Which university is the best for studying aerospace engineering in order to become an aerodynamicist in the future?

[Gergard]

Hi, my name is Gergard. I'm going to go to university, I want to become an aerodynamics engineer and get into motorsport in the future. I have already studied the topic of university admission a little, but I can't decide on the university yet.

I understand that most likely the best universities are in Europe - Great Britain, Germany, Italy.
The UK is an ideal option, since most F1 teams are based there and universities are well prepared to graduate specialists in various fields of motorsport.
Since I am not sure that I will be able to enter a university in the UK, can you please suggest universities from Germany and Italy?

It would be more convenient to know several universities from the UK, Germany or Italy for ease of selection.

Any information will do - perhaps you know these universities or you can share your experience of studying aerospace engineering in order to get into motorsport (it will be very interesting to read); links to articles or forums where you can read about it.

Thank you in advance for the information and have a nice day!

[Stu]

In the UK there are various classic Aerospace Uni courses (that at one time you would need to attend to cover anything to do with Aerodynamics), however now there are several that offer Motorsport Degrees. When I attended Uni, I went to Coventry in the UK. They were the only Uni that offered a course in Automotive Design (not from a Product Design perspective, but an engineering perspective). There wasn’t a wind-tunnel back then (no idea if there is now).
If you want to do Aerodynamic work afterwards, you would need to look at the facilities that each Uni offers for Aero (maybe they are all moving to CFD now?), also, if you are wanting a career in motorsport, look for a Uni that participates in Formula Student, or alternatively somewhere close to a motorsport team that you could ‘intern’ with during your studies. Without experience a qualification will NOT get you on the ladder (that is my experience, anyway).
Grasp good opportunities and don’t blow your chances getting (too) distracted by the student lifestyle……

[DChemTech]

In the Netherlands, Delft has a program for aerospace engineering. Also a formula student, solar car and hydrogen student racing team.

[Raekon]

Jumping in to say that what Stu said is also true for Italy now, there are very specialized and extremely competitive masters degrees with limited admissions that are focusing exactly on F1 related skills and topics, so if you want to work in F1 it’s probably the best bet. In Italy we have Ferrari, former Minardi (now Alpha Tauri) and some Haas offices both in the same region, in quite close proximity to each other, and therefore the entire ecosystem also in terms of university courses and degrees is centered around this Italian “motorvalley” area in Emilia-Romagna. I know that the university of Bologna has quite close ties with motorsport in general and even more so the university of Modena. There are also many other working opportunities in the field in this region that aren’t exactly F1, but very close in terms of what you’ll be doing (Dallara, motorbike companies, etc, you name it, it’s all quite close by, so there are so many options). Over the years many of the Ferrari employees came from these two universities. Now as I said these universities in collaboration with the F1 teams created a more specialized degree for those who really want a career in motorsport.
Check out the news here https://scuderia.alphatauri.com/en/the- ... otorsport/ and here https://motorvehicleuniversity.com/ for the dedicated masters degrees that will give you the best chance at landing a job at one of these companies. I don’t think not having a masters is going to be enough, so prepare for 5 years of studying, and if you manage to be admitted to one of these highly competitive masters programs (2 years) your chances might be pretty high that you end up working in the F1 industry or eventually be hired by a F1 team over your career. As far as “normal” mechanical/aerospace engineering degrees go, the best university is most definitely the Politecnico di Milano in Milan. If you take your bachelor there, and then you are admitted in one of the highly specialized masters I said before, you are pretty much set up for success. If not Politecnico di Milano for your bachelor degree, then definitely an engineering degree in the area where the F1 teams are, so either university of Bologna or university of Modena.

[Greg Locock]

An aerodynamicist went through his Linked In contact lists for 97 F1 aero people and came up with the following unis with more than one person.

(20%) Southampton

(14%) Imperial College London

(11%) Delft

(10%) Loughborough

(9%) Cambridge

(6%) Bristol

(5%) Cranfield

(2%) Bath (2x Masters)

(2%) Politecnico di Milano (1x Masters, 1x PhD)

(2%) Politecnico di Torino (1x Masters, 1x Unknown)

(2%) Oxford (2x Masters)

Note the total absence of a certain much spruiked motorsports university. I'm not surprised by Delft, they are very prominent in good vehicle research in general. Cambridge's wind tunnel is a bit of a tiddler, but at least that means it is cheap to run, so you can get plenty of time on it.

[Raekon]

An aerodynamicist went through his Linked In contact lists for 97 F1 aero people and came up with the following unis with more than one person.

(20%) Southampton

(14%) Imperial College London

(11%) Delft

(10%) Loughborough

(9%) Cambridge

(6%) Bristol

(5%) Cranfield

(2%) Bath (2x Masters)

(2%) Politecnico di Milano (1x Masters, 1x PhD)

(2%) Politecnico di Torino (1x Masters, 1x Unknown)

(2%) Oxford (2x Masters)

Note the total absence of a certain much spruiked motorsports university. I'm not surprised by Delft, they are very prominent in good vehicle research in general. Cambridge's wind tunnel is a bit of a tiddler, but at least that means it is cheap to run, so you can get plenty of time on it.

I should have been more specific in saying that these motorsport specific degrees aren’t exactly about aero or to become an aerodynamicist, but definitely more on the mechanical engineering/electronics side of things. Most people working for Ferrari are Italians that come from either Politecnico di Milano or the two local unisof Bologna and Modena, and now with these specialized degrees people will have a more specific path. There is also quite a few Spanish people now. If you’re talking specifically about aero then I don’t know, you might be right that the best universities for that are not in Italy, I know there’s a lot of good mechanical and/or electrical engineering degrees here, but not so much on the aero side of things I feel like (other than politecnico of Milano maybe). I’m not advertising anything though and I’m not involved/enrolled in any of these degrees, I’m just trying to help out with the knowledge I have about the Italian side of the motorsport industry, since he specifically said he’s not sure he can get an UK degree that’s the other option for him.