24 year-old Zimbabwean Stephanie Travers is the 2019 PETRONAS Trackside Fluid Engineer, beating over 7,000 applicants for the lucrative job. She will work with five-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, providing Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Motorsport, with a comprehensive suite of fluid support services during the 2019 season.
Stephanie Travers was part of the more than 7,000 applicants who applied to be Formula 1 trackside fluid engineer with PETRONAS. The year long process was in preparation for the 2019 Formula 1 season. According to Giuseppe D’Ariggo, the Managing Director and Group CEO of PETRONAS Lubricants International, “More than 7,000 applicants applied for the job, we were looking for the best.” For A’Driggo, the best had to be talented, young, people with competence and full of passion for the sport.
Stephanie was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and scaled through a five stage selection process which culminated in an interview with the CEO of PETRONAS, D’Ariggo. In the announcement video that welcome Stephanie into the Mercedes-AMG family, D’Ariggo said, “We found some great minds and very talented people but we only had to find one. And this person I am very pleased to announce to you today is Stephanie Trevors.” Stephanie will join the trackside team which is led by Ahmad Nasri.
Born in 1994 (Harare), Stephanie’s qualification include a BEng Chemical Engineering (University of Bradford, UK, 2001-16), MSc Chemical Engineering (Imperial College, UK, 2017), Asset Care Engineer at BASF (2017-2019) and Project Manager at PolyGen (Oct-Nov 2017).
For a sport that is dominated by white men, the success of Stephanie has sent a whole wave of joy and energy not just in Zimbabwe but around the continent. The 24 year old Chemical Engineer graduate has definitely broken a glass ceiling, and will inspire young girls and women to pursue their dreams. Stephanie has already joined the team in Barcelona where testing, data gathering and preparation for the 2019 season is taking place.
Toto Wolff, the Team Principal, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS described Stephanie as the perfect fit for the team. Wolff said, “PETRONAS has contributed greatly to the performance and the reliability that is at the very heart of the success we’ve enjoyed over the past five seasons.”
D’Araggio said, “Stephanie will operate at every race in the travelling PETRONAS Trackside Laboratory. These engineers represent the technical excellence of PETRONAS in Formula One and the company’s commitment to building a pool of talent for the advancement of our fluid technology from track-to-road. PETRONAS employs the best and the brightest throughout the company and I believe that Stephanie’s skillset, passion, determination and positive attitude will make her an incredible addition to our team.”
Stephanie will work alongside five-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton. We wish Stephanie all the best.
Announcing our 2019 PETRONAS Trackside Fluid Engineer ⭐️
Follow her journey with @mercedesamgf1 this season on #PETRONASMotorsport channels#PTFE #CoolestJob pic.twitter.com/16fjP0rLLW— PETRONAS Motorsports (@PET_Motorsports) February 28, 2019
