnic minorities and underrepresented groups in the automotive and motorsport industry. Silverstone UTC, which opened in September 2013, is based at the Silverstone racing grounds and focuses on High Performance Engineering, Cyber Security and Business with Events Management. Girls on Track UK is described as a national initiative designed to inspire, educate and support girls and young women into motorsport and related careers through events, workshops and career insight sessions. Dr. Marcia Goddard, a neuroscientist and high-performance consultant who has worked with Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology, shared details of the initiative on LinkedIn . She said the 15 guests had never previously attended a Grand Prix. The access project was led by Claire Chan, with support from Formula 1, Red Bull Racing staff and partner organizations working across motorsport inclusion, STEM careers, engineering education and access routes into the sport. Several participants have since posted about the visit, including university students and aspiring engineers who described being able to speak directly with Formula 1 engineers, observe Free Practice 1 from inside the garage and see technical race operations at close range. First-time guests enter F1 paddock Goddard framed Project ACCESS as a practical access route into a sport where paddock and garage opportunities are usually difficult to reach. “Project ACCESS brought 15 guests to Silverstone through 3 partner organisations: Driven By Us, Silverstone UTC, and Girls on Track UK. None of them had been to a GP before,” she said. The operational work behind the visit included rotational paddock passes, transport between the Red Bull Racing campus and Silverstone, catering, goodie bags, video production and media consent. Goddard credited Chan with building and running the project over several months: “This was Claire Chan's project from day one.” Formula 1 support was also needed to get the group into the paddock during a Grand Prix weekend. Goddard said Billy Andrews “got behind this project and made sure our guests got through the gate and into the paddock,” adding: “Paddock Passes for fifteen people on a Grand Prix weekend don't just appear.” Inside the Red Bull Racing garage, Edward Hemsworth and Tom Hart spoke with guests about routes into Formula 1 and what technical and operational roles look like day to day. Goddard said Hemsworth spent “more than half an hour with one group, talking through how people actually break into F1 and what the job looks like day to day.” The visit also included conversations with mechanics and engineers. In one example, Goddard said a guest who was a mechanic was seated at dinner next to one of Red Bull Racing’s own mechanics so she could hear a career story from someone already working in the role. Tallulah Trounson and the Red Bull Racing marketing team brought guests into the garage with headsets while Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar and the team went through Free Practice 1 and sprint qualifying. Goddard summed up the aim of the project in access terms: “Claire built the door. Billy and F1 held it open. Ed and Tallulah made sure the people walking through it felt like they belonged.” Students link garage access to STEM careers The strongest participant posts focused less on spectacle and more on career visibility: seeing the work, meeting the people doing it and understanding how Formula 1 roles are reached. Vanessa Ogboli-Adetu, a MEng Mechanical Engineering student at UCL and 2025 IMechE Design Challenge National Champion, visited the Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology garage as part of Project ACCESS while representing Driven By Us. For Ogboli-Adetu, the key moment was live exposure to race operations: “The highlight was watching FP1 live, listening to the drivers' radio, and seeing both cars pit and get pulled back into the garage.” She said the engineering conversations gave her a clearer view of what it takes to work in Formula 1: “Being able to ask questions directly and get honest answers about what it takes to work at this level was something I'll take a lot from as I work towards my own career in F1.” Aderonke Oseni, a first-year MEng Chemical Engineering student and aspiring trackside engineer, said Project ACCESS with Driven By Us took her from the Red Bull Campus and MK7 to the Silverstone paddock and garage during Free Practice 1. Oseni said she spoke with engineers working on powertrain, battery development and performance analysis, including Akrm Salem and Billy Jeans. The visit, she said, showed “that the next generation belongs in this sport.” Elias Yabiib, an electronic engineering student at the University of Surrey and an electronics and systems engineering intern at Merrychef, also described the Driven By Us program as a route into the technical environment of elite motorsport. His visit included access to the Red Bull Racing garage, pit lane, heritage displays, driver simulators and technical staff. “One of the most valuable aspects of the day was the opportunity to speak directly with Red Bull Racing engineers,” he said. A separate British Grand Prix access post from Fajar Imran, a Data Science student at the University of Aberdeen and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 mentee, said he was hosted at Silverstone by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team through support from the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, known as AFBE-UK. Imran said the visit included pit lane access, live garage operations and conversations with Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff and Technical Director James Allison.