Zimbabwean woman engineer, Stephanie Travers, takes the lead in challenging perceptions and setting a new status quo for a sport dominated by men. Her success has sent a whole wave of joy across the continent.
The 25 year is the first black woman that has ever stood on the F1 podium at the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria alongside the five-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton who won the race.
Stephanie, Personas Trackside Engineer for Mercedes was representing her winning team where she stood on the podium to receive constructors (team) trophy. It was a delightful moment for the young Petronas Trackside female Engineer.
In March 2019 Stephanie made headlines when she was selected from 7 000 entrants globally to be the Petronas Trackside Fluid Engineer (PFET) in the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team for the 2019 season (and onwards). The most interesting part was the news that Stephanie hails from Zimbabwe, down in Africa.
Stephanie Travers was born in 1994 (Harare, Zimbabwe). Her qualifications include a BEng Chemical Engineering (University of Bradford, UK, 2016), MSc Chemical Engineering (Imperial College, UK, 2017), Asset Care Engineer at BASF (2017-2019) and Project Manager at PolyGen (Oct-Nov 2017).
In an interview with Women On Wheels (WOW) about her passion at motorsport Stephanie said, "I’ve always loved motorsport from a very young age. I used to watch it with my Dad and grandparents. I had cousins that would go karting, I saw them doing it, it was always something that I was really into. I grew up watching Formula, and was always, always wanting to watch it live, which I got the opportunity to do in university. Watching F1 live at Barcelona made it so much more real for me. After that I knew that I definitely wanted to get into F1 one day. At that point I had already started my degree in chemical engineering, knowing that it was a possible option to get into Formula 1, even though there were very few spaces in that degree.
The majority of F1 members study mechanical engineering or aerospace as the pathway into F1. I knew that I wanted to keep my chemistry going and mathematics, so I chose chemical engineering with the hope of getting into F1."
This year, Stephanie has proven beyond reasonable doubt that as long as you are passionate and dedicated towards something you are bound to achieve the desired outcome.
Advising other women on STEM career she said, "I would just say go for it! If it’s something that you are really passionate about, just apply yourself. Do the best you can in school, focus on those subjects that you’re interested in and don’t deter yourself away from them if you know that the end path is a career that’s mainly male dominated".
"In my class cohort which had only five females I didn't get deterred, I went on with good grades. I just managed to keep focused, I knew the end goal was something I was so passionate about. As long as you’re happy in what you’re doing that’s the main thing," she added.
Petronas is a global oil and gas company seeking to push the boundaries of innovation. They are title sponsor to the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team, the team that is so well-oiled. They have won six consecutive F1 and Driver’s Championships. It takes the best of the best to win year after year, after year.
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