Infiniti possibilities for Brampton grad
Chase Pelletier wins engineering competition
MONTREAL— Chase Pelletier from Brampton has won the Canadian Infiniti Engineering Academy’s top prize at a competition held at Circuit GillesVilleneuve in Montreal just days before the Canadian Grand Prix last week.
The recent engineering graduate from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa will spend a year in England, six months in Infiniti’s European Technical Centre in Cranfield and six months in the Renault Formula One team’s Technical Centre in Enstone.
Pelletier will join six other winners from similar competitions held around the world.
“It feels incredible to be selected as the Canadian winner,” said Pelletier, who has been racing cars pretty much since he could walk. “It was very competitive again this year — the other contestants were very strong, so it is very rewarding for me to win this competition. I am looking forward to working for Renault Sport and Infiniti starting in January.”
The 10 finalists were selected from several hundred applicants from across the country. They went through a series of tests, exercises and interviews, not only to determine their level of technical ability (which was pretty much a given considering they had got this far) but also their ability to work well with others under pressure and their communication skills.
To the latter end, they were interviewed by a panel of journalists, including yours truly. As before, our votes counted in the final decision.
The 10 applicants were divided into two teams for some of the activities, including a new wrinkle to the event this year. It involved sessions with Dr. Julia Minson, a professor at Harvard University who specializes in decision-making science. She developed a scenario involving a racing team that had to decide whether to enter a big race with an unproven engine and risk blowing up and losing sponsors for next season, or to withdraw and live to fight another day.
It was not so much the decision the teams came up with that Minson was looking for, as it was the process they went through to make it.
The fun event is always saved for last. The two teams are given a set of components and asked to build a model drag racing car. They then face off in a best-of-five competition. Again, it was the ability to function in the crucible of albeit simulated pressure, rather than the actual results, that counted.
If this sounds like an unusual way to recruit talent, it is. It is unique as far as Renault’s For- mula One team knows. Bob Bell, chief technical officer of that team, says they get lots of people applying for positions with the team. “This mechanism helps winnow down these applicants to the best of the best. And we do use them for real, they are given real jobs; they do go straight to work.”
Cyril Abiteboul, managing director of Renault Sport Racing, agreed. “Attracting top new talent is crucial for success in Formula One so we want to make sure that together, with Infiniti, we select the best engineers to work for this program.”
Judging from the experience of the past two Canadian winners, Felix Lame and Matthew Crossan, Chase Pelletier is going to have the time of his life.