Saskia's Formula for Success ⋆ Putney High School

Saskia Bulstrode (Class of 2018) is a Junior Quality Assurance Engineer at Formula 1 racing team Alpine, after studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. We caught up with her to hear about her path from Reception at Putney to the world’s F1 circuits.

Tell us about your time at University.

‘I left Putney to study a five-year Mechanical Engineering Masters at Edinburgh, which I loved. It felt like a more condensed version of London. Unfortunately, I did have to go home for COVID lockdown during my second year and then in third year my coveted placed at the University of Berkley in California was cancelled as lockdowns continued.

‘Having grown up exclusively in the SW postcode I was keen to travel and so I appealed against the cancellation all the way up to the Dean of Engineering but it wasn’t possible. As the restrictions lifted, I managed to get to Australia and completed that year online while working in Sydney. I stayed in Sydney for eight months, even completing several rounds of interviews for the internship at Alpine in the small hours of the morning to account for the time difference!’

Saskia was offered the internship at Alpine and worked there for the second term of her fourth year. Halfway through she was offered the junior position upon graduating.

‘My Masters year was very hard work, I really pushed myself, and having been offered a job on the internship I had the luxury of not worrying about applying for jobs while also studying like some of my peers. It meant I could really focus on my studies.’

Saskia graduated in July 2023 with a First Class Masters in Mechanical Engineering, winning the class medal. Furthermore, her dissertation on the sustainability of carbon fibre – and the possibility of using recycled plastic – could soon appear in a scientific journal.

Tell us about the process of applying for the internship.

‘The process appreciates that you are a current student and so the questions don’t assume an unreasonable level of knowledge or experience. Instead, they focus on your personality to gauge how you would approach a problem and how you think about things, rather than more detailed engineering questions.

‘I really enjoyed my internship. University can be quite selfish and solitary, my internship was about a bigger goal and being part of a team. I also learned some vital workplace skills – like how to nurture professional relationships and how to register a disagreement, especially with a more senior colleague.’

Tell us about your career so far.

‘I started on a two-year training position in August 2023. It involves spending half of the time as a quality assurance engineer and the other half rotating through all the different areas of the company to ‘process map’ them. This allows the juniors to experience all areas of the firm while also getting a fresh pair of eyes to look over the systems in place, to spot inefficiencies or gaps.’

Despite being a Junior, Saskia has been assigned to be the responsible Quality Assurance point of contact for 17 of the 81 sections of the car for upcoming races.

‘As we’re speaking, my team has sent a piece of the car’s carbon fibre exterior on a plane to Japan to meet up with the rest of the car for a race this weekend! It’s an incredibly exciting place to work.’

What do you enjoy most about your role?

‘One of my favourite aspects of my job is liaising between the shop floor, where the car is made, and the Design Office. The engineers in the Design Office are very technical and theoretical, whereas the technicians on the shop floor take the theory and make the physical car – they are much more practically minded, so I really enjoy getting to work with both and facilitating their relationship. There are such different kinds of intelligence in both places, and I get to learn from both.’

You were Made in Putney - how did that prepare you?

‘I was at Putney from Reception to Year 13 so I was moulded from a young age and through such important years. It’s intertwined in everything I do. Putney gave me this powerful mindset that never allowed me to question whether I was capable of something – I just try everything.

‘I actually bumped into a GDST girl in South America and although I had never met her before, I felt like I knew her. There was this intangible confidence and self-awareness that made her feel so familiar, a self-respect and something in the way you carry yourself that comes from our schools.

‘In terms of specific skills, I do think Putney taught me how to articulate my ideas very well. This was very helpful when it came to defending my ideas at university. I was not shy to stand up and present my work and then answer questions. Taking an idea and being able to explain it in several different ways, rephrasing and rephrasing until everyone is on the same page. Distilling my knowledge of maths so that I could tutor GCSE maths was great practice of this.’

Tell us about what it’s like to be a woman in engineering.

‘Since leaving Putney I have had a few occasions when people have underestimated me, especially in group project at university where people assumed I wouldn’t be capable of something. I don’t know if this was because I’m a woman, but having come from Putney that kind of challenge was so foreign to me.

‘I do feel that I must work harder than my male counterparts to prove that I deserve the position that I have, but I also think that quotas in STEM can be harmful. I would hate for anyone to assume that I have my job because I am a woman. I think as women we need to encourage each other to put ourselves out there and apply for things, in all disciplines.

‘When I applied for my internship at Alpine, I didn’t tell anyone because I was so sure there was no way I would be offered it, but if there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that if you don’t put yourself forward, then you definitely won’t get it.’

Saskia at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone 2024

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