Could India produce the next gen of motorsport engineers?

We always talk about finding the next Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen, but what about the next Peter Bonnington or Hannah Schmitz? After all, motorsport is the ultimate team sport, and when it comes to winning titles, every single team member has a crucial role to play.

Recently, there’s been a big push to grow motorsport at the grassroots in India; however, a lot of this has been driver-focused. But what about those who want to help build cars and run teams? Enter United Motorsports Academy (UMA), based in Navi Mumbai.

Training Ground

The whole idea behind UMA is to equip the next generation of motorsport engineers in India with the knowledge, training and trackside experience they need to make a genuine career out of their passion. And the co-founders know what they’re talking about – Shubham Sangodkar used to be an F1 aerodynamicist for Red Bull Racing, while Omkar Rane is the founder of workshop D&O Motorsports and has experience working with Audi in GT3 racing

The team of advisors is equally impressive, consisting of F1 journalist and former Williams F1 team manager Peter Windsor, motorsport educator Rex Keen, and Mercedes F1 team’s former head of engineering software Ian Wright, amongst others.

Rane says his learnings from studying in the UK and Australia, and later working in motorsport helped shape the academy. “[In India] we are very superficial in terms of our information. When I met students here, I realised that what I was facing 10 years back, is still the same. And it’s reflected in the job opportunities; so many people are shifting jobs from engineering. We are here to change that,” he explains.

What really sets UMA apart is that you don’t need any educational qualification per se. “Passion is the number one requirement,” says Rane. “We are at a very nascent level and I don’t want to lose out on talent. If you have the dedication for it, and you love cars, you don’t need to be an engineer, you will learn cars. For me, in this facility, mindset is important; skills I can develop, mindset I can’t.”

This makes the academy a great entry point for those who want to explore a career in motorsport, but don’t know where to start. And this is reflected in the diversity of the students, ranging from teenagers to those in their 30s.

There’s also a special programme dedicated to women in motorsport. “Our teaching environment is very different. We are not spoon-feeding information, we are providing students the respect they deserve,” explains Rane. “They are actually marked in terms of how many stupid questions they ask. In our Indian education system, we’re never taught how to ask questions. [At UMA] we function like you ask the dumb questions so that we can answer them.”

L.I.M.E

The academy recently launched its L.I.M.E (Launchpad for Indian Motorsports Engineers) programme – a comprehensive 13-day course covering everything from aerodynamics to vehicle dynamics, 3D scanning, car assembly and even race team management. Certified by the University of Bedfordshire, the course has been designed to provide a good mix of both classroom and hands-on training with FIA-certified F4 cars.

“We’re teaching them a mindset more than anything,” says Keen, a teacher at the University of Bedfordshire. He also has several years of experience in V8 Supercars Australia, endurance racing, F3 and British Touring cars. “Even when we were doing pit-stop practice, I said it’s a lifestyle choice. Look at how fit all the pit crew are and the sacrifices they’re making. We really are preparing them [the students] for the future and opening their eyes up to what futures are available to them.”

Keen says the goal is to get the students race-ready, and the academy is working with industry giants for this. “We’re aligned with Red Bull, we’re negotiating with Mercedes. They tell us exactly what they want students to be able to do and what knowledge and skills they must have. So, we train them accordingly.”

As part of this course, students also get to work on the ChassisSim simulator software that Keen himself helped develop. ChassisSim Professional Online currently costs $5 per simulation, but as part of L.I.M.E, students have unlimited access to it during the two weeks of the course. “Plus if they’ve learned it with us, they can genuine go to a race team and say ‘I’ve been formally trained in it by one of the guys that developed the software’. Not many people can do that,” adds Keen.

Community

At the end of the course, students give a qualification exam for the Indian F4 championship. 24 students are then selected for a fully sponsored work placement in the championship. It’s an invaluable chance to work side-by-side with and learn from MP Motorsport, one of the most prominent teams in junior racing.

What stood out in particular was the sense of community being fostered at UMA, and this is by design. “The problem is, since childhood, we’ve been taught to compete, not collaborate. Then how are we going to work in a team?” points out Rane.

“One thing I really liked is that everyone wanted to learn over here. So you could ask questions to anybody and I got answers to questions that I didn’t even know I had. I’ve built a bigger network here than I have in my 2 years of my 11th and 12th,” said 17-year-old motorsport enthusiast Meher Randeria.

Last year’s L.I.M.E course had around 150 students across the two batches and there are plans to expand the course on a wider scale. However, Rane says he wants to keep it limited to 200 students. “We want to keep it limited so that people don’t come here for the fame of motorsport, but because of the real love of motorsport.”

“I don’t want this to be an institute where we are just pushing out courses. Hopefully in five to 10 years, we want to be on the F1 grid with an all-Indian crew. We can compete in every possible competition internationally – from Le Mans to rally – because we have students who are specifically interested in that. All I have to do is to train them, educate them right and put them in those particular fields.”

Also see:

MotoGP India: Dorna signs new deal directly with UP government