Mississauga, Ont. — Today, INFINITI announced that 2017 Canadian INFINITI Engineering Academy winner, Matthew Crossan (25), has secured full-time employment with Renault F1® Team as a Simulation Development Engineer in the team's Vehicle Performance Group. Crossan was offered to start this full-time opportunity right after completing his one-year internship with INFINITI and Renault F1® Team, and officially began his new position in Enstone, England in December 2018.
Crossan began his post-secondary studies at Western University in London, Ontario in 2011 focusing on mechanical and materials engineering, which was fueled by his passion for motorsport. Crossan's new position with Renault F1® team elevates his responsibilities and brings him one-step closer to his end goal of becoming a race engineer.
"Before the team goes to a track, we simulate what setups to use at each Formula One™ race." says Crossan. "My role within the team will be to improve and develop the simulation tools to ensure optimum performance output from the car. That simulation can allow future ideas which we can later develop."
In June 2017, Crossan was selected from thousands of entries across Canada by applying online at academy.infiniti.comOpens in a new tab. and beat nine other finalists. In October 2017, he started his one-year internship with INFINITI and Renault F1® Team, hoping to receive an offer of employment at the end.
"We are thrilled to see Matthew Crossan realize his dream; this is what INFINITI is looking to achieve with the INFINITI Engineering Academy - providing a career launch point to talented, young student engineers by empowering them with a one-year internship at the pinnacle of motorsport and automotive technologies." said Adam Paterson, managing director of INFINITI Canada. "Matthew's full-time placement evokes a sense of national pride – the Canadian presence on the global motorsport scene is steadily increasing thanks to the INFINITI Engineering Academy."
Nine months into his placement, Crossan started to have regular discussions with the team about his career and future opportunities. During a meeting in August, Renault F1® Team presented him an offer that he immediately accepted without hesitation.
"It has always been my dream to work on a motorsport team as an engineer." concluded Crossan. "I am so happy I got the opportunity thanks to INFINITI's incredible program that gives young engineers like me the chance to live their dream."
2019 INFINITI Engineering Academy Registrations Now Open
INFINITI also announced today the launch and registration opening of the 2019 INFINITI Engineering Academy. Now in it its fourth consecutive year in Canada (sixth edition overall), this program selects one talented Canadian engineer (alongside six other winners from six different regions) to work with both INFINITI Motor Company and Renault F1® Team.
For more information on the INFINITI Engineering Academy or to apply for the 2019 Canadian session, please visit academy.infiniti.comOpens in a new tab.. Applications close on May 4th 2019.
About Matthew Crossan
Matthew Crossan (25), hails from London, Ontario, and is the 2017 winner of the Canadian INFINITI Engineering Academy. In June of 2017, Crossan and nine others were selected from thousands of registrations across Canada to participate in a final competition. Crossan was crowned the victor, and in October 2017 he started his one-year internship with INFINITI and Renault F1® Team with the hopes of landing a full-time position.
During the first six months of his internship, Crossan worked with Renault F1® Team in the UK in the Vehicle Performance Group. Crossan was helping to optimize the team's 2018 Formula One™ car and find the best set up for each track. Part of his role was to analyze the data coming back from the racecar and help make recommendations to reach the objectives set by the team.
"We have a mission control center back at the factory where we listen to the driver and engineers talking back and forth. We were able to analyze the live data we received to improve the performance of the vehicle between each session during race weekends." said Crossan.
For the remaining six months, Crossan worked at the INFINITI Technical Center Europe, in the suspension department within the Ride and Handling group, where he worked on helping improve the ride comfort over road irregularities, such as speed bumps and potholes by optimizing front and rear spring stiffnesses. He had the opportunity to work directly with the 4-post shaker platform to experience first-hand the variety of vibrations that a passenger might experience, which helped to understand how to improve passenger comfort.
About the INFINITI Engineering Academy
The INFINITI Engineering Academy is INFINITI's global search for some of the best young engineers in the world to work across automotive and Formula One™, on a unique 12-month placement. In Canada, the program started in 2016.
The INFINITI Engineering Academy provides a money-can't-buy, life-changing career opportunity for students to learn from veteran engineers and play an active role in INFINITI's technical partnership with Renault F1® Team.
This one-of-a-kind search for the best up-and-coming engineer provides the winner with a career opportunity of a lifetime, complete with travel, accommodation, access to an INFINITI company car, a salary and the possibility to work alongside world-leading engineers at the cutting edge of the automotive and motorsport industries.
Having launched the careers of previous winners, the INFINITI Engineering Academy is THE technical recruitment initiative in Formula One™. One of its key pillars is exploring crossover opportunities and the sharing of technology between INFINITI road car and Renault F1® racecar projects. With this added depth of knowledge transfer and the enhanced scope for collaboration that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance brings, the IEA provides an unmatched range of experiences and opportunities to the winners.
More photos available here.
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